Captain927 W.I.P Log

[Captain927]

A 'Little' Sidetracked

Hi all,

I've been side tracked the last few weeks but did manage to hammer out this 20mm German soldier for an upcoming 1/72 scale diorama. He'll be weathered once he's in place in the scene.

I'll be back to goblins shortly.

Cheers

 

[BloodASmedium]

Really nice seen. I really am partial to green skins so I live the green runt so far. The skin on the dwarf. Hmmm looks great what I tell folks is a general rule of thumb to all miniatures when painting. The face no matter what the effects (in shadows) etc always rem that the face always still gets another or a few more highlights to have the face pop being and we've all heard this the eye is always drawn to the face. So in the future try another highlight just WHRN your finishing up . It will pay off huge dividends. One thing folks get turned off by is they most times including myself when I started , don't want to ruin the job already done. Think bout this though if it is too much glazes can always knock it back. When you highlight keep it really thin and small increments when you increase your highlights. This will take yourself from a great artist to an even better one. I'm 100%certain.nice work

 

[BloodASmedium]

Bruising when I do it it involved three stages a light pool of purple ink thinned out then a brown pool of thinned out ink in too of that then stipple or paint on in the center very small clusters of dots. Then glaze on over this the last highlight color you used for your skin recipe.thia is for Caucasian and pale skin .

 

[Captain927]

Hi BAM,

Thanks very much for all of your advice! I'll keep your tips in mind for the next time I'm painting a cloaked figure. What you say makes a lot of sense.

As as for the bruising, I'll glaze in some Browns and greens. Hopefully that should "soften" the bruising a bit. Right now it just looks like a poor attemp at purple and blue. Glad you like the goblin at the moment. I'm especially proud of the mouth. It was my first time experimenting with blending in completely different colours and it looks to have worked.

Thanks for the support.

Cheers!

 

[Captain927]

Rackham Goblin Update #3

Started working on the leather arm sleeve and leather foot wraps. On reflection, it may have been interesting to paint the foot wraps white like cloth, but perhaps I'll experiment with others. I've also blocked in the base colour for his belt. Still lots to do but it's a start. I'll to to crack on a bit more in the next couple days.

View attachment 52571

 

[Darthmarsh]

I love that Dwarf, great tree as well. good job dude. The gobo is also coming along well. As I think BAM said try to make the face the brightest point of the mini and therefore the focus. Up your contrast, and then up it again. These little guys are tiny so we as painters need to push the highlights and shadows to help sell the effect and make the mini standout. Try taking a photo and turning it black and white. This will give you an idea of the tone of the mini. You want a nice balance of whites, greys and near blacks. If you don't then go back and up that contrast again

 

[Captain927]

Thanks Deathmarsh.

I will be throwing down some bigger contrasts on the goblin. Happy to hear you like the dwarf. Thanks for the comments.

 

[Captain927]

English Civil War Pikeman Update #1

As we all do I'm sure, I started work on another figure. This time it's a 54mm Historical. It's an old metal offering from New Hope Designs that I picked up for cheap at my local hobby shop. The nice part about it is that as uniforms were few and far between, I have a fair degree of latitude when it comes to paint schemes.

I have since started painting the face, but I'll post that when I'm done. Here's the figure. Excuse the poor lighting for the picture.

View attachment 52619

 

[Captain927]

E.C.W. Pikeman Update #2

Worked on the face of the Pikeman. I may try to smooth the transitions a bit, but I'm happy with the shadows and highlights.

Comments and criticism welcome.

 

[BloodASmedium]

Fantastic model and an equally fantastic start another if my two cents is especially on bigger scale models. The eyes need a bit more conviction now what that means is IDE like you to try this if your brave. It's about adding something and not changing what you've done already. There is something called light catch. A glimmer if you will . All it requires is careful aim of your finest tipped brush to add a small white dot in the middle of those already existing black pupils. It will give a huge direction and life to the already perfectly painted/placed eyes. You got this don't be overcome by the small missing part to those eyes. You'll love it when done. It was a game changer for me.

 

[SaintToad]

Using very, very light glazes of ink or paint, I'd work in some red tones to the center of the cheeks and bulb of the nose. Go slow. You can always put more on, but taking it off again's a pain in the rump.

 

[Captain927]

Hey BAM,

Glad you like it so far. Its definitely easier for me to get the level of detail in on the larger figures, but errors show much more. I couldn't agree with you more about the eyes. The pictures don't do it justice, but I have already tried to put the "twinkle" in his eyes so to speak. I'll try to upload a picture of it. The difficulty I'm finding is that his head is lowered and the cast of the piece is done in such a way that the eyelids are so pronounced, his eyes look he's gone a few rounds in a boxing match. I'm actually surprised that I've been able to paint them in such a way as to hide it. I'll see if putting a glare spot lower in the eye helps it. Thanks for the confidence booster.
Cheers

 

[Captain927]

Hi Saint,

Good point. I think the red I originally added got lost in the shading. I worked on it a bit last night and added another few glazes. I think it works much better. Thanks for pointing it out.

Cheers

 

[Captain927]

E.C.W. Pikeman Update #3

Please excuse the bad pictures, but at the very least I think I've managed to deal with the pictures properly so that they aren't enormous and random sizes.

I worked on the Pikeman a bit more last night. Not a huge amount of work but then again, he fell off the desk and I needed to touch up areas and reattach his head.

I I like the way his chest plate is progressing, but I have to go over a number of spots to tone down the metallic. I've seen pictures of a darker chest plate with worn steel showing through which I've tried to recreate. The base colour is VMA Gunmetal with highlights and scratches with VMC Oily Steel and Tamiya Silver. I have shaded the plate with VMC German Grey and some brown tones but I'm still not satisfied. I'll work on it more this weekend to accentuate the highlights and scratches in a more believable manner.

Ive painted the inside/underside of the helmet red as I've read that often they were lined with red felt/velvet.

BAM, The first picture shows the interesting cast for the eyes as mentioned in my reply to you; the painted close up shows the eye highlight a bit, but not great.

Saint, would you recommend more red to the cheeks and nose?

Comments and Criticism welcome as always.

View attachment 52727View attachment 52726View attachment 52725

 

[KruleBear]

Looks like his left eye needs some lower lid carved away or completley fill it it for a bruised shut black eye. The skin tones are looking good so far though.

 

[Captain927]

Thanks Krule.

I don't know if I feel quite like carving away the eyelid at this point, but I'll take that in mind on any of the others from the series. Glad to hear the skin tones are looking good.

Cheers

 

[Captain927]

E.C.W. Pikeman Update #4

Painted the arms, bag, and pants on the Pikeman.

Relatively satisfied with the results, but I need to tone down the shadows in the creases of the arms and smooth the transition between the base and highlight in the pants.

Just for fun, I've made the elbow patch a piece of tartan. I'll do the same for the knee patch. As for the remaining parts to be painted, he'll have red bows, light blue socks/stockings, and light brown shoes.

Comments and criticism welcome.

Cheers

 

[SaintToad]

Really nice job on the armor. You achieved exactly the look you were describing.
I'd probably go a little higher with the glazes (still applying them really thin so you can control how fast you're changing the look of your nice work). In particular, I'd get some red higher up on the cheeks, as the tiny blood vessels under the skin are thickest up nearer. Those heavy lids which KB mentions could probably use a nice little glaze of green, blue, or purple to add to the weary and bleary look, too.
Keep up the good work!

 

[Captain927]

Thanks Saint.

I was a little unsure about the armour still, so it's nice to hear that it looks the part.

I'll try some more red glazing a bit higher up on the cheeks. I'm finding it hard to find the sweet spot between, blushed cheeks and half a red face. I'll get there. As for the eye lids, would you suggest glazing the creases or the actual lids?

Thanks for the kind words.

Cheers

 

[Captain927]

E.C.W. Pikeman Update #5

Almost done now. Painted up the bows, socks, sword scabbard, and base coated the shoes. I need to add further contrast to the bows as they still look a bit dark and am wondering the same about the blue socks.

Also, any tips for the sword scabbard? I find that it gets lost in the foreground of the pants due to the similarity of colours. A bigger highlight? Change colour altogether?

Comments and criticism welcome.