Painting Jam 28 - FAQ

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



Time again ... it's been a while.
Painting Jam time - check this link for more FAQs.
Let's get it on ...

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James asks via mail:

"Often I have difficulties removing mold lines which run across the grain of finely sculpted hair.  What methods and tools do you use to address this common problem?  Thanks for any feedback you can provide!"

My answer:

I hate mold lines too and even more those placed in totally wrong places, where you might think: "C'mon the sculptor and caster could have planned this better... gnnaaaa!!" ...

I typically use 4 tools for cleaning up my models. You can find some articles about it in the Jungle's article section for plastic models, resin models and white metal models. Ok, but I think you already know them. Let's have a look on that typical problem you described - these are the 4 tools I use the most when cleaning today:

The calliper is for very rough work. With the scalpel I am cleaning most of the mould lines, usually I jump right over to the ultrafine sanding paper by Tamyia to clean the areas. The white thing is a sandpaper pen I got from a store here in my hometown. It is very cool but it was not available in a very fine version but it helps to reach areas that make you mad. For your problem I would suggest mainly patience. I would use a sharp scalpel and maybe some magnifying glasses first to get most of it done. Afterwards I would try my luck with the sandpaper pen and its tip to get those evil ones. Afterwards I would use the sandpaper, folding it to have a very small surface to work with and then kill the rest. Honestly, it is mainly about patience.

Hope my answer helped you!

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Angel asked me via mail:

"HI JAR¡
i love your work¡ now i work on a mini.... but please can you help me with the base?
i need to know where i can buy the columns of this base:

http://www.abload.de/img/princeofautumnfin024j0k.jpg

and...how i can do the branches? are real what type of plant?"


My answer:

The branches are modelkit ones in scale 1:35. For example, they can look like this.
The columns can be found at PK-Pro.

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Nico asks me via mail:

"Hi!


I’ve been following your blog for a few years now and I still haven’t lost interest in anything you guys do.

Every time I don’t know how to paint or make something, I take a look in the tutorial section and by doing this I improved my skills in such a way that I made gold & bronze on this years Lowlands Painting Competition.

Thanks for that!


That said, I have a question for you guys.

I want to paint up a unit of Tomb Guard in ancient Greek style as Michael Perry did in White Dwarf (I included a picture of it) but I have no clue about where to start...



I hope one of you can help me out?

Any advice on how to do the greenish armour would be nice!


Greets and thanks in advance!


Nico"

My answer:

For this look on the armour I would start with some basic colour of rotting flesh with a small drop of yellow and grey in it. I would paint highlights with pure bleached bone. When this is done I would use several glazes of a hawk tourquise/ice blue mix to achieve the result you are looking for. During the work with the glazes you can try to resist to make it all clean. Don't take too much care to glaze a perfect blending range, just glaze it and your mistakes will turn out as the texture on the basic work.

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 Mike asks me via email:

"Hi,
I found this image online and fell in love with the paint job.  


Author unknown


I want to paint my pre-heresy marines likes this now but I have no idea how to properly do that awesome streaking/wood grain effect. I've made some attempts that have failed miserably and was hoping you could give me some advice.
Thanks,"


My answer:

First of all I feel uncomfortable linking up the photo you have found without paying credits to the owner of it. Please next time add the name of the painter and in the best case a link where you got that photo from.

To achieve this effect I would bring up a basecoat on the armour/tank of bestial brown. Then use a bigger drybrush (even an old one could work) and take some pure and dry rotting flesh. Pull the brush with the colour over a tissue to lose most of it and then brush the bright colour to the armour/tank, but take care to do it in one fixed direction everytime you do it to achieve the effect of the thin lines. The basic colour below should work fine with the bright colour and in the end it should look like this. Maybe you could apply some washes on the models to blend it all together.

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Jun asks me via mail:

"Hi Roman,
I desperately need painting advice.
I am currently painting a Dark Angel Apothecary for a friend and I am really struggling with dark green. I am using Reaper Master Series and the color I am using dries much lighter than how it appears in the bottle. Now, this is only part of the problem. I really like the smooth transition that wet blending produces or the layering of thin applications of paint or even feathering. I can't make any of these techniques to work mainly because everything looks the same when wet.
I thought I was already confident with my blending techniques to the point that I can usually correct harsh transitions. But when I apply that to the dark green it usually ends up looking worse.
Help!
Jun"

My answer:

First thing: try it with another green from another company. Some colours just suck. If this won't work I recommand to test what you will do on a piece of plastic. Use your experience you've made so far. If it looks all the same when dry put in more bright and dark colours to recieve more contrast. 

What helps for me is very often not using the pure tone from the bottle. I love to add a drop of grey to my basic tone to desaturate the basic colour itself. Then I use this tone to work in shadows and highlights. In the end if you think your result is not deep green enough use some glazes to intensify the areas.

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Skillofkill asked me via CMON:

"Hello Roman, (if I may) I have a question about one of your work ( http://www.coolminiornot.com/306141?browseid=4617761 ). Can u give me some advices working this style? I have project of daemons army made in noir/sin city way and I don't have a lot experience with this technique. Cheers and looking forward for your msg "

My answer:

As far as I have learned it is pretty though to paint only black and white. It is important that you plan your figures area first. Don't paint everything grey. Use different hues of grey. For example there can be a very dark grey with small highlights, there can be a very bright grey with strong highlights, etc. Try not to put a bright area beside a bright area or a dark area beside another dark area - for the eye it will all blend together to one. Make the difference by seperating your different hues of grey and structuring the figure for the eye. Then it will work. What helps for me is often to look at black and white photos to understand that - link!

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SwistakCZC asks me via CMON:

"How did you achieve to paint so fine metal texture on King Epicles? I'm impressed, looks so reallistic!"


My answer:


I used mainly this technique described in this article. It is important to study metal in real life or on photos to understand how the different areas work together. What happens on metals with light and shadow? When you see that you can paint it. To make it even more realistic I have added real tiny dots of pure metal to the dark areas to make them more interesting, you can see that very well on his belly armour.

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 Support if you enjoy the help!



So far, I hope my thoughts might help the one or the other
- keep on happy painting!

Roman

quote of today

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

"First learn how to look  – the hand will do its part of the work obediently."

Vlaho Bukovac

 

 

Musica

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Queen of the Undead

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Aloa jungle visitor!

This time I am about to show you one of my recently finished figures.
It was done for the Russian Alternative Battle 4.

Unfortanetly it did not place as the contest was very though, but the judges did a great job and I am sure it was some hard work to decided who wins. Well done! Congrats to the winners! Thanks to the team behind the contest for another one of their cool competitions. Don't forget about the Spring Angel 2013 contest!


 

Now back to topic: My entry for the comp.
The contest's theme was "Undead" and I really love to do undead stuff.
I had a cool model lying in my drawer, one exclusive Vampire queen on horse by CMON.
I really wanted to paint that model for a long time and this contest gave me the right motivation and the oppourtunity.

The concept of the base was pretty easy for me. I wanted her to ride over a graveyard, but with her pure pressence ressurecting the corpses around her. For the Undead coming out of the earth I used some of CMON Zombicide plastic Zombies as I really do have a lot of them. I think anoyne has of those who ordered the game.

Here is one shot in early progress ...

Meanwhile I decided to not finish her for the contest. I'd rather would do another idea I have in mind with a vampire lady and started building up the base for the - in my eyes - better idea for such a contest. Somehow I failed to really do more than the base. Was busy with many other things and time went by without something happening at all.

This was the second base I did for the other idea ...

... but the second idea never was getting further. After I realized that, I decideed to head back over to the first Vampire project and so I did. One to two weeks of concentrated painting made me finish her just in time for the contest's deadline. During the progress I did not really felt comfortable with the original sculpts head/face. She somehow looks the same direction as the horse and her face was somehow strange to paint. While she was already painted (not finished, but in progress) I decided to switch the head and give her another character. I took a female figure from great sculptor Steve Party and made a copy of her face using PK blue fast. It worked well but I knew I have to resculpt the hair and the upper shoulder areas. And so I did with the use of Magic Sculp. I primed the new stuff with a brush and Vallejo Surface Primer White:


I then finished the paint work on her and was satisfied with the result. I knew I could have spent some more hours on some parts. I wasn't really happy with the red dress, but I decided her to be finished as the time was running short. I hope you like her!


Queen of the Undead
CMON, conversion, 28 mm
vote on CMON (if you like)














I also took a photo in the cabinet, done with lightning by the camera. I often do so lately as I am never sure which photo (photobox/cabinet) shows the right picture of the figure in real.


I planned to sell the project on ebay soon, but a private collector from the US, who really fell in love with the piece was pretty fast and bought her for his collection. Many thanks at this point to you!

I am in no form dissapointed by not winning something with her in the contest. I still know some places I would like to have improved and there were so many great entries in the contest that winning was not an option for me with her. Honestly ... great work all together over on the RAB4!

Let me know your thoughts, ideas or minds by hitting a comment!

So far, keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman

Musica

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

High Elf and Chaos Cultist, no eggs!

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

No eggs in here!

Massive Voodoo wishes everybody some relaxed Easter season days! We hope you enjoyed the days with your family and loved ones!

During the last weeks and in between the two painting classes I was able to finish some fun projects.
I did build a base for explanation on the first painting class and painted it. Unfortanelty the demonettes I have painted during the classes are both planned for another project, so the bases I did build up on the class were still searching for a figure to be put on.

I did find a GW plastic High Elf for one of the bases. Not a fency paintjob but a joy to finish something again. Worked on him for about 3~4 hours.

High Elf
Games Workshop, 28 mm



Another one was a Chaos Cultist from the 40K Chaos Army. He was the first figure I had planned to be put on the base of the High Elf, but he did not really fit right. So he was painted pretty quick with a gaming base and tons of textures in his worn out clothes. Work on him was about 3 hours.

Chaos Cultist
Games Workshop, 28 mm


Somehow the photos in my photobox come out way too bright lately, but here you go with a cabinet shot that shows both models in a more realistic way on how they look in real:



Hope you like them - both of them will sooner or later hit ebay!
Keep your eyes out! If you are interested in making one of these pieces yours in front of an ebay auction feel free to write an email to me!

Best Wishes and keep on happy painting!
Roman

Kong's WIP thoughts - April #01

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



Time is flying by and soon we got to prepare our trip to the US.
As I am having some smaller classes at the Adepticon I also got to prepare a lot of stuff and pack it carefully to take it with the plane. I am even not sure why I am telling this, maybe I am just too nervous about that all :D

Let's get it on with a look on my table again.
I am finishing the comissioned Space Marine, but won't show some photos anymore as I want the finished model to appear in an online contest. Time is flying by here too, ai ai ai.

There has been a long painting night - last Friday where a lot of things were pushed forward. One was the idea to get that massive Slaanesh project further. I really enjoyed some hours digging in my bitzboxes to build up some characters that will find a place in the whole scene. In the end it all shall be a big praise to the God of Sins and Lust. No porn, promised!

As I was asked to write a little more about the progress of the demon project I decided to summ up my work of it, every once in a while. The whole idea is still in an early stage. 2 demonettes are kind of done, they miss some final purple glazes, but I will do that in the end when all comes together. The big demon still needs some blue in its skin and well, yes, the other ones need colour too ...

I started to bring up a basecoat of dark metal (was it warplock bronze? Oh yes it was, just saw it on the photo) to the big Slaanesh demon. This was kind of frustrating as there are way too many small areas that I did not want to forget.


While I worked some basic stuff on the Slaanesh Beastman I put some more work in the demon's horn and purple touches to its skin.



The next plans are to really darken down the base and bring in some more dramatic light/shadow work to it. After this I want to work on the demons skin and start the leather and the clothing, before I do those damn metal parts again :D

Funny, when I think back how the model started. I already felt "Oh, oh!" this is kind of huge ... back in those days:


... but discipline and madness will guide me through this project.

So far from the demon ladies ...
Keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman