Help pushing current skill level.

[psysquig]

Evening all, I'm desperatly after some constructive feedback on the 3 minis i'm working on below (if the image link works)

1st is a eldar harlyquin, prolly the most completed but I feel it's lacking in something, I'm trying to pluck up the courage to do some freehand on the jacket/cloak but am petrified I'll screw up the paintjob so far.

2nd is a Necron painted in a bone enamel colour, heavily weathered to look like its been dormant in a not so great enviroment for decades. I've made good progress with the model, keeping my colour pallete faily limited to keep a orange tone to the whole fig, but have got stuck with the weapon. I'm trying to keep all OSL sources a yellow colout to tie in the the pallete but just am unsure of colours for the actuall weapon body and barrel. Should I bring in another colour or stick with the tone I have?

3rd is a Marine, I'm so excited how this is coming out so far, I like the green colour I have, I have weathered the body and helmet so far (not the pauldrons, arms or backpack) but this is my 1st try with the crystal weapon and my 1st attempt at any kind of NMM on the gold eagle on the chest and helm. I am however pretty stuck about the shield and banner. Again I think im scared to commit to any freehand as I havn't had any experiance with this.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, sorry for the photos not being great, I have lost my tripod somewhere and do not have a light box yet. I'd like to become more of a part of this fantastic community instead of a lonely painter out in the fog of lurking.

Thanks in advance, Paul.

 

[psysquig]

I'm currently thinking of a geometric chequered black white design for the shield front... any other ideas?

 

[Stewsayer]

Hi Psysquig.

First of all welcome. It takes a little bit of guts to put stuff up for the first time. So well done on that. Onto the minis.

The photos aren't great and make i a little hard to see what's going on (esp. the necron). However I like he freehand checks on the Eldar and the scratches and chips on the marine. The scratches look esp. well done from what I can see. The yellow on the edlar cape looks good and strong.

Areas to look at for improvement. In a few spots on the eldar (Cape, black leg) and marine (on his knees) there are evident brush marks. You might like to thin your pain a little more to help avoid this. Cream consistency fore bas coats (I find this around 1:1 water to paint but it varies dependant on the paint and humidity). For blending layers skim milk consistency (around 3:1 water to paint). For glazes it depends on how strong you want them anywhere from 5:1 to 20:1 water to paint. Another thing to keep in mind is to vary the direction of your brush strokes over an area from coat to coat (esp. when base coating). So if you go right to left on the first coat go up and down on the second diagonal on the third etc.

The black lines on the eldar checks are a little heavy and rough at the edges. They can be refined by going back wih the check colours and nibbling them back to nice thin lines.

Overall you could take your shadows deeper and highlights higher to create more contrast.

The NMM is good for your first go. Smoothing the blends will improve it as will shrinking the white hot spots. As I have just been advised elsewhere contrast is the key to NMM. Keep your darkest areas right next to the brightest.

The black and white checks seem like a good plan for the shield on the marine. I like he Necrons gun wih the colouring it has now but it needs some shading and highlights. Maybe some light washes with badab black and asuremen blue for the shadows and some small areas of your base mixed with a little mithril silver and some top lights of straight mithril silver.

Overall a good start and welcome once again.

 

[Milosh]

for your freehand it helps to practice on paper first. Draw out what you want to do big so your hand gets the feel for it then try to draw one actual size (with a super sharp mechanical pencil). This will let you know if there are any details that just wont work in the small area. Next thing to do is try to freehand it with a brush. Once you feel comfy you are ready to try it on your model.

And I second all of stewsayer's advices, you have received very sound advice to follow from him.

 

[psysquig]

Awesome help guys, thank you.
Been practising free hand on card/old plastic and feel confident to have a go.

Hopefully put some better pics up soon.