Blog Elite Guard of Texustria (painting stuff)

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

Sorry, but no pics of the hydra tonight. The spray primer I used never truly dried and the paint and primer rubs right off with my fingers, so I'm going to have to strip it and start over.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

I got a can of Army Painter primer and it dried very nicely, so I've made a little progress on the hydra. I'll grab some pics in a bit.

On a slightly different note, I got a couple of Lizard Ogres from Chapter House Studios. Our very own T'hinker'er sculpted these and they are great! I ordered two, but one arrived with an interesting "feature". I'll let the picture do the talking so I don't cloud anyone's perceptions:



I have contacted Chapter House to see what they make of it. I expect they will make it right.


EDIT: within minutes of sending the initial contact (and just as I was finishing up this initial post), I received an email from CHS requesting the pictures that I offered to send as part of my initial contact message. I've very pleased with their timely response.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

That looks like you can clean it up by scraping the excess resin with the side of a hobby knife. If you end up having to scrape too much off, try a thin coat of greenstuff and just trace the lines with a putty spatula, or a soft tipped "clay shaper" if you have one. If it's really a problem that you can't fix, contact CHS and they will replace it.

EDIT: I see that by the time I finished writing this reply you already got a favorable reply from CHS! Nice

Looking forward to seeing what you can do with it once you get to painting!

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

I bought two, so I can still start on the other. I may start on it tonight actually. Unless I get distracted by the hydra again....

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

I have about 0 sculpting skill and sculpting tools at this point. I've never used green stuff or any kind of putty either. Just painting is a big step for me. I'm an IT type, so artistry is low on my list of aptitudes.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

Due to unforeseen circumstances (the game I scheduled for last night actually happened!) I haven't done any painting on my LO (I did get a rough base coat on the hydra though). I did get the priming done this morning though. If my kids will let me, I'll get some painting done on it today. Wish me luck!

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

The Old Ones (and Young Ones in my house) have cooperated a bit this morning and I manage to get a base coat on the LizOgre:







Just a base coat of Baby Blue and and Tangerine. The blue will be followed with a wash of Bright Blue (very similar shade to what GW uses for their HE on their store). The Tangerine will get a coat of a darker Orange as well. I'm not sure what color I will use to wash the scales with though. I do intend to make the big scale armor down the back be darker than the little scales on the sides and shoulders. I'll probably go warmer for the big plates, but I'm far from decided.

I also snapped a few pics of the Hydra. It is getting the same scheme as the LizOgre, so you can get an idea of how the blue will look (I haven't done anything with the orange. It is the same Tangerine shade as the LizOgre).

The lighting at my desk is atrocious (according to my wife) so this flash-less pic is pretty bad.


These flash pics really lighten the blue.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

Worked on the LizOgre some more today. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the colors on his back. I'm liking the current pattern, but I almost feel like I need to add a higher contrast color to the "valleys" in the scales. What do you think?

I kept the flash off on these, so the colors are much more "true" than the last set.









I'm also looking for feedback on the side scales. I was going to make them orange like the stripes on his head and back, but I'm having second thoughts. I just don't know what (if anything) would work better there.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

In the not nearly enough quoted words of Iñigo Montoya, "I hate wait." I finished the Krox... er, Lizard Ogre tonight (with my 2 yr old constantly "encouraging" me with "questions" like "put his arms on Daddy! Put his arms on!" "Are you going to put his arms on?" "PUT HIS ARMS ON!" He was a little anxious to play with his favorite Lizardman model. So anxious in fact that I had to take the first few pictures of the LizOgre while he was holding it. Eventually I managed to get it back and was able to take these pictures:







EDIT: apparently I have a few spots to touch up (especially on the club), but overall I'm happy with it. Now I just need a few more.... Now that the painting is done for the day, it's time to climb into bed and read the army book until I fall asleep. I might actually make some progress on my read through!

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

Well, that turned out just great! I really like the bright orange on it's back, very striking. Adding the green to the base of the scales was an interesting choice, but I think it serves the model well. Are you going to do something to the eyes? I think they could use a touch of more outstanding colour as well.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

The green wasn't exactly what I was shooting for, but that was the result of the dark blue wash I gave the whole model before adding the darker orange coat to the scales. I'm very pleased with the orange with red highlights on the head and back of the model. It doesn't show in the pictures that much, but he has red stripes down the ridges on his back and along the edges of the face and nose.

As far as eyes go, I'd like for them to stand out a bit more, but eyes are one of my weak points. The more I work on them the worse they tend to turn out. Perhaps another coat of yellow and a new pupil would help, but I'm not really sure. Any suggestions?

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

You could do something simple like yellow eyes with a white lens and a black pupil, similar to:


or maybe something like these:

or

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

Reptile eyes are awesome, but I'm not nearly good enough to paint the latter two eye types. The first image is pretty close to what I was going for. Though I think I need to use a finer brush or toothpick (maybe a magnifying glass too ) to make the pupil in the future.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

I think yellow or green works best. With yellow you just need to be careful that it is either bright enough or toned-down enough (so more brownish) to clearly stand-out from the skin and scales. I have never really gotten the toothpick trick to work, but once got somewhat ok results with a sharp tipped drawing pen. Mostly I use a good, thin tipped brush and multiple tries, though.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

I may need to add another coat or two of yellow to the eyes. I did a coat of white then yellow, but more yellow may help a bit. I'm using a Primary yellow, so it has pretty good color. Really, I need to take better pictures (a light box may be in order). My kitchen lights with a piece of printer paper isn't the best setup for pictures, though it is better than the yellow light and light colored wood of my desk.

My current brush selection is pretty much trash. I really need to get some better brushes. I'm going to give the toothpicks a shot as I have a supply of them. Not sure on the drawing pen. My wife may have some though.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

The trick with the toothpick is to sharpen it nicely with your hoby knife,
and give it a few test on your palete or some scrap of paper.
I have done most of my eyes this way.

Ps. make sure your paint is thin enough to draw a fine line, but thick enough to not be transparent.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely give it a few test runs.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

Sweet job - he looks great in orange and blue! I agree, some work on the eyes would be an improvement. I don't know about that toothpick trick. I tend to use a fine 000 line brush. Give it a try and let us know how it turns out.

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

I got home from work early today, so I broke out the tooth picks. I also took the pictures outside (inspite of the heat) in the south Texas sun, so the colors should be much better than my previous pics. Now I just have to wait for the pics to upload....


Are we there yet?

 

Re: Elite Guard of Texustria (PLOG).

Upload complete (finally...)!









Bonus Pic:

I had some paint and wash left on my palette, so I grabbed the nearest reptile and went to town.



I've also started on a jungle swarm (snakes from the CoC kit) and made some quick progress. Then I had to step away from my desk and my two year (well, he'll be three in a couple weeks) old grabbed a brush and started painting too. He managed to paint half of a snake model black for me. Thankfully it wasn't the same model I had been painting earlier.