Sunday 26 June 2016

Grim Angus - Trollblood


My first attempt at painting a Troll from the Privateer Press range. A really nice model, lots of well defined details without being over the top.


How to Paint Black NMM


So this is something I've been using on pretty much everything I've painted in the past few months, I really like the look and it's actually quite simple to do. Start off with a smooth basecoat of black.

Take a pale blue, I use Scale Color Bering Blue, but GW Fenrisian Blue is pretty much the same. Mix up two paint consistencies, one layer and one glaze. I use quite an organic process to build up the highlight, switching between the glazing and layering as and when needed, but in essence, you want to start with your layer paint and lightly sketch in where the highlight will be. So for example, on the gun barrel, I paint a thin line along the top edge, try and make it as straight as you can but it doesn't need to be perfect. Now take your glaze and glaze up to the line from bottom to top along the length of the barrel. Then glaze downwards, again towards the line. Do this in a few passes until the original line disappears and all you're left with is a blurred colour transition.

Now take a pure white and add a very sharp highlight where the blue is strongest. I put these along the length of the barrel, in a series of dots and dashes, forming a broken line of highlights. This gives a more realistic look than using a solid line, and it's also much easier to do. I then place white 'glint' highlights onto the uppermost pure black area, this is the same kind of idea as when you're painting a gem stone.

I'll do a separate post on how to highlight different kinds of surfaces, I'd say knowing where to put your highlights is the hard part of doing NMM and once you understand the why, the how becomes quite simple.



Tuesday 21 June 2016

Sara - Bloodbowl Starplayer from Willy Miniatures


So this is the second time I've painted Sara. I really like the sculpt but both times I found myself struggling to paint the face. I don't want to be 'that guy' but I think it might be more down to the model than my painting. It's just wide and blocky compared to the rest of the figure. It's annoying because I'm usually pretty good at face but I just can't seem to get this one to 'work'. Ah well, if I get around to painting it a third time I'll see if I can do a better job!


Painting Female Skin Tones


When I'm painting a female model, I try and use less harsh contrast between lights and darks I feel it gives a more natural effect. In this one I mixed a slightly pinkish base colour using, Fantasy and Games, Harvester Flesh (Cadian Flesh tone with a little white added), a little Scale 75 Brown Leather (Mournfang Brown ish) and a bit of Scale 75 Deep Red (Wazdakka Red). You don't need very much of the red or brown, a very small amount will do the job.

I highlighted by doing a few layers each time adding slightly more white to the base mix.

Shadows were added by mixing a small amount of a deep purple Scale 75 Black Leather (Naggaroth Night) to the base colour and using that as a glaze. Add more purple for the darkest areas, i.e. Under the chin, Between and below the breasts, the belly button, etc.

Saturday 18 June 2016

Ben Hamilton from the Wild West Exodus


This is Ben Hamilton from the Wild West Exodus range. They have a tonne of great models, lots of character and this one is no different! Quite a lot of the detailing is very small, I found it quite a challenge to paint but the result was definitely worth the effort.

I used zenithal priming here. If you've never heard of that, essentially the model is first primed in black, it's then sprayed from above at about a 60 degree angle with white. It gives you a very effective preshade, letting you see instantly where all the highlights and shadows should be.



I don't often bother with it but I wanted to try out Ben Komets' leather technique which uses the natural grain left over from the primer to create the rough look of worn leather.

Painting Leather

For the trousers, gloves and backpack I simply used Army Painter Soft tone wash, applying it about 4 times directly over the primer. Then I went back and refined it a little here and there, adding some glazes to deepen shadows. I didn't want all the leather parts to look the same so for the straps I used a dark brown, highlighted with some dull orange and finished with a bone colour. If I'm honest I would have liked to get more contrast on the straps, they're a little flatter than I was going for. Still, the contrast between the two different kinds of leather is quite good which was the most important thing.


Painting White


I have a few different ways of approaching white, for this one, I wanted to show a bit of texture on the cloth so I started off darker than usual. I used Scale Color Graphite (GW Dawnstone). Then I gradually worked up highlights by adding more and more white to the mix. Once I got a few transitions on I started adding little lines and dots with each new highlight layer. To add more depth I glazed with black into the deepest shadows. It's ok to go quite dark with this, a common mistake when painting white is to ignore the shadows, or be scared to go dark enough. Check out the image below, it's white but look how dark some of the shadows are.


Painting Woodgrain

This was done quite simply. I started off with Scale Color Walnut (This is a desaturated pale brown, GW Dryad Bark mixed with some Karak Stone is roughly the same). Woodgrain lines were then painted on using Scale Color Birch (GW Ushbati Bone). Then a single glaze of Inktensity Woodgrain was applied to finish. A couple glazes of Seraphim Sepia will also give the same effect.



Monday 13 June 2016

Devil Dog from Infinity


I finished this Devil Dog from Infinity the other day. It's a great model, a metric shittonne of detail on it. I'm not so keen on the stones being a part of the casting, I think it would have been better to have them as an optional extra. I used a slightly darker scheme to the last one I painted. I tried to create a lot of contrast and I think I was successful.


Purple Mane


For this I tried out some new paints from the Warcolours range. I based it in a 1:1 mix of Violet 2 and Violet 3 with a small touch of Braineater Azure from the Scale Color Fantasy and Games range. I used Braineater for the skin so adding a small amount of this to the mae helps to make the two colours 'work'. I then added a touch of  Scale Colour Violet ink to the base colour and washed each purple area. The ink dries with a very wet look when it pools so I was careful to draw off any excess.

Highlights were built up very simply by progressively adding more white to the original base mix, using standard layering until I was happy with definition.


Skin/Fur



As I said, this was based with Braineater Azure from the Scale Color Fantasy and Games range. The model has a lot of heavily sculpted definition so I decided to wash the whole area with a slightly thinned GW Drakenhof Nightshade. I usually thin washes or inks with a little water just to help me get a little more control and to lengthen drying time so I don't get any issues with staining.


I reapplied the base colour and built up highlights by adding more and more white to the mix. Once I got decent contrast I stippled on tiny dots with thinned white to give the illusion of fur texture. It's important to thin the white so you can use the transparency of the paint to vary the opacity.

It doesn't show up well in the picture but it looks the business in real life. The veins were then picked out in white,












Wednesday 8 June 2016

Freehand Battle Damage



Recently finished a tutorial on adding freehand damage to your miniatures. Check it out :)

Sunday 5 June 2016

Guildball Smoke


This was a commission piece I recently finished of Smoke, one of the new Alchemist players for #Guildball. Quite an interesting sculpt with most of the model suspended inside a spiral of billowing smoke. It was very difficult to paint the figure without touching the 'smoke', so I opted to paint that part last. It ended up being quite a fast paint job but I was happy with the result.

Bodice

For the bodice I used Vallejo Game Colour Khaki, sponged on a few different colours (Rhinox Hide, Skrag Brown, XV-88) then used Army Painter Strong Tone Wash. If you've never used Strong Tone, I can highly recommend it as a perfect substitute to the old Devlan Mud from Games Workshop. I used a few further glazes of Strong Tone to build up some extra contrast under the arms and into the folds of the fabric.

Hood/Trousers

The green was done with one of my favourite 'goto' paints; Scale Color Black Forest Green, a fantastic intense tone. Highlights were built up by simply adding more and more Scale Colour Sol Yellow (Yriel Yellow) to the base. It's a very saturated paint so you don't have to use a lot. In fact, you have to be careful not to add too much or the highlights become very harsh and it no longer looks like fabric.

I added some texture to the top of the hood with hashing very fine lines to help suggest a 'fabricy' look.

Gold

I did the gold in NMM, these parts were undercoated with a bright bone colour, I used Scale Color Mojave White, Screaming Skull is a great equivalent. I do this for two reasons. One, to increase the brightness of the gold and two, because yellow(ish) paints are so transparent, it makes it MUCH easier to get a clean opaque covering when you start with a smooth/bright undercoat. I based in Fantasy & Games Peanut Butter. (essentially the same as the old classic Snakebite Leather) Highlights were made by adding successive amount of white to the base, finally ending on a tiny sharp pure white highlight. Shades were built up by glazing with Vallejo Armour Brown. (a very intense, rich red/brown) 

Smoke

This was done very simply, I started with a medium gray, Scale Color Graphite (GW Dawnstone). Then built up highlights by adding white to the base. Extra definition was given with lining/glazing a darker gray into the lower side of the smoke plumes.