Oz Painters

hi scott

for the leather straps, I followed a method outlined in one of the painting articles in cry havoc - volume 3. The base colour was a very dark brown, VMC german cam. black brown, something like scorched brown + black. Then some dark blue-black washes are applied over this, to give definition. THen clean-up with the base colour, then highlight with base colour + VMC beige red - I think it's kind of similar to GW dwarf flesh, or say, GW terracotta + kommando khaki. Then adding a light grey to this mixture for the final highlights - I used VMC medium sea grey, which is like GW fortress grey but a bit darker. With this final highlight stage, I tried to paint it in a sort of lined, texture effect. The grey makes a colder tone for the final highlights, along with the blue washes at the start which give good definition, but overall it still seems fairly warm thanks to the beige red colours. Then I did some trompe l'oeil cracks and stuff.

ABout the grey undercoat from bunnings - which brand do you use? How does it compare to GW spray, in smoothness, filling in the details on the mini etc.?

Incredible attention to detail Seb. Really like how the use of variety of colours makes this miniature glow. The highlights for me are the skin, pants and the grip on the axe handle. The highlighting in these areas are what make this miniature.

The brand i use is 'Holts'. It works a lot better than GW spray, as it is a primer, it puts a lot thinner coat on the model, showing up all the detail. Smoothness, well it is a lot smoother than GW. All in all it is a great undercoat. Although test it first ok, to make sure it is to your liking.
I think Max used it once too.

Thaks for the update again, it's real interesting to see how things move forwards. Generally I get the idea I should slow down a bit in my painting and not push things so much

I really like the hands. They seem to have a reall old rough and wrinkled look to them

And I have to suggest he replaces that shield strap
Looks like itr's gonna break any moment . . .

ok, here we go again - the next three stages

First pics: I added lots of glazes of colour to the fur areas, using three colours mainly - VMC dark sea blue, a mix between VMC hull red and GW bestial brown, and a mic between GW bestial brown and VMC middlestone with a touch of VMC dark sand. These were applied in sort of random places over the fur...well, not quite random, there was a method to the madness haha, but you know what I mean I think. Glazes with the dark sea blue over much of the other areas of the mini as well - the leather parts, the red tabard, some on the pants, more on the skin and so on. THe idea is to try to tie things together a bit more visually. Also in these pics, I have started to work more on the metal, by applying glazes with boltgun and starting to highlight with mithril - quite heavy glazes. Oh yeah, and his little dagger scabard hanging form the belt of course.







Next pics: I've put some more glazes of colour on the metal again, and also some reddish tones on the skin in certain areas. And I worked on the wooden part of the shield also. I feel like there is more, but I can't remember ahaha. Oh yeah - the teeth and claws and stuff, and the bones on the shield and hanging skulls as well.





Last pics: I did some oxidation - rust on the chains and stuff, and verdegris on the brass-ish parts on the axe and shield. Also some dirt and stuff on his cloak, at the back mainly - I used pigments for this, rather than normal paint, because I wanted to experiment with the effect. ALso some pigments were used int he oxidations. I have also done a bit of highlighting on the fur parts at this stage.

Wow, I need some more colours to work with, all of these interesting tones and stuff make minis look so good. Nice work so far, I have to say, not a huge fan of the sculpt but it's growing on me.

yet more updates - but guess what, these will just about be the last! With the last set of pics here, the end is nigh. So everyone, now is the time to unleash the fury and give me all you've got - let the criticism begin! Don't be afraid, just give me everything or anything - what doesn't look good? WHere could I do better? On any level - close in looking at technique, or drawing back to look at atmosphere. ALthough the base will add to the atmosphere I think (hope!) - I'll be working on that for the rest of the day today. It's good because this is my chance to actually make some changes based on comments, because normally the minis are finished and any changes suggested are sort of hypothetical. THat's the whole idea of a WIP thread though I guess haha.

Anyway, let's begin - here's the first set of pics. I'ce added more colours to the leather parts with glazes of dark sea blue and light orange-brown colours, for some more variety, hopefully to make it more interesting. I started some work on the hair - orange hair haha, it seems to fit with the scheme I think. SOme highlights on the fur again, trying for more contrast and to indicate more of the zenithal light source. Highlights on the metallics also.





Second pics: I was puzzling about what to do with the red tabard, because it was a bit boring...so I decided to add a few little arabesque things, to continue on with the one that is already sculpted onto the side of the tabard. The colour to use was a puzzle as well - I decided jsut to stick with a lighter version of the background red, going more towards orange/peach colours. I think it's good to use a colour for freehand that is not too much of a contrast sometimes, because then it won't draw too much attention away from the rest of the mini. I also did more highlights on the skin, and especially the face which had been a bit neglected. A bit of a clean-up of all the skin areas, it's jsut about finished now. And I started some little scratches and wounds on his skin as well. ANd some little rips on his pants.





OK, last pics: things started getting serious haha. I did quite a lot of work in this step - a lot of stuff which probably isn't that noticeable, but it's noticed by me Mud and dirt on the pants and tabard, and heaps on his cape, at the back especially,. More work on his hair of course. More colour in the metallics, and highlights on the fur. And heaps of glazes on everything, different nuances and colours; most significantly, I went over almost the whole mini using glazes of a blue-green colour and an orange-red colour - opposites - and tried to create a sort of play between the two extremes in all the surfaces. SO if you look at the skin, the blue green is in the darker parts, and the red-orange in the highlighted parts; on the cloak at the back you should be able to notice it; even on the pants, the highlights have a more red-orange tinge. WHat I was thinking, is to try to reflect the atmosphere and light,. The environment for his base is going to be a red earth sort of wasteland, and I'm imaginging a sort of reddish afternoon light with the sun starting to set - so because of that, all the highlight parts - the parts catching the light - I've tried to move towards a reddish-orange hue, whilst the opposite colour, the blue-green, goes in the shadows, the emphasise and complement it. Know what I mean? ALthough I've taken a few liberties with this, reversing the scheme on certain parts for something a little more bizarre and hopefully interesting.





So then - he is pretty close to finished in these last pics, so if you have any criticisms, comments, or anything, now is the time! I would really appreciate the feedback. I'm thinking the axe might be a bit boring, especially the actual blade part, but I"m not sure what to do about it - I could add some blood streaks across it maybe? Or what else could I do? Maybe a little more dirt on his pants or something?

Your use of colour Seb is just astounding. This is a great miniature but as you have already pointed out the main area that doesnt look quite right compared with the rest of it is the axe head. It still looks a bit bright compared with the rest. I dont know if it is the photo or not. Maybe the oxidation in the grooves could be a little dark? Or maybe blood or nicks in the axe blade would be better. This is the only area that I think might need some work compared to the rest. So what do you think? It is only a minor thing.

thanks jamie, glad you like it - I'm trying to introduce some more colour to my painting...I'm finally learning the pleasures of colour

about the axe - do you mean the silver blade part? That's the bit that needs some work I think. Or do you think the brass-ish sort of bits need more work as well...? I'm definately going to do something to it! But do you think blood would be over-the-top? It would be an easy way to cover up the dodgy parts, but maybe I should do something more creative?>

the steel on the axehead, even with the dark brown, and light yellow brown tinges need to look more beaten up. there is a lot of verdigris on the brass parts, so the steel parts would suffer just as much, with nicks in the blade edge, and the edges and dimples rusting up. no blood this time i reckon. there is not a lot of steel surface to work with though but i'm sure you'll manage to put some dints on the steel and rust up the dints.

the peach highlight on the tabard's sculpted on arabesque was looking nice, but the dirt is too much, it has made the work underneath all lost, and in general the area looks like a 20min job of simple uncontrolled highlighting. perhaps only just a minimal amount of dirt and then maybe use hatch marks to make up for the rest of the worn, old look?

no more dirt on the pants. its looks just right.

not a fan of the hair on the lower back portion. partly due to the sculpt - makes the highlights very difficult and the recess bits look like bad slip ups.

wood on the shield looks a bit too fresh. i can see some light green on the edges, but in between planks its still a bit clean in comparison to the oxidised brass straps.

other parts are impressive, most impressive

Hi Seb. What Weisern said about the axe head is spot on. Those were the main areas that I thought needed work.

Hey Sebastian, look very good so far.

I would go into detail, about how much I like certain parts, but I know that you probably just want the critism on it so I'll be harsh

As weisern said, the sculpt of the fur is not all that good ( i know, it has nothing to do with you ) It looks unfinished, I dont know what you can do about it but, It just needs that something. the different colours are good but there need to be more definition between seperate strands of fur.

I know everyone else seems to like the Verdegris, I think it is kinda bright and overdone, for me it kinda detracts from the overall miniature. Just realisticly, I know it can get this bright, but I dont think the whole surface would be this bright, maybe some bright and dark parts could be an option.

I'll just concur with the others about the axe head, needs work, I think a really rusty axe would be good if the Verdegris is gonna stay, makes it more realistic , like the whole surface has been weathered at the same rate.

I really like the rest of it. I wanna see it when its done .

kyle

It is definately looking very nice indeed. And you can definately see the blue/red contrast across the cape at the back.


I agree with weisern, some chops on the axe would be good, would definately fit a bit more with the battered shield. Maybe those bones on the front of the shield should have a chip or two as well, just a shame one of them isn't broken in half. And I also agree about the way the tabard, the highlighting that was worked across the freehand has been lost a little bit with the weathering.


Mainly though I'm not so sure about the really heavy/light verdegis, it's not so bad on the axe, but the the clasps on the cloak seem to blend in with the blue/green across the top of the cloak itself and I would have preffered a bit more contrast there. As it is, it seems to hide some of the details, and I think a darker verdegris would have been a bit better.

Another thing I was wondering about, was if the cuts on his skin should have a lighter edge across the top to make them look a little less flat. The one on the shoulder is a bit lighter across the top, but the one on the front/chest seems a bit flat, not like there's some cut skin flapping about.

Oh, one final point, I thought the reddening of the skin where the teeth are pushed through was very nice, but above the one on the top left (As we look at it) it seems to have pooled a little, and could do with a bit of blending back in to the general skin tone. Theres a smaller similar bit on the one bottom right as well, but not so sure about that.

As a second final point, could we have a pictuire of the face? It's a bit hard to make out from these angles, but I was wondering if the flesh around the base of the teeth needed some darkening.

ok cool, thanks for the comments everyone! I'll try to make some changes based on what you have said. Definately the axe blade - I was going to try to do something anyway.

ANd I'll see about the fur - I think in real life it looks better, maybe the camera angle is a bit low which makes the bad parts look worse - I'll try to do something about it though.

As for the verdegris - well hmmm, I kinda like the light colour actually...again it looks way better in real I think, it doesn't come out that well int he photos which is weird - but I'll try to have more variety in the colour maybe, darker bits etc? We'll see - I'll play around with it a bit and see what happens. ANd I'll try to makew the clasps stand out a bit more.

And the patterns on the tabard - I'll try to re-emphasise them a bit maybe.

The cuts on the skin, yeah prawpower you are right I was wodnering if anyone would comment on it! I think they are a bit dodgy too - I'll do a bit more work on them, see if I can improve it.

I'll try to make the wood on the shield better too weisern

ANd yeah I'll try to get some better photos with some different angles and stuff to show all the parts better!

i wouldn't worry about the darkness of the verdigris. there is enough there. and the amount of white-green bits are correct (as Kyle pointed out).

are you expecting the pastel scrappings for the verdigris to disappear a bit during spray varnishing or have you already hand coated some matt medium over the area?