My Crimson Fists

[Serraphim]

So I finally got access to a digital camera to take some photos of my W.I.P Crimson fists army.

 

Firstly one of the Maters of the Chapter. Unfortunately, until I find where my cat hid his thunder hammer, he's going to remain W.I.P. Although I have mainly used this as a test model as I haven't painted in almost a year.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020003.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020007.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020008.jpg

 

And my current project, an Emperor's champion. I've got the base coat down, and need to start working on the highlights on the armour.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020006.jpg

 

C & C is greatly appreciated.

[Essayons]

Hey, that looks great.

 

Can you share your technique on the blue?

 

Thanks,

Essayons.

[Pulse]

Better get out your best cat interrigation book, they can be sneeky gits. :lol:

[LunchBox]

Looks pretty good...I'd say you've got a solid start. The nice thing about C-fists is the ability to use crimson to shade the blue, and blue to shade the crimson.

 

Your blue looks good...try adding some glazes of Scab Red, or a dark reddish purple to the shadows to give the blue a little more life. Ideally, you'd want to mix your blue and your red to shade, but you can still get really nice results from glazing over something that's already painted. Also, work up from the reds to include Tanned Flesh, then something a little rosier...you can add a little ochre or bone to the tanned flesh for your final highlights to get the color where you want it.

 

See what that does for you, and I'll comment more later...unless you want me to shut up... ;)

[Scar Weaver]

Great work. I love the Master. Very striking. I concur, please share your secret.

[Serraphim]

@ Essayons and Scar Weaver: Thanks. With the blue, I started with a pure black primer. The basecoat was about 5 thin layers of regal blue to give a solid colour. After that, I added little amounts of white to the blue to bring it up, all in all I would say about 15-20 is layers. Once the highlights were done, I went back in and did a couple quick glazes of the regal blue. I then went in and added the shading by adding in tiny amounts of black, but looking at the shading up close it doesn't look right. The main thing I've learned is thin layers of paint look best and allow for much smoother transitions in the blending. It's no where near as smooth as I would like it to be, but I'm getting there.

 

@ Lunchbox: I've never thought of adding red to the shades on the blue and blue to the shades on the red. I've been using Scorched Brown as the base for the crimson (a recipe that I read from DV8), but I think for the Emp Champ, I'll experiment and see what happens. And comment away, I've seen a lot of your work and they astound me. I'm always willing to learn from people much, much better than me.

[LunchBox]

Scorched Brown is a good base color for the red...no need to change that. As for the blue, try to avoid adding black to shade. Youcan produce good results with it, but it's a common mehtod that even I used to do. What it ends up doing is "dumbing down" your color, and sucking all the life out of it...again...from personal experience. You don't have to use red to shade blue...I commonly use purples, and browns. It all comes down to playing with the colors, and determining what you like. Also, have you thought about switching your primer color to a gray or white? Not to say that you can't get amazing results from black, but you may be working harder than you have to. That's really a personal preference thing though, because I know some excellent painters that use black for a base.

[Serraphim]

I did a little work on the EP last night, mainly on the food trying to work out how I was going to do the highlights, and using Scab red to do the shading instead of black. I like it, but there isn't a lot of contrast between the shadows and the base colour. I think partly because the base blue is pretty dark. I'll have more pics after I do some more work on him tomorrow.

 

@ lunchbox: I'm just so used to using black primer, I stare at white and have no clue what to do with it. Although, its hard to tell in the pics, but I'm using the black undercoat with a dusting of white on the Emp Champ.

[Brother Richard]

Amazing...the Demo in the background is really nice.. talk about NMM's. That is impressive.

 

Oh and the CF is nice too. Can't wait to see the battle damaged hammer. Cat teeth make great bullet holes. Just get funny looks when I am chasing a cat around the house with a little marine in my hand trying to get him to bite it!

 

Keep us posted!

[Wayfarer]

Nice looking start on your fists. There isn't much that I can tell you that lunchbox hasn't already. However, you can use black to shade to get something extra dark, but the key is to add only a touch of black and mix it with a little dark brown/green and/or red so that you infuse color back in where the black would take it out. Lunch is right though, black will dull your colors up very quickly.

 

Is it just me or has color theory picked up in popularity lately? (Much to the collective benefit of painters everywhere)

[LunchBox]

I did a little work on the EP last night, mainly on the food trying to work out how I was going to do the highlights, and using Scab red to do the shading instead of black. I like it, but there isn't a lot of contrast between the shadows and the base colour. I think partly because the base blue is pretty dark. I'll have more pics after I do some more work on him tomorrow.

 

@ lunchbox: I'm just so used to using black primer, I stare at white and have no clue what to do with it. Although, its hard to tell in the pics, but I'm using the black undercoat with a dusting of white on the Emp Champ.

 

The underlined part above can be somewhat remmedied with a lighter primer. Black primer has it's uses, but in this case it's dragging the entire color range down. However, you may see bigger improvements once you begin highlighting. Also...and this is just me...but you might think about starting with a lighter basecoat, like U-Blue, then shading down with Regal Blue, than adding some red to it toward the end of the shading process. This way, you can very easily control your lighting, and not have to fight against such a dark color to achieve good highlights. Even if the U-Blue is too bright, it can always be glazed over in the highlights to shift the color in the direction you want it to go. Regal Blue is such a powerful color, and it naturally shades, so your highlights might have to be exaggerated even more. Grab an old mini, or even a partial mini, spray it white or gray, and give it a shot...see what you think.

[Starks333]

if you want to understand contrast heres an idea

 

with colour removed you can see value(which is the contrast we are discussing)

 

the yellow tank has a solid range from very bright, to a mid grey, to dark grey in the darkest...this is why that shape feels more 3D

 

the marine however is mostly dark grey...that being said those chapter master sculpts are AWFUL and a perfect example of why i hate GW models.....they are designed to be edge highlighted because the shapes and poses are so linear and sharp its much more difficult to obtain contrast, control colour and have a nice effect all at once

 

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y218/Starks3333/P1020008.jpg

[metcalfedan]

That guy looks sweet, hope you find his thunder hammer arm.

 

;) Why oh why do you use firefox though? :to:

[Serraphim]

Just a quick update. I haven't done much in the past few days, been stressing about my application essays. I should have it finished by tonight so tomorrow I'm going to prime one of the other Masters of the Chapter white and see what happens with that.

[Serraphim]

Little bit of work done. I'm trying glazing, but i think the water to paint ratio is too low. I'm getting a lot of tide lines.

 

And with Pics.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020017.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020018.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020020.jpg

[Starks333]

tide lines is a result of letting paint pool...just remove excess water from the brush by touching your towel...if you have then quite simply dont let the paint pool on the model by moving it around before it dries

[Serraphim]

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020056.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020053.jpg

 

That's where I left off last night. I still need to add a lot more into the shading. I think my biggest issue with glazing is that I can't see the transitions, so it's going to take a lot of practice to get smooth blends.

 

Things I've noticed about the model:

- The first coat of regal was too much like a wash and not a glaze.

- Models have to be perfectly smooth. On his right leg, towards the back, there are a bunch of small holes that I really should have filled before doing this.

- There is barely any difference between the base colour and the shading. I was working with Midnight Blue, adding in a couple layers of Scab Red, Liche Purple and Scorched Brown. But I think that is mainly due to the base coat and me rushing it.

 

The thing I like about practicing on metal models is that its easier to strip and start again. So if anyone has any tips on stripping the paint off, let me know.

[The_Chaplain]

let the model sit in brake fluid for a day or so, followed by a warm water bath, followed by a scrub with a soapy toothbrush. the paint comes right off ;)

[Essayons]

I would recommend using Simple Green. Soak the model in it for about 24 hours and the paint comes right off. It's a bit better than brake fluid as it's non-toxic.

 

Essayons.

[Serraphim]

Okay, update time. I haven't worked on anything marine related tonight (I'm banging my head trying to get this whole glazing thing down). But in good news, after torturing (a bath), bribing (cat treats) and eventually drugging (catnip), I have managed to get my cat to disclose the location of the missing hammer. Turns out it was under her food bowl.

 

So I should be finishing the master this week sometime, then I have a space marine painting comp at my LGS starting in 2 weeks. So hopefully I'll have the whole glazing down by then.

[Serraphim]

Ahh, double post. Oh well.

 

My LGS is having a marine painting comp, so here are a couple W.I.Ps:

 

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020067.jpg

 

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/serraphim/P1020066.jpg

 

I need to put many more layers on the yellow, and probably a couple glazes of orange to bring the brightness of the yellow do a little bit. I know he's not a Crimon Fist, but I'm doing the model in honour of a really good friend of mine, who's been a huge Imperial fist fan for a ling time.

[metcalfedan]

Veeeeeeeery nice!

 

Imperial Fists yes?

 

Love the way the techmarine legs are attached to the torso! :D