Yeah! Those turned out great man!! One of my favorits so far ??

Today I have another hero: The Widow Tarha. I'm trying to find a good angle to show the facial art, but, frankly, I can't. Oh well. I hope you enjoy.

Eld

The ogres look magnificent, and I love the sheen you got on the merriods.

Today I have Verminous, one of the Lieutenants. I did this whole model this weekend as I had a little free time (both kids sick so we were house-bound). I think he turned out pretty well. Enjoy.

Eld

Today I will share Reynhart the Worthy from the Lair of the Wyrm Expansion. I tried some different armor techniques on him. Oh, and I added a mustache, because I didn't like how his face looked without it.

I hope you enjoy.

Eld

What colour blue do you use for the edge of the miniature (heroes) base? ?

7 hours ago, TryFal said:

What colour blue do you use for the edge of the miniature (heroes) base? ?

P3 Cygnar Blue Base for the heroes. P3 Iosan Green for the Lieutenants. GW Evil Sunz Scarlet for the Master Monsters. Any Black for the Standard Monsters.

Your paints and sculpts remain epic. Not sure when I'll paint mine as I want to finish the campaign project first and it may give me some ideas for my sculpts/paints and inform how I want them to look so I'm working on that before I start but you've certainly fueled my itchiness to want to get painting them.

Some highlights and questions:

My number one question is how have people found the best way to magnify what you're working on- I've already identified some really tiny areas to paint on some of my minis collection and that my magnifying/lighting set up may not be up to it (lighting in my flat is abysmal and torch/magnifying options I have aren't very hands free, you need something that keeps your hands free for the painting/modelling work and lights/magnifies it in the most helpful way)- what have the rest of you found is the best set up for magnifying models to actually be able to see those tiny areas and to light it so as to overcome rubbish room lighting to work on it? Although it's probably still worth doing a test paint on some discard plastic to see the colour in normal lighting as that's where the piece will mostly be viewed.

How did you do the spider webbing on the cave spiders - it's so intricate and looks like a real spun web - it's always been my intent to use webbing with the spidery figures and I was even going to use a few spare figures for webbed prey but hadn't sussed a way to do realistic webbing (especially as it would be I suspect too thin to paint- if anyone has any tips or ideas I'd love to know). One thought was if any Halloween/horror decor or fake webbing is out there then this could just be added last. There's also the fake webbing they use to decorate venues/sets so there's probably something that would work, it's just what's most realistic (some of the venue decor stuff's a bit more cotton wool than spider web in appearance). It looks like you've actually sculpted it somehow on your model. I remember once using the glue itself with some paint mixed in before it set for a trail of acidic spittle from the mouth of an alien xenomorph figure as well as for the slime around the egg opening next to it, that might work but would be tricky for a whole web which is much thinner.

You mentioned hair- have you any tips you've mastered for hair, particularly again for spiders too as I want to try to accurately capture some of that tarantula hair feel with some of my spidery creatures (some spiders I think use them as a choking defense) - it would maybe need something glued on as the hairs actually protrude from the legs on tarantulas and similar spiders- any ideas? - but other times any tips for when you need to paint the hair for things like manes, fur, human hair etc.

Other trickier things I want to capture I'd like to hear people's ideas for are: smoke trails, mist/fog, tips for realistic fire/water as often in the past on models I no longer have my attempts at fire and water just looked like a blue or orange mess- both are among the hardest things to make realistic, magic casting trails (any cheats to make things look 'floaty'/in the air, a bit like the smoke trails, and to otherwise interpret different types of magic casting in the model, maybe we can come up with some clever ideas as air can of course be green stuff or similar cleverly painted to look like it's meant to be air plus any clever ideas we come up with for the spell casting!)

The letters on the goblin archer's quiver are fine I feel- even though you're not happy with them they look great on the pic and I'm sure at played distance too, a bit like computer graphics such elements are subtle and you don't always have to worry too much about how perfect they look close up as they're mostly not viewed that way, it's always a bonus if you can nail perfect close up but with the small size of the canvas this isn't easy unless you have superhero vision, masterful hand-eye-coordination (along with nerve of steel steady hands) and fine pinpoint painting skills- some of these fine details are super tiny! (I feel this may not be my strong point but it's still something to aim for and a good magnifying set up would make it more achievable).

A tip of mine- computers, modern lighting, pollution etc really dry your eyes out and often temporarily blur your vision a little so it can be worth using some eye drops or pure water eye bath for clarity- stops the dryness and irritants hampering your vision. Relax your eyes before doing this fine work and anytime they're getting a bit strained from it. If you're not beating the tired or dry eyes thing come back to it another time when your vision's fresher and more up to it. One tip to relax your eyes is cupping your hands over them with your eyes still open for a short while, seems to relax their focus.

I love a lot of the subtle detail on your paints such as the writing on the gravestone, the gem on the Ettin's crown (any tips as this looks just right too!), the skull and rope on the Ettin's belt, the trolls' shields and club- I like the moss on the club like the rock's just been picked up in the wilds and made use of! When the devs behind the computer game Myst were talking about how they designed it with the limited tech of the time one of their points was that often it's things like bolts and screws, weathering and imperfections and other little details that make the difference in making something look real and believable and such little extra details really provide that benefit with your paints/sculpts.

I'd love to use the Verminous on a sewer idea if you don't mind me using it- that's a great choice for his base. I might go for broken bars with a bitten look if I can nail it as if he's gnawed and squeezed his way through. Sculpting a rat or two from green stuff might work too. I love the slimy sewer idea- how did you get the slime to look so right (which also prompts another question- can you get a bubble effect in sculpts?)

The response about mold line removal and gap filling is one I should note to remember, already had it in mind but remembering to take time over it as the photos will highlight anything I miss- any tips for this as some models can vary and some are better/worse than others so any tips to get the model as perfect as it can be before painting it.

Finally I've remembered one of the back of my head questions- my models are from various sources (I have minis from sources other than Descent as I use minis for various different games and RPG'ing)- thus the materials are sometimes different and I've lost some of the packaging- with the different types of plastics/resins etc is there a way to tell the materials apart (There's also the metal ones) and is there a different approach needed for glueing/painting different base materials (I seem to remember it being the case that that you need different glues for plastics and resins if I'm right and it's not my memory getting its facts wrong)- if I've no longer got the material info is it obvious from look/feel which it is? Don't want to have melty figures ore otherwise gone-wrong glueing as I've used the wrong glue! Likewise if you need a different basecoat/paint approach for resin/plastic/metal.

Thanks in advance for any help/tips.

Hi Watercolour Dragon. Thanks for the kind words and the questions. I will do my best to answer what I can -- of course you can take and use (and hopefully better) any of the ideas I've posted - that's the reasons for sharing!

1) I have a desk-mounted white light+magnifying glass combo. I only really use it on eyes and to get certain really tiny details in the models. More recently, I've started using it to try to identify mold lines for removal. Just search for "magnifying desk lamp" on amazon and I'm sure you'll have a lot to choose from.

2) The master cave spider's webbing was done by boiling a piece of fabric softener (a dryer sheet), then pulling it apart and gluing it down to the base. The nice thing about this method is that a) it looks pretty ok and b) it's quite durable (as compared to glue lines or whatever), so you can still use the pieces to play with.

3) I paint hair or fur on animals by using several colors of thinned paint using very light brushstrokes (like barely touch the model light), which I think adds some dimension to the hair look. I did this particularly on my Barghests.

4) smoke and mist are tough...I've been working on some ideas myself, but haven't found anything that works super well yet. Most of my experiments involve cotton swabs/balls teased apart and painted, and while that might be ok, I run into trouble when it comes to making everything scale appropriately to the miniature's size.

5) The slime in the verminous sewer base is actually hot glue. The base is pink foam board. The sewer bars are toothpicks that I cut down to size. I then painted the hot glue with P3 Necrotite Green, and when that was dry, I gave it a wash with Athonian Camoshade (GW). After that dried, I reclaimed a few spots with the Necrotite, and then added a gloss varnish.

6) most glues aren't going to melt plastic, resin, or metal. What stuff are you using!?

7) thanks for the tip on eye focus! I really look forward to seeing your stuff posted.

Eld

Re 6 it was just a question as I've not worked with resins before but seem to remember being advised in one of the guides somewhere to use a different glue, which might not mean the wrong glue would damage them rather it may be due to effectiveness of the glue or some other factor, probably an easy look up on the web answer that one!

I'd never have thought of the dryer sheet idea, could be a good starting point for what other materials can be made use of or deconstructed to make use of! And the glue is problematic over time- the glue around my egg on the xenomorph yellowed and broke eventually, although this was many years later. The slobber trail stayed in tact- thicker strands are fine.

I had a thought and thus a tip for the hairs if adding something for real hair- if anyone does come up with a solution (same applies to any glued on bits) it's probably worth thinking about any potential hazard risk- as with creatures using hairs defensively you don't want fine bits that could come off and get breathed in! There may be a fabric material solution for hairy tarantula legs that does the leg colour and hairs in one shot.

Might be a while before I post my paints- the campaign project's a big job- a lot of work but will be worth it as I love some of the ideas I've had for the setting and characters and it's going to be a lot of fun playing with them in the Genesys RPG setting. Making it work for Descent could be trickier but I'm working on making the campaign designed for both settings (Descent and Genesys RPG) so that the finished creation is playable in either form. As with your painting it's one of those things you can only do when you've got the time, but then even movies and the like that are on the horizon can still be a year or two away so it just takes patience- not easy for me as I have one of those brains that would get it all done in one go were it not for that being physically impossible, my hyper-creative brain doesn't like such unavoidable interruptions.

**** amazing job. You want to come over and paint my entire collection? I have D2E (100% expanded) completely unpainted waiting for someone with talent to make it whole.

Hi thinkzinc! Thank you for your support. I hope my future efforts live up to this hype haha. I'm still working on acquiring all of the expansions. I just have a massive backlog of games and even a few actual models to paint! The painting side of the hobby doesn't interest you?

Here are my Hybrid Sentinels from the Lair of the Wyrm expansion. I hope you enjoy.

Eld

1 hour ago, Eldrast said:

Hi thinkzinc! Thank you for your support. I hope my future efforts live up to this hype haha. I'm still working on acquiring all of the expansions. I just have a massive backlog of games and even a few actual models to paint! The painting side of the hobby doesn't interest you?

It does. I've tried repeatedly I just am severely cursed when it comes to crafts. I literally cannot do anything craft wise. Been a curse of mine since kindergarten. If I could I would!

Sorry for the delay. I've been quite busy irl and haven't had as much painting time as I'd like. Anyhow, here is my Ispher, from Visions of Dawn. I did a lot of custom color mixes on this one and think I ended up pretty close to the card art.

I hope you enjoy.

Eld

Again wow- the level of detail is mindblowing and the dragon wings almost look transparent- Ispher might be your best yet for getting impossible amounts of detail on such a tiny canvas and looking just right.

Today I have Bol'Goreth, the Lieutenant. I may go back and add some scarring over the left eye later, but for right now I'm calling him done.

I hope you enjoy.

Eld