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Author Topic: Miniature Painting  (Read 546 times)

Gulnyr

Miniature Painting
« on: March 29, 2011, 07:03:18 pm »
I made comments on Pibe's Farseer, so it only seems fair to open myself up to criticism, too.  A thread seems like a better place for potential conversation than the gallery, so here you go.

I finally got some new supplies a while back and stripped some minis for a repaint.  So far, I've completed six Space Marines:

These guys are from the old box set of thirty marines - this thing from the '80s.  This is the first time I've done the edge highlighting and I think it came out pretty well, though a closer look at the minis shows my hand isn't super steady.  That's part of why I stared with these guys.

Here's a closer look at a single guy:

You can see a little of what I mean about the highlights if you look at the outside of his right lower leg.  See how the highlight gets wider than along the front and inside of the lower leg?  I gotta work on that.

I'm really pleased with the eyes, though.  The 2D of the picture makes it look like those could be actual lenses; they are pits in his face in reality.  Here are some more:

I painted them with the gemstone technique I mentioned in the gallery.  The eye socket was painted black, then a deep green was painted over the front two thirds, and then a spot of brighter green on the foremost quarter or third.  Then a small, white dot is added on the black to look like a reflection.  That's also how I handled the bump on the flamer:

I don't know if it was supposed to be a gem, but it is now.  I painted it like the eyes, except with red.  It's pretty dark since I left so much black showing, but that's reasonable for these marines.  When I do the ones on the Eldar I'm painting, I'll add more color so they look brighter.  I have some just about ready for the gemming up, so I'm almost done.  I'll post the pictures sooner or later, since I paint in little spurts when I have a few minutes, and "almost done" could mean a week or more.
 
The following users thanked this post: lonnarin, Chazzler, Serissa, cbnicholson, Lance Stargazer, Shiokara

cbnicholson

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2011, 11:10:34 pm »
They look good to me, Gulnyr.  Be better if they were fantasy miniatures though. ;)
"Give a man a mask and he will show you his true face." 

Oscar Wilde
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2011, 12:16:32 am »
Yeah, where are those vintage Warhammer Minis!  Saurians and Orcs and Goblins!  Oh my!
 

davidhoff

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2011, 12:44:49 am »
Wow, seeing this and the link to the kit reminded me of my model airplane days when I was a kid.  My brother and I would buy these WWII airplane (Flying Fortress, B? Bombers, German Mesersmit divebombers, British Spitfires, Mutangs P52, etc) kits at the hobby shop, glue and put them together, then paint them with those little bottles of paint.  Then the fun part....the reinactment!  Running around the room, plane in hand, dog fights...smash...there goes a wing...smash there goes a prop.  Later on I think we escalated to shooting them with BB guns:)

Thanks for reminding me of the memory  :p

Good work!
 

gilshem ironstone

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2011, 10:51:30 am »
Oh man... Those were the days.  I remember the epic battles we had with those marines.  20,000 point battles that would take 12 hours because our battlefields were elaborate fortresses made from books and blocks.  Loves it...
 

Pibemanden

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2011, 03:13:42 pm »
A really nice job you did there.. I think it looks really great with the highlights and gems :)

Also nice to see some models from way back..
 

Gulnyr

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2011, 04:42:56 pm »
I don't have any GW Fantasy miniatures, but I do have a few from Reaper.  I'll see about painting them after I finish the Eldar.

And speaking of fantasy minis, I've wanted to find one to represent Jennara.  That is a really hard task.  Most halfling minis have the hairy feet and tend to be rogues, with an occasional fighter or ranger or monk.  Those are all wrong.  First of all, I never ever imagine Jennara with hairy feet, nor any other halfling.  Halfling and hobbit are distinct in my mind.  Fighter, ranger, and rogue minis usually have some sort of blade, and the armor usually looks armory, so that never works.  The monk minis look like monks, too, y'know?  With kamas or a topknot or something distinctly monkish.  It's understandable from the company perspective since that's how most halflings are played.  Why make something no one will buy enough of to make it worth it, right?  Maybe some day I'll find something suitably Jennarish, or maybe I'll learn to sculpt and make my own green.
 

Shiokara

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2011, 01:52:26 am »
If it's something you're interested in, you might try modding a preexisting figure. It would save you the trouble of sculpting something entirely your own--or might serve as a good introduction. I think the Lem, Halfling Bard, model could be worked with, though the dagger in the belt would be rough. There's also a Halfling Wizard that could be re-purposed, but I admit it has pretty crazy-looking hair. *shrug*
 

gilshem ironstone

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2011, 11:41:43 am »
Or perhaps a halfling priest model?
 

Gulnyr

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2011, 05:15:46 pm »
Lem does look like a pretty good base for conversion, though you're right about that knife.  It's really in there, heh.  It would be much easier grinding the hair off the feet than dealing with the knife.  The one called Trissa Cloverhill isn't too bad, either, except for that knife tucked into her side and the rather wild hair.  The long sleeves look odd to me with the mostly bare legs, but that's a minor thing.  It's because I also don't understand why anyone bundles up in a hoodie but wears shorts and sandals.  *shrug*  Anyway, both could be good starting points.

The thing about cleric and priest minis is that they tend to look a lot like fighters with extra markings or gizmos that make them stand out as clerics.
 

Serissa

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #10 on: April 01, 2011, 05:34:52 pm »
If you'd settle for plastic, you can change just about anything with the lovely moldable stuff that softens in hot water.  Use a figure the size and stance you like, cut off what you must with a sharp knife and then start adding.
 

lonnarin

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #11 on: April 01, 2011, 07:48:02 pm »
Love the figure painting!  Wish I could find my old Warhammer Orc Army that I have stashed away, I had these qicked techniques of adding blood splatter to their blades and faces by flicking the brush at them.  Also using a lighty brushed fan-blade over the black undercoat of chainmail makes for some good shadowing.  I used to play Warhammer Fantasy at the game shop down the street from my Highschool way back, rocked their world with my Skaven troops and won tons of free assorted miniatures to paint up.  One of these days when I get a raise I'll swing by the craft store and pick up some acryllics and a paint set and get back into the swing of it.  I actually loved the solace of painting more than the game itself!

 Great use of grass effect by the way.  I love making that nice footing over the basic black bases.  I remember my first year of college my roommate's hippie girlfriend actually stole the bag of fake grass from my desk and tried to smoke it... oh man, that was a kicker.  The thing even had the Games Workshop cardboard panel attached, so needless to say she dropped out first year. :D

I played mostly Orcs and Skaven because I LOVE the chaos factor of how often they infight during battles and how often their weapons backfired on them.  For a lot of the Tournies though I'd use my Saurian Army since they had near unbreakable morale and HUGE mega troops like that Frag Mage and the Triceratops.  Yes, I had Saurian Triceratops!  That thing would just DESTROY those bloody heavy armored Chaos troops, though the Bretonnian Cavalry was its bane due to their maneuverability and movement rates.  Never could afford that Limited Addition T-Rex model though.  For the Skaven I had tons of plague-bearers, warpfire throwers, the Plague Bell, Grey Seer Thanquill sitting on top of it, Deathmaster Snikt and his skirmish of assassin rats sneaking behind enemy lines to nab the magess, heroes & siege machines for the kill...  gods I loved the Skaven.  They even had those Ogre Rats and Thanquill's bodyguard among them, a perfect match for Trolls or Beastmen Minotaurs.

There's this book out there called "The Art of Warhammer" that is absolutely incredible and must-have for any fan of Warhammer Fantasy.  I still flip through it from time to time, their art team was unparalleled in terms of eyecandy.
 

RollinsCat

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #12 on: April 01, 2011, 09:31:18 pm »
might be able to mod this one as well; it's male, but if you shaved the chin down and we assume Jennara isn't running around with adult entertainment proportions anyway...and hey, it's got her ponytail.  Chop off the top of the kama, extend the pole, and put Rofie's flag on top.
 

Gulnyr

Re: Miniature Painting
« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2011, 09:53:33 pm »
Here's a little color:

Instead of the gemstone eyes, I went with glowing eyes on these guys.  The lighter blue is the actual eye, and the darker blue under it (on the black of the face) is supposed to be lighting from the glow.  It's a technique called OSL (object source lighting), and this is the first time I've tried it.  I think it's a hard thing to pull off well, and usually looks best in a monochromatic style, like this or this.  More colorfully, I think it tends to look like the painter is just messy (or lazy if it covers a lot of area).  That's kinda where my work is here; it might just look messy.  I'm not sure if I like it.

Also, I have some fantasy minis almost ready to prime.
 

 

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