MAXXxxx WIPs
- Thread starter MAXXxxx
- Start date
EpicMiniArt
New member
u need to scratch that crystal ball of yours MAXXxxx, u know the right one. It's crap though that ppl can make down and not give any indication as too why.
As canny said. ignore and paint on, ignorance is bliss
As canny said. ignore and paint on, ignorance is bliss
MAXXxxx
Well-known member
I hope not. There is at least 3 others I'd put before mine. So far my favorite top3 there: The Dictator, RIngmaster and Acrobat, Grey Marine.
MAXXxxx
Well-known member
a few awaited figures has arrived today.
The ones I wanted most are 2 old freebooter minis, that are really rare. They are "captain's daughter" and the "5th year anniversary mini". The later I've been hunting for years now, but couldn't find anyone who was willing to sell it.
Now finally the last limited edition I wanted to have from freebooter is here.
The second batch if from scale75: Jessica Thunderhawk and Smogrider-Kitty Reimer.
Here the Jessica is absolutely superb. Among the 4 steamwars 'minis' I think this became either my favorite or my second favorite (after Miss Reimer). Not only the design and details that I haven't seen in online pics are good, but the cast too. Almost no mouldline, even less gaps between the points. One funny thing I noticed: more and more girls have lost their arms in the steamwars world. Kitty has 1 left arm, that's mechanical now, Jessica both.
Smogrider: I really wanted to see this, especially with the instruction booklet, that comes with it. Sadly I have to say it's worse than I thought it will be. Basically she is an average Chibi figure cast in resin with worse quality than the scale75 metals.
And the booklet is not really good either. For example the face painting is like this: "Put color SCXX as a basecoat, highlight parts (here it lists usable info) with SCXY, shade the areas to be shaded (yes, there is no info, where) with SCYX and add a final strong highlight of SCYY to the parts you added the first highlight". So I must say I have no idea how this is supposed to make someone a better painter (as stated in the adv).
I'll manage, but for a beginner... not really usable without a teacher who tells some extra infos on painting. I wonder if it would be possible to ask for a discount if someone really wanted to use it in a painting class and would order a batch of 10 or 20.
Still the mini while an average chibi one is nice, so I have no real regrets buying it and will be painted pretty soon.
and some wip of the current mini: Tinkerbell.
besides the wings I consider it mostly done.
The dress was a pita. I wanted an almost completely invisible see-through effect, but I simply couldn't. After 3 tries this week I gave up and for 4th try I painted a simple normal one. Somehow I couldn't get the transitions right.
What weird was during the painting, that I used a wet-palette and had a really hard time with it. Normally I don't use one and the paints didn't behave how I wanted them to. So it looks like I'm one of the few, who are hindered by a wet-palette.
The metals I did normally with my standard dry palette, there I didn't have any problems. Like I wrote: weird. Ohh one small thing about metals: I was too lazy to get the AB out for shading and I didn't want to build up the layers slowly.
So I used pigments and pastels to shade it.
Plans for the wings:
- fix the width / unevenness of the patterns
- shade / highlight each section individually
- varnish
- use some GA interference colors (red, blue, violet) to make it really like the wing of an insect.
View attachment 36385
The ones I wanted most are 2 old freebooter minis, that are really rare. They are "captain's daughter" and the "5th year anniversary mini". The later I've been hunting for years now, but couldn't find anyone who was willing to sell it.
Now finally the last limited edition I wanted to have from freebooter is here.
The second batch if from scale75: Jessica Thunderhawk and Smogrider-Kitty Reimer.
Here the Jessica is absolutely superb. Among the 4 steamwars 'minis' I think this became either my favorite or my second favorite (after Miss Reimer). Not only the design and details that I haven't seen in online pics are good, but the cast too. Almost no mouldline, even less gaps between the points. One funny thing I noticed: more and more girls have lost their arms in the steamwars world. Kitty has 1 left arm, that's mechanical now, Jessica both.
Smogrider: I really wanted to see this, especially with the instruction booklet, that comes with it. Sadly I have to say it's worse than I thought it will be. Basically she is an average Chibi figure cast in resin with worse quality than the scale75 metals.
And the booklet is not really good either. For example the face painting is like this: "Put color SCXX as a basecoat, highlight parts (here it lists usable info) with SCXY, shade the areas to be shaded (yes, there is no info, where) with SCYX and add a final strong highlight of SCYY to the parts you added the first highlight". So I must say I have no idea how this is supposed to make someone a better painter (as stated in the adv).
I'll manage, but for a beginner... not really usable without a teacher who tells some extra infos on painting. I wonder if it would be possible to ask for a discount if someone really wanted to use it in a painting class and would order a batch of 10 or 20.
Still the mini while an average chibi one is nice, so I have no real regrets buying it and will be painted pretty soon.
and some wip of the current mini: Tinkerbell.
besides the wings I consider it mostly done.
The dress was a pita. I wanted an almost completely invisible see-through effect, but I simply couldn't. After 3 tries this week I gave up and for 4th try I painted a simple normal one. Somehow I couldn't get the transitions right.
What weird was during the painting, that I used a wet-palette and had a really hard time with it. Normally I don't use one and the paints didn't behave how I wanted them to. So it looks like I'm one of the few, who are hindered by a wet-palette.
The metals I did normally with my standard dry palette, there I didn't have any problems. Like I wrote: weird. Ohh one small thing about metals: I was too lazy to get the AB out for shading and I didn't want to build up the layers slowly.
So I used pigments and pastels to shade it.
Plans for the wings:
- fix the width / unevenness of the patterns
- shade / highlight each section individually
- varnish
- use some GA interference colors (red, blue, violet) to make it really like the wing of an insect.
View attachment 36385
MAXXxxx
Well-known member
ohh, in the small pamphlet I found an url: www.smogriders.com
here you can find the exact same info, as on the small paper AND extras (the level-up entries for intermediate painting). And also a small text on how were the riders meant to be used.
Makes a lot more sense, than from the no-text adv. and what's in the box.
So knowing how long tutorials stay on the net --> time to save them to HD / GD.
here you can find the exact same info, as on the small paper AND extras (the level-up entries for intermediate painting). And also a small text on how were the riders meant to be used.
Makes a lot more sense, than from the no-text adv. and what's in the box.
So knowing how long tutorials stay on the net --> time to save them to HD / GD.
BloodFather of Kharnath
Active member
First a question. What do you mean by the scale75 metals being crap. Are their metal minis cast poorly? I've never bought any of their figures so I don't know.
The SteamWars minis are epic. Some of the best SteamPunk on the market. Keep your eye out for the Twisted Game miniatures by Seb Archer (Automaton).
I really like Tinker. The skin works well and you were properly subtle for female skin. On her left leg, ease the transition a bit between the HL and the mids. IME, when attempting to paint sheer effect, or see through clothing, you can either paint the clothes like normal and then glaze the skin tone on top, OR you can mix the clothing color with the skin color and paint this on top of a basecoat of the cloth color. Understand? The latter is much more effective for me, and I know this is the way that Master Milosh does it. Add more and more cloth color as the sheer effect disappears. Use less of the cloth color in areas that are extremely sheer, and highlight the skin tone by adding a bit of white to the mix. Which method did you use? If you used the former it may explain your difficulty.
The wings will looks excellent once you do your plan with the red, purple, blue (Id maybe use green). Just make it so you can just barely notice the colors of you are looking close enough, so I'd dilute the heck out of them.
Anyway, sorry if I come across as a know-it-all which I am certainly not. Just some advice that may or may not work.
The SteamWars minis are epic. Some of the best SteamPunk on the market. Keep your eye out for the Twisted Game miniatures by Seb Archer (Automaton).
I really like Tinker. The skin works well and you were properly subtle for female skin. On her left leg, ease the transition a bit between the HL and the mids. IME, when attempting to paint sheer effect, or see through clothing, you can either paint the clothes like normal and then glaze the skin tone on top, OR you can mix the clothing color with the skin color and paint this on top of a basecoat of the cloth color. Understand? The latter is much more effective for me, and I know this is the way that Master Milosh does it. Add more and more cloth color as the sheer effect disappears. Use less of the cloth color in areas that are extremely sheer, and highlight the skin tone by adding a bit of white to the mix. Which method did you use? If you used the former it may explain your difficulty.
The wings will looks excellent once you do your plan with the red, purple, blue (Id maybe use green). Just make it so you can just barely notice the colors of you are looking close enough, so I'd dilute the heck out of them.
Anyway, sorry if I come across as a know-it-all which I am certainly not. Just some advice that may or may not work.
Zab
New member
Hey now! Nice stuff. Also Kabuki sexualizing these fairy tale figures and princesses is weird. I don't know how to feel. Weirded out mostly. I think it's because The Agent of Chaos is so into Disney crap right now that there is an innocence to it so to see it in a more adult shade is weird. Great painting though, just great!
MAXXxxx
Well-known member
where do I write that they are crap, I can't find it, not even with ctrl+f.
So far the casts I handled were super with minimal mould line and need for gap filling, but at the last (Jessica) it seems so far as gap filling won't be needed.
shear effect: believe me I know the theory and done some minimal ones, but somehow the wetpalette + green + skin didn't work as I wanted to. First I tried the glazes, 2nd time the mix, 3rd time mix again but differently, 4th time gave up and went with simple green.
perhaps I wrote that badly, but the wings won't get a transition of red-purple-blue, but special GoldenAcrilics colors, so The wings will retain the transition of white-grey-blue, but when viewed from a certain direction the reflection will be the red-purple-blue.
In another figure I used green too, but I wanted to avoid it here. Of course I'll add it if it's missing. (from interference colors I have about all (orange, red, green, purple, blue also 2 oxide greens, and some gold-green-purple colorshifts too, but these don't belong on the wings)
So far the casts I handled were super with minimal mould line and need for gap filling, but at the last (Jessica) it seems so far as gap filling won't be needed.
shear effect: believe me I know the theory and done some minimal ones, but somehow the wetpalette + green + skin didn't work as I wanted to. First I tried the glazes, 2nd time the mix, 3rd time mix again but differently, 4th time gave up and went with simple green.
perhaps I wrote that badly, but the wings won't get a transition of red-purple-blue, but special GoldenAcrilics colors, so The wings will retain the transition of white-grey-blue, but when viewed from a certain direction the reflection will be the red-purple-blue.
In another figure I used green too, but I wanted to avoid it here. Of course I'll add it if it's missing. (from interference colors I have about all (orange, red, green, purple, blue also 2 oxide greens, and some gold-green-purple colorshifts too, but these don't belong on the wings)
OffTheSprue
New member
Nice work on tinkerbelle, love the skin tones, the cheek neck and collar came out rely nike, keep at it, j,
BloodFather of Kharnath
Active member
Let me see....ah here is where you wrote that:
Was just wondering what your mean was here. As far as it goes with the color on the wings, yes exactly as you describe is the effect I was talking about too. Isn't this accomplished by glazing it on super thin? Or is this a special type of paint?
Something I forgot to mention. Scale75 tutorials are pretty bad. If you buy any of their paint sets they come with examples of things to paint with the set. They are poorly worded and don't go into much detail. Part of this is the translations are bad. The other part is that they aren't very thorough. Sorry to hear it is the same with this book you got.
MAXXxxx
Well-known member
ahaaa.
That part is meant for the smogrider mini, which is in resin, and not so much in casting, but sculpting. Probably I expected it to look better then SDE/AQ heroes for example, while it's about the same,just a different concept.
That said, the casting is worse than their metal too, but that still makes it one of the best I handled. Basically a bit more mouldline I encountered, and extra work fitting it together without gaps. (while the metal 75mm ones assembly requires very little work)
wings: interference paints. The color remains largely unchanged (a bit lighter) and the effect shows really badly (if at all) on photos. When viewed from certain angles the colors show up. In a way it's like a colorshifting paint.
And yes it has to be glazed on or it'll hide the paintwork underneath.
tutorials: yep I noticed, same goes for their 2 DVD-s (YT compilation, SteamWars2 dvd), but as I wrote in the followup: if you take the website too it's getting better and there I see the 'level up' concept.
In the box + news topic here on the forums... not really.
That part is meant for the smogrider mini, which is in resin, and not so much in casting, but sculpting. Probably I expected it to look better then SDE/AQ heroes for example, while it's about the same,just a different concept.
That said, the casting is worse than their metal too, but that still makes it one of the best I handled. Basically a bit more mouldline I encountered, and extra work fitting it together without gaps. (while the metal 75mm ones assembly requires very little work)
wings: interference paints. The color remains largely unchanged (a bit lighter) and the effect shows really badly (if at all) on photos. When viewed from certain angles the colors show up. In a way it's like a colorshifting paint.
And yes it has to be glazed on or it'll hide the paintwork underneath.
tutorials: yep I noticed, same goes for their 2 DVD-s (YT compilation, SteamWars2 dvd), but as I wrote in the followup: if you take the website too it's getting better and there I see the 'level up' concept.
In the box + news topic here on the forums... not really.
MAXXxxx
Well-known member
aaand cleaned up and assembled the smog rider. took about 2 hours to do. which is quite long for a mini that's basically a spherical head and a small body.
I think it would have been better if it were metal instead of the hard resin they chose. Or at least the 2 arms fem metal, that the thin part bends and not breaks.
But it's undercoated now, so I think I'll paint it tomorrow / next week.
I think it would have been better if it were metal instead of the hard resin they chose. Or at least the 2 arms fem metal, that the thin part bends and not breaks.
But it's undercoated now, so I think I'll paint it tomorrow / next week.
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MAXXxxx
Well-known member
Tinkerbell with wings. As suspected the Interference colors don't show up at all on the pic, oh well.
View attachment 36503
And The SmogRider figure (Kitty Reimer)
View attachment 36502
I tried to mostly stay with the colors in the tutorial. Of course as I'm missing a LOT of scale75 paints I needed to mix and match from other paint lines. Also I had some minor changes, like the umbrella being more red or the dress a ligher green.
As I've written before the printed instructions didn't help much, so I have no idea how someone new to painting gets any results. There is nothing about dilution, brush control or where to put the highlights, just color recipes. I went back to the box art multiple times to see where the hihlight goes (especially on the hair).
What really surprised me was the colors used for the hair (see smogrider website under Kitty-level up blogentry), I thought with the colors suggested it will be a really strong red/orange. To my surprise it turned out to be a really good looking brownish color.
Based just on the colors I didn't expect it at all.
Here the replacements used (good to keep as I like the result and it's not likely that I buy SC versions until I run out of these):
- VMC Red Hull as a base (dark red-brown)
- P3 Sanguine Base as a highlight (dark red, a bit purplish, but matched the original about ok)
- R Rackham Red (about same as VGC - blood red)
- R Merin's Fire (about same as VGC - orange fire)
- R Wildcat Grey (a bit lighter and greyer than VC - bleached bone)
------------------
and a big box came in from palladium games: the first wave of the robotech kickstarter.
While not a complete catastophe, but it's bad.
- 'only' took 6 extra months compared to the US backers (and 4 extra compared to the Eu shops)
- box is unneededly huge. The sprues in it take up about half of it if packed correctly (and no it wasn't, so sprues in random directions, some parts broken off, so packing isn't great either)
- details on the figures are soft + shallow in a lot of places
- VF1 plank wings :\ (really whoever made the 3d sculpt should look at the source material, or real airplanes.)
- not as posable as advertised (but that was known)
- not as many option as advertised (also known, during KS it was said, that the 4 destoid can be build as you like, so for example 4 tomahawks. Nope 2 TH + 2 Def is what's possible, no 4-0 or 3-1 builds)
some good:
- I think they miscalculated the decals (there were 2 in the box, 2 in the KS bag (didn't expect them) and 4 in the extra decals I ordered.
- because of sprue layout you can build an extra vf1-battloid.
- despite the details, gaps, build problems the minis don't look *that* bad.
View attachment 36503
And The SmogRider figure (Kitty Reimer)
View attachment 36502
I tried to mostly stay with the colors in the tutorial. Of course as I'm missing a LOT of scale75 paints I needed to mix and match from other paint lines. Also I had some minor changes, like the umbrella being more red or the dress a ligher green.
As I've written before the printed instructions didn't help much, so I have no idea how someone new to painting gets any results. There is nothing about dilution, brush control or where to put the highlights, just color recipes. I went back to the box art multiple times to see where the hihlight goes (especially on the hair).
What really surprised me was the colors used for the hair (see smogrider website under Kitty-level up blogentry), I thought with the colors suggested it will be a really strong red/orange. To my surprise it turned out to be a really good looking brownish color.
Based just on the colors I didn't expect it at all.
Here the replacements used (good to keep as I like the result and it's not likely that I buy SC versions until I run out of these):
- VMC Red Hull as a base (dark red-brown)
- P3 Sanguine Base as a highlight (dark red, a bit purplish, but matched the original about ok)
- R Rackham Red (about same as VGC - blood red)
- R Merin's Fire (about same as VGC - orange fire)
- R Wildcat Grey (a bit lighter and greyer than VC - bleached bone)
------------------
and a big box came in from palladium games: the first wave of the robotech kickstarter.
While not a complete catastophe, but it's bad.
- 'only' took 6 extra months compared to the US backers (and 4 extra compared to the Eu shops)
- box is unneededly huge. The sprues in it take up about half of it if packed correctly (and no it wasn't, so sprues in random directions, some parts broken off, so packing isn't great either)
- details on the figures are soft + shallow in a lot of places
- VF1 plank wings :\ (really whoever made the 3d sculpt should look at the source material, or real airplanes.)
- not as posable as advertised (but that was known)
- not as many option as advertised (also known, during KS it was said, that the 4 destoid can be build as you like, so for example 4 tomahawks. Nope 2 TH + 2 Def is what's possible, no 4-0 or 3-1 builds)
some good:
- I think they miscalculated the decals (there were 2 in the box, 2 in the KS bag (didn't expect them) and 4 in the extra decals I ordered.
- because of sprue layout you can build an extra vf1-battloid.
- despite the details, gaps, build problems the minis don't look *that* bad.
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