Milkflavour's WIP thread

[Milkflavour]

Hi all,

So, I'm brand new to painting, I have zero previous experience with model making, zero artistic inclination and so far I've partly painted one model and partly painted another. I attempted to post this thread once already and failed so... that does not bode well... however, I thought I'd start a wee thread here to act as a sort of archive for my various attempts at not completely sucking and maybe even, (if by some small miracle I get any better along the way) serve as a log of any improvement i might make.

So, I shall attempt to post pictures of the first model I attempted and, if successful I'll add in the one I'm currently working on, and then regular updates thereafter. Apologies in advance for the poor standard of both painting and photography

[Milkflavour]

So, the first massive error I made painting my first model was utilising heavy chipping fluid. The clue was in the name really but I was completely unprepared for quite how heavy the chipping turned out to be.. I attempted to weather the vehicle in proportion to the amount of chipping and subsequently ended up with something that looks straight out of a terribly rendered, low budget remake of mad max. I didn't quite finish this one as it was sort of just a starter project to get me going and to try a few things out.

Anyway, any and all feedback welcome as I'm really hoping to work at getting better and can only do so through honest feedback.

[Milkflavour]

Now I've started working on a tactical warsuit. I based in Khorne red, washed with Agrax and then added (very poor) edge highlights with evil suns scarlet. I did the black with Abbadon black and then added a little dark reaper and then eshin grey, not that you can really tell. The metal I did leadbealcher, ironbreaker and then another metallic I can't remember just now. Once again, I'm really just having a bash at stuff here, this is only the second thing I've ever painted so, not really expecting great things. Anyway, as before, all feedback welcome :-)

[Milkflavour]

So today I put together the arms and part of the lower body. I started to paint the armour panels and made yet another major mistake. I had intended to paint the upper arm armour panels in a contrasting colour, to try and break up the overwhelming redness of the whole thing, but went ahead and started painting them red anyway. It was only after a good couple of coats of khorne red that I realised my error.

Ah well, just the other day I read an article abut how to strip ,minis using isopropyl alcohol so, perhaps this will give me the opportunity to have a go at that...

[ekipage]

You might think you made a mistake with the chipping medium, but dang I think that vehicle looks sweet! Looks like it has been in the fight for months with no service. Get some weathering powders on that to dirty it up some and it will be out of the park good! Really nice start on the tactical warsuit, instead of stripping it, maybe add some yellow, white, or black hazard stripes on the upper bits to differentiate it from the rest and that way the red still ties it in with the model

[Milkflavour]

Hey man, thanks for the kind words and feedback! I really appreciate it :-)
Based on that I may well go back and finish that first model up as you suggested.. is there any weathering powder you would recommend? I don't really have anything like that but would like to get some. Thanks for the advice on the suit too.. unfortunately I already dumped the bits in the alcohol stuff.. I'll bear that in mind in future.. hazard stripes sounds like a cool idea...

[Milkflavour]

Well, a none too thrilling update today. I didn't get a lot of time before I had to head off for work today so, minimal progress. I painted the wee cage that sits over the pilot/driver (?), did the metal parts on his gun arm, started painting up his err... codpiece/crotch defender panel thingy, and also base coated what will be the red parts on his claw arm. Would have happily stayed and painted all day but unfortunately I do have to go to work and earn money (to buy more paints and minis).

[ekipage]

There are a few companies that make the weathering powders (Vallejo, AK Interactive, Secret Weapons Miniatures) and don't have enough knowledge or experience with them to tell you if one is better than the other, but if I had to hazard a guess, I would say they are all fairly similar so take your pick which one you use. I know some people have purchased pastels and ground them up to use the same way (if you go that route, make sure you DON'T buy the oil based ones). The other thing you could do is take some paint (reds, browns and oranges) and use a small sponge (like rip off a tiny piece and hold it with tweezers) and dip it in your paint and stipple it along the edges and within the pulled up areas to add to the effect since you would likely have rust that is new, some older and some really old like this:

[Milkflavour]

Awesome man.. yeah, I'd seen the sponge and paint technique used in a YouTube video and that's what I used to do the rust effects on the ridgerunner.. ive got a couple of random things from AK (the chipping fluid, an engine oil and a winter grime) already (just got a random assortment of paints from ebay when I decided I'd start making some models) so I might give them a try.. interesting idea about the pastels as well.. that might give you more flexibility in terms of colours and stuff.. maybe cheaper too? I'll have a look into it.. thanks for the tips

[Milkflavour]

So, another mini update today due to having to head out to work again (booooo!) and there'll be no further progress for a while either due to me doing a 24hr shift at work and then family time at the weekend.

So, I stripped and repainted the armour panels in a different colour, as I had originally intended, though now they look a little bare somehow and maybe need some other kind of detail or markings on. I'd hoped to use agrax to wash the sandy coloured armour panels with a sort of dirty filter, unfortunately it just kept leaving thick and obvious brush marks so I had to really thin it down and practically remove it all together so, I'm not overly happy with the result to be honest. Any advice regarding avoiding brush marks would be SUPER appreciated!

Anyway, I also finished up painting the rest of the arms and they're now attached, which means the upper body is pretty much done! So, onto the legs/feet and lower armour panels when I next get some time to paint.

[Milkflavour]

So! I had a few hours more this weekend than I'd anticipated and so I've managed to finish up my Tactical Warsuit!

So here it is; my first ever finished miniature!

I had a few last minute issues and stumbled a bit at the final hurdle: the scratches came out looking pretty crappy and I had a couple of pieces that didn't want to stick properly and as a result I daubed a little glue here and there where I didn't want to.. ironically the heavy chipping fluid didn't work so well on the barrels on the base (maybe I was a little impatient - a problem I encountered a few times and for sure one thing I need to improve in future).

Anyway...

I would really appreciate any honest feedback. Any thoughts and advice are welcome.. I really want to improve going forward

So, thanks for looking and I'll be on to the next project soon enough

[gorb]

This looks fabulous! Your first miniature you say? Makes it even more impressive!
I love the look of the oily metals, and the base is great.

[Milkflavour]

Thanks for the positive feedback man! Yeah, I did mostly paint up the ridgerunner at the top of the page before i did the warsuit so, technically that was my first one, but I haven't got round to finishing it.. so, yeah, this is my first fully finished attempt..

[Milkflavour]

Haha.. so, I made my first ever attempt at painting a face today and oh boy was that a harsh learning experience.. it was actually going ok up until I had to put the eyes in and then it went badly off the rails!! The subsequent messing about trying to rescue it then undid some of the ok work I'd done in the first place. Overall result: messy, blobby, goofy eyes and a sad face ( the last of which is mine)

[Milkflavour]

So I decided to use the craply painted head to have a bash at making a space wolf, instead of just scrapping it.. I thought I might as well keep trying stuff and practicing so thought I'd make my first attempt at painting a figure. Anyway, I made an OK attempt at the sword arm and even painted a little rune on which came out quite nicely, until I put yellow paint all over it when I started in on the sword... I was absolutely gutted because it was the first bit of painting I've done that I actually felt OK about. I used some solvent to clean up the yellow but it took a good chunk of the rest of the paint too.. I repainted it but the second attempt wasn't as good, not that the original was amazing or anything but.. yeah.. I was pretty disappointed I can tell you.. so, i left it at that, unfinished... I'll have a go at another figure another day I think.. in the meantime, here's where I got to..

[Darthmarsh]

Considering this is all pretty new to you you’re doing a great job. The rusty truck thing is ace and I don’t think it looks over weathered at all. Get a metallic silver in there to add bare metal scratches and powders like suggested and it’s a total winner.

The dreadnaught is good, the TMM nice and dirty. The red could do with a little variation in tone as at the minute it’s a bit flat. Consider where the light is coming from and add highlights and shadows respectively. If you’re not sure where the light and shadow would fall you can do something called zenithal priming. Spray the model black and then, using a white spray, hit it from the direction your light would be coming from. This gives you your basic light set up. Snap a photo to use as reference. If you start doing this it will give you painting more volume, contrast and more pop.

[ekipage]

Remember, all of us have minis that didn't turn out how we planned and it never hurts to practice something as that is the only way to progress. The eyes will come to you eventually, and heck I usually have to redo an eye several times before I get them where I like them.

[Milkflavour]

Thank you for the advice Darthmarsh, that's all super helpful! I'll definitely give the zenithal priming a go.

And thanks for the encouragement Ekipage. You're right of course, just got to keep practicing. Also, I think I need to work on being a bit more patient with both the painting and with myself.

Thank you both for your replies I appreciate the feedback :-)

[Darthmarsh]

A note on eyes, do them first. That way you can get them wrong as many times as you like and it won’t mess up the rest of the face. Once you have them right paint the flesh tone up to the eyelids, hiding any paint that went over the lines. It’s way less of a headache.

[Milkflavour]

Also excellent advice! Thank you so much :-D