Xbanditsx WIP projects

**xbanditsx** · October 6th, 2008 14:54

These are the first half of squad 1. The three in front are painted to the standard and scheme that the whole army will be done to, and the two in the back are the first two testers that I did (that's why they're in the back).

I'm going to assemble the next 5 bolter marines tonight while watching the Red Sox beat up the Angels and start painting them later this week.

Thanks for looking!

**kwike** · October 6th, 2008 20:42

I loved your wood elves, can't wait to see more of your work (even though I don't like crimson fists D: ) I am normally not a fan of people not using a different color trim on the borders of shoulder pads, but yours strangely doesn't bother me...so you must be doing something right

**spoonanay** · October 6th, 2008 21:05

5 already... I'm going to have to get cracking to get caught up... I'm excited to see how these guys are going to turn out.

**xbanditsx** · October 6th, 2008 21:17

@ spoon - To be fair, the back two were done before you left, so it's only like you're three behind. Either way you should be painting those Blood Angels.

@ kwike - Painting the trim on shoulder pads has always been something I'm terrible at so I was real happy when I found out Crimson Fists leave them blue. I'm glad you liked the elves!

**xbanditsx** · October 12th, 2008 20:02

Despite my best efforts, minus_t's Ironclad and Sword Knights distracted me. This is the result:

I've had a bunch of Warmachine models sitting on my shelf for a long time, but I managed to be disciplined while getting through my Wood Elves and didn't touch them. Apparently that's all over with. The metals are done and I'm hoping to get some of the red armour plating done tonight. I'm thinking of entering TopII with 500 points of Khador in addition to the 1000 points of Crimson Fists.

Speaking of the Crimson Fists, I haven't forgotten them. These are the next 5 bolter marines I've got lined up. I tried to make them a little more dynamic than the first bunch - some of them were successes.

I hope to have the Juggernaut done in a few days and then get cracking on these marines.

**xbanditsx** · October 14th, 2008 05:41

After a few focused hours of painting I think this guy is done.

My camera has been misbehaving lately so I apoligize for the poor pictures. This guy taught me two important lessons: painting red is really hard, and I have no idea how to highlight huge curved surfaces.

I'd love any suggestions that anyone has about highlighting things like the armour plates on this model. I sort of made it up as I went along - they don't look horrible but I know they can be better. I know the photos don't really show any highlights at all but I promise they're there.

**xbanditsx** · October 15th, 2008 14:53

I have some better photos to accompany the final update on my Juggernaut. I was pretty disappointed in the red being so flat so I went and did some more highlighting and tried to shade. I don't think I accomplished much in the way of improvements and I was just getting frustrated so I stopped playing with the red and decided that the best way to make it look better was to distract people from looking at it by adding battle damage!

I think that this side of him (axe side) turned out a lot better than the other side (fist side). The long areas of damage were supposed to be big gouges and scratches from fighting but I think I made them too thick.

I'm calling this guy done even though I'm not happy with how he turned out. I think I learned a lot painting this model and I hope that his Destroyer counterpart will turn out better.

**minus_t** · October 15th, 2008 23:24

Nice to see some more PP!
Even if it is for the agressive motherland, oppressor of Laell...

I've got a few suggestions, if you're interested?
For highlighting the big, flat surfaces there are two things to take into account.
Firstly, in miniature form, you need to concentrate on the edges a little more than is strictly realistic. A bright edge can really make a colour pop. This really isn't easy with red, though, as you need to work with oranges, and I often find this can look a little odd...

Secondly, the light should be hitting a specific section of the plate 'most'.
What I mean by this is: Look at the pics you posted. The red is much brighter on top of each plate. This is because the light is coming from above. When you're painting your jacks, decide on a light direction, and highlight from this point.
The best way to do this is by layering up from a darker basecoat, quickly shaded with a wash. Then work your highlights up by mixing brighter colours into your base, working towards the brightest point.

For Khador red, I'd suggest (using GW paints as a guide):
Basecoat Mechrite Red
Wash 50/50 Devlan Mud/Baal Red
Block in Mechrite Red (ie: cover about 80% of the surface, concentrated on the light areas)
Highlight by mixing in Blood Red, up to pure Blood Red at the zenith (ie: brightest point).
Add a few edge highlights by adding a little orange (or yellow, or Bleached Bone) to Blood Red.

As far as battle damage goes, what you've got is a good start, but looks far too 'artificial' to me.
I do it by:
Painting thin lines of thinned down black over the base coat.
Paint even thinned lines of Boltgun Metal inside the black.
Finally, add a highlight to the bottom of the scratch, by painting a very thin line underneath the boltgun in a brighter version of the surrounding colour (in your case a bright red).
You don't really want to be able to see the black between the boltgun, and the bottom highlight, as this is where the light is catching the scratch in the surface, and tricking the eye into thinking it's a real, 3d scratch into the model, not just paint sitting on top of it.

Hopefully some of that was useful...
Keep up the painterly work, and good luck for the ToP!

-t.

**xbanditsx** · October 16th, 2008 00:29

Firstly, thanks for all the suggestions. I pretty much make everything up as I go along so it's always good to hear from someone who knows what's going on.

Secondly, I have some questions about things that you said.

You don't really want to be able to see the black between the boltgun, and the bottom highlight, as this is where the light is catching the scratch in the surface, and tricking the eye into thinking it's a real, 3d scratch into the model, not just paint sitting on top of it.

Is there supposed to be black showing at the top of the scratch?

My second question has a picture that I drew to help me explain what I mean. The colors represent different layers, not actual color choices.

Lets assume that these are both the left shoulder pad surface of my jack'. The drawing on the left is how I think light would fall on it from above (your second consideration of highlighting). The highlight is concentrated at the apex of the curve and flows out and down. The drawing on the right is how I would edge highlight something so large (your first consideration of highlighting).

Should I be combining these two into one? Should one take precedence over the other, or be more prominent?

Thanks for taking the time to write up as much as you did, it was really helpful.

**minus_t** · October 16th, 2008 01:02

No worries, s'all good.

The battle damage should end up something like...:

Code:

––––––––
  BLACK
––––––––
 SILVER
––––––––
    RED
––––––––

Basically, what you are representing is light falling into the scratch, and being bounced out.
Light can't fall right at the top of the scratch, as the edge of the original suface itself is stopping it, so it appears to be in shadow (which we over-compensate to black).
Light hitting the middle of the scratch bounces out, showing us the material underneath, in this case metal.
Light hitting the bottom of the scratch will be coming from many different angles, and reflected straight back into your eye (as you have a 'point' on the edge of the line that will catch more angles of light, as it were). This is thus brighter than the surrounding material.

The black, silver, red basically tricks the eye into thinking there is a real scratch, when there isn't.
Sneaky, huh?

As far as the surfaces go, you're bang on.
I would normally mainly use the left image, but spread the 'orange' layers out further than you have there.
Use the right image to show you where the edges are brightest, and incorporate it into your layering, so that you end up with a mix of the two images, but have an end result closer to the image on the left.

Good use of images by the way, makes everything a lot clearer...

-t.

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