Painting for progression

[Hawkoon]

Hello, dear Wyrdos!

It's me again. While I enjoyed hosting the painting challenge last year, my time for painting and follow-up just didn't work out, and sadly I had to give in to real life issues.

However, one month into 2024, I feel a deep hole inside where the challenge used to be. So I am starting out a thread to post community painting progress. No time limits, no pledges, mulligans and buybacks.

Just post what you paint and get friendly feedback from other painters!

I have no idea if this will fly or just rot away in the forum backpages, but thought it worth a try.

I'll start off with my recent nephilim:

[MestreGuilderius]

Heyo all ! Excellent idea for dear @Hawkoon as always, will definitely support this thread the best I can

My last 2 minis, Arhorak and Dreamer Insomniac

Featuring my first 2 attempts at gold nmm (Athorak's weapon and linings on Dreamer PJ) and also a magic portal made out of uv resin xD

Cheers !

[Hawkoon]

21 hours ago, MestreGuilderius said:

Heyo all ! Excellent idea for dear @Hawkoon as always, will definitely support this thread the best I can

My last 2 minis, Arhorak and Dreamer Insomniac

Featuring my first 2 attempts at gold nmm (Athorak's weapon and linings on Dreamer PJ) and also a magic portal made out of uv resin xD

Cheers !

These are excellent! Love the portal and the OSL. You've really improved since you started posting in the forums👏

I'm no expert on NMM gold, and I think this looks really good, it's hard to belive it's your first attempt. I think you can go even darker to enhance the illusion of reflecting metal next time. If I've understood the colour theory right, you also want a slightly green hue in the darkest shadows. But I've never actually attempted it myself, so I may be wrong.

[MestreGuilderius]

11 hours ago, Hawkoon said:

These are excellent! Love the portal and the OSL. You've really improved since you started posting in the forums👏

I'm no expert on NMM gold, and I think this looks really good, it's hard to belive it's your first attempt. I think you can go even darker to enhance the illusion of reflecting metal next time. If I've understood the colour theory right, you also want a slightly green hue in the darkest shadows. But I've never actually attempted it myself, so I may be wrong.

Awwww thanks a lot !!! I do my best to learn and apply new technics as often as possible

I also feel a bit more confident about light placement and color theory^^

And these are my 2 real first attempts at gold nmm, and my 4th and 5th nmm ever ( the first 3 were the Nekimas and Lilith as Barbaros proxy^^). I feel like nmm helped a ton understanding lighting and colors, I'm surprised myself as how easily it's coming to me now xD

[CateranLlama]

I have a ton of painting I need to do, and I keep telling myself I'll post some wips here and hope that keeps me working on them.  And I keep forgetting.  So that's not a good sign about using this as a reminder to myself. lol  

Hawkoon, I always love those eyeball base toppers.  

[Hawkoon]

Thank you! WiPs are welcome as well, so just post whatever you got😉

[CateranLlama]

I wanted a not-just-pink pig, but grey is hard.  I may wind up adding some texture then redoing her eyebrows?  I also haven't touched her all week.  But! The teapot is done!  So that's not nothing!

[MestreGuilderius]

So ! Finally found the time to finish my Alt Doppleganger. Quite satisfying mini to paint, lots and lots of textures ^^ I even tried to simulate the fact that skin is growing on the back of the skull, as if it's morphing ^^

Tentacles were a nightmare to paint though, always one in the way of the brush xD

[djmacbest]

Hey all! I had a 6 month painting break - I think my attempt to stick to one keyword until it's finished burned me out a bit, so /shrug. Anyway, picked up the brush again, and these two folks are almost finished (really just some last tiny touch-ups plus varnish missing): 

 

I may start some Bygone or Forgotten models next...

[Hawkoon]

On 3/16/2024 at 12:40 PM, djmacbest said:

Hey all! I had a 6 month painting break - I think my attempt to stick to one keyword until it's finished burned me out a bit, so /shrug. Anyway, picked up the brush again, and these two folks are almost finished (really just some last tiny touch-ups plus varnish missing): 

 

I may start some Bygone or Forgotten models next...

Love the OSL🤩

[djmacbest]

First batch of varnished models since October... Still can't figure out how to make TMM look interesting without it getting blotchy, so I ended up doing the old base, wash, drybrush method again on those Ancient Constructs. Ah well, next model, next attempt.

[MestreGuilderius]

Hello there !

Did not post anything lately, real life is taking a hefty toll on my painting time.

Still, managed to finish these up. Next plans are to complete Returned kw, then I'll switch back to Nightmare crew for a funny little project I've had in mind for some time now :3

 

[MestreGuilderius]

My latest additions to Returned kw Kastore Awakened was a blast to paint, can't wait to start the Fervent version :3

[Chou]

I really like all the models, but the cavern nephilim upside down is the winner!

[MestreGuilderius]

On 6/12/2024 at 9:03 AM, Chou said:

I really like all the models, but the cavern nephilim upside down is the winner!

Thank you ! Weirdly enough, I was really pumped up when I started painting him, but the fact that he's glued on textured paste (even if it had weeks to dry) made the thing a tad jingly.... Was not the most enjoyable piece of the crew xD

 

Kastore1 on the other side, a rightful pleasure through and through started K2 last night, hopefully I'll have him finished for my game on friday night 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[MestreGuilderius]

Well, did not managed to finish him on time, but he's now complete had a blast painting him too, very interesting challenge to make his skin look a bit healthier than v1 too.

Hopefully managed to give this impression :P

Adding close-ups of the upper body and the black blood pond too ;)

[djmacbest]

Got a few things done over the past couple of months - for example my Woes are finally complete (until I get my hands on the new models, at least), so it is time for a group picture:



Iggy, Dorian and Carver were the most recent additions to this band of merry misfits:

 

Also, I have been experimenting with slapchop/speedpaint workflows, mainly to spend less time on minions. Dead Outlaws were my first attempt, but I think the shadow slapchop color came out too cold (went down to a very dark blue, thought cold for undead makes sense). I am happier with the Bandidos, which I primed brown + gave them an Agrax wash before drybrushing on warm highlights (up to an off-white):

 

I have quite a bunch more minion sets I will keep experimenting on - Wokou Raiders, Convict Gunslingers, various Jack Daw minions (Drowned, Crooked, Hanged, Guilty), Crooligans, Rabble Risers, Prospectors, M2E December Acolytes...

[MestreGuilderius]

Still in wip, but wanted to share the hardest NMMs I had to tackle up until now. They are sho shmall xD

[MestreGuilderius]

On 6/24/2024 at 12:40 PM, djmacbest said:

Got a few things done over the past couple of months - for example my Woes are finally complete (until I get my hands on the new models, at least), so it is time for a group picture:



Iggy, Dorian and Carver were the most recent additions to this band of merry misfits:

 

Also, I have been experimenting with slapchop/speedpaint workflows, mainly to spend less time on minions. Dead Outlaws were my first attempt, but I think the shadow slapchop color came out too cold (went down to a very dark blue, thought cold for undead makes sense). I am happier with the Bandidos, which I primed brown + gave them an Agrax wash before drybrushing on warm highlights (up to an off-white):

 

I have quite a bunch more minion sets I will keep experimenting on - Wokou Raiders, Convict Gunslingers, various Jack Daw minions (Drowned, Crooked, Hanged, Guilty), Crooligans, Rabble Risers, Prospectors, M2E December Acolytes...

Love all these vibrant colors 🤩🤩🤩 well done Sir !

[MestreGuilderius]

Half-bloods finished ! Despite their shmall size, quite happy with the NMMs^^ not perfect, but that'll do ;)

[djmacbest]

Long time no post... Despite the summer being slow (I really don't feel like painting when it's too warm), I still got a few things done and varnished since then. Mostly quick paintjobs, but Mad Dog and the Doc got a little bit more effort from me:

The Malifaux Child was easy but still surprisingly a lot of fun to paint, once you get closer to it. And it's the largest (human) head in the game, right?

And then I continued my speed painting experiments with the December Acolytes. Undercoat from very dark blue to white drybrush in the highlights, then speedpaints and some very few highlights. Works well for this color scheme (and might use for some other December models), but would not rec for everything. Anyway, cold is cool.

 

That's all that has been varnished since... July maybe? But I did spend more time on the hobby - assembled a ton of minis and based half a ton. I also started painting the Corrupted Hounds (another attempt at speed painting slapchop, this time going up from purple shadows) and the Iron Skeeters. Let's talk about those for a second: They must be the most burnout-inducing models in the whole range. They look sooooooo cool, but everything from assembly to basing to painting them is just a colossal pain in the ass. Fragile, everything is hard to reach, loooots of pieces, literally no legs to stand on etc... By the time I had them figured out, I really did not want to invest a lot of energy into painting anymore, so I went with another Slapchop approach: Dark purple shadows to white drybrush undercoat, then Xpress colors. Base layers are almost done, then they will need a couple of highlights though to not be too flat. I'm already dreading this a bit, but we'll see. (The big purple stick holding the middle Skeeter is a stick of transparent acrylics, just wrapped in tape and not yet fully glued in while I'm still painting.)

 

And then, just to show that the painting queue never ends, here are (really only some of) the many minis I assembled and based in the past 2-3 months:

 

Long post, sorry for the rambling, but maybe it can lend a bit of motivation to some of you!

 

[TerrorToni]

This thread is a great Idea, it's great to see what the other are painting and the awesome idea everyone has. 

for my part I just post few days ago on this thread what I have been painted lately : 

 

[Zach Vogel]

Can't wait to see the Library stuff painted

[djmacbest]

Iron Skeeters are done. Fought through the pain of having to wield the brush from 10cm behind the tip all the time (people: don't be like me, don't try to paint them fully assembled). But am surprisingly happy with the result, despite many, many little misplaced paint splotches. And first experiment with water effects on the bases, which turned out really swampy - in a good way.

 

[djmacbest]

Did a lot of priming recently, bought a bunch of Molotow cans which are just super to do some easy and cheap zenithal schemes and variations. So right now I'm in a "let's only paint minions to practice speed paint methods" mindset. Wasn't super motivated with the Corrupted Hounds, just wanted to get them done, but overall I'm slowly getting to a place where I'm genuinely happy with the results:

 

The Daltons Convicted Gunslingers:

 

Corrupted Hounds:

 

Flying Piglets: