Huron Blackheart WIP

[A Luna]

After a relaxing time of painting on my diorama (see my gallery) I wanted to go for something which would take me more time to finish. I\'m quite happy how it looks like atm. But I\'m eager for feedback and I would really like to hear what you experts here think I could improve on this model

PS: I wanna beat Scottradom. I don\'t know why, but I kinda made him my personal concurrent A big motivation for me to paint things. No offense Scott, you just help me paint more. I want to improve like you improved

Thanks for looking.

 

[freakinacage]

looks good so far!

 

[Dragonsreach]

Well you\'ve set yourself a high target and Kudos for that.
You\'ve also picked a difficult mini to work on as it isn\'t one of GW\'s best sculpts.
Having said that their is huge scope for working this mini into a better looking version.

I\'d suggest that the damage on the figure is something that you should think about emphasising. Look at the faux damage that the likes of Cyril and others have done. Example Thread here and use that effect as a starting point to pick out the scratches and nicks.

I see you are using metallics on this figure, GO FOR IT. If you can try to get hold of Vallejo Airbrush Colours metallics.
I use them and someone I\'ve just recommended them to refered to using them as \"like painting with liquid metal\" (Man I should get commission from Vallejo the amount of advertising their product I\'ve done). Despite my hyperbole they are superb for fine detail normal brush work to the point where you can do excellent NMM style contrast using metals.

 

[A Luna]

Cool! thanks both.

Dragonsreach: thanks for the link. That is some awesome weathering there. I will try it but I\'m not very good at it
I\'m also gonna have a look at the vallejo airbrush colour metallics. As you described them, they are awesome.

Sorry for this silly question, but english isn\'t my primary language and you might have said it but I don\'t understand it. Can I use a brush to paint with the vallejo airbrush colours metallics? Or does it have to be an airbrush?

Thanks in advance, you guys are great

 

[freakinacage]

you can use a normal brush to paint with those airbrush paints. they have VERY fine pigments so are nice to use

don\'t worry about the faux damage, i fell some times it is done too much, i like the tarnished look you have got on teh metals so far

 

[Dragonsreach]

Geen behoefte om zich over de kunstmatige schadegevolgen ongerust te maken. Gebruik enkel de methode om de bestaande en gebeeldhouwde krassen te verbeteren.
Wat betreft het gebruiken van gewone borstels, zullen zij enkel fijn met de luchtpenseelverven werken. Het eindresultaat is veel superieur aan het meeste \" normal\" metaal verven.


No need to worry about the artifical damage effects. Just use the method to enhance the existing and sculpted scratches.
In regard to using ordinary brushes, they will work just fine with the airbrush paints. The end result is far superior to most \"normal\" metallic paints.

 

[ScottRadom]

Wellllll...... that was kind of random!

All the power to you, though trying to \"beat\" me seems a little like picking a fight with Stephen Hawking. The guys got plenty of strong points but NO WAY does he satnd up to the thunder of my 8 punch combination!

Very well painted model, and I like the OSL.

I got another vote for the Vallejo Air Metalics. I picked them up after several reccomendations (Including Mike, maybe you should put in for a commission?) and they\'re wonderful. I can\'t imagine using anything else. Though the color range on the steel side of things vs. the brassy side of things is a little lopsided in favor of the steel range.

I think all in all if this is just about you improving, and not just some crazy fascination with amazingly handsome, funny, well endowed, and amazingly humble Canadians then you\'re on the right page. I would just make an effort to try something new on each and every model you paint. I got a copy of the Forge World Masterclass book and I have been trying some of those techniques. Stuff I was very nervous to try like weathering (Sponging a model you\'ve pretty much completed with dark paint and potential ruining it was VERY hard for me to do!).

For this model I would reccomend using some of the comments I have been lucky enough to get for my own work.

-More highlights on the face

-I\'d highlight the chainmail a little more where appropriate

-The red is stunning to me, I love it and wouldn\'t touch it anymore.

-Maybe some freehand?

Very well done, I just clicked on the link to see what you\'d been cooking and was a little suprised to find myself mentioned. Another satisfied customer?

Well done, and keep it up! Also your english is very goodified!

 

[A Luna]

Thanks for the kind words all.

@Dragonsreach: Yes that is a lot more clear, cheers Did you use a translation program? It really sounds like one.

@Freak: Again, thanks for the clarification. I think I\'m gonna order the paint right away

@Scott: You are just 1 letter away from \'random\' (scottRADOM)

I think all in all if this is just about you improving, and not just some crazy fascination with amazingly handsome, funny, well endowed, and amazingly humble Canadians then you\'re on the right page

Nice, I\'m not sure if I dare to give the face another highlight, I\'m scared I\'ll mess it up
Then chainmail wasn\'t finished yet but I\'ll make it extra special. Nice to hear another opinion about the red armor. I might give it a little more light.
Any idea\'s on the freehand? I don\'t want to throw in random freehands and so far I don\'t have any idea what to paint

PS: Thanks for the compliment on my english, still got lots and lots to learn from being a true englishman (kudos to you guys that I became so good)

 

[ScottRadom]

Right then and there in your Post A Luna you hit on something. Don\'t want to add another highlight to the face \"in case you mess it all up\". I hear you 100% but that\'s a big obstacle in improving. Things that I wished I had tried before, but was too worried about wrecking a fig include

-Adding purple/green/red to various fleshtones. I am not good at it yet, but it\'s easy to see that with practice the results will be a lot better then just using paint that has the word \"flesh\" in it\'s description somewhere.

-Highlighting things with different colors. I mean using Space Wolves grey to highlight green, fleshtone to highlight red etc.

And the list will go on. I STRONGLY usrge you to give it a shot, even if you\'re unsure. Maybe especially if you\'re unsure. At the very worst I\'ve found that trying out a technique that worries you or sounds absolutely batshit crazy will at least give you the experience of having tried something, and not liking the results. This is not a bad thing as it helps me be a little more selective of some advice I take or don\'t take depending on the model.

I am not on par with Demon winners or anything, but I sure feel like I\'ve gotten better. It\'s 100% from taking the oddest sounding advice from WIP\'s on this board, and now my good friends over on the WAMP board as well. I reccomend trying everything reccomended to you from any source. Even if it sounds as crazy as adding turqouise to the flesh around the eyes of a mini! It looks great (when done well..... working on that.....)!

But this model is a winner. I agree that the sculpt is a little uninspiring to me. It\'s too much of the \"I got a new glove, check it out!!!\" for me.

As for freehand, juts some crazy ass chaos stuff I guess. Maybe look into the 40k forum and ask what should go on his shoulder for logos or somethin\'.

Lookin\' great! can\'t wait to snipe it when you submit it!

 

[A Luna]

Thanks. I\'ll give it a shot.
I kinda formed a theory about your story: Because you don\'t want to mess up the current miniature, you are extra careful when applying layers or washes.

I\'ll give it a shot!

(green and flesh? :] )

 

[ScottRadom]

Yep, green and flesh.

Some of the best tips I have gotten have come from Anders Eklund, AKA Ritual. DragonsReach and many others have also reccomended different then you\'d think colors in their skin tones as well.

Check out Ritual\'s gallery and one of his most recent pieces is called \"The Summoner\". He\'s defo used some green in his flesh as he talked about it a little over on the Wyrd mini\'s board. Check it out and try to spot it!

I also thin kit was Ritual who made the comment that everyone would be better painters if they took the labels off their paints and didn\'t worry about what the color was \"supposed\" to be used for and focused instead on juts what the color was.

I think there\'s a lot of wisdom in that statement. How many people paint goblin\'s with \"Goblin Gree\" or dwarfs with \"Dwarf Flesh\" just \'cause that\'s what it says on the jar? Ritual also says he never uses any straight from the pot flesh tones as he doesn\'t like them, he always mixes his own. A top tip he gave me way back when I was painting a Spartan fig was to use a very dark red in the recesses of a model\'s flesh to give a warm tone to it, rather then the dark brown I was using. Very good tip, works amazing. I\'ll even self reference a before and after here.....

That\'s before the red.

And that\'s after. I personally like the addition of the red very much, even though they\'re applied pretty clumsily (especially note the left arm around the bicep. YIKES!). And I would NEVER have done that to a greenish skin color in my life, but I took some wierd sounding advice and it makes a difference. Mike also has a picture of a RIDICULOUSLY ugly man that has every color in the rainbow in his flesh tones (it\'s a 2-D piece) but it all comes together. Take a look, I\'m sure he\'ll post it for you!

So please do yourself a great favor, and just give the wierd stuff a shot. Worst that happens is you have a great painted mini you aren\'t 100% on and you learned something. Best thing is that you have a mini you are 100% happy with and you learned something.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by A Luna
Thanks for the kind words all.

@Dragonsreach: Yes that is a lot more clear, cheers Did you use a translation program? It really sounds like one.

Yep lol Dictionary.com
In languages I\'m limited to English, (only just though as I\'m from Newcastle. lol) A little French and picking up a smattering of some other languages.

Scottradom\'s refering to:-
Vincent Van Gogh

And Gustav Flaubert

 

[A Luna]

Thanks guys. I\'ll give it a shot, but first I have to do my examns and a commission so I\'ll see if I have some spare time inbetween.
Hmmm... green to skin hmmm... I\'ll work on it

 

[phreak0]

green as a shade for skin is one of the best advices ive ever been given, i think it was ritual who gave it to me aswell.

nowadays i just use alot more colours when painting skin, by using different colours you can emphasize an expression in the minis face better.

as someone else said the skin could definitely get some more light on it. otherwise its a great mini. and setting goals is just great for creativity aswell.

i started painting Huron when he came out but never finished him, i went with some very dead skin on his face:

 

[ScottRadom]

Hey, jarhead just knocked off another mini (I think he gave up on sleep some time ago) that exercises some of the less then usual type work on his skin. I think you should take a gander and pick his brain if you\'d like.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=32947&pid=488922#pid488922

It\'s an Empire flagellant guy and you can see purple, red and stuff so I\'d check it out!

 

[A Luna]

Awesomeness @ Both mini\'s

 

[ScottRadom]

Hey, Orb just painted up an entry for the CMON 14 comp that I think shows pretty clearly some of the unusual shading color choices to get great results. It\'s in the discuss submission portion, and I asked if he\'d talk about it a little, so I\'d check it out Amigo!

 

[A Luna]

Thanks.

There hasn\'t been much movement around here because of my examns and a commission That\'s why it has been a little silent around in this topic. sorry, I will post an update as soon as possible.

 

[Orb]

Hi there....having heard that my name was checked elsewhere, investigation led me to this thread.......so I thought I\'d post a link to Calvin Tan\'s blog;
http://www.zyclyon.blogspot.com/
Calvin is somewhat talented cool and also an art teacher by day job, and his blog is just absorbing ..... and the latest entry is talking about shading flesh - infact, if you read it you\'ll see he links to a great article by Einion....

I read this after finishing my mini

BTW, there\'s loads of excellent stuff on Calvins Blog

 

[A Luna]

Highly appreciated Orb. I have found this site through his \'blog(?)\'.

http://www.hfmodeling.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=36&page=1

That is one great article. Although I\'m using Citadel paints (making the step towards Vallejo Model Colors) the article still comes in handy.