Saturday, January 19, 2013

Work in progress: Pre Heresy Imperial Fists



Hey folks!  Here is something that I have been working on for a while, and it is getting close to finished.

It's a squad of those Forgeworld Pre Heresy Imperial Fists.  To begin with, there as a lot of "fixing" that had to be done with some unfortunate casting issues.


Then they were primed, and it was time to get down to painting!
You can see the earliest stages of the shaded basecoat under way.  The first image shows the base colors being put down, so that every part of the miniature had some kind of color on it.  This is important, as you have all heard before, so that you have something to compare your lights and darks against.  If you left everything white or black primer, and painted only yellow next to it, that is going to mislead you on your shading down the road.

In the second image, I have started to lighten up various areas with that very controlled drybrushing, which is more like "dampbrushing" :-)


These images show the lightening process taking place on every surface, every color.  The reds, turquoise, etc.  I am leaving the yellow alone for now, as those hard to reach areas mean that I keep hitting the yellow areas with my lighter shading!


At this stage, I put the stripes on the chainfists, and indicated where the little areas of gold will be.


It's just about time to start shading everything darker.  My first task is to take a dark brown and put some dark lining into the deepest recesses.  This is also done in the eyes, and on the undersides of the torsos, arms, and feet.


Now the fun begins!!  I took my glazes and began to shade everything darker, starting with all the weapons, shields, and other grey surfaces, such as the back of the torso.  You can see that I also began to rough in some freehand, such as the shields (I wanted 3 different designs on the 3 shields), as well as indicating where the insignia will go...


I continue the shading process with the other colors, such as the reds and the turquoise.  You can also see that some of the freehand has been develop a bit more, especially on the shields.  I also developed the Imperial Fist insignias a bit.

Some basic shading is also being done on the yellows, as I establish the darkest darks on the armor (basically a chocolate brown).


Now I start to refine some of that shading by working back into the middle tones, on the turquoise in particular.  This is done somewhat transparently by mixing in some glaze medium with the paint.  I love doing that!!!  I am even starting to put in some lighter yellows.


As I continue this, my main focus will be on those yellows, and making them lighter.  Once that is done, it will be time to do all the battle damage and rust effects, like the other PH Imperial fists.  If you want to see those, you can find a whole slew of posts on the left hand column under Imperial Fists!  The bases are also in a "how to" post.

This "shaded basecoat" technique is the cornerstone of all my techniques, which is why it is the first painting video of the Painting Pyramid Kickstarter!


6 comments:

  1. I love those sculpts..... And those are looking good!!

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    1. Thanks! This whole army has been a difficult one to paint. These guys represent yet another challenge...

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  2. Is damp brushing the same as wet brushing? If so then I think o know what you mean by the controlled dry brush. Also how's the kick starter going? Anymore progress?:)

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    1. The best way to describe it is that there is slightly less paint then there normally would be on the brush. It's also how you are using the brush strokes...

      As far as the KS, it has gotten into a strange sort of back and forth between new backers and other backers changing pledges. I assume that the people changing are thinking about what is in the next stretch level, but by changing, they prevent that from happening. Had they kept the pledges as is, we would already be at that goal, and they would have had what they wanted.

      These KS things are very strange. Each one I observed had some very odd stuff happen after the first week had passed. On some KS, I watched backers fighting with each other, and so on. It is all very 'fluid', let's put it that way.

      There are some announcements that I have been saving for this 'in between' time, which is designed to bring in new people and restore some of that first day action. :-)

      Cheers!

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  3. Hey man, excellent work with all of your fists so far. Really loving the paint style. There's nothing quite like a really well painted imperial fists army, best looking chapter of the lot IMO. Probs cos they're so damn hard to get right you appreciate the good ones that much more!

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  4. Nice work on these! Im painting some at the moment and had alot of casting problems to sort out aswel and there were some I was unable to solve. Nice to know I'm not the only one who had problems.

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