Kastor's complete commissions and collection projects

[Kastor Krieg]

So, let's kick this off with a recently completed commission. Just an example few of the guys, managed to assemble 20 unique Ash Wastes Nomads - no clones at all!

This is the most "basic" level I'm normally painting at, simple bases too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work! 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Those look great - interesting how you made your bright green spot colour a complimentary colour rather than a contrasting one.  I think your fleas in particular are very striking, with their green eyes tieing them in with the robes and optics of the riders, and the carapace matching the camo tarps of your infantry.

 

Can I ask how the colours for the models were decided?  Its quite an interesting and to me unusual (but effective) choice of colours.

 

 

[Kastor Krieg]

2 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Those look great - interesting how you made your bright green spot colour a complimentary colour rather than a contrasting one.  I think your fleas in particular are very striking, with their green eyes tieing them in with the robes and optics of the riders, and the carapace matching the camo tarps of your infantry.

Thanks! :3

Can I ask how the colours for the models were decided?  Its quite an interesting and to me unusual (but effective) choice of colours.

Since this was intended as the most basic kind of paintjob (and still turned out to be pretty involved with 20 unique infantry and 4 cavalry models!), I've decided to mimic the boxart in general terms:

 

but at the same time, take that entire idea closer towards some of the official art or this alternate paintjob - more saturated, more grimy in appearance. The box art is more ashen, desaturated. 

 

 

However, I had no time to spend on this much detailing, highlighting and so on - so I've decided to take as many shortcuts as possiblem to be able to deliver on time.

I've primed black and zenith highlighted with white (both airbrushed). Then I've blocked in all of the basic colors with Contrast paints that would achieve a similar color pattern to the box art but would retain more saturation, more "pop" if you will. All the "rubber" like the gasmasks or "plastic" the weapons got a layer of Ratling Grime, it has this weird rubbery blackish grey color to it that I like. Everything that was going to be metal got Black Templar instead.

I'm glad you noticed the color matching between the fleas and the leather pelts on the backpack racks - I've decided that like many tribal cultures of the real world, the Ash Wastes Nomads would not waste flea skin or carapace and bone and that they make those "flags" from them, which also immediately screams "we're THE FLEA RIDERS, beware!" as the colour is pretty unique.

For the lens choice, I knew that I couldn't afford painting 40+ detailed lens. So instead I've decided those are NVGs and gave them pure white dots, used fluo green on them and utilized the same fluo green to make the green "glare" tint the rubber masks and the cloth around the face that was exposed close to the lens. The lens also all got gloss varnish on them, in person they're even weirder :)

Similarly, the metal colours were also a matter of shortcuts - Exhaust Manifold over the black templar contrast gave me a hint of initial shading and then Vallejo Steel and Gore Grunta Fur over that gave me easy "copper" that did not require me to mess with the crap quality copper paints usually are.

In general, I've tried to keep them in a limited pallette of "green" (cloth, lens), "brown" (fleas, flags, leather straps, boots) and two basic colors of metal - silver and copper - naturally expected when filters and coolers are concerned. Just like the original paintjob, I've used tertiary colors to add splashes of fully saturated bright color - magenta weapon lens (with gloss again), yellow and teal cables. This all brought focust towards the faces (eyes) and weapons. 

TL;DR - three color pattern, ease of use and fairly fast painting as priority :)

[Firedrake Cordova]

14 hours ago, Kastor Krieg said:

Similarly, the metal colours were also a matter of shortcuts - Exhaust Manifold over the black templar contrast gave me a hint of initial shading and then Vallejo Steel and Gore Grunta Fur over that gave me easy "copper" that did not require me to mess with the crap quality copper paints usually are.

That's an interesting trick I may have to "borrow".  Out of curiosity, do you not have/like Vallejo Metal Colour Copper? Or is it just a case of being able to get the effect you want with existing paints, so there's no point buying another paint? 

Edited November 23, 2022 by Firedrake Cordova

[Kastor Krieg]

1 hour ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

That's an interesting trick I may have to "borrow".  Out of curiosity, do you not have/like Vallejo Metal Colour Copper? Or is it just a case of being able to get the effect you want with existing paints, so there's no point buying another paint? 

While Vallejo Metal Color "Airbrush Color" series is one of the best metal series out there, either mine is defective or their Copper isn't on par. It's easily one of the worst covering copper colors out there. I've tried adding the GSW Pure Metal copper pigment to it, but that works a LOT better with their VMC-AC Gold - so Copper is utterly pointless to me.