Converted Word Bearers Dark Apostle - 112936

Tinweasel

Tinweasel

Member
Here\'s some newly posted pics from my Gallery: #112936

I\'d be most appreciative of comments, suggestions, and in-depth critiques.

This figure represents a lot of \"firsts\" for me:
  • It\'s the first time I\'ve ever actually converted and resculpted parts of a figure - my first time using Green Stuff for anything other than minor gap filling, and using Sculpey for the display base
  • The first time I\'ve ever tried OSL - I was aiming for a glowing effect on both the eyes and the Crozius Arcanum (AKA desecrated Power Mace)
  • The first time I\'ve ever made a display base - I custom-made the stonework from Sculpey, carved weathering into it, and glued it onto a framework of Green Stuff on a 40mm slottabase
  • The most freehand work I\'ve ever done on any figure/base - the shoulder icon was based on a Word Bearers image I found, and the two-tone Imperial Eagle on the base was freehand following an alternate stone/weathering pattern to the rest of the tiles
I\'ve only been back into painting since about February of \'05 or so after a roughly 13 year break, so any and all suggestions would be good: whether it\'s painting techniques on this guy, suggestions on sculpting, or whatever.

I kinda ran out of room in the pic, as I didn\'t want to go over the 600 pixel width limit and these pics are more close up/larger than my original posting of him, but here\'s pics of the base separately:
dark_apostle_base5.jpg
 
Dragon Forge Design

Dragon Forge Design

New member
I love the base.. Like to see more good basework going on..

One thing I really hate is a nice painted mini parked a top a plane black base..
 
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Ogrebane

Active member
Voted and commented. I would like to see a purple or green wash on the flesh as I think its too whte. Apart from that its a great paint job and conversion.
 
Tinweasel

Tinweasel

Member
Well, I\'ve got a tutorial of sorts on both the figure and the base on my website: Word Bearers Dark Apostle Tutorial

The base itself is essentially a Warmachine 40mm slottabase, a layer of Kneadatite, and some baked Sculpey. It\'s a little flimsy, though - I originally tried shaped plasticard, but that was a pain to carve/file/cut to the right appearance.
 
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Ogrebane

Active member
Thats a painting tute. I think freak (and I also) would like to know how you made the base as it looks so realistic.
 
Tinweasel

Tinweasel

Member
@ Ogrebane & freakinacage - Aha!
I was aiming for something like the ruined stone tile floor of an Imperial building - kinda like he was striding through the wreckage with bodies in his wake. I originally wanted a marble effect, but settled on the green and whitish/cream color to tie in with the bone areas and to complement the red.

The tile flooring was based on a Warmachine 40mm round slotta. I baked a thinnish sheet of plain Sculpey, measuring a crosshatched pattern on it at a reasonable scale to the gap in his feet. I wanted the tiles underneath him on the \"bloated\" side to be crumbled/bent upwards with his weight, and a pattern of \"footprints\" behind him with a similar effect. I simply cut the crosshatches into square tiles - as I said, this stuff is pretty flimsy, so a lot of \'em were breaking as I cut the sheet into squares.

I filled the gap and depression in the slottabase with Kneadatite and then laid the tiles over, trying to recover the already broken ones and arrange them back to where they were simply cracks. For the footprints, I pressed in with my sculpting tool, and the Sculpey material was soft enough (it\'s supposed to bake hard, but damned if it didn\'t, even after two stints in the oven!) that I could score and scar it with my files.

All that remained was to fill between the edge gaps and some of the cracks with cornmeal, scattering a little here and there as dirt/debris.

The end result:
dark_apostle_base1.jpg

(Was itching to get started, so I took the picture after I already gave the green tiles a coat of VMC Russian Green)

There\'s my blog of sorts over on the Relic Painting & Army Displays Forum, if anyone wants to read about my WIP in a bit more depth: http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=77129
 
Tinweasel

Tinweasel

Member
Any specific suggestions as to improving his appearance? I\'d especially like suggestions on the metallics, as they are pretty well highlighted (at least to me) but they don\'t seem to translate well into photographs.

So far as the skin goes, it\'s essentially a base of GW Rotted Flesh with washes of blue and purple ink, glazed up to white on the upper surfaces with a drop of the blue/purple wash mixed in. The skin was further washed with thinned Tamiya Smoke, as it was a little \"too\" white. I painted veins underneath the final upper layer, so I was trying not to overdo it on the glazing/highlighting as not not cover up the veins.

Any suggestions on improvement for pale, dead flesh?
 
Tinweasel

Tinweasel

Member
I guess this is a bump of sorts. Our 5 month-old-kitten knocked my converted Dark Apostle off the shelf he was sitting on, so he\'s basically broken into his component parts.

For what it\'s worth, I\'d appreciate votes and comments on him here on #112936 for posterity\'s sake. I\'ve yet to find all the pieces, so he may or may not salvageable.

The thing I find most disheartening is that right now, scoring-wise, he\'s a lower score than the pictures I posted ages of the unpainted figure.
 
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Drake Farstrider

New member
I think this is one of those minis that could be easily overlooked, and I think the score shows it. At first glance I would score it around a 6.5, but when you actually take a look at it you notice more of the little details, the freehand and of course the base, wich IMHO bumps it up to a 7.5 or higher.

I think there are several areas that could be improved, the osl for one and I think a red /brown glaze on the parchment might be nice as well.

As for the flesh I think, you might want to add a little green to it.
 
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