Blog Road to Golden Demon 2019

[Crowsfoot]

Three weeks or so I think. I remember the cape scales definately took three days, too long for me to want to start over.

Right this is what I need to know, how many coats of paint does it take to do the inside of the cloak and how thin are the layers?

I've asked WD, I've asked at Forgeworld and no one would say anything, just a general indication would help.

 

[ravagekitteh]

While I'm waiting for glue to dry, here's one of my other entries.

View attachment 54158

This one is for the 'Eavy Metal masters catergory. The idea is every contestant has to do the same model and it can't be altered in any way. There seems to be a grey area concerning the blank parts of the base, the rules state that you can add grass or even the odd skull but no sculpting. This may be a problem for me because the water texture on my base is green stuff, however, looking at last years winners I see some flagstones and cobbles that look sculpted on. My plan is to chat with the judges before I submit it to see if it's disqualified, the event takes place over a weekend and I can do a hasty rebase at the hotel if I need to.
I'm not a fan of the Idoneth Deepkin army, but I respect it. I do quite like this model though, mainly because of the face. There seems to be only two facial expressions in GW models (warcry and grim serious face), and this one deviates from it. I tried to exaggerate it further by painting a teardrop.
This isn't the first time I've painted the reflection of water, which I've come to learn is called a 'caustic reflection'. I decided it would be a good way to make the inside of the cape more interesting, but ended up making most of the model underlit with it. I haven't seen anyone else use this effect before, but I'm sure someone has done it.
The back of the cape was intended to be more of a rounded fish scale texture but I had to scale it down (no pun intended, really) to fit the creases without looking wrong. I'm not really happy with how the iridescent effect turned out either, it looks way different to how I pictured it to be. If I painted this model again in the same way it would look much better.
I used a lot of purple, mostly in the shadows, to give it a magical feel.

That is absolutely stunning! The teardrop is amazing and I love the reflection of the water!

 

[neveroddoreven]

Right this is what I need to know, how many coats of paint does it take to do the inside of the cloak and how thin are the layers?

Buckle in this might take a while.
The inside of the cape took me longer than the outside. Capes, robes, banners, large smooth areas of rippling cloth, they're the hardest thing to paint for me. you can't just throw a wash on them and have that do most of the work, it just collects at the bottom. It's all about blended layers.
Blending. The final boss of painting (with fast drying acrylic hobby paint at least). When I got back into the hobby in 2011 I knew this was the one thing I wanted to figure out, the dragon I couldn't slay before. I came up with a cheaty kind of method which I've shared in that painting tutorial I did that involves using Lahmian Medium to thin layers down and soften edges. It's a bit imprecise, and messy to use on capes and never worked for me.
I got an issue of White Dwarf recently (January 2019 I think), and it has an article where the great Darren Latham showcases some display pieces and mentions he only uses water and thin layers. So I tried that on the inside of the cape. And I made just the worst splotchy mess. So I tried again and made it even worse. So I gave up and tried to fix it with my medium method and made it worse. I somehow got most of it smooth after a few days, then came up with the idea of painting the caustic reflection pattern to hide the crimes. I've never been frustrated with painting before, never actually angry, it was unpleasant. All the pros do their blending with just water and thin paint and I just couldn't do it.
Things clicked into place when I was painting the statue on the base. I failed again and had an epithany. I went to drybrush a layer over the basecoat, but didn't realise my brush was a little damp. The result was a really smooth blend that looked like it was airbrushed, then it hit me - it wasn't about how thin the paint was, but how the brush was loaded. Having less paint on the brush was the key. This has worked so well for me I've ditched the cheaty medium method altogether. I'm going to show some pics of a new Skink Priest next where I didn't use any medium at all and it looks just as good if not better than my last.
As for how thin the paint is? I don't know, that's a hard thing to explain. We've all heard tutors say "like milk", but what does that really mean? Maybe it depends on the paint, some colours are more transparent than others. You just have to get a feel for it, and it took me to the point of anger and frustration to realise myself.
I'm not sure if that ramble helps, I'll try to clarify if it doesn't.

 

[Deed525]

That model is a beauty ! So good.
Also thanks for the tips great work.

 

[Warden]

Getting there.

View attachment 54084
I've been making my own leaf-litter basing material. I like the way it looks, so here's a bonus tutorial!

View attachment 54085
I took a page of blank paper from a pocket notebook (I'm sure any paper would do), crumpled and unfolded it a few times then soaked it in water. I then mixed up some browns, greens and yellows using inks (maybe normal hobby paint would work just as fine here) and painted the sheet in a random manner and left it to dry. I crumpled and unfolded it again for good measure and set about cutting out leaf shapes in various sizes. Soaking the paper through ensures that no white edge remains when you make the cut. This is way more time consuming than it sounds, but you can't argue with the result.
To help speed things along I picked up a hole punch from a hobby shop clearence bin. It's for making christmas cards or something, holly shaped. Cost me 30p. I know you can probably get little leaf shaped ones, but I can't seem to find any small enough. I'm thinking about using actual ground up dead leaves as well, that's an easy thing to experiment with.

Beautiful base!

 

[Aginor]

Lovely.

 

[neveroddoreven]

Base is done. Just need to varnish to take away the PVA shine.

 

[Warden]

Base is done. Just need to varnish to take away the PVA shine.

View attachment 54234

Amazing!!!

 

[Pompusky]

Absolutely astonishing!!

 

[Crowsfoot]

Buckle in this might take a while.
The inside of the cape took me longer than the outside. Capes, robes, banners, large smooth areas of rippling cloth, they're the hardest thing to paint for me. you can't just throw a wash on them and have that do most of the work, it just collects at the bottom. It's all about blended layers.
Blending. The final boss of painting (with fast drying acrylic hobby paint at least). When I got back into the hobby in 2011 I knew this was the one thing I wanted to figure out, the dragon I couldn't slay before. I came up with a cheaty kind of method which I've shared in that painting tutorial I did that involves using Lahmian Medium to thin layers down and soften edges. It's a bit imprecise, and messy to use on capes and never worked for me.
I got an issue of White Dwarf recently (January 2019 I think), and it has an article where the great Darren Latham showcases some display pieces and mentions he only uses water and thin layers. So I tried that on the inside of the cape. And I made just the worst splotchy mess. So I tried again and made it even worse. So I gave up and tried to fix it with my medium method and made it worse. I somehow got most of it smooth after a few days, then came up with the idea of painting the caustic reflection pattern to hide the crimes. I've never been frustrated with painting before, never actually angry, it was unpleasant. All the pros do their blending with just water and thin paint and I just couldn't do it.
Things clicked into place when I was painting the statue on the base. I failed again and had an epithany. I went to drybrush a layer over the basecoat, but didn't realise my brush was a little damp. The result was a really smooth blend that looked like it was airbrushed, then it hit me - it wasn't about how thin the paint was, but how the brush was loaded. Having less paint on the brush was the key. This has worked so well for me I've ditched the cheaty medium method altogether. I'm going to show some pics of a new Skink Priest next where I didn't use any medium at all and it looks just as good if not better than my last.
As for how thin the paint is? I don't know, that's a hard thing to explain. We've all heard tutors say "like milk", but what does that really mean? Maybe it depends on the paint, some colours are more transparent than others. You just have to get a feel for it, and it took me to the point of anger and frustration to realise myself.
I'm not sure if that ramble helps, I'll try to clarify if it doesn't.

It helps alot, I though it would be different for every paint you use but I think the key bit is how loaded your brush is and having a damp brush.

 

[neveroddoreven]

Skink no.3.



Really like the how the shield turned out.

Skink Priest.


Mostly just the same as my last one. When I bought it from my local GW, they said "really? Another one?" to which I replied "it's only my sixth".
I like the staff. It looks great when you trim the spikes and skull off and slim down the silhouette. One day I may paint one of these without converting it. Did I mention before this is my all-time favourite model?
This is better than the last one I did in a lot of subtle ways, the fidelity of the freehand scales is a lot smaller for one thing. I might make a comparison pic if I get a chance.

The last Skink is half done. I've decided to take a day off, because I seem to be struggling a bit with it.

 

[Imrahil]

just jaw-dropping stunning!!!

really great work

Gr, Imrahil

 

[Killer Angel]

now, where did my jaw dropped…?


Amazing. You really deserve a prize.

 

[Crowsfoot]

Skink no.3.

View attachment 54409

Really like the how the shield turned out.

Skink Priest.

View attachment 54410
Mostly just the same as my last one. When I bought it from my local GW, they said "really? Another one?" to which I replied "it's only my sixth".
I like the staff. It looks great when you trim the spikes and skull off and slim down the silhouette. One day I may paint one of these without converting it. Did I mention before this is my all-time favourite model?
This is better than the last one I did in a lot of subtle ways, the fidelity of the freehand scales is a lot smaller for one thing. I might make a comparison pic if I get a chance.

The last Skink is half done. I've decided to take a day off, because I seem to be struggling a bit with it.

You need to do a tutorial on those feathers, they are amazing

 

[neveroddoreven]

You need to do a tutorial on those feathers, they are amazing

The pheasant-like ones? Rakarth Flesh basecoat, glazey washes of Terracotta (Doombull Brown) at base, Yellow Olive (Loren Forest) at top.
Pattern was firstly broad stripes of off-white, then a mix of black and a dark brown as thinner stripes inside them. The same black/brown mix was then glazed on the tips. Finally texture was added with a bonewhite.
On the subject of feathers, the colourful one on the head is a good example of getting the hang of blending like I mentioned earlier. There's no mixed colours on it, just straight out the bottle. Basecoated yellow, terracotta at the base, green, then a dark blue at the top. Texture with bonewhite. Same method as the others just different colours.

My third entry is Age of Sigmar Single Model, with my old favourite. I gave him a new plinth.


They may look like fancy wooden plinths, but they're really just the plastic lids from a jar of cooking sauce. I roughen the surface with sandpaper, then to give them a bit of weight I fill them with scrap wood and filler. Like I said in my first post, I have no budget!

 

[Cerind]

Wow, just wow!
You seriously make me regret not go down to Warhammer Fest next week.. A friend will be there, I'll make sure he takes a zillion pics of these beauties!
Well played for the plinth

 

[BeardyGecko]

That Tidecaster is astounding, I love the water reflection inside the cloak.

 

[Warden]

Such a beautiful base!

 

[neveroddoreven]

Finished! And a week before the deadline too. Little late getting these pics up, I decided to spend this week, for the first time since I re-entered the hobby back in 2010, doing nothing and taking a nice, lazy week off.

Skink no.4.


Back when the Bastiladon kit came out I had the idea that some of the crew Skink's leg positions would make for a cool leaping or running pose. I gave him an empty hand initially to save time, so I wouldn't have to paint a shield, or another weapon. Finding an empty hand was difficult, I could fashion an empty fist easily from any weapon hand part, but that would look weird. In the end I sculpted four of them before I made one that was passable. So much for saving time.

Lastly some iffy quality shots of the whole thing. I don't really have experience taking non-close-up pictures.

 

[Acrocanth]

That shortened great weapon makes one mean looking club