Tale of 3 Painters: All good things must come to an end...

The title says it all really, I've finished Hoffman, and I'm really, really pleased with how he looks:

The copper metalwork has come out well, just Tin Bitz, shaded with Nuln Oil, then highlighted with Dwarf Bronze and Mithril Silver.  I'm starting to appreciate Nuln Oil much more now, especially the really dull finish it gives.

A quick shot from the back - I like how the shiny copper colour contrasts with the dull steel and the dark grey.

So that's him done!  He was an absolute joy to paint - I love it when miniatures almost "paint themselves" I just have to guide the brush a bit.  I'll do a final check over on him and the watcher to make sure I haven't missed anything, and then they will be shipped back to Mike at The Dark Templar ready for the group shot pictures and preparation for the auction.

This project has been loads of fun - the mutual support from the other two guys, the support from those of you that follow me, and knowing that we're doing this for a good cause - it's just a shame that it's over already - hopefully we can do this all again soon!

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Michael Awdry's awesome two miniatures for the project can be found here, and be sure to check out his other projects, his Terracotta soldiers are fantastic!  The rest of the Tale of 3 Painters project will be well documented by Mike at The Dark Templar - check out his blog for details of the auction, his equally awesome two miniatures, and the charity details too.  Mike has done some sterling work to get traders on board with the project, so the final auction will be for much more than just the miniatures.

Tale of 3 Painters: Watching Me, Watching You...

We appear to be on the final straight!  I'm actually on course for an early finish at least a few days ahead of the deadline, which would amaze the people at work, not to mention the guys at the Ancible... 

The Watcher actually is finished, and I'm definitely happy with the result:

I had something of a minor panic with this chap as the spray varnish left a chalky finish - usually a second coat fixes this, but this time it didn't!  Thankfully a glaze of the new GW Bloodletter Red Glaze fixed it, and I need to carefully apply another coat of varnish to seal that in. I hate it when stuff like that happens, but very glad to have the wherewithal to fix it.

The base, a fantastic addition by The Dark Templar was fairly easy to paint (stone usually is to be fair) - a base coat of Charadon Granite, shaded with Nuln Oil, then dry-brushed with Adeptus Battle Grey, Codex Grey, Dheneb Stone, and finally white.  I then pooled Thraka Green or Gryphonne Sepia in the recesses of the rock to add some colour and variation.

Having applied the glaze fix, I decided that the lenses would benefit from a little gloss varnish - I think it works, what do you guys think?  With the Watcher finished (aside from a nervous final varnish) it's time for Hoffman to step into the limelight:

Hoffman himself (sans harness) is finished, the shirt, was actually a little easier than I thought it would be (I hate painting white), just a base coat of Dheneb Stone, and then adding increasing amounts of Ceramite White (which is fantastic I have to say) until a final pure white highlight - simples!  The goggle lenses may need a little more work, I'm not sure yet. 

A quick shot of the back shows the leg braces - I cheated a bit here, a base coat of Leadbelcher was washed with Nuln Oil, and because it looked so good already, I left it like that.  The base is simple grey washed with Nuln Oil again and dry-brushed through the greys up to white.  I may just use a little Gryphonne Sepia and Thraka Green to add a little colour in places.

The final picture is a little WIP shot of the harness:

It's still early days here, and it will need some more work, but I think I'm close to the effect I'm going for - I'm trying to keep it fairly neutral so it doesn't draw too much attention away from Hoffman himself, but have enough variation to stop it looking dull and bland.

As always, comments and criticism are very welcome!

Michael Awdry has completed his two models (he's a speed merchant), and they look bloody fantastic check - them out in all their glory here

The Dark Templar is matching my pace (thankfully) and done some fantastic work with a difficult colour, yellow.  His latest post is here

Also check out the Dark Templars blog for details on why we're doing this, and how you can contribute to Cancer Research UK

Tale of 3 Painters: Waistcoats and Watchers

Evening all.

A quick update tonight - I've been making some good progress, particularly on the Watcher, but first up it's Hoffman's waistcoat:

Same recipe as for the Watcher's body, so nothing exciting there, but he now has his required Guild red, and I've done a little to neaten up the face.  I've also done a little more reading on how to use my camera, so hopefully the pictures are a little sharper.  Next up (this weekend) is the shirt and tie, and then the goggles to finish him off.  The harness is progressing, but I don't have any pictures yet.  It's a little tricky to work with, but soon it will be transferred to a pin vice, so hopefully will get some pictures soon.

So on to the Watcher:

More about the wings in a bit, but first I'll talk about the copper rings and lenses(?).  While our brief was to paint things our own way, there are a few bits that seemed best to keep consistent - one of these was the power source.  Originally I'd gone for a green to compliment the red, but having seen that both the Dark Templar and Mr Awdry Esq. had gone for blue, it made sense to follow suit.  I glazed this with Guilliman Blue Glaze to get a deep blue colour, then used Ultramarine Blue, Ice Blue and Astronomican Grey to create the bright centre.  I deliberately let the blue glaze spread on to the copper to give a little OSL effect.

The face lense was re-base coated with black, then from the bottom upwards I blended in Mournfang Brown, Deathclaw Brown and Iyanden Darksun.  I know it's a bit weird using the old foundation paint as the  final highlight, but it was exactly the colour I was looking for.  I'm really pleased with how it looks and I think the colour works well with the rest of the colour scheme.

...and now the wings:

A mix of old and new for this one, starting with a base coat of my old favourite Khemri Brown.  This was washed with a new favourite, Agrax Earthshade, which worked fantastically well - you'll have seen the results of just that wash in the previous post.  This was highlighted with Khemri Brown, and then mixing in more and more Dheneb Stone, until pure Dheneb Stone was added as a final highlight.  I'm really pleased with the leathery, creepy feel to the wings and I think it works well with the red - in fact I'm much happier with the red now that the wings are completed.  I just have the two brown straps on the tops of the wings to do, then we're on to the base.

As always comments and criticism welcome!

...and please check out the progress of The Dark Templar and Michael Awdry - DT's Guardian and Michael's Hunter are fantastic works of art and I'm seriously having to up my game to keep up with them both!

On the Dark Templar's blog he has a couple of other ways you can contribute to Cancer Research UK, so please help if you can.

Tale of 3 Painters: All mouth AND trousers...

Fresh from celebrating the great Mo Farahs victory in the 5000m final, now seems a good time to post a couple of WIP shots of my contributions to the Tale of 3 Painters:

First up is the metalwork on the Watcher, a Leadbelcher base coat, shaded with Nuln Oil, and highlighted with Chainmail, and a little Mithril Silver.  This was a little shiny, so I glazed it with some watered down black paint to tone it down a bit.  To more sensibly achieve this effect, my co-conspirators are using Vallejo Matt Medium, which is definitely on my shopping list!  I'm not totally happy with where I am with this yet, so there may be some more work done on the steel, before he (it?) is varnished.

The steam(?) power pack was based with Tin Bitz and shaded with Nuln Oil, then highlighted with Tin Bitz and Dwarf Bronze, with a little Mithril Silver mixed in at the end

On to Hoffman - as you can see the skin is pretty much done now, and I've got the trousers and strapping done on his legs.  I fell back on an old favourite scheme for the trousers - Charadon Granite (there are 3 pots of this stuff left in my local HobbyCraft, I'm resisting the urge to buy it all...) was shaded with Nuln Oil, which I'm growing to like, then highlighted with the Granite and Dheneb Stone.  The leather was based with Dryad Bark (my new love), shaded with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with Dryad Bark, Snakebite Leather (I can't let go) and Dheneb Stone.  I haven't started the harness yet, that might happen tomorrow.

Flushed with success, Olympic spirit (without the ability or stamina) and copious amounts of tea, I cracked on with the red.  Pictures of Hoffmans waistcoat to come in a future post, I'll concentrate on the Watcher's body here:

Mechrite Red is shaded with Agrax Earthshade (a better fit for red than Devlan Mud in my opinion), then highlighted with the base coat, Blood Red and my latest new paint, Deathclaw Brown.  I added some Dheneb Stone in to edge highlight the scratches, which hopefully are visible from the picture.

You'll notice in this picture the wings are base coated and shaded - that too is for a future post.

As you may be aware I'm the smaller of 3 cogs in this project - follow The Dark Templar's progress here, and Michael's progress here.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!  As we're aiming to make as much money for charity as we can, anything you can suggest to improve things will be warmly received.

Tale of 3 Painters: First Paint

So my plan to show the metalwork I'd done this evening fell by the wayside as my camera battery ran out...bugger.  However! (Probably no need for an exclamation mark, but I'm feeling dramatic tonight)  While the shade was drying on Hoffman's leg braces, I got on and did a load of work on his face (and bald head).

I'm not totally happy yet, and I'll work some more on the face this week.  The hands are only at the shade stage, hence why they're so dark.  The colours are the usual Tallarn Flesh, Ogryn Flesh and P3 Rynn Flesh, but I added in quite a bit of white to the final highlight, and I think that's worked well.

The close up shows that the chin is a little too bright, the lips need some colour and the eyes need a little neatening up.  Overall though, I'm really happy with the way this is coming out, and the skin colour will stand out well against a white shirt collar and red waistcoat.

You'll have to trust me on this, but on the Watcher, the grey metal is done bar a glaze, and I've started on the Copper boiler on the back - I'll hopefully get a couple of pictures of the winged fiend when the battery recharges (both on the camera, and in the back of my brain...).

In my last post I was a bad boy (sorry!), and forgot to mention that you should also check out the (speedier) progress of my fellow contributors - our Sergeant Major The Dark Templar, and Michael Awdry from 28mm Victorian Warfare.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Tale of 3 Painters - Here we go!

Just a quick one to say I'm off and running with the Tale of 3 Painters challenge!

These two turned up in the post - I'm lucky that I got the smaller two of the models, but damn, Mike wasn't kidding when he said Hoffman's harness was flimsy!  While it's attached here in the picture, it's not glued, so I'll be painting it separately.  One of the rules for this challenge was to include "Guild red" somewhere on the model.  I've pretty much decided that this will be Hoffman's waistcoat, and the central "core" of the Watcher.  I was tempted to make the wings red, but I want to do them a leathery colour (a little skin-like), to give it a slightly creepy feel.

Undercoat next, then we're onto the metallics!