WIP Deneghra

[Aureo]

Hey guys,

Figured I'd jump on board with a new model. Just started playing Warmachine recently and decided to go Cryx, so now I have *another* army to paint. >.<

Anyways, I saw ED209's Deneghra and love the look so I am going to go with the purple armour so she'll stand out a bit from the crowd on the table to start. We'll see if I decide to bring the purple throughout the whole army later. (Quite possibly may....my Skorne army is a very nice pink color (VMC Sunset Red) where the red is NORMALLY supposed to be...pics later ofc.)

She's been converted with a new head and a new polearm, which I thought would be a lot easier of a conversion than it ended up being. Of course, right?

So, atm she's primed and starting the basecoat of her armour, and it's turning out to be a pain to get ALL the tiny little crevices. Thought I had them all, and then a ton show up on the picture. My intent is to work a bit with colored shading and highlights for some practice, and to really try to step up my blending as I've recently felt like I've gotten into a funk on that...

Going to try to keep regular updates as this is the first time I've done a WIP thread, and any c&c is appreciated. :smile-big:

Also, can anyone give me a tip or two on either how to make those images thumbnails in here (as they are massive)?

 

[BPI]

Hi Aureo, I prefer pics in posts to thumbnails, just crop them a little then resize the images to 400 pixels wide & they should sit on the page okay (you could go wider but with the polearm it'll still be quite tall, just play about).

I know what you mean about the little spots missed, my current Banshee's hair & Plague Bearer's skin are full of tiny nooks & crannies. Catch the ones you can see in the photos & put a black wash over it to catch any others

Her head looks to have gone on at a good angle, unlike my recent elf cleric who looks most odd from some angles

Cheers, B.

 

[CreganTur]

I can see a few white spots where the paint hasn't flowed into the recesses yet. Using thinned paints can help tremendously with getting into those little crevices. If that doesn't do it, then doing a couple of washes of the base color can help too.

 

[Aureo]

Okay, updates from last night and today's playing with the model. I started with the highlights and am going back to do the shadows, since I intend to play with a lot more color there. There are two layers of the first shadow, so essentially shadowless still.

/Rant
And ARGH! I'm going to have to wash this thing with purple I think...I keep finding MORE of those pesky dots! I find them and fill them, and they keep multiplying!!!
/End Rant

Seeing the pictures, I'm not AS unhappy with it as I was when I looked at it after I stopped today...and I'm sure it'll grow on me as the shadows develop. But I am increasingly frustrated with my highlights. I've ALWAYS had issues using white as a highlight, or anything close to it...Bleached Bone, Morrow White, Menoth White Highlight, Skull White...and again with this one, used Frostbite (P3), a light blue shade with the purple to do highlights and it just appears chalky to me. Am I missing something? I water my paints down pretty well when I layer, they're pretty transparent--layers take about 2 or 3 coats to start being really visible, and I am getting the whole "drying as you make a stroke" thing going. I just am a bit boggled on the chalky thing because I have no issues with that when I do darker colors, it's only the lighter colors. :struggle:

And just as an aside, I was looking at these pics as I uploaded them--the colors bring Donatello to mind. Of the Ninja Turtle fame, not the artist... Yay for purple and green. Okay....I'll stop dating myself now....

 

[CreganTur]

How thin is your paint consistency? If you keep putting paint down and it's not covering, it might be way too thin. Either that or your primer missed some spots- paint can sometimes act like that over bare metal.

 

[Aureo]

Paint is thinned down to about 1:8 paint to water, occasionally add a drop of future in which seems to help. Pictures to show what I meant earlier...paint consistency and a little "rainbow" on a Slaanesh Champion. Don't mind the purple--he was washed that way when I got him. The stripe on the left is two strokes, then three, then four. I'll try to play with a dark model later and show the light color issues. Is my paint way too thin? It *does* take awhile to build up color, but it happens, and pretty fast when it finally starts.

More work on Deney today. She's got her skin base on as of last night, and I'm going to maybe get the other color basecoats on now that she's got her armor well-started and I won't have to worry so much about the purple running over to other areas, as you saw in my very messy basecoat. Work on her armor shadows and shading and highlighting on the cloth. Pics later tonight.

 

[CreganTur]

Holy crap- a 1:8 ratio means you're basically painting with washes- no wonder you have coverage issues! The basic guideline is that paint should be about the same consistency as milk- put a bit in a glass (or empty paint pot) and swish it around to see exactly what that looks like if you can't visualize it. When you buy a brand new pot of paint, it will generally be at that consistency (at least it is for the GW, Vallejo, and Tamiya paints I've purchased recently).

See if that makes it easier to paint.

 

[Aureo]

Dangit...I had an entire post done and then Chrome makes it WAY too easy to close a frame. Yay.... -_-

Anyawys, wanted to first off thank you Cregan for the ongoing help, and thank you BPI for the comments as well.

In short, since I'm not wanting to write everything again...worked on Deney today:
Armor: Shaded more
Cloak: Shade, First Highlight...think it needs some more
Skin: Done mostly, pretty happy with the face and liking the purple shadow play

Pics:

I will try not thinning down my paint so much, but I know I'll never be able to do right out of the pot--it's WAY too thick imo. Needs at least 1:1, I'll basecoat with like 1:3. I'll have to play around with the consistency again, since I kinda figured 1:8 WAS the consistency of milk..... Also still saw the chalky issue today with the highlight on the cloth...was able to smooth it out using the basecoat color, but yeah--and the consistency was anywhere from 1:7ish to 1:4 I'd say...definitely going to have to pull out a model and play with it. I'll take pictures to show what I mean.

 

[freakinacage]

i would never use it straight fromt he pot. i think you are going too far but you have to find what works for you, try thinning less and less till you find the right point

 

[Countersunk81]

The face looks fantastic - where is that head from?

You'll probably find that a wash will not only define the shapes but smooth out the blends anyway, so go with that.

 

[doyme]

Hi,

Your model is coming along very nicely. I Especially like the face. I'm painting some green armor at the mo. and have had the same problems.... chalkiness.

I am sure some of the chalkiness comes from your paint being too thin. How thinned a paint should be depends on the brand and the specific colour. I find GW paints will thin quite far without any adverse effects. When I made the switch to VallejoGC I thinned my paints, in order to layer and feather, down to the same amount as with my GW paints (about 6:1 "milk consistency"). The result was that I actually managed to ruin the paint on my palette. It split into its constituent parts which resulted not only in chalkiness but also in a gloss shine on top of the chalkiness! I think this was a result of the paint splitting on my palette into a layer of medium, a layer of pigment sediment and a layer of water. Do you find that your paint is visibly splitting on the palette?

I always find it wierd when people refer to milk for a guide for paint thickness. I know what they mean (not quite as thin as water but not thick like cream etc...) but this doesn't really help. Milk itself is a colloidal suspension of fat in water, much the same way as paint is a suspension of pigment within a medium. Therefore it's very hard to say what "milk consistency" is as it varies greatly.

Cow's (full fat) milk is around 5% fat. Double cream is about the same consistency as paint in a pot and is roughly 50% fat. Therefore, to get double cream down to milk consistency we would have to dilute it with water at 9:1. So, if we take the same arguement with paint then your 8:1 is about correct. Furthermore, milk in supermarkets is almost always sold partially skimmed (even if it says full-fat/whole). Semi-skimmed milk (the most popular type in the UK) is actually only about 2% fat. To get paint this consistency (working from the double cream to milk analogy) would require at least a 19:1 dilution! My point is that "milk consistency" is far too ambiguous, try 4~5:1 and see what happens!

 

[Aureo]

Counter: Thank you for the compliment on the face. The head is off the Reaper model, Amiryth Elmlighter by Gael Goumon. I bought it a long time ago to paint up as I kind of like the sculpt, but as it comes with the bow unattached and I ended up unfortunately losing it in my sea of miniature bits as she sat in waiting. I was happy to see that the head fit pretty well with the Deneghra model, especially at the fact that the hair follows the flowing cloth. The only thing that bothered me about it is that the Reaper scale is just a touch larger than the Privateer scale. I don't think it's really noticeable, and less so as she gets painted up.

Doyme: I appreciate the tips, and the description on milk is very true. I always got a little boggled by that "rule" for exactly that reason...milk is different consistencies. GW paints seem to be the best to water down really far--the color above on the test piece is Scorched Brown (much love to that color). I've not used Reaper paints. Vallejo seems to really like to separate even just out of the bottle if you don't shake the crap out of it first (Game more so than Model) but it will take decently to dilution...not a ton though. P3 I've had the most issues with trying to find a happy place for them, and they tend to chalk out the fastest on me.

I played this morning with my poor test orc's standard--it now has gold teeth (to match all the other funky NMM practices I've done on his armour plates). Worked with around 2-3:1 and got good coverage, but kinda bleh blends. Had a busy day today so no work done at all besides that. Lots of time at the game store tomorrow though. Maybe I'll even get a soft-finish on her and run her through for final suggestions before calling her done. Will also play a bit more with my consistencies, head up to 4-5:1 and see how that goes.

The Orc Standard...yes, my off-white highlight sucks down at the bottom and I forgot to do the rivets. I claim immunity...I painted that after waking up with only 4 hours of sleep. :doh:

Okay....I like and don't like this camera...it's making the transition look a lot softer than it really is irl. The shade from Vomit Brown to Vermin Brown and then Vermin to Scorched is a lot harsher than it shows--the lines are a touch more distict, hence the desire to go do another test at 4-5:1.

 

[Chrome]

Okay....I like and don't like this camera...it's making the transition look a lot softer than it really is irl. The shade from Vomit Brown to Vermin Brown and then Vermin to Scorched is a lot harsher than it shows--the lines are a touch more distict, hence the desire to go do another test at 4-5:1.

And basically everyone else on here has the opposite problem!

Oh, and I almost felt offended skimming through your posts just now, that'll teach me to get a user name someone decides to be great for a browser a bunch of years later.

But I must say, I quite like your purples.

 

[Aureo]

Oh, and I almost felt offended skimming through your posts just now, that'll teach me to get a user name someone decides to be great for a browser a bunch of years later.

Lol, sorry! I would give you a cookie to make it up to you if I could! :smile-big:

This camera (Nikon Coolpix) hates doing macro, so when I want a nice closeup it's like "nope!" and then when I want a clear shot it's all "nope!" When I'm not trying to get it to do what I want it just does a decent job. Maybe eventually a new camera is in order....

Thank you for the compliment on the purple. Surprisingly enough, I don't often paint with purple, which I think I'll be changing as it does make for such a nice shadow. The purple is GW's purple...whatever it's called Warlock Purple, I think? Then P3 Frostbite mixed in for highlight and then P3 Coal Black mixed in for shadow. I intend on paying a bit with color in the shadows, so we'll see some Scab Red show up and perhaps a bit of Cryx Bane Base pulled in from the cloth. Intend on cleaning up a bit with the purple--that left forearm plate highlight has been bothering me for days now.

 

[BPI]

Hi Aureo, to help practice finding the right paint consistency have you worked recently from a black undercoat? You'll go nuts if you apply the paint too thinly Allow the undercoat to form all your blacklining/shading & work up the other areas. Purple would be a simple colour to start with too. It's a different style but a useful one for your arsenal :good:

I say this having spent years using white undercoat only & finally learning to use black was definitely useful in teaching me more about the properties of my paints & how to apply them. Grey is even more recent for me & I'm still learning so no tips there!

The face looks very pretty indeed, does she have a small pair of horns on her head?

Cheers, B.

 

[delta 408]

I really like how she is turning out, and my favorite part is the Reaper model face. Which version Deneghra did you use? Please forgive my ignorance, but I can't seem to find that particular sculpt on the Privateer Press site.

 

[Aureo]

BPI: I started out with the black basecoat and I bounce back and forth depending on how I want to finish up. For a long time I was going with white cause I enjoy the brightness it gives, but it's not an always thing. And it takes awhile to build up with those washes. Black gives a darker look to the model as often your shadows are black. I will definitely start playing with the consistency with black--you're probably completely right at the coverage forcing a proper consistency. (I'm sure the red on the Death Jester would have taken A LOT less time had I not been using "washes.")

And as a matter of fact, I didn't realize it till you mentioned it...those odd things are elf ears, as it's an elf model...oh well....they're disguised as hair now... >.>

Delta: Thanks, I'm glad you like her. Her face was actually pretty fun to paint. I enjoyed playing with the shadows and highlights a bit. The model is out of the Cryx Battle Box--the one that comes with the three Bonejacks and the Slayer Helljack.

Oh, and any input on the teal that I'm starting to build up there....not sure about whether I like the color or not....was kind of going for a "Red Death" look.

Thanks everyone, and I'll catch you this evening.

 

[cheelfy]

That's a nice red. I also like the head.

 

[Aureo]

Okay, busy day today, and not much done on Deneghra today. I was able to add in some red gore and LICHE Purple (I think I called it warlock purple in an earlier post...oops) to the darker shadows to pop them out a bit. Kinda like the effect, more to do on it tomorrow, as I got about an hour of painting in and then the day was a wash for painting--you know how it goes at the local games store. Anyways, not much planned tomorrow, so a good chunk of time to spend on her. And on a different note, I won my first Warmachine game with her tonight vs a Retribution army. Oh, and how good is that Testor's Dull Coat for gaming models? I normally use GW's Purity Seal, and recently Denegra is getting picked up A LOT to get looked at....

 

[delta 408]

I read in the other thread that you spray a gloss coat on your mini then hit it with a dull coat if it will be picked up a lot.