Painting your Rivet Wars Blighter

OK Rivet Warriors!  We went through a step by step on the Ally, so now it's time for their adversaries!!

The principles in painting this guy were the same as the Ally.  I used a #4 flat brush, a #8 round, and a small liner brush.

Instead of priming this NATO green as I did with the Ally, I mixed by black and white brush on primer to create a grey, seen in the far left of the image.  I took Vallejo German Grey and intermediate blue, and put that color on the helmet and coat.  More intermediate was added, until it was time to get it a bight lighter.  I did this by adding on some GW Deneb Stone.

For the flesh tones, I mixed the Vallejo brown rose with my grey (similar to how I mixed that same color with the camo green on the Ally), so that the flesh would reflect the grey.  Once the Brown rose needed to by lightened, I used a pale flesh color to get those last bits of highlights.

The approach to painting the eyes was the same as well, trying to keep the area around the eye e bit darker. The eye itself was an off white, to which the iris was added, followed by the little dot highlight.

As I was doing this, I used Vallajo Game Color earth to start the brass on the helmet.  I mixed in a tiny bit of  Reaper pale saffron to keep it more greenish than yellow/orange.  I used the pale flesh color to highlight the brass, with a bit of very pale seafoam green.  I kept using my flat brush during that whole process.  

You can also see the first dark red layer on the end of the grenade launcher was painted.

That initial color (Vallejo cavalry brown was then lightened with a bit of flat red, and then lightened further by adding GW vomit brown.  This kept the lighter reds from getting either too pink, or too orange.

The hair, coat trim and belts were painted in with some GW Dryad brown.

Towards the end of this stage, I took my glazes and shaded the coat, helmet, and grenade launchers darker with a blue/black glaze.

I used some Reaper liner colors, such as the dark brown and blue, with my fine liner brush, to clean up any areas by enhancing the shadows along the belts and trim.  I did the same for the helmet and the extra grenades.  The hair was lightened by adding the light seafoam green to the dryad brown.

More lights were added to the  belts and trim, as well as the brass on the helmet, mixing white with the light green.  I lightened the coat a little more by adding even more deneb stone to the grey mix...

Almost there!  I did the weathering on the helmet just as I did for the Ally.  I indicated some paint chips with a dark brown, which was highlighted along the bottom edge with some light grey, while the top edge was given a shadow line of black.  Some rust was added as well by using a watered down GW calthan brown.

The rust on the base as also doe using the watered down calthan brown.  The old GW foundation paints break down very nicely when thinned down, where the pigment will really sink into crevices, almost like a glaze! 

And here is the finished product!!!  Ready for action.

By the way, I am very happy today, as the Painting Pyramid has reached its second stretch goal level!  You can check it out here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/891905985/discover-the-painting-pyramid-with-james-wappel

The finished views of the First Temple of Blood

So, we see what the Temple looked like upon completion!

All of the glyphs have been painted, the tiles, and the weathering.

Grass and flock have been added, along with some aquarium foliage to get more of a jungle setting.  I also used some vines from Woodland Scenics.  It is a two part system.  There are the vines themselves, which you glue to the desired surface.  Then you can glue a variety of leaf colors onto it, creating some nifty ivy!

This will show up more clearly in the close ups that I took, and will be posting later.

You can also see how the various figures played their roles in completing the diorama.

Here's some nice views of the weathering, and the exposed brick understructure...

The view from above!

Tomorrow I will post some more views of the Temple... from up close!

Painting the Temple of Blood

Here are a few shots that I took when I painted the original Temple of Blood which I sculpted years ago!

I started out by painting various warm grey on all parts of the structure.

I wanted to keep it all as lightly colored as possible, so that the weathering would really show up, and my dark trim would set off the bright, primary colored tiles!

From there, I painted all the glyphs.  Once those were painted, it was time to do some weathering!

I also painted the trim around each level with a dark color made from mixing walnut brown with regal blue.

I stained the wood plaque a nice dark brown as well, to reflect that trim color...

For the tiles on the roof of the Temple, I went with very bright primary colors.

Here's those clever little Skinks!!!

And some Temple Guardians...

This view gives you a better look at the various glyphs, and a peek at the altar!

Stay tuned for the final installments, with all the pictures of the finished Temple!!!!!!!!!!

The First Great Temple of Blood!

As the Blog nears its one year anniversary, I wanted to get back into the subject matter that started it all... the Lizardmen!

I began the blog just a few days after I saw that my Lizardman Army which had won the Armies on Parade trophy at Games Day in 2011 was featured in the White Dwarf.

Most of the posts in those early days were, of course, about that army.  Now, nearly a year,  500,000+ page views and 400 followers later, it's time to get back to Lustria!!

This is the original Temple of Blood that I sculpted many years ago.  At this time, I was building dioramas entirely from Sculpey.  This was not an easy process, as I had to worry about weight, etc.  I built these with hollow interiors, using a system of wire as rebar!

Once these walls were constructed, I baked the clay and perpared to move on to the next stage.

The Sculpey I used here was the standard white Sculpey. That's important, as it is much easier to carve and manipulate it once it has been baked

The stairs were added once the original levels had been baked and solidified.

The structure was baked again, and I began to work on the more decorative elements of the Temple.  This time, I as using Super Sculpey, which is why it has the pink color.  That type of Sculpey has more strength, but it is also much more difficult to carve.

The various glyphs had been sculpted and then cast, so that I could press Sculpey into the moulds and make several copies to place around the Temple.  Clever little Skinks!

The four serpent columns would hold up the roof of the Temple.  I had also made moulds of them, so that they would be the same size!

All of the pieces were baked, and the various textures carved, such as exposed bricks, cracks,  etc.

Stay tuned for the next stage of the Temple... getting some painting action!!

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!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/891905985/discover-the-painting-pyramid-with-james-wappel