Back From the Wilderness After 15 years

dazt2801

New member
Hello All

I am finally returning to painting mini's after a really short break of "15 years". As I finally settled down, I have been able to set up a permanent work area. I have tried to get back into the hobby quite a few times in previous years, but to no avail. This means I have a large amount of minis in various states, but none painted.
I only paint Games Workshop products. A lot has changed. The quality of the paints themseleves, the brushes and especially the techniques being used. I used to put a base coat on, slap some ink washes onto the mini, drybrush and then base it.

I am doing a project log so I am focussed on painting. My first model I was going to paint, was Canis Wolfborn, but after looking more closely at the model, it just looks wrong. I have decided to go for a Dwarf Lord with a Great Weapon. I got this model about 4 years ago when it first came out.

Started with a undercoat of Chaos Black Spray. I always work with a black undercoat, and with the new Foundation paints from GW, this is a lot easier. I attach the model to an old paint pot using blue tac so I dont hold the model itself and ruin areas already pianted.

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I will start by doing the flesh areas. I put a basecoat of Tallarn Flesh on. I thinned it down a little and applied 4 thin coats in all. I then moved onto the area which were going to be gold. I bascoated this with a 50/50 mix of calthan brown and burnsished gold, and again thinned the paints down.

I applied a wash of Ogryn Flesh to the flesh and gold areas. I then moved onto the areas which were going to be dark metal. I used chainmail for the basecoat, and gave it a wash of badab black. I have never been any good at getting any sort of detail into dark metal areas.

With the flesh, I started to higlight the raised areas firstly with dwarf flesh, then tanned flesh, elf flesh and lastly with bleached bone. I then gave another thin wash of ogryn flesh to blend the areas together. I havent touched the beard yet as still unsure what colour to do.

I will get another pic put up tonight showing my progress. I am not 100% happy with it and will aprreciate all comments and advice given. I know the only way to get better is to practice, practice and more practice.

Cheers Darren
 

scottjames

New member
The picture you have posted appears to be undercoated. When you post a picture showing some progress we can offer some advice and comments. Good to see you're sticking at it. Picking a miniature you like always helps, if Canis looked wrong to you and you weren't "getting it" then you did right to move onto something else. Finishing what you start is good advice well heeded, but painting something you are not enjoying is plain silly.

Look forward to seeing this guy with some colours on..
 

dazt2801

New member
Yeah sorry I know its only in an undercoated state. Just wanted to show the minature at the start. I will get more pics up of its current state once I finish work tonight.

Cheers Darren
 

dazt2801

New member
Right got some pics taken last night. Even using my 8 Megapixel camera on my phone, the pics are not brilliant.
I have finished doing the flesh areas and all of the gold. The dark metal areas I am not happy with. Basecoated it with chainmail, put a wash of ogryn flesh on it to dull the colour down a bit and then another wash using badab black. Highlighted up firstly with boltgun metal, and then mithril silver on the really raised areas. I need to work on doing the darker metal areas.
I only have the beard left to do and the eyes. I am not a 100% happy with the model, but after such a long break, it feels good to get some paint laid down in anger. More pics will follow once I have done the beard and hair and then sorted the base out.
Next Model is Logan Grimnar as I am going to paint up a Space Wolves Army, so I can finally learn how to play 40k.
Many thanks for looking and any advice to improve will be greatly appreciated.

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SkelettetS

New member
not bad! as you say you need to find your way to improve the metals though, more shading is needed right now it looks pretty flat and "uninterresting", remember all sorts of colours can be used shading tmm! better photos would be cool too, but this still looks aeons better than the first guy i painted after my 15 yrs break... :embarrassed: keep it up!
 

dazt2801

New member
not bad! as you say you need to find your way to improve the metals though, more shading is needed right now it looks pretty flat and "uninterresting", remember all sorts of colours can be used shading tmm! better photos would be cool too, but this still looks aeons better than the first guy i painted after my 15 yrs break... :embarrassed: keep it up!
Many thanks mate. I am happy with the gold areas. I highlighted them up with a 50/50 mix of burnished gold and mithril silver. I then worked my way up adding more mithril silver to the mix until I did a fine edge highlight with just mithril silver. I hate the dark metal areas. Going to try a wash of badab black again or layer a mix of chainmail and chaos black into the recessed areas. AAARRRGGHHH.
 

Wyrmypops

New member
Be careful if inserting any metallics like chainmail into recesses. With their metallic fleks, that'd inject reflective elements where really you want less compared to the raised areas.
Washes are nifty in that they cover and dull down those fleks already in there. Brown and Blue are juicy additions to the regular ol black washes for metals. Thinned down to taste. :p :brushlick:

Seemingly against popular opinion, I'm not a fan of the new GW inks. The low pigment and thick surface tension make for a peculiar product to me. For the deepest darkest bits where you want pretty much want to hint at a black line, I'd try black paint thinned down with that Badab Black. Unless you've a stronger black ink about. But instead of applied as a wash (loaded up brush) could have that strong pigment on just the tip of the brush and with greater control just ensure the darkness in the nooks and crannies.

Odd that, only time those words are used. No one ever says "it's in the nook" or "over there, in the cranny". :silly!:
 

Torn blue sky

New member
Yeah, working on darkening those recesses on the metal will help it pop a bit more. I usually work from right dark with metals, mixing in some black and working up. Might be worth a shot in the future. Like Skelly said, you can mix pretty much any colour into metallics to create different effects though. Have fun with it, experiment a bit and find out what works for you. The rest of it it looking great! Cracking job on the skin and axe haft! I'd say that's pretty bang on, I reckon you're your own worst critic haha! Nought wrong with that, but you're doing spectacularly for a 15 year break!

ED: No way Wryrmy! I'd only just found the new GW washes, way improved! I'd agree mixing in some of the same colour helps in some cases, depending on what you're going for, but i've found them invaluable as glazes! Admitedly, they are shit for filling nooks and crannies. That's when I mix in some paint. Other than that, i'm quite chuffed with the review =P
 
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Wyrmypops

New member
ED: No way Wryrmy! I'd only just found the new GW washes, way improved! I'd agree mixing in some of the same colour helps in some cases, depending on what you're going for, but i've found them invaluable as glazes! Admitedly, they are shit for filling nooks and crannies. That's when I mix in some paint. Other than that, i'm quite chuffed with the review =P

As glazes, sure. But that's about all they're good for innit. Other inks are strong enough to serve as washes, and with a few drops of water can do the glaze thing too.
 

dazt2801

New member
Right, I managed to get the base coat put on for the hair, beard and eyebrows. I used Charadon Granite for this.
I also tried to tidy up some of the gold areas, as I felt the highlights were to harsh in some places. I used burnished gold for this and blended it in to the area. I have a really weird way of doing this, but it seems to work for me. I thin down the colour I want to blend in, apply a very thin layer and then, this is the weird part, I suck the brush and then go back and smooth the paint across. I seem to get some really good results from this. Before this model, I had never tried blending before.
As previously mentioned, the dark metal areas were to flat. I tried to rectify this by using a 50/50 mix of Regal Blue and Badab Black. I applied this to the metal areas with a wash brush. Once dry, I highlighted up with a mix of boltgun metal and mithril silver, gradually adding more mithril silver in until the final highlight was purely mithril silver. I am still not happy with this and I know I need to work on this area on future models.
As I was doing the hair, I saw that I had missed out his ears when I did the skin areas. This will be rectified tonight. I will shade the beard and hair and higlight it up. Finally for the model itself, I will then attempt the eyes. This is where I am going to come unstuck.
I have taken some more pics but I just cant seem to get decent ones taken, even with a 8 megapixel camera.
Considering this is my first model for some years, and I have used some techniques I have never used before, I am failry happy with it. The more practice I get, the better the result. Space Wolves are my next project.

Cheers All

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Torn blue sky

New member
Getting there, the helmet definitely looks better, bit like scuffed metal! Wouldn't worry about sucking the brush, there's a proud legion of brush lickers on this site.
 

Torn blue sky

New member
Pics are a lot better. Mini looks much better now! Generally, having shit pictures and the mini still looking decent can't be a bad thing. Keep up the good work.
 

CreganTur

Member
That dwarf looks very good, especially for being away from the hobby for so long. The biggest suggestion I could make would be to highlight the skin with some lighter tones.
 
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