The Wings of Angels

It looks like I still had a few of these good old Archangel figures that were first published by I-Kore (now by Urban Mammoth).  Most of these were used in my Sisters of Battle contingent from my Adepticon tournament army.

I had a lot of fun with this color scheme as well, positioning the brassy colors with the higher saturation greens.  Most of the bases were made using pieces of the Secret Weapon broken columns.

Shade of Grey

As many of you know, I used dozens and dozens of figures for the painting videos.  There were many figures that were painted, but ultimately were not used, due to time constraints, difficulty in seeing details on camera, etc.

This is one of the figures that "stuck" and it was used for the "Shades of Grey" video.  As the name suggests, it's all about painting grey, and finding vast ranges of values and tones within what might be considered a limited color.

It is by no means a limited color, since you can still adjust temperature (warm vs cool), tint, and saturation.

While many people go out an purchase jars of grey paint, you will rarely see any actual grey paint in my collection.  I would much rather create my own by mixing opposing colors, such as a very dark blue with a light brown, and then a hint of seafoam green to lighten it.

This offers me a LOT more control, and I am not stuck with either a reddish grey, or blue grey from out of a jar.

I did five of the "color theory" videos, such as Yellow Alert.  Here's a 25 minute preview of that one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnvcMwauXZk

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321850791784?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

The testing continues!

Here's another round of tests on the Foldio Studio.

These images were shot using my old setup, which I have determined should be used for large scale things such as group shots and terrain.

They were taken using my normal three light arrangement... one from above, and one from each side.

These three lights tend to eliminate the shadows cast by the other lights, depending on the pose of the figure in question.

I bring this up now, because the following set of images will demonstrate the advantages of the new Foldio studio.  The ability to raise or lower the intensity of the lights turned out to be a much bigger advantage than I anticipated.

My previous attempts at using these mottled backdrops had a tendency to burn out the middle tones of the figures.  The faded, misty backdrops did this a little less, but I wondered if the intensity pf my lights could be causing this.

I tried to move the lights further away from the figures, but that led to more shadows being created, both on the figure and on the backdrop.  You will notice here that no such shadows occurred with the Foldio.

Since I could dim the lights, I had a better chance to avoid that burnout effect on the mid tones.  Instead of moving lights around, I could tone down the brightness of the lights, and not add those shadows.

There's a variety of reasons I wanted to use these backdrops.  First, I hoped to create more of a theme with my images, but there was another practical matter.

Sometimes the figure I am trying to photograph has a great deal of the cyan, or sky blue color.  This tends to make the figure blend into the backdrop.  Many of the figures I have painted with the blue glow run into this issue to some degree.

It would be the same as if I were photographing the RJ-1027 glow on a reddish backdrop.

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/221869391843?

A side by side of two backdrops, with the one on the left having been done with the Foldio setup.

In the Urban War, you need an Angel

This figure was used to create the Freehand Designs video of the Painting Pyramid series, and it was just the perfect choice.  I could show a variety of designs, such as the pattern on the wings, the tattoos on the skin, and even the numbers on the base.

The Archangel figures have been a favorite of mine for many years.

Here's a link to the Urban War home page.  You can see more examples of their figures on the blog, as I also used some Viridian figures for the Painting Camo Patterns video, as well as some Junkers for painting reds.

https://www.facebook.com/UrbanWartheGame?fref=ts

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/321848208386?

This won't give you gas

Here are some fun images of the finished shipping container.

Each stage of this project was very fun... coming up with the logo, doing the weathering, researching the lettering, and so on.

I certainly learned a lot more about shipping containers than I ever thought I would!

I didn't intend originally to use printed signs on the container, but it was a very useful experiment.

I never would have thought of the various signs of the contents, such as the flammable signs!

The other containers are shapes that may not allow as much in the way of printouts, so that will be yet another experiment!

And, of course, they do open and close, which will be very fun for in game tactics.

Overall, I felt like I was able to get very close to those original reference images.

Here are some miniatures to give you a sense of the scale.

The Highland Moss guard seem to claim it as their own. :-)

On the Wings of Angels

For a very long time, I have been saving a batch of Urban Warfare Archangels to use as Seraphim.  I did a little conversion on some of them, such as this one.  Just a little arm swap.

I have had to do a bit less of the snazzy stuff that I wanted to do, but time is just not there!

I used a chunk of the Secret Weapon Broken Column set, as well as a bunch of powders.  They were not just used to create weathering or exhaust... I used them to do a little painting as well.

If your work it right, you can smooth out blends, or get some interesting color variations without having to go through lots of paint mixing!

Happy Birthday, Hometown!

I really love these Archangel figures.  I am making a squad of them for my Adepticon army.  Even combining them with some GW Sisters. :-)

This mini was one of the practice figures that I made for the Shades of Gray painting video.

They are fun to paint in any color scheme, but this limited palette gray scheme was very sci-fi.

She is also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321341682642?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

On this day in 1837, the City in a Garden was founded.  Happy birthday to my birthplace and home, Chicago!!!!!

And here is our flag!!

Shades of Grey

Yes, more color theories!  This time, it was gray... and all the possibilities therein.

As I mention over and over in the video, gray is more than just black mixed with white!

You can do just about as much with grey as you can with more traditional colors.

The color swatches illustrated how to lighten a black with a variety of lighter colors, but also how to get that darker color without using black at all.

The shaded basecoat stage nearly complete...

And out came the glazes!  This is a great way to tint your gray colors.

Now we have a pair of Archangels!

Many thanks to John and the folks at Urban Mammoth for letting me use these ladies for the videos!

More to come!

Fly away...