How to paint a reflective sphere?

[razzit]

I am trying to paint several minis in spherical helmets. They are supposed to look like large, non-transparent, reflective balls hiding their heads - think dark mirror bubble-type space helmets.

The problem is - how can I create such effect? I tried SENMM and it even looked realistic, but from one angle only - the \"smiley horizon\" looks OK from head-on, but from the side looks only like a big smile. Tried the gem-style bright reflection on top with the somewhat lighted bottom, but that didn\'t look right. All the SENMM/reflection articles cover painting something with a clear axial symmetry, not a sphere. Is it at all possible to paint a sphere so that it would look reflective from all around?

(I don\'t have a camera, so no photos are posted, but if my description is unitelligible, please drop a hint and I will try to borrow one for a night...)

Thanks in advance!

 

[vincegamer]

my only suggestions are:
1 - very finly ground metalic if you are going for a metal which it sounds like you are.
2 - lots of high gloss varnish so it really is highly reflective.

Oh, If these are metal you might look into actually chrome plating them.

 

[razzit]

Actually I am rather aiming at black reflective surface - think darkened car windows or, better yet, a black motorcycle helmet.

The minis are to be WH40k Eldar Harlequins, which are said to employ holofields to disguise their faces. I tried to visualise a lithe figure with a polished steel ball instead of a head and it didn\'t work...

As a fallback approach I was thinking about using heavily-highlighted grey-to-white opaque helmets, but the idea of plain black balls with glossy varnish may be the simplest. Will give it a try.

 

[Nomis]

Its a long time since I read any of the fluff on Harlequins but memory suggests that the holo fields blurred the whole of their outline giving them a to hit bonus(?)

If that is the case why not use a piece of clear plastic with layers of transparent (ink?) on it set in front of the model.

There was something like this in the UK golden demons where a BFG cruiser is shooting and hitting the force field of an enemy ship.

LINK

 

[razzit]

Heh, thanks for the link, I couldn\'t imagine it from the description...

This wouldn\'t work for me, I am afraid. First, I am doing an army for playing, not a diorama. Second, Harlequin holofields are disguise costumes, not force shields, so they may conceal/distort the wearer\'s position, not deflect or stop blows. And third and most important, my original problem was choosing and doing Harlequin faces; the GW approach didn\'t appeal to me, as an Eldar with a skull mask is still a masked Eldar, not an anonymous faceless figure wearing a hololithic mask capable of showing anything desired.

And as for the full-body blurring holofields - I decided to skip that, as I couldn\'t imagine any way of doing it in the whole army and not ending up with the toy-in-a-clear-plastic-cylinder-package or the painted-mini-in-a-blob-of-jelly look.

 

[vincegamer]

I have this mini I\'ve had for years and years thinking I would some how fix him. At some point before I owned him, he was apparently dropped on the ground and dragged along face down. The \"base\" is smashed up, his sword is broken off, but significant here, his face has been rubbed off except for the eyes.
A smooth faceless head might work well, with or without eyes. Might even try a glowing effect. Just a thought.

 

[E-Arkham]

I think the concept is that the harlequins seem to \"explode\" with colour as they move, then resolidify as they stop moving. Or something like that, as it read from one my really old White Dwarfs.

You could try small strips of clear plastic, heated slightly and curved like ribbons, then sprinkled lightly with multicoloured glitter. Attach these \"trails\" behind the figure.

Of course, that\'d probably not be remotely durable enough for gaming, but it sounds an interesting display piece.

Kep

 

[Broke n English]

Hi Razzit!!

Have you tried airbrushing books.There\'s usually a tutorial on spherical reflections,and loads of other stuff! I usually get mine from the Library(I always end up with uge\' fines!) I am looking at mine now(no pics from me,sorry!) there\'s allsorts on sphere\'s,the tutorial here is just basically how I\'d do a gem,and there\'s also some robots with smooth heads but they\'re done SENMM,as you\'ve tried both techniques I\'m now stumped I agree with the varnish idea though,I\'d paint it like a gem,black through red to pink,and then go wayyyy overboard with the varnish Good luck anyway

 

[vincegamer]

Totally loony idea:

Use that stuff that someone used to make a \"gelatinous cube\" on CMON somewhere - clear acrylic of some sort that pours into a mold and hardens.
Make a tiny sphere, attach a blob of colored paint, build up the sphere, attach more paint etc. Eventually you have a head that is just a clear ball with spots of rainbow colors inside.
If you swirled it the head could look like an old agate marble!

 

[airhead]

like this?

 

[razzit]

airhead wrote:

like this?

Yeah, exactly like that, but so that it would look reasonable from all around, not from one angle only. And that Escher\'s face might not be required.

Broke n English wrote:

Have you tried airbrushing books.There\'s usually a tutorial on spherical reflections,and loads of other stuff!

Great idea, thanks! Oh well, it seems I will have to touch a paper book again...

 

[airhead]

Razzit, sorry for the smart remark earlier..

You are learning the joys and tribulations of 3d art. It can be painted well to look right from a particular direction. But anything else is going to look wrong.

My recommendations are to do it in a dark SE NMM similar to Chrispy\'s Tau Battle suit. Take a horizon line all around - more or less at the \"equator\". Fade the bottom to base color plus darker (very dark green?) Fade the top from near white up to black.

or check here
And this shows SE very well here

 

[Molebrain]

ideaa

What about painting it SENMM, but making the horizon line like a sine wave? smile on the front moving to a frown on the side to a smile on the back to a frown on the other side.

Or maybe even better yet- have it smile on each side, but have the edges move up the side of the sphere sharply to meet each other at the \"corner\". Hard to explain but I hope I\'m getting my point across.

Zach

 

[Nomis]

I suppose if you want it to look like the Escher sphere you could drill out the face and use a polished ball bearing?

 

[Chrispy]

Quick SENMM tip: when I did the suit, I found SENMM looks better if you add a bit of Grey (Vallejo\'s Neutral Grey to dark areas, Aluminum White to light) to the mix. This way, it\'ll look like the metal is reflecting it, and it\'s just not painted like that... which it is, but you must follow the Trompe L\'oeil effect...
And I know someone\'s going to correct my French, but I don\'t care.