Friday, April 24, 2015

Painting Gems

Among the many many things on my painting table at the moment is a Blood Angel Sanguinary Priest. And being a Blood Angel means it has gems galore. So, I thought I'd share a reference picture I use for when it comes time to paint gems. It's great for both color choice and light positions.





Now I haven't really done much to the model itself, but I thought I'd show what I have painted so far.



Thursday, April 23, 2015

Crystal Brush 2016 Preview

Crystal Brush 2015 was my first painting competition, and I loved it so much that before the entries were even judged and the winners announced, I was already planing for 2016. I currently have four definite entries, a few maybes and some ideas for others.

Today I'll show you my entry for the large scale category. This was actually supposed to be my entry for 2015, but I kept putting it off so I could improve my skills and do the model justice. Eventually I ran out of time and had to enter something else. Well I'm starting this one now to make sure I finish it in time.

First I'd like to show some reference pictures I'm using. The model itself is a mounted one. And the mount is an elk. So I searched online for some good pictures of how their fur looks. In my mind I knew what an elk looked like. It was brownish. Mostly one shade, and of course you'd use a darker and lighter shade for shadows and highlights. The box art and the only other picture of the model I've seen online are done in a relatively uniform brown. But what I found was quite interesting.


 So it has a light body with darker legs, belly and neck/head. And where the two different colors meet it's more reddish. So this is what I have to convey in painting.

Here is the first step that I've done. It's just putting on some base coats getting ready to blend them together. I know it's not actually showing much just yet, but it's the first steps in a very long journey.



Tuesday, April 21, 2015

An Ogre on the High Seas

Today I present to you a fun little conversion project, an Ogre pirate. After painting up a squad of Ogres for the Crystal Brush I had some left over that I thought shouldn't go to waste. And what better way to use them than to get out the Apoxie Sculpt and get an Ogre on a boat.


















Monday, April 20, 2015

IF Banner Update and Massive Voodoo's contest

First off a little more work was done on the Imperial Fists banner, still a lot more to go.



Next, my entries for Massive Voodoo's Bananalicious painting contest have been accepted so it's okay to show them off now. First up is the Historical Standard category:


Fantasy Standard:





Base:




Thursday, April 16, 2015

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Greid Painting Tutorial by Piotr Czajka

Now it's time for an excellent painting tutorial. Siren Miniatures posted a tutorial for one of their new models, Gried.


 It starts out with a back story on the mini explaining why it looks the way it does, how he came to wear a mask. It's pretty nice to get a backstory like that so you get a better feel for the model before paint touches metal/resin/plastic. The model itself was painted by Brush Brothers member Dexter aka Piotr Czajka.
You can see the finished piece on CMON here.
See the painting tutorial on Siren Miniatures website here.
Follow The Brush Brothers on their blog here.

Brogan the Bonecrasher from Andrea Miniatures

Here I will try to do a step by step of how I painted Brogan the Bonecrasher from Andrea. You can see the final results here - http://www.coolminiornot.com/367687?browseid=11891851








I began by priming the model grey with a spray can. Next I mix Army Painter (AP) Lava Orange with AP Oak Brown and applied it to the hair/beard, then did a quick round of highlights with pure Lava Orange.
The armor was painted with Vallejo Model Color Bronze and washed with AP Ink wash Strong Tone.
The axe head and wolf's head were painted with AP Plate Male Metal and washed with AP Ink wash Dark Tone.
The loin cloth was based with a 50/50 mix of AP Dragon Red and AP Oak Brown. Then highlited up with AP Dragon Red and AP Pure Red.
The pants and under shirt were based in P3 Coal Black. A little bit of Matt White was added to Coal Black for the highlight.
The boots were based in a mix of 50/50 AP Leather Brown and AP Fur Brown.
The leather bits were based in a 50/50 mix of AP Oak Brown and AP Leather brown. Little spots of AP Monster Brown were glazed on to give the appearance of wear and tear. They were then highlighted with a 50/50 mix of AP Monster Brown and AP Skeleton Bone.
The cloth under the arm plate was based in AP Uniform Grey and highlighted by AP Ash Grey.
The axe handle was based with AP Oak Brown and highlighted by AP Monster Brown. The wrapping with based with a 50/50 mix of AP Monster Brown and AP Skeleton bone. A layer of AP Skeleton Bone was added leaving the base exposed in the recesses, and finally a highlight of 50/50 AP Skeleton Bone and AP Matt White.



Next up is the face. It was undercoated in a 50/50 mix of AP Oak Brown and AP Tanned Flesh. Next it received a layer of AP Tanned Flesh to act as the base coat. The next steps the paint was thinned to almost a glaze consistency. A layer of 50/50 AP Tanned Flesh and AP Barbarian Flesh was applied, always trying to leave a little bit of the previous layer exposed in the recesses. Next was a layer of AP Barbarian Flesh to act as a first highlight. The second highlight is the unofficial AP color Elf Flesh (a 2:1 ratio of Skeleton Bone and Barbarian Flesh). Then a drop of AP Matt White was added for the final highlight.
To that finale highlight mixture I added two drops of AP Alien Purple and thinned it more with water. This was then glazed under the cheek bones and under the eyes.
Finally I glazed on some AP Wolf Grey around the mouth to look like facial hair stubble.


Next the hands were painted with the same steps as the face, with a tiny bit of the purple glaze applied to the knuckles of the right hand.
The armor trim was painted with AP Plate Mail Metal. The bronze armor was glazed from the midtones to the shadows with AP Monster Brown. It took 3-4 glazes before moving on. Next was 2-3 glazes of GW Rhinox Hide in the shadows. Finally it was highlighted with Elf Flesh.
The silver trim received a few highlights of Matt White.

The axe head was then shaded with a 50/50 mix of AP Matt Black and AP Wolf Grey. The outside of the axe was glazed with AP Crystal Blue to act as a reflection of the sky, while the inside was glazed with AP Lava Orange to act as a reflection of the hair. It was then highlighted with AP Matt White.




The boots were shaded with a 50/50 mix of AP Fur Brown and AP Matt Black, followed by a highlight of 50/50 AP Skeleton Bone and AP Fur Brown.
The arms were done with the same steps as the face up until the final highlight. Instead of purple added to the final highlight I added a drop of AP Dragon Red. this was glazed in the midtones. Then I made a mixture of even parts AP Monster brown, AP Necrotic Flesh and AP Army Green. This was glazed into the shadows and recesses.


A final step was to mix some AP Oak Brown with some GW Liquid Green Stuff and apply it to the legs for a fresh mud look.