Aesu's WIP..New to CMON and Mini painting (WFB)

Aesu

Aesu

New member
Hey all!

My name is Aesu, and I'm new to CMON, I started lurking recently and have decided to post for some good old critical feedback and tips to improve my painting. Don't be gentle, my skin is thick! :turtle:
I started collecting Warhammer a year ago after my roommate brought home a ton of paint and the Skull Pass box set. I settled on Chaos, and after getting my first few sets and painting, work got in the way (whoo 2 jobs..) and I only recently got to pull out my collection to continue the painting. Last year I finished Marauder Horseman, Warriors, a Hellcannon and some hounds. Since I restarted I have been working on Knights (up to the bases) and my soon to be standard-bearer, this Juggernaut.
My army is themed blue with snowy bases, and that is why this fella is less than red. I've added red tinges to the model to show the metal as bloodstained.. washed by the snow but so ingrained its never completely washed off. Not sure if it is effective .. any comments welcome.
  • The jugger is nearly done, the gold is not yet done, the goatee, and horseshoes. The spikes need a little more work I think too.. The rest of the model is ready for touchups after assembly (I painted the head and skulls seperate) and any input on what could be worked on more would be very welcome.
  • The rider is further behind, cloak and blue bits done but I haven't started on the metal parts yet, or the fine detals on the head/body. The cloak I would love more tips on, its OK but I'm still not happy..
Lastly he has no arms yet as I haven't decided on how to add the banner to the model yet, or whether to give him a different weapon from my bits box.
And here goes.. hope the images work and are good enough to view..

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Sorry about the photo quality its waaay too late at night for photography really.. :messed:
 
Elric2k

Elric2k

New member
I'd say you're off to a good start here, the only advice I would give at the moment is to thin your paint more. To my eye, it looks very thickly placed, which can obscure detail. The cloak looks pretty good, the only thing i might suggest is darkening up the bottom folds that are in the shadow, specifically the one in the middle, the fold would probably not be getting so much light :) Other than that,
 
Aesu

Aesu

New member
Thanks :)
Thinning paint is something I have to work on, I used to do oil painting and I loved slapping it on thick! I keep having to remind myself that thin layers are better than one thick coat on models, especially with the metallics.
 
Meph

Meph

Cat-herder Extraordinaire
Thick skin ey? Alrighty then... Your breath smells! Err... not as nicely as... err... it could! Hah! Take that!

As for the paintjob, the technique seems sound but as Elric2K said, thinner layers work better. The whole process does differ quite a lot from using oils, less time for correction, and more difficult to wet-blend. Wet-blending two colours on the moni will be next to impossible, best you can do is feather the higlight. Copiously brushlicking is the way to go! W000!
Anyways, i like the colour scheme and - tones very much, good job man!
 
Aesu

Aesu

New member
Thanks Meph, yea I found out the hard way how well blending on the mini goes using techniques I am used to :drool:

OK time for an update!
I have been working on the details for Mr.Rider, trying to remember to keep paints thin, and adding more shading to his coat. The Jugger has been sitting aside while I work on his rider a bit, other than shading his beard tassle the same colours as the Rider's helmet tassles for balance.

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Next up is a rewind to the Knights I mentioned I was working on. Thier bases are almost ready now, leaving a day for drying between layers of snow because of the weather. With this in mind I think this will be the last chance to touch them up or improve any parts that are dodgy before they get attached to their new homes. The big thing I KNOW I need help on is the banner. My freehand is weak, rusty and dodgy painting skills combined with the 3D surface are a real challenge. I wanted the skull to appear he is spewing flames onto the banner, but as is they look unfinished and the rest of the banner is so empty. Any suggestion on how to improve or should I scrap the flames and restart?

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Here is the rest of his squad, I'm mostly happy with them, painted before I made my eyes bleed by reading a ton of tips and suggestions on CMON, but I still want them to look as good as I can.. anything that really needs work that stands out to you guys?

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And lastly, my first metal model, painted last year and still waiting on his base :eyeroll!: is my Hellcannon. I christened him Boomscreee! because thats the sound he makes BOOM! then SCREEEAMS from the ..things he shoots :sinister:
I wanted him to match the blue theme of my army, so the cannon barrel is blue faded to reddish on the top and bottom of the barrel.

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kathrynloch

kathrynloch

New member
Hi Aesus - honestly, I'm having a tough time with the photo quality. The appear really dark to me so it's hard to see detail and the horses are both small and dark, so that's impossible for me. lol! Remember, I'm an old lady, the eyesight ain't what it used to be. ;)

At least the banner I can see for the most part. Honestly, the easiest flames to draw are what you usually see on cars.

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On the bottom, what about putting a chaos symbol similar to what's on the guy's shield who is holding the banner? Or if you want a fresh take on the Chaos symbol, try surfing deviantart.com
 
Aesu

Aesu

New member
Oh thats a nice selection.. time to get to work!
All the banners I have done so far (all 2 of them heh)
Yea I'm sorry about the pictures, I'm having a hard time with the lighting and trying to up the colour in photoshop. I need to set up something better than my current one I think, maybe bribe my brother into making a Lightbox... as it is no matter how I set it up they end up with the chainmail in darkness somewhere, 3 lamps and natural light in through the window..grr
The horse bodies themselves are sadly pretty much as is, I was too scared to highlight them too much incase I ruined them, or tried to make myself a herd of Appaloosas (I was tempted!).
 
kathrynloch

kathrynloch

New member
hehehe...as soon as the site gets un-hacked, go read my painting horses article. ;)

You can make a cheap and easy photo tent out of pvc pipe, a couple of desk lamps, and Reveal light bulbs with some white fabric thrown over it. I got a remnant from a bolt at a fabric store for $1. Don't glue the PVC pipe, because then you can take it apart and put it away when you're done with it. :D
 
C

councilof13

New member
Great start, my advice for your flames would be to make them fade from a bright centre, to a dark red outer, as this matches real flames.

The only other bit of advice I would offer is to try and avoid placing bold highlights on the bottom of sections of the mini, most mini painters opt for a zenital highlighting style, where the light source is assumed to be directly above the mini. By all means highlight them, but ensure the brightest highlight is on the highest point of the section in question.

Great start though, my first minis looked like they had been dipped in paint, so you're off to a flyer! :)
 
Aesu

Aesu

New member
Update time!

Hey all, time for an update on my progress:

I've had a hard time deciding how to redo the banner, so I put it off for a bit to work on the next unit, Marauder Horsemen. I also finished the shield and axe for the Jugger's rider, and the base for it is on its way, I am painting it now but I forgot to photograph it at the same time as these, so next time I'll post it up.

I finally got inspired (brave) enough to do the banner today, I took Council's advice and changed the flames to be more realistic and I used Kath's suggestion of Deviantart Choas icons to get me going. The icon I think is a 40k one but I don't care I like it! Anymore suggestions or tips are welcome!
:tongue:

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Next up is one of the knights with the base almost done, adding some bushes and I need to touch up around where the horse is glued down. Also here is the shield for the Jugger's rider, the colours I picked to match the Juggernaut.

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And lastly is a sorceror I've been working on when I needed a break from the Marauder riders this weekend. I wasn't too fussed with the model until I started painting it, the robes are a ton of fun to shade.

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The Marauder riders are close to being finished, I'll post them up once they are closer to completed, so you guys can help me tweak them. I've tried to make the direction of the shading more realistic on them, from a top-left direction. Hopefully this will look a bit less wonky compared to the shading on my Jugger.

And lastly, since Mr.Jugger will be a standard bearer, I've been mulling over the actual banner i want to make/use for a while, then while browsing the GW site I saw these banners, and I'm in love with the one on the right. Do you guys think it would fit in with the Juggernaut model?
 
Aesu

Aesu

New member
Update time!
I forgot to photo the marauders AGAIN (sigh), so I'll do them later today maybe. I have done more work on the Juggernaut's base and started 4 of the horses for the marauders. The last horse has a grey coat and nothing else so not point posting it.
Onto the photos!
First up is the Jugger's base, some pics with him on it and some alone. The Jugger is shiny with the first coat of gloss and waiting on the arm for the final cover of Dullcoat. He needed protection..my cat seems to think he is nice to chew on :cat:
The base will have some snow and possibly more dirt, the dirt needs a bit more work aswell. Hoping for some input on the grass. I wanted him to look like he is walking through and crushing it a bit, but I'm wondering if the grass needs to be trimmed more or thinned out.. kinda undecided on it.

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Next up is the Sorcerer, pretty much done except the face, I think it is too dark at the moment. The staff had a clumsy finger moment and ended up in epoxy glue before painting so I used it as a colour experiment since the bottom half the staff lost some details with the glue. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, and the details aren't as clear as they should be but not as bad I thought it would be. The base is not even started yet.

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Last up is my horses! I used Kath's awesome guide on horses here on CMON to help improve on my Knight's horses. The horse skin on these is definalely an improvement I think so I am happy so far with the progress. The eyes, teeth and tack are not done yet. Still working on the manes. And I know one is missing a side on shot, I had a brain fart and forgot to do the last one both sides. The horses are the old Marauder's ones (The Marauders are old metal ones too) with some spare metal heads that came with a set of old metal Knights (primed and ready to be painted .. eventually!) and I added the blanket at the back so they would fit more with the set of current Marauders I have already. They are smaller though so that is annoying. Same with the old Knights, the newer GW ones are giants compared to them.
I did use one or two of the Marauder horse heads, but I felt the other kind of head/necks looked far too unnatural with the horses' necks curved back too far. Lucky the Knight horse heads had spares and fit. Either way these old guys had pretty big mold lines I had to putty and sand, I can see that the newer kits are definaltely an improvement over these, production-wise.

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marjedi

marjedi

New member
Lol a blue khorne miniature...John Blanche is stirring in his sleep somewhere haunted by nightmares
 
kathrynloch

kathrynloch

New member
Nice job on the horses, Aesu! It's really cool when I actually get to "see" the results of people using the articles. :D You did a wonderful job with blending the dark points on the legs with the body color. Remember tho, all horses are different so on one or two of them you can bring that black up over the knees and hocks. You don't have to stop on the same spot every time. Switching it up will give you even more variety.

That's just nit-pick stuff though, you've done a fantastic job with them!!!!
 
S

Scalpel

New member
Blue Khornate warband?! The purists will hate you, I, however love it... The combo of blue to red on the sorcerer is fantastic, keep the pictures coming
 
Aesu

Aesu

New member
Time for the marauders ..finally!
I took the photos outside since its such a sunny day here but it was too sunny and most aren't good enough to post. But here are the best. I've done a little bit more on the horses, just the blue and basecoat of the metal parts, the riders are of course done.

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kathrynloch

kathrynloch

New member
Nice, Aesu! The only critique point I have is that your paint looks a little thick, especially the mettalics. Thinning a little more will probably help.
 
Aesu

Aesu

New member
Long time no update!

After much distraction, I've almost finished the Marauders. All that is left is touch-ups and the snow on the base. The Juggernaut is done except for the shieldarm, on hold until I start the banner for the shieldarm (that will remain seperate until it gets combined with the banner) and I've started my next lot, a set of old Chaos Knights. I've started the horses first, I painted the basecoats to work out how I wanted to paint these guys. I've done the blue on two of them, good practice for using thinner paints and blending.
Now onto the pictures!

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