Kablaq's attempt at a painting log

[kablaq]

Hello all, I am a newish miniature painter. I began with the GW Dark Vengeance box (still incomplete), and have been muddling my through several other projects. I have been reading many of the threads on the CMON forums and, seeing all of the useful critiques given on these forums, thought that it would be helpful to have more critiques of my own work so that I can start to improve more in my painting.

My current project is a space marine army themed around the Sons of Medusa, which I have been experimenting with since January. I also am in the planning stages for a garage kit I want to give to a friend, as well as a scale Leopard 2 tank I have in progress.

But first, the SPEHSS MUHRINNESSS!!!!



This is the beginning of an icon for any drop pod doors and rhinos I will have in the force. I'm liking the shape it has now, but need to figure out how to get the spikes to end equidistant from the circle. I plan on making a press-mold of this and going from there once I have it at the place I want.



I have also been working on a shoulderpad which I plan on casting up for most of the troops to wear. I originally based it off of this shoulderpad, which I have made a mold of and modified. I feel like I'm getting close to where I want to be with the new shoulder pad, but it still looks fairly rough. I can't quite figure out how to smooth it, and being limited to a starter sculpting set is somewhat limiting atm.




This is one of my test figures that I am using to figure out my plan for how I will paint the rest of my troops. I have just started working out highlights on all of the non-green sections of the model, primarily the black/grey areas. After taking a look at it a couple more times, I think I was pushing the brush too hard on some of the edges, and probably got the high points wrong on the shoulders.

My full plans for the color scheme is, after highlights, to start significantly weathering the models. This will primarily be through sponge damage applied across the model, an oil wash, and then rust colored pigments applied to the legs and other areas to tie the model in with the base. The idea I have in my mind is that of an army that's fighting on a industrial world, that has been wearing down due to dissuse and constant fighting.



This is the first squad I have in the green basecoat, whom are waiting on me to figure out the rest of the painting before I start applying more color to them. I originally was going to paint them with several heavy-body acrylics sprayed through a airbrush, but waiting 24 hours for a coat to dry fully was not sitting well with me, so I switched to vallejo paints. I am using VGC Imperial Blue/Escorpena green in the shadows, Escorpena green as a midtone, and Livery green as the highlight (credit to/stolen from awesomepaintjob) . The idea was to have a colder shadow color and a warmer highlight, but I feel I may have bitten of more than I can chew as far as transfering that to the rest of the model.

Anyways, I guess that's enough for a "Hello!" :bashful:

 

[Zab]

I like that green it's spot on for the SOM. Remember, lots of mechanus icons and cog tooth type trim Great start!

 

[Canny]

Wow exciting green! Im looking forward to seeing these guys come together
just watched APJ SOM vid on youtube nice here are my thoughts if you wanted to make them pop a bit more.
The green looks like a great start, I would be very tempted to mix up a 30-30-40% livery green, golden yellow, bone white, and use it for the last and smallest of highlights.
One thing I have experimented with for painting black was painting a mid grey for the black and then going over it with a black ink concentrating in the shadows and areas I want darker.

Look forward to following your wip

Just thought of extra info, Mix some blue into your black (I mean grey) it will tie your colours together also.

 

[kablaq]

Hi Zab, thanks for the reply! I'm not sure how many cog tooth patterns I'll be able to fit onto the models at my current skill level, but I'll try

Hi Canny, thanks for replying! I had thought of doing a livery green/white mix as a final highlight, but I like your idea of adding in some yellow. I'll have to try that. As for the "black", I had been working from a basecoat of GW Eshin Grey. From what I can see, it is a fairly dark grey with hints of blue in it. I may have to see what other grey shades I have to work from. I do like the idea of integrating blue into the shadows, though I may still try to bring it up to a neutral grey highlight.

Thanks!

 

[Canny]

Nice, I look forward to it. Dont forget you can also mix your colours together for the transitions they will be a lot more homogeneous. I like where you are going with the discussion. look forward to an update.

 

[Meph]

Yep, looking forward to more stuff as this looks like a great start indeed...

 

[Bailey03]

Nice to see someone doing some Sons of Medusa marines. I did a couple way back on page 2/3 of my WIP thread. I didn't stick quite as close to the official color scheme, your green is a lot closer to what it should be than mine was.

After you do the sponge weathering, you can go over the rest/paint chips and give the top a black outline and outline the bottom with your green highlight color (or maybe mix in some more white or yellow since your green is already pretty light). That will give your chips a 3-D look. Of course it also takes more time, so if you want you can just do it on the larger sections.

Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing how your squad turns out.

 

[kablaq]

Hurray, more progress. Spent most of my time assembling instead of painting last month, but now that that is done, I can get back to working on my paint scheme.

Hi Meph, thanks for the support!

Hi Bailey, Thanks! I do like how you painted and weathered your figure, definetly makes it look dark and battle-weary. I'm especially a fan of the reddish brown you used for the battle damage sections of the armor. I think it provides a nice contrast to the green, and probably even more so if I were to try and match it with my own green XD. Also, thanks for the advice on highlighting the chipping.

Canny, thanks. I do need to get better at mixing my colors and using them to make transisitions, though working with a wet palette has made it easier thus far. Also, I must say I am a big fan of how you painted your Sons of Medusa model. It looks great, and I am definitely inspired by it.

Progress:

Sorry they're somewhat out of focus, but I think they still illustrate what I have done. I have tried to glaze on a couple green-yellow-white mixes onto the tops of the shoulder pads and other areas where the light hits, as well a as a couple spot white dots. As I look at it further, I think I over applied the color, and should try to focus on a smaller area, which I will try on my other test figure.

I have also integrated blue into my dark grey, even shading down to an Imperial Blue/Black mix in the darkest shadow areas. I painted on a neutral grey highlight, but I'm thinking I might need to put a couple more layers on, as it is barely noticeable to me up close.

I also tried to apply white highlights to the chest eagle. I am thinking I need to go back and put more layers in, rather than just doing Celestra Grey with a Dead White highlight.

 

[Canny]

Nice work, tidy paint job.

What would help your chest eagle is thin some dark dark grey, almost black paint make it 50-50 water and dap it on a paper towel and carefully fill in the creavices of the chest piece, then tidy it up with the grey and white, only highlight with white the inside wings not the out side it will help with the depth. This will help with the contrast.

The easy way if you have heaps to do is use a wash of maybe nuln oil to get the darkness in the chest eagle then go over it the same way.

Extra step if your feeling keen, I see you have intergrated some blue you can use a few dots of watered down blue to give a shine to the eagle Also.

Happy painting

 

[kablaq]

okay.... kinda dropped thread sooner than I thought I would. My local FLGS ended up closing a month after I last posted, and I've been fighting to get myself back to painting since then. I have several half completed projects that I still need to work on, including my GK's from the October challenge, but I'll get to them eventually.

Anyways, I return in need of advice. I am attempting to paint a figure as a present and as part of a competition on /r/minipainting, which is set to end this Friday. The figure is the 72mm Virginia Militiaman from FER miniatures, and aside from some prep/assembly issues, has been fairly enjoyable thus far. I've been taking ideas from Painting Buddha's Civil War miniature videos, namely on glazing. I originally wanted to glaze the highlights and shadows like Mr. Komets does, using a base prime in a zenithal lighting pattern; However it seems I over primed on the white, which has basically forced me to erase most of the zenithal prime with a basecoat of green. It also took me through most of the basecoat to finally figure out how to get my paint and brush load to the correct point to actually glaze.

So far, the best work I've done so far has been on the lower section of the coat, I believe. I've glazed in a red-violet to the folds of the cloak and shadow areas, and have attempted to glaze a mix of light green + basecoat onto the top folds as a highlight. However, I keep looking at it, and it looks... bad? It doesn't seem as smooth as it could be at least. I had tried previously to the do the right arm, but my shadows weren't thin enough and turned out really dark, while the pure light green came out as streaks on the model, so I repainted them somewhat.

I'm also afraid I've made the shadows too strong in relation to the rest of the model, but that could be just because I have very little else to compare it against.



As far as the other parts of the mini, I'm liking the look of the light brown inner coat, and will continue with that. The waistcoat on the front will most likely be off-white, and the trousers/pants will be a darker shade of brown. Thinking of using a red-violet for the scarf, and several of the straps going across the body will be leather, since there seems to be several good leather tutorials on the internet

Thanks.

 

[kablaq]

Further progress

I didn't complete this project in time, but I've made more progress on it, so feeling really good about it now. Most of this work was done over a couple wonderful snow-days, including about 6 solid hours of painting and such last friday.



Here's the base I built. I kind of feel like the fence takes up too much space, but at this point I'm going to go with it until I have gotten the figure on there to see how it compares, especially now that I've already primed it :silly:



Decided that the shadow's were too strong on the previous work, so I glazed some basecolor on to tone it down, and then went around adding shadow's onto the rest of the coat. The rear area under the left arm may be too dark, but I'll wait until more of the figure is done to judge that. Still deciding on highlight color placement. Also worked on the leather and burlap on the figure. :fingers-crossed:



Initial work on colors for the breetches, socks and shoes.



Leather pouch, canteen, and gun. While overexposed (damn phone), I like where I am with the leather pouch. I may add some more glazes of color to vary it, but it looks fairly solid to me so far. The canteen is supposed to be wood, and I feel like I got a good base for that; Just need to finish up the darker outside, and maybe add some spot colors. For the gun, I've mostly just worked on the wood. It looks fairly plain so far, and I think I should look at adding more of a highlight to it. I've also worked on the leather strap, but not terribly concerned with that right now.

Time to go work on building my first forgeworld tank, a Sicaran Battle Tank! Got it as a secret santa gift; I plan on using it and the Betrayal at Calth box to start a Heresy-era Dark Angel's force (so much black:nailbiting!.

FOR THE LION!

 

[kablaq]

New project.... again

Decided to paint a mini for Webmonkey's Flesh Faire challenge. Didn't end up making it, but I'm enjoying the figure enough that I plan on continuing! The Miniature is the Holiday White Speaker Nico from Kingdom Death. I'm happy I bought two, as it means I should have an easier time comparing painting improvement if I paint it again in a couple years :drool:

Start and Primed:

A bit of color to start:

Mostly skin shading and some glazing, but did basecoat and hit the base with some washes:

Here's where I am at now that the Flesh Faire is over with:

I'm liking how the skin looks for the most part, but it's really basic at this point. I feel like it would be a good idea to glaze the basic fair skin to even out some of the skin areas, and possibly start glazing red, blues and purples into the shadows to help deepen them and vary the color some more.

 

[kablaq]

*clears out a few cobwebs*

Guess I left this for a bit too long... Oh well, time to get back to it.