Toxicant WIPs

[Toxicant]

Dear Reader(s),

I am new here.
started in the 70's by collecting and painting airfix soldiers and modelkits, later on tamiya etc.

In 1984 I was introduced to the world of warhammer and AD&D, then the journey into fantasy models took off.

I try to collect and paint models from different companies.

The painting is something I really struggle with a lot. And I hope that I will be able to learn how to improve here, and enjoy painting again.

Because everything I try seems to go wrong, or really costs me a lot of trouble, which destroys the fun, and in the end I am still not happy with the results to say the least.

I always tend to do things wrong. I have watched and read so many tutorials and tried them but it never works for me.
I also really don't understand color theory and the like.
all in all it's a bit of a mess and has made me depressed on the verge of tears often. so I will probably ask a lot of questions.

anyway here are some pictures on some stuff I have done. and I will post WIPS here inspired by other people and this forum.

I hope it will be a pleasant journey for all of us.

And I made a mess with the pics. my apologies. I don't know how to fix it or remove some that are not properly displayed i.e. on the sides

[ten ball]

Welcome. Love some of those classic minis, well done

[Dexter0015]

Welcome to the forum!


I total get you on the struggle part related to the painting process as I struggle too.
In my case I think the probleme is that I overthink things, and get frustrated when I didn't achieve that I dreamed about.
And strangly enough, I don't have the probleme (or way less anyway) regarding basing/making diorama.
Go figure, but I find building base and dio more easy/natura (almost relaxing) than painting mini.




Anyway, I found you too hard with yourself as I LOVE what I see here.
Don't hesitate to ask anything, there is a lot of really talented painter in here, and I'm sure they would gladly answer your questions and give you some tips.


Plus sharing your WIP projects can be really helpfull as you can get people feedback from the begining.


Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to see more.

[Toxicant]

thank you for the kind words Dexter and Ten Ball

I have several things I am working on, but am stuck with them. will post pics this week. I think the smartest thing is to take one wip/project at a time and see how it goes.

it would be an amazing help if people can give tips and help out. because I get stuck so often with choice of colors , or how to paint or make things.

again thank you for the kind words and encouragement, they really help and make me a happy person, I needed this, thank you.

[Toxicant]

alright now for some wips I am working on at the moment , in several stages of being wip. will focus on one and ask for help and advice if that's ok with you dear people. and from then we continue the journey and I hope it will turn out in a fun experience. I have no idea why some of the pics uploead wrong , being shown from the side. anyone knoews what I am doing wrong ?

[Toxicant]

this is a test subject regarding using an online colorwheel, and it seems to be wrong for me, I dont know why nor understand. I used the dark green as maincolor for the online colorwheel, then looked for 4 colors to use and it came up also with a dark turquise which I then used for the pants, but I don't know, it looks weird? any tips ?

[Toxicant]

ok for the wip/project I would like to focus on. this is a diorama project. I had to clean the undead with detol because a lot of things went wrong, I wanted to add mud to them and did that with AK mud etc, it became a mess, so I had to clean them. I don't know what color scheme to give them now. any ideas for the skin and the clothing on the nighthaunts? the idea is that they emerge from the ground, so I want them dirty with mud on their backs and shoulders, but I dont know how to do this. I was thinking a dark brown for the cloth and the skin a pale beige or something ? as for the necromancer, I don't know how to proceed or if the colors are ok ? how to add more shade and contrast to the clothing, how to proceed. I am also not happy with the cork stairs somehow, something is wrong with it it seems, stones to big ? what can I do to improve that ?thanks for any helps and tips.

[ekipage]

Welcome to the forums, you posted up some really great stuff! I really like that large dio of the cemetery set up.

[Toxicant]

Welcome to the forums, you posted up some really great stuff! I really like that large dio of the cemetery set up.

thank you for the welcome and the kind words, really appreciate that a lot I can post more pics of that cemetery scene if appreciated ? it took me a lot of work, not really too happy with it though, but I really did my best and it took me a long time, but I learned some things of it I think and hope.

[Graishak]

Welcome to the show :-)
You got a lot of projects going on there! Nice to see that we're sharing passion for undeads, goblins and nurgle

[Dexter0015]

Well, someone have been busy it seems
I know that sleeping monotor. I've already seen him somewhere ...

For you photo orientation issue, here is a link that could help you:
https://www12.lunapic.com/editor/?action=rotate

The skeltons' army looks nice, I like how you managed to paint the bones. It looks passed, which seems realistic for walking skeletons I guess.

The mud on the base with the huge skull looks really good too. What do you use for it?

For the bricks stairs, I would add some scratchs on the stairs, to match the rest of the base.

I love the color scheme you choose for the "cthulhuish" demon.
Maybe use some dark blue or even violet in the shadows to add some color variation.
As violet is the complementary color of the yellow, and your highlights are almost yellow, it should offer a nice contrast.

On the two barbarians I noticed some kind of a grain on the skin.
Do you use spray can for undercoating? It may be the result of you spraying the color from too close?

If you're not comfortable with the color theory, you can use an online tool like this one:
https://color.adobe.com/fr/create/color-wheel
(sorry the link is in french because it's my mother tongue and the website redirect me so I couldn't get the link in english).


For the cemetry diorama, first: I love it, the composition looks really nice and even the hexagonal base fits the subject. Brilliant!

For the stairs they do looks a little too big, mainly because the textured ground that suround it is smaller in shape. But that's not necesseraly a big issue.
I would try to loose some parts of the stairs in the ground, by adding some texture on top of it.
Obviously it's and old cemetry so it make sense that nature would have reclam it's rights and covert some parts of the constructed ground.

As you already painted the necromancer in a dark red cloak, which looks nice by the way, I would start with that to define the colors for the rest of the scene.
Which means some thing like:
- a lot of green for the ground (I mean grass / moss)
- pales colors for the undead cloths (because they staied a long time under ground so it make sense that there cloths' colors have passed). I would try to paint it with various shades here to avoid having a too monotone result. make some more staurated thant the other to create some variations (the more saturated would be the ones you want to stand out a little).

For the muddy look on the cloths, I would use brown / dark brown washes on the low parts of the cloths.
You can also add some small touchs of green, with washes again, to simulate moss on the cloths too.

That my ideas so far, hope it helps.
Let see that others have to say.

[ekipage]

The link Dexter gave for the color tool should work in English if you just remove the "/fr", but here is the english one anyway: https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

[Toxicant]

ty dear people for the kind words again

Dexter ? I used AK terrains Dark earth for the earth effect at the base of the big skull. hope that helps

tyou made an amazing diorama with that sleeping minotaur, love it so much I also have something planned but not sure how to do it. will get there soon after the cemetery diorama I hope

yeah the barbarians got messed up because of too much drybrushing , I just couldnt get it right and they ended up a mess, I dont know what to do with them I fear I have to clean them, but I dont know how since they are stuck on the wooden base and I am out of dettol

thank you for all the tips, I will have a go at all of it, but will post pics when doing it, because I mess up really fast.

I am not sure how to do the colors you meant on the undead clothes. would that mean several washes or try to wet blend several colors on it with paint? and what would be the base color to start with ? and saturated colors mean adding black to the color mix to make the colors more muted right ?

thank you for the color wheel and link, but I am already confused on how to use it. could someone give an example please?

[Toxicant]

some small updates on the stairs been hacking away at it and added some more mud structure. and also a wip of a Rackham bust I am kinda stuck with but thought it could be worth the share. thanks for all the input dear people it keeps fliping the pictures on the side, I am sorry for that, I tried to fix that with the link Dexter gave, but it keeps uploading pics on the side, so weird

[gorb]

Hi Toxicant, welcome to the forum!

First of all, just looking at you photos, I think you do an awesome job! Lovely neat paint jobs, all around!

However it sounds as if you are questioning everything that you are doing
I know it is something I am guilty of too. For me it means taking ages to finish something, because I'm worried I'll mess it up.

Can I suggest that you pick one question per project, and focus on that question only? Again, this is something that struggle to do myself, but
if you pick one aspect to focus on for a specific project, let's say which colors to pick, then you don't have to worry about getting everything else right.
On another one you can try to focus on contrast, or something else...

Like someone wise once said, a finished project is better than a perfect project, simply because a perfect project doesn't exist.
Just my $0.02

[Toxicant]

thank you Gorn for your kind words, really yeah my focus and attention span is all ove rthe place as you can see, because I am really uncertain.

I will try to focus on one thing at the time indeed. for now it's what colors to use for the undead, the nighthaunt. I really want to give them that dirty from the grave look, like the skeletons from Poltergeist. and I don't know how . this is the effect I am after I can post pics of brown and beige paints and inks I have, maybe that would make it easier to help pick colors?

[Dexter0015]

100% agree with @gorb.
Nice update on the cemetery!

[Toxicant]

thank you Dexter but now where to start and how? what color of undercoat ? which paint to use as ink or glaze, any AK effects etc? these are the paints of browns and the like I have. I also going to make a separate topic for the muddy undead, since it seems there is not much traffic here. is there also a discord group btw for CMON painters ?

[Toxicant]

these are the models that I wish to paint in those colors btw

[Dexter0015]

Ok, so based on the photo from Poltergeist, I would approach things like so:


1 - Do not paint all the model with the same color:


If you look closely the undeads on the pictures, the in front, the one on the left side, looks like dark green to me, where the one behind him (or her?) is more dark-brown/dark-beige.


On the right side, the one in the back looks more white/light beige and the one in the front looks more red-brown.


So that give you some ideas on the base colors you can use for the minis.


2 - Minis need more contrast than real life:


This needs to be confirm by others (greater painters than me) but I think you can't really paint miniatures with strickly natural colors.
What I mean is that due to the scale, you have to force the contrast/hue of the colors you use when painting miniatures, because if you don't, they looks bland.
So don't hesitate to force the color (a little) to avoid loosing the minis in the terrain. They need to pop up from the ground colors.


Again, just my two cents.