Sorastro's Painting

By Sorastro, in Runewars Miniatures Game

13 minutes ago, Sorastro said:

Sure thing! My first priority is to complete the next video (Carrion Lancer) but after that I'll make time to prepare a brief colour guide for the regular troops. :)

I'm waiting that video.

Some post ago someone talk about decals, I don't know if you have any video about placing them. If possible I beg you to make any kind of RWM miniature with decals. Maybe command group (banner) is a really good option for this (I don't know the release date for those miniatures).

On 3/29/2017 at 3:18 PM, drkpnthr said:

For my Daqan loan-to-friends force I'm planning to paint them using the colors and styles of the Boros Guild from MTG's Ravnica cycles: Lots of scarlet on white and ivory, with yellow-gold trim and polished steel plates. Does anyone have a good method for a 'polished steel' look? I don't want it to be silver, and I don't want it to be overwhelmingly dark, and I'd like to use some kind of a wash technique to emphasize the articulation of the plates without compromising the shine of the metal greatly. Video reference would be great!

For my Waiqar main army, I'm planning to paint them to look like praetorian guards that were lying in a bog for a few weeks before a fragment of a cursed spirit was ham-fisted into their swollen corpses: lots of dirty ivory-over-purple bones, with patchy light-grey-over-pale-blue cloaks over moldy green-over-grey clothes, and rusty-black-iron metal for the armor. I'm going for a faded cryx sort of colors to match the snowy ice marsh I'm going to do with their bases.

You're a braver man than me. I don't think I could possibly attempt to paint white again after the Stromtroopers being one of the very first things I had to paint, painting white is hard, as is black. In fact I might have to refer to Sorastros Vader video to paint my Daqan armour black unless that's the same colours he uses for Waiqar so I can copy it from there.

Hi Sorastro and thank you for this and all the other videos you have made. I am a scholar of your work and your videos are the prime inspiration that made me start painting miniatures. Your videos remain the easiest to follow with epic results.

I am still waiting for the release of the game but until then I have a few ideas. Because of how royalty works, the revered barons should have sub-landlords, baronets. A baron could have a number of them under him. If they are powerful enough or have great renown, they could muster a unique unit. This would make all the different color schemes work with the lore :D. Still cracking my head on my own color scheme, though.

Amazing work Sorastro, and your video is such good quality as well.

One suggestion: I use Army Painter primer and colored spray exclusively. The chalky result is not normal. This is a result of you spraying in short bursts rather than holding down for designated amount of time.

I recommend if just applying to certain areas to spray side to side or up and down, but keep finger on the button.

I think viewers of the video will find Army Painter spray to be an excellent choice if applied in this manner instead. In addition, I recommend shaking those cans for a full two minutes. Drives my neighbors crazy :-)

Thanks for the excellent work, I am going to follow your lead on the Rune Golem first thing.

Cheers from California.

5 minutes ago, Shrapnelsmile said:

Amazing work Sorastro, and your video is such good quality as well.

One suggestion: I use Army Painter primer and colored spray exclusively. The chalky result is not normal. This is a result of you spraying in short bursts rather than holding down for designated amount of time.

I recommend if just applying to certain areas to spray side to side or up and down, but keep finger on the button.

I think viewers of the video will find Army Painter spray to be an excellent choice if applied in this manner instead. In addition, I recommend shaking those cans for a full two minutes. Drives my neighbors crazy :-)

Thanks for the excellent work, I am going to follow your lead on the Rune Golem first thing.

Cheers from California.

Thanks for the tips Shrapnelsmile!

As you can probably tell I haven't looked back since switching to priming with an airbrush so I'm a little rusty in the usage of spray can primers (although I did at least remember to shake for two minutes!). The point of my including them at all was simply to show that you can get an effective zenithal prime without an airbrush (even if done badly!) :)

Are airbrushes inexpensive and are they a worthwhile investment for this game? Do you only use them for priming/lightsource?

Edited by Muz333

I'm unsure whether I'll dive into Runewars -- I only have so much time to spend on gaming, unfortunately -- but would you recommend following similar assembly steps for the smaller troops? Dry fit -> prime -> paint pieces separately -> final glue together?

21 hours ago, Muz333 said:

Are airbrushes inexpensive and are they a worthwhile investment for this game? Do you only use them for priming/lightsource?

It really depends what your 'value of time' is. You can get a reasonable airbrush kit (with compressor) for 75 USD. That will save you hours from your painting if used properly, many hours over the months if you intend on having a full faction. For me that's a no brainer, I have a good job but little painting time so the investment is worthwhile. On top of it I play several miniature games so my airbrush has cost me a lot less than I value my spare time at.

On the other hand, don't buy one just for a core box unless you are quite rich, and if you have a lot of free time to paint then it may not be a good investment at all

21 hours ago, Muz333 said:

Are airbrushes inexpensive and are they a worthwhile investment for this game? Do you only use them for priming/lightsource?

Hi Muzz!

As Corto points out you don't have to spend a fortune for something that will handle basic tasks like priming well. I would add that in the long run they are a lot more economical than using spray can primers (depending on how much painting you do over the years of course) as they use so much less paint. I currently only use mine for priming and zenithal highlights, although I got a fairly high-end airbrush so that I can explore more advanced techniques with it in the future should I wish. :)

32 minutes ago, Leveton said:

I'm unsure whether I'll dive into Runewars -- I only have so much time to spend on gaming, unfortunately -- but would you recommend following similar assembly steps for the smaller troops? Dry fit -> prime -> paint pieces separately -> final glue together?

Hi Leveton!

I glued all my little fellas together before priming, except the cavalry. :)

One thing I've been considering for my rune golems is trying something crazy like the pic below, but color shift to neon blue with a dark fieldstone look. The idea would be to primer, then paint a base color of like a darkened neon blue, step towards black on the major surfaces, then step towards grey-brown for the texture and then lighter tan for highlights. Last go back and step towards neon blue in some of the key places like runes, face, and joints to emphasize power and energy places. However, I've never tried using the light basing and stepping towards dark on such a large scale, just in minor spell effects and such. What do you guys think?

GGGG+1.jpg

Edit: The more I watch Sorastro's video, the more the darkened paint to emphasize the runes along grows on me, but I also like the 'thrumming with power' idea of rune golems for my army theme... hmm...

Edited by drkpnthr
4 minutes ago, Sorastro said:

Hi Leveton!

I glued all my little fellas together before priming, except the cavalry. :)

Were there many (any?) times when you thought it would have been worth doing them separately to make it easier to get to some of the tricky spots? I'm thinking about behind the spearmen's big shields, Kari's back beneath the cloak, and Ardus where his arm is tight in against his chest.

Just now, Leveton said:

Were there many (any?) times when you thought it would have been worth doing them separately to make it easier to get to some of the tricky spots? I'm thinking about behind the spearmen's big shields, Kari's back beneath the cloak, and Ardus where his arm is tight in against his chest.

I didn't find the shields on the spearmen problematic, and actually now you mention it, I haven't painted Kari or Ardus yet and I may well paint them in sections. :)

5 minutes ago, Sorastro said:

I didn't find the shields on the spearmen problematic, and actually now you mention it, I haven't painted Kari or Ardus yet and I may well paint them in sections. :)

OK, thanks for clearing that up for me. I like that the models are that sort-of snap fit, and appear to be a good tight fit at that. I think that makes painting in sections much more viable, because you don't have to worry so much about filling gaps with green stuff. (I had to green stuff my IA bantha head on before painting because it wasn't such a great fit, and now there are some areas that are a lot harder to get a brush to.)

Hello!

I've just completed the next episode in the Runewars mini painting series; I hope you like it!

Here's a few more shots (just missing the heroes as I've yet to paint them). I'm going to be away in America for the next week but will share the colours I've used for the rest of the units when I get back.

33796126016_f4001f2e53_b.jpg

33681167432_660ed7af9b_b.jpg

33023595813_ff206da979_b.jpg

25 minutes ago, Sorastro said:

Hello!

I've just completed the next episode in the Runewars mini painting series; I hope you like it!

Here's a few more shots (just missing the heroes as I've yet to paint them). I'm going to be away in America for the next week but will share the colours I've used for the rest of the units when I get back.

33796126016_f4001f2e53_b.jpg

33681167432_660ed7af9b_b.jpg

33023595813_ff206da979_b.jpg

Those look amazing. Very similar in color scheme I was thinking of.

@Sorastro Bravo, I immediately link it on my blog so that everyone can see their work, he plans to also put the equivalence table of the paintings as in the previous video.

@Sorastro so instead of gold/bronze armor, I was thinking of trying to make it look very rusty. In the FFG preview articles they seem to have painted their Waiqar armor a metallic silver and then added a rust wash. Any tips on getting a darker, rustier tone for the whole armor? Is that even viable? I'm completely new to painting. Most rust tutorials on YouTube seem to be aimed at terrain and other larger pieces.

Very very nice Sorastro. This will help for sure when we get our own Minis home and need inspiration. Now I just need a quick color guide for the Spearmen! :D

@Sorastro When you applied that greenish shade to the underbelly of the Carrion Lancer, I was in awe. That color looked perfect! It's a shame you covered it up with the highlights, but we all have our different tastes. I had never thought about applying a colored shade before, so it definitely gave me something to ponder.

This all looks awesome!

1 hour ago, rowdyoctopus said:

@Sorastro so instead of gold/bronze armor, I was thinking of trying to make it look very rusty. In the FFG preview articles they seem to have painted their Waiqar armor a metallic silver and then added a rust wash. Any tips on getting a darker, rustier tone for the whole armor? Is that even viable? I'm completely new to painting. Most rust tutorials on YouTube seem to be aimed at terrain and other larger pieces.

Two things you could look at, Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust from the Citadel paint range, both are great for achieving the look you are after. Little tip though with this stuff, less is more. Sorastro is incredible at knowing exactly how much detail to use, for those of us who are newbs its better to start with half as much as we think we need and work our way up. I always stop before I think it is completely done because I find that by the time I get to 'completely done' I've gone over board. :)

Here is an example of Sorastro using them on the AT-ST from Star Wars Imperial Assault, spoilered for size:

Edited by FrogTrigger
2 hours ago, rowdyoctopus said:

Those look amazing. Very similar in color scheme I was thinking of.

I was going to do black and gold for Daqan. Perhaps I'll steal that off blue colour instead, as it sounds easier than painting black. :P

Beautiful work again, Sorastro.

I make a motion that FFG make Sorastro's color schemes canonical options for the factions. Do I hear a second?

2nd

2 hours ago, rowdyoctopus said:

@Sorastro so instead of gold/bronze armor, I was thinking of trying to make it look very rusty. In the FFG preview articles they seem to have painted their Waiqar armor a metallic silver and then added a rust wash. Any tips on getting a darker, rustier tone for the whole armor? Is that even viable? I'm completely new to painting. Most rust tutorials on YouTube seem to be aimed at terrain and other larger pieces.

Hi! FrogTrigger is right about the Typhus Corrosion/Ryza Rust combo; the orange is pretty intense though so use with caution! You can always just use any reddish brown pretty well thinned down - such as Skrag Brown for example - and brush it into the areas you want to "rust up". You can then add additional layers to build up the intensity as you like. :)

51 minutes ago, Muz333 said:

I was going to do black and gold for Daqan. Perhaps I'll steal that off blue colour instead, as it sounds easier than painting black. :P

It is pretty easy to do; I found that by wet blending a simple gradient on the shield (light at the top) and on the capes (light at the bottom - where I also added some muddy weathering) then throwing the shade on, I didn't have much - if any - highlighting to do. On a side note - I didn't want to go with traditionally "evil" colours because In my head I liked the idea that these were once royal soldiers with their bright gold and dark blue livery, now weathered with time.

35 minutes ago, Leveton said:

Beautiful work again, Sorastro.

I make a motion that FFG make Sorastro's color schemes canonical options for the factions. Do I hear a second?

Ha ha! That would be just too awesome :)