Sunday 5 June 2011

Damned Legionnaire OSL Fail

You know when you thought you got something right and then you look at the pictures and you realise you haven't?  

I've been looking for a decent and different way to paint Legion of the Damned marines.  My previous attempts, including a browned aged look to the armour, and the standard GW paint job didn't feel right, so this time I tried to do something a little different again.  


What I tried to do was go for a standard-ish paint scheme, an aged look to the metal and some OSL effect around the flames and eyepieces.  I also wanted this to be a quick (well for me anyway) paint job, so I can knock one or two of these out every so often so I have something to show for my efforts.  Just from looking at this picture, the OSL effect around the flames has come out reasonably well.  Unfortunately I dropped a boo-boo when it came to the eyepieces - particularly  that there is a clear line where the OSL stops and unlit bone coloured face mask begins, where that should have been graduated.

Damn.

I am pleased with the black.  I've been looking for a dark grey to purchase - I know it's lazy but I don't want to mess about mixing up a colour if I can get it ready made.  So I found Tamiya's NATO Black in my local HobbyCraft and thought I'd give it a go.  The coverage isn't great, but it does the job.  My biggest bugbear however, is the pot - bearing in mind it's a screw lid, it was a royal pain in the backside to get open the first time.  To be honest, it's such a pain that it's put me off Tamiya paints altogether - I shouldn't be in fear of shattering the pot while trying to open the damn thing (yes it was that bad when I first opened it).


So my new, all-conquering (when I can get the damn pot open) black scheme:
  • Basecoat - Chaos Black
  • First Highlight - NATO Black
  • Second Highlight - Adeptus Battlegrey
  • Final Highlight - Codex Grey
  • Glaze - Diluted Badab Black
The metal follows my usual method for steel these days, working off a Charadon Granite basecoat, but I also added a wash of Gryphonne Sepia at the end to give it a more aged look.  I also drybrushed the highlights in places to give it a more worn, rough look.


I went for a rougher look on the bone too (these guys are meant to have gone through the wringer) - drybrushing with a few painted on highlights.  All-in-all (OSL aside) he's come out pretty well for a quick and dirty paint job, at some point I'm going to make the other 3 I've done so far match this chap.

Elsewhere on the workbench, Boris is about half done, and I've made some progress on Ashkasa (the Rackham miniature), while working on my next article for the Ancible.  I've opened the packaging on my Finecast Harlequin Shadowseer, and I'm pleased to report I'm one of the lucky ones, I can't find anything more serious than a couple of mold lines and some flash!  While I'm not overly happy about the price increases, based on my solitary experience with Finecast so far, I'm happy with the quality of the new material.

9 comments:

  1. Photos are super harsh and allow you to see tons of stuff that you wouldn't normally see since they're so close up. The first thing I thought when I saw this post was "great looking OSL on the eyes!" With the super zoomed in photos I can see what you're saying but from a normal viewing distance he just looks badass.

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  2. Tamiya's coverage problems are mostly down to them being designed for airbrushes. I've never found them less than frustrating to use. I've switched my non citadel allegiance completely to Vallejo, their military range has some wonderful desaturated colours (desaturated, you say Jeff? You? Surely not) and a whole pile of intermediate shades. I think they've got a panzer uniform grey than might fit the bill for you.

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  3. To my sad old eyes they are great but that's just me.

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  4. Thanks guys!

    Jeff - Thanks for the explanation of Tamiya's paint range. I have a pot of Hull Red that I've been unable to open yet!

    Vallejo paint is next on my list of "things to make painting more pleasurable", having checked off posh paintbrushes, wet palette and light box already (an airbrush is at the bottom of that list). I'm especially interested in the dropper style of bottle.

    There are a couple of box sets I may have to invest in soon...

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  5. Honestly the only pressing OSL problem I see is the lack of reflection on the back edge of the steel blade directly in front of the glowing eyes :)

    Really lovely interpretation otherwise - considerably more brooding than the GW version.

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  6. I think regardless of whether you consider the OSL a fail or not this is still a beautifully painted model.

    I'm not going near OSL myself just yet so can't offer any advice, lol.

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  7. I think you've done a great job trying to replicate the effect. Did you get it 100 percent correct? Not really.

    But look at what you did learn. I think more importantly than the OSL effect is the mood you have been able to create with the model and the paint scheme. That's the biggest win I see.

    Nice work.
    Ron, From the Warp

    Try this OSL Tutorial series to see if it helps.

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  8. Thanks guys, very much appreciated! I'll keep practicing the OSL until I get it right. I'm glad people like the overall scheme - which as Ron says is more important and something I overlooked in my little self inflicted OSL hell.

    Thanks Ron for exposing him further on FTW too.

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  9. No problem, thanks for posting him.
    I hope you're able to reconcile your OSL issues AND keep the great feeling the model has.

    To lose that would be the worst thing.

    Ron, From the Warp

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