3 hours ago, Gouniaf said:

It makes me think of the old Orks range of GW.

Like so 🙂

Just a bit grubbier 😄

On the topic of Orkoid things, there is now this....

And so, the squad is ready to roll.... (enemy ships onto obstacles)

Please teach me how you get such crisp edge lines and smooth blend o the panels?

I just started trying wet blending but feel like its totally out of my control.

3 hours ago, Ghosthacked said:

Please teach me how you get such crisp edge lines and smooth blend o the panels?

I just started trying wet blending but feel like its totally out of my control.

Blending- Practice, plus trial and error mainly. Its really restricted to 3 of the 5 layers and a very small area. So dark base, mid-tone and final edge light just get painted on. Its hard to give a step by step, since I'm mostly winging it :D

I have 2 mid lights and the mid tone watered and semi mixed into each other on a palette. In this case, just varying amounts of red and white. 1st real highlight will go on, and drag out to translucense into the darker area a little. If I need to, Ill pick up the mid-tone, and reverse the process before it's fully dry. The key thing is really just correct consistency, too wet it goes everywhere, too dry and it's either set before you can move it or drying too opaque. It's really less about actual blending than it is hitting the right level of translucency, so I'm often remixing and adding more water. Areas which require a little remedial blending can be done with mixes from the palette, pushed around with a little water then tidied up with a dry brush.

But honestly, it's probably not as smooth as it looks here. With this, I struggled with the red. It was just drying way too quickly in this warm weather, so not much blending really happened at all.

Started with the dark, brownish base, then painted in the blood red, shaped areas as the base highlight. The paint is thin, so 1st coat is a little translucent and can normally be dragged out thinner. Second coat is over a smaller area and brings it up bright. The difference between these coats is often what makes it look blended, but it actually isn't.

Dragging out the thinned blood red wasn't working though, it was just glooping into streaks and lumps. So the contrast was really too high, the division was too strong and it looked really untidy. So I took the dark base, mixed it to an even tone between the 2, thinned it liberally and just pasted it over where the 1st blend should be happening. It didn't do much other than just equalise the tones underneath. I don't normally do this, but may in the future, it worked well.

Then I pretty much just painted 3 progressively smaller and lighter shades for the complete effect. With the paint thinned enough, they don't really go on fully opaque, which gives the illusion of a blend. So this is where I normally do blend, but notsomuch in this case.

The black is the same approach as the red, but with much less work, black hides things really well. A clear, HD close up would show barely any blend at all. But, with the ink layered into the recess, there's 6 tones there. Often, people will use just 3. Base, mid, highlight. Adding 2 more steps, with the ink finishing deeper and darker than base black, really helps with the subtlety.

You can use this approach and not even bother trying to blend with a lot of colours. Just many layers. Applying a thin, translucent mid tone at key stages seems a solid way to balance things out and cement the illusion.

With the white, i did go full wet blend. White is a pain for showing flaws, so it was just a lot of work, going over bits, correcting tones and shapes, dabbing on very watered bits here and there and dragging them around with a dry brush to cover where the blend went awry.

It's a bit disgusting, but sometimes I just stick the brush in my mouth and then rub out bits that are drying thicker with my spit. Works a bit better than water :D

Crisp lines- snipers breath, brace everything, correct slips afterwards. I obviously ink all the lines, it's not too hard with the strong recesses and a steady stroke. Then I use the edge of the brush tip on the panel edges, so it doesn't poke into those channels. It still does sometimes, then I just re-ink the recess. Same with the brush flicking out of the channel, I just edge over it to tidy it up.

The real deal with all of it is patience and attention to detail. None of this happens 1st try, there's an awful lot of correction going on, this thing has taken me hours and hours and hours !

One of the main things that really holds back great results is simply accepting lesser ones. As long as the paint you're applying is thin enough, it won't build up to the point where it can't be corrected and can often be just quickly wiped off and redone straight away.

Hope all this helps :)

That is amazing. I'm saving this post. Thanks!

So sounds that you're doing more glazing than wet blending right? The thing i find challenging about glazing is I still seem to end up with clear banding.

3 hours ago, Ghosthacked said:

That is amazing. I'm saving this post. Thanks!

So sounds that you're doing more glazing than wet blending right? The thing i find challenging about glazing is I still seem to end up with clear banding.

That's kinda true. Particularly this time. I probably do glaze for the most part and reserve wet blends for for where the banding is most obvious. So it's mainly remedial and more about disguise.

I think the thing is, these models are generally small enough that as long as the tone gradient is tight enough, the banding you get with glazing doesn't massively show. It might be more visible on mine IRL, than it is in the pics.

What is your setup for photography then?

I agree I'm sure that plays a huge part as I'm kinda lazy and just use my phone but you obviously have some lightbox setup. With my phone pictures it seems to reveal many more errors and details that I didn't notice especially when i zoom in.

1 hour ago, Ghosthacked said:

What is your setup for photography then?

I agree I'm sure that plays a huge part as I'm kinda lazy and just use my phone but you obviously have some lightbox setup. With my phone pictures it seems to reveal many more errors and details that I didn't notice especially when i zoom in.

BAHAHA! My lightbox is the bath, with early, indirect sun through the small window, my camera is my phone. So pro!

This phone does take nice, natural light pics though and the bath is surprisingly effective. It's mostly about light diffusion after all.

My most important tools iare honestly a magnifying lense, a pair of cheap specs and really tiny brush. I paint more zoomed in than anyone ever really sees.

That, is genius.

Yeah, natural light has no equal. The problem is the consistency and the timing especially since most of the painting gets done at night...

Now that you said it I can totally see it now. plus I was wondering about that hair...

An incredibly quick job for me, this one. Had all this dark red still mixed up and looking for a home. Step up, Echo!

Fun fact, Echo in Aurebesh looks A LOT like Vimeo in English 😕

Technical detail. I really overegged the final highlight and it came out pretty garish. Solution, red ink wash! Probably the only time I've actually used it on anything other than Ork gums and tongues, it's too thin and bright to work as an actual shade wash on almost anything else.

Fel's Girls ❤️

Very good work sir! Props again 😉

Ryad was already red ofc, and had been lightly jazzed up already, but putting her down next the new Red Echo, she lacked pop and pizzazz. Very swiftly amended that....

More Aurebesh, and some trivia. C on one pylon, R on the other. Interestingly, the R is just a 7. So adorning the no.7 lock is nicely appropriate and gives us a similarly fancy and expensive football reference. So here is the Star Wars CR7-

On 4/11/2020 at 9:52 PM, Cuz05 said:

and the bath is surprisingly effective.

Bathrooms always seem surprisingly good for photography.

On 4/11/2020 at 9:52 PM, Cuz05 said:

my camera is my phone. So pro!

And small-sensor cameras are usually pretty solid for really close focus.

A few smaller jobs, while I continue to wait for this new brush.

1st, this Reaper. I had this idea a while ago, when I 1st repainted it, but kept putting it off. Really didn't think I could do it justice and wasn't convinced it would even be a good design.

But meh, decided to just go for it. Found a handy template.... which was critical to even attempting it.

Marked the outline and went free hand from there.

Its far from perfect, but I'm happy enough with the result. You can see some weird angles and asymmetries on the internal shape, plus it looks kind of squashed on anything other than a top down view. Mostly perspective but I think the lower rectangles are not quite in the right place.

It was also a real pain to do. Absolutely the best method for this is a geometrically accurate, full template, mask and spray. Lesson learned.

The Khiraxz. I believe I shared this in the showcase thread when I did it 1st. That design sort of tired on me, I just found I didn't like it much, alongside all the other ships. All I've done is add to the white markings and change the raised dorsal details. Makes it a bit more snazzy and stands out a little differently. The checks tie it into the fleet a bit more.

And a Mining Guild TIE. Because it's easy to throw in a squad but everything it can get thrown in with is already red. And it's quick and easy to paint.

So I really liked the original scheme and thought it was already a cool model. Put it under the scope to examine more closely and was really disappointed. It looked like a very poorly detailed sculpt on the TIE ball. Didnt fancy the job, detailed repaints tend to highlight sculpt flaws, rather than hide them. Put it back on the shelf.

Picked it up again the next day and started painting it anyway. The detail isn't particularly sharp, but it turned out the factory paint job was so horrible, it made it look a lot worse than it is. In the end, I got right into it and I'm well chuffed with the result.

Here he is, phoning his orders in.

That is a splendid looking Kihraxz!! 😮 (I may have to steal some pattern ideas from it to improve mine.)

Enjoying also all of these other pretty ships as well, keep ’em coming. 👍

Wicked stuff. I saved the original image of your kihraxz a long time ago as reference!

Pic heavy! Something slightly different!

This was a quick experiment, that lead to an experiment, that lead to another experiment and ended up being an actual, kind of serious, properly cared for and finished article.

1st, a friend asked if I'd ever done cherry red and shared a pic of an extremely glossy Space Marine. The basic approach was a metallic base, with ink and laquer layered up into a kind of super shiny, pearlescent effect. You may have seen this kind of thing.

Hmm, I thought, I guess I'll try something. Pulled out one of my benched Starvipers and gave the upper wings a brass base. Then layered up some red and brown ink. Looked kinda cool. So I figured I'd put a tiny bit more effort in and finish the rest off in cursory black, or something.

Brassing the lower wings, I dropped it, crushed it against the table and busted the lower 2 wings clean off. My method of just squishing them closed a bit and dabbing some glue on, does not hold up well to mistreatment...

Hmm. Got some blue tack and experimented with a wide variety of alternate fixes. What follows is not recommended for the queasy.

Settled on none of them, but rather liked the brass contrast on the overlapping wings. So, 3rd experiment, properly graded shading on metallic.... and then making the whole thing not look like a terrible accident.

Ultimately, I now have a Starscarab Attack Platform that looks like it's ready for a punch up.

Of course, it is still red and black.

Love the process. Finished article is solid. I mean, it's a starviper, right? Got a sort of a crabby vibe, eh?

it's like the larval form of a IG Aggressor. love it.

My favorite is the last one of your experiments with the sharp points forward.

Wow! I love that Reaper!

7 hours ago, Kleeg005 said:

Love the process. Finished article is solid. I mean, it's a starviper, right? Got a sort of a crabby vibe, eh?

A friend called it a Crab Viper, so I had Starcrab as the working title. But I thought scarab was cooler 😄

6 hours ago, Ghosthacked said:

it's like the larval form of a IG Aggressor. love it.

My favorite is the last one of your experiments with the sharp points forward.

Love that description!

I thought the boat was cool too, but I was given this gif as a response, lol.

Put me off a bit 😄

And another!

Spent some decent time and care on this, right from the word go. Actually finished a week ago, but with my old fine brush fraying at the tip, I was waiting for my posh new Raphael 2/0, or 00, to do the lettering.

I generally prefer a slightly larger brush with a very sharp tip, to ultra diddy things. Flip flopped over getting another 000, but have been using a slimmed 00 for a long time now.

Had to accept a slightly different series than my ideal, an 8400 rather than um... whatever it was I decided on from web reviews. Came with much shorter bristles than I really like and had initially chosen for and a really rather long guide hair. The latter, I would like to amend, since the brush itself seems very nice indeed, overall.

Still, with the different grip, shorter bristles... over-long guide hair... I found it much more difficult to use than the crappy old frayed one I'm intimately familiar with. I know it's shape, how to angle the tip, how to drag it, and it fits me like a glove, after all this time.

ANYWAY, practice makes perfect, I'm sure Raph and I will become good friends in time. He is very handsome.

The painting!

I actually masked for the 1st time ever. Purely to get a straight, level gap to put the Aurebesh in. Turned out nice, but obviously needed a touch up and is a fatter script than I really wanted, due to brush difficulties.

Bad time of day for bath pics. They seem a bit washed out.... The shading is a lot more subtle than previous models, but I'm having trouble seeing it at all in these. Screens are weird though, so I'll just let yours show you whatever it makes of this.

So I found a pretty sharp craft knife and things escalated...

Uh... where was I?

Wait.

Ok. I want 6 of these as Vulture proxies.

Anyway.

And now it's one of three Enforcers with a 4-LOM, SDV, Titled Shadowport Hunter.

Lockdown rabbit hole is deep.

I LOVE those mods! And the paint is solid, too. I really like the sort of skull effect on the cockpit area of that final 'Viper.

I agee Kleeg. Those mods are sweet.