Pate's Throng.

[pate]

After 12 years abscense I started painting mini's again. Dwarfs! So far I've finished a unit of longbeards. A drum and a dwarf is missing, so the unit itself isn't really finsished, but everything that's in the actual picture is.

It's all intented to be played with.

Now, below is what I'm currently working on. My Runelord.

Now, tell me what you think. I prefer if your judging is a bit on the hard side, rather than the nice. The purpose of this is for me to develop, so any suggestions, advice, pointers, opinions, just shoot. Anything goes

That being said, I've also got a blog: blog.coolminiornot.com/pate.

You can find more wip-pics of the longbeards there, there's also a bit more about myself and random thoughts about what I'm currently working on.

 

[Scherdy]

I really like them, especially the work on the banner/standard thing especially stands out as very nice looking. I think the beards on some of them could use a little more shadows as they look very light blond but even then could use some darker definition I think. Also the blue handle could use a little shadows to define the texture on it too. You'll get much better C&C from others but that's what I noticed at first glance.

 

[freakinacage]

craking stuff. clean and effective. must be impressive to game with

 

[cheelfy]

Nice ones, well painted. I also think you could shade a bit more their beards to define better the reliefs. Also if you want to get a better effect on your nmm, paint some little white points to make your nmm shine and look more realistic.

 

[pate]

I really like them, especially the work on the banner/standard thing especially stands out as very nice looking. I think the beards on some of them could use a little more shadows as they look very light blond but even then could use some darker definition I think. Also the blue handle could use a little shadows to define the texture on it too. You'll get much better C&C from others but that's what I noticed at first glance.

Nice ones, well painted. I also think you could shade a bit more their beards to define better the reliefs. Also if you want to get a better effect on your nmm, paint some little white points to make your nmm shine and look more realistic.

Thank you I agree on all points. They're actually painted with two kinds of beards. The lighter ones were pained first and unfortunately it's pretty much the only type that shows in the picture. It was the first beards i painted, the second type has more shading and looks better, overall.

Advice on the blue and NMM noted. I'm considering this unit as finished atm though. I might go back to it once everything is completed and spiff it up a bit. Since it's been more than a decade since I painted anything at all, before these guys, I have quite a lot of freshing up to do. Also I had never heard, nor (obviously) tried NMM before. I descided early on that I wouldn't dwell too much on any particular mini, but instead bring any experience to the next unit schedueled for painting They've been painted in an assebly-line-fashion, I basically just want to get everything done so I have an army to play with

I'm going to try and step it up a notch with characters though, such as the runelord that I'm currently working on

craking stuff. clean and effective. must be impressive to game with

Thanks! Since it's currently the only unit that's painted there's probably a good amount of months before I'll have a finished army to put into battle

 

[SkelettetS]

so pate, nice to see you managed to start a wip here at cmon! :good:
really greatlooking bunch of dwarfs, work a bit more on contrast and smoothness and you'll be bada$$ in notime!

dont forget to join us here!

 

[pate]

so pate, nice to see you managed to start a wip here at cmon! :good:
really greatlooking bunch of dwarfs, work a bit more on contrast and smoothness and you'll be bada$$ in notime!

dont forget to join us here!

Thanks Going to wash the bronze and then work from there hoping that'll get it to shine more and look less yellow. Currently working on the head of the staff though, but I can't get it to really shine, it looks more like stone than metal atm, or rather cartoonish metal.

Going to paint quite a lot tomorrow, I'll post some pics in the evening.

 

[pate]

I washed the bronze, I'm not happy with the result. I lost a lot of grading in the process and I think I need to start all over. I've been going around in circles with the metal on the staffhead for a couple of hours. It wont turn out the way I want it to. The brightest white wont turn it out white, it insist on having a slight gray tone to it.

Anywho, here's what I've got.

C&C more than welcome I need help with the nmm!

 

[jorenBS]

wow, nice start for a decade of not painting
i like your style alot and think to see the NMM in wip is quit inspiring aswell.
as a crit point you might want to try to use a little les white, maybe that will help get the effect your loking for, hope you understadn what i mean

So good job and looking forward seeing more!!

greets joren

 

[pate]

Jeez... I'm going crazy with this mini. I've started over so many times that I've lost count. This is where I'm at now. At the moment it feels like it's turning into a pile of dung.

I've been going back and forth with the NMM so much I'm turning blind to what actually works and what doesn't. Therefor I descided to take a little break in the middle of it all and paint the staff and the left hand. I also started on the face, I painted the eyes and basecoated it.

I was quite surprised to learn that Vallejo's Dwarf flesh is actually Vallejo's Pig Flesh. It will have to do though since the only other flesh color currently in my possession is gw's bronzed flesh, and I aint got words for that one. I can't be arsed to mix my own atm.

I'll probably finish the last medallion on the staff, and the thingie below the hand with a medallion attached to it, and then start working on the rest of the mini before I go nuts. Then when I've got it all in perspective I'll go back to the staff.

Now, tell me what you think. I'm desperate here and need shitloads of feedback.

***Edit**
I've worked in a lot more contrast now and I'm sort of happy with the result. I'll paint more of the mini before posting any more pics though.

 

[pate]

I've reworked the NMM and I looks better now. I'm not entirely satisfied yet though, I'll probably keep working on it until the mini is finished. At the moment I've started to work on the beard. The Idea is that he's not supposed to be all gray yet, but still have some of the color of his youth at the tips, black. So basically it will be going from white to black, once finished.

There's some highlighting to be done but I don't think there's that much work left on the beard. I haven't touched the black at all yet though, leaving it until the very last because the paint keeps chipping of. I keep touching those parts when handling the mini, even though I'm using a high-tec coke-bottle-bluetac-mini-holding-device.

Feedback, please!

 

[GTherk]

looks good

I think he's coming along nicely. I like the idea on nmm on the staff head and it does look like you've improved the look of it. You can tell that it's supposed to be metal. I'm sure you don't want to go back on it now, but it looks like the rectangular head is rough around the edges and I wonder if it were filled in with green stuff and filed smooth it wouldn't produce a cleaner, crisper nmm result (not the rune markings, of course, just the edges). Other than that, looks good, keep it up.

 

[pate]

I think he's coming along nicely. I like the idea on nmm on the staff head and it does look like you've improved the look of it. You can tell that it's supposed to be metal. I'm sure you don't want to go back on it now, but it looks like the rectangular head is rough around the edges and I wonder if it were filled in with green stuff and filed smooth it wouldn't produce a cleaner, crisper nmm result (not the rune markings, of course, just the edges). Other than that, looks good, keep it up.

Yes, it's a very rough surface. So rough infact that I've considered that it's actually supposed to be made of stone. I wish I had green stuff availible from the start, if so I probably had smoothed it out. I just got my gs in the mail today, but I don't think I'll be doing any mayor changes to the staff right now. But it's a great idea and I wish I'd been able to execute it earlier on.

 

[pate]

Is my runelord so far beyond salvation that there's no point in giving feedback? Come on now, there's lots of views and I know that each and everyone has an opinion! Doesn't matter if it's good or bad, just throw it at me. Well, I do want feedback that I can use, not just "it looks like shit". Please tell me what you think and give a motivation. Something like "The staff head is too fiddly. It would look better if you'd just do a gradiant from black to white and replace the highlights for the unevenessess with more subtle so". Which is what I'll probably do once I've finished the rest of the model, still, give me something! I need it, badly.

 

[BPI]

Hi Pate, you've got some nice dwarves there This Runelord chap, move on to the rest of him would be my advice. Without the contrasts of the neighbouring surfaces the banner won't settle anyway & repainting the same bit over & over can be a downspiriting process. Come back to it in a couple of days Cheers, B.

 

[pate]

Hi Pate, you've got some nice dwarves there This Runelord chap, move on to the rest of him would be my advice. Without the contrasts of the neighbouring surfaces the banner won't settle anyway & repainting the same bit over & over can be a downspiriting process. Come back to it in a couple of days Cheers, B.

That's an excellent piece of advice, I'll do just that Was hoping to have finished him by now but I haven't been able to paint at all the last couple of days. Maybe I can finish him tomorrow, I want to move on from this mini, hehe.

 

[SkelettetS]

must say i admire youve not thrown the mini out of the window yet, which i most certanly had!

seriously, BPI got a point. i think you should move on and paint another mini if you feel this is goning nowhere. i should be fun to paint, remember!

 

[pate]

must say i admire youve not thrown the mini out of the window yet, which i most certanly had!

seriously, BPI got a point. i think you should move on and paint another mini if you feel this is goning nowhere. i should be fun to paint, remember!

I've been quite close to disposing of him on several occassions And i've really wanted to move on and paint something else. But everytime I've sat down to paint I've kept going on the RL. I think I really need to finish this guy and get a result I'm satisfied with, anything else would be a failure and I think I'd be less motivated to paint anything at all.

It's how I work, and it's how I develop. I can't let something be if the actual result doesn't agree with my imagined result And even if I'm super pleased with the result it's very likely that I'll look at it with disgust no more than a week later

Anywho! I painted for like an hour yesterday, before I went to bed, and I must say everything took a complete turn for the better. It's flowing a long nicely now and I think I'll be able to complete it today or tomorrow. I'm even feeling motivated to redo the staff head;D

 

[pate]

I've made some progress today.

It doesn't really show in the picture but I went completely nuts with the horns and painted them with a dark blue to red to orange grading! Utterly mind-blowing!

I also managed to make some new spills that I haven't corrected yet. Find em all and win a cookie!

I also realized that I've put the lamp on the left hand side of the figure, which is the opposite of the imagined light source, kind of flattens everything out a bit.

Anywho, feedback bitte!

 

[SkelettetS]

making some real progress here, the face looks neat. he really starts to look chaos