Brutal Dissection

Something a little different this time...

Jez passed me a few of these bad boys (and girls) to paint, they're from Dark Art Miniatures "Brutal" game. This chap is known as the "Di-sector", definitely not my favourite of their miniatures (I'm leaving my favourite until last), as his pose is a bit odd, and it was pointed out he has rather spindly legs, but he's not a bad figure.  I went for a dark industrial look, inspired by the "Carnivora" scenes in Dan Abnett's Ravenor books - so lots of dirt, grunge and blood.

I gave the whole miniature a basecoat of GW Dryad Bark - I like this new colour, it's a much duller brown, and works well as the ground in dirt effect.  This was washed all over with Badab Black, being careful not to swamp the model.  The metal parts were then dry-brushed with Tin Bitz, then Boltgun Metal, then Chainmail - I didn't use Mithril Silver as it would have made it too bright.

The skin was painted next - P3 Beast Hide was shaded with Gryphonne Sepia, then highlighted with Beast Hide, Ryn Flesh and finally Thrall Flesh was mixed in to give it a more unhealthy tone

The yellow was a quick process - I started mixing in Tausept Ochre into the Dryad Bark and blending it in until it was almost pure Tausept Ochre, and then mixed in Dheneb Stone (shut it Jez ;-) ) for the top highlights.  The blending was a bit rough here, just to help accentuate the beat up nature of the yellow sections (particularly the greaves).  The whole lot was then given a little dose of Blanchitsu - a 1:1:2 mix of Devlan Mud, Gryphonne Sepia and water was washed over the whole miniature, and when this was dry, it was very lightly dry-brushed with pure white.

I've mentioned this technique before (a long old time ago), but this is the first time I've used it in a while, and I'm really pleased with the result, as it certainly adds to the grimdark/grunge look I was going for.  With the Di-sector suitably Blanchitsu'd up, I gave him a spray of Humbrol matt varnish.

The blood is where I messed up.  The effect is about right, particularly on that nasty looking drill bit, but on the blade and the chest, the blood is too light, so it kind of looks more like strawberry jam than blood - I should have stopped at Scab Red (having started with Chestnut Ink), but I got excited and used Red Gore too, and it ended up too bright.  The liberally applied gloss 'Ardcoat works nicely though, and it's a useful lesson learned.

The miniature is back with his rightful owner now, so it's on to the next few projects mentioned in the previous post, plus some more miniatures for our ongoing Rogue Trader RPG campaign.  I know the game doesn't need miniatures, but it's always fun to do stuff like that, and I might end up with a inq28 warband by the end of it...

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Mid-Week Progress Report: Getting some structure into what I do

I really, really have to work on updating this blog more than twice a week.

But, more than that I need to organise what I paint better.  The last few weeks, months even, I've done bits and bobs with very little to show for it.  So, the plan is to organise what I'm going to paint into "Main projects" and "Side projects", concentrating on the main and spending half an hour at a time on the side projects when I get stagnant/stall/hit the wall.  The difficult bit is going to be only doing half an hour on the side project, stopping, and then moving back to the main project(s)...

This is also going to be difficult as I can't really batch paint - I suppose I can, but I don't enjoy it.  I've managed 5 Imperial Greatswords before, but even that was a struggle.  Also, I'm quite a slow painter and rather too easily distracted - not an ideal combination!

The Main Projects

• Legion of the Damned - I want to get 250 points of these guys done to compliment my Crimson Fist force (of which I have 750 points).  I currently have 2 marines painted and I'm about to start on a chap wielding a Multi-Melta (the first time I’ve ever painted one of those weapons!).  Then it will be two more marines and a sergeant.
• Noise Marines - the first chap is pretty much finished and the second is well under way (see the picture below).  The third Guitar-wielding psychopath needs some reconstruction work as the previous owner chopped off the end of the guitar (but thankfully kept the piece), so it looks like I’m going to get my first experience with green stuff - should be interesting!  The other marines that will make up the squad will have to wait for a while.  Thanks to the people at the B&C forum I have a good idea for a Doom Siren, and it looks like I have the parts for it too - bonus!

The Side Projects

• Imperial Carroburg Greatswords - I’ve got 8 done, I just want to get them to 10 (for now), so I need to get the standard bearer and one soldier done.  These guys are a mix of Empire soldiers from the last 20 years, and at some point I plan to add the latest box set to make up a unit of 20 - a real mongrel unit!  These are painted in the darker, rougher, "John Blanche" style, which did make batch painting a little easier, and feels very "Old Worldy" to me 
• Khorne Berzerker test model (see the picture at the top) - finally stumbled on a red I like (gotta love trial and error) and I had some Berzerkers I found second hand and cheap in a local model shop.  So one of these nutcases will be painted up, more pictures to follow!

I have plenty of other ideas (and certain people have been tempting me to try Tau recently with their lovely painted stuff, I may have to get some of those funky looking Stealth buggers!), but I’m trying to put them to the back of my head while I get the two main projects I have done first.

It does make me wonder how other people stay so focused?  Any hints and advice would be most welcome.

So, after all that wordage - progress!

Second Noise Marine - the KISS style helmet has come out well, and I’m really pleased with the purple flames.  The guitar will be black, and the arms will be painted the same as the first noise marine.

The flames on the greave are the base coat of what I've done on the shoulder pads - which I should have taken pictures of as they've come out really well.

Legion of the Damned - I wanted to do something a bit different to how they painted them in White Dwarf.  As good as they looked in the magazine, I thought they looked too clean - these guys are meant to have been to hell and back, and I wanted their armour to look like it had been ravaged by age and fire.  So I went for a Scorched Brown and Codex Grey highlight to the black, and a Tin Bitz base coat for the metallics.

I’m not entirely sure I’ve pulled it off, but they look different and I felt that was a good start.  When I get some burnt grass flock from GW, I'll properly finish the bases off.

As always comments and criticism are welcome!

Grrr, was this worth the effort…?

So I had these grand plans to do a little “painting a Genestealer” stage-by-stage, taking pictures as I went.  Unfortunately the pictures haven’t turned out great, I really need to practice this picture taking malarkey to be honest.  As it’s my first attempt at one of these, I thought I’d throw it up here for people to criticise, comment and advise, rather than hide it and try and perfect it for some unknown time in the future.

So here’s how it went:

Intro

I’m a huge fan of the movie “Pitch Black” (the movie that gave Vin Diesel’s Riddick his first outing), and I’ve always been tempted to paint some Tyranids in something like the colour scheme of the monsters in the movie.  I’ve had these old Genestealer models hanging around for an age, and the new Tyranid Codex has got me toying with the idea of starting an army of ugly bug creatures.  As all armies start with a single soldier (this is in NO way a famous, or even a particularly good phrase…), I started with this one.

1.  Undercoated Black.  Nothing novel there – I tend to undercoat in black as it gives me a good start for shading.  My miniatures tend to be a bit more “grimdark” (love that term), than in White Dwarf, as I don’t like bright colours.  I also base miniatures before undercoating – I notice my local GW store doesn’t do this – I think it’s crazy, as it saves a lot of time in the long run.

2.  Basecoats.  Main body is Khemri Brown, Claws and feet are Charadon Granite, and the head and fleshy bits are Leviathan Purple.

Nothing particularly ground breaking here, just a good solid foundation. I wasn’t too fussy here, as the next stage would cover up any mistakes…

3.  All over wash with Devlan Mud – this ties everything up together and provides the basis of some graduated shadows.

4.  Highlighting the purple.  I did the highlighting in two stages:

• 50:50 mix of Codex Grey and Leviathan Purple
• 33:33:33 mix of Codex Grey, Leviathan Purple and Astronomican Grey

Not too bright and not too purple – the effect I was going for!

NOTE:  By this point I was reasonably happy with the way this was going – it was all going together the way I wanted and the pictures weren’t too bad.

5.  Highlighting the claws and feet.  Here a three stage highlight:

• Charadon Granite
• 50:50 mix of Charadon Granite and Dheneb Stone
• Pure Dheneb Stone

6.  Highlighting the body.  Again a three stage highlight:

• Khemri Brown
• 50:50 mix of Khemri Brown and Dheneb Stone
• 10:90 mix of Khemri Brown and Dheneb Stone
  

NOTE:  This is where it starts to go downhill a bit (in my opinion, readers may think the decline started much earlier…).  The picture’s not great and the highlights on the body look a little “slapdash”.

7.  Finishing up.  I’d already planned to throw some “Blanchitsu-style” at this ugly monster, so I gave it an all-over wash of very watered down Devlan Mud.  Once this was dry, a very, very light drybrush of skull white was added to the top edges and surfaces – this helps pick out the top parts of the model and gives a little more definition – good for standard troops, not so great for character models where a more controlled highlight works better.  Final painted bits

• The tongue was highlighted with Gretchin Green and Dheneb Stone
• The teeth were painted Bleached Bone and the the tips painted with Skull White
• The eyes were painted Snakebite Leather, shaded with a line of Chaos Black and highlighted with Iyanden Darksun
• Base done in the usual Brevik way, drybrush with a brown (Khemri Brown here) and then Skull White.  Edge of the base is Graveyard Earth

Finally the model was sprayed with Humbrol Matt Acrylic Varnish – which is a far better product than that satin stuff that GW sell, this is a proper Matt finish.  Some gloss ‘Ardcoat was painted into the mouth and on the tongue to give that slimy “Alien” look.

NOTE:  It really falls down here, the picture is bad and in no way does the miniature justice.  I’m going to sort that out.

End of “Article”

So what do people think?  Was anything good about it?  Was it useful?  What can I do to improve it?  As for all the things I’ve posted on this blog, all comments and criticism greatly received.  Feel free to be brutal (as long as it’s polite ;-) ). 

I’ve learned a hell of a lot from various sources on the internet, and I really want to start paying that back.

Trying not to be a perfectionist...

Yet again, far too long between updates...

So, I've had Huron Blackheart sat on my painting station for a while now, taunting me for my inability to paint him.  I was hating the miniature, I couldn't get the flamer/powerfist to look right and it was really starting to annoy me.

Then I bought this months White Dwarf and read "Blanchitsu", where John Blanche explained how he paints miniatures.

Suddenly something clicked, and I set about Huron with a new found enthusiasm.  I used the methods I had just read about to paint Huron, and while they're not the way I would usually do things, and they won't win me any competitions, Huron looks good.  He looks dark and evil, he looks dirty.

He looks Chaotic.

From this I realised two things:

1).  This style of painting is what drew me to the Warhammer world and WH40K universe in the first place, 20 years ago - it wasn't bright and shiny, it was dark and twisted, old and Chaotic.  Not D&D, but something European, something out of the myths and history of my continent, not sanitised and aimed at kids, but grown up and "eldritch".

2).  I've been trying too hard.  I've been layering things that would have looked just as good drybrushed.  I've made things difficult for myself by trying to paint things as well as I can, when perhaps I ought to be painting for fun.  This is my creative outlet, and I ought to be enjoying it.

I've been trying for perfection, when my "good" is still good enough to display and play with.  I will still paint some miniatures to the best of my ability, but a lot will be painted for fun, in all their dark, twisted and crazy glory.

...and for some reason that feels good to know.  There will be pictures soon, I promise, and more posts on this blog.