Vilmon WIP (complete)

[hakoMike]

Just started Vilmon. I think Werner Klocke is going to be the death of me. There are places on that model that are hard to prime, let along paint. And it must be partially painted before assembly if you want to reach everything. Yikes.

Just trying to find that scarlet color. Oddly enough, some gold fluid leaked out from Vilmon\'s armpit into the scarlet paint on the cloak while I was painting the back of the cloak. Mold release? Strange. It must have been the paint that wet it, because the model was bone dry when I based it.


All I did was hold the model unde the Ott light and copy the shadow pattern. Too subtle?


Thanks for all the nice comments on the Rune Priest thread.

 

[mickc22]

maybe a little subtle in places,
try a little darker in some of the deep folds especially nearer the ground.
A glaze would help smooth out the transition between highlights, an off-white maybe?



mick

 

[hakoMike]

Okay, a little more work. I\'m basing the scheme off of Privateer Press\' example. The white is taking on way too high a gamma in the photo. I may have to switch to a gray background for future photos. I wonder if the white balance setting on my camera would help....



I\'m still perplexed about the gold fluid that leaked out. Any ideas?

 

[Sonnyslayer]

hmm.. gold fluid you say? i love the reds

 

[supervike]

I think an ink wash of brown would help the gold tone down a bit. Very thin though.

I like the reds quite a bit....they are subtle. The white looks rough in areas, but overall good shading on that too.

I\'m using the old PP method for base building too on my latest mini! Simple and effective!

 

[hakoMike]

Okay, I think the front is just about done. I wanted the face to be dark, and I like the way it turned out overal. Thanks for the tip supervike: the brown wash did wonders for banishing the orange from the gold (a friend suggested chestnut ink over the base gold, and it led to orange... I may have put it on too liberally.)

It\'s a little hard to paint thing that you know (or at least suspect) are going to be entirely invisible in the final model, but the one thing you half-ass will be the thing that sticks prominently out.

Man, the camera is a harsh critic. What looks smooth under the Ott light looks positively banded in the photo. I think all the white is giving my camera mini strokes.

 

[Arma]

looking good, I really like the base and the reds are nice and solid.

 

[generulpoleaxe]

to help the shading of the gold mix up a thin wash of purple and place it only in the deepest part of the shadows.

this will help the richness of the depth that you get from things such as gold.

(yet another one of jakob nielsons tricks)

 

[El stefano]

Yup the red is looking superb and really solid and bold

I thought there was some muck up on the mini but my monitor was dirtay

 

[hakoMike]

I had to bite the bullet and assemble him tonight. It\'s amazing how much that sword obscured the model. So much, in fact, that I wouldn\'t be surprised to see people modding the figure to show more of the front.


I tried a dark background this time. You can see the face now, but the hands are just slap-in-the-face bright. The whole thing just seems grainy and indistinct... and high gamma. The lights are too light and the darks are too dark. I had a heck of a time photographing the Black Templar and this isn\'t shaping up much better.

The purple wash tip really helped give the gold depth. Thanks for that.

Maybe the matte varnish will help the photography. I have used a fair amount of GW ink, and you know how it shines...

 

[hakoMike]

I decided to spray a little Testors matte varnish on him, just to see if it took the hands down a notch. I think the problem was that I was pointing a fluorescent desk lamp into the front of the light cube, creating a harsh reflection.

I took a few pics with different backgrounds and white balance settings... I\'ll post them all in case the info is useful to anyone.

Light Backgound, white balance set to \"light bulb\"

Light Background, auto white balance

Dark Background, auto white balance

Dark Background, white balance set to \"light bulb\"


It\'s interesting the the two pics with the dark background are so similar, and the two with the light background are so different, just from white balance settings. Sadly, none of these really captures the mini well.

And quick advice spot: snow or clumps of green static grass for the base?

 

[Ogrebane]

Do both. Put the grass on then drybrush with Snakebite then bone to make it look old and dried out then snow all around it. Love the color selection of this mini they really go well together.

 

[hakoMike]

Well, here he is, pretty much done. I repositioned my lights around my light tent, and the results were much better.




The static grass I used looks a lot more brown than the GW stuff, so I thought I could get away with leaving it unpainted but it looks very green in the pic. I\'ll probably give it a drybrush like Ogrebane suggested.... just not tonight. (yawn. rub eyes.)

I\'ll put him on the auction block tomorrow, most likely. I play a Menoth army, so it breaks my tiny, bitter heart to sell him, but I\'m still trying to scare up more money for camp in August.

 

[hakoMike]

Sorry for the threadomancy, but a mystery I brought up in this thread has been solved.

Earlier, I mentioned a gold fluid that appeared to have leaked from a crevice in the mini and seeped out into the paint. After a similar experience, I have discovered that the gold fluid is a separation in Vallejo Game Color\'s Gory Red paint. The odd part is that the paint looks fine when you put it down, and only separates shortly thereafter Properly mixing the paint first will prevent this.

Strange but true! I now return you to more current topics...