Monday 31 August 2020

Boudi

 Little diorama to try and make more interesting environments and ambiance. Boudi sculpts from Hasslefree (https://hfminis.co.uk/) are good fun, and the base is from the Wamp Fusion bases line (https://www.wampstore.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=183).

 I've created texture on the flat surface of the stone water feature, which was great. I've avoided trying things like this for too long.

Originally I hand painted a few posters to stick on the wall, but ... yeah, let's not talk about those any time soon. Fair to say that printing out posters, weathering and sticking on is a better option. You simply can't achieve the granularity of detail to sell the effect, if drawing by hand.




 

Wednesday 26 August 2020

Draxx Vatar

Another Scale 75 bust, and another experiment in lighting. This is another of the Heroes of the Fallen Frontier Kickstarter I backed, and so it's me trying more cyberpunk colours. Bright lights, and then I tried to knit the colours together for a chromed effect on the back of the jacket.

One thing you learn from doing workshops with top painters teaching is to be clear when answering the question "what is the narrative?" and I had a clear idea in my head for what Draxx would be doing. He's stood in a doorway at a club. The bright lights from inside, streaming out, and contrasting with the lurid colours from the streets across him.

Is he hired help, watching out for trouble and discouraging it? Is he the heavy support while someone inside is shaking the owners down for a payment? Which way round are those colours for the club and the street? Does it matter? I don't think it does, let your own interpretation of the narrative do the lifting for you on this.




 

Friday 21 August 2020

Jynz the Goblin

Another bust, another education. This time trying to balance warmth of colour without heat, against a cooler environment, and keep the feeling of textures in the mix.

If I compare this to where I was a year ago, I'm a lot happier with pushing the contrast in brightness for areas of interest. Compared to where a professional, top-level painter would push this, I know there's still a way to go. The next step is moving from here is getting a closer to that, through learning rather than luck.

This was a Kickstarter bust from Scale 75, although they now make a version of it with waist and torso.




 

 

Monday 17 August 2020

Guru Meditation

 "You should paint one of your space marines like an A500" said my friend, jokingly.

 "Alright" said I, non-jokingly. 

So here we are. I hope you like all the references to a much loved computer.

 



Definitely not a project to overthink, but it's nice to have lighter moments in the painting day than being super serious all the time.

Sunday 9 August 2020

Tiny Soldiers

I picked these up as a random find at Salute a year or two ago, and they've sat in my WIP box for a while. They're pretty darned small, and a nice exercise in painting accurately. I didn't make a note of who makes them - but if you recognise them, please let me know so I can update this post.

Size comparison with a Primaris

While I wouldn't make an army of these any time soon, it was a fun exercise to try and apply better colour usage at a tiny scale, and also to test out my new brushes!

Sunday 2 August 2020

Stormcast

This was painted a little before my other, recent models, but is a favourite of mine. I started it by watching Craftworld Studio's tutorial for Imperial Fist Space Marines (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLXzdAke86Y) but wanted to push the yellow to a gold NMM effect.

Following a bit of advice from the excellent Craftworld duo, I've ended up with an effect I was really happy with and a lot more colour than I've traditionally been comfortable with.

On the base, I tried to create an effect where the ground is coming back to life as the Stormcast walks across it. The edges are the same colours, but very desaturated and bleak to emphasise this.