Mermaid of Warsaw - Part II

 

Wow! Look at that rock!

There's not a whole lot of difference yet on the model, however I was recently playing around with oil paints again, specifically with the Zorn Palette (or close to it, as I don't have the official paints). I have a particular interest in that palette because of the skin tones that are seemingly trivial to make using it. Red, yellow, black, and white. Mixed in whatever ratios work.

One of the tricks behind skin tones is that skin is generally based on orange. Not like an orangutan, but the particular palette here can create nearly all the basics. There might be some shifts into green or blue depending on environmental factors (shading, lights, etc), but that should be simple enough with just adding those as necessary.

Working with oils is quite the joy on larger models where smooth blending is important. The long working time and ease of smoothing out colours just makes everything so much more pleasant. Notably some of the skin highlights here, and obviously yellow for the hair, but I also worked on the rock. Black was thinned slightly and dabbed around some areas, and then a grey was mixed up and kind of drybrushed (referring to the brush motion, not the paint consistency) across to build up some highlights. This workes surprisingly well. Oils have a natural translucency that also let some of the airbrushed colours show through, and I used that to act as secondary reflections from the body of the mermaid.

The hair is mostly playing with the yellow paint. No pattern or thought, I was just playing with the idea of drybrushing using oils. The desaturated yellow hair on the models's left doesn't fit with the lighting angle and I'll need to go back in and fix that next time, but I kind of like the drybrushing idea. The hair does need more depth though, and I probably should fade out some of the blues, otherwise it looks too much like coloured stone instead of hair flowing in the wind. I have some ideas on that.

I'll likely continue to play with the oils before I switch back to acrylics for finer detail work, but I definitely need to sort out some better brushes. Oils need smoothing out, and short, stiff bristles work better for that kind of thing. I have some older brushes that aren't any good (Army Painter ones that never worked as they were supposed to) so I might trim the ends down and see how that goes.

The skin tones need some blending out in places more (the abdomen for example), or building up entirely (the back). I'm also considering using some of the mineral spirits to make a wash for the hair and scales. The rock could use browns and perhaps some greens closer to the waterline as well. Still, the main colours are blocked in and I'm getting an idea at least of where the model will go. Just hope I'll be able to keep up some kind of painting routine to actually get it done.

-- silly painter

The Unfortunate Community

 This is one of those posts that has little to do with painting, but everything at the same time. It impacts the motivation for painting, and is leading me away from Warhammer 40,000 and Games Workshop in general.

In part this is inspired by what I've seen regarding a recent Code of Conduct being applied to the open source wine project. I have no issue with the CoC as I've read it (not in the current iteration anyway), but I firmly believe that these are things that should be debated (in a civil way, of course). They're not always a force for good, particularly when applied as enforced behaviour rather than limits on behaviour - and there is huge difference between the two. Enforced behaviour does not accept opposing viewpoints, where as limits on behaviour are mostly "don't be a prick". In one particular corner of the Internet, opposing views are frowned upon (even being perceived as critical of Valve is cause to be attacked there, whether true or not) and someone who obviously doesn't like CoC's was immediately attacked, insulted, and told to get lost. Someone literally admitted to waiting for a comment so they could attack. That is a toxic environment, that is not fostering an open community, that is excluding people - ironically the very thing they claim that a CoC is supposed to prevent.

This is not a problem with a Code of Conduct. They're simply a guideline. This is a problem managing a community, and it follows on to ..... female Custodians.

I have no problem with female Custodians in principle. It was handled extraordinarily poorly on introducing them, but the idea standalone is fine. The idea isn't standlone though. It's being shoved down everyone's throats with a battleship's turret rammer. The recent animation The Tithes: Harvest is proof of this. It was a conscious choice to use a female Custodian there, and from a narrative perspective a rather poor choice at that. Yes it shows perfectly the arrogance and ultimate failures of the Custodes, but it lacks the balance of already establish characters such as Valarian and Aleya. Male and female viewpoints are a part of that balance. Combined with every single person of authority being female in that show, and the increase in this everywhere (all the of Imperial Guard commanders are now female, the Imperial Knights animation was this again, the Skaventide animation has female guard captains everywhere, the Iron Warriors animation again has the heroine as better than everyone else, the list goes on) and the show can only be seen as an agenda propaganda tool. The preview of the next episode of the Tithes I predicted a female girlboss in charge within the first two seconds. I was right. I'm sure she'll be super morally above everyone else, always right, and more fearless than any male. I'll try to remember to edit this when it comes out - but even now I'm already biased as a symptom of what's really going wrong.

The problem is that it's all so obviously ideological agenda driven. It's not world building, it's not expanding on characters, it's shoving ideology down people's throats. This used to be a safe space for geeks of all kinds, and now it's being taken over by some ideological investors who for reasons unknown are trying to putrefy everything they touch. I think this is being forced on Games Workshop personally through some investors; before then GW was actually doing diversity properly in simply giving people options.

The consequence of this enforced ideological diarrhoea is that it becomes the identity of the intellectual property. I don't see a great show with a Custodian in it. I see yet another agenda driven pile of crap. I don't see a great new model - I see yet another girlboss. I don't see a diverse range of options, I see exclusion. Even the recent Space Marine II game: a couple of years ago I wouldn't have blinked twice at the battle-brothers. Now I see token representation whenever I see their faces because it's being hydraulically rammed into everything. I see it if there's ever a weak male character, especially with a female superior. It immediately ruins gameplay, stories, lore, and communities. I never saw that with the original Space Marine where the Imperial Guard commander was female and awesome - but the others (male mostly) were also just as battle hardened and poised. Was this agenda? Yeah, probably - but it wasn't obviously so.

Swinging back around the unfortunate community reactions, the amount of harassment, insults, attacks, and bigotry is disgusting. What's worse is that all of it is being done by those claiming to be against such things. I would be attacked for daring to have the opinion that from a narrative perspective a female Custodian was a poor fit. Or if it's a female Custodian, why not a male blank? That too is apparently cause for being attacked (yes, really, I've watched that happen). Any form of opposing view is immediately under fire, and it's being done in targeted manner: people are gaslighting to then claim their moral superiority. Goobertown Hobbies was guilty of this in my opinion, smugly proclaiming himself righteous while putting down many hobbyists using an argument that simply wasn't true. I stopped watching his channel because of that. I much rather watch people with viewpoints I'm against, but who debate and put forth reasons without stooping to attack others to make themselves feel better.

None of this is unique to Games Workshop, tabletop gaming, etc. It's been happening throughout the movie industry for a while (where it's now crumbling in a spectacular fashion): Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Marvel, etc. I'm hoping that coupled with the massive success of Space Marine II will convince Games Workshop to push back against the agenda and just stick to pleasing their core audience while still giving diverse options as they once did. Otherwise, every time I paint a model I'm just going to be thinking "how will they turn this into gender politics, wonder if they'll try use this to enforce stupid pronouns everywhere, I wonder if I'll be attacked for using one colour over another on this model". I used to want to experiment with a wide range of skin tones. Now I don't - now I just want to paint Caucasian skin tones in defiance of the real bigotry.

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do here. I'll wait and see I suppose. I've already changed my mind about buying a couple of Custodian models. This is again not a gender issue - it's because I no longer see Custodes, I see agenda whenever I look at them. I won't sell those I already have, but I'm not motivated to paint them either. I've passed buying other models recently too. This toxicity coming from those claiming to be against toxic behaviour is making the hobby unpalatable, driving out the very people who built it in the first place. I'm not even recommending it to parents of the core audience anymore. Maybe Horus Heresy is still alright. For now. 40k though, is in some serious trouble.

Most unfortunate.

-- silly painter.

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part I

 

New armour, same hammer.

I wasn't intending to start any new little projects, but the Combat Patrol magazine has resulted in quite a few of the Leviathan Terminator Captain models around the place, and I grabbed one. I like the model, it was cheap, why not. I'm also going through a lot of furniture and "stuff" reorganisation (again...) and so at the same time as this new model I also happened to be looking at Captain Karlaen. I like the old sculpt, it works well, but the proportions of the newer Terminator sculpts are much better. Why not give some kitbashing a go?

The first thing was basic eyeballing to see if it might even work in theory. The belt buckle and tassels are a fairly unique part to Karlaen and I wanted them - they even flow in the same direction as the cape. I also looked around the Internet for inspiration: if someone else has done the hard work to prove it will fit, then it would certainly make things easier for me. I also basically copied someone else with the model's left tilting shield.

I decided early on that I wouldn't bother with the chain around his torso and across the cape. It would be relatively easy to use jewellery chain for this, but I was concerned it might clutter the model too much, and I also didn't want to be spending any more money.

The pauldrons aren't easily swapped out, and so I've kept the originals in place. The intent is to simply paint the right one in a similar fashion to the older model's sculpted version. This does leave a bit of a problem: no Blood Angel would march into battle without the Chapter's insignia. If this wasn't going to be on the pauldron, then I would need to convert the chestpiece to display it instead. I used a Dremel to carve out the skull, and a spare blood drop symbol (actually from an Aggressor pauldron) to fill it in. This didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped: the engraving bit was slightly too large, and the blood drop symbol wasn't flat - I had to very carefully try and carve off the back. I probably should have made a green-stuff version instead. I'm sure it will look nicer once painted.

The Dremel was again used on the belt buckle. I carved out the old hanging scrolls, and used a jewellers saw to cut off the belt buckle as cleanly as I could (I might actually be able to use the rest of the Karlaen torso somewhere else one day). I needed to snip off the bullet bling to fit at the proper angle, and very slightly trim one of the tassels to fit better against the leg. I had intended to fill a small gap there with green stuff, but forgot to. I then needed to Dremel out a lot of the back of the belt buckle to fit flush against the new model. It might not be perfect, but I'm pleased enough with the end result. It doesn't stick out too much, it's more or less centered, and the bullet bling helps cover up the other side.

The symbol on top was fairly straight forward: snip off the old one, glue on Karlaen's. It's not perfectly in the middle, but not so bad. I did use a very small amount of green stuff to pad out the join on the back because it wasn't a perfect fit and I wanted more stability to the join.

The hands I thought about for a long time: keep the new model's, or try and use the older model's? There's no particular reason not to keep the new model's unless some of the blood drops want to be included, and would have made it much more difficult. Ease won the day (it's a kitbash, not a total conversion). The storm bolter is all original except for moving the targeter from the older model.

Now for the thunder hammer. I spent a few days considering the best approach. I wondered if I should trim off the power cable just to make everything easier, but that would mean the grip wouldn't match up. I don't have an appropriate replacement haft and couldn't do a simple swap of the head of the hammer. So I would need to keep the cable, and all of the thunder hammer itself (hilt included). The older model's sculpt isn't the best to trim away only the hand, so I'd have to cut around that: only the hammer. The power cables don't have anywhere to connect on the new model however, and the cables from Karlaen aren't great fit to replace. Instead I figured something on the forearm would be added to split the power supply from the armour on the newer model, and I'd simply have to try and green stuff that in. It's hidden in the photo, but it ended up much simpler than I'm making it out. I used a jewellery saw again to carefully cut away the hammer and the forearm cable housing, and trimmed the latter back until it mostly fit the new model. It wasn't a perfect fit against the new hand, so I pinned the hammer and put some green stuff around that to extend the haft very slightly. More green stuff to fill out the forearm cable housing and harmonise it with the cabling, and that's pretty much it.

The tilting shields are simple: trim off the old, glue on the new, trimming and filing back as necessary to get a clean fit. The head cowling had a push fit nub which I cut off and then used the Dremel to smooth back. It's a little rough, but will be hidden by a head when that's ready.

The head I again thought about for a while. I don't have any spares that I thought were appropriate, and I didn't want the shouting expression of Karlaen's. It just doesn't seem to fit the post of the rest of the model. Fortunately there is a new Blood Angels upgrade sprue on the way at some point in the future, and one of the heads in there looks almost exactly like what I'm after. With that not yet available though, I'm likely to leave off doing any painting until it is. The motivation was the kitbashing, not the painting, and I really need to get back onto some other projects next, especially now that I've readied a painting area again.

I think the efforts have paid off in the kitbashing. It's all gone relatively smoothly, and nothing looks too out of place. The silhouette is still obviously of the Leviathan model, but as I'm unlikely to get another one anytime soon then it's still going to be fairly unique within my collection.

-- silly painter.

 

Legion Imperialis - Tarantulas

 

Turret Defense!

For these weapon platforms, sentry guns, whatever, there's not a whole lot different from before. Certainly nothing revolutionary, just trying to fix some mistakes and add a whole bunch of new ones.

The starting point with these weapons (four in total, just double up on what's shown) was Typhon Ash to serve as an undercoat, and Terradon Turquoise over that. The Typhon Ash seems to have some kind of grainy problem: I checked airflow, checked it was properly thinned and mixed, enough flow improver, but somehow it was hitting the model like flecks of sand. I don't mean it was dry when it came out the airbrush, I mean it was like adding small flecks of sand to a thinner medium and airbrushing that, with the result being a very grainy appearance across the surface. Spray primers have a more even coverage. Next time I'm going to add a drop of white ink to see if that will smooth things out. As it is I needed a couple of passes with Terradon Turquoise, which in turn darkened the base colour more than I'd have liked.

I also worked with the edge highlighting using Gauss Blaster Green again, but I think I can do better. I'll try to edge highlight with white before the turquoise and see if that makes any difference. I can always go back over them again if not.

Not worrying about volumetric highlights of any kind was a big help to these models. They're so small that they just don't need it: the edge highlights are sufficient to help with definition. A top-down approach with the airbrush will give some gradient in places anyway for next to no effort.

These models were given a gloss varnish and then gently covered with a Black Legion Contrast mixed with acrylic flow improver wash, which really helps with all the definition. It could have been a slightly darker wash so next time I'll try play with the ratio of contrast paint to flow improver.

Lastly, always dry fit to the bases before just blindly gluing these models on. The bases aren't always even, and not all of the feet might make contact with the base properly. Just worth keeping that in mind.

-- silly painter.