The "skin effect" on the holster and on the cap is good, i like it. The problem, i think, is that the colors are not sufficiently delineated...for example, at the first sight, in the first photo, i've found hard to distinguish the bolt from the other parts of this model...another example is the right glove...it has not enough lights and contours...Seems that you have focused your work only on the skin...this is my idea, without offense and on a mini that is however a good work.
I'm glad I hit the mark on the "tanned human leather" areas, especially since I messed up the hood around the area where the decal now is to the point where it was stripped back to primer and I had to repaint and color match everything all over again. You're also right in that the "skin" areas received more attention - because of the repainting, I went back over all the tanned human leather areas and added a step more or two of highlights. The regular flesh tone (the greeny-blue) came next in terms of focus, in that they used to originally be a bad shade of green and I ended up color shifting them over to blue with extra work in shading moreso than highlights. The pink areas received a decent emount of attention - shaded with purple and then glazed in the shadows with blue, highlighted up to pure white - but in hindsight not the same as a few other areas.
All that being said... I take your critiques as valid of other areas looking like they didn't receive as much work or attention, and some areas not being as specifically delineated as they could have been. In my own defense, I believe I painted this guy up to a higher standard than I've been trying to put out lately (high-end tabletop) and that he's in the nigh-7's right now, I'm fine with that because looking at the figure now that the "afterglow" has worn off, I see all the faults and failings. Don't think I'll be doing much in the way of touch-ups right now (yet) as he's "just" the leader of my tabletop forces, but I think I could seriously bump him up to a much higher display standard with a bit more work - that and a lot of people commented elsewhere that he needs a backpack or something to make the minimal 40K conversion a bit more credible.
The bolter conversion doesn't really fit well with the model sadly. I think if you have done more into resculpting it so it looked more natural that would have gone further. The painting is nice but their isn't much int he way of richness to the colors and contract. All in all I think a 7 is solid as the model is nice and well above table top but you kinda picked a hard one to work with as the old ones though nice were most definately not meant for painting by todays standards.
You got me there on the bolter conversion - it's a holstered bolter plastic part I had in my bitz box that I thought would look good on this guy painted up as tanned human leather. The strap is actually made out of glued paper. Serves the purpose well, but it's by no means an involved conversion. If anything, I'll be adding a Slaaneshi-themed backpack of sorts down the line to make the "40K vibe" a bit more credible - in truth, though, it's a classic Jes Goodwin sculpt from the early 90's and I didn't want to mess too much with history. A solid 7? Yep, that'd be nice I think given my original aims with the figure - taking a classic WFB Chaos Champion and making him the leader of my 40K Chaos Space Marine warband with a minimum of fuss, conversion, and essentially just a "respectable" paintjob. <-- Having a chuckle at this, though, because yes while I didn't paint him up to competition standards, he's not scoring much less right now than my two figures I put a ton of work into that won Demons at two GD's in Chicago.
I wholeheartedly disagree. In what way are contemporary miniatures *specifically* better suited to "today's standards?" your stylistic preference, sure, but technical quality? Cmon, that's silly.
I'd have to agree: the sculpting is good, the figure has character, the scale's not so outlandish compared to modern GW stuff. Yeah, the detail of the sculpt could be improved a bit compared to newer multipart pieces, but for a "first run" of pewter/white metal not too long after the changeover from lead figures, he's a keeper in my book. I've got drawers full of Grenadier and Ral Partha figures from the same time period where some of 'em aren't as clean of sculpts, but those are smaller scale yet. Nope, he's eminently paintable and I side completely with Funnymouth on this one.
How does he not measure up as a paintable figure by "today's standards?" That's a bit much...
I agree, that does have some deal of higher contrast than some of your older works, but the blends on this one just don't look like they are as much of a controlled gradient. Id say look at your Tzeench sorcerer. It has a similar style, but the armor and cloth has less of a "inked puddle" look to it; I think that figure is a much better example of the contrast you were looking to achieve with this one. Basically the edges are all a bit soft- which contrasts to the hardness of the armor and bolter- sharper designations between the many parts of the model would be more effective. The hood does look very good however, as does the model as a whole. (blown up zoomed pics are really easy to pick apart, im sure it looks far better in person, at size.
As far as modern painting standards go, I think this figure illustrates how older sculpts were simply less texture specific- you have many areas on the model, notably the pointing hand and wrist, the bell-in-crotch, and painfully large, dull studs on the boot- which lack the firm edges which would give it a stronger, harder appearance. After all, we are painting miniatures, if the sculpt isn't wonderfully detailed, there is only so much we can do.
Keep chugging away at painting, and thanks for the post, it gave me a reason to check out your gallery-love your Gandalf with OSL- something im working on with a Lizardmen hero at the moment. Also- Did you write the bleach/vinegar/steel wool rust 'tute for the CMON painting guide? I've been meaning to try it on my ogres, but im hesitant to apply a host of chemicles to my poor little plastic model.
Thank you for the very detailed and specific feedback!
Already mentioned it, but there's areas where I could've given the figure more love if I'd been inclined to put a lot more work in - and I might yet - but from the outset I was just wanting to get him painted up to a respectable standard without going too overboard. I also wanted to try and hit a few specific marks (the white metallics, the tanned human leather look, the pink leather of his gear, and the dark blue highlighted up to faded turquoise leather glove) - some I apparently did, and some I didn't. Always room for improvement, even if this would've been a display figure done up to Golden Demon standards.
I took the sculpting of the chunky studs as intentional, in that they were going for a studded leather look with various "textures of studding" - I mean the right glove is studded with smaller detailed studs, I think the larger ones were by design. As for chunky details - yeah, maybe a bit, as this wasn't done in multiple pieces on a 3-up with CAD enhancement. Love the sculpt and I think it captures the essence of perverted, malignant Chaos a lot better than many of today's GW Chaos sculpts which seem more and more designed to look "badass" than "perverse." The times they are a'changin'.
Thank you for the compliments on my Gallery and the OSL Gandalf - don't forget to check out the bridge pictures, as he was converted and painted specifically to fit into a 15" bridge span that I made as a display base for him. My first-ever Demon award-winning figure, and I went with the intention of maybe making First Cut if I was lucky with him and several other pieces. Blew my mind, I tell you...
And yes, I did the "weathering with real rust" tutorial that's in the CMON guide. Still holding up well, whether on the original Cryx Deathripper, or with added color on plastic GW figs and all kinds of other stuff. I'm still using the original bottle that I posted about in the tutorial several years ago and haven't noticed any weirdness in using the liquid since. Like I believe I mentioned in the article - the big thing is the initial chemical reaction to rust the metal and it does take a few days; once that's done, you're left with something essentially inert or, at worse, slightly vinegary. No more harmful than the mild vinegar solution Micro-Sol that people use all the time to help set decals. The rust on the base of my Ork Nob was done with the same liquid, only I bumped up the color a bit with Vallejo VMC Orange Brown - an excellent rust color - and some shading.
My favorite of the metal weasel family! Tinweasel!
I thought I commented on this one, but don't see it there. I love seeing old models too. Creepy dude!
Cheers!
I appreciate your comments on my Gallery - wish there were more! I love me some old models, too, and I think they have a lot more character than most of today's GW releases - mentioned that already, where Chaos seems to have gone the route of "badass" as opposed to "physically mutated" to the "eccentric" side of things. And I'm glad he comes across as creepy - I'll thank the sculpting for a lot of that (Thanks, Jes!) but I tried to put some of that in the painting, too, what with the pastel shades and the fleshy leathers.
Thanks for the comments, everybody! (Keep 'em coming? I do plan on revisiting this guy at some point in the future, possibly as a genuine Golden Demon entry with a converted backpack...)
