Fishing for comments.

Aryanun

New member
Granted the figure is broken, and if I keep the next one intact that would be a huge step forward... lol

But I would like some comments on how to improve Neferu when I sit down with a new one and start doing her all over again. I wasn\'t real happy with the base as it seemed kind of plain. I wanted to add some papyrus to it, but couldn\'t figure out how to make it. Also, the snake was harder than I thought.

The last thing I wasn\'t happy about was the nemes headdress. The stripes I wanted to make look more satiny or 3-D (kind of like the pants on Sigurd by Liliana Troy here). Any helpful tips or constructive criticisms would be most appreciated.
 

vincegamer

New member
I like the headdress. The skin looks a bit grainy but that\'s probably the scan.
Instead of adding to the base I suggest painting some freehand on the loin cloth, probably just a geometric patter near the bottom, to dress up the lower half of the piece.
 

Trevor

Brushlicker and Freak!
Looks pretty good to me. You seem to be at the stage were you can paint well, to improve you just need to get smoother and neater, and start doing more fancy stuff like the freehand.
 

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
I like the skintones, the blending is done well, but she seems dark for an Egyption Pharoh-ess. I thing a good pic instead of a scan would improve your score (sorry, truth hurts).

What is toxic in your painting arsenal? Primer & clearcoats - possibly - get someone else to do those grunt things. (significant other that got you into this condition comes to mind.)

The paints are non-toxic. Wouldn\'t tip them up and drink from the bottle, but a little isn\'t going to hurt.

Most lead figs are \"lead-free lead\" now. Still wouldn\'t want a bunch of filings in my breakfast, but much safer than they were.
 

Aryanun

New member
The extender and flow-aid is toxic, which I add to thin my paints. Also, after talking with the folks at Reaper, they adviced me not to even prep minis without at least wearing a mask and gloves due to some of the content of the metal dust. They aren\'t certain what it could do to pregnancies and none of us wanted to take the chance.

The skin color was a something I talked over with Anne Foerster. The sculpt had a face that seemed to fit better with the chosen color, and I wanted to try something other than the standard caucasion. After reading your post, however, and looking over the mini, I have to agree. She might be a little too dark and I could lighten that up some.

The freehand on the nemes is the first attempt at freehand. The next one I\'m going to try and make the stripes look more 3D. I might also try some freehand with the ribbon on the staff, but as I\'m very new to the \"highlight and shade and layer and blend\" technique (this is the very first mini I\'ve done using thinned paints and not just putting a layer of flat paint on the mini) I didn\'t want to try and overdo it.

Now, how can I make the snake look better? I had a devil of a time with it and the coils, even in person, aren\'t very well defined like they should be. ???

Yes, it\'s a bad scan and while I could apologize for it, it\'s not a real excuse. When I upgraded to Windows XP my scanner software couldn\'t find my scanner and to upgrade the drivers would cost me more than the scanner is worth :mad: (warning, don\'t buy a UMax scanner). I\'ve got to get my film camera setup together (if I can find the space) and get some new photostrobes for proper illumination.
 

Trevor

Brushlicker and Freak!
I think the skintones are great, its very difficult to get dark skin right and you\'ve managed it.

The snake looks great as well, I think you\'ve done as well as you could. Those little sculpts can be really hard because the detail just isn\'t there like it is on larger minis.
 

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
Originally posted by Trevor
I think the skintones are great, its very difficult to get dark skin right and you\'ve managed it.
I agree that it is very good dark skin. Just that the pharoahs were always depicted as having much lighter (more middle eastern/arabian) skin color than the more southern African skintones.
 

Smoth

New member
Aryanun, I am sure that some soap and water with a towel will get that dust off. It is what I use to get the dust off. Also, I used to have an umax astra something or other and it was a wonderful scanner. I must also say though, that scanners are not the way to go on mini pictures.
 

Aryanun

New member
Originally posted by Smoth
Aryanun, I am sure that some soap and water with a towel will get that dust off. It is what I use to get the dust off. Also, I used to have an umax astra something or other and it was a wonderful scanner. I must also say though, that scanners are not the way to go on mini pictures.

The dust I\'m referring to is from filing off mold lines and removing bases (if needed).

And as for the scanner, I was getting impatient to post something on here. Would have been earlier, with a real digital camera, and I had the money *just* before I found out I was pregnant. Now I have to start saving all over again. Once I can get a setup that meets with my standards (basically I need about $1000 USD, and that\'s if I *don\'t* go for the digital SLR and just go for something basic) then I\'ll be cranking out some decent pics.
 

Grey Mouser

New member
I like the mini and the picture didn\'t seem to be too bad. Your NNM is pretty.

I\'m Not sure what kind of photography outfit your buying for $1000.00 but I guess it\'s nice. I have a Nikon coolpics a cheapy I bought for $ 200.00 and I\'m always playing with picture stuff ... I\'m a painter, but not much of a photographer even with a digital lollollollol.

Just curious about the fgure.. you couldn\'t fix the arm? Oh yeah and wow on the fall of the figure thats an 8+ on a scale of 1-10.. I\'ve dropped some before but never had quite had that level of damage,..knock on wood.
 

Aryanun

New member
Originally posted by Grey Mouser
I like the mini and the picture didn\'t seem to be too bad. Your NNM is pretty.

I\'m Not sure what kind of photography outfit your buying for $1000.00 but I guess it\'s nice. I have a Nikon coolpics a cheapy I bought for $ 200.00 and I\'m always playing with picture stuff ... I\'m a painter, but not much of a photographer even with a digital lollollollol.

I\'m looking right now at either a Nikon CoolPix 8700, a Sony DSC-F828, or a Nikon D70. The rest of the money is for photo strobe lights (at least three) for perfect lighting that I can also use for portrait work if need be.

Just curious about the fgure.. you couldn\'t fix the arm? Oh yeah and wow on the fall of the figure thats an 8+ on a scale of 1-10.. I\'ve dropped some before but never had quite had that level of damage,..knock on wood.

Nope. I tried and nearly broke the staff off in the attempt. Somehow the fall from the deck, through a spider web, and into clay covered in mulch bent something in such a way that the arm pieces won\'t meet up now without the staff being strangely bent. At least it gives me a chance to do something better and more practice with smoother blends and maybe this time I\'ll throw out my grainy Oiled Leather before I use the wrong paint pot again. :eek:
 

Smoth

New member
Originally posted by Aryanun
Originally posted by Smoth
Aryanun, I am sure that some soap and water with a towel will get that dust off. It is what I use to get the dust off. Also, I used to have an umax astra something or other and it was a wonderful scanner. I must also say though, that scanners are not the way to go on mini pictures.

The dust I\'m referring to is from filing off mold lines and removing bases (if needed).

And as for the scanner, I was getting impatient to post something on here. Would have been earlier, with a real digital camera, and I had the money *just* before I found out I was pregnant. Now I have to start saving all over again. Once I can get a setup that meets with my standards (basically I need about $1000 USD, and that\'s if I *don\'t* go for the digital SLR and just go for something basic) then I\'ll be cranking out some decent pics.

AHH, that is why. Well, I am not a camera expert but I can say that you should check to make sure it gets colors correctly. I have an olimpus(SP?) 510-d and it does terrible purples and even worse it is has no shutter settings for taking pics of darker minis :(.

good luck with tha\' baby. I have heard those particular miniatures are expensive... but they come prepainted ;)
 

Aryanun

New member
Originally posted by Smoth
AHH, that is why. Well, I am not a camera expert but I can say that you should check to make sure it gets colors correctly. I have an olimpus(SP?) 510-d and it does terrible purples and even worse it is has no shutter settings for taking pics of darker minis :(.

Yeah, that\'s why I\'ve picked what I stated above. I\'m leaning towards the super-expensive SLR as I can use the lenses I currently have for my film camera and would save money on those. Also I wouldn\'t have to spend money to replace filters on that or the Sony.

That\'s another factor. I want to be able to use my closeup filters so I can get closer than 2-4 cm to a mini. If I can\'t fill the frame with the eye alone, it\'s not worth my time. lollollol
 
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