More from the Forge

Time to paint some more bases for Mechanicum big guys!  These are also from DragonForge Designs.

If you are familiar with all the other Mechanicum bases, I have tried to keep the same set of colors working on these two.

This means having a balance of reddish, green and even some yellow hues in the stone areas.

In typical Shaded Basecoat fashion, I went a little bit lighter to make 'space' for the later glazes.

To get some color contrast with the stone areas, the metal plating was immediately painted in a blue/gray.

You can see the "light to dark" transitions, especially on the right hand base.  It also contrasts a bit with the light areas on the 'warm' colored stone.  Light against dark.  Creates interest!

Still working lighter, but now putting in some 'warmer' grays... even in the metal areas.

Working lighter still...

A few colors on the wires!

At this point, the Shaded Basecoat phase is nearly complete.

Which means I can toss down some food at the workstation and actually see a play or two of Today's games.  Then it's right back to it, and the glazing/shading.  Stay tuned!!

When you fight the Law...

While working on other things that were using a similar set of colors, I thought I would get some paint on the Lawmen Light Support so that Rich and I could continue on the learning process of the WWX rules system!

This is what the vehicle and base looked like right after the Shaded Basecoat phase.  As always, the idea is to establish as quickly as possible where the lights and darks will be.  It's also supposed to set up all the subsequent glazes and shading.

Precision is not what I am after... it's about blocking in some general colors, keeping it as simple as possible!

Even though most of the values are far lighter than they will eventually be, you still get a sense of how the value pattern will play out.

Yes, they're back!  Secret Weapon Washes at the ready!

The usual suspects out on the palette, ready to shade the base.

And then to the bike itself.  Once more, I am trying to tint colors and shades as well as darken them.  To do this, I make sure that the glazes change color and tone as I move quickly across the figure.

The parts that I thought might be metal were hit with blue/black washes, while other sections got much warmer colors.  Keep in mind that doing several layers of glazing to get to your darkest dark is key.  It does not take much time to place all those translucent layers... not like many opaque layers :-)

Stay tuned as I work back into those middletones!

Flying High!

So, now you get to see what the first experimental base was for!

This is actually a Lord of the Rings eagle, from the Hobbit series.

It was mostly painted a while back, and I thought it wold go well with the current set of experiments.

Obviously, the trick would be in positioning this bird.  The center of gravity issue would be critical!

I hemmed and hawed over how I would attach him.  The original intention was to have a tree branch come right next to the body, and it would create a natural attachment point.

I didn't want to do that this time around, so I chose a paper clip.

By the way it is positioned, there are very few views where you really see it.  The idea is still about speed, and messing around to much with the attachment point would be counter to that cause.

I also wanted an interesting ad dramatic angle.  This is very close to the vision that I had when I began.

He is actually very solid, and the center of gravity is perfect!  I was very relieved.

All of the colors are very subtle.  You can see now why I was using so many grayish greens on the base!  I used far warmer colors on the eagle itself.

I concentrated on more intense yellows and reddish browns.  I also make the yellow on the feet as intense as I could, contrasted with a bit of deep purple in the talons.

Finally, I used  a bit of realistic water effects on the talons and beak.  I have found this to be a nice way to show a texture difference with the feathers.

This all came together very nicely.  I was very happy with the final result.  There are many more flying things like this on the way!

In these next few views, you get a better look at some of those warmer colors.

This view shows them contrasting with the grays of the base...

As does this third view from above.

Even this ground level view reveals the green vs red contrast.  I hope you like this one as much as I do!

The Pillar of Light!!

Here we have the Pillar Of Light, the Heavy Support option for the new Holy Orders faction.

This is a large resin kit, and it's very solid.  You will never have to worry about anything breaking on this!

As you can see from the last set, I have used some water effects to make a few of the power conduits more like glass.  I thought this could be a very fun way to differentiate some textures.

I will eventually shoot some images with regular infantry sized figures next to it so you get a sense of how massive it is.

There is a very distinct look to the Wild West Exodus vehicles.  Most games have tanks which look like variations on WW1 or WW2 vehicles.  This certainly breaks that mould!

I am also looking forward to seeing what this bad boy does in a game, since I will be making a Holy Orders army!

My own personal Pillar of Light will probably red and gold, as an homage to my beloved Demonhunters of old.  Rich is already sneaking purple onto his Outlaws, so it only seems right!

The more I look at this, the more I enjoy it... and the more I want to see it on the table with a Holy Host next to it!

It looks imposing from just about any angle.

The combination of curved and angular surfaces was a tremendous challenge, but it also offered more fun opportunities for NMM effects.  The top gun portion in particular required a lot of careful planning!

Toss in tons of glowing conduits and runes, and you have yourself a beast!

I was glad that the Holy Orders glowing stuff is blue, not red.  It is a fantastic foil to all of the gold.

I hope you enjoy this guy!

http://www.wildwestexodus.com/holy-order-pillar-of-light-heavy-support/