Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part IV

 

Fear me, for I have a big hammer.

In the background I've been working on the Karlaen kitbash, just as I feel like it. I was originally going to paint metallics, but decided to try NMM on this model as well just for the fun of it.

The recipes are no different from more recent explanations, so I won't bother going over them again here. The gold is a little different on the actual model; colour balancing of the photo isn't quite right, and the reflection points are brighter and more white. Even so, the gold trim is probably a little too yellow. I use a base of Balthasar Gold with metallics for a reason: I like the darker gold it gives. I'll probably keep going with this for now though, at least on the armour. I may switch it up for the Thunder Hammer, to try replicate the colours of the metallics there.

I really should have left Karlaen off the base until at least the underside of the cape was painted. That's going to be a bit of a nightmare to get to now.

Obviously a lot to go on this model still. I'm not trying to paint it as my "primary" model, but may have to pick up the pace and get it finished by the end of the year, before I lose interest entirely. Better to have the model finished and be slightly unhappy with it, then sitting unfinished and be very unhappy with it.

-- silly painter.

The White Dwarf - Part III (Showcase)

For such a dented axe, it's very clean.

 Before anything else, yes I know an axe like that wouldn't be so bright and shiny and clean. I just wanted to practice NMM and make the blade different to everything else. Also I can't be bothered to proof read this, so apologies for all the spelling & grammar mistakes which no doubt exist.

There's not a whole lot to say really - most of the finishing touches were NMM in some fashion or other, but before that I'll mention the base: Mechanicus Standard Grey (one of my favourite Citadel colours for anything grey) and then just random browns from the palette to make a stone tiled floor. I was originally intending to go with a green base in honour of the time period from which this model comes, but as a dwarf I thought that stone halls in the mountains was a more suitable setting, or some tavern, really anything but fields of grass.

The beard ornamentation uses the same gold as recently tried on the cape of the Blood Angels Praetor, just on a much smaller scale. maybe it's too bright compared to the rest of the model, maybe it attracts too much attention, and yet I think it still fits. It does help draw the eye to the base and view the detail there, giving rise to the scene and story I was going for. Given the overall cooler tones of the beard, and to contrast with the warmer gold, then blue gemstones was really the only option there. Kantor Blue, and then again just whatever was on the palette (I write that a lot, but it's incredibly freeing as a painter to just paint instead of trying to hunt down the "proper" colour to use).

That cloak really would get dirty.

The axe was painted initially with The Fang, and I debated for a while how I would go about shining it up. There were purples at one point (which are faintly visible still), some blues, but in the end I went with....Stegadon Scale Green. Another good choice would be Incubi Darkness, but I was following a recipe from Ph3lan's Miniatures on this one.

• Stegadon Scale Green
• Dawnstone
• Administratum Grey
• White Star (TTC)

There is an awful lot of back & forth with all of that. A lot of glazing, blending, darkening, brightening, mixing, shifting bright spots around.

I looked at Conan the Barbarian artwork to get an idea of how to paint an axe. I figured those people know a lot about light placement, and I could learn from it. One feature I noted was that the edge of the blade wasn't the widest point of bright reflection, but instead the base of the blade. This makes sense as the blade is angled, which makes a natural darker line around it.

The other thought that occurred to me was that instead of placing just bright reflection points, I should consider the metal as bright and consider where to place darker areas. Or maybe a mixture of both. I have more of an understanding of shape in any case, so victory even if not everything NMM lines up properly how the eye would expect.

Also, it really (really!) helps to not try and blend until the basic sketch is done first.

-- silly painter

The White Dwarf - Part II

 

More beer!

Well I haven't finished the model quite as quickly as I would have liked (the usual things got in the way) but there has been some progress and actually it's not that far off from being done.

First and foremost: the beard. Successive passes of Celestra Grey and then Corax White are about it to finish that. I could go whiter if I want, but the real focus was to try highlight in a volume rather than trying to think about individual strands. I think it's turned out well enough that I won't bother to do any more, especially once the ornaments are finished (which will be trimmed with a warm golden tone to balance off against the face).

The green cloak I considered and tried not to highlight too brightly - but equally towards the end I also decided to highlight sharply in places to make it readable. There's a lot which while impressive up close, loses readability from anything further and would make the model a mess. I'm actively trying to work on that. In any case I went for a earthen green instead of anything too bright:

• Vulkan Green
• Loren Forest
• Skarsnik Green / Loren Forest (1:1)
• Athonian Camoshade

If I remember in future I'll get a photo of the back to see the cloak properly.

The wooden haft of the axe is simply Dryad Bark and Baneblade Brown higlights. This model is small, and there was no need for anything further - it simply wouldn't be visible at that scale. This was also done on the helmet, but obviously with a different texture.

The blue garment, of which there is very little, was again simple with Naggaroth Night, Alaitoc Blue, then the latter with white from the palette mixed in. I think I should glaze a deeper blue in at some point, but effort so guess I'll see how I feel later. The purple base is there to give richer shadows, but in the end really isn't visible.

The leather was something that stumped me for a few days. I didn't want a wooden brown, but also wasn't sure how to highlight it. I've been stuck with leathers for a long time, until recently I was reading tips from others and...orange. It actually makes sense with what leather actually is (skin).

• Rhinox Hide
• Nuln Oil, to really define the shapes.
• Squig Orange / Rhinox Hide (just randomly mixed on the palette) to highlight.

I would point out that the sculpt makes this such a joy to do. The natural shapes crafted by the sculptor with presumably green-stuff truly are far superior to anything from a computer program. I suspect the shapes would also be difficult for injection moulding to pull off too, which is probably why some of the made-to-order are still in metal.

Lastly the metals (other than the axe head) are inspired from what I tried with Azrakh, more or less.

• Skavenblight Dinge
• Nuln Oil mostly for the recesses, but also to shade around studs.
• Stormvermin Fur highlights.
• Corax White mixed with the above to edge highlight, or more pure as reflection dots.

I still have some room to add brighter highlight points, which I should probably do in a few places to really sell the effect. I'm otherwise happy enough with the highlight placement and think I'm beginning to get an understanding of NMM (even if I'm still far away from being anything approaching good at it).

With holidays coming up, I'm going to really try hard to finish this model soon - and if nothing else I want to varnish another model at the same time so do need to get a move on, if free time permits.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part V

 

Superhuman murder machines never looked so stylish.

In the background of other projects I've been slowly working on the Praetor, trying to get this model at least to the stage of varnishing. I'm not there quite yet, but I'm very close now. I was working on the White Dwarf when motivation suddenly switched to this model so I just went with the flow.

I've deviated from the reference in a few places just because I felt this fit more with the rest of my Blood Angels, and also for reasons of symmetry, which is one approach to balance out the aesthetic. There are other ways of doing this, but they take a lot more mental effort than I could spare at the time.

Nothing new on the insignia and wing symbols, it's the same as I do across the range, but this time I tried to up the contrast more and make it more readable. Literally the same paints, just highlighting slightly more in places. This works particularly well on detailed sculpts, but less so on simplified designs common to 40k models.

The leather (or what I imagine to be leather) ornamentation took me a while to figure out. I wanted it different to the armour, different to the weapon, different to everything else. It's just Skavenblight Dinge and Stormvermin Fur over black in the end. I didn't want brown leather, but even so something with a brown hint would be suitable - a grey with a hint of brown. Those two paints are my go-to whenever I want that. It doesn't make a big difference in the photo, and even on the actual model it's subtle, but it's enough to be what I was after.

The major addition however is on the cape. I decided to go with an NMM approach to set it apart from the the TMM paints and hopefully depict gold threaded fabric rather than a solid metal lining. I think I like it.

• Rhinox Hide base coat. This will give a warmer gold tone.
• Dwarven Flesh (Two Thin Coats) mixed with the previous colour (it was on the palette) and layered on maybe 70% of the area.
• Tau Light Ochre mixed in and layered over maybe 40% of the area, focusing on the reflection points.
• Yriel Yellow mixed in and glazed over perhaps 15%.
• Dorn Yellow glazed over the final most raised or reflective points.

I didn't use any white, leaving room to still use this formula on hardened surfaces and provide a final spot highlight to really up the contrast. I intend to try that out on a certain other Terminator armoured conversion I'm also working on in the background.

I've started to edge highlight this model, even knowing that I'll need to do so again later. It worked well enough before varnishing on the dreadnought that I figured I'd give it a go here.

-- silly painter.

The White Dwarf - Part I

 

Angry dwarf with beer.

Just as something completely different I opened a very old blister pack of a metal model of the White Dwarf. The main reason is that I wanted something of a "palette" (palate) cleanser before going back to more red armour and Space Marines, and I figured this miniature wouldn't take weeks to paint - assuming I actually have the spare time to paint it.

Initially I was going to prime the model black and then give a Zentihal spray with white to make it easier to see. Then I realised I could just use a different primer. I have a couple of other old rattle cans that are very rarely used, so I picked out The Fang and primed everything. This was somewhat fortunate for later.

There really isn't much in the way of painting done yet. I painted up the face with Two Thin Coats:

• Barbarian Brawn base coat.
• Dwarven Skin highlight.
• Elven Skin (the irony) for a further highlight.

I also had some old Mephiston Red on the palette and mixed that in with the latter two paints to give a subtle red cheeks and nose - either from the cold or from more than a few beers. I used Trooper White on the teeth and the eyes, and the eyes I've already fixed up slightly (although they could use a little more fixing still) from the photo above. That's not a gap in his teeth, that's just the shadows from the lighting, but I may need to correct for it in future too.

Next up is the hair and beard. These obviously need to be white (hence the name of White Dwarf). Painting hair is a tricky thing at the best of times, and white hair is a skill I'm still very much learning. I was at least competent enough to know not to use black or grey tones as the base. I made this mistake on Mephiston (the hair was painted really bad back then, I've learned a thing or two since). I'm actually wanting to go with cooler tones for the most part, framed perhaps by a green cloak, and so it struck me that perhaps a tint of blue as the shadow colour - almost as if perhaps The Fang would be about right. That was lucky!

I painted the hair in The Fang again to cover some areas the primer had missed, and then inspected my paint pots and picked out Celestra Grey. That paint has since turned into a dry paint, but I managed to salvage just enough and with an older Citadel small layer brush-turned-drybrush have coloured it as pictured. I think it's worked well enough so far, but I do need to now turn to more desaturated colours and begin volumetric highlights of the general hair shapes. Painting volume shapes instead of individual hair strands gives a better result I find, just like when (pencil) drawing.

This is an old sculpt, and yet from a painting perspective it feels like the sculptor knew so much more about mini painting and design than anything done today on a computer. The shapes are exaggerated just the right amount to give the right impression at this scale and there's an organic nature to the face, hair, and cloth that just can't be captured with anything more modern. This model is really enjoyable to paint.

-- silly painter.

Paint Rack v2

 

More paint.

Just a quick post on the second iteration of my own paint rack design. There will be a third.

• The major changes are:
• Shorter brackets.
• Some of the L-shaped rails are lower (because the wood is cheaper that way).
• Less space between rows.
• Bottom of frame serves as an extended bracket.

 The lower rails benefits the older Citadel paint pots, but isn't quite as nice for Two Thin Coats or the dropper bottles I used for some things. I have enough for a second paint rack but haven't yet bought L-shaped trim for a third as I'm undecided as to which I'll go for. I have a lot of Citadel paints, but I'll replace many of that range as I go through them with equivalents from other brands. Maybe. On the other hand it's always simple to just put tags in front to know which paint is where. Still some time to decide.

I put more effort into making this paint rack flat so that the wall hanging strips are more equally attached to the wall. The first iteration has some problems here and the strips came away in places. The paint rack is still sturdy and attached to the wall but I ended up using a little bit of glue to make sure it stays that way.

The obvious change to make for a third iteration of the design is that the rows are still further apart than they need to be. They were so far apart before because of the airbrush paint bottles, but now that's not really needed. I think I can squeeze one more row in if I lower each by about 15mm. One row would be shorter than the others, but I don't think that matters overly much. It does mean that the size of paint rack no longer aligns nicely with the lengths of wood I'm purchasing, but right now I have a couple of spare rows anyway and want to make two more racks, so it will even out in the end.

The dimensions I'm using are:

• 2.4m lengths of strip wood.
• L-shaped is 34mm x 34mm preferably. Shorter on one side if desired.
• Rough cut is 15mm thickness, 40mm width.
• Each row approx 40cm in width (I make the frame wood 41cm because I can).
• Height of 60cm.
• "Brackets" about about 20mm cuts from the rough cut strip.

Each row is angled such that the front is 1cm lower than the back. Not much, just enough to make it easier sit the paints in without them falling the wrong way by accident.

Guess I'd better measure up and cut more lengths the next time the weather permits.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought - Part VI (Showcase)

 

"That one. I want to crush that one."

The last of the old school dreadnoughts in my collection is now done. I say that, but it's taking a lot of effort to not put some wear & tear on those power fists - but I'm concerned that if I start there then I won't know where to stop.

There's nothing new painting-wise. It's just edge highlighting over the matt varnish, some metallic highlights to bring back shine there, and a little gloss varnish in places. The edge highlights on the armour were not done with my good brushes and I needed to be more careful after some early mistakes. I've intentionally left the feet without much in the way of edge highlights to make sure most of the attention is drawn to the upper area, predominantly the torso.

Interestingly enough the one part I like the least is the searchlight on the right shoulder. It's just yellow and boring. I don't go back over these sorts of things and instead let them serve as a reminder of what to avoid for future models - really I should just use an orange contrast or something to darken that area and give it some depth.

Some of the decals didn't work as nicely as I would have liked. That's just cheap decals more than anything else. The older ones are susceptible to this kind of thing, and it would've taken a lot more effort to get rid of the translucent outline, so I'm just leaving it. My own printed decal however fits in perfect, and once painted over really does make up for poor free-hand writing skills. Only downside is that I actually need to print them out - and I didn't have "FURY" available, making that a rather poor effort. Maybe I was just wanting the model done my now instead of doing everything proper - there appear to be a lot of "this should have been better" in this reflection.

Some things did turn out rather nicely in the end. The white wings are white, and the contrast paints did their job perfectly. Whether or not it fits in the general aesthetic (generally in my opinion: yes), they turned out just as I wanted them. Scroll colouring was the best I've ever done on the left leg. Experimenting with metallics also worked out nicely - I still have some mastering to do there, but I think an overall improvement compared to just shiny and silver. I also think the colour and value of base balances nicely against the the dreadnought and still looks different enough compared to his brothers. Oh, and there's a little blue gemstone that turned out really well. It just about glows. I like that bit.

-- silly painter.