Fligg WIP

[Fligg]

Hey everyone. New to this forum and relatively new to mini painting. Been slowly painting and learning to paint WH40k for a little over a year now. I originally got the mini itch when I was about 12 years old, but most players in my community at that time were adults, so, because the social gap was so big, eventually I moved on to other things. Now I'm in my 30s and have picked it up again! Youtube painting channels have been so, so helpful in my learning. I'm getting closer to having enough minis to play Kill Team with a Death Guard force. So, that's my long term goal at the moment.

The current project I'm working on is a box of three Plague Marines (the easy-build kind). I've based and washed all three, but am finishing the details on the first one before I add details to the other two, so that I have a finished model to guide me while I detail them, or any future DG models I paint up.

Here's a few pics. I'm sorry about the poor lighting, and will try to add another light source in future pics to avoid any shadows. I just wanted to get these first few pics up, though, because I had a few moments and have been wanting to start a thread so I can start communicating with more painters.









I used the image editing tool on my iPhone to adjust some of the images because they were taken in a very warm light. Again, I'll try to fix the lighting situation for next time.

The white stuff where the backpack and arm should be is just sticky tack for posters that I'm keeping there while I paint those two parts in sub-assemblies. The last thing I painted on the mini was the nodules/pustules on the tentacles, and before that the tentacles in general. I went with a diluted blue ink to frame each nodule, and now I'll probably layer them up into either a bright grey or bright blue, like a Verdigris.

The general impression I'm gong for with this mini, and hopefully with my future DG models, is a grim-darkish feel but one that also uses color accents. Much of my influence comes from 2-3 other painters whom I'm using for inspiration, so I can post those images, or provide links, if others would like to understand my jumping off point.

I welcome comments and criticism, but I am a new painter, so I may sometimes ask for clarification on things you say.


Thanks!

[Graishak]

Hi there and welcome to the forum :-)
I like the shiny colours you've chosen for the tentacles.
And don't worry about the pile of shortcuts, which is used here - you'll get to know.

The I-Phone camera might be already sufficient in standard mode. You should consider more about the surrounding light to have a better view on the details.

[Fligg]

Thanks for the welcome Graishak. Yours was the first WIP thread I previewed and I'm inspired by how consistent and prolific a painter you are. It'd be nice if I can up my consistency and experimentation to even a degree of that amount. It's tough when you don't have that many minis lying around as guinea pigs. Although I do have a few now that I think about it....

The tentacles are the most surprising part of the mini for me so far. At first I painted them a dark, muddy purple, thinking it would fit the grim-dark theme I was going for. But they looked so boring, so the second time I found a vid from Citadel on painting the skin of a Foetid Bloat drone. At first it worked out, but when I got to the layering it failed to translate correctly. Finally I found a video on painting tentacles, and made 1-2 slight adjustments, one of which was the deep blues. What I'm beginning to learn is how less muddy colors can actually benefit a "grim-dark" impression when used carefully.

As for the lighting, I need to find a lamp that casts a wider light, as the bulb on mine is very small. Or I could try taking pics outside, at the golden hour.

[gorb]

Nice work, I like the deep purples on those tentacles.

[ekipage]

I also like the colors you got for the tentacles! As for the lighting, you can always just pick up a small desk lamp and daylight bulb to help with the light at first and shouldn't cost you that much.

[Fligg]

Thanks for the feedback so far everyone! I'm gonna make an effort to check out the work of my commenters. It's honestly been a rough couple of weeks so my energy hasn't always been there for painting at the end of the day. Alas, we trudge, onward!

Updates since last post:

- Final touches on the tentacles: Shading, veins, nodules, and highlights on the raised parts.
- Re-did the blends on the bone fragments (or tried to; wasn't satisfied with how the blending came out here, but it'll do for now).
- Began the OSL effect on the goggles. During the final stages I will add glow in peripheral areas.
- Touched up the intestinal piping on the backpack to match the color of the other pipes.
- Started to layer the grenade rounds underneath the weapon. Not quite sure about the deep blue color here. It's difficult to chose between colors when you are going for a grim-dark scheme and want to keep your palette from getting too diverse, but still want a touch of variety.

I've also included photos of the sub-assemblies this time. EDIT: Try as I might, I couldn't get the second and third photos to post in their rotated state. Anyone got any ideas why this might have happened?















One of my bigger concerns thus far is that I did not make the helmet and upper areas of the model as bright as they should have been. This was a novice mistake that occurred during the blending process, I think. I tried to transition to a brighter color too quickly, and then realize I should've started slightly brighter in the first place. At that point I just said 'screw it.'

Next up: Finishing the grenade canisters, highlights on armor, weapons, and accessories, then adding battle damage and corrosion

[gorb]

This looks awesome, disgustingly dirty. Well done!

About the upper areas not being light enough: the glowy goggles look great, and really draw the attention, so I reckon don't sweat it.

As for the rotated images: this topic always comes up. CMON's forum software was written at some point just before the dinosaurs went extinct. As such, it does not parse or use the EXIF information in your photos.
What is EXIF information? Glad you asked, it is about to get nerdy...
EXIF allows the camera to store metadata in the image. In your case most likely, your camera is always saving the image in "landscape" mode, but because the camera can tell that you were holding it sideways when taking the photo,
it writes a little bit of information into the metadata on the image saying something like "File.orientation: Rotate CW 90", which should inform anything else down the track to
1) load the image data and
2) then rotate it 90 degrees clockwise
before displaying it.
Still with me? So CMON's software ignores all that and displays the image data as-is in, and therefore it comes out looking rotated.

tl;dr CMON doesn't care about image metadata, and always displays images as-is.

To fix this, you can either
a) always take images by holding your camera in landscape, or
b) you need to manually rotate the image and then throw away the EXIF data.
To do (b), import the image the way you want in a software photo editor (such as GIMP), and then re-save the image, but (very important!) without any EXIF data, by unclicking the checkbox next it.

Personally, I se a command line operation to strip away the exif data altogether, and I almost always use a service such as Imgur to upload my files, and then display them on here using
img tags. Imgur takes care of any metadata rotation, from what I can tell.
But that is a topic for another day. Or send me a PM if you want more of this kind of info.

[Fligg]

Thanks gorb. I'll give that a shot next post.

[Fligg]

Hey all. Thanks for tuning in. A couple more updates on the Plague Marine models:

1. Highlights on the armor (not yet on the weapon, or other metallic parts).
2. Battle damage on the armor.
3. Re-painted the grenade canisters in Flouro green. You can't see it much on the images, though.
4. Added corrosion on the chain mail.

The pics will come in a second. But first, I have a funny story about number 4, the chain mail. This was my first time working with raw pigments. I bought a couple of rust-colored ones from Secret weapon, and was recommended their pigment fixer by one of the store managers. I'd never worked with them before, but I knew I needed a fixer so I said what the hell and bought it. The bottle was about the size of a small Tylenol bottle.

First I decide I'm going to experiment with the technique of adding fixer to the pigment while its still in the palette, and then adding that solution to the model in certain areas. I'd learned from how-to videos that this can produce a fluid look to the rust, better for small recesses, etc where the corrosion has less pronounced texture. So I look at the top of the bottle, and - lo and behold - it already has a dropper mechanism on it. It's a bit different from those on the eye-dropper size of their paints and washes, but its also a larger size. So, I turn the bottle upside down to drop a little out into some pigment I've added to my palette, but none comes out. I apply a small to moderate amount of pressure to the plastic bottle, and then some came out....

All of it. WOOSH. My palette, my brushes, the whole right side of my workspace is soaked in this stuff. I jumped up in shock and almost immediately started trying to figure out what the hell had happened. It didn't take me long, as upon examining the bottle I realized that the "dropper" part of the bottle was actually just a plastic stopper for the liquid. It looks like a dropper because its shape is concave with a thin, upright cylinder in the center, apparently designed so that it can be grabbed and pulled out from the middle. After cleaning up, I repeatedly damned the salesman and the company for their design and endorsement. Funny thing is, when the store guy sold it to me he said "It doesn't look like a whole lot, but this bottle is enough to last you for the rest of your life."

Luckily, in the end, there was just enough fixer left in the bottle to siphon some up with an eye dropper and place it in my palette for use on the chain mail rust. It does actually work well, in fact. Its just the top that's deceptive.

Anyway, if you buy Secret Weapon's Pigment Fixer, just beware the top. Here's some pics now.





Next up I am going to be continuing with the battle damage on the weapon and metal parts, as well as at least a few bits of damage on the back of the legs. Then, adding rust and corrosion to the rest of the fig. After that, I may add bone striations, and lastly the OSL stuff.

[gorb]

Awesome work! Sorry to hear about the fixer explosion, and thanks for sharing your experience so we can learn from it
Again, I really like the desaturated weathered look of the armor in contrast with his glowing eyes and bright purple tentacle flesh. The blue dots just pop against that dark background.

[bullfrog]

The dark armour of your deathguard really lets the fantastic purple/pink tentacles stand out. It also makes the eyes appear to be glowing. I feel you on your run in with the fixer bottle. I had a similar incident with a Fluor orange acrylic vs my cream coloured carpets. Let’s just say the carpet lost.

[BloodASmedium]

Very nice work on this mr fig-

[Fligg]

Thanks all for your comments. Each helps me keep truckin' along. Glad I didn't spill flouro paint, for sure.

Gorb and Bullfrog: The contrast of the armor with the tentacles is also what I've come to like about the fig as well. I do also hope that the larger pustules on the armor help to create some common ground between the tentacles and armor, because too much contrast makes a fig look imbalanced. Do you think there's any of this imbalance going on? Or that it would help to add some kind of slight color to the larger pustules? Perhaps a faint blue in the center of some, much like the tentacles?

In any case, I think the contrast gives the character a kind of hermit-crab impression, as though it is could easily crawl out of that armor and find another armored, deadly home on whatever wasteland it inhabits. I quite like the idea that the Death Guard appear humanoid in their armor, when underneath they are much more amorphous.

I've been a little sloppy with some of the highlights, and I may try to edit 1-2, but I'm painting this for a tabletop use, not display, so I'm gonna leave most of 'em as is.

[Dexter0015]

Welcome to the forum Fligg (I'm not late, I'm not late...).

GREAT work on this mini, really digg the grim-dark look.

The highlights you added in the last update are a real plus.

I'm looking forward to see more.

[Fligg]

It's been a while since my last update. I've gotten a bit slow with the painting lately because there's been a lot of other stuff on my plate. Also, painting is not always the most social activity (especially under these pseudo-quarantine conditions), and since my job is also not very social, I've needed to dedicate some time to keeping ties with others.

Anywho, the fig itself is essentially finished now. There are 1-2 minor details which still could use attention, but my main focus from here on out will be varnishing and basing the mini. I will also be basing my 9 other cultist minis along with this one, so hopefully in my next update I can present them together.

Here are the pics of my additions over the past few weeks. I won't go over all of them, but the major ones include various weathering effects, adding visual interest to the weapon, dust accumulation on the lower parts of the model (red dust, though I may slightly modify the color depending on how the base turns out), and OSL effects.

[Dexter0015]

disgustingly good. Well done!

[gorb]

Wow, this is a beautiful job Fligg! I love all the rich colors. Can't wait to see the rest of his band.

[Graishak]

I love vibrant colouring. You nailed it!

[ekipage]

Love how those tentacly bits really stand out from the body, great choice of color.

[Fligg]

Time for another update. The bases of my Plague Marine and his cultists friends are finished. Unfortunately, the pics I've taken so far don't do them as much justice as I'd like because the warmth of light they were taken under detracts from any visible variety or nuances in the colors of the sand. I'll be uploading a few other pics of just the bases later to see if they're any better. Also, I tried to take pics of them all together in a cohesive unit, but I don't yet have a good enough space with decent light for that. I need to buy a better lamp for painting, because mine kinda sucks, and figure out a better photo situation.

The bases are meant to set the whole army in a region of vast rust-desert wastes. I used a variety of paint and materials: Martian Ironcrust technical paint for the initial ground layer, and then AK Interactive Desert Sand building material for the gradations in terrain, sometimes on top of stacked cork for easier height. I also placed some skulls on a few of the bases, and then got some fine dirt and pebbles for variously sized rocks. On Cultist 6 I used old sprues for the wooden debris, and a wood chip for the larger boulder. I also used some Secret Weapon raw pigments and dry-brushed my own mix of bright oranges for a final highlight.

Hope you like them! (I still have to add pigment to the feet of the cultists to make it look like their boots are sandy).

Plague Marine with Blight Launcher


Cultist 1


Cultist 2


Cultist 3


Cultist 4


Cultist 5


Cultist 6


Cultist 7


Cultist 8


Cultist 9 (no base yet)