Daniel San's WIP and experiments with techniques.

CPTDanielSan

CPTDanielSan

New member
This is the first mini I have painted in years so here it is in early stages. More of an experiment of techniques to see what I'm capable of really as when I was a kid it was just slap a base coat on of each colour and hope for the best. Have attempted to get the best image I can but I only have a camera phone. I'll sort out a sweep and decent camera to get nice pics soon. Just a tactical marine with the bolter off for ease of painting. My ultras will have quite a dark brooding look with stark highlights and deep shading. Base coat is regal blue, shaded the recesses with a wash of regal blue and Vallejo black. Just on his right leg I have started to highlight up through Regal/Ultramarines blue and then UMB to UMB/Space wolves grey and SWG finals. Attempted what all of you wonderful painters call NMM on the chest eagle. Having never heard of this until now ( as a kid it was just slap on some metallic gold ) I think its ok for a noob attempt but I can instantly see where Iv'e gone wrong. The contrasts need to be sharper yet blended well, the highlights more yellow and the browns darker I think. Will post an update soon.

Of course this isn't your standard wip thread but more of a help me remember how to paint thread. I'm just going to throw techniques at him in no particular order until I get them to a good standard and then I'll post stage by stage of the complete marine.
 
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CPTDanielSan

CPTDanielSan

New member
A second stab at the eagle. Broke his arm nearly clean off as hes a test mini. And yeah I can see the mold line.
 
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Zab

Zab

Almost Perftec! Aw, crap.
Pretty good. Now if you add some white dots on the darkest/ highest parts you have a pretty decent NMM gold ;)
 
Zab

Zab

Almost Perftec! Aw, crap.
That is true to an extent. A very pale ivory would work too but many of the nmm masters around here use white or very close color to it for their nmm glints.
 
CPTDanielSan

CPTDanielSan

New member
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Some Updated pics from my limited time painting. Base-coats all on and shading done to the whole mini. Next steps are highlights, final NMM tweaks on the breastplate. NMM on the shoulders ( which look nice and clean base coated if I do say so myself ? )more layers on the lenses. The bolter...And Base it :) Any thoughts are appreciated, I'll try whatever. Base is going to be a ruined asphalt/road I'm going to make myself from cork and stuff to go along with my marines broody look.

Edit: Also thoughts on the back packs. The central line/bulk going through with the vents, skull and wholes. And four off shooting vents ( I think ) on the bottom. Go with Gold like my trim and breastplate or leave Blue? I'm torn.
 
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Stewsayer

Stewsayer

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Looking good so far.

A suggestion to think about. To blend your shadows better with your base tone mix the two together 50/50 (you may need more of the blue) and thin down (try around 3:1 water to paint similar consistency to skim milk, when you drag it across your pallette it will almost bead). pick up a tiny bit in the brush, wipe off on paper towel to remove most of the paint and then apply it to the transition. The stroke should make surface of the mini look damp any more and you've probably got too much paint in the brush. Doing this will start to soften the transition between the shadow and the mid tone. The same can be done on the chest eagle with your gold colours between the shadow and mid and the mid and highlight. This will help sell the nmm.

Areas to look at are on the exhaust nozzles and the should pad edges and his knee armor. I'd also suggest bringing the shadows on the knee armor up a little higher on the knee to start really bringing out the spherical shape. But use the intermediate tone.

I would suggest using pure white for the glints and uppermost parts of the edge. Its not realistic as you say. However if you keep the glints to pinpricks and keep the edge highlights tiny and only in the direction of the light source it won't read as white to the eye and will really make the metallic illusion pop.
 
CPTDanielSan

CPTDanielSan

New member
Update, probably the slowest progress on a single mini ever.

View attachment 29762
Im 85% happy with the chest eagle now. Have given it a coat of gloss as ive repainted it so many times now...any more and detail will be obscured. I will give it a matt coat aswell to kill the shine a bit too. Im sure the next minis eagle will be much neater and smoother. Added some more highlights and tried to smooth out shading a bit. Lenses done.
 
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CPTDanielSan

CPTDanielSan

New member
What do you think zab and stew? Is there an improvement on the eagle? You will have to imagine it more matt until i get a new pic up
 
Zab

Zab

Almost Perftec! Aw, crap.
I really like the skull are you going to make the trim on the pauldrons the same? Also, totally not the slowest thread, you should check out JAH's WIP. You two work at the same pace. Thing is, it's not race and you learn more and progress faster in terms of skill by taking your time. Volume isn't as helpful when honing your painting, IMO.
 
Stewsayer

Stewsayer

New member
The chest eagle looks good. You've done a great job of softening the transitions on the wings and the skull looks even better. I wouldn't say slow mate. I took two years to paint a FW Blood Thirster and I haven't finished anything apart from him this year.
 
CPTDanielSan

CPTDanielSan

New member
Thank you zab yes im going to do the trim the same. Pretty happy with the mix ive got now on my pallette. I guess part of me wants to get this squad finished but im sure the rest will be much quicker once i get this one done and im learning more now from the suggestions here than I would of on my own :D.

Thanks stew it was frustrating at first because it didnt seem to work, but the more time i took on it the better it turned out. Not just me then!

On a side note my basing materials should of turned up in the post today while im writing this at work so I'll keep this updated. Ruined road/ concrete bases coming soon.
 
CPTDanielSan

CPTDanielSan

New member
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So heres another update. Finally Have Photoshop which allowed me to get images closer to how the colours look in real life. And from left to right. Free hand Tactical arrow with space wolves grey (my trusty 3/0 sitting behind it grinning :D ). Frontal shot with extreme edge highlights. Of which I'm happy with apart from the boot tips and the knee pads, they need reducing. And freehand 'Ultra' symbol on the other shoulder. Both turned out nice I think. I love the arrow and the U is nice and neat but not 100% on its shape/size. Highlights need cleaning up and some chipping has occurred on my trims before Iv'e even begun doing the gold on them grrrr! Never mind it is a test mini after all. Thoughts as always are appreciated. Soon I'll get a better camera also.

Edit. And the cork sheet behind the mini came today. Getting excited to base this thing now.
 
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Stewsayer

Stewsayer

New member
Looking really good. The lines on the elbow pad are maybe a little heavy. Some good techniques for picking out edges are to use slightly thicker paint, only have a tiny little bit on the brush and use the side of the brush rather than the point. This works well for sharp edges like the ones on the top of his thigh armor. Not so well on softer edges like the center line of the elbow pad.

Something to think about on future models is to vary the intensity of the edge highlights. Use brighter highlights to imply a strong light source(s) from one or more directions and slightly duller tones to bring out details that aren't catching the main light source. I used this idea on the skulls on this guy and you can also see it on the worked up section of gold edging.
IMG_61611.jpg

The skulls at the top range from Scorched Brown with a little Black added up to a 50/50 mix of Bestial Brown and Bleached Bone with some small points of pure Bleached Bone. The upper area is in the shadow of the figures chest. As I moved down I confined the SB/Black mix to under the upper jaw and in the eye sockets and increased the brightness of the highlights to pure Bleached Bone with spots of BB/white mix in the middle area and then oto glazes of pure white with spots of concentrated white for the lowest area (most in the light). On the edging the lower edge is A BB/white and yellow mix mostly. The upper edge is yellow+white with small areas of pure white.


Some tips for avoiding chipping.
1) Mount your mini on something while painting. like an old paint pot or a wine cork. Try and avoid touching the mini with your fingers as much as is possible while painting. The oils from your fingertips will result in chips.
2) If you haven't already. Get some proper primer. (GW's spray cans aren't primer). I use Vallejo Model Air Grey primer. There are several threads discussing different primers others use in the Painting and Conversions section of the forum. A proper primer is formulated to adhere to the surface of the model and create a slightly uneven (or toothy) finish on the surface. This gives the subsequent paint layers something to grab onto resulting in a much better bond of the paint layers to the model surfaces and less chipping. I used GW chaos black on the FW Bloodthirster I painted and was forever repainting sections that rubbed off or chipped during handling (unavoidable due to his size). On the 90mm Andrea girl I'm working on at the moment I used VMA primer. She gets a little bit of handling (esp. while steadying my hands to do the eyes) and no chips so far.
 
CPTDanielSan

CPTDanielSan

New member
Great advice especially like the transitions you have on your skulls on the loin cloth you explained. But can VMA primer be brushed on? I wont be using any spray ons.
 
Zab

Zab

Almost Perftec! Aw, crap.
Badger has a new set of brush on primers that look like they are sold by the gallon. About the same as Vallejo in terms of painting properties. That is a really nice blue there, BTW.
 
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