Haldir (LotR) First gold NMM

[AZOutlaw]

Hello all
after a looong time this is a new mini from me. Its my first try at nmm gold and I would like to know what you think about it. Its Haldir from GW and I spent about 5 Hours painting him. Oh and the base is scratchbuild with fimo and milliput. This was my first try with these puttys and I find them very good for basing, the fimo makes it take longer to cure (which gives you more time to sculpt) and the milliput makes it harder than the head of my boss. So please leave feedback here:
Haldir Cmon
Heres a pic for those who are too lazy to click:

 

[Ritual]

This is not bad at all, for a first go at NMM. The colour tone looks quite real and the shadows seem to work for the most parts. However, you need to take the highlights further to create the true metallic look. Remember, contrast is essential for effective NMM. The very brightest spots should be pure white or close to it. It takes some consideration, though, to get the placements of these brightest spots right. You can try holding the mini under a bright lamp and study where the light is reflected the most. Then, paint according to that.

Other than that, I think the skin looks a little drab and lifeless and the colour of the hair is too similar to the gold armour. The red cape looks very nice however. Maybe just a little more highlighting on it could improve it even further.

I hope I\'m not sounding too critical!

 

[Drake Farstrider]

I agree with everything Ritual said. He nailed it. This is a very nice 1st attempt at what seems to be a very dificult technique for people. Up your highlights some and bring this home. The face could use some more shadowing to seperate it from the hair and to not make him look so goth. The only other thing I can think of is that the leathers that he has need to be a little darker, as they kinda get lost in all that gold/brown goodness.

 

[Corvus]

I agree with what has been said before: the gold needs to be shiny with more highlights.

 

[AZOutlaw]

Thanks at all.
You figured out just what I thought when I watch him closely in the pics. In real he looks more \"natural\". But in the pics the lack of white is showing off more. The problems I had was to highlight only the edges of the armour cause they are so small, any good tips how to technical highlight those small edges would be great. Thanks a lot.

 

[Ritual]

Try holding the brush perpendicular to the edge so that the side of the brush just below the tip is in contact with the edge of the armour. The sweep gently along the edge. The brush should contain a sufficient amount of paint to leave visible strokes, but musn\'t be completely soaked in paint. Repeat this until you have the desired result. This is how I usually paint edges of things.

 

[AZOutlaw]

Thanks Ritual. I give it a try when I finished my exams (hopefully) in august and have time to paint again.