Arkaan - WIP

[ekipage]

Great work on these Necromunda figures. Kria looks fantastic and that green armor is looking great on Belladona

[Graishak]

Thumbs up for the huntress!!!

[Hairster]

You are prolific on these Necromunda and Warcry pieces, and all to an excellent standard.

Love that squad of Unmade....really nice painting and quick - that would take me months to achieve.

[Sik Willy]

Wonderful work Arkaan!!! I love the grittiness of your unmade, I need to get on a warcry warband myself! I may use yours as inspiration... love the gangers too, the freehand on your paneling and the geeen on belladonna looks wonderful!

[Arkaan]

Thank You all for the support! You should know that all that comments keep me going!


Hairster this is a great compliment for me as I greatly admire You work. I'm also sure that Yours would look much better with this months of painting At this point I just keep my painting as a daily routine for about 2hr per day. And I'm craving my paint style for quick but effective


Thanks Sik Willy! That's awesome to inspire someone to paint more minis!




And some update on Belladonna, I'm struggling with her hair and I'm close to just let them be as they're now.



I've also tried some sharpen filter on those pics to see if I can improve in that area. Because my DSLR makes them always blurry whaterver I do



Tell me what do You think guys.

[Lone Lemming]

She is beautiful!

I've also tried some sharpen filter on those pics to see if I can improve in that area.

Are you using any extension tube or macro lense?

[Arkaan]

Are you using any extension tube or macro lense?

No macro lense and no extension, just stock Olympus E-510. I might found the issue though.
I've changed AF-S-M to AF-S and there're photos without sharpen filter (photos are also at F8 rather that F22, but I will try at higher F later):

[Lone Lemming]

I think you should consider an extension tube, I am using a 12mm one for smaller miniatures, it made the mini much more sharper.

[gorb]

Wow, the metal shading looks great! Great work in general.

As for photographing sharper images of minis, I'm slowly switching from my DSLR to my phone camera.
I find it takes better pictures, especially so close up.

Keep in mind the shorter your exposure time and the larger your aperture, the smaller your depth of field will be.
So the front of the mini can be in focus, while the rear can be out of focus. This is visible in your pcitures...
If I could suggest making sure you use a tripod, and closing your aperture as far as you can (yes, higher F-stop) while using a low to medium ISO to avoid noise.

[Graishak]

Armour and weapons looking awesome!
Suggesting to put some contrast to the hair.
Diluted black into the deeps and maybe some very light turquoise
on the highs could fit nicely to the green armour)

If you would share some Know-how about the bolts at the axe
I‘d highly appreciate.

[Arkaan]

Lone Lemming, I will try to get right extension tube for my camera in reasonably price but I'm not sure the ones available will be compatible.

gorb, I always have that in mind! Just had problems with this AF. I'm not sure how different metering methods works but I'll keep on learning

Graishak, yesterday I wasted most of my evening tempering with those hair and I'm back to square one. I thing I'll paint something different today and try later.
As for the bolts, this is complicated... Because I remember that not so long ago I couldn't paint thin lines and even now there are times i just fail. For starters You need to experiment with consistency, brush load and brushes. Good quality kolinsky sable 1 brush and airbrush flow improver are really helpfull. paint must be really really thin. And there must be proper amount of paint in the bristles, not too much, not too little. As for pattern it's not so hard, after few tries it should look pretty good, just look up some lightning photos maybe, and then start from wider core to the thinner and thinner brunches trying. And You dont need the brush to paint straight line! The shakier the better Just try to lower the bristle pressure as You go from Core to the end of Lightning.
I hope this is somewhat readable

[SaintToad]

Very nice job with Belladonna. Though the color scheme is bright & powerful, it still looks cohesive.

[ekipage]

If you would share some Know-how about the bolts at the axe I‘d highly appreciate.

Graishak, another option is to get acrylic ink, such as Daler-Rowney, such as this:http://www.daler-rowney.com/content/fw-artists-inks
Just mix this ink with your paint, maybe 2:1 or 3:1 ink to paint ratio. The ink works as a thinner and you can get really fine lines (depending on brush used)

[Arkaan]

Thanks SaintToad!

ekipage, I also must try that, especially that I have exactly this ink in my stock

Here're some pics of another wip

[ekipage]

Nice, is that the half-life symbol on the chest? I like the orange-yellow look.
Yeah, you may want to play with the ratios of ink to paint, but at least 1:1 maybe a little more ink. Just remember to touch the brush to a towel or what ever you use to remove excess moisture and obviously use an ink that is similar in color to what you want the line colors to be. I believe Vince Venturella has some videos about it on his youtube channel so he probably explains it a bit better

[Arkaan]

Yes, it's Half-Life lambda symbol And this is Gordon Freeman mini with HEV suit similar to HL1 design. Next I'll paint Gordon freeman from HL2

This mini is from Hardcore Miniatures, and HL2 version will be from Klukva Miniatures. Both of them have awesome resin models of game characters. Top notch quality.

[Graishak]

Graishak, yesterday I wasted most of my evening tempering with those hair and I'm back to square one. I thing I'll paint something different today and try later.
As for the bolts, this is complicated... Because I remember that not so long ago I couldn't paint thin lines and even now there are times i just fail. For starters You need to experiment with consistency, brush load and brushes. Good quality kolinsky sable 1 brush and airbrush flow improver are really helpfull. paint must be really really thin. And there must be proper amount of paint in the bristles, not too much, not too little. As for pattern it's not so hard, after few tries it should look pretty good, just look up some lightning photos maybe, and then start from wider core to the thinner and thinner brunches trying. And You dont need the brush to paint straight line! The shakier the better Just try to lower the bristle pressure as You go from Core to the end of Lightning.
I hope this is somewhat readable

Thanks for this - Will give it a try next time I have a mini with a nice weapon ;-)

[ekipage]

Okay, thought the figure looked familiar. SHould have guessed with the lambda symbol from half-life. Did you get a chance to try the ink/paint mix?

[gorb]

Looking good there! The only gripe I have with your Gordon figure is that shotgun... it should be a crowbar

[Arkaan]

ekipage I didn't for now, I need some test subject As for the Ink itself I bought it with intention of soft smooth zenithal airbrushing. But it turn out I have a tiny bent at the end of my airbrush needle and need to get a new one.

gorb I know, I know.... I just picked shotgun because I loved blasting things in the past with it Also for my base concept. And because if I glued crowbar hand I would need to give him second hand with a flashlight. And I didn't want to paint a flashlight xD The second one will be with crowbar.

And here's the base concept.