MAXXxxx WIPs

[bgcdazzler]

On the watch master I think there's not quite enough variation in the metal (it's all quite uniformly dark), and the base is quite plain. Nothing wrong with either thing in terms of skill or taste, but they make the final gallery images a bit less punchy, if that makes sense. Can't comment much on the Anime girl, it's not really my taste that kinda model. Looks nicely painted to my eyes.

 

[MAXXxxx]

Done, I hope it helps you out!
On this Shaltari fleet, you may want to try bronze/cooper instead of silver/steel. I Had the same problem on my epic eldar army (similar colours) and opted for those metals instead.

Ooo, fun fact: one of the gates (the round ships) is painted with VAC-Chrome on the outside and some Vallejo Gold on the inside. None of that is visible. Even in hand I have to view if from about 15cm or so to see it.
Simply the chosen colorscheme doesn't work with good with metallics.

Also thanks for the comments on the pics, now I have some pointers to start from for the next projects (somewhere in 2017 as the PS4 arrived)

bgcdazzler: thanks I'll do more variations next time. Base is kept simple as it's partly a gaming piece, but now I see, that I forgot to add some foliage (dry grass, long and short, mostly)
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oh yeah, PS4. Avoid FF-15 at all costs. I started playing it around 20:00, thought I'll take a short break, when I saw it's already past midnight... and have to wake up before 6:00 to get to work.
Really addictive and a time sinker (also looks great, plays great, but want to progress slowly doing all the sidequests)

 

[eyeayen]

Hey, I've not critiqued anyones work on here before so I hope you don't mind me doing this with yours.

Before I saw anything about your painting I just want to say on my screen your photo's seemed quite dark ? My screen is balanced for photography and retouching so it should be okay. I just thought maybe if you applied a little levels to them in photoshop to make the images a little lighter. Now I've done that I can see a lot more of the shape of the models as the blacks were just filling in and all the detail was getting lost.

The VF2-SS Super Armor Pack - Is this a Gundam kit ? I think panel lines are nicely picked out but the shading comes too far in with the airbrush and that's almost made it loose definition.

The Dropzone Shaltari Ramses - Awesome piece. I really like this.

The WatchMaster. I tend to agree with what bgcdazzler has said about the contrast on metals. Also the gold is quite dull with how you've shaded it. The silver is quite muted but you have a lot of variation in it which makes it look NMM but if the gold was richer I think it would work better. The cloth looks the same gold as the metal. Personally I think the gold on cloth as you've done works but the gold should have been different on the metal to give change between the two materials. The red is cool but again if it could have been highlighted in a richer tone I think it would look a little better. Loving the blue fade and shading though. Black is a difficult colour to work with but you've done well.

Erika Yano - This is a cool piece, you're right, the lack or nudity or gore is refreshing. I think you've used a lot of black in the shading though and I think this has given it a drab / dirty look. Black is such a powerful colour. I like the fact you've tried to shade her stripy tights and as they're stripy you've just used one colour to add a darker tone to both the white and blue but black is too dark. I don't know what the if you mix blue and brown together you get a sort of neutral tone, when I used to airbrush flags onto motorbikes and crash helmets it worked well as a shade colour. You can vary the amount of each to get different shades of it.
Her white blouse, maybe a bluish grey would work well or to make it different from the tights a little yellow in the white to give shadows to the creases and folds. And the black at the top of her blouse looks jet black, space marine armour maybe black as black but look around you at any black clothing and most of it is dark grey so maybe you could have given this a really dark grey and introduced black into the shadow area's - however perhaps that's what you did and I can't see it as the camera/my screen hasn't got the colours perfect ?
The greens on the jacket look nice but I think as you've airbrushed it all you've lost form and if you painted this piece again with a brush you could pick out more area's and take the highlights up and the shadows down more to give even more depth to it. Love the fact you've glossed her eyes so they're shiny but the one furthest from the camera is picking up a weird reflection ( use a bit of tracing paper to lessen that when you're photographing ). Her shoes look cool as they're a different colour, maybe some highlights on the hair clips ? And some gloss on the lollipop would add a little extra to this. Overall though it's a cool effect and nice piece but I think a little more work could really take it up to another level.

Hope that helps.

 

[MAXXxxx]

still playing more on the PS4 than I should but after not painting anything for 2 months the first models...

First some TTQ ships for Dropfleet commander. What's new is: UCM ships, 1 cruiser and 8 frigattes for Shaltari (the KS extras)
View attachment 54997

Some Anime busts from Japan. They are not painted. Everything is cast as you can see on the pics, even the eyes are as cast.
View attachment 54998

And a bust from Pedro Fernandez.
2 points:
- it's weird how colorless the skin looks like. It was painted with desaturated blues (Intermediate Blue and Pale Grey Blue)
- I have no idea if the green eyes and purple lips will be ok. Here if someone could suggest a better alternative, it would be great. (for info: hair is planned to be black with a blueish tint, shirt is warm white, rest of the clothes will be turqoise.)

View attachment 54999

 

[kablaq]

On the bust, perhaps you could glaze in some warm tones via oranges and browns? I would imagine that (assuming this is a cyborg/android) the internals may be somewhat warm, compared to the colder metallic skin, which could work well visually. It may also be leaking out from the joints on the body (and the back of the head, if I'm remembering the model correctly.

I think the purple looks good thus far, but I'm not sure what eye color would work well. Perhaps a greyer colored eye? Right now, from the picture, it's more like there are LED's attached directly into the eyeball.

Nice job on the dropfleet commander ships! I still haven't managed to touch my KS's package of them.... too busy playing games again XD

 

[Maenas]

Always lots of work on the table Maxx!
I like the android girl... it is strange but I like it. What about light violet eyes to mimic his lips, but in a brighter/clearer tint or perhaps giving a little bit more of a blue tone to the eyes to bind them to the dress?

 

[MAXXxxx]

On the bust, perhaps you could glaze in some warm tones via oranges and browns?

that I don't really want to change. What I don't know why is it on the picture so grey. The blue-greys used are the same as on the PHR ships, so it should have a stronger blueish tint.
That said I planned to add some purples to the shades and it's highlighted (or to be highlighted as it also doesn't show) with PaleSand/Ivory (yellows).

It may also be leaking out from the joints on the body (and the back of the head, if I'm remembering the model correctly.

nah, they are pretty artificial, all wires and stuff. To the point of painting them NMM-Steel.

Right now, from the picture, it's more like there are LED's attached directly into the eyeball.

yeah,. even though just blocked in a base for the eye it looks bad.

Always lots of work on the table Maxx!
I like the android girl... it is strange but I like it. What about light violet eyes to mimic his lips, but in a brighter/clearer tint or perhaps giving a little bit more of a blue tone to the eyes to bind them to the dress?

Will try the light violet in the evening. Also thinking about changing it to yellow-brown/orange-brown (the orange being a good contrast color for blues).
Also based on the Scale75 book: adding some pearl paint to the eye for some extra sparkle (accordinng to the book, they add metallics to the eyes of their minis)

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On the color scheme: I wanted a cold analogous scheme. So like: (yellowgreen)-green-turqoise-blue-(violet/purple). No idea if a really strong contrast to that (warm-yellowish eyes) will hurt or help it more.

 

[SaintToad]

Always lots of work on the table Maxx!

My thoughts exactly!
My only suggestion on the bust might be to deliberately break the color/contrast gradient on different 'panels' of the android's anatomy. I think some of the mechanical stuff might pop a bit more if the whole gradient were carried across some individual sections of the model, rather than smoothly from one panel to the rest. Does that make sense?
I like the huge fleet of ships, too. Looks like a ton of work!

 

[anotherpainter]

In generell i find purple the right color. Top green, bottom turquoise , middle purple just fits in there.
But if you want to go crazy: i found out on my last mini that green and bronze is a wonderful combination. So bronze lips to green eyes... not sure about it tho.

The skin i agree, its to pale BUT it should still be pale at the end for this bust.

 

[MAXXxxx]

Thanks for the comments.

'Sadly' because of some extra work I don't have time to paint it during the week, with a bit of luck maybe on the weekend.

Always lots of work on the table

My thoughts exactly!

They don't progress, but it's not even close to the ones that wait just prepped or basecoated.
(Vile-Tis army (13 Wolf in armor), Confrontation conscript unit, 15 or so Adeptus Custodes from Scibor, 2 SPM, 3 more busts, 2 KD figures, a diorama or two, Super VF-1 kit...

I think some of the mechanical stuff might pop a bit more if the whole gradient were carried across some individual sections of the model, rather than smoothly from one panel to the rest. Does that make sense?
I like the huge fleet of ships, too. Looks like a ton of work!

hmm, you mean, going from darkest shade to lightest (or at least part of that) panel by panel? Good idea, will do it on parts (the hand is especially good for it, the face not so much).

Ships... nah, they are kept at a simple TTQ level. Most of them are: Airbrushed base, some drybrush for the edges, details picked out, Tamiya panel liner 'wash' (basically like an oil-wash) and it's cleanup.

In generell i find purple the right color. Top green, bottom turquoise , middle purple just fits in there.
But if you want to go crazy: i found out on my last mini that green and bronze is a wonderful combination. So bronze lips to green eyes... not sure about it tho.

The skin i agree, its to pale BUT it should still be pale at the end for this bust.

ook, purple lips will remain.
No to the bronze, sorry, I don't want to paint the bust too metallic. Only the insides (visible at the wrist and back of the head), rest I'd like to keep ceramic-y.

 

[MAXXxxx]

need opinios / critique.
I mostly worked on the 'skin' so far.

View attachment 55291

 

[anotherpainter]

Not gray anymore ^^
The skin is awesome. So is the shirt blend.
Cant say how the knuckles will fit in at this stage tho.

 

[Maenas]

I like what is going on! cannot say any further ^^

 

[Sicks]

I like the skin, I'm not sure if it's the lighting but I looks like after the darker blues there's a greeny yellow blend into the mid and highlights, I really like it so I think if it's the lighting try to emulate it in the paint job. I'm wondering if maybe there's too much blue, with the grey blue synthetic skin and the clothing and also the blue and orange clothing is quite a vibrant colour which might steal focus a bit but maybe you have a plan for it when you've worked on the clothing more

 

[MAXXxxx]

Not gray anymore ^^
The skin is awesome. So is the shirt blend.
Cant say how the knuckles will fit in at this stage tho.

I think it's because of the shirt. The orange there forced the camera to pick up the colors better.
knuckles: don't know either. will do NMM or gold NMM and hope it works.

I like the skin, I'm not sure if it's the lighting but I looks like after the darker blues there's a greeny yellow blend into the mid and highlights, I really like it so I think if it's the lighting try to emulate it in the paint job. I'm wondering if maybe there's too much blue, with the grey blue synthetic skin and the clothing and also the blue and orange clothing is quite a vibrant colour which might steal focus a bit but maybe you have a plan for it when you've worked on the clothing more

yes it should be green-yellow in the highlight.
Colors used: VAC-DarkSeaBlue, VMC-PastelBlue, VAC-PaleGreyBlue, VMC-PaleSand, VMC-Ivory.
The yellow in the Sand and the Blue in the base makes some highlight greenish (and at the end yellowish for using Sand/Ivory on their own).
Clothes: we'll see. After the skin and metal parts I'll refine the orange shirt. After that I'll see if I'll bring the turqoise to a pastel blue/green or to a strong green. For shade I'll probably do blue with a bit of violet at the end.

 

[MAXXxxx]

Played around the weekend:

View attachment 55425


I'd need critique what to change/improve.
Normally I's say the hair needs work (much more, than I thought it will) and I'm thinking about highlighting the lips more.

 

[Foxtail]

Maybe a few white point highlights on the top lip?

It's hard to tell with the hair. Looks quite glossy, might make it a bit hard to judge by photo

It all looks great though!

 

[KruleBear]

Depends on the look you are going for, but right now the hair comes across as strands of black rubber to me. The definition of the lower lip on her right looks in complete where it transitions to the upper lip. Also I thin the tube that enters the back of her head would look good with the connector painted the same brass color as her knuckles.

The skin tones look much more interesting in this update.

 

[Sicks]

oh yeah, PS4. Avoid FF-15 at all costs. I started playing it around 20:00, thought I'll take a short break, when I saw it's already past midnight... and have to wake up before 6:00 to get to work.
Really addictive and a time sinker (also looks great, plays great, but want to progress slowly doing all the sidequests)

I have had this exact problem with fallout 4 lol, I just got a ps4 about a month ago, I want to get ff15 too but I don't know much about it, I liked most previous ones though. However I have to choose between painting/buying stuff to paint or gaming/buying games, there's only so much money I can comfortably spend on myself and only so many hours in a day

As for the bust, the clothing works better for me now you've worked on it some, the black Inthe cracks of the skin look a bit harsh to my eyes but I don't have any suggestions on how else to do it, maybe a really dark blue?

 

[MAXXxxx]

yeah, gloss on the hair is a killer. So much for using DarkToneInk to wash with black... back to good old thinned VAC/Rackham paints, they are matt.

ok, so more yellow metal on the tube/wires.


FFXV: not much to know. As always every FF is a different story on a different world. The only real difference is that the battles are real time instead of turn based.
Moneywise it's not that bad, because quite a few didn't like it you can get it on ebay for as low as 10$, the time... that's another beast.
ATM the playtime for me is 130 hours and I didn't do any Hero5/Oracle Coin/Angelous farming and only a bit of AP farming. Also didn't do all the Chocobo races and the Pithioss ruins.
Personally I loved the open-world part (episode 3 and 8) and imho the end story is good, but short (ep 9-14 takes about 5-6 hours to complete).

Pricewise what bothers me is Nier-Automata... 70 euro, originally I didn't want it, but the demo looks soo good. If I can withstand it for a few months it'll go to a better price (30-40).