dgelon - Getting back into things WIP

[dgelon]

Long time lurker and long time painter.

I've been painting minis for years, always following the same pattern. I'll paint alot. My skills will get decent (very competent tabletop level but far from brilliant) and I'll stop painting for years and start back up again. I always seem to hit a wall and stop and I always paint in a vacuum, seldomly sharing my minis. I'd like to stop that and become a better painter so I'm starting up again and starting a thread where I'm going to post some works in progress. Hopefully this will keep me going and I am looking for C&C. I'm starting this thread with a troll I did a while ago and one of the Dungeon and Doggies kickstarter minis I did for the facebook contest.

[ekipage]

Welcome and nice painting. For the Troll, I would maybe recommend a flesh tone on its arms, stomach and chest instead of just the stark white (maybe have it more flesh tone fading to white in the center of those spots) but it still looks good to me.
The Dungeons and Dogs figure looks really good, maybe dirty up the paws towards the bottoms a little as the white seems too clean to me on its' paws

[dgelon]

Welcome and nice painting. For the Troll, I would maybe recommend a flesh tone on its arms, stomach and chest instead of just the stark white (maybe have it more flesh tone fading to white in the center of those spots) but it still looks good to me.

Thank you. On the troll I was using a baby frog picture for the color reference and it was that cool white in the reference but I totally agree that it feels "off". I have a different troll that I'm adding to my queue now that I'll be using the same colors but I'm going to try an intermediate flesh color between the green and the white - I'm looking forward to trying this.

[dgelon]

Next on the bench are these 2 Protectrons from Mophidius' Fallout game. I'm just starting to base coat. I want the finals to have chips and distressing - I haven't done alot of scifi minis and I've done no distressing. If anyone out there has some advice or can point me to some good tutorials on metal distressing I would be grateful.

[SaintToad]

Welcome! Probably the easiest way to start chipping, and I think it would work well on those figures, would be to use a piece of foam from a blister pack and judiciously use it to dab on some dark brown paint. You can add some more orange-y tones inside of that if you like to give it some more life. As far as other weathering, you can get good results with standard washes, putting them selectively at the top or bottom and pulling a little out into the open areas. Streaks look nice. You can, of course, use other products, too.
I like the dog, by the way.

[KruleBear]

Welcome to the forum. You are off to a great start with your current tabletop skill.

[CyAniDe]

Welcome from me as well

The dog looks quite impressive already. Really like the glass! It's quite hard to paint and get the effect right.

On the troll I was using a baby frog picture for the color reference

Very good approach! I guess you looked at reference for the glass as well ? Very important in my opinion and I'm training myself as well to look for more reference. It really helps a lot to understand light, contrast and stuff like that. Didn't do it for a long time and just painted but using more reference and searching for things in there really helps a lot.

Like Krule said, you're at a great level to start out for more

and I am looking for C&C

You're not looking for Command & Conquer are you ? ^^ xD (I'm usually quite creative figuring out abbreviations but this one I dont get ^^)

[dgelon]

Thanks CyAniDe,

I tend to agonize over color choices and try to find reference or a already painted mini to copy color themes from.
As for the glass bottles, those were actually the first glass bottles I've painted, I found 2 how to paint glass bottle tutorial videos on youtube which I adapted parts of. I'm just about to start my first chipping based off youtube tutorials and SaintToad's advice (wish me luck).

Also by C&C I mean comments and critique.

[dgelon]

No excuses now - time to do the weathering and chipping.

[Shrinekeeper]

Excited to see how the weathering comes out on that mini, keep up the good work.

[dgelon]

Finally done. I don't know how successful I was but overall I'm happy (and happy I finished something). There are some sloppy bits but man distressing is fun to do! I'll have to do some more of it in the near future.

[Shrinekeeper]

I’m no master artist as you can tell from my thread and attempts at painting. However I really like the weathered look and feel like they’ve been around for a while.

[dgelon]

Thank you Shrinekeeper

[gorb]

The weathering came out great!
The little glowy bits on the arms are very well done.

[Hairster]

From what I can see on here so far you have all the essential skills nailed down.

Clean paint placement
Understanding of tonal ranges and highlights/shadows
Painted chipping and weathering

If you want to push on further I'd suggest looking at the following -

Look into the principals of zenithal lighting and applying them to your next model to create a more natural approach to the lighting

Ensure you keep you paints nice and thin

Working to increase the levels of contrast between dark and light in your tonal ranges - dont be afraid to end with white as you top highlight on knuckles, elbows, wrinkles etc.

Think about what other factors may be at play on your flesh tones eg. on your troll...would he have a slighty red nose tip? would his knees, knuckles and elbows be rough, grazed and reddened? Would the recessed of his armpits be slightly darker than the rest of his body. Some of these things can easily be achieved with super thin glazes or red, or violet paint

Take it one step at a time, keep watching videos and looking at others work and you'll progress quickly.

[dgelon]

Thank you, that sounds like a good road map. One of my biggest problems I’m having now is controlling edges on washes forming edge lines when drying. Any advice (from anyone)?

[Hairster]

What are you useing to make your glazes/washes?

If its mainly water then the surface tension within the water can sometimes leave a rigid line on washes/glazes. You can prevent this by just being diligent when you wash/glaze and going back over the edges to soften the transitions.

Alternatively, I usually mix with a little water but mainly glaze medium which helps soften the edges and prevent the watermarking....some other people add a tiny amount of detergent to their water to break the surface tension as well.

[dgelon]

It’s just been water. I do have some mediums but never tried them. I’m going to have to now.

BTW the green glows on your skaven bases are glorious!

[Hairster]

Give them a try they are far more managable as they maintain the consistency of the paint but just reduce the amount of pigment to liquid (medium) ratio. You can also add some flow improver as well which keeps things from drying so quickly allowing you to move the glaze around more.

Just going back to your Fallout robot/droids, take a look into AK interactive or MIG ammos ranch of enamel streaking paints if you plan to do more, they will give you a far more controllable way of applying the stains and rust streaks in future. You can apply a tiny dot of them and then use some enamel thinners to drag them down creating super realistic rust streaks from you painted chips etc.

https://www.migjimenez.com/en/streak...t-effects.html

[Lone Lemming]

One of my biggest problems I’m having now is controlling edges on washes forming edge lines when drying. Any advice (from anyone)?

Give a try to the oil wash? We discussed it recently on topic http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/...DaBeeb-s/page2, but you can also check the following videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQHUU9YD4PQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n42KAvoQBlI

The Vallejo chipping medium/oil wash combo is my recent favorite for mechanical constructs...