Looking for input - First model since long break

[WingsOfDaidalos]

Hey there, painters!

I only recently started painting miniatures again, after a break of about 5 years. I was never any good to begin with, but now that I\'m back and want to aim high and crash hard as often as it takes to improve.

This is my first model since the break, and I\'m looking for people to point out areas that need improvement that I can work on.

Here\'s the mini I am talking about:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/221106

I copied the following things from my army blog; my verdict.

note that the \"good\" things mean that I\'m satisfied with the results compared to my standard, not that I think it\'s actually any good.

The Good
- The Big Picture: I\'m quite satisfied with the model as a whole. When looked at from a distance, the model appears complete, detailed and relatively professional.
- Bones: The bone effect I tried to achieve turned out pretty effective. Especially the horns on the helm and the skull on the shoulder pad are pretty nice, I think.
- Magma: I think the Magma pattern on the shoulder and axe turned out okay - they are recognisable as magma, without overdoing it and drawing attention away from the rest of the model. It makes for an effective and original coat of arms, in my opinion.

The Bad
- It\'s all in the details: And those details are ugly. There are numerous small things that greatly annoy me - for example, the little skulls on the arms and weapon. I messed them up, and now they look like ugly white faces.
- Washes: I\'m getting the feeling I am not using Washes and Inks the way they are meant to be used. When looking at models done by other painters, I often spot excellent use of washes to create depth and shading, but my washes always simply turn the entire section darker. I can\'t get them to pool into crevices effectively, and they often leave ugly stains.
- Metals: Not too fond of the metals I painted. The silver especially is ugly, without proper shading and highlighting. The gold turned out okay, but was very experimental and took a lot of work before I was satisfied. There has to be an effective and pretty way to paint smooth metal highlights and shading, without getting the smudgy, stained metal I seem to get.

What do you think? Any tips for the future? What things do you like, and what things would you have done differently?
I\'d really value a pointer or two!

 

[Einion]

Hi and welcome. Could we have bigger pics (other viewpoints would help too)? The images are a little too small to give detailed feedback, which is what I think you want.

Okay, from what I can see at the moment it looks neat, tidy and the colour scheme works. It could do with more contrast, a bit more attention paid to lighting direction.

Radiant light from the bubble of lava would be good, even if just onto the front of the rock.

Overall the paintwork is a high 6 / low 7 for me which is where it\'s sitting currently (6.9 before my vote).

Einion

 

[WingsOfDaidalos]

Thank you for your reply. Due to certain limits I wasn\'t able to include more pictures in the actual CMON post, but there are a lot more pics on my blog, which is located at www.wingsofdaidalos.blogspot.com.

Here are some (very large!) pictures taken from there;

Front: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bqRnhBLHPEc/SfhsnryaigI/AAAAAAAAADQ/qc9fO3yDp1M/s1600-h/DSC02896.JPG

Side (no head): http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bqRnhBLHPEc/SfWwTFy18jI/AAAAAAAAAC4/djTshKJx9CI/s1600-h/DSC02856.JPG

Side (no head): http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bqRnhBLHPEc/SfWwS6qXGqI/AAAAAAAAACw/pIXko_W5grE/s1600-h/DSC02852.JPG

I wanted to try the glow from the lava, but I didn\'t dare attempt it in the end. I\'ll definitely do so next time though.

 

[NGArtStudios]

I\'ll echo on some of what Einion said. Nice and clean and you\'ve got a good idea of what colors work well together.

Few suggestions:

Bring up your high lights a bit more. It will make the model stand out as well as give it much needed contrast.

Painting good metallics can be as tricky as painting NMM. Here is what I find works well. For your base coat, if painting gold, mix in either a dark brown or even black; if silver I find black works best. then highlight up to the pure metallic color. That now only dulls it down but also smooths it out. Also with metallics, glazes and washes are your friend. With silver, use black, brown and blue washes to bring out the shadows. With gold use brown and black. So really what it comes down to is treat metallic paints just as you would regular paints, by having to shade and high light. They will look a lot more natural that way.

 

[Einion]

Thanks for the bigger pics. No real surprises so on the painting front I\'d say with practice and application you\'ll improve before you know it. Work on using slightly thinner paint, applying more layers, to get smoother transitions.

Do pay a little more attention to removal of mould lines, there are a few doozies!

Originally posted by WingsOfDaidalos
I wanted to try the glow from the lava, but I didn\'t dare attempt it in the end. I\'ll definitely do so next time though.

We all know what that\'s like!

I know it\'s easy to say and harder to do but don\'t be afraid of trying something like this. Worst case scenario if it goes completely wrong you can overpaint no problem, especially on groundwork where the surface is less critical.

Einion

 

[Joek]

I think it\'s a really neat figure! You\'re a braver soul than me by taking on lava, and you\'ve done a decent job at it too.

I can only echo what Einion\'s said - it is astonishing how fast you can improve if you do a little painting every day! The thinner paints advice is the key - it\'s something which I\'ve only fairly recently learned: You can get away with incredibly thinned colours as long as you\'re careful, and it really does pay off in the long run, despite taking quite a while to do!

So, great start then! Go go go !

 

[WingsOfDaidalos]

Thank you for the kind words, all. I\'m certainly going to practice a lot - just received a Chaos Battleforce box through mail order so I\'ve got plenty to paint!

Originally posted by Einion
Do pay a little more attention to removal of mould lines, there are a few doozies!

You\'re right, to be honest I completely forgot about it. I was so eager to start painting again, I accidentally skipped the basics!

Thanks for the feedback, I\'ll definitely work on thinning my paints. I read something about a mix between water and acrylic retarder (85%/15%) to thin your paints, I\'ll try that. Better transitions and blending is definitely high on my \"to-practice\" things. For some reason my blends always end up smudgy, but I think that\'s due to my impatience and not using enough thin layers. So I\'ll work on that for my next models, along with brighter highlights.