Demihuman's DemiWIP

[Demihuman]

Hi Everyone!

I am starting a WIP to post up some of my progress and motivate myself to finish stuff. I have really been having a lot of fun following the WIP threads on here so now I want to play too. My goal is to get an "8" in the gallery (I know I can do it!) I am shooting for a post a week on the DemiWip and a post a month in the gallery. I have a lot of unfinished projects and I would rather see them finished to a table-top standard then have them sitting around half done. So hopefully if I push myself to post more I will get them cleaned out the and mini's will realize their destiny of gaming or display action! Plus this way I can rant and give out half-baked advice on my own thread instead of other peoples

Right now i am mainly working on two things. 1. Enigma's Old Death for The Australian Bushfire Appeal ( here is the thread, check it out: http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/...ushfire-Appeal ) and 2. a Dragon diorama that I want to paint for my baby boy's room for Christmas and then maybe enter in the Reaper forums painting contest.

Here's what I have so far, a base started for Old Death, I am still waiting, patiently, for the fig in the mail. this picture looks a little flattened out. there i s a bit of a hill there that the stones are going up. I want to put some green stuff on the tree. Then I will prime, paint, add some flock and grass and leaves and paint a little more.




Here is the Grenadier Dragon of the Month Dragon I am painting and my start for his base. The base is sturdy but the edges of the press board are a little too papery for my taste. I am thinking I am going to cover this whole thing with bondo (which i happen to have a ton of) and then file and sand it to the shape i want. That will also let me integrate the rock the dragon is standing on.





Here is my Awesome Garage in a pretty rare state of disarray

[Zab]

Nice start. I like that base, and the other one too. Good call on the bondo. It was a real pain to integrate Maleficent onto her base. Should have done it up front. I really hate hindsight. It's like he knows something I don't, but after I do it. That dragon is awesome! Those aren't scales are they? It's gonna take you a long time to paint all of them individually...

[Demihuman]

Zab! My first guest! Welcome!

No scales. He has bumps like a toad. I am hoping I can use washes to paint him.

I ditched the bondo and used a slurry of... wait for it... spackling compound. I am going to wait for that to dry and coat it with either pva glue out of the air brush or maybe some acrylic sealer. Hopefully that will be tough enough to dry brush over without the edges crumpling. Then I'll just use magic sculpt or green stuff to get the transition from fig to base.

[wargamesculptor]

Nice bases Demihuman ! Is spackling compound like Polyfilla as you can get some great texture in it with a decorating brush. Shall watch this thread with interest, nice workshop

[Demihuman]

Thanks WarGameSculpter!


Ok, here is my posting for October. These guys started about 4 years ago with a salt mask, (as described in this Legendary thread: http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/...highlight=salt -yeah I might have set my sights a little high) The salt was to give the yellow some texture and add battle damage. It worked great but guess what? The yellow wasn't yellow enough and looked kinda green. So, I went back in with orange, then brown, then I redid the yellow and it still looked bad so I redid that. Then the green looked washed out so I redid that then i read an article about using complementary colors so I shaded the green with purple to match the yellow. Well, that didn't work and so on and on. Needless to say, there is a lot of paint on these guys. I did learn that yellow hates you. I mean yellow is really is not your friend. You see yellow and you think "sun" and "flowers" but the yellow is thinking "F$@K YOU, STUPID HOBBYIST" I do have some more orcs to paint and that yellow will be done with an air brush or a can of krylon. Give me a vote! (even a "1" - looking at you, first voter.)

[Zab]

Y U arr so mad at yell -o? It look nize. Red wunz go fazta tho!!!

[Demihuman]

Oh here is the vote link http://www.coolminiornot.com/344333

Zab, the yellow is hard to paint and hard to photograph.

[Demihuman]

So glad to get those orcs off my plate! It's like I am starting a new chapter of mini painting!

Okay, so i am trying to figure out how to paint my dragon. I got him primed last night. He is labeled as a storm dragon on the box and I want to be true to that. I am thinking blue for the basic color with either a lighter blue for the belly or maybe a beige with some orange in it or a maybe real deep rust/sepia color. I am going to make some test pallets and put them up here and hopefully I will get some solid feedback.

Did you see this write up: http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/...585#post710585 ? I think I want to use washes to paint the dragon and this looks like it is the ticket. I bought some Liquitex matte medium and did an experiment and it worked really great! Nice deep color with no tide marks!

Here is my test fig for the washes. Pretty good for 20 minutes of work right?



Oh, here is the dragon base ready for some primer. I ended up giving it several coats of some water thinnable acrylic wood varnish I had in the garage over the spackle slurry. Came out pretty sturdy but I did lose some texture:




And here is the Australia relief base with some pumpkins I sculpted out of green stuff and electrical wire. I am waiting to get the mini before I place the pumpkins. I might also add a tombstone but I need to see the mini on there first. I am going to go check the mail right now. :-)

[Canny]

Awesome work there, love the Nob Mob they are awesome your work paid off with the yellow!

[Demihuman]

Awesome work there, love the Nob Mob they are awesome your work paid off with the yellow!

Thanks! That means a lot to me

[Zab]

A lot on the go there. It's all looking good. What do you want to bet you finish your dragon before I finish mine? If i finish mine...again.~sigh~

[moetle]

I agree, they look really good! I dig the pink lips. Looking forward to your dragon.

[Demihuman]

Ok, I am hammer and tongs on the Dragon. Here is what I am thinking about for my pallet. I might just copy the Nautaloid but invert it. With beige shaded through orange to brick red for the belly and the body white to electric blue to deep dark ocean night, with some amethyst accents. The colors for the base are along the bottom. Hopefully Chrispy will swing by and explain it to me



Some inspiration:

[Zab]

I like the desert because of the neutral which will give the eye a sec to rest, but the space type one has a lot of merit due to the potential for OSL and play time with dayglow paints or pigments!

[Demihuman]

Thanks Moetle!

Zab, I thought you were done, or at least pretty close? I think the space looking pic is a ski resort at night with some serious processing. Neat pic huh? I am thinking about adding some OSL crystals around the base much like your fire. I want to keep it as an option though, in case I run out of time. On the other hand, I think neutral tones are something i ignore too often and I really like that under exposed yellow rock for my base.

[Dragonsreach]

I'm preferring the Desert one as well, a reduced visual strain.
But I would suggest that, like the photo, you keep the edges darker and provide a "pooling" effect where your Dragon's going to sit.

[Demihuman]

[QUOTE=Dragonsreach;710746 I would suggest that, like the photo, you keep the edges darker and provide a "pooling" effect where your Dragon's going to sit.[/QUOTE]


DR! thanks for visiting my WIP! this^^ is a good call. Pooling the light will let me control the focus on the relatively giant diorama and also hopefully convey the night feeling I am going for. And if I have time to go back with some magic crystals maybe I can do more of a toned down obsidian look.

Dragonsreach, I am following your suggestion from a previous thread and giving myself deadlines on projects. Well, 'deadline' might be a little strong but I want to try and post something once a month and then once it is posted I will move on. I love starting projects and I love finishing projects but I tend to get bogged down in the middle. (the whole "painting" part, lol) I am hoping that posting what i am working on at the end of the month will make me stream line my process a little more. No more late night frustrated washes, or attacks with a tooth brush and dish soap. So really this is my December project. With the Australia Bush Fire Relief being the November entry.

[Chrispy]

Ok, I am hammer and tongs on the Dragon. Here is what I am thinking about for my pallet. I might just copy the Nautaloid but invert it. With beige shaded through orange to brick red for the belly and the body white to electric blue to deep dark ocean night, with some amethyst accents. The colors for the base are along the bottom. Hopefully Chrispy will swing by and explain it to me

Who summons me!?

If you're looking at this for inspiration, you initial colors are almost spot-on for color theory. Except, if you're using (Vallejo Blue or Royal Blue which are pretty close to the sky here you need to remember they are actually dark blue-purples. So, instead of beige and brick red, you'll want to use a more red-orange like Light Orange mixed with white (which mimics the little bit of orange in the pic in the little "valley"). This should balance out pretty good, but if you're insistent on red, then the blue will need to be more dark cyan- which would be Payne's Grey ...that almost no mini paint manufacturer makes- arrgh! Luckily, about 2 parts Andrea Blue and 1 part black will do in a pinch. This will make a more sombre type of color, and not the bright night sky look.
Hope this helps!

[Demihuman]

Who summons me!?

Haha! Awesome! I started on the base without your sage advice and got a little carried away with some burnt umber ink I had kicking around in the back of the drawer. I did try to keep my orange present but it got lost in a sort of Afrika Corps/Chocolate Brownie Apocalypse:




The next step i have planned is some dry brushing up from brown through orange to an off white high light. But maybe I should do a wash of deep cyan mixed with some nearly black purple? I am thinking Reaper Deep Ocean 09076 mixed with the excellent Nightshade Purple 09022?

[Demihuman]

Okay after some hiccups I am starting to paint the dragon. I am doing a very light base coat on the belly with Reaper Golden Highlight just like the Nautaloid. And base coating the rock she is perched on with a 1:1 mix of Reaper Shadowed Stone and Lava orange.Then I gave her a wash with the Liquitex matte medium, and about 2:1 Reaper Amethyst
to Linen White. Also I decided she is a she.




A note about 5 minute epoxy: I think you need to mix up at least about 3/4 of a CC or you run the risk of it not hardening completely. This is easy to spot when your dragon wing starts to flap.