Tyrant of Vile-Tis on Snow Base- WIP

[CreganTur]

This is my first WIP here, and I\'m posting it because community members always provide such great criticism in the other WIPs I\'ve read, and I\'m hoping for some great comments on this one, since I\'m trying out a few new techniques.

My mini is a Tyrant of Vile-tis, from Rackham. I threw the square Rackham base in my bits box, and opted to use a 50mm round Warmachines base instead. I love how the Tyrant\'s claws overhang the base a little, I thought it was a very interesting look.

This is going to be my first snow base. I wanted it to look like he was standing at the head of a ditch on a mixed field of snow and grass, with runoff from the snow-melt funneling into the muddy ditch. I raised him off the base and glued him in place so i could build up the terrain using Epoxy Sculpt. Here\'s a shot of the first stage of the base; I focused on building up support for the feet and roughing in the postiion of the ditch:

I added another layer of Epoxy Sculpt after that one dried, but I forgot to take a picture of it. For the last layer, I mixed 3 parts Epoxy Sculpt to 1 part mixed sand and gravel. I use this because I feel that it gives a more realistic looking ground, since the gravel and stones blend into the smooth surface of the dirt, so it looks like they\'re naturally coming up out of the ground.

I skinned the whole base with thismix. It can be a little hard to use, because the addition of the gravel makes the Epoxy Sculpt seem weaker, but I\'ve found that if you let it sit for 10 minutes or so (and wash your hands to get rid of the stuff that sticks to your fingers) that it works rather well.

I used a damp brush to carve in all the little runnels and features of the ditch, and also to smooth out the edge of the base:

Here\'s a shot of the whole mini, before it was primed:

My black lab inspired me to paint this guy as a black wolf, so I poked around on google Images for a while, before discovering this picture, which is going to be a rough approximation of the look I\'m going for with this guy\'s fur.

I feel a little daunted about this fur, because I want it to actually look like fur! I\'ve been searching through other threads, trying to find good tips on painting fur, and so far haven\'t found much. I\'m thinking of drybrushing the coloration into the fur, hoping that this will give the mini the look and texture of real fur... but any tips are greatly appreciated.

After priming the mini, I first painted the eyes- I always start with the eyes on a mini for some reason. I tried to get a shot of them, but couldn\'t get my stupid camera to focus on something that small. I painted the whole area white, then added a black dot for the eye- I colored in the cornea with GW Ice Blue (or Blue Ice... can\'t remember which), and then added in the pupil with Chaos Black. I haven\'t added a reflection dot yet, because I haven\'t decided where the light source is. I\'m also trying to decide if I need 2 reflection dots- 1 for the primary light source, and a second for reflection off the snow.

Lst night, I blocked in all the fur with Chaos Black. While I was working on it, the back half of the Tyrant\'s weapon fell off-it snapped cleanly at the back of the hand. I pinned it in place, so hopefully that won\'t happen again. I love Rackham\'s miniatures because of the detail and interesting figures... but I\'ve always had issues with the pewter being weak on long weapons.

That\'s it for now.

 

[Trevor]

Somewhere on here is a thread and possibly an article about doing \'fluffy\' wolfen. Basically it involves painting lines on the model to simulate fur, it looks great.

I wouldn\'t drybrush, it won\'t give you the effect you are after at all.

 

[CreganTur]

Thanks for the info- I found the article here. I\'m excited, because now I can paint a fluffy killing machine!

By painting my mini black, the entire process of painting the fluffy fur has become a complex job of highlights. It\'s going to be a big challenge- I just hope I can pull it off!

 

[CreganTur]

After reading the article on how to paint fluffy Wolfen by kittykat23uk, I attempted to follow her advice by highlighting my black based Tyrant. After doing 2 shades of highlights, starting with a very dark Shadow Grey, and then moving up a step lighter from that, I realized that this mini was not going to succeed as is. As you can see from this picture, the mini is so dark that you can barely see the highlights in the pic. In real life, it looks worse.

So, I decided to repaint him in Shadow Grey. That way I have full control over my range of highlights and shadows.

So far I have completed all of the shadowing on the Tyrant. I\'ve used 2 different shades of Shadow Grey- a 4 part SG to 1 part CB (Chaos Black), and an 8 part SG to 1 part CB. These are all approximations. I started with the lighter shade first, as kittykat suggests, and used tiny brushstrokes to build up the contrast using a 20/0 bush that I use only when I need a very accurate tip.

After I applied both shades, I created a black wash, which I used to darken up all of the recesses in the mini. I made the lids around the eyes very dark, because I want those blue eyes to really pop! Too bad I can\'t get a good picture of them.

I\'m very pleased with how good he looks so far. Once I add the highlights, he\'ll really start to take shape!

 

[CreganTur]

I completed the highlights on the fur, and I think it looks pretty good. He doesn\'t look as fluffy as some of kittykat\'s examples, but the technique adds a lot of depth and character to the fur. I decided to make him older, so I added a generous amount of grey tones around the muzzle. I also added a reflection dot on the nose.

After some consideration, I finally decided to paint the loin cloth and tunic the same color, because to me it looks like it could be a robe that the all of the armor goes over... kind of like a Samurai\'s kimono. I blocked it in with a coat of Bleached Bone:

giantdark is my inspiration for the way I painted this fabric; I used some of the same techniques he used on the banner for his FW space marine. I sponged on a wash of 1 part Bleached Bone and 1 part Skull White over the fabric, building up some highlights, then sponged on another wash of all Skull White:

I forgot to take some shots right after coloring in the shadows. I used 2 different washes- one was a mix of BB and Vermin Brown, the other was BB and Citadel Grey.

Once that was completed, I decided to freehand some Wolfen Runes, which I found here. I used the rune for Death on the bottom corners of the loin cloth, and then painted the runes for Devourer and Wild in the center.

I used a wash of Blood Red to block out the letters, and then outlined them with some Chaos Black:

I really loved the stitching that giantdark did on his banner, and I decided to attempt the same thing for these runes. I used a very fine tip brush to put in the lines. I mixed a number of tones using Blood Red as my base, mixing from nearly black to almost pink. I managed to get a decent picture of the effect with my camera:

For my next steps, I plan on painting all of the leather straps with appropriate shades and highlights, and then I\'m going to try a new product called Fine Crackle to give the leather an aged look. I\'ve tested it a couple of times on cardboard, but never got the effect to show. I\'m going to try on a mini next and see if that works. If not... I might scrap the idea.

Once that\'s done I\'ll turn my attention to the armor.

Criticism is greatly apprciated!

 

[CreganTur]

I\'ve made some more progress on this mini:

I painted all the leather straps with Snakebite Leather, and then used a product called Fragile Crackle to give the leather an aged and cracked appearance. I\'ve never used this product before, and I was very happy with the results. The cracks that result are very fine... but there\'s also a downside; they\'re almost too small. I used Brown Ink to fill in the cracks, but I had to put on thick coats and allow them to set for a while before wiping away the excess. That, and the fact that Fragile Crackle dries very glossy, made the leather extremely glossy.

I cut down on the glossiness by drybrushing some Snakebite Leather, which toned down the shine without hurting the cracks.

I blocked in the armor using Chainmail and used Boltgun Metal to basecoat the metal rings and chains.

My favorite detail on this mini is the goblin\'s head hanging off the back of the belt. I posted the best pic of it that my camera could capture... which doesn\'t do it justice at all.

 

[Aliengod3]

Looking good so far. I do think that the folds of the cloth need a bit more highlight though.

 

[A Luna]

The face looks really awesome. Truly one angry wolf.
I also like the picture in your signature^^

 

[CreganTur]

Thanks for the comments

@Aliengod3 - Yeah, I agree with you. Last night I deepend the shadows on the cloth to add some extra depth to it, and then upped the highlights some more with a wash of Skull White.

@A Luna- thanks a lot; it was done by a guy named Qwernt over at the Giant in the Playground forums. I got him to make it for me while I was doing a worklog making custom minis of the OoTS main cast (worklog can be found here if you\'re interested).

I do love the facial expression- it\'s a great sculpt from Rackham. Making the folds around the mouth and muzzle dark really do make him look angry.

 

[CreganTur]

The shadows and highlights are more defined on the cloth now. I also finished the metallics on the armor. I hit it all with 2 washes of Boltgun metal, and then highlighted it with 1 coat of dilluted mithril silver, and then a second coat of 1 part MS: 1 part Skull White, to give it the brightest shine at the most intense points of reflection.

I used the same technique on the staff-sword. For the leather grip, I painted a base of Vomit Brown, followed by Brown Ink, and then some dilluted Snakebite Leather to even out the color and cut down on the ink\'s glossiness.

I think the severed head turned out pretty good... but I also wonder if there\'s not more that could be done. Any suggestions?

Next, I\'m going to paint the armor red, like in this pic:

I\'m very happy with the armor my mini currently has, but I really love the red lacquered look on the armor. I think it\'s visually more interesting.

Once that\'s done, Ill add some blood and gore onto the blade and spatter it appropriately on the Tyrant\'s clothing and fur to make him look like he just too the severed head as a prize.

After the figure\'s done, I\'ll tackle the base!

 

[CreganTur]

The figure is done!

I washed the armor with Red Gore, then did two shadow washes of red gore and black ink, increasing the amount of black ink used each time. Then I did some highlight washes with Red Gore and increasing amounts of Skull White.

The washes really allowed some of the shine of the metal unerneath to come through. The top pic is after the first wash of Red Gore. The second pic is the completed armor with all shadows and highlights:

Here you can see the whole, completed mini with some detail shots. Any criticism is greatly appreciated!

Now onto the base!

 

[Aliengod3]

Hey it looks excellent! The cloth looks terrific now, great job. The armor also looks excellent. The contrast between the dark red armor and the light cloth is very successful as well. You make me want to buy this mini and paint it. Cannot wait until it is finished. Keep up the good work

 

[CreganTur]

Well, the mini is, for all intents and purposes, completed. I\'m going to wait a couple days for feedback before I varnish him and make him 100% completed.

I figures out how to take better pictures by moving my lightbox to another room and using a small desk lamp. I think they turned out better than any of my other mini pics so far.

For the base snow on the base, I mixed 1 part PVA glue and 1 part water, then sprinkled bicarb (baking soda) over the mix after burshing it onto the mini. For the melted snow look, I brushed the PVA/water mix over the bicarb. I then used a few washes of Devlan Brown to dirty up the edges of the snow to increase the melting effect. The runnoff is 2 coats of Water Effects that I painted in place. It spread out a little more than I wated while it was drying, so I painted over the parts I didn\'t want to cancel out the water effect. Then I brushed on a very light layer of Blue ink, followed by a wash of Skull White I mixed up. The water looks really blue in the pics, but doesn\'t look anything like that in person, which is strange???

C&C welcomed and appreciated!

 

[BPI]

Just a quick note on easy photo montages (my apologies if this is redundant, my intention is not to patronise!) as I notice yours are a little rough & ready - though hardly inappropriate for a WIP

Download the free program IrfanView (for Windows) from a reputable site (http://www.irfanview.com/)
Launch irfanView,
Image menu - Create Panorama Image...
Create vertical sets of images by pointing the program to your cropped source images (save each one!),
Create horizontal to merge your vertical sets,
The program resizes them all for neat borders.

My BPI WIP thread has examples done using this process. I tried for ages getting stuck with layers in GIMP & this Create Panorama is a doddle leaving more time for painting.
Not the clearest instruction set ever written but hopefully you\'ll be up & running in a couple of minutes
B.

 

[Amazon warrior]

Nice work on the devourer. Makes me want to paint more of my wolfen! Would it be possible to deepen the shading on the armour even more? It looks good in some places but there\'s not enough contrast in others. If you look at the reference pic, you can see that the colour shifts to almost black in places. You probably wouldn\'t have to go that far if you didn\'t want to, but a little more would help. I like the base - the snow looks good. The water might look more blue in the pic because of your camera picking up too much of the blue colours - I used to have one that did exactly the same, but even more so! Go check out my earliest pictures on here and you\'ll see what I\'m talking about. Apparently, it\'s something you can fix by adjusting your camera\'s white balance - might be worth having a play around.

Oh, Irfanview rocks for montages.

 

[CreganTur]

Thanks for the tip about irfanview- it\'ll hopefully make life a little easier from now on.

I made anumber of changes based n feedback from WAMP. I added a new layer of highlights to the mohawk, added some highlights to the weapon grip, and added some more contrast to the armor. I mixed Scab Red and Scaly Green for the darkest contrast color, then I mixed a new highlight color using Red Gore, Tanned Flesh, and some Skull White. I also did a couple of washes of Delvan over the tunic to make the colors blend better.

Harsh C&C is welcomed and encouraged!

 

[Amazon warrior]

The extra shading on the armour definitely helps. Not sure about the blood tho. It looks too much like paint (I know it is paint, but that\'s not the point!). Blood\'s often darker than people realise, and it\'s translucent. Try mixing some red and black ink (if you have it) to a suitably bloody shade, then use it to go over the blood on the mini. Another cool effect if you want blood strings is to mix the ink and a bit of water effect (white glue might work too, but I haven\'t tried it myself), let it thicken up a little, then apply it where you want it with a toothpick. For really long strings, you can use a bit of fishing line/transparent thread as a \"base\" for the blood to dry on.

 

[CreganTur]

He\'s finally done! You can see the completed pictures here. There\'s also a voting link in that thread.

I pushed the armor contrast as far as I felt I could. You guys can tell me if I went far enough.

Thanks for all the feedback!