Monday 29 April 2019

Skitarii Vanguard

So here we are, my Skitarii Vanguard finished up. To my surprise. I thought this would be a project sat on the WIP desk for a lot longer, but things picked up pace and here we are. Only nine months after release, but that's still a victory.


The muted colour scheme is lifted by the blues on the weapons and the little white symbols on the coats. Orange cabling is in to try and give an effect of glowing power passing through. I tried this a few years ago on another model and really liked how it turned out - so it's back!

I realised too late that I'd messed something up when priming these last year, so there's a slight texture on the surface of some areas. Not sure how, and it's irritating, but there we have it. Here's the squad in all their glory.






















Tuesday 23 April 2019

Phantom 7 WIP #1

Rumours I can't stick with one project at a time are clearly accurate.

This awesome bust from the excellent Robot Rocket Miniatures called out to me, and since attending Bohun's workshop on true metallic metals, it felt a natural piece to try out what I'd learned. First up is getting the darkest metal down.


Working up to the brightest point for something crisp and futuristic. Think I lost more of the darkness than I wanted, so will come back to that. But it's looking good ...


Here's the first pass of the underglow to contrast against the blues of the metal. Just painting the underside in a super dark colour wouldn't have been any fun, this feels far more fun.

Sunday 14 April 2019

Painting Neon Bases - The First Element

Usually a work in progress is exactly that, but I realised my current WIP merited something more, and suddenly here's a tutorial for creating outrageous colours on bases. This is the Triple Hex pattern from Green Stuff World and I adore it.

Rolled out a base back in November 2018 as a test piece and then promptly put it to the side without really having a plan. Then my brain knew exactly what it wanted to do, and so here we are.


I like this effect, but as a painter of middling ability, I prefer deeper recesses to help me avoid painting over the wrong area. However ... off we go. Basecoated with the ever-reliable Hexed Lichen


Alternating rows painted in Warlock Purple with Squid Pink highlights. It still felt a little flat, so I went back into the recesses with Hexed Lichen and a little Stormy Blue into the recesses. I added white dots along one edge of the pink shapes to give it a little depth.


The idea was to give the road surface a feeling of life. Perhaps the pink strips represent active panels, and the purple ones are currently inactive. Or it reflects the direction of traffic flow. Who knows? Here's the rough plan with the vehicle adding to the big colours. You may have an idea of what I'm aiming for at this point with the inclusion of these two Heresy miniatures, but maybe not ...


The base still felt like it needed something more. Electric Blue really is quite electric. My eyes are starting to hurt a little while looking at this now, and strangely ... I'm okay with that. It reminded me of an oldschool computer game where the lives left are outlined in a super bright colours, or perhaps Moebius' concepts on Tron. Who knows.


This still wasn't sufficient, because I'm a masochist, so it's back into the recesses to add Dead White into my Electric Blue and paint in just two edges with this brighter colour. Again, trying to create the feeling of more depth in the shape. I also returned to the darker hexes and used Hexed Lichen and Warlock Purple and edged them, then added a little Dead White to that mix as final dots.


I'd done a little more work on the vehicle in the meantime, so here they are in situ. Reflecting the sames blues in the windows of the car and a little of that purple and blue "bouncing" up onto the underside of the yellow, with the blue exaggerated for effect.


So there you have it. A guide to painting face melting colours. I wouldn't recommend it for basing a whole army, unless you have an excellent therapist.