Blog Aginor's Painting Blog

And here's my Slann, Lord Tlaltecuhtli.

He has been finished for months, but I did the base just a few days ago. I still don't consider the base completely finished, I might add one or two more bits to it.

Remarks:
- the purple flowers are some seed capsules I found in my garden. I used one of the same kind on my Troglodon's base, but for the Slann I painted them.
- I am quite unhappy with the distortion of some parts, the resin was a bit bad here. That's also the reason why I didn't add more details on the palanquin, it just didn't work as many of the fine details were blurred.
- the Slann's paint scheme was inspired by this one, but I did a few things differently.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics16/img572e1663285a8.jpg'
I chose a few different lines to follow and the yellow spots between the bright and the green parts are more blurry.
- when the Slann was complete I used gloss varnish to make it look wet, like a frog's skin.
- this is the first of my models that actually has pupils. I just had to try because they add a real facial expression. They are not fully symmetrical but almost.
- GW should really do a plastic Slann. That would look SO much better.

 

Some WIP pics of my Tzaangors.
The skin is a bit too dark, and the armor not bright enough but meh. Ok I guess. Originally I wanted to make the contrast a bit higher but I messed up the highlighting.

The second picture shows some of the gold parts. Those took me ages to paint.

 

If you highlight the skin with a light grey then glaze with a blue it will lighten and brighten, glaze the armour with blue again this will brighten it, use thin coats and build up the colour depth.

Very nice though

 

Thanks guys!

 

Of course every Slann needs a bodyguard, right?
So I recently made this Eternity Warden.

Notes:
As with many of my models I might add a detail or two in the future but for now he is done.
The weapon was pretty badly distorted and almost impossible to glue on. Almost drove me insane. It was also below the ground level so I set the model on a bit of cork and of course a bit of my Fimo with texture.
I also added gras again, and a bit of some basing material resembling small leaves.
I am pretty happy about how he turned out, even with the eyes and teeth.

 

Thank you!

 

Finished my Tzaangors. In the end I was really fed up with them and just wanted to be done. That affected quality a bit, but I am still pretty happy with them. Definitely not making more of those in the foreseeable future though. So many small details.

 

Yeah the problem was that I made the skin too dark So it is too similar to the blue of the armor. But I figured I'd probably make it worse if so tried to drybrush them now, and washing the armor again I would risk tinting the gold parts which I want to avoid as well.

 

You could glaze them?

 

I think so. I might try that on one part that is not too visible to see how it turns out.

 

Finished my Kairic Acolytes last night.
Those were considerably easier and quicker to paint than the Tzaangors.
I am quite happy with them, although of course like on every other model I can see a few things that I might be able to do better.

I didn't risk painting the eyes yet since I like the faces ok the way they are. Perhaps I will try it though. Glowing blue would look rather cool IMO. We'll see.

The armor pieces they wear were painted to look like the one from the Tzaangors. IMO those acolytes look like they are trying to resemble Tzaangors anyway (with the beaks and bird skulls and the way their equipment is shaped) so I thought that would fit.

I have learned a bit about highlighting although it didn't go as well as planned, but I noticed I really have to make a small change in the way I work, especially the mindset: I got sloppy again, towards the end when I was close to being finished, my thoughts were on the next project already and I painted too fast, thus messing up a few small details.
My other gripe is the mould lines. I thought I had removed them all and I didn't see them anymore on the primed model. But as soon as I had applied the skin's shade I noticed some that I had forgotten. Of course it was a bit too late to correct them at that point. I have to be more careful next time.

Ok, here are some pictures:

 

I agree with @Jorgik

I've quickly taken one of your pictures and shown where I would highlight the skin, I would not blend it just apply it with a decent size 1 brush and I would go extreme maybe Flayed one Flesh and leave it at that.
Your not after a display model so applying fast sharp extreme highlight work also I think the bases need darker shading between the tiles they are a bit monotone atm.

Excellent work but you now need to push to the next level.

 

Thanks for your comments, guys!

About the shading: Actually I shaded the metal (not the silver though), but I was very careful in order to not darken it too much. I might have been too careful.
For the silver I might use a sepia tone and then a brighter silver to drybrush the edges back up to a lighter tone.

As for the highlighting: I tried drybrushing the skin of one of the acolytes with two different highlight colors:
the first was the original skin tone (GW's Kislev flesh) which was barely visible. So the second was a light color (almost white, an Army Painter color called "Brainmatter Beige") which looked better, but it ended up looking a bit too grainy, which is why I applied another thin layer of flesh shade (thinned down with 50% water so it doesn't become too dark) to that model to bring the colors back together. But that made it almost invisible again.
That's my main problem with the drybrush. If I do it very subtle you can barely see it. If I do it a bit less subtle the models look great from far away but really grainy from up close.
It is weird because I normally like drybrushing, but something in the way I did it there made it look really bad. I don't know yet what causes that.
And regular (painted) edge highlights are out of question, since I know those look bad. I don't even like them on models by expert painters. They only look good from far away IMO.

I think I must get me some training models with muscles to test those techniques, maybe an Orruk or two, or an Ogre. I don't want to spoil those that I already kinda like.


Originally I wanted to follow this guide:
but two of the steps - in my and my wife's opinions at least - actually made the models look worse, and that was the skin highlighting and the reddish glaze for the feet, hands, and head (which I tried on one model).


As for the bases: I agree, I will probably give them another shade. Although I have to say that they look much darker in real life, in those pictures there's a very bright lamp right next to the camera. I wondered whether I should use my beloved sepia shade there as well, but I want to avoid making them look too "muddy" because they are meant to be inside the Silver Tower and not outside.

 

Work continues on the ST set.
Today: Chaos familiars!

Remarks:
Some of them look a bit goofy, but fully on purpose. I had LOADS of fun painting them and I was in such a good mood I even painted pupils on their eyes.
I took inspiration from some of the ones posted here in Lustria and elsewhere on the net and added one or two own ideas.

First ones are the fishy ones. I considered to make their pupils bigger and less centered but decided against it because I love their bewildered/shocked looks.

The walking books are my favourite ones. I couldn't quite make the pages look as good as some I've seen here, but better than I had expected. On the back I messed up some details but I am still happy how they turned out. Sorry for the finger on the picture. A beer too much I guess, because I totally didn't notice until now.



The bird guys. I don't like the sculpt very much and I messed up a few details here as well. But I like them anyway, after I shaded them. Here I just placed the pupils forward, which makes them look curious IMO.
They also have those little plastic sheets on their feet. I decided to make those sandals, which makes them look even more goofy.



The last ones are the moon guys. I dislike the sculpt. I did my best nonetheless and I think they look OK. Not much to them to make them interesting. Except the SCE head which makes me laugh.
One is yellow like most people paint it, and one is purple because of Zelda (Majoras Mask IIRC).