AinuLainour
New member
This week I’ve taken a long look through the most recent minis put on this site, and I ended up finding one in the Top Last 7 Days. What caught my eye on this Space Wolf Terminator was the armour, the sword, and the yellows.
Iguazzu seems adept at the sort of rusted, battle-hardened look. In my mind, this is the most realistic style, and it is certainly appealing, which is the a factor in competitions.
What I like the most about this terminator is the armour. Iguazzu re-created the sort of dull sky-blue colours seen on Spaces Wolves and made it great. The artist’s blending up from brown into light-grey really drives home the dirty realism that I’ve talked about before. I need to try this out…
Secondly, there are the metallics. One thing I like about the metallics and their execution is how he only used steel, and the rust, which seems crusty in a true-rust kind of way. The blade of the sword is purely amazing, due to the dramatic highlights and the rust, which is the icing on the cake.
My third favourite feature of this mini is certainly the yellows, the blending and the highlighting that really make it great. From these close-up detail pictures, I still cannot find a fault in the blending. It appears to be litteraly perfect.
Now for the critique…
There are two parts on the Terminator that could be touched up, the fur-pelt over his shoulder and the shaft of his sword-blade. The fur-pelt seems messy and rushed, while opposed to the fur tabard, which appears to use the same colours, yet more time seems to have been spent on it. Next, there is the shaft, which is a kind of golden yellow. It seems far too bright and the seemingly pure-white highlight is spread too far.
In all, the best parts of the Terminator is the yellow wolf emblem on his chest, the face (with beautifully life-like skin-tones) and his sword.
Ainu’s Mini of the Week, Terminator Space Wolf by Iguazzu, receives 9.3/10.
So why is this week a special edition? Because included is a bonus article on painting for competitions!
What I\'ve noticed painting in competitions is that what you are painting and how should depend on where you are entering the miniature. Is it a local competition, where there will likely be a lack of entries? Is it for Golden Demon, where you\'re up against professionals and countless others, or is it somewhere in between..
For local competitions, the flashier, the better. It\'s very likely that the judges wont spend as much time as a judge would at a larger painting contest, so you will want to capture their attention and hold it, as you would in larger contests, though there is a difference. In larger competitions, judges appreciate different styles equally, metallics, NMM, OSL, or normal overhead highlights. Here, however, you will want to do something other than metallics and even overhead highlights. NMM and OSL are reccommended considering that they are usually better to capture and hold the observer\'s attention than metallics and normal lighting, which is what you\'re competitors will likely be using.
In the painting contests somewhere in between, the judges will spend more time, though you still need to catch their attention. Now NMM and Metallics are equal, at least in most cases. Though OSL is still highly useful. From personal experience at Conflict Vancouver 2006, there was a 40k miniature that had crude orange OSL painted thickly over much of the miniature, even where the light wouldn\'t hit in life. Yet, one of the judges and the public loved it. It was photographed multiple times and people repeated how it was worthy of the trophy, while there were two other minis, as well as many others, one metallic, and one NMM that were worthy of such attention. Luckily, one of the better miniatures won, but it still disturbed me that OSL, even to that extent, was given so much praise. It is likely that it was something that many people had not seen before as there are no nearby Games Days, and such observers aren\'t CMoN regulars familiar with the gallery of Victoria Lamb and the likes. Then they would know real OSL.
But I have strayed from the point, and that is that OSL is a fine technique for such contests at this level.
At the level of Golden Demon, however, you will need to be a very fine OSL\'er, an amazing NMM artist, and someone adept with metallics to take the trophy here. All techniques are appreciated equally, making Golden Demon the most fair painting competition that I can name.
On the subject of Golden Demon, may I add that I find it ridiculous when people say how GW chooses their winners based on new releases and such, from what I\'ve seen that is completely untrue. And I\'ve seen a lot.
Anyways, I hope that you\'ve enjoyed this special edition,
Ainu
http://www.coolminiornot.com/133488
Iguazzu seems adept at the sort of rusted, battle-hardened look. In my mind, this is the most realistic style, and it is certainly appealing, which is the a factor in competitions.
What I like the most about this terminator is the armour. Iguazzu re-created the sort of dull sky-blue colours seen on Spaces Wolves and made it great. The artist’s blending up from brown into light-grey really drives home the dirty realism that I’ve talked about before. I need to try this out…
Secondly, there are the metallics. One thing I like about the metallics and their execution is how he only used steel, and the rust, which seems crusty in a true-rust kind of way. The blade of the sword is purely amazing, due to the dramatic highlights and the rust, which is the icing on the cake.
My third favourite feature of this mini is certainly the yellows, the blending and the highlighting that really make it great. From these close-up detail pictures, I still cannot find a fault in the blending. It appears to be litteraly perfect.
Now for the critique…
There are two parts on the Terminator that could be touched up, the fur-pelt over his shoulder and the shaft of his sword-blade. The fur-pelt seems messy and rushed, while opposed to the fur tabard, which appears to use the same colours, yet more time seems to have been spent on it. Next, there is the shaft, which is a kind of golden yellow. It seems far too bright and the seemingly pure-white highlight is spread too far.
In all, the best parts of the Terminator is the yellow wolf emblem on his chest, the face (with beautifully life-like skin-tones) and his sword.
Ainu’s Mini of the Week, Terminator Space Wolf by Iguazzu, receives 9.3/10.
So why is this week a special edition? Because included is a bonus article on painting for competitions!
What I\'ve noticed painting in competitions is that what you are painting and how should depend on where you are entering the miniature. Is it a local competition, where there will likely be a lack of entries? Is it for Golden Demon, where you\'re up against professionals and countless others, or is it somewhere in between..
For local competitions, the flashier, the better. It\'s very likely that the judges wont spend as much time as a judge would at a larger painting contest, so you will want to capture their attention and hold it, as you would in larger contests, though there is a difference. In larger competitions, judges appreciate different styles equally, metallics, NMM, OSL, or normal overhead highlights. Here, however, you will want to do something other than metallics and even overhead highlights. NMM and OSL are reccommended considering that they are usually better to capture and hold the observer\'s attention than metallics and normal lighting, which is what you\'re competitors will likely be using.
In the painting contests somewhere in between, the judges will spend more time, though you still need to catch their attention. Now NMM and Metallics are equal, at least in most cases. Though OSL is still highly useful. From personal experience at Conflict Vancouver 2006, there was a 40k miniature that had crude orange OSL painted thickly over much of the miniature, even where the light wouldn\'t hit in life. Yet, one of the judges and the public loved it. It was photographed multiple times and people repeated how it was worthy of the trophy, while there were two other minis, as well as many others, one metallic, and one NMM that were worthy of such attention. Luckily, one of the better miniatures won, but it still disturbed me that OSL, even to that extent, was given so much praise. It is likely that it was something that many people had not seen before as there are no nearby Games Days, and such observers aren\'t CMoN regulars familiar with the gallery of Victoria Lamb and the likes. Then they would know real OSL.
But I have strayed from the point, and that is that OSL is a fine technique for such contests at this level.
At the level of Golden Demon, however, you will need to be a very fine OSL\'er, an amazing NMM artist, and someone adept with metallics to take the trophy here. All techniques are appreciated equally, making Golden Demon the most fair painting competition that I can name.
On the subject of Golden Demon, may I add that I find it ridiculous when people say how GW chooses their winners based on new releases and such, from what I\'ve seen that is completely untrue. And I\'ve seen a lot.
Anyways, I hope that you\'ve enjoyed this special edition,
Ainu
