Topic: Skyros' Painting Blog

[Skyros]

Well, getting back into painting, after a long break. But the Christmas Holiday's are here so I finally have some time!

I've really enjoyed reading other folks paint blogs and learning tricks from them, so I thought I'd start one of my own.

There are a few things I really wished I'd known before I started

-THIN YOUR PAINTS!
-get rid of mold lines!

And of course, like everyone else, the first thing I did when I got my first troops was paint the biggest, baddest, hero I had. I did all the characters and command groups first, and as a result, they look bad compared to the rank and file troopers I did later. I've cleaned them all off with simple green, which works wonders on metal models and doesn't do too well on plastic ones. On one plastic model it dissolved the glue (which I was happy with actually) and it took off the first layer of paint but not really the primer (which I am also happy with).

I spent most of today building a light box, actually, in an effort to be able to take good pictures of my miniatures...but I think my lights aren't bright enough. as you really can't see any of the highlighting. The color balance seems decent however.



These miniatures are arranged in chronological order, oldest left. You can see how simply he is painted, and how is face is terrible. Moving to the right I get better at faces (I think!) and actually put in some highlights on blue. Highlighting on red is still really hard for me.

I'm using the bleached bone for the weapon and musket stocks as I think it looks richer, and I'm trying to make a rich Altdorf army, and I think it contrasts more than a normal brown color would look.

You can also see a bad attempt at basing the one figure. It's loose gravel or something from a hobby store - but I think I'm just going to use coarse sand. Right now it looks like he's standing in a field of potato sized rocks which I think you'll agree is not very likely to happen.

[Skyros]

I've been trying different things with faces. I used to just put on bestial brown, then highlight with elf flesh and call it a day. Looked pretty bad. Then I tried bestial brown, plus dwarf flesh, then elf flesh highlights. But the difference between those three colors was pretty stark. (Left most picture)



The middle picture, I tried dwarf flesh, then ogryn flesh wash, then dwarf flesh highlights, then mix of 50/50 dwarf flesh/elf flesh highlights, then a final layer of elf flesh. I thought it looked a lot better - the 'base' underneath color didn't look so starkly different, but there was still a big jump from elf flesh to the next darkest color.

The right most picture is

1) Dwarf flesh underneath
2) Ogryn flesh wash
3) Dwarf flesh touch up
4) 2:1 mixture of dwarf flesh elf flesh
5) 1:2 mixture of dwarf flesh and elf flesh
6) elf flesh

Which I think provides a much smoother gradient...or it could just be the different models faces. What do you all think?

[Skyros]

Here's a case where you can see pretty well the evils of not thinning your paints - the fronts of the shields don't look very smooth. (Also some more faces of dubious quality)



My question is: do the white lion's faces look better, or the gold lion's faces? I think the white stands out from the shield better, and I'm inclined to go with that - even if the gold lion 'look's richer, I think at tabletop distance white will stand out more.

[Siberius]

I think the only problem is that the white is so pure that it kinda just looks like it is still to be painted... not really sure how to get around that though. Bit random, but I like the spear colour. 

[Delthos]

I prefer the white Lion's head. You can see more detail on it. The gold one looks messy. It doesn't look richer to me at all.

[Rodman49]

I propose Bleached Bone.  Being that adding Bleached Bone to a miniature never looks bad.  To lighten up your gold did you try painting Mithril Silver (or Equivalent) on first - then painting Burnished Gold on top of it?  I find that the best way to paint Gold if I want it very bright and vibrant.  I prefer Dwarf Bronze to Shining Gold for a rich gold color though.

[Skyros]

All right, time for some updates! Been playing more games recently which has cut into the painting time. Also trying to build a popemobile out of plasticard.

First up is the newest spearmen I painted. I decided I also liked the white lion's head better than the gold, so the new shields have white heads. However I also felt the white border detracted from the model overall - such a powerfully emphasized regular geometric pattern really drew the eye. Does everyone else think the shields look better without the white border?

Also, I don't know if you can see from the pictures, but the new shields were painted with much thinner paint and look quite a bit less blobby.

[Skyros]

I also finished up my halberdier detachment. I tried to mix in some 7th edition bodies with the 6th edition puffy arms, but the 7th edition bodies are hunched over very far, and have tons of bits sticking off their right hip, so it's very hard to give them the 6th edition halberd arms. I do like the puffy sleeves though. And I can mix in the 7th edition heads safely enough.



My next detachment is going to be free company...not rabbly militia, but well dressed mercenaries from Tilea, as one might expect to find in the capital. Plus, if I find people to play mordeim with, I have party already painted

These two models probably look a little blobby. I've been thinning my paint, but suffered a very unfortunate priming accident with these guys...decided to go ahead and paint them anyway for the practice.

[Skyros]

I've gone back and touched up my old handgunners, drilling out the barrels of the handguns and touching up some faces. I think they look rather improved. I don't know why I have 13 - secret skaven leanings I guess. I much prefer the puffy sleeved 5th and 6th edition gunners to the pajama wearing 7th edition gunners.



Here are my crossbowmen, the current unit I'm working on. I've started basing these using the GW grass instead of the old Woodland Scenics Grass I had. I combined a light green and dark green woodland scenics grass together to try to provide some contrast, but the GW grass has more vibrant greens and more yellows. Not sure yet whether I like this grass better or not. And as always, using older puffy sleeves for the missile troops instead of pajama 7th sleeves.

[White Knight]

All looking good and the shields ARE much improved. 

[Nicholas Ironfist]

The new shields look awesome. I like your army alot. I tryed to paint red and blue and found it quite difficult. I really like your handguns and I'd be tempted to paint the xbows the same. Nice work