WIP: Blood Angels Veterans

[Meph]

Good job man! Just the way I like my BA's as well, nice dark red (first edition terracotta vs the fluo red of the later editions), nice dark detailing and not to bright gold, I'm a fan.
Your pictures, however, are not doing them justice. I'd suggest to construct some sort of mini studio for better lighting. My high tech studio consists of three black-covered sketch books tucked into a corner, with perhaps a fat novel underneath for some height. And the next ultra high tech step is to use a white A3 or A4 sheet to block the direct light source, this diffuses the light and eliminates the nasty sharp reflections. the good thing about using books as sides is that you can squeeze the white papers between the pages to hold them up.
the last piece of kit i use is a tiny tripod I bought for 14 euro's. just be sure you take one with straight legs with a head that can tilt, so do not go for the novelty-bendy-legs kind, they're useless.

Here you can see the studio in action with an added A4 as back cover for a bit higher contrast with the mini's.

 

[cowboy3569]

These are awesome, and i would just like to say thank you for finally solving the headache i have had with getting my BA the right red as I too was having that issue with Blood red over Mechrite. Lifesaver.

 

[IronKobra]

Meph: Yeah you are right I am not really making such an effort with the photos as I could. Really i guess with just the WIP pics I haven't really been bothered but when I have finished my current projects (these guys, my Moriar conversion and Vanguards) I'll look into getting better pictures. But I dont even own a digital camera haha, I'm doing all of these with just my phone cam at the moment. Ill look into some of the articles on photography soon as they are getting to the point of completion.

Cowboy: I had the very same headache man. But this method is really working for me. I am going to make them a little brighter yet but this lighter and redder base coat will really make layering blood red a whole lot easier...At least thats the theory!

 

[Meph]

Nice phone cam you've got there then. ^^

 

[IronKobra]

haha as far as phone cams go yeah its decent! I'm really the one at fault for not making the effort XD

I think its a nokia C905 or something

 

[Meph]

Well, it's a good cam, absolutely, I've got a HTC Wildfire, it's got a decent cam as well but I'm not sure it can stabilize close-up hand-held shots like that, your pics look really sharp.
But I think the main reason to buy a small digi cam is two-fold. One; the option to screw on a tripod, that's really heaven for stability and close-ups, and it allows you to use the auto-countdown thingamajig so you click and two seconds later it takes the pic. no more shakey shakey. And the second reason is that you can easily play around with the shutter time.
I never take my pics on automatic as it always, always messes up the colours when shooting without flash. Since the direct light is blocked by the white paper you can lengthen or shorten the shutter time to make sure you get as close to the true colour of the paint as possible, even in overly bright or dark lighting conditions. The pictures in my threads were taken in the same little corner on a window tablet on my terrace during summer winter, mid-day, evening, sunshine, shadow and I managed to somewhat keep them consistent throughout the seasons.
I think I paid somewhere around 150euro's for my little Samsung cam a few years ago, well worth the investment. One thing I'd look out for is that it has a manual dial to quickly and efficiently switch between auto mode and manual shutter time and such. I hate fiddly menu's.

*EDIOT* I have a Canon Powershot A950, not a Samsung, what wàs I thinking...

 

[cowboy3569]

Kobra: I know what you mean, tried it out on a spare mini last night and was well pleased with the result, I added a vomit brown highlight followed by a Baal red wash but i'm not sure whether i'm totally satisfied with that as of yet, may try just building up to a Blood red final highlight from your stated mix.

 

[IronKobra]

Spent some time on all the robes specifically. I have never really had to do these before so was something a little new for me. I went for a browny cream type colour so it didn't really clash with the red. I still have to do the final highlights on them but I'l save that for when the models are stuck together.

I have also hhighlighted all the gold parts, I'm not sure it comes out great on the pics since the metals seem to be a little washed out by my phone cam.

 

[ArgoMina]

Very nice painting indeed! Can you tell us the recipe for the gold? I'd like to compare it with the one I'm using. Thank you.

 

[IronKobra]

Very nice painting indeed! Can you tell us the recipe for the gold? I'd like to compare it with the one I'm using. Thank you.

The gold is pretty much GW's recipe.

- Black undercoat
- 50/50 Scorched Brown & Shining Gold
- Layer Shining Gold
- Wash with sepia wash
- 50/50 Shining Gold & Mythril Silver (focus this mainly in raised areas & edges)
- Wash with sepia wash
- Mythril silver extreme highlights (I watered this down a fair bit so its not such a dramatic highlight) and wash with sepia to tie it all together

I know its a few washes of sepia, and I have tried just using one at the end, but it doesn't have the same effect. The multiple washing stages really pull the colour progession together, at least to my eyes.

 

[Meph]

Nice progress, the robes are looking very good, the colour tones does suit the red quite well.

 

[ArgoMina]

Thanks for the answer. Have you ever tried using burnished gold instead of mitril silver/shining gold?

 

[IronKobra]

Thanks for the answer. Have you ever tried using burnished gold instead of mitril silver/shining gold?

Yeah, i have used shining gold in the past, but really i found it too much of a 'yellow' looking gold for my liking. Much prefer the deeper/browner looking gold of the Burnished.

 

[IronKobra]

Nice progress, the robes are looking very good, the colour tones does suit the red quite well.

Thanks Meph, the robes were a little daunting to begin with, had no idea where to go with them, fell upon this colour kind of randomly picking up paints from the shelf and mixing up and up haha from grave earth through khaki and stone and bone.

 

[IronKobra]

Small update I thought was worthy of note...I had a good go at some power effect weapons on these veterans. There are only 2, and a lightning claw in the box so took a morning to try it. I followed a WD guide from a few issues ago and I'm fairly happy with it. I have tried before with miserable results a while ago and since never tried again, but I'll put this into more practice:

 

[cassar]

:good:liking the power weapons mate.