Golden Daemon

[Blindhamster]

Hi All,

I'll be attending Games Day this year, and thought I'd enter my unfinished Tycho, to that end I've spent the last 3-4 days finishing off areas that were unfinished and touching up the rest (LOTS of glazes on just about every surface among other things) I don't expect to win or even place in Single Mini, Obviously.... but my goal is first cut...

so... my camera still sucks just as much as the last time I posted any miniatures in these parts, I've tried (REALLY HARD) to get reasonable pic, but only managed passable ones.

Due to lighting and general photo quality, the face isn't particularly easy to make out, nor are the highlights on the black (in part because I've gone with subtle over neon) and the green lense of blood song is not really obvious either...

Thing I forgot to get a pic of: The base, it actually has a dusty (weathering powders) imperial aquila freehanded on the flagstone he rests a foot on, there is also a small pool of blood on there (using the handy blood tutorial from these very forums).

Two example pics:

More found here:

Tycho Album on B&C

My queries are:

Does the gold need to be highlighted with pure mithril silver? I've not done so as I wanted the gold to look gold and not... well not gold, I have attempted to get some NMM feel from the gold itself, just using Metalics to the same effect.

Important: Should I add blood to 'dead mans hand'? I thought it might make more sense to do so? and if so, does that mean i should add blood elsewhere?

I've already applied dark sand, light earth and ash weathering powders to his lower legs and the base as well as soot to the end of the melta barrel, should I give a pass or two of dark earth as well?

Things still to do:

He has a plinth arriving in a day or so, I need to base the top of it so that he slots into it, I'm considering adding his company banner planted in the ground behind him, thoughts?

All help/thoughts appreciated

[Gk_fury]

Really need some better pictures to tell properly. The plinth is a good idea and will give some height to the model and more opportunity to add points of interest on the base as that needs some work. Other than that I think you've got the right idea, just got to keep practicing to get to Golden Demon level. You may make the cut or you may not, it is Golden Demon after all and some of the worlds best painters will be there. Good luck on making the cut.

[Master Chaplain Astador]

Hey buddy! Glad to see you still working!

Good luck at the Golden Demons!

[Blindhamster]

to blood or not to blood the gauntlet?

 

I'll see if I can get better pictures using a different camera.

[Master Chaplain Astador]

I think it could look good either way! :blush:

I'd love to see better pictures soon!

[Killax]

Very nice, also see my response @ the Blood Angel department.

 

I love it, painted extremely well, but imho lacks the Wow-factor.

[Blindhamster]

suggestions to improve the mini? I'd considered putting a banner on the plinth itself, trouble is, I'm not sure that'd be within the rules looking at them?

 

Would adding final silver highlights to the gold be a good idea?

 

Blood on gauntlet or no blood on gauntlet?

 

I'll probably add additional weathering powder to the legs.

 

Should I add a freehand design like the one he has in the codex artwork to his loin cloth?

 

I've already used a fair bit of purple in the glazes on the armour, much like red and blue glazes on the face.

 

Suggestions to up the 'wow' factor would be appreciated.

 

I'll see what I can do about pictures, amusingly the ones I took were done with the camera resting on something so it couldn't move, and with the macro on...

[Killax]

Same responce can be found in the BA part!

 

Hope you can do something with the advice there :)

 

Cheers,

[Blindhamster]

the one better quality image my camera managed to take, refused to get any good close ups (macro + auto focus still didn't manage to get a good one :/)

[Gk_fury]

Try get the same level of depth to the armour on the legs as the mid section. You've done a great job on the gold on the mid section but I feel the left leg in particular is missing some of the depth and colour of the mid section. The white wings on his waist could do with being a little bit neater and the skull on the bolter although if you're only hoping to make the cut they might not take photos of the mini and blow it up so these won't be too noticeable to the eye. I shrank the image down in photoshop to almost the actual size and you do have a really nice mini there and I'm just nit-picking the details that will probably be picked up on by judges. Good luck either way hopefully any of this was helpful.

[Blindhamster]

cheers, useful feedback, I've resculpted the wings on Bloodsong, the skull isn't badly done, but I was never really happy with the wings, replacements are neater.

 

Sadly I can't really do the same with the ones on his waist (The one area of sculpting on this model that gave me seriously large issues from the very start) But I have repainted them in an effort to at least make them a little neater.

 

I think part of what makes the leg armour lack a lot of the depth is actually the fairly large amount of weathering powders on them, the very large flat areas don't help much either, but I have a fair bit of shading on them as is, I'll see if I can add further definition.

[darkwrath]

Looking good matey. blood on Dead Man's hand? I'd say no personally. but if you do, then paint it rather than using tamiya clear red +brown ink +gloss varnish or anything similar. look at the bloody hands on Ogres on the GW site for what I mean (Specifically one of the riders on the Stonehorn/thundertusk)

 

As for the gold? can't say too much without looking at it in person (Which I shall do on Sunday ;) as i'm entering the DV chaplain ) but I tend to mix a spot of mithril to burnished gold for extreme highlights on gold, as it's a really smooth looking pigment and can stop the 'metal flake' look that can plague some gold models. try it on a test piece first, you may find it washes out the gold too much or it could just give a bit of extra depth to the armour.

 

I wish you luck buddy, it's an awesome model :D See you on sunday!

[Bartali]

I like, looks as though you've put a lot of time and effort in to the mini.

 

For going forward for your next minis, have you ever experimented with non-metallic metallics (NMM) ? Would be a step up and give minis like this the 'wow' factor.

[Blindhamster]

NMM is something I personally detest... I like the idea of it for artwork (banners etc) but just feel its a bit naff as a replacement for metallics, I'd rather focus on improving the quality of my metallics (which this model has definitely been, I'll take what I learned here and attempt to improve further for my custom dante + honour guard in next years GD).

 

I actually can paint passable NMM already, it's just not a style I particularly like on my models or other peoples as a replacement for metallics. That being said, the banner I'll be adding to Tycho's display base will incorporate some NMM as I feel it's appropriate in that sort of place.

[Blindhamster]

 

Heres a pic of him at games day, not taken by me.

 

He didn't make the finalists, due to the competition being pretty tough, I'm still happy with how he came out though and he got a couple of possitive comments from the judges anyway... my one gripe is that there were a couple of entries that I honestly didn't understand how they were better, but that's why I'm not a judge! I believe it simply comes down to lacking something to make the judges specifically look at it, that 'wow' factor as a few posters in the other thread said.

 

I'll try again next year :)

[Grizzly_bear]

I saw this model whilst browning the cabinets on Sunday, I'm surprised it didn't get through tbh as some that did I wasn't particularly impressed with.

 

But at least you entered and gained done experience from it. I'm thinking of entering it next year, so will prob see you there.

 

Well done On the model as a whole any way fella

 

Rob

[darkwrath]

It should have gone through for sure. There's always next year though mate! keep posting your stuff and keep practising.

[Marshal_Roujakis]

Simple reasoning of how those things were better than you're awesomeness Tycho was:

 

This is info. from who was once a GD judge so take it with a pinch of salt. But most of the time they are after techniques when it comes to painting

and not exactly how good a model looks (apparently that goes to Armies on Parade). THey first criteriarize by how it was painted and the subtle, new or uniqueness of way the model was painted/modeled. After that they then criteriarise on overall bad@$$ness. On how detailed the model is and on how they made sure that every detail was fully covered.

 

So maybe some judges saw some impressive techniques on painting applied by the other contenders that took more of their attention. They just failed on the BA level your Tycho has.

(or maybe just bad eyesights on the judges part <_< )

[Gk_fury]

The info above is fair enough, from my point of view a well painted metallic Tycho will stand out on a battlefield, but not in the worlds premier miniature painting competition especially at single figure where I'm sure the most entries go. to me the base doesn't compliment the character aswell as it should, it needs something a little bit more epic going on despite its small size.

 

What you do have is experience and a really nice miniature there so you can look forward to next year and give that your all too, building on this years miniature to build and paint something really eye catching.

[Brother Kovash]

Damn shame you didn't make finals. Your model looks pretty good in my opinion.

[Killax]

Great figure and again really well painted.

 

And yep, the wow-factor is deciding, a cool airbrushed thunderhawk in an action stance is often gets a quick attention...

 

In your defence, the single character catogory is the hardest to be in.