Captain927 W.I.P Log

[BloodASmedium]

You are getting better and better. Now let's get you leveled up some more. Start to think about the model and where your going to go with it, it's base etc. Will it be a cool piece with a cold atmosphere if so then you might think bout adding cool shadows , blue, or purple. Or to add contrast you might add warm shades in here skin, red(not a primary intense red, but a maroon or bergundy), red browns, just keep these in mind and whatever you decide you should always remember to mix it in with your base color when applying shades and highlights. Great job .

tip of the day - take a look at the piece in your top pic. Look where the shadows are their right there for you as a guide. See how the darkest places are under her neck the bottoms of the outstretched arms underneath them. The armpits under her snake belly. These are the darkest areas where're the sun don't shine lol.View attachment 60223 Look at the Luther model kind of the same stance outstretched arme under belly etc. If your a painter that uses up to white and down to black - again do not use these on there own but mix them in it will give an overall more realistic effect . White also should only be used sparingly on its own really for the very highest points or zeniths along with heat points. Try these out it may work or may not for your routine . What I can tell you is the more your eyes become used to being exercised to see these things the more pleased you'll be with your painting. To everybody we're all beyond the point of picking a color and shading it and then slapping on highlights when we begin to understand the fundamentals of light and shadows hitting objects the better our results will turn out.

 

[Captain927]

Hi BAM.

Thanks for weighing in. I'm happy to get all kinds of tips, as I'm really trying to elevate my game. The more comments the better.

I see what you are saying with the shadows. I've applied the darker shadows on previous minis, and I'll be doing the same here. The light blue for her skin just has a quick shade applied, but I'm not a fan of it. The base blue I'm satisfied with, but I feel the shadows should be more grey-blue that blue itself. This wash could potentially work in areas, but I'll up the contrast in others.

These are great little mini's with my biggest criticism being that they are assembled. Liliarch is a pain as there are lots of difficult to access parts. keeping it as multi part piece would be so much easier, but CMON's market for these is firstly, the gamer, followed by the painter.

My other issue is speed painting. I could spend days working on this piece, but its for gaming. I understand its limitations and I certainly want to paint it to a decent tabletop standard, but I feel that means that some "shortcuts" have to be taken. I'm trying to spend only 10 hours per piece. (5 days x 2 hour sessions) As you've said, crank out the minis and learn with each one.

I'd be open to tips on how to paint different coloured skin. For flesh tones, I've tried the many different Vallejo Flesh recipes that can be found online. For my goblin king, I started with green base, darker green shadows, lighter green highlights, but found that that wasn't a great look. By using a more reddy brown to the shadows, I found it created a complimentary contrast that didnt look out of place. It also "warmed" up the Goblin.

Liliarch will get some wash in the snake scales, then I'll try to highlight the individual scales. something quick, but more than a drybrush.

I'll get to work on a display piece at the same time, to show where I'm at.

Cheers

 

[Captain927]

MD Liliarch

Just a small update. Shaded in many of the hidden spaces as suggested by BaM and took a bit more time detailing the skin. The blue scales got a dark wash and I basecoated the armoured scales red. Going for a red metallic look with these. I haven't done that before so looking for some tips on how to do coloured metal.

Eyes need a bit more love.

 

[KruleBear]

Cool and nice progress. I am enjoying the Massive Darkness game play. What I found is my efforts to paint higher quality minis really paid off when I started running short of free time and had to go back to table top speed painting. All practical ice is good practice if you get something out of it.

 

[Captain927]

Thanks KB. I've been enjoying the game too. We meet once a week and get some time in. I'm satisfied with the progress so far, especially with my Flesh Golem, but am making the attempt to try to not paint these as display models, but still to a high quality. I haven't spent tons of time eliminating mold lines either, but I'll try with some models over others. This one in particular is difficult to get them all. Luckily, my friends aren't looking at them for seams. At my current rate, im spending about 10 hours on each monster, but with practice, I'm hoping to get that down substantially.

 

[Captain927]

Working on a few things at the moment. The latest will be this new bust depicting a Job Hunter during the Great Depression.

 

[Captain927]

Down, But Not Out

Just started the face on this new bust from Mollie's Miniatures. Long way to go yet, but it's starting off well. I'm leaning towards a brown suit with tan hat. I may add additional details like pin stripes to the suit or a plaid to the hat.

 

[Captain927]

Down, But Not Out

Plugging away with the skin tones on this bust. I think it needs some warmer tones in the the shadows, maybe a pinkish highlight. The eyes aren't quite done and the hair needs some more love, but overall, I like how it's coming together. Comments and advice welcome.

 

[Withers]

Where'd you find that bust? I like it a lot!

I'll be interested to see what you do with Liliarch. I have no idea how I'm going to tackle that one.

For red metal, I would probably just mix some of your basecoat and a decent gold TMM paint to start with. Gold metallics pretty much always have to be mixed with a non-metallic paint so it should turn a nice red. If you want it to be less "red red" then maybe try a burgundy.

 

[Captain927]

Thanks Withers. It is a bust called, "Down, But Not Out" from Mollie's Miniatures. It's my new company and this piece, along with another is on pre-order at the moment. You can find them on Facebook. The first line of busts are themed The 1920's & 1930's and are sculpted by Oleksandr Bilibov.

Liliarch has taken a bit of a back seat at the moment, as I've come to hate the piece. It's a real pain to paint, but I'll take some pics later tonight to show the progress. It's basically just highlights and the the swords to paint now.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[Withers]

Yeah she seems like a good sculpt but there's so much going on that I'm worried I'll go too overboard with colors.

I'll have to check your page out. Thanks!

 

[Captain927]

Withers: Here is pretty much where I'm at with Liliarch.

 

[BloodASmedium]

Dude you’ve broken the cycle and the model turned out fantastic. Speed painted and all those shadows really help define these tiny shapes in these tiny models. Great great job!!! Level up!!!

 

[Captain927]

Thanks BaM. Still have a ways to go on her, but I'll be happy to see the end of that mini. For now, I'll be swapping back and forth between large scale and smaller scale.

 

[Coyotebreaks]

coming on well. definite step up from the previous models, the shadows are much more controlled and thoughtfully placed.

 

[Captain927]

Thanks Coyote. Now I just have to up my skills on standard fleshtones. It's way easier to tackle blue and green.

 

[Captain927]

Down, But Not Out

Another few hours put in on this guy. Fixed the eyebrows so he looks less like Eugene Levy. I'll push the contrast in the skin tones a bit more later. I also blocked in the base colour for his hat and shirt. I'm ambititiously considering a tweed hat, but am looking for painted examples from anyone who has tried it before, and/or tips from folks more qualified than myself. Help would be appreciated. Cheers

 

[Withers]

That hat is begging to be tweed.

 

[Captain927]

Down, But Not Out

I revisited the face tonight and deepened some shadows and added another highlight. I think it's an improvement. As for the tweed hat, I played around with a rough pattern and colour scheme. Not sure if it works. Try to see past the wavy lines.

 

[Kuribo]

I just want to echo what others are saying Captain, you're getting better! That Liliarch is a strong gaming piece and will definitely stand out on the table. I love the character of this new bust you're working on too. It really captures the spirit of those times but in a more optimistic way. The eyes on that guy are really, really important for overall mood of the piece and I think you did a nice job with them.