Flagg's Works In Progress

[Flagg]

Hey Guys -

About a decade ago I started to get into mini painting. But, I really only just
got started before a newborn came along and priorities shifted a bit.

Anyway, my daughter's growing up and getting to the age where she
can paint with me (cool) so I'm trying to get back at it now. But, It's been
so long that I've forgotten a lot, so I've been trying to "relearn" a
few techniques.

I have a couple minis I started way back then that I'm trying to finish
up (will post those up after I've got them completed). But this one will
be my first "from scratch" work since picking up the brush again. I
thought I'd chronicle this a bit for y'all.

Now, I'm not going for any awards here.

Mainly, my goal is to
ultimately start achieving the upper end of the table top range,
and not really a display pieces.

I'll be experimenting with some NMM (never tried that before!) and
various techniques, so this piece is really just a "warm up" piece.
Not planning on doing anything extraordinary with the base (keeping
the integral one). I know, I know.

I'll be posting in a series of "steps" as I get different stages done,
hoping for feedback from y'all. Suggestions, tips, critiques, etc etc.
(Right now, I already have a couple stages done, so I'll be posting
back to back on the first couple)

Here it is, an old Ral Partha (i think!

) sculpt. Primed in black.
(Thinking about it I probably should've gone with a gray primer for
this one, but ah well, lets see how it turns out...)
View attachment 19065

 

[Flagg]

The Knight - Step 1: eyes, face, and hair

Ok, here we go!

I opted to start with the eyes, then the face, then the hair.
In what order do you all typically paint?

I don't *dislike* the results, but I think the skintone shading
could be better. Seems too brown in the shadows. I'm thinking
about a bluish wash to cool down the tones a bit.

For the hair I'm thinking a little more highlights...

(Btw, I'm using mainly 12 year old GW paint which I had to
"revive"... consistency of the paint is a bit of a struggle).

View attachment 19066

 

[Flagg]

The Knight - Step 2: NMM Armor

And here's the next step... NMM Armor!

Being my very first time doing NMM, I took some extra time between the last step and this one.... fiddling with some ink glaze recipes (which I'll talk about a little further on), studying up on tutorials, researching, etc.

For the armor on this guy, I had wanted to go for a kind of "blued steel" look. (I'd seen a documentary on H2 or the Discovery channel lately that was talking about it.)

Here's (kind of) a reference example:




I wasn't sure the best way to go about this, so I got it in my head to try a "pre-shading" technique, where I'd start off with a completely "grayscale" NMM effect - using ONLY white/black/gray - then overcoating that with a layer or two of a transparent glaze meant to TINT this NMM basecoat to an appropriate blue hue.

Keep in mind I'd never done NMM before much less tried to "tint" it with an ink glaze, so I didn't really know what to expect, but figured I'd give it a try and see what happened.

Here's the mini after the laying down the grayscale NMM "basecoat":

View attachment 19068

All in all, I was rather pleased with the outcome of this step. Not perfect, there's some errors and whatnot, and I got the gradient on the visor going in the wrong direction now that I think of it, but I'm fairly happy with it.

So that was about ten days ago. This next part I was pretty nervous about, so I took some extra time trying to nail down a good recipe for a "glaze", which I fiddled with trying to get it just right... Not just the hue, but the consistency, the level of transparency, and the "flow" properties. (I didn't want to it be like a wash that instantly spread down into every crack and crevice.)

What I ended up with is a blend of Liquitex Matte Medium, Liquitex Glaze Medium, water and Vallejo Game Color Ink.

And here it is after 2 thin layers of "Glaze Tint":

View attachment 19069

You can see I picked up a lot of shine... I guess I had maybe too much glaze medium in the mix after all, or not enough matte medium. Hopefully though a spray of dullcote will knock that down...

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about the "final" results here.

Thoughts, feedback, suggestions?

My next steps will be the trim on the armor, which I'll try for a more typical "silver" NMM effect, the chainmail, and the scabbard. (Going for a black leather look on that, so need to see if I can find a good tut... I already tried a black->gray gradient on it, but it's not doing it for me.)

 

[Kretcher]

Hi,

I think that the NMM needs more contrast atleast after the blue tinting. it looks better before the tint. Alos the skintone is a little bit sharp transition from one colour to the other. That was the improvement parts. I do like hair and eyes are difficult to paint and yours are good.

Keep up the work and learn from every minature you do paint.

/Kretcher

 

[boubi]

Good start! The face is really well done!
I also like the reference you are taking! Blue tinted NMM not easy to achieve and you have a good start, but agreed with Kretcher you will need to push the contrast higher!

 

[Flagg]

Thanks guys! I was thinking essentially the same. But, I'm not sure how to work back in some highlights here, with it being a "tint" and all. I went and picked up some white acrylic ink yesterday, so my *plan* right now is to do a few really thin white ink glazes, working up close to white for the top highlights in the edges. Hopefully that works and doesn't ruin the effect so far.

 

[ozymandias]

Thanks guys! I was thinking essentially the same. But, I'm not sure how to work back in some highlights here, with it being a "tint" and all. I went and picked up some white acrylic ink yesterday, so my *plan* right now is to do a few really thin white ink glazes, working up close to white for the top highlights in the edges. Hopefully that works and doesn't ruin the effect so far.

I think the blue was was probably too heavy (try thinning with a little matt medium). It shouldn't be a problems though. Work up some more layers of the original colour and then reapply the thinner wash. You still want to end up with a pue white highlight (ie no tint on the most extreme points).

 

[Kretcher]

You could just use the same colours that you had before with a little bit of blue in them or just as they are. Apply thin layers and build upp to white in some areas. then go over with some very thin layers of the tint to get the colours back again.

/Kretcher

 

[Solun Decius]

I really like where you're going with this and the blue hue on the armor really brought it to life. Maybe it could use more contrast, as has been stated, but to me it definitely looks more metal after the glaze.
I get what people are saying about the face not being as smooth as it could be, but I really like the painterly style that's on it now. The main thing is you're getting the colors and contrasts right. For me that beats smooth gradients any time

Thank you very much for the pointers on my OSL thread. They really made a difference for me.

 

[Flagg]

Thanks for the feedback so far all!

I went back and worked on raising the highlights. I *think* it's a bit better... thoughts? ... Slightly negative, it seems like the blue is real subdued now, though the pics make it seem more blue than in-hand. Also, I totally botched a couple areas which I have to go back and fix now. (left thigh, visor edge, right knee) Ah well.

Armor NMM definitely looks "shinier" now.

View attachment 19147

Also I began working on the chain and other "steel" bits. But, I think I am going to redo these completely though. I started with a "base" of GW Shadow Gray, but this is making everything seem *too* blue. I think a warmer grey for the chain, blade, etc. might do the trick.

I'm also kinda scratching my head on a color scheme for the rest... namely the gloves/boots, the "tabard" bottom, the scabbards/hilt/pommel, and the insignia. Need something contrasty yet not too "clowny", and that ties the piece together of course ....

@Solun: You bet! thanks for your contribution and kind words here!

 

[KruleBear]

This is looking good. I think you need to get the rest of the colors based in before tweaking the nmm any further. Maybe go with a tan colored brown on the leathers, etc... To kind of tie in with the hair color (of course I would probably do a reddish brown..just because I have a lot of it)

 

[Yaricky]

Quite good, especially NMM, but you have to make something with his hair.


I am sorry for my English)

 

[Yaricky]

for example you may add shadows and make thin highlights

 

[10 ball]

Love these old minis, not to much details or fancy sculpting just a good old knight. Nice work so far

 

[SkelettetS]

good old knight with dreadlocks im digging the metal, for me it works very well, especially the chestplate. some other places need a bit more smoothening, the shoulderplates for example.