NemFX Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Sorry for the confusing title. Basically, how do you all rectify the gulf between what you envisioned for your army, and then what it actually ends up looking like? Backstory: My Enclave army is supposed to be a renegade chapter (not Chaos, just not especially religious) who are fighting to keep themselves alive and hidden on a desert planet basically in the middle of nowhere. To that end, most of my marines have dusty armour, knives, extra gear, and each of my razorbacks looks somewhere between "well stocked" and "an episode of hoarders" The problem? It just doesn't really convey the 'desperation' aspect. Sure, the desert part shows, but they don't come off feeling especially dire or fatal, you know? And I have no idea how to nudge the army closer to what I want. Anyone here relate? Have any ideas? Most of my armies end up this way, feeling like they fell short. Would love some input on how to fix that. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Generating Random Name... Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Anyone here relate? Have any ideas? Most of my armies end up this way, feeling like they fell short. Would love some input on how to fix that. Want desperation? Break out the hobby tools and make them look like they are only just surviving! Beat up armour, bullet holes, swords marks, it all looks good. You can paint on little 'nicks' in the armour aswell. Oh, and don't forget the blood! Edit: Just had a look through your WIP blog, and one thing I would say is if these guys are on a desert planet most, if not all the time, then put dust on their armour! Lightly stippling some graveyard earth should work. And also you could try washing the faces with Badab black and Devlan mud, for that 'living rough' look! Good luck and hope you feel better about them soon! And if you really struggle to make them satisfactory yourself, use guides, they're there to help you. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2759609 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order_of_the_Dragon Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 I have this problem since I have never been a great painter/modeller but I try to use it to continue learning those skills. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2759627 Share on other sites More sharing options...
NemFX Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 i was thinking of doing some battle damage in the form of sorta.. adhoc replacement limbs converted from chaos possessed parts. the armour is all crackled and whatnot, the only problem is showing that with the main armour colour being black.. additional ideas; camo netting on my razorbacks, camo cloaks on a few of my marines (in game, these count as absolutely nothing) cargo netting wherever i can put it.. always could use more ideas. maybe if we get enough ideas together, could submit them into the hall of honour as 'modelling ideas' or something. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2759683 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solid Zaku Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Hokay, I'm a desert rat. I'll tell you first off that any Tallarn worth his dust would take one look at a Rhino and laugh his giblets off. Here's a conversion idea: take some copper tubing and create a 'Dune Rhino'. Make it so that the Marines are essentially kept under a roll cage in lieu of the more heavy 'box' design. Ork stuff is pretty good inspiration, actually. Also, try and use some card to extend the length of the Rhino treads, as they're simply too thin as-is for desert combat. Another option (albeit much more time-consuming) would be to take some bike parts and try and convert them to wheeled vehicles...but good luck with that frankly. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2759928 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Generating Random Name... Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 i was thinking of doing some battle damage in the form of sorta.. adhoc replacement limbs converted from chaos possessed parts. the armour is all crackled and whatnot, the only problem is showing that with the main armour colour being black. That Limb thing sounds cool, but I thuoght you said they weren't Chaos? As for the colour problem, paint all your battle damage a bright silver, possibly mithril, or silver instead of boltgun. If you want I could attempt a test model to explain what I mean? If you think it'll help. GRN Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2760063 Share on other sites More sharing options...
NemFX Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 If you want to, go for it. My guys aren't chaos, but the chaos battlebox had more things in it that I wanted, so I got that instead. Given the older armour parts, it makes more sense too. My guys are pretty out of the loop, so they think the older stuff is inferior. All of the razorbacks are ad hoc - usually just a couple of marines on the roof with heavy weapons. Also, instead of standard land speeders I'm using toy helicopters which were perfect in terms of scale (also cost. i got 9 for less than the price of one land speeder) Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2760619 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montuhotep Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Also, as far as the tanks go, try scratching the paintwork you've already done. Either patches, streaks or combinations thereof; the idea is to make it look like they're been sandblasted by countless desert winds - right down to the bare metal in areas. And neither the time nor resources to repaint them. On the minis' - long hair? Beards? Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2760833 Share on other sites More sharing options...
NemFX Posted May 17, 2011 Author Share Posted May 17, 2011 Also, as far as the tanks go, try scratching the paintwork you've already done. Either patches, streaks or combinations thereof; the idea is to make it look like they're been sandblasted by countless desert winds - right down to the bare metal in areas. And neither the time nor resources to repaint them. On the minis' - long hair? Beards? I'll dirty up my razorbacks in time. I plan to name each of them to make them a little more anthropomorphized. I'm also redoing my terminators.. Well, I'm leaving them the way they are, but I'm scratchbuilding some robot walker suit things instead. I think they'll be suitably clunky and Fallout-ey. I'm making the chaos-bits marines more battle damaged, with low tech upgrades (giant blades bolted onto them) with some bionics converted from the possessed parts. As for the hair/beards thing.. I don't have any with beards yet, but the hair length is varied, cause I used a whole bunch of different heads. I think I'm going to look up a whole bunch of camping and RVing stuff for the razorbacks. Most are already made but I can always add more. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2761053 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Generating Random Name... Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I've done a quick model to try and demonstrate what I was saying, sorry it's not very good: Whilst painting it I tried to keep with your scheme as much as I could, but I found that it was hard to keep the silvery highlights and do battle damage, so it sorta got changed. Also I would try looking at GooseDaMoose's "Batko Blacks" Sons of Malice (Here), and Brother Argos' Iron Hands (Here), as they have similar schemes to yours and both might help you. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2767000 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadey Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Sorry for the confusing title. Basically, how do you all rectify the gulf between what you envisioned for your army, and then what it actually ends up looking like? Basically, I don't. I like to think I have a good imagination and I have litteraly hundreds of pages of concept ideas and sketches for fantasy and 40k. Unfortunately my manual skills don't do enough to convey a lot of my ideas, even if I did have the time and resources to do them all. Maybe my ideas are crap, but they are really interesting to me and I have so many I am considering publishing them to this forum among others just to throw them out there in case anyone is inspired. Better than them going to waste. Worst case scenario everyone who reads my ideas go meh, and move on. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/229864-coping-with-paintingconceptual-shortcomings/#findComment-2771489 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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