Stepping Out

This was an unusual project for me, since I did not prep this or assemble it.  My only task was to paint it, and that presents a whole list of challenges.

I prefer to do all that sort of thing myself, because while I do all that prepping, I start to make a plan for how I will go about painting it.  Also, I had to do some guessing as to what was what, as I didn't see where the bits were coming from myself!

So, I had to make do with what was at hand, and added as I moved along from one area to the next.  There were a few times where I switched the color in progress or the placement of glowing areas, etc.

I could not tell you exactly what was used on this as far as bitz, only how it was painted :-)

Golden Hero

The more I work on miniatures (this is year 17), the more I turn to my original 2D art roots.  

This means that I seldom paint the color that "should" be there.  When you are painting in oils or watercolors, you don't search around for just the right red or green or blue, etc.  Instead, you create the "impression" of those colors.

Instead of painting 'gold', you paint all the reflections of the surrounding areas, with a suggestion of a bright yellow here and there.  This figure has lots of greens, blues, purples and reds as opposed to a bunch of different yellow tones.

I realize that this sounds very complicated and somewhat crazy, but it is actually a far easier way to achieve an effect, and you end up using a very small set of colors.  As I have mentioned before, I seldom use more than 6-7 colors on an army, much less an individual figure.

This is also how I can work on several different genres at the same time.  I don't need a 'clean' set of new colors for each figure... instead I utilize that one set of colors for everything, mixing where I need to.

Of course, beginning with the shaded basecoat technique helps a lot.  This provides that basic framework which my first layers of paint used to on my 2D art.  The idea was always to map out where the lights and darks should be as soon as possible, and then build around that.

These "golds" are made of oranges, greens mixed with tan, muted purples, dark blues, you name it.  This variety in tones also makes it far more interesting to look at, just as looking closely at a 2D painting reveals all the interesting brush strokes of colors that were used to make you believe you are looking at something which is three dimensional.

Flame and Staff

Continuing the experiments that I have been conducting with the Badger Airbrush Ghost tints, I tried to see how well I could take advantage of tinting my "primer painting" technique.

With so many organic surfaces to deal with, the ability to "map out" those areas of lights and darks with the various primer colors (Stynlrez, by the way) was huge.  As those were in place, I could use that framework to apply the various glazes of Secret Weapon weathering paints and Reaper Clear paints.

If you isolate small sections of the arms, legs, etc., you will notice 3 different transition types.  The obvious one is lighter or darker, but the key variations are in color temperature and saturation.  

That is, some of the 'yellow' is either rust colored, purple or even green!  This is done to show how reflective that gold is, and also to maintain enough visual interest across a complex maze of textures and shapes.

The blue force weapon was chosen to match stuff that was painted many years ago, but also to give me a chance to incorporate more greens into the gold, as the blues tinted it, etc.  I tried to strategically place areas of rust color next to bright zones of white/yellow that was cool by comparison in terms of temperature.

Unlike the red base of the other dreadnought, this one did not offer that same kind of reflection possibilities.  So, the colors of the dreadnought were made a little more saturated and warm, so that the cooler, duller reflections of the grayish floor would have something to contrast against.

I look forward to trying this kind of effect in oil paints, which I will do on a facebook live session.  Stay tuned!!

Sword and Shield

This was an interesting experiment in utilizing the combination of Badger Airbrush Ghost Tints and the Secret Weapon weathering paints.

I was able to set up a variety of interesting color shifts while doing the "primer painting" phase by adding a few drops of ghost tint to the primers.

From there, I was able to work off those initial tones with several glazes of the Secret Weapon paints, mostly in the "rust" range, and the wood weathering colors.

The last piece of the puzzle was the Reaper Clear paints, which helped to enhance those glazes with even more intensity.  The Clear Blue was used on the sword, while the Clear Purple made an excellent dark tone when mixed with the Secret Weapon Rust colors.

As usual, I had fun with the Object Source Lighting, and doing a bit of freehand on the shield.

Check out the Secret Weapon paints, which has now expanded to over 30 colors!  I will continue to do more facebook live sessions utilizing those.  You can get the Badger primers and Ghost tints here, and if you use the discount code "Wappellious", that will be a 42% discount.

http://webairbrushes.com/

A few of my closest friends

Time for another collection series!  Here we see Inquisitor Reva Garanov and his faithful Retinue.

I had a lot of fun making the conversions!  This was way back in 4th Edition 40k, so such things were in their infancy.  I hadn't really done anything like that previously.

The plasma servitor earned his back banner and Slaneesh marine helmet trophy by blasting a unit of Noise Marines with one well placed (sage guided) shot.

The guns of both servitors were sculpted from scratch in sculpey clay, using the edge holding firm grey variety.

That stuff really holds an edge, and it is very strong!

Cheers to the great Inquisitor!

Being a Good Host

We step back once again to reveal another of the old timey 4th edition Demonhunters army!

I had one Retinue with 3 of these Demonhosts, which never did much of anything, but they were fun to paint :-)

I wish that they did more killing of the enemy over the years.  The potential of their abilities was just too random.

I'm thinking these could be interesting in more of a fantasy setting now...

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/222017752295?

I can see your future

Here's something that I discovered in the back of a cabinet... one of the last remaining converted Inquisitor Retinue figures.  My old 4th edition Demonhunters army had anywhere from one to 4 Inquisitor Retinues.  They were so much fun, and the Psykers definitely played a role.

This must be an old Warhammer Vampire counts figure or something along those lines.  I added the banner and a Libre Daemonicus to his collection of odds and ends.

I modernized a few of the painted areas a bit to see what he might look like after several years hiding away in the Warp!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/222016522672?

An old friend...

Here's an old buddy of mine.  This was the very first dreadnought that I scratch sculpted.  In fact, it was the first dreadnought I ever painted!

Ultimately, I ended up scratch building at least six.  I learned how to make the process go much more smoothly :-)  The latter versions were sculpted from extra firm sculpey, baked in pieces and then glued together afterward.

This was the original post, which shows how I made this first version, and some drawings for a future sculpt:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/03/scratch-sculpted-grey-knight.html

This was used in a number of games.  I remember using it in the warpgate scenario that we played out over 4 games, and the Defend the Factorum scenario which we also created.

So lots of fun with this guy.

And his own little buddies.

What's old is new.

Here's an old timey metal marine that I converted long ago for the Demonhunters army.

I did some green stuff work on the lower legs, the chest and the helmet.  A different sword was added, and some purity seals.  I also added a storm bolter.

He is also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321462365787?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

And, as a comparison, I shot the figure again using one of the other Hangar 18 backdrops.

It really does make quite a difference!  Wait until you see the Krios with different backdrops.

The other scratch build with a little bit of painting

Yet another painting work in  progress.  This one is barely 40% painted.  Lots to do on it, but you get the idea!

This was for the beloved Demonhunter army, which was all done in these bloody reds.  You can see the rest of that army in the Demonhunters section, and read all about the Brotherhood of the Sacred Chalice.

As you can see from the original pictures showing the scratch build, I switched these sponsons to bolters from the original lascannons.  That was the whole idea behind the project :-)

The Assault cannons were actually made from plastic wall hangers!

All the rest was done in pink foam, matboard, and sculpey.

More to come as I continue the process on these guys!