2019 Monthly Painting Challenge - May

[Caedrus]

@Chou: Nice work on Sam! I'm loving the bright gold. My Sam is sitting in front of me, right now!

I'm less concerned about the mallet, I'm more concerned about a heavy golden ornament hanging in front of his Gentleman's Area, just waiting for a game of "Test your ability to get your testicles absolutely smashed in".

 

[Caedrus]

Caedrus, checking in!

I think it's time for a quick WIP and update!

First of all, I bought a cheapo mini photography lightbox, and I've been trying it out for this update! Here we go!

My Wendigo is finally finished. I also think I've qualified for the Painting Achievement of "All your base are belong to us!", with this base taking quite a bit longer than the miniature itself.

I was pleased with this guy. Mostly airbrush on the miniature, and the base being a combination of flight stand and spikes of blister-pack-plastic, coated with Vallejo Still Water, and Atelier Heavy Gel (Gloss), and a cracking base using Vallejo Crackle Medium and some P3 Turquoise Ink. Whew!

Next up, my Witchling Handler!

This lady had such a happy look about her, she inspired me to use her red-and-purple colour scheme for my Witch Hunters. Prototype successful!

I was pleased with her NMM sword and brasswork, I was very pleased that I had finally achieved a super-saturated red and super-saturated purple, and I liked the hat sheen (an idea stolen from Serpentarium and the astonishing @Ringil). I may have also messed about with some freehand...

What's next?

This lady. There's going to be a lot of paint needed to cover my dodgy sculpting skills. Wish me luck!

@Nikodemus: Beautiful, beautiful Crime Boss. Loving that Ashigaru armour, as well.

@Rathnard: I think that I'm biased when it comes to terrain. I'm a sucker for a beautifully made board with gorgeous terrain, so if people make it, they deserve the points, I reckon!

@Purple Mist: I would never, ever have thought to use that metallic chartreuse. It's just perfect. Best of luck on those scenery pieces!

@Wintergloom: You've got a huge month ahead. Best of luck at the tournament!

@Boomstick: That's a lady with a big gun. Looking forward to that one.

@Diddick: Your sculpting skills exceed my own 😊.

@Franchute: The Oxfordian mage. Love it. Love the burned-wood effect, love the rich, dark robes.

@Chou: Your Samael's face tones are just exquisite. Stern, pale. Gorgeous.

Wow. I'm lucky to be in such company. I'm loving watching ALL the Painting-Challenge painters work!

Keep putting pigment to plastic (or resin, or metal...)

Caedrus.

[Purple Mist]

@Caedrus you Wendigo is great. I'm planning to do the contrary: I'm waiting for a transparent resin Ice Golem that I could put on an cracked ice and snow base worked with Secret Weapon stuff.

[Nikodemus]

@Caedrus Cheeky subtle freehand. Nice!

3 hours ago, Chou said:

the only problem with my tests so far is that if I apply it directly from the bottle the effect is very nice but too pale for my liking, so I'll have to play with inks so "brown it" a little. 

That's always fun, playing with inks.

Very nice piece overall. Beautiful.

___

Soul Porter is finished!

Took longer than I expected. There's a lot of different things to paint on this model. Was my first time painting scratches on his hat. They're sculpted on of course, so all I did was trace what was there. But I don't think it would be that hard to do the same on smooth surfaces. Hardest thing will probably be figuring out how many scratches and where to put them. Cool learning experience.

I didn't have any idea how to do the lanterns well. Took some paints and inks ranging from dark brown to white and just played around. Lots of back 'n forth. Fun process. I'm not particularly proud of the end result but they're done and they look ok. Arguably should've added some OSL on figure itself but I'm just not fond of that technique.

Overall a cool little mini with potential to introduce new concepts to budding painters. Was fun.

[Franchute]

@Caedrus your handler is amazing. The free hand work adds a lot and I love the highlights.

[lusciousmccabe]

@Caedrus Witchling Handler is the bomb.  Metallics are spot on and the freehand is nice and understated. 

@Nikodemus - I think the lanterns actually look really good, just not like they're any sort of lanterns. When I first saw them I thought they were some sort of bashed up gourds or pumpkin type things and thought it was a really cool approach to the model.

Getting something to look glowey on a model is more to do with lighting the surrounding areas, as the light source itself is usually fairly monotone. Those kinds of lanterns are a bit of a nightmare though as they're really big and not really that interesting looking in real life. Most of the better looking examples of those I've seen on Ten Thunders models are painted more fantastically, or as if it's daytime/they're not lit.

But I like your pumpkins.

[Nikodemus]

I can live with pumpkins

I do often go for "as long as it looks cool, it doesn't matter what it looks like". Works for the gaming table.

[Purple Mist]

Hello,

I completed the basements I planned to work as  a part of my pledge for the month.

1.  Twelve 10x10 cm basements (5ss each): overall 60 ss

2.  Six 10x20 cm basements (5ss each): overall 30 ss

3.  Four 20x20 cm basements (5ss each): overall 20 ss

4. Nine 20x30 sc basements (5ss each): overall 45 ss

The overall ss value, if I'm not wrong is 155.

It was mainly an airbrush exercise. The brick walls have been airbrushed with orange paint and the hand washed with GW CARROBUNG CRIMSON.

The paved street/square surfaces  have been airbrushed with GW FENRISIAN GREY, hand washed with GW NURN OIL, completed with Vallejo MEDIUM GUNSHIP GRAY by airbrush to get a marble/stone effect. I experimented that I had a more effective result airbrushing a dark colour other a light one, rather than the contrary.

[Gloomy]

Fenton finished

[lusciousmccabe]

@Purple Mist The terrain looks great but I find the colour on the brickwork a bit off. I think it's too red/crimson as bricks tend to be more orange/terracotta coloured. Then again it's fantastical Malifaux brickwork, so who's to say that colour isn't entirely appropriate!

[Nikodemus]

Yan Lo done. Half of his box done!

Early in the paintjob I debated between gold and non-metallic paint to use for freehand. Opted for gold. If there's something I've realised on multiple occasions, this one included, is to never do freehand with metallics. Some people can probably do it, but I can't. Hopefully I remember it a bit longer this time around.

That aside I'm quite happy with what I managed to do. Skin in particular. Will gladly play this until Wyrd releases that alt Yan Lo they've been teasing

[Franchute]

@Nikodemus The skin is pretty nice indeed!

Athiko, a guy named @Wintergloom stole your minis! 😱

[Diddick]

Nix is done!

Honestly is my least favourite mini form Hamelin's box, and probably my least favourite malifaux mini so far...  Even though, I painted him with love and tried to add some background to the character with the base, also it gave me a chance to practice painting black.

 

[lusciousmccabe]

^^Huzzah for ghost poopy! Love how the glow from inside it is spreading out to infect the surrounding area.

Also model looks grand. 😜

[Stranglelove]

Pledge is nearly done, mostly just need to finish basing. In the meantime, here's a finished Jaakuna:

 

Nothing too special. Skin has been a particular challenge for this crew because I've been using GW's Ironach Skin and changing its tint with shades. It's such a light color that every inconsistency shows up. Makes for really tedious touch-ups.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of this month's pledges!

[Franchute]

I've done some work on one of the gamins:

 

[Nikodemus]

1 hour ago, Stranglelove said:

Nothing too special. Skin has been a particular challenge for this crew because I've been using GW's Ironach Skin and changing its tint with shades. It's such a light color that every inconsistency shows up. Makes for really tedious touch-ups.

Are you trying to be consistent with it across multiple models? I suppose I can see how that'd be a pain.

Lately I've been having a lot of fun with painting very light things and then washing them down for various effects. I'm never trying to reproduce anything so it's quite fun and liberating to just slosh things on have them come out good. Yan Lo's skin (VGC Warmgrey highlighted white, washed purple) and Ashigaru's bone (VMC Beige, highlighted white, washed green+brown mix) as recent examples.

Nice shade of green at any rate on Jaakuna.

@Diddick fantastic work. Black hide on Nix really lets everything else pop. Smashing!

@Franchute Loving that bright fire you've managed to get. I'm envious.

Me, I'm still trying to figure out a scheme for Chiaki. Had a long chat with Lead Creative Consultant (aka. The Wife) tonight. Ideas were bounced back 'n forth. Gonna start putting some paint onto a model tomorrow. Sketch on the model if nothing else. Get that ball rolling.

[Franchute]

@Diddick amazing work indeed. The ethereal poop adds a lot.

[Purple Mist]

On 5/11/2019 at 9:17 PM, lusciousmccabe said:

@Purple Mist The terrain looks great but I find the colour on the brickwork a bit off. I think it's too red/crimson as bricks tend to be more orange/terracotta coloured. Then again it's fantastical Malifaux brickwork, so who's to say that colour isn't entirely appropriate!

I used that same shades that I used fom many of mine brick factory bases I posted in post times. I trust the colour of the bricks on the basements will give a great contrast with the sea water play-mat I plan to use. Then, I have a lot of buildilng with bricks to build and paint till: I plan to use a terracotta/orange-brown shades on them.

Thanks for your interest and for kind words of encouragement.

[Scatterbrain]

@Caedrus Sadly, I have had to withdraw from the painting challenge. I had been hoping that the health things that I mentioned when I first signed up in January were going to be easy fixes. Unfortunately, they haven't been as yet. I will continue to look at the amazing work others are producing and congratulate everyone on their achievements instead. 🙂

[Caedrus]

Caedrus, checking in!

@Scatterbrain: So sorry to have you withdraw. I liked your work, very much. There's always next year. I sincerely hope your health improves.

So, just a quick update here.

This is where I'm up to on my modified Recruiter. I notice now that I sculpted the clavicles too far down the chest, and on a slightly odd angle. The hat is also sitting a bit high on the head. And the gun broke off, and needs a repair. However, I'm actually not too displeased, as I wasn't a fan of the beardy-weirdy original sculpt anyway. It'll do!

I hope you're having a great May!

Caedrus.

[Franchute]

@Caedrus I cant believe my eyes! 😍😍😍

[Nikodemus]

@Caedrus great OSL! She'll be pretty when finished.

___

After a few days of lazy work on Chiaki I pulled myself together and did the white. Still need to put some freehand on. Contemplating a few options. Will push some shadows and highlights here 'n there by the end. But for now it's in a good place waiting for freehand. Going for a somewhat harsher look on the white. Strong shadows. Stark, visible brush strokes up close. I quite fancy that painterly look. Will be fun to see how this turns out. Also testing out an art store heavy body Titanium White for this project. Been seeing those recommended a lot. Decided to give it a shot. So far so good. Haven't used enough to really compare with minibrand whites.

Rest of the bits are just placeholder. Thinking black ribbons and tanned skin. 

Two weeks to go. Should be able to break 50ss this month

[Purple Mist]

@Caedrus I'm impressed by your painting art-job on the base that I well know and used for some of mine models. I'm eager to see the full mini completed.

[muraki]

Keeping up with the viks theme from last month, here's a couple taelors for this month so far: