Jake's (DroidWorkshop) WIPs

[droidworkshop]

Hi folks,

I thought I'd start one of these myself to try and keep me motivated.

Although I painted as a teenager, I stopped for a long time, and now in my thirties, I'm giving it another go. I had a quick dabble back in the hobby in 2013, but was about to move house so my attention was dragged away and it's basically taken me 4 years to give it get back on the bike.

Anyway, enough of an introduction, after catching a bit of "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" on TV, I thought I'd have a crack at a couple of Games Workshop Lord of the Rings models. Closest to hand was a box of Mordor Orcs that I thought I'd give a go:

View attachment 60802

Unfortunately I could only manage a couple of hours in the evening, and an hour this afternoon so I'm not that far along, but I've made a start. I'm aiming to paint more frequently even if in short bursts, and aiming just to try and develop my brush control, technique and generally improve.

Comments, criticisms and tips more than welcome.

Thanks for looking!

Jake

 

[KruleBear]

Welcome back to the hobby. Your brush control doesn't look too bad, so it is all a matter of finding time to paint and keep learning-- from your own efforts and from the forum members input.

 

[droidworkshop]

Thanks for the welcome!

I've got to say finding the time to paint is one of the biggest challenges I've got. It's one of those things though that if you want to do it, you've got to make time.

Only had an hour spare today, some of which was taken up by needing to transfer a few more paints from citadel pots into dropper bottles. Made a little more progress on various bits.
View attachment 60825

I'm not that happy with the highlights of the tan leather, I think I've been a bit heavy handed, but I'm chipping away at the guy. The bow I'm particularly not happy with, I don't know if it's just I've loaded on too much paint, or its a combination between that and there's not much detail to it either. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to finish that part off.

I thought I'd also test a closeup shot, as it really helps show up the messier parts and errors that I need to work on, I was shocked at how much I just don't see otherwise.
View attachment 60826

It's definitely given me a new found respect for other people's skills!

Thanks for looking!

Jake

 

[Coyotebreaks]

welcome back to the hobby, your keeping things tidy with is a large part of the battle and the colour scheme is working well, the bow doesnt have too much paint on, its just a little lacking in contrast. use some darker glazes and build up a pit of shadow, should improve things no end.

 

[droidworkshop]

Cheers for the feedback, I'll give it some darker glazes a go and see how I get on. I've always struggled a little with shadows, so maybe that's something I should try and work on on this fellow. However, for now I've distracted myself with something a little different...

View attachment 60869

This dead fellow kept staring at me from the other side of the painting table so I thought I'd slap a bit of paint on him.

He's not quite done yet as I want to do something about the base. I have a proper horde of zombies to paint if I want to do a full set, so simple bases would be a good idea, but we'll see.

 

[droidworkshop]

Back to the Orc, as usual just a little bit of progress...

View attachment 60924

Added a few highlights, and a few shadows. Tried to glaze in some shadows to the bow, following Coyotebreaks suggestion, which needs a few more layers, but has started to make a difference.

Painted the furry scarf (not a dodgy euphemism), which I quite like the look of from a distance.

cheers for looking!

 

[droidworkshop]

Quick update for today after a weekend of no painting due to pet sitting, and let's just put it this way, a cockatiel is way too curious to risk doing anything potential messy! Having said that, I did get a chance to quickly add some sand to the Mordor Orcs base on Sunday evening after he'd gone back to my parents house.

I was looking forward to getting a bit further along today, but for some reason I've got a really sore and achy neck. No idea why as I hardly did anything all weekend, but it's been really uncomfortable all day at work and this evening. I find painting whilst uncomfortable just leads me to get impatient, so rather than make a mess, I just did a little to move things along but stopped before I got irritable. Hopefully a good nights kip will sort it out.

Did a little work on some shading, using a kind of "selective washing" approach to try and add some contrast, and added a first coat of black to the base.

View attachment 61037

I'm not sure how obvious the effects are, but I think it has removed a little of the starkness of some of the highlights. I'm probably not going to go with the base edge being black at the end, but just cleaning it up whilst painting the first layer of the base materials just makes me feel like I've made a little progress.

I've spotted a watermark ring on the bottom half of the bow I want to clean up, that I didn't see earlier so hopefully I'll sort that out tomorrow evening.

Cheers folks

 

[Coyotebreaks]

nice one, glad to see things progressing, the bow look better for some tonal variation. if you feeling brave, id try to take the highlights a little brighter, even if you go for some GW style edge highlights, will help it pop a little.

 

[Torn blue sky]

Good to have you about Droid! I'm a 30something myself getting back into it and as such have no criticism at all. You're here, you're re-learning and putting yourself back in the driving space. All pluses from me. naturally you won't be an A ranking star overnight but I like what your muscle memory has retained and regained so lets grow on that. Best I can give is to watch the WIP threads, they're chock full of great bits and pieces of info. In light of what you're doing, i'm liking it and keep it up!

 

[droidworkshop]

Cheers folks, I appreciate the tips and suggestions. I must admit just snooping round the forums is really handy, there's so much that I've picked up from other threads and the galleries, I think the practice is the key bit, so I'm committing to an hour a day painting in the evenings to keep momentum.

Ive tried building up the highlights on the various leather, cloth and skin bits, but I've left the metal as I'm OK with where it's at.

View attachment 61053

The paint on the base is still a bit wet in that picture. The closeup shots really shows up the roughness of the highlights, I had particular trouble with the thinning of the paler brown I was using to highlight the cloth, which is a little chalky. Similarly with the glove. I might experiment with using an acrylic medium for thinning over water next time and see I find that easier to get it smooth.

looks better from a distance where the roughness is less obvious and appears more how I see it when I'm working on it

View attachment 61059

I must admit I'm enjoying painting a lot more than when I last gave it a crack, it's less frustrating and actually pretty therapeutic after a day of looking at computer screens!

cheers folks

 

[Torn blue sky]

Youve sort of gone to thick paint from more fluid. Mix with water and add bit by bit to lighten the colour for fairer blends. Water is your friend but do not drink deeply from the water cup.... We have all done this tawdry thing. Tastes like...painty... not coffee. If that happens you need more coffee.

 

[Torn blue sky]

Thinking about this, while the advice is sound, this is really a 28mm mini. Advertises as 35mm but..it's not really. it's mush smaller and flaws will be more harsh on macro close shots. I've seen LOTR minis and they are preeeeetty puny. SO with that in mind i'd say yes, the advice is good but you're doing a great job of it especially coming back into the hobby. Keep it up matey!

 

[Coyotebreaks]

nice one, its coming on nicely, and yes TBS is right, close up images can sometimes make things look worse then they are, I often prefer to go with what my eyes are telling me over what it looked like on screen.

 

[droidworkshop]

Cheers for the comments and suggestions folks.

@TBS - Thanks for the comments. I think your quite right. I think colour mixing and paint consistency are the trickiest things I'm finding so far really, but I'd guess that comes with experience. This little guy is definitely on the small side, it's probably the smallest thing I've ever painted, but that was part of the fun really. Fortunately I haven't accidentally swigged the brush water yet, but I think it's bound to happen at some point!

@Cototebreaks - it came as a big surprise to me how many obvious imperfections the close up photos show, but it helps me work out what needs correcting, so I don't mind it too much really

I had a bit of time tonight to paint tonight, I decided to clean up a few bits and pieces on him and finish off the base.

I'm calling this one "done" now, so that's the first complete model from my return to the hobby. I consider that in itself a bit of an achievement really. I suppose I ought to actually add some pictures right?

View attachment 61078

This one from a bit farther away than previous pictures just as I think it looks more like what I see in person. I went for quite a simple base, as I didn't want to over complicate things and make too much of a mess right at the end. I don't have too much experience with basing, as often when I used to paint when I was younger I never got round to completing bases. Also added a dot of yellow for each eye (though sutble and probably not noticeable) and smoothed out some of the facial highlights, but not much more than that.


View attachment 61079


I'd like to get myself a light box or whatever they're called for "finished" photographs, but as I don't have the room at the moment, and tidying my hobby / office room is massively low on my priority list, you're all stuck with hobby desk photos for the time being.

He's now moved into the display cabinet with the 5 warhammer 40k Orks I completed in 2013. There are another 5 partially completed Orks from 2013 lying about, but I may look at doing something a bit different next for variation.

Cheers for looking folks

 

[droidworkshop]

I didn't paint or do any hobbying yesterday, and there's not a lot of progress to talk about today either, but started preparing the next model.

After finishing the Mordor Orc, I wanted to move on to painting something a little different, so searching through one of the many storage crates, I stumbled upon a classic GW dwarf slayer, painted extremely poorly!

A quick Dettol bath was in order to wipe away the shame (I should have taken a photo for sh*ts and giggles), and after a tiny bit of clean up, I used my airbrush to apply a zenithal undercoat (black->grey->white)

View attachment 61136

The photos wipe out a lot of the contrast so the black doesn't show anywhere, but in person it's pronounced.

He's now all ready and prepared to start painting tomorrow.

I'm planning on painting him a bit like the old comic / cartoon character "Obelix" from the "Asterix" books and movies. That's basically red/orange hair, and white and blue striped trousers. I've not really got much experience with painting skin, orange nor have I ever painted stripes on cloth, so I imagine this one is really going to be a bit of challenge - I'm really looking forward to giving it a go though.

Does anyone have an suggestions on tips for good skin tones practical for a novice?

Cheers folks

 

[Coyotebreaks]

looks like it will be a fun model to paint

 

[droidworkshop]

Yeah this ones got a lot of character to it, even if the pose is the traditional two dimensional cast style. It has a lot of charm to it though.

Stripped a few old models this morning (an Ork Warboss, Inquisitor Coteaz, and the old Durthu the Treeman), and did a little work on filing the base edges of the zombie I posted randomly in this WIP log, along with adding another layer of sand, but no photos.

The rest of my hobby efforts today has been basecoating the skin on the dwarf. I didn't think it was interesting enough to post on here (though put an update on my website blog), but once I saw the glaring oversight I'd made (and finished laughing about it), I thought I'd put up one of the photos on here to see if it gave anyone else a giggle.

View attachment 61148

Can you see what I've missed?

I managed to spend half an hour basecoating the skin, a few minutes photographing, uploading to my PC and sending to my iPad, and it was only when I uploaded to my website that I saw that I'd not painted his nose! It's not exactly a subtle nose is it either!

The skin tone is a 50:50 mix of Bugmans Glow and Doombull Brown. I'm intentionally trying to start with a mid-tone mixed from two other colours as its something I've not tried before.

As I'm now here and posting, I may as well upload the other pics too:
View attachment 61149

View attachment 61150

View attachment 61151

Nothing too interesting so far, but moving along.

Cheers folks

 

[droidworkshop]

A quick update as not much time spent hobbying the past two days I've got a bucket load of projects to manage at work, and I'm trying to do a bit of fitness training too - all a bit hectic

View attachment 61199

Really, it's been just a case of sorting the basing of the Zombie I posted the other day. I had made a mess of it using the citadel texture paints, which had killed my motivation to finish him off, but as I think completing models is the only way I'll really see any improvement.

Also I started to add a few layers to the dwarf slayer face, but it's all too subtle at the moment and I don't think shows up on camera at all - it probably only looks like the only update is that I remembered to paint the nose and lips!

Im trying to focus on smaller sections of the model on this one, as I've always just laid down basecoats, then highlighted, then shaded all areas of that colour in one go, I'm specifically focussing on the face on this one for a change in approach.

I've tried to use thin glazes to shade in the creases of the face, a little messy work but that's OK at this stage really

View attachment 61200

Its not helping trying to take photos in the evening with no natural light, but I'd rather take WIP photos and post over waiting to only take pictures at the weekend

The surface of the model is a little rough in places (possibly old model + being metal + being an even older sculpt, which isn't helping me put down smooth layers, which I struggle with generally anyway!

View attachment 61201

Cheers for looking!

EDIT: seeing that photo blown up really looks ropey - keeping it up here though as it is what it is

 

[Hairster]

If you can show me a mini that doesnt look ropey at that size I'll be impressed!

Great start on the skin on this classic mini though...would be good to see you work in some super diluted coloured glazes to bring out the character in the face. Red nose, purple around the eyes etc etc.

 

[EndlessAnagrams]

I'm loving the dwarf!