Hi all,
My latest commission work, the Bloodthirster Greater Daemon was a big undertaking to say the least. The link is here.
http://coolminiornot.com/255439 make sure to magnify the image. This was one where it is better for higher res shots.
Here is a closeup of the face also -
This is one hell of a miniature, if one can call it that. The figure stands around 6" to the shoulder and maybe 10" to the top of the axe. It is a incredibly detailed sculpt, with texture on almost every surface. For the skin, I chose to stick to glazes and a stippling type of lining style to enhance the texture. The main base was something new for me, a coat of Desert Yellow primer from the Army Painter. It is a yellowish tan color that gives a good undercolor for the red layers that go on top. If I use white, I need to wash with yellow to start as otherwise the tone will be pink.
From the desert yellow base, I applied a mix of Napthol Red Light (Golden Fluid Acrylics (GFA)) and Liquitex ink (vivid red orange). These new inks from Liquitex are absolutely the best I have used, with less gloss than old GW inks, but the same color and adhesion properties. They also mix well with paint and give a little extended drying time for detail work. Mixing white with red ink dries slower than with red paint without an extender, plus it is very smooth.
The next steps for the skin were sloppy and mean to add tone and shadow, using dark shades of ink. The main colors were Burnt Sienna for the midtone, Burnt Umber for shadow, and then turquoise for the deep shadows. The inks were mixed with liquitex matte medium for extra thickness.
The armor was given a base coat of Vallejo Game Color bronze. The armor plates were shaded with turquoise ink, then give glazes of burnt umber. The trim and any other gold parts were glazed with burnt sienna and then burnt umber for shadows. The idea was to make armor bronze with gold trim. Highlights were added with Vallejo Game Color bright gold mixed with Liquitex silver ink. The silver ink is interesting as the pigment load looks poor but it dries slowly, does not clump, and can be applied in thin layers. It also mixes really well with the gold.
To highlight the skin, orange ink was mixed with Reaper Creamy White (a golden bone color) and a bit of burnt sienna ink for less intense highlights. This was applied in multiple (lots and lots) of quick strokes, similar to hatching. The reason to do this was that the skin was sculpted with this type of "lined" texture and enhancing it seemed appropriate. Why fight the sculpt anyways. More white was added for highlights but I tried to stay on top of the previous darker lines. To blend things down, I applied glazes of burnt sienna and a little orange ink. The wings were different though, as the texture was crosshatched and very ragged, so I stuck with drybrushing multiple light layers with thinned paint, then glazing down with inks and adding some edge hightlights. The ends of the wings were glazed with pthalo blue ink and black paint to give a gradient transition, but everything was highlighted with orange+bone to tie it all together.
Everything else was fairly simple, using the same basic techniques of light initial coat, dark washes, light highlights, color glazes and then final highlights with opaque paint to touch things up. The base was simple also, with glazes of blues, purples, orange and black to make it looks burnt and chaotic.
While the techniques were simple, it still took a couple of weeks to knock this guy out. I am glad I did not try NMM as it would have added a huge amount of time.
My latest commission work, the Bloodthirster Greater Daemon was a big undertaking to say the least. The link is here.
http://coolminiornot.com/255439 make sure to magnify the image. This was one where it is better for higher res shots.
Here is a closeup of the face also -
This is one hell of a miniature, if one can call it that. The figure stands around 6" to the shoulder and maybe 10" to the top of the axe. It is a incredibly detailed sculpt, with texture on almost every surface. For the skin, I chose to stick to glazes and a stippling type of lining style to enhance the texture. The main base was something new for me, a coat of Desert Yellow primer from the Army Painter. It is a yellowish tan color that gives a good undercolor for the red layers that go on top. If I use white, I need to wash with yellow to start as otherwise the tone will be pink.
From the desert yellow base, I applied a mix of Napthol Red Light (Golden Fluid Acrylics (GFA)) and Liquitex ink (vivid red orange). These new inks from Liquitex are absolutely the best I have used, with less gloss than old GW inks, but the same color and adhesion properties. They also mix well with paint and give a little extended drying time for detail work. Mixing white with red ink dries slower than with red paint without an extender, plus it is very smooth.
The next steps for the skin were sloppy and mean to add tone and shadow, using dark shades of ink. The main colors were Burnt Sienna for the midtone, Burnt Umber for shadow, and then turquoise for the deep shadows. The inks were mixed with liquitex matte medium for extra thickness.
The armor was given a base coat of Vallejo Game Color bronze. The armor plates were shaded with turquoise ink, then give glazes of burnt umber. The trim and any other gold parts were glazed with burnt sienna and then burnt umber for shadows. The idea was to make armor bronze with gold trim. Highlights were added with Vallejo Game Color bright gold mixed with Liquitex silver ink. The silver ink is interesting as the pigment load looks poor but it dries slowly, does not clump, and can be applied in thin layers. It also mixes really well with the gold.
To highlight the skin, orange ink was mixed with Reaper Creamy White (a golden bone color) and a bit of burnt sienna ink for less intense highlights. This was applied in multiple (lots and lots) of quick strokes, similar to hatching. The reason to do this was that the skin was sculpted with this type of "lined" texture and enhancing it seemed appropriate. Why fight the sculpt anyways. More white was added for highlights but I tried to stay on top of the previous darker lines. To blend things down, I applied glazes of burnt sienna and a little orange ink. The wings were different though, as the texture was crosshatched and very ragged, so I stuck with drybrushing multiple light layers with thinned paint, then glazing down with inks and adding some edge hightlights. The ends of the wings were glazed with pthalo blue ink and black paint to give a gradient transition, but everything was highlighted with orange+bone to tie it all together.
Everything else was fairly simple, using the same basic techniques of light initial coat, dark washes, light highlights, color glazes and then final highlights with opaque paint to touch things up. The base was simple also, with glazes of blues, purples, orange and black to make it looks burnt and chaotic.
While the techniques were simple, it still took a couple of weeks to knock this guy out. I am glad I did not try NMM as it would have added a huge amount of time.
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