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Index Astartes.


Totem Pole

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Here's a bit of a quick "salvage" paint job. At the begining of this thread I've posted a WIP of this mini, and later said that the project got shelved, couse I got a different, more ambitious/complicated idea for a Night Lord figure. This new version would be something completely different and would have to be built from the ground up, which meant that the NL WIP that I allready had, was basically useless to me at that point.

But as I've allready laid the foundation of a paintjob, I though it would be a waste for it to just sit on my shelf and collect dust, never to be used again for anything, so I gave it a quick makeover to bring it to a presentable level and sell it on Ebay.

This means that the paintjob is rather unsatisfactory, definitely much more crude than the Scythes of the Emperor Marine, with no detailed weathering, no zenithal lighting and just the most basic edge highligting. Plus, upon closer inspection it's just a tad too sloppy for my taste. I know it's not exactly the best advertisment for this mini, but I really didn't mean for it to be a display miniature, just a quick salvage job to bring the WIP into a presentable look, so that perhaps someone else will find use for it, as I certainly wouldn't have at this point. As always, the link to the Ebay auction is in my signature. A better, different Night Lord will be made in the future though.


Today I also wanted to post pictures of a brand new Astartes that I've just finished (Howling Griffons), but right after I've sealed  the mini with varnish, I went to the bathroom, which created an opportunity for my dog to jump the table and...chew the marine up. No, seriously. Fortunately, he didn't swallow any of it, as that would portend a possibly painful bowel journey. But he did mangle and crush it like a Carnifex, so all in all, I have to start over. Life, eh?

http://i.imgur.com/5mqCgzL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/vt8SyVr.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4iVoRgx.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BXufNin.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/g6TDiAC.jpg
 

  • 1 month later...

 

My current WIP.

 

http://i.imgur.com/L1ZG42p.jpg

 

I am happy to say that I've been taking on some commission jobs in the last weeks. It's usually units and monsters for various armies, but since my painting logs deal mostly with diplay pieces rather than gaming stuff, I realised that I don't have many squads and tabletop level units to show to clients, as examples of the level of work they can expect from me. So becouse of this, I've recently been busy painting various squads in different painting levels, as sort of templates and examples of quality for potential clients. I usually divide my work into 3 painting levels - first two are reserved for units and monsters, while the 3rd is for display miniatures only. I didn't have any examples of level 2 squad, so I decided to paint up a small combat unit of Imperial Fists to showcase it. Level 2 featues high quality finish (at least for unit standards) and attention to detail that treats every figure almost like a individual character.

 

This project started as a simple "example paintjob", but I had a ton of fun kitbashing and customising every Astartes. The squad photo above is a WIP so there's still lots of 'bling' to come for each mini.

 

Here's the first fully finished member of the squad. I am happy with the way he turned out. I might later revisit the black casing of his boltgun and the leather pouches at his greaves, as I feel the highlights there, have been flooded with too much black glaze, and might use more definition.

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/q7XAwDx.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/k4dVgDP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/G8ZdwnP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xdPHUTN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ayJxDeG.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/t7NuBmh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/o5LQAdX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KW4LNMG.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VOcMfVQ.jpg

Inspiring. The yellow is mouthwatering. drool.gif

I've been working on simulating paint chips with the sponge technique, but I haven't been able to find something to represent the scuffs and scrapes across the plate like you've demonstrated above. Could you maybe explain how you achieved that effect? Looks very hyperreal.

Inspiring. The yellow is mouthwatering. drool.gif

I've been working on simulating paint chips with the sponge technique, but I haven't been able to find something to represent the scuffs and scrapes across the plate like you've demonstrated above. Could you maybe explain how you achieved that effect? Looks very hyperreal.

There isn't really any secret or special technique, I just paint them on by hand. When it comes to scrapes and scratches that feature on the edges of his armour (for example on the lower part of his right shoulder plate, or on his right elbow guard), these are acutally fairly easy to do. You just have to randomly 'dab' the edges with the tip of Your brush. Go for randomness and quick brush strokes. The truth is, as long as You're only using the very tip of Your brush, then any movement You make with Your hand will leave something that could pass for a realistic scratch. Just make em' small (tip of the brush), don't worry about the correct shape (as there isn't any, when it comes to scratches). As long as it's small, any shape of dark paint You leave on the mini, will pass for a scrape.

When it comes to scratches like the one on his right kneepad, these are more diffuclt, as they require more precision. But if there's any "secret" to it, then it must be combining quick, succesive brush strokes, with the ability to use only the very tip of the brush. It have to be quick brush strokes. Don't try to take it slow and "draw" each scrape/scrach with Your brush. In order to create super fine lines laying next to each other, You have to do very fast, succesive flicks of Your brush hand. To make the scratch mark on his kneepad, I didn't draw each individual line until I got a proper cluster of scraped paint. No, I did a series of super fast brush strokes (like i was dusting the surface), using only the tip of the brush. It's the ability to use only the very tip of the brush as You make those quick, succesive strokes, that's key here.

Love those fists, they're a good looking bunch, gotta ask where his shoulder pad you painted the fist on came from, I've not seen it before.

His left shoulder pad is a slightly converted Space Wolf pad. Originally it had a SW pendant on a chain attached to it. I cut it off and left only a bit of the chain (I am thinking about attaching some imperial trinket to it later). Also the metal trim of the shoulder pad, had a different "space wolf'y" curvature to it on the back. I used a knife to cut it to correct "imperial standard" shape, and smoothed the surfuce I cut, with some liquid putty.

Another member of the squad is ready for active duty. Meet brother Varen.

 

http://i.imgur.com/fAdw5Md.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/NKdlxr3.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Ty5UB6K.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/o2rwNrE.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/on7qJXr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3KMgQFr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Sj8E4NJ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cy8pmfj.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Fw9XK4S.jpg

 

 

Not 100% happy with the base. The sand and pigment work isn't really that convincing. Might revisit later. Plus there are two scratches on the metallic part of boltgun, that turned out way too big and it's bugging me. Will correct later.

 

The more pieces I paint and photograph, the more I realise that upping my photography mojo (or equipment) should be my top priority right now. The photos came out OK'ish, but I have a feeling the real piece looks just a little bit better in hand. There's something tricky to photographing yellow so that all the highlights and details will be visible and not diffused or blown out, I also have a real trouble photographing metallics. Metal surfaces are generally harder to take pictures of, but recently I've been using a lot of alcohol based and buffable enamel metallic paints, that have a super shiny finish in hand, but somehow turn out very 'flat' and dull on the photos. And since I am no pro, I don't really know how to play around the reflections of light to make them stand out.

 

My friend studies photography and has access to some really good equippment. I think I'll try hitting him up, after I finish the entire squad, and we'll see if we can improve the results.

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