Forge World Tau Earth Caste Ground Crew

[Masnagj]

This is my first post here on the site, and I thought I would listen to some advise from one of the 'eavy metal painters from an article in a white dwarf "Get feedback when ever possible." So here I am!

If there is anything you can offer to improve a piece or something I should try, I am more than willing to listen and learn.

Thank you for your time!

 

[freakinacage]

i would suggest using dark lining rather than black lining more a more subtle look

 

[BPI]

Looks as though everything's going in the right direction Masnagj :good: The next step is feeding in more colours/shades. At the moment the black to yellow to beige on the guns & armour are quite stark leaps. Introducing a dark brown to the shading & white to the highlights will give you more range & help the detail stand out. Black is a tricky colour to work with on his suit, for future consider trying a very dark colour instead, the shading can be all black but it gives you a little wiggle room on the highlights!

In fact, mixing a little white into your beige and then popping some tiny highlights onto the armour & guns will make a huge difference. It can be scary to put more paint on a mini that already looks quite nice but it'll be worth it!

Cheers, B.

 

[Masnagj]

Thanks for the responses guys:

@freakinacage: So you would recomend using a softer shade, possibly a darker brown maybe around the same hue as vermin brown as opposed to the black?

@BPI: This was a mini one I finished in about a nights worth of work so It went through rather quickly off of my paint table. The pictures are not the best, ill try and get some better ones. The suit he is wearing actually has 3 colors on it, black for the shade, and then a 50/50 mix of scorched brown and black, and then finally in a few spots with straight scorched brown. I was just learning about the concept of glazes to change the hue of an entire piece and did not attempt glazing at the time of this piece. If I were to go back over this mini now what would you suggest using to sort of unify all the colors and reduce some of the harsh jumps between the blends?

This piece was really being used to practice trying to get smoother blends using multiple layers of thin paint on the armor, I was getting to a point where I was sort of in a hurry on the canister things, and it shows. With your suggestion of adding more white to the mix and trying to bring out more of a highlight on the armor, would you apply this more as an edge highlight or blend it smoothly towards the edges?

Thanks again for all of the suggestions, and sorry for all of the questions. Ill have to get the mini out of the case and put some of the critiques into action to see if I can make it even better!

 

[BPI]

Hi Masnagj.

"...suggest using to sort of unify all the colors and reduce some of the harsh jumps between the blends?"

I think that's just a matter of taking your time & practise If you'd painted the suit Scorched Brown, then blacked the shadows, then highlighted with just a touch of Codex Grey mixed in, there would be more depth to the paintjob whilst keeping the whole effect that of a dark brown. The Scorched Brown would work well for the basecoat of the armour & weapons instead of black too.

"...highlight on the armor, would you apply this more as an edge highlight or blend it smoothly towards the edges?"

The former for troops, latter for characters Not pure white though. Adding a small amount to your mix can make a lot of difference. If we ignore the black in the recesses the tan & the beige roughly take up ½ of the surface area each. Roughly The whiter highlight can just take up a tiny fraction of the space, it doesn't need to obscure more than a smidgen of the beige!

Do you have a whole army to paint or are you just playing with a handful of characterful minis?

Cheers, B.

 

[freakinacage]

aye, a darker version of the colour looks less harsh than pure black, you never see pure black shadows irl

and what bpi says with the highlights

 

[Masnagj]

This really is a one off mini. I wanted an excuse to paint tau flesh, and I happened to recieve this in an online trade. I have quite alot to take in and learn here, and the only really way to go is to keep painting more minis and getting more feedback the results!

 

[freakinacage]

too right! now go paint!