At the Gate

As much fun as it is to see an army come come together, it is even more interesting to see it placed on some appropriate terrain!  Somehow, it makes the whole collection have more impact.

I suppose putting them into an actual setting, as opposed to a generic photo backdrop  makes  it more 'believable'... especially when it comes to sci-fi figures like these Gates of Antares Isorians.

I have a number of step by step guides on painting these here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/10/painting-isorians-phase-one.html

Fortunately, the kinds of bases that I made for these Isorians matched the Warp Gate terrain pretty well!

The Gate is a terrain piece that I made for the Painting Pyramid video series, called "Building a Portal".  It is one of 5 terrain videos that were part of the series, over 100 minutes long as it takes you through the building process and even painting it too!

The glow of the weapons really stand out in this environment, which is really fun!

I am hoping to do some new terrain videos soon, since new recording equipment now makes that possible again!  While I will attempt to do some facebook live versions, I will definitely create some new YouTube versions.  These will be made available to the Patreon subscribers that pledge $5 or more.

There are a number of terrain projects under way, and it would be great to share those in video format.  I have pictorial articles on the blog, but I believe folks will get a lot more from the videos.  Here's a link to the page:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Drone Wars

This is the Isorian Tograh MV2 Transport Drone from Gate of Antares, another element of the Isorian army that I have been working on.  As with the Combat Drone, I used the Vallejo Fluorescent paints to establish the glow.  The Oranges and Purples were used to act as a compliment to this greenish glow.

Here's a link to the webstore:

https://us-store.warlordgames.com/products/isorian-tograh-mv2-transporter-drone

The purples were also tinted "warmer" and "cooler" be virtue of the glazes and highlight colors.  For instance, I can start out with the same Reaper Clear Purple, and then use either a pink or a light sky blue to highlight it.  This creates a greater variety of tones, which is important on a vehicle as large as this with so many complex surfaces.

The underside of the vehicle was highlighted mostly with that bright sky blue, while the upper area shadow zones were glazed darker with blue.  This made the pinkish highlights stand out a bit more, without having to be made incredibly light.

I didn't want those highlights to be brighter than the green glow of the various power transfer elements.

If you check out previous posts on the Isorian army, you will find some step by step painting guides.

The views from above show how all these different tones work together.  You can see that I used the pinkish highlight colors to create the 'living' sections of the carapice, where veins and other bits of freehand show through the outer shell.  That carried those tones across the entire surface, merging two very different areas of color together.

Even the purple spots on the orange sections help in this task... pulling all the elements together.

I have already painted a number of Gates of Antares vehicles in my facebook live sessions.  Here is a very fun session that I did a while back...

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209626582475478/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I will be doing more Antares live sessions, as well as additional Bolt Action tutorials.  If you want to see even more painting, basing and terrain techniques, you can be part of my Patreon Page, where special videos are available on every aspect of painting!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Drone Wars

Here's something brand new in the Gates of Antares universe... large combat skimmers for the Isorian faction!  These very interesting looking vehicles are new releases from Warlord Games.  This is the Mahran Vesh MV5 Combat Drone.

It is now in the webstore:

https://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/isorian/products/isorian-mahran-vesh-mv5-combat-drone

 I have painted a fairly large Isorian force already, including a few step by step tutorial articles.  

Here's the first stage of the painting process:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/10/painting-isorians-phase-one.html

Now for stage two:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/10/painting-isorians-phase-two.html

These views from above give you a better sense of how that color placement would work out on a much larger an complex piece.  That is always a major challenge in every army... finding a color scheme that is unique, but also work on infantry and vehicles alike!

On both of these larger Isorian skimmers, it was necessary to alter the purples and oranges across the broader areas.  For instance, the purple can be tinted more blueish on some sections and more reddish in others.

I will be posting another blog post on the transport version of these skimmers, with more information on how to approach a "sci-fi"  army... utilizing much brighter and saturated colors than you might normally consider.

As with the rest of the army, Vallejo Fluorescent green was used for all the glowing areas.  While it is not glow in the dark paint, it has a great deal of transparency thus allowing light to pass through the color and back out again with great efficiency.

You have to mix these colors with 'regular' paints for the most part, they are that transparent!  I have dozens of articles on the blog, and many Facebook live videos that show how such things can be used.  Here's a link to one of them:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10210069480067641/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Galaxy Quest

I really enjoyed the live session where experimentation with the Vallejo Metal Medium was tested on this Gates of Antares figure.  I had only had a chance to use it on a few occasions, so it was quite interesting to use that in front of an audience!

Here's a link:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10212185674011167/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

You have to think differently when you are using the medium, since the more of it is in your mixtures, the lighter your paint will be.  Here's the first step by step example of using the medium to affect "regular" paint:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/01/forged-in-fire.html

The Reaper Clear and Liner paints mix with this medium very well, since they are very pure and intense pigments.  They also went well with the Secret Weapon colors, as those are designed to be used transparently.

I am hoping to make a more "permanent" tutorial video on various methods for using this medium.  That will eventually be available to the Patreon subscribers at the $5 level.  The more folks who subscribe to the page, the more videos I can make!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

The Star Forged

After using the Vallejo Metal Medium a few weeks ago on the Sauron figure, I just had to give that another try!  These special character figures from Gates of Antares seemed to be the perfect candidates for more tests.  This was the first experimental figure that I painted, which was then followed up by a facebook live session:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10212185674011167/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

This time around, I tried to push the limits of the metal medium a little more... putting even more 'shading' on areas like the arms and the staff than I did on the Sauron figure.

I found that I could do all the same sorts of color tints and subtle things that I normally did with my NMM process, just with metals this time! Since this was a sci-fi figure, I had more room to maneuver with those wild color combos!

Many thanks for all the folks who have been supporting the Patreon page!  that makes a tremendous difference, as the more support the page generates, the more videos I can create.  As I have mentioned many times, I try very hard to have new an interesting topics to show.  The Metal Medium is much like the oil paints, as I learn something new every time I try them.

I think this makes a difference on the videos, as it is almost like we are learning side by side!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Skyfall

This group shot is comprised of Algroyn units from the Gates of Antares universe.  As you can see, I was experimenting with a few different color schemes!

This post features one of the infantry units, done in an ice theme:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-ice-warrior.html

I also did a facebook live episode on painting the skimmers, and the freehand involved:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209514481873033/?type=2&theater

To show how I made the bases for the figures, I did this facebook live session:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209658916083798/?type=2&theater

The Algoryn skimmers were the perfect shape for those animal faces!  I have a few other predatory critters that I will be doing, such as birds of prey and a dragon face.

I had a lot of fun with the jungle foliage as well!

You can find these figures on the Warlord Games site here:

https://us-store.warlordgames.com/products/algoryn-starter-army/?utm_campaign=jamiet&utm_medium=click&utm_source=fbba

Here's another video episode on how the C3 Transporter freehand was painted:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209626582475478/?type=2&theater

Going Places

This C3 Transporter from Gates of Antares is the first large sci-fi vehicle I have painted in years, since the Dark Eldar army.  I had a lot of fun with it!

I even have a live video of the painting session here:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209626582475478/?type=2&theater

I wanted to have a very different color scheme on this vehicle, so I chose a pattern similar to the one I had used on that old Dark Eldar army.

I think the base is around 80mm round, so that should give you a good indication of its size and scale.

The base was made from bark and branches, and there's a live video of how that was made here:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209658916083798/?type=2&theater

These views from above show how that freehand pattern was varied across the entire surface, with emphasis on different sections of the hull.

The combination of very organic and mechanical shapes was really interesting.  Usually you have to "choose" between on or the other.

This is made by Warlord Games, a nice plastic kit which is easy to put together.

I have a few more similar versions of this vehicle, and I will be exploring more freehand patterns in future facebook live sessions, so stay tuned!

Flying Tigers

This was actually the first experiment in painting the freehand patterns on the Gates of Antares Algoryn skimmers.

I had tried this freehand on other Sci-fi figures in the past, and I thought it would be interesting to try out!

The shape of these skimmers is very fortuitous, because the forward part of the craft tends to work well with the locations of the eyes, and even where 'teeth' should be.

The sides are relatively flat, so the pattern is not too distorted.

Stay tuned because more skimmers are in the house, and I have more critters to paint!