StokerD's Work in Progress

[stokerd]

So, to start this (hopefully ongoing) thread, a little background about myself. Mainly to remind myself where I've been and where I'm going.

I started gaming in 2002 with Warhammer 40k, and started painting fairly quickly after. This was ... painful, now that I think about it. Man, how far I've come. Even the worst I paint now is not as bad as the best back then. But maybe that's a good thing

I started painting so I could game, simple as that. I played 40k, Fantasy, Confrontation (before they were plastic), Warmachine, Hordes, and a multitude of smaller games. Alway the call to have painted miniatures was strong enough to make me paint, but not necessarily to LEARN to paint. Or, at least paint well.

Then my health went down the tubes, and my gaming and painting became extremely limited. Only in the last little while has the interest in painting returned. Strangely enough, now I'm more interested in the painting than the gaming. Don't get me wrong, I still play, but now I paint to CREATE. And I want to LEARN, not just do. That's what this thread is really about, me learning all the ways to paint these cool miniatures.

Thus, I'm not focusing on armies as I have in the past. Instead, I'm going to paint whatever strikes my fancy, and learn how to become better.

 

[stokerd]

Goals for Painting

As I start this learning process, I need to have goals, right? Otherwise, I'm just spinning my wheels. So, here's my goals (in no particular order):

1 - Learn to paint Flesh. Let's face it, most models have at least some flesh showing. Knowing how to do this well is something every painter should have in their "toolbox". And with the miniatures I am currently looking at, there's lots o flesh What can I say, I like painting scantily clad women (yeah, go ahead and roll your eyes, my wife already does).

2 - Learn to paint Faces. Similar to #1, but this goes beyond just how muscles or skin interact. This is about the eyes, the lips, the hair, the expression. Everybody has a face, and a great story can be told by looking at the face. And personally, nothing detracts more from a great miniature than a poorly executed face.

3 - Learn to paint NMM. Like it or hate it doesn't matter - I like it. And not the cartoony stuff or (even worse) the weird earth/sky stuff (I think that's what it is). I want the real stuff, like AndyG does. And I want to learn to do it in all it's varieties, including colors like blue or red metals.

4 - Learn to make Bases. Not just slap some sand and static grass on a base, but truly magnificent basing that tells the story of the miniature, but does not detract from it.

5 - Continue to learn. There's lots of other stuff (Object Source Lighting, perspective, color theory, weathering, etc) that can only improve my painting. Come back and remember, research and grow. Always strive to become better.

 

[stokerd]

Models I Would Love to Paint

And finally, before we start getting into pictures and (hopefully) progress, what models would I like to paint - give me something to look forward to as I learn the skills in the previous post. These are roughly in order of desire, if not order of when the will be completed.

1 - The Red Lionness - This is probably my favorite miniature, bar none, of all time. And one day, when I finally have a good enough grasp of the skills needed to paint her, I will break the seal on my box and spend a feverish amount of time to put this beautiful miniature on my display.

2 - The Kelt Fiannas - Yes, all of the barbarian women from Confrontation. I love these miniatures, and have all of them but the Queen. And one day, I will be able to do them the justice they deserve.

3 - Reaper Sophie - Yes, all of these, too. I actually have all of them but the one pictured. I love the concept of the this Reaper mascot, and can't wait to make it work.

4 - Captain Lysander - My favorite Warhammer 40k model, and extremely intimidating to me with all that detail. And all that yellow.

5- Land Raider - The epitome of war machines, all of that flat plate just begs to have a mural painted on it. And the detailing inside demands operational doors and LED lighting - I can't wait!

Lots more, but this gives a good start

 

[stokerd]

Lamenters Terminator WIP

And now to an actual project!! I started today on a Lamenters Terminator, partially because I had him around the house, partially because I've been inspired lately by the Blood Angels, and partly because I really wanted to paint yellow, not red.

So after a bunch of reading, searching, and experimenting over the last couple of days - I bring this guy, started, but workable.

I'm fairly happy with how the yellow has turned out. I believe with more practice, I will get better at the blending, but for now, he looks good. Tomorrow I'm hoping to work on the storm shield and thunderhammer. I'm actually going to *gasp* attempt some NMM. I've been reading some tutorials, we'll see how it turns out.

Comments/critiques/suggestions are all welcome. As is advice. Even heckling, but keep this to a minimum for now, I'm just a gamer trying to become a painter

 

[ten ball]

Welcome. Yellow is a pain to paint at the best of times. Imo you need more dark shades (dark flesh is a good colour for yellow) washed into the gaps. Real dark (like scorch brown) in the deep gaps .

Like this (I except this is an over the top example but im trying to show the use of glazes & washes for contrast) see how each crease between the armor has a real dark wash. Then to real make it pop a extreme edge highlight of bleached bone for example.

Dont swamp the mini with a dark wash, start with a watered down dark flesh and apply sparingly into some of the resesses and build it up from there. Just try it out on an arm or leg and see how it goes.

Hope this helps

View attachment 29251

 

[stokerd]

perfect, thanks! I think I can do that And welcome, I've seen your name pop up in a few others, and just started reading your WIP. I look forward to any advice given.

 

[stokerd]

OK, a quick question to anybody who's reading and understands - when you do NMM, what happens at the bottom of the object? So, I just read an article about how light affects different objects (sphere, cone, cylinder, cube, etc) - on the hammer, the handle is obviously a cylinder - that means there's going to be a single bright line at the top, and then you shade around. However, what do you do underneath? It's not as dark as the darkest spot (I think :-/), but what level do you darken it? Aah - all this trying new things is giving me a headache!

 

[MAXXxxx]

you can do a not really bright light there, simulating the light reflected from the base. it even helps if you tint it a bit with the color used mostly on the base.

 

[stokerd]

Lamenters Terminator WIP

OK, made some progress on the yellow guy yesterday. Was going to post these last night, but was just too tired. Really enjoying this process, more that trying to stretch beyond my current skills isn't producing as bad of results as I'd feared it would. Anyway, the pics:

Man, it's amazing how things look fairly good sitting on the table and then like utter crap when seen close-up from a camera, even a phone camera. Maybe that's why they call it "table-top" quality

Comments/critiques/suggestions welcome, as always. I think today I will tackle the hammer - it's scaring me and I need to get over that.

 

[stokerd]

NMM cry for help!!

Oh crap, what did I get myself into?! Every tutorial I could find uses a sword as a basis for teaching NMM. However, I'm finding this doesn't translate well to the cylinder shape of the hammer!! Aah - it looks stupid!!

Tried it twice, and it just looks like highlighted grey with some shadow. I think part of my problem may be that more than half of the cylinder is actually in shadow. I keep trying to drag the reflection down into where the shadow should be, and it doesn't look good.

I've got lots of pictures, but does anyone know of a NMM tutorial that uses a hammer rather than a sword? Or any cylindrical piece? I just can't seem to wrap my head around how it's supposed to work on a non-flat surface.

 

[stokerd]

Lamenters Terminator finished

Finished the terminator last night, except for some minor details on the base (going to get some dried moss/lichen to put on there, like tumbleweeds).

He wa a lot of fun to paint, and the checks weren't as hard as I thought they'd be. The stupid NMM was worse, though, so I guess that all balances out. I did the NMM 3 times, finally just leaving it since I wasn't getting it right. LOTS of practice ahead there.

Anyways, here's a final picture of it, voting thread going up momentarily.

Comments/critiques/suggestions all welcome.

 

[Zab]

I think the crux and the yellow is well shaded but you gotta lose that blue backdrop. It's not helping you. Also, I'd like to see bit more done on the base stones sand grass tufts...

 

[stokerd]

Basing idea for Terminator

So for the base, I'm looking at trying to do something like this:

The stone is really more red than is shown, though not quite as red as those rocks. I'm getting some dried lichen tomorrow, to put on the base. Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Zab]

vary the texture a little with some dirt or sand just to keep it from looking to even. The lichen should help with that. Also if you have access to pigments it might help to add some to the lower legs or even just wash/ dust some of your basing colors onto the legs to help tie him into his base, but it's not mandatory.

 

[stokerd]

Updated terminator pic - is this better? Should I post this one?

And, I've started work on a Death Company Dreadnought, highlighting black is going to be challenging :-(

 

[Zab]

That shows the shading on the yellow way better! The depth of field on the photo is a bit shallow but, photography of minis is a whole other can of worms. Much improved over the last set of pics.

 

[stokerd]

Thanks Zab, I appreciate the advice. And these were taken using Tommie's advice, but still only have a phone camera - computer is still getting fixed. I'll work on my photography skills, too!

 

[stokerd]

Angel of Sorrow WIP

Decided to hold off on the terminators and dreadnought. Thought something just fun to paint would be better. Thus, the Angel of Shadow, from Reaper.

I've put down the first three layers of the blue, and a dark blue wash. Will have two more layers, I think, to get the color I'm looking for.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will have the dress and the petticoats finished, and will be ready for skin tones and the NMM on Saturday. That is going to be difficult

 

[stokerd]

Angel of Sorrow WIP cont.

Spent a couple hours this morning on her. Got the petticoats almost finished, as well as the cincher. And started on the dress detailing and basecoated her flesh. Haven't done her hands yet, I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the lace at the wrist first.

Will probably work on her skin a little more this afternoon. I need to make a decision on her boots, I don't think I want to go black, but may end up that way, highlighting with blue.

Anyways, here's pics.

The detail on her dress, including her bust line, will be a silver lace. Not sure if I will do this at the wrist as well, or follow the color of the petticoat. Will ruminate on it for a while.

 

[stokerd]

OK, I haven't gotten to them yet, but this is how I want to paint the wings on this angel.

I figure a mix of wolf grey/shadow grey on the light grey feathers, and a gradually darker mix of shadow grey/black on the dark feathers. Wolf grey used on the barely grey feathers along the edge. White in the rest of the places, shaded with white/wolf grey. All on top of a white basecoat. Oh, and using very thinned paint, making a glaze basically, so the white shows through. Maybe a quick "wet brush", very light, of white to bring details back up.