Dwarven chariot.. Comments and Opinions please

[Lurch]

Well I just uploaded my Dwarven Chariot for your inspection. It\'s still waiting for approval, but you can see it here:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/86563

Or view it below.

Here is the story on it.
I am getting real tired of NMM as such. It looks good in photos, but in real life, unless you are looking at it from the view it was painted (light source in the right sport, etc) they just look out of place. My goal was to do Metallics in such a way that it looked good in real life and hopefully in pictures as well.

I had a painting competition I wanted to enter. Being a fan of Rackham, and more specifically, its dwarves, I decided to go with the Dwarven Chariot. I also found that the Rackham web site had a special mail order ballista that you could use in place of the normal cannon. I ordered it and was off to the races. The color scheme from the begining was to be beaten bronze and brass.

I studied different tutorials online for brass ideas and found two that were cool but needed some tweaking. Dr Fausts Painting clinic in his lab had this exact miniature done close to the same way as I was planning to do it, but I felt it needed something else. I also found an NMM tutorial on NMM Bronze at Brushthralls.com.. Again the look was cool but I wanted to stay away from NMM. However, many of the ideas were useful to me for shading and technique. I combined brushtralls NMM techniques with the painting scheme used at Dr Fausts and got a brilliant looking mini.
Thanks to both sites on getting me started.

I believe this is my best mini to date and apparently many agree with me.
I took first place in the Single non-historical mini catagory at Recruits Con with it.

 

[War Griffon]

I think if I was going to buy a Rackham then this would deffinately be at the top of the list.

Nice work Lurch not a lot I can say except I ma now jealous

 

[frenchkid]

Wow great job on those mettlaics, looks really nice. The base feels a bit empty to me maybe you could had some small details to make it more interesting. And how about a small tutorial on doing that nice brass color

 

[tidoco2222]

Great work lurch the brass colour is excellent and it makes a refreshing change to see Rackham\'s minis in traditional metallic paint and look good.

 

[vincegamer]

Fantastic mini, Lurch.
The metals are all good, from the pointy wheels to the shiny stove-pipe and all the brassy stuff in the middle.
Maybe a bit too regular on the corrosion under the bull articulated plates, but the color is smack on.

 

[Avelorn]

Wow, great work! I really like the bronze. the link doesn\'t work though.

EDIT. it does work, sorry must have been something with my computer.

However.. don\'t be so quick to judge out all NMM. From my experience NMM can look good IRL and not out of place at all. It never looks exactly like metallic metal though, as it hasn\'t got that reflective surface. But neither does a miniature ever look \"real\".. it can only be a realistic painting.. and so on. It all depends on what effect and style you are after. NMM gives you more liberty and metallic metals gives a more realistic finish.

 

[Lurch]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

@ Frenchkid. I agree that the base looks empty. I wanted to do a minimalist base with just a road to show the mini off more but I might have to rethink that. Perhaps a few boulders by the side of the road?

As far as a tutorial is concerned, 90 percent of the technique came from Dr. Fausts web site with the other 10 from Brushthralls article on bronze. I\'d feel a little like a plagiarist if I wrote an article on it without their permission. Perhaps they will let me? ??

@vincegamer. I think what you are seeing is just the angle of the picture. There is some of the green patina on the bottom of the bull armor, but perhaps I did not add enough? I\'ll take another look at it. I agree your advice is spot on going by the photo.


@ Avelorn, Thanks for the input. I am not outruling NMM, but I am merely tired of seeing it. I think there has to be a way to combine the effect of NMM and the realism of metallics in such a way that you get the best of both worlds. It is going to be my mission in painting to somehow combine the two styles to make a completely different but just as amazing style of its own.
I think I got pretty close here. In fact I think you\'d be amazed at just how little metallic paint is really on this mini! All shading and base coats were done in regular colors with just a touch of metallic paint in the mix. Only the highlights were actually metallic paints.

@ everyone else:
This is great feedback. Please keep it coming!

 

[kmdl1066]

Fantastic! My vote for something to add to the base is someone trampled flat into the mud behind it.

Sean

 

[Drake Farstrider]

Voted and left a comment for you. Fantastic job Lurch.

 

[Brokenblade]

Gets a 10 from me, just goes to show Rackham models can look as good with metallic metals (if not better) than nmm.

the weathering looks good and the base is fine as it complliments the model well whilst not distracting from it, overall very realistic.

 

[Avelorn]

@ Avelorn, Thanks for the input. I am not outruling NMM, but I am merely tired of seeing it. I think there has to be a way to combine the effect of NMM and the realism of metallics in such a way that you get the best of both worlds. It is going to be my mission in painting to somehow combine the two styles to make a completely different but just as amazing style of its own.
I think I got pretty close here. In fact I think you\'d be amazed at just how little metallic paint is really on this mini! All shading and base coats were done in regular colors with just a touch of metallic paint in the mix. Only the highlights were actually metallic paints. [/quote]

I\'ve experimented with mixing metal and non metallic colours, it\'s seems to be an good technique for duller metals but not as good if you want them to really shine. One problem is the concentration of metal flakes. It looks wierd when some parts of the metal shines more then the rest (if it\'s not covered in rust or oxidation) I highlight most of my metals now using NMM techniques but I\'m always serching for better ways to do it. The way I incorporate non-metallic colours are with thin glazes, and sometimes i still need to glaze it over again with real metals to make a smooth shining transition. I mostly work from a NMM base though.. using greys for steels and light browns for gold. It is definately an area of painting which needs to be explored more.

 

[Lurch]

Yeah,
Youd actually be surprised at how much of this is painted using metalic paint.
Most of it is browns and tans with just a drop of VM Bronze added for the flakes.
Only the highlights and worn areas are true metallic, and those were done with the Reaper Master paints.

If you want your metallics to really shine though, try mixing it with just a touch of white for blue metallics (steel, silver, etc) ors and an Ivory or bone for yellow metallics (brass, gold, etc)
I am going to experiment with this technique and see if I can get a good recipe for each of the metallic colors.
I think I have brass and bronze down though

 

[Broke n English]

Great work Lurch,a truly effective,realistic metal technique! The look is fantastic,as far away from glossy style NMM as you can get really.I\'d say on writing an article that everyone rewrites stuff but with their own twist/ideas added,I\'m sure they wouldn\'t view it as plagerism (spelling?) and I\'m also interested in new metal techniques Love the base too,it does it\'s job of not detracting from the piece whilst looking good.Congratulations on the win too,well deserved fella :bouncy:

 

[Wren]

Wonderful job, really looks fantastic!

I would be very interested in an article on the technique, since I\'ve yet to master NMM or MM, and I think what you\'ve done here is really super. I don\'t think such an article would be plagerism. Sometime way back when, someone thought up the techniques of drybrushing, then more recently reflected light sources or what-have-you, but others who then adopt the techniques write about their particular way of approaching it, and I don\'t think anyone really considers that taking away from the pioneers of the technique.

 

[Trevor]

Yes please and article would be great. The only thing stopping this being a 10 for me is a lack of WOW factor, but its still an awesome job.

 

[Lurch]

Very well,
I will start working on an article, but I will be sure to include both sites as references so that I do not take all the credit.
Now I only wish I had taken shots of work in progress
Ahh well, guess I\'ll just have to start another mini with the same scheme.