It has been a long term goal of mine to really focus on and devote some time to this hobby. Family and injury have really impacted me of the last few years but now for 2023 I aim to devote some of my free time every day/week to get back onto painting and modelling. I also want to try and be better at documenting and organising my thoughts on my projects so here goes!
I have been browsing MMF for ages and collecting all sorts of interesting models into a someday maybe projects folder. I have been a fan of the Station Forge models for a while and can see a lot of potential for their use as Inquisitor models or just really cool models that I'd like to print and paint one day. With one of their many patron releases I spotted this image and it planted the seed of an idea.
(https://i.imgur.com/7XEjLjb.jpg)
I really like the idea of see him rampaging around indiscriminately stabbing people to spread literal, and thanks to his blessings, actual chaos. Then after a few weeks an email from MMF about a sale that would see Station Forge models be 50% off I couldn't resist and made a few of the purchases from their backlog. I have now signed up to their Tribe as it was clear that I would save plenty of money that was as I'm probably going to be wanting a lot of their releases over time!
While exporting the files I looked at the pre supported folder and an idea formed. Why not create this as a dual scale warband? We have the technology.... It would also be an interesting painting challenge to achieve similar results on the different scales.
(https://i.imgur.com/sAQLEM5.png)
All I had to do was sit for an hour or so and support a million islands on the scaled up parts. A skill I have been working on for the last year with my Printer. This is something that after the print I probably should have done with the pre-support as well as I guess that they don't check for lower layer thickness that I use. This means there are some very minor issues that can been seen on the smaller model in areas that just had a bit too much freedom of movement during the print. Nothing that I can't hide with some dirt, grime or rust later on.
With the models printed cleaned and built I gave them a nice black prime with a heavy light grey added from above. The most dificult part of the build was actually mounting the bigger chap in some way.
(https://i.imgur.com/XVQwXAy.jpg)
I started the painting of each. I had not picked up a brush for over 6 months due to a reasonably serious back injury so it was really nice to finally blow the dust off my paints and get back into the swing of things. The plan was to paint him up properly and then dirty him back down again to suit his nurgley theme. My first failure with this plan was with the use of some Dirty Down Rust effect paint. I assumed it was going to offer me some quick and easy magic in a bottle but I must have failed to shake it enough. Now considering I am a a shake for a minute and use a vortex mixer kind of guy this was a bit of a shock. Rather than giving me a rust effect I just got a really glossy brown wash. Not ideal so I had to hope that some Army Painter Dry Rust could help me recover the chains.
(https://i.imgur.com/RacnZ4x.jpg)
I really wanted to represent that the chains are moving and in use so took some time to try and place some metal at the link joints to represent that there was friction keeping the rust from forming. This gives a nice pop of silver metal within the sea of rusty brown/orange. I think it's still too orange of an effect so I may risk it and run a wash over so see if it darkens down just enough.
The head and horn posed me an interesting conundrum as I was torn between trying for a really really pale skin tone with the pox or attempting to humanise him first and nurgle him second. I tried the first approach and it just didn't work out how I had wanted so I worked up to a more typical skin tone instead but kept the purpling around the boils. I am extremely pleased with the horn. It has come out exactly as I had planned with the target being similar to a piece of reindeer horn (https://imgur.com/hQeTHPN (https://imgur.com/hQeTHPN)) that has previously given my dog the most horrendous bout of the runs ever witnessed. A true product a demon of nurgle could be proud of!
(https://i.imgur.com/qeosvTw.jpg)
I watched a video from Miniac about true metallic metal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oonV14paiQ&ab_channel=Miniac (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oonV14paiQ&ab_channel=Miniac)) and thought to myself
"Wow what a massive ball ache he made that out to be!"
So I took the basics and started with a slightly minimalised version of the approach.
(https://i.imgur.com/LsHNysK.jpg)
With a pretty good knife done I decided to give the Dirty Down Rust a second chance. This time I,
A) read the instructions and
B) followed the instructions.
Turns out it separates something fierce and there are ball barings in the pot that you need to be shaken free of the gunk. Then the shaking/vortexing really churns the solution up! After that revelation, the difference in the results to before was night and day. This stuff (when used correctly) really does provide a magic result! I obvs then decided that I could make it even better and went and added some more Dry Rust patches to try and 'improve' an awesome looking effect. I did not, much regret but lesson learned.
(https://i.imgur.com/kByhDpN.jpg)
The next stage takes me back, probably over 5 years. When I decided to return to the building & painting models hobby, I bought some bulk lots off eBay of people getting out of the hobby. This gave me a large but random mix of things to work with. One particular lot was for basing bits and materials. Your typical rocks, tufts etc but in the bottom of the box that came was a transfer sheet. I put it to one side and basically forgot about it through 2 house moves. Now in all my time in the hobby previously I had never one attempted to use these. I don't know why or that there wasn't youtube at the time so if there hadn't been a guide in white dwarf, I'd have no idea what to do with them. This time round though I could watch videos, look at text guides online and get myself comfortable with how they are meant to work.
(https://i.imgur.com/5PyvjO7.jpg)
Slightly worried that these were old and might not even work at all any more I gave myself a little bit of extra protection by giving the areas a gloss varnish to protect a bit from the water.
(https://i.imgur.com/wg6gOLt.jpg)
I didn't get the perfect result but I am very happy with what is my genuinely first ever go at them. I always intended to blend and scratch them into the armour anyway when I get to the battle damage step. I do like the results enough to get some proper tool for the job on order and hopefully some Micro Set will arrive soon to help with the blend/finish of any further decals.
With the transfers left to dry over night I came back to less than perfect stick on the shoulders. I assume this is the standard problem for all of shoulder pads through history. Flat transfers don't quite like curved surfaces. This is something I hope the set fluid will help with due to its acidic design to soften the transfer. This curve issue caused me to completely remove the transfer from the right (unseen) shoulder and I will use something different on there once I have the Mirco Set.
To fix the others I went about tearing some of the transfer off where it had not stuck down and also adding some 'damage' by over painting the shoulders grey base.
(https://i.imgur.com/YhaMfeG.jpg)
I next moved on to the trousers. I have left this for ages because I just could not settle on a colour. My choice of dark grey/black for the jacket handicapped me slightly and I really didn't want to do black trousers. My fashion sense has been constantly questioned by my wife when attempting to dress myself in 'none matching' outfits so I asked her for advice here. She said black, which was annoying, so I painted them red.
(https://i.imgur.com/he6TwIq.jpg)
This red was really cool but for some reason incredibly glossy so I added a layer of Matt Varnish to kill off the shine. I think I will return to them and maybe make some changes/improvements to the highlighting. Here is a WIP view of the 2 scales side by side:
(https://i.imgur.com/KP8p6Z2.jpg)
Seeing these photos tells me that I need to give the highlights on the coat a bit of attention to clean up and make the blends a touch smoother!
(https://i.imgur.com/cFmSYm9.jpg)
This is the next photo that has my attention. I love the more dynamic poses in this set. I also like rolling crit fails on dangerous actions to eliminate a entire city block with a plasma failure. I also want the chunky fella. However at this ratio I think he'd be too chunky at 54mm scale so I may look to scale him up to a lower ratio that the other so he's 7 foot rather than 9! Guess I need to sit and do some supports but with the colder weather and my printer being garage bound due to kids and toxic fumes I might have to wait for spring anyway as heating the garage with the price of gas and electric these days would need a re-mortgage!
I have printed them at the smaller scale with the original dimensions so they might be a pre paint/scheme test while I wait for the chance to print the bigger boys.
(https://i.imgur.com/Fo6a45W.jpg)
Really cool stuff! Looking forward to more updates
Quote from: maglash1017 on January 09, 2023, 11:15:40 PM
Really cool stuff! Looking forward to more updates
Thanks! I hope to keep trickling updates, big or small as I get things done!
I have only really had a couple of hours spare since the last update and I spent an hour of that supporting the larger version of the plasma guy and sorting a mini back log of 3D prints onto a build plate to see how much space I had. I do hope a mild day appears on the forecast so I can consider running a print!
The other hour was spent with refining the grey and highlights of the coat. I went around and across the whole model and tried to really refine and clean the light and dark areas. I may do a tiny bit more as I am sure to either spot some mistakes that need a tidy or create some mistakes with any other work that I do in the near future.
(https://i.imgur.com/BPyYq4i.jpg)(https://i.imgur.com/IY9a8z0.jpg)
I haven't really kept the smaller version as closely up to date as the larger so I also spent some time catching up with him. I have used some different transfers due to the size difference and although they won't truly match each other, they will have a very closely linked scheme. The nurgle rotters blood bowl team transfers have some nice and tiny versions of their symbols as well as a slightly larger version so future additions to this warband could well have identical transfers.
(https://i.imgur.com/FZFdWgI.jpg)
With no 'little' version on the red symbol that fit well enough on the chest of the smaller version I decided to make one myself. It went well but my tiny stroke brush control is hella rusty after over 6 months without painting. Not the worst thing to have to clean up and by sticking to a very simple symbol, basically a red M. I was easily able to touch up the shape with some of the under grey. I also started to add a free hand symbol to the right shoulder of the 54mm guy, also in red as this one look so good. I have yet to decide if that will survive or be wiped off.
(https://i.imgur.com/Y3slNg5.jpg)
Next I wanted to work on the mask. I had always planned to try and base the colour on really worn out leather but it just didn't look correct any more on the model. I instead had a google for some inspiration on 'old gas masks'. After being super careful about what you search for on google :o I eventually found a really well rotted soviet mask with a colour photo. I used this as a base but tried to keep the black mask base colour rather than switching to use more grey to go with the models grey coat and the grey armour......
(https://i.imgur.com/yNKDSYI.jpg)
I didn't get the best wip/progress photos here for some reason my phone camera wasn't in the mood to focus on the face. So I have taken another one with much better lighting and focus.
(https://i.imgur.com/tdPHHym.jpg)
With the major details nearly done I guess I have to move on to pin washes and battle damage for the armour next!
(https://i.imgur.com/M8j2WZX.jpg)
So this is the next stage in my untested process for this model. I put the picture first so it lines up with the one from the previous post to allow a quick comparison. I've added an oil pin wash to darken down the recesses, especially of the armour on his chest and shoulders. It's a completely nothing stage until you compare it to the before/without, as then you can really see the extra depth that just appears thanks to the extra dark across the chest plate . This is my first real go at using oils more tactically than just an all over wash followed by some clean up.
(https://i.imgur.com/8m4yy4Y.jpg)
The brown wash on the lower half off his coat and legs is an attempt to dirty him up. I have enjoyed painting him as cleanly as I could to practise the brush strokes again and get back into the swing of things but its time to risk it all. I don't want to go for the all over streaking grime style wash so have started tactically applying it to the lower edges. I think it will be too glossy on its own but will have to wait overnight for it to dry.
Then it'll be on to battle damage and wear to really finish off the model.
An over night drying time has really done the shine some wonders but it was still too much 'wet look' so I wonder if one of the browns I used was too oily at the time of creating the wash. I will dump some out onto cardboard for an hour or so the next time I decide to make up a muddy/dirty wash. I have given the lower half a really thin coat of matt varnish to knock the edge off the shine.
(https://i.imgur.com/gr9LAEP.jpg)
I may very well add further layers of matt varnish to this to see if it can really kill off the shine. That said the damp muddy look isn't the worst thing I've ever seen.
The only really big part left was the damage. I wanted to really mess up the armour to give him the full decline into not caring anymore. I am normally a fan of the cleaner looking models. The vast majority of my painted models are fresh out the shower/off to the battlefield for the very first time. I have always been scared to ruin a paint just with dirty washes or trying to paint battle damage so going for this warband really takes that fear away as they are going to be dirty, rusty, manky fellas.
The battle damage effect was going to be as simple as I could manage but something that I will take my time on as getting the scale right will be the key. And even with this in mind I did it wrong at first. I had the idea of what to do from watching a few weathering tutorials. I wanted to paint some dark patched and then highlight some very selective transitions with a very light colour to try and represent the layers of paint > primer > armour. After putting some dark brown patches down, I soon found that there was no way on the earth I could place the lighter off white in small enough patches to make the effect work. It wasn't the end of the world, but I should have stated with the off white, then over painted the brown.
This new approach worked fantastically and really started to give me the effect I was after. There are still some areas that I want to go back to and touch up ever so slightly to make some of the off white patches slightly smaller. There was a little more to do with these patches to try and force some further depth. This was to use black and just add tiny touches and patches to finish the effect.
(https://i.imgur.com/PyhQyj1.jpg)
There was an attempt to use some oils to create some rusty streaking from the chains across the chest plate. This didn't work at all and has actually removed some of the effect the black pin wash gave as I guess the spirit I was trying to use to streak the oil also reactivated and removed the black.
I switched back to acrylic washes and worked some brown streaks onto the chest working down from the joins with the shoulder chains.
Here he is in his current form:
(https://i.imgur.com/PTEqyS1.jpg)
Final to do:
- Face / eyes need some tweaks
- Head boils need a bit of contrast
- Final touch ups on the chest damage that has too much white/obvious brush strokes
- Damage up the green canister a bit
Very cool prints and nice paintjob too!
I should really do more with my 3D printer...but it stinks out my study and hallway :P
I really expected a renaissance of inq54 modelling with the boom of 3D printing, perhaps there is, but just not exhibited much here. I feel these are the sort of projects people quietly tick away with in private.
I've really underutilised my printer, I could make anything, but my painting backlog is vast as is :D
Quote from: Mike712 on January 18, 2023, 07:31:12 PM
Very cool prints and nice paintjob too!
Thanks, It is coming alone nicely if I do say so myself!
Quote from: Mike712 on January 18, 2023, 07:31:12 PM
I've really underutilised my printer, I could make anything, but my painting backlog is vast as is :D
It's a mad tool that has really, sort of, over whelmed me with options. I see more 3D files getting produced that I want to print and paint than I can ever hope to keep up with. It means that Ideas are constantly getting replaced with the new is always better meme from HIMYM.
- Damage up the green canister a bit
Went on with this step last night and gave a really good weathering run over the green of the tank/canister. I went with a similar approach as with the body armour but this time I got them in the correct order this time. After creating those patches I wanted to give a slightly different finish to separate the armour damage being chipped paint to this being a rusty metal canister.
(https://i.imgur.com/aVPX6W3.jpg)
This was all well and good until:
(https://i.imgur.com/0cLK4NI.jpg)
I dropped him, and I dropped him good and proper. F**k
I felt my cork on a base was slightly cumbersome and a bit of a risk but seemed to be good enough but it just slipped away and down he went. 15/20 hours of work goes crunch. He might well be repairable but I don't think it will be a seemless job.....
I needed some time after the drop. I was really gutted and feared that I would not be able to repair him. I had to think hard about when I printed him as I had switched from a 'starter' resin that is notoriously brittle to a 'tough & flexible' resin that should make models more robust. I can't for the life of me remember when I printed this chap as it was long before I would have been comfortable enough to paint him.
The repair went reasonably well with the knife re attaching almost seamlessly. The arm however, was probable a mistake on my part. I dry fit it a few times and noticed the previous layer of glue was pretty much creating a guide that seated the arm exactly back where it was before. I hoped this would work well. It kind of didn't. I am not sure how but when I went for it, it did not bite into the groves and would not sit well. I had to wing it a bit due to its shape and getting an awkward hold while the glue was drying. It has set slightly off its original home.
(https://i.imgur.com/kSDdaIf.jpg)
Not the worst and a few layers of dark grey and a wash or two might just re blend it enough from distance that no one would really know on the table/in the cabinet.
After the repair I moved on to the other finishing touches. I wanted to focus on the sickness look of the top of the head. I added some purple to the skin all around the boils to add to the sick and damaged look. I also went back over the boils with the AP 'disgusting slime' before adding a 50/50 mix with a bright yellow for a very tiny touch highlight to try and make them pop (pun intended).
(https://i.imgur.com/0myMDML.jpg)
With the head done I went on to the eyes. I am not a fan of painting eyes at the best of times but after a long break I was dreading it. My initial plan to cheat the system was to paint them red and leave it. Do for a possessed/hyped up on chemicals vibe that allowed me to avoid actually doing it. However, I wanted to have a go, so I used the red base to give the eyes some depth and then used a Roman Lappat https://youtu.be/513ZIueH6_A (https://youtu.be/513ZIueH6_A) tip, and tooth picked a dot of black onto each eye.
(https://i.imgur.com/txE7Y4g.jpg)
Evil.
I have been working a bit on the other mini shown previous and started to build up the base colours as a test and trial for his bigger counter part. This was a touch to test my note taking skill from the work on the first pair. There is a nice bit of variety here with the addition of the brown leather pouches and head cover. It will give me something new and different to weather and destroy.
(https://i.imgur.com/W6LfFtN.jpg)
Don't mind me, just testing things:
https://imgur.com/4cahGKD (https://imgur.com/4cahGKD)
(http://i.imgur.com/4cahGKDh.gif)
The last week has been much less about painting and more about prep and planning. I have been pondering bases and base schemes for this warband. I either want to go for an industrial underhive type theme or the opposite and go for a muddy wasteland theme. I will maybe have to ponder on it for a little longer.
I have also spent some time working on the next batch upscaled prints. Getting them all supported and ready. It takes time but is one of the easier things to pick up and put down when things constantly interupt any hobby time I might get.
The plan to keep some painting going on at least every other day has seen more work done on the smaller scale lads. Just pushing some pigment around. I have also begun the larger, very deadish chap.
(https://i.imgur.com/J7hboaB.jpg)
After a tough week at work (I dislike working overtime) I haven't had the actual free time to spend any real time on the hobby. This has annoyed me more that I would have expected, which is a good thing as it means I really want to have some regular time to get some modelling and painting done.
That said I have spent a tiny amount of time working on the smaller scale chaps. Mostly the big dead-ish dude. I was not happy with the skin as it was far too one colour. I tried a green wash into the recesses and then re-blend, but the green used for the wash was rubbish and looks silly. I am going to have to rethink that and maybe re paint a lot of the green.
I also worked some classic nurgle purple one to the exposed organs in his stomach wound. Again I then went for a bit of a bloody red wash into the wounds to try and deepen some of the background elements in the wounds but just ruined the look of the purple as the red wasn't powerful enough to sit on top of the purple. A lot of lessons learned about this scheme and a lot more testing to do.
I also started work on the armour and power fist. This went from its highlighted prime to a grey base before a coat of the magic Dirty Down rust. Not doing this over a metallic base was a test to see how well it rusts over a normal colour base. I am please with how easy it is to produce a solid rusty result but while I could just leave it like this, I want to maybe run some metallic flakes back onto the edges as well as look at adding some 'paint' back onto areas to try and represent that this weapon wasn't just pure metal but has decayed over time from a more typical primed and painted fist.
(https://i.imgur.com/iziqvoO.jpg)
An evening of time was spent trying to achieve something new. I had successfully experimented with adding damage to a paint job but this time around I wanted to go for a significantly more aged look. After a time pondering around on google images. I found a few images and took some inspiration from them. This one stuck with me https://imgur.com/CQt5brR (https://imgur.com/CQt5brR). I really wanted to create that super rusted paint look. I decided to start with the rust (as shown on the previous post) and then build up the paint.
I took a very deliberate approach to add some patches of off white and then covered them with the grey. I pushed the grey over the edges of the white in a majority of places, to leave just tiny speckles of the white. This gives the paint/primer look as well as helping with subtle 3D effects. With the patches created it was clear that these were too large and too clean edged to give the desired look. I went back to the rust colours and stared to slowly dig back into the edges and occasionally the middle to the patches. I really spent some time here with a very small, pointed brush to paint back the chipped effect.
(https://i.imgur.com/4nEBGVO.jpg)
Bigger view of this arm:
(https://i.imgur.com/tS0iiiV.jpg)
There area a few spot s and dots that are too clearly a drop of paint that I will want to tidy up (well actually mess up) with some extra sharp edges.
Oh no..... They've only gone and done it again! A new set of corrupted guard models!
https://www.myminifactory.com/tribes/StationForge/posts/Corrupted_Guard_Nomads-14847 (https://www.myminifactory.com/tribes/StationForge/posts/Corrupted_Guard_Nomads-14847)
Look at this absolute banger!
(https://i.imgur.com/XcTQMuJ.jpg)
I am also a massive fan on this new flamer dude!
(https://i.imgur.com/2XyUvrN.jpg)
Might have to re-mortgage my house now so I can run a heater near my printer to get some things printed!!!!!
I need these!
Very cool files indeed.
Oh the weather outside is much less frightful....
So I went for it. I gave my resin a bath in some 80 degree water to really warm it up and I used my newish heater for home brewing under the printer to just try and give me a chance at keeping the resin in a nice working temp window.
(https://i.imgur.com/tkJfr8s.jpg)
And things looked good! In fact they looked better than good as I was expecting nothing.
(https://i.imgur.com/5BjlFM1.jpg)
And there we are, a complete build plate. No failures. Which I am very pleased about, not just because of the temp but this is a set of models supported on a new version of Chitubox on my new PC where I did not have my pre-sets from all of my previous prints and have had to guess/try and recall what I had set for this resin.
I have Scaled up the Big dude but I think I might have made a mistake with the upscale across the board for these guys. Due to the running pose of knifey I've not really put him side by side with an original model. I thought I would see where this chunky boy stands by comparison.
(https://i.imgur.com/cLNGlNe.jpg)
He's not as massively tall as I was expecting but actually I think he looks bloated and bigger for all the right illness related resons.
Turns out I was a bit too excited to run this print and while preparing the build plate for this chap and 2 other upscaled guys from the group I forgot to add his arms to the plate. So he is quite literally a H-armless addition to my 54mm version of this warband! ;)
(https://i.imgur.com/IlJHAfv.jpg)
Printer goes brrrr.... The first batch of reinforcements arrive and get themselves on a base ready for paint. I have some catching up to do on the plasma guy. They have been chucked on a base but the arms aren't glued so I can get in behind to all that detail that no one will ever see.
The new trio at 54mm:
(https://i.imgur.com/d8KlVlL.jpg)
I will prime them with their arms on but paint the base colours and layers with them in bits. Mostly to make that step a few percentage points easier.
(https://i.imgur.com/xUKFl1Q.jpg)
I was about to prime the big boy when I realised, I'd missed a slightly critical step. I had hollowed him and thus filled him with key drain holes. These would need a tiny amount of milliput to fill. Nothing too strenuous but did make me dig out my putty and see that it is very much past its best. I will see if it can do be used for this job or if the epoxy has self-cured and needs to be replaced.
(https://i.imgur.com/O60kOVV.jpg)
I also need to print his hand / arm before I actually try and get some paint on him.
Bit of an update to keep the project progressing. I have had a few evenings off due to Birthday celebrations and it being half term to extra tired from entertaining children all day.
When I have sat down to paint I focused on getting all the base colours in and then on to the highlights.
(https://i.imgur.com/Kd7baT3.jpg)
It's been a while since the last update and that is in most part due to choosing to spend my limited free time from the last 2 weeks doing some actual hobby over writing about it. It's been the odd hour here or there though, so I've had to make mini tactical progress over sitting and pushing the models really far.
There was a good amount of clean up done around the coats and highlights before I moved on to this flamer guys head. I wanted to make him look sick so started with a green base colour. While the first layer of dark skin appears to have covered this in the photos I have actually done well to leave it in the recesses of the face and focus tiny glazes in these areas to only slightly tint the green with the skin tone to keep the shadowy green.
Going for a horrible open wound look I washed purple into the craters across his head before using a necrotic flesh tone to work around the edges to clean the water marks that appeared due to the wash/speed paint pooling then drying effect. Then some disgusting slime paint has been added for the puss, pooling and leaking from the bottom of each.
(https://i.imgur.com/ccZI9eX.jpg)
One of the next areas to see some progress was his leather pouches and shin pads. I have failed to get any sort of good clear photo of these but they have been highlighted and started to be slightly worn around the joins but while you can see it with the naked eye it does not show up at all in these images. You can see a bit of it on the shin pads but that's just layer 1 under a wash which I will then touch back up to a bright highlight to pop the damage.
(https://i.imgur.com/etMAX6l.jpg)
Next for an update is the weapons. I have made a start on both sets but really focused on the plasma effect. I don't think I have ever tried it before so it was an interesting process to try and play out. I have not got the exact result I was hoping for as my yellow/orange wash appears to have dulled the white base layer significantly more than expected. Some tinkering required to bring a bit of a glow effect back onto it.
(https://i.imgur.com/zJccVhe.jpg)
The final update is a funny one. As despite the appearance in the below photo, his head isn't massive. He's not a bobble head of a fella. It's just a weird side effect of the perspective. It was an attempt to capture the coat buttons that have been brass'd up a bit but ended up just being funny.
(https://i.imgur.com/zK601IW.jpg)
Do you ever look for a sign that you've made the right choice? I have been enjoying progressing these gents and building a new, different warband. I sat about a week ago looking at them lined up on the painting handles and thought about how I'd like to expand them. I love the aesthetic I am getting from the grim guard models but I wanted something less soldier. Something to bulk out the ranks with that can provide a very contrasting view but still fit within the team.
I wanted something poxwalkery.
Guess what just dropped into the tribe inbox!
(https://i.imgur.com/y22jinq.jpg)
Absolutely buzzing by some of these guys! Just could not have been more exactly what I was after!
Some weathering has begun. Its probs close to one of the final stages before I put them together and move onto the final touchups. A lovely dirty oil wash. Learning from my first go where I got a really glossy finish I worked with some older oil and it worked really really well.
(https://i.imgur.com/AkWQgos.jpg)
However there was some negatives with the way the pooling has dried in a couple of places. It might not be the end of the world but I will have to see how well the oil re activates with some spirit to try and produce a slightly better blend.
(https://i.imgur.com/FQ2grOH.jpg)
Looking very promising!
Quote from: maglash1017 on March 20, 2023, 11:12:56 PM
Looking very promising!
Thanks!
Today was a strong day for the printer. Not perfect as I lost a few 40mm based and the left arm of my big chap to failures. Annoying to only get one of the two arms but I don't think it'll be long before I am running another print. So many things to print so little time to build and paint them!
I have made a decision on the bases I am going to go for. After the weathering step of in my previous post I decided I really like the dirty muddy feel so what says dirty muddy more than trenches!
So here's all the successes from today's 2 plates / 8 hours of printing time:
(https://i.imgur.com/UlnOVXx.jpg)
Gentlemen... bigger isn't always better.... I printed the bases from the previous post at 2 sizes. 40mm and 32mm scales. Thinking this was the correct sizes to match with the bases I had used to hold them for painting. Some how, is some weird qwerk, I had checked this, I had picked up one of the spare, empty bases on my desk and dropped it on a ruler to be sure. And bang, ez 32mm base. So off I went to scale and support all these lovely bases at 32mm.
Print, clean, de support, cure and photo (above). Glorious. until I moved my running knife guy, and then ut oh. He's clearly not on a 32mm, and he looks tiny near it. Ferk...... The one random base on my desk was in fact 1 random base!!!! GRRRRRR. Oh well, printer goes brrr for a reason so new build plate and off it went.
(https://i.imgur.com/QLmbdKL.jpg)
Much Better!
Time to prime!
I've had to take a semi enforced break from modelling and painting. Not only have I had to drop a few 15-hour days for work (yay......) but it was the build up to the easter bonnet competition for my daughter and she wanted to paint her own bunny. And despite my reservations about her colour selection, I am happy to be proven wrong by the end result (I did do the black of the eyes for her)!
(https://i.imgur.com/RloHTDd.jpg)
As for me and my hobby time, it's probably reasonably clear from my previous posts, that I am ALL ABOUT THE BASE!
I had primed the based and laid down the base colour with the airbrush back before I got stung with the crazy workload period, so they've been sat there, brown and ready to go. I am not sure how my vision for them will play out or even if I can get them to a point where they match what I see in my head but here goes.
I've painted the rocks in a very simple grey then a light grey edge highlight before hitting a very small drybrush over the top with the light grey to just give some pop/rough texturing. I decided to go for a lighter brown for the planks to keep the mud nice and dark by comparison. I then decided I wanted to paint some wood grain... now that sounds like a fun idea! To be fair, it wasn't the worst thing I've ever tried to do and gives a pretty solid effect. Some of the grain lines where a bit bright so a soft tone wash over the plants took that edge off and brought it all together really nicely.
(https://i.imgur.com/PNeXdaR.jpg)
With the planks in a good place and the stone looking solid. The mud is my next challenge. It was already just dark brown highlighted with a lighter muddy brown. It looks pretty good. I have chosen to try the oil wash (same as used on the models lower halves) on just one base to see how it comes out. It will just be washed over the mud and then I pull it back very slightly from the tops of some areas to see how it comes out after a night to dry.
(https://i.imgur.com/Klr5UbP.jpg)
So with the oil wash test run overnight and the forum downtime stopping me posting the above as planned, I now have the comparison between the two:
(https://i.imgur.com/TT77UXf.jpg)
I still have some more plans to go some extra with them as I have some AK puddles that I want to use to add some standing water to the groves and recesses. Does the oil wash bring anything that will make these bases better though? Is it worth the 12 hour wait? I am on the fence. I am not worried about the loss of shine as varnish will be used to bring that up to where I want it. It does give a deeper effect but that might just be the matting from the oil rather than anything about the use of the wash. I've dropped the same image on the forum Discord to ask for some opinions. I know what my wife thinks of the 2. So, I am not sure if I am risking anything by not just simply accepting that she is right and I shouldn't question her opinion.....
Nice progress! I think the oil wash does look nice but it doesnt seem like the type of effect that you'd need oil paints specifically for, a regular acrylic wash will probably do just fine.
I'm not enjoying the enforced break from the hobby that my current workload is forcing me to take. I once again am choosing to focus any time I get on doing rather than updating this log I did some work on the bases. I added the water effects. They did not come out as expected or as described on the bottle! I was miffed, so miffed in fact that I emailed the images to AK and asked why the dirty puddles on my bases were crystal clear! They responded in good time and asked for some more details on images of the product. Only to confirm that it was correct and working correctly. So I followed up by asking how I can get the result shown on the bottle or on the web page in the marketing material for this product then? Clearly I need to use additional products. Oh, they said.. You don't need any other products, you just mix it with some paint first.
(https://i.imgur.com/wSwqRcQ.png)
I was, and still am not, amused. So to achieve the result on the bottle, with the product in the bottle (bought because it was pre muddy) I would need to mix it with additional products, to make it muddy. So I could have just bought cheaper clear water effect paint and added paint to that. A wonderful example of a product that does not do what it says on the tin.
Anyway, rant portion of the update is over. I had added a number of thin layers of the puddles effect (as per the instructions) and you can see more clearly than I'd like, the underpainting below.
(https://i.imgur.com/m50d6NT.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/i55LQQa.jpg)
Do I think it is a bad effect? Maybe, but heavily weighted to no. Is this what I was aiming for? No, not at all, they are meant to be muddy puddles. Will I print them again to redo them all though, I think I'll prep and paint the 40mm version first and run the puddles and paint approach for them and decide if that looks how I want enough more than these that I want to reset and try again. The Weather is starting to get good enough that the ambience is printable.....
Moving on to the models. I poured over my transfer sheets for chaotic inspiration and settled on a pair of identical glyphs but in the different sizes. Annoyingly, while they both fit well, I broke the bigger one while transferring it across onto the model so had to spin it around a few times and try it on the fly to work out where best to have one of the points "missing". Opting for lower middle which I can easily damage up as well as hopefully obscure behind his flamer.
(https://i.imgur.com/3g4hKS1.jpg)
There is still a lot of the gloss varnish on show so it will need over painting and then matte varnishing back down to the desired effect.
I have also begun catching up with the big fella. He got primed and and a few base layers before adding the purple wash to start to form the bruising. I thought I had followed the same ratio for the purple however I got a much much darker result. I don't think it has gone too far and I may very well just have forgotten to note down a few skin/green glazes that I used the first time to blend it back into the skin tones.
(https://i.imgur.com/DVxO8ze.jpg)
There is plenty still to do and I have even removed the smaller guys left hand to help gain access behind it on the model. A big win for super glue being easy to break away. It did get me thinking though. As I have already dropped and broken one of these guys, maybe some cheeky magnets might actually work in my favor to protect some of the joints. If dropped they'd hopefully flex at the magnet point and fall apart in a controlled way rather than shatter. I am also now working with ABS like resin and tough resin to hopefully massively reduce the brittle nature of my prints.
(https://i.imgur.com/8h6otbI.png)
F to this! I am on the mend but it'll be the new year before I get to attempt to pick this band back up and get them over the line!