Blog Cageyblood's big ol paint blog - Chaos Knights

I like the red bellies on your warriors... And the hot pink looks great on the Carno.

 

So I have a few D&D minis kicking around and I got a random urge to paint the pack which is a pair of gnolls. It isn't the best quality miniature, and I definitely went with speed over care, but it was actually really fun for a change to just bang something out really quickly and not be such a perfectionist about the results. I'm actually feeling more motivated to paint now than in some time, and I may try this trick of speedpainting a random mini I don't care about to break painter's block in the future, maybe even paint this little guy's partner. Regardless of probably going too fast and sloppy I'm really happy with the highlighting I did on the tunic, which is probably the largest area I've highlighted without using drybrushing.

 

So ten days later, lots of progress made. Finished off the batch of skinks I had on my to-do list which feels so nice. Next things to do are finishing off the Carnasaur and Oldblood, and the mini which comes in the S.C. box as the Troglodon Rider. I did a bit of modification to make him look a bit more "wizard-y" and will likely use him as a skink priest or something along those lines. The off-hand which is usually holding the reigns made me think of him holding a severed head for some reason, so I grabbed a head from my chaos marauders bits and glued it so that it (kind of) looks like he's gripping it by a handful of hair. Looking forward to adding some blood effects as a final touch. Lots of distance to go on this mini but I'm liking the modifications I made, and I'm experimenting with basing materials here and hopefully those will bear fruit as well.

 

Spam alert. Spent a couple more hours on this boi and it made such a difference I wanted to post a quick mini update.

 

Finished with my skink priest. Super proud of myself for how this turned out, as it was my first try at kitbashing a model and I did a lot more edge highlighting than usual. I thought monocoloring the skink itself would annoy me but the staff is so colorful that I don't mind. Only criticism I have is that doing the base how I did (priming and painting the basing material) doesn't look as good as gluing the finished mini onto the unpainted basing material. Live and learn. I am, of course, open to criticism of more trained eyes than mine. Included a few birds eye shots to see how it would look in-game.

 

Nice! I like what you did with the staff and base! You might be able to bring the detail of the base out a bit with a quick drybrush. Choose a lighter color, (maybe something like a Baneblade Brown) and do a light and quick drybrush over the top portions that are more exposed. I think you'd be surprised at how quickly that brings out the details of your base!

 

@Crowsfoot Its only thanks to your guide for the s.c. box I'm even using this guy for anything, so thank you! I don't think I said that previously.

@Chicken Lips I think thats a good idea, but unfortunately I'm afraid to even try it because the material (dried spices affixed with white glue) is too fragile to stand up to even a super light drybrush. One of the things that I wanted to find out with this experiment was how firm it would turn out using this method and the results are "basically not at all". I completely agree that the foliage on the base is just a monocolored blob, which is why I wont be basing this way again and instead do it as I did the Skull shrine I posted previously in this thread. I do appreciate the feedback and suggestion!

 

How did you fix it to the base?

 

I'm not 100% certain what you're asking sorry. I'll just detail the whole thing.

Basically I've tried two methods thus far
a) (method done on my skull shrine piece)
-place white glue on base
-apply dried herb mix, shake off excess and wait to dry
-apply a thin mix of white glue, water and brown paint all over to seal it down and shade it.
-superglue completed miniatures / plants / flocking whatever on top, but don't paint it

b) (method done here)
-superglue model's feet to small rocks, and the rocks to the base
-white glue to the rest of the base
-apply herb mix, shake off excess, dry
-apply thin mix of white glue / water, dry
- prime and paint entire thing


The problem with doing it the B way is you lose all the color variety that the basing material already has and its near impossible to correct that after priming the whole thing because the base is firm enough it wont fall apart on its own but not nearly firm enough to stand up to direct pressures. The downside of the A way is you need to do the bases and models separately and only combine them at the very end which is a bit more work and I'm just waiting for the day I mess up removing a completely painted mini from its unpainted base with a knife to base it and I slice the mini's foot in half.

I'm open to alternative ideas on how to base, but I do like the "jungle undergrowth" look that basing with dried herbs gives.

 

Sorry I'm not following. You're saying only to apply basing stuff after the mini is done, use superglue and not mess around with paint? Am I understanding you correctly?

 

Ah I see. Currently I'm not painting the base at all (aside from the black rim). The foliage covers everything, I'm not using it as flocking here and there. I already add different and much brighter green flocking in patches after the mini is done.

 

So the test model for A that had been drying all day coincidentally just finished so I thought I'd just throw up a side by side just for clarity's sake. Left is A, right is B. I'm sure I'll get the execution better as I go on, but I think from this its pretty clear that A or a variation of it is the right choice.

 

I think either way will work, but in either case, I'd definitely paint the model first, then attach the basing material after painting.

For me personally, if I'm going to give a lot of attention to a character or stand-alone monster, then I'll paint them separately, and only after I'm finished painting both, apply the flock to the base. This is usually because most flock will stand up above the feet of the model, instead of them just smushing it down.

Now, if I'm doing rank and file troops, then I might speed the process up a bit and just go ahead and attach the model to the base and paint them both at the same time. Add flocking last.

 

Did a bunch of work on basing my bastilodon today after a long long time away from that project, pretty happy with the results and also learned a lot about what to do different next time. (big thanks to Crowsfoot for his input). I think I do get across the "edge of an overgrown temple" idea I had in my head. Little touch ups still to do, but its like 90% of the way there.

 

Aquarium plants are all fine and good, but please paint them. Without paint they literally look like aquarium plants stuck on bases... You're trying to create the illusion of something large made small and this really breaks that.

Other than that I think the base is looking pretty good, your idea definitely comes across I think.