First Space Marine Commander

[never knows best]

I tooled around with this miniature for a good while. I\'ve never shaded power armor before, so I wasn\'t exactly sure the best method, still trying to figure it out as I\'m moving on to a space marine tactical squad.

Any tips on how to improve the quality of this miniature are much appreciated.

I didn\'t do much with the base, only dry brushed the leaves and dirt/sand once. Not worried about the base, just the miniature.

 

[mattsterbenz]

Thats a nice mini. I like the use of contrasting colors. The power armor shading looks good, great skintone, gold looks very nice too.

A few things:

I think that the silver parts between the armor panels (such as the upper arm) could use some shading. This might just be the pic though.

It might help to give the gold studs on his tabard a brighter highlight, just so they will stand out more.

I think the red could use one more highlight, especially on the rope on his chest.

As far as shading power armor, you did a fine job. Im not sure how you approached it, but the method I find easiest is to start dark (in most cases, black) and build up highlights leaving the black in between the panels. It\'s much easier than going in with black on a tiny brush afterwards.

Hope this helps

-Matt

 

[never knows best]

Thanks for the feedback. That helps a lot. I actually had a really good gradient highlight, but I tried to brighten it up, because I thought it was too dark, and made the colors contrast a bit too much, rather than fade into each other.

I\'m doing the start dark, work your way up highlight on a regular space marine now, the only parts I\'m not sure how to shade are the large power armor plates like the thighs and shins. I noticed a Dark Angel WIP thread, and I\'m really liking how they shaded the power armor on those, so I\'m going to see if I can replicate that on the tactical marines I\'m doing now. See if I like it as much as I think.

 

[emopainterguy]

I came across this earlier in the galleries. I like what you\'ve done with him. The shading on the power armor is very good for a first try (it can be a little daunting the first time). Looking at how others have highlighted there marines can be a huge help. I think your green is just the right colour for Dark Angels. The red on the rope could definitely use another highlight to make it stand out, but I\'d leave the tabard as it is (looks sorta like a red leather right now). The NMM on the power sword is not too bad, but for it to be effective you need to almost include a gradient of black up to white. The white highlights should more or less only be on the edges and where the light catches the metal to represent shine spots. The gold isnt bad either, but a bit smoother transitions would help the over all appearance of it.

Is he for an army or just for fun? He looks to be at the edges of High tabletop and low display right now (I hope that didnt sound harsh). Keep up the good work.

 

[GreenOne]

Hey, where is the voting link ???

Anyway, cool dude, I like the armor, reds are a bit too flat, golds could use some extra highlight to shine more.
The darkspot on his forehead looks dirty, is i voluntary, a scar maybe ? From here it looks like it\'s a coverage issue.
You should not overlook the base, a poor base can really bring down a great mini, on this one it\'s not helping.

 

[never knows best]

Thanks again for the feedback. Here\'s the voting link, since I completely forgot that:

154722

Some responses:

Definitely agree about the red on the rope and leather on the waist as well as the gold.

With the gold the only gold paint I currently have is burnished gold, which was a huge pain to shade accordingly. I need to grab a mythril silver or shining gold as well to really gradient the metals.

The NMM I did on the sword was before I knew what the acronym NMM stood for. So that will definitely be improved on the next one.

I tried a shading on another space marine with a use of light source, i.e. highlighting a bright spot down the middle of the leg on the power armor and then shading down and out with it. It looks decent, but I\'m not sure if I like it.

The dark spot that looks dirty on his forehead is actually three metal bumps, which were very difficult to get to show up in the picture, and were difficult to highlight effectively. I\'d go back over it, but I\'m pleased with the responses for my first try, so I\'m going to leave it as is, invest in a variety of paints and continue painting the army.

I\'ll make updates on the rest of the army as well. I\'m probably going to start a project thread for this, so that I can get feedback as I work through the army.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

Oh I forgot to add the back. I tried some freehand emblem work and it didn\'t turn out so well. Any tips on making sharp lines without relying on the steadiness of your hand would be great as well. Here\'s the back of the model. Feeback on this would be more than helpful for future freehand emblems.

 

[Wootton]

looks great mate, the power armour could do with a final highlight, (but it might just look dark because of my computer screen) overall if you did more layers your minis would soon look amazing. good work