MAXXxxx WIPs

Looks excellent my brother. I especially like how you did the horses face. Good shadows there. The red armor is to die for, and the base is a beaut. Love it!!! Now show me how that NMM gold is done!!! :)
 

MAXXxxx

Well-known member
Thanks for the comments.

Sorry, but there is no way I'll do blacklining on these minis :) because:
a. I don't like it
b. I suck at it big time, so I have a fear of messing up what I've done until now.

Anyway first mini done, but it takes too long. At current rate it'll take 2-3 months to finish them all. And I'm not sure I have the attention-span for it.

View attachment 27836

NMMGold: nothing special. I just used 4 brown colors pure, so there is not even a mix in there + layering (with a bit of feathering the edges)
(noesian white (HL2), forgotten gold (HL1), kalienne yellow (B), beasty flesh (S1), dirty leather (S2))


hmm, as I wrote the recipes for the areas, I better write the one for the cloak too, as the other knights have it too:
- WildcatGrey (B)
- Syhar Soil (S2)
- Parchment Yellow (S1)
- WildcatGrey (B)
- NoesianWhite(HL1)
- White (HL2)
 

Zab

New member
That is absolutely lovely and you should finish them. They are too pretty to leave alone. Guilt trip...guilt trip...guilt trip...
 

Digganob

New member
No a guilt trip would be more like. Maxxxx I am a little disappointed that you didnt go all out and finish all of them. This one looks nice BUT I you could have done better by finishing them ALL. ::wagging a finger the entire time::
 

Kretcher

Active member
Hey Max i know the feeling about long projects... but sometimes it is worth to finish one and this one is a really nice one, if you get to bored with them take a short break and do another mini :)
 

HodRod

Member
Really looks good. I understand the time concern, but Rackham deserves only the best. Take breaks, drink Whiskey, do what you need to do; you don't want to rush art.
 

MAXXxxx

Well-known member
slowly going forward.
- finished the bases (more or less, I'll add grass and such, when the figures are ready)
- did some shading on the armor of the horses
- tried to start one of the falconer
- here I'll have to find a better way to paint the cloak. Painting 3+ layers of SyharSoil + 2-3 layers of parchment yellow + 2-3 layers of wildcat grey just to have a basecoat is too much work and too dangerous (slowly loosing details).
- so I'd need a suggestion of a light color that has a really good coverage from the VMC line. (Ivory / Buff???)

- and finished the mage of the 'army'. Originally I wanted to make the shield floating on the rocks, but one of the rock in the middle broke in half when I tried to pin the mage to the shield --> so it's not as high, but much more stable now.
View attachment 27967

I'm not 100% satisfied, but... he'll most likely remain as he is.
What mostly bothers me is the 'gold' filigree. On the raw image it looks pretty / too rough. Are there any tips here, how to make it smoother, but not go crazy when trying to apply it to multiple figures?
 

Digganob

New member
Wow Maxxx I am trying to pick out something to help or to tell you to try but it looks pretty dam good for me.
 
Maxxx, to me the above figure is not indicative of most of your work. Seems pretty chalky in many places. I think you know why though, since you were asking for a white with good coverage. You are in luck my friend. Some time ago, I was going through some WIPs when I saw that DRagonsreach recommended to 10 Ball to use VMC Ivory. It leaves a very smooth finish and should be thrown into all of your highlights, rather than the typical bleached bone or equivalents. So I tried it for myself and I find this to be true. You will too, I give you the BloodFather guarantee.

As far as your gold filigree, you know that I have had my own struggles with NMM lately. And believe me, there is something to be said for certain minis just not taking well to it. It is likely the particular shape of the gold areas that make it challenging, but I have noticed a couple things with your gold. First, your specular points appear to big. I know they aren't pure white, but a lot of the areas that look close to pure white are too big because of how close to white they are. If you darkened that highlight a bit, it won't look so rough. Then go back and leave the finest dots of pure white where appropriate. Next, the blending isn't up to your normal standards. The gradients are too abrupt, and blends are rough. This isn't up to your own standard, but I'm not sure, maybe you aren't going for display here. This is most apparent to me on the mage's sword; looks like maybe the paint got a little sloppy on you.

Dont get me wrong, the Mage is still beautiful. Great whites per usual, and I love that shield base. Your remarks on my own work have helped me a lot, so I am just trying to return the favor. And again, I think this is all for an Army which would explain the Mage not being up to your normal Masterclass standards. :)

Hope some of this was even just a little bit helpful to you. Cheers!
 

MAXXxxx

Well-known member
hmm, all I can say is that I'll return to the mini if the others are painted. They are not varnished until all of them are finished anyway.
Instead of Ivory I decided to use Buff from VMC. It's about the same, a bit darker and closer to the base color of the cape of Dragan, coverage is about the same as ivory or a bit better.

Nothing much to show for today. Only 1 layer of Buff, so it's still patchy in a lot of places. But at least it covers as needed and smooth enough so far.
The riders have basically their base color, and the shading of the red is begun on the horses (but it wasn't done today, so they don't really count)

View attachment 27978


As for masterclass standards... nope never had that :D
With the exception of busts I just want nice, painted figures, not masterworks. In a way they are gaming figures (or at least I'd take them for a game or two if confrontation was still played around here)
 
llSorry, it can be misleading if I use dumb terms like Masterclass. I guess I am just asking if you are speeding your way through these guys or not. I'd like to emphasize that, in my most humble and inexperienced opinion, the Mage isn't bad at all. I just feel he's not up to your normally majestically beautiful standard.

I am interested to hear if buff works out for you. Ivory has the slightest of yellow tint to it. Great for highlighting browns and other warm colors. What would you say buff is similar to?
 

MAXXxxx

Well-known member
A music signalled, that reinforcements have arrived :)

ohh, now I remember, what I forgot yesterday evening, adding the shield to the back of the figure... (There are 2 extra shields, and 2 knights(including the musician) that have none in their hands / sculpted on the backs)


View attachment 28051


and some fun stuff have arrived:

The Sulaco paper model
- http://www.sulaco.cz/sulaco-book.jpg
Sadly I don't think I'll ever put it together. Not only because I suck at modelling and it would take a few months, but also the finished model is about 2.5m long. Living in a rent it would be a pita to move it.

- Rocco from figone's Indiegogo campaign. They said it's the most massive orc ever, but in hand I have to say: it's huge.
 
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MAXXxxx

Well-known member
thanks for the comments.
The red is the same as for the other minis. For the gold I tried to have smaller highlights, as suggested by Bloodfather. (+ on the wizard one I think the problem is that light-gold + white = not much contrast --> even after changing it to smaller HL-s, I'd need to make it darker to look good)

It's only 10 pieces, should be a breeze!

Love to see a picture of Rocco!

10 pieces of books :) , but each book is 170 pages, with more than 1 part/page. Btw the model can be downloaded as PDF for free (well 27 pdfs). I just figured, that the book costed less than printing them to the 200g paper it's suggested.

Rocco: http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/2014/05/mu-48-rocco.html (mini is mostly the same as here, except artwork is not missing and looks to be a better cast (no bubble, mouldline doesn't look as bad))

So far I have not much to show. I just unpacked it, looked at how it would look, then put it back to the packaging. And it will remain there until the end of summer for sure.
At least until I finish the confrontation figures, a JMD bust... and most likely Kitty Reimer from scale75 (when that KS delivers).
Sooo it's likely that a few painted ones will be posted before I can even start with it.

Ohh and I have no idea how to assemble it for painting. Either I can't reach parts (if fully assembled) or it will be some problems putting it together after it is painted (I hate doing gap-filling for painted parts)
 
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Really think that you should put him in the gallery. As a rank and file, he will get an impressive 8 I believe. Would really like to see some more pics, especially taken from the same plane as the mini. This is a Confrontation mini?

Rocco looks like it will be a challenge to assemble. I think you should pre assemble as much as u can because no one like to fill gaps on a painted figure. But if you have to, I think the most important thing is to have a good brush on primer to cover the putty and any other areas that will need painted. From the looks of it on MV, it's an excellent sculpt tho. Good pick.
 
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