Seam lines on rhinos :/

This is how you remove them.

They are so ugly and really detract from the model. They had to go.

On the importance of preshading - an airbrush lesson.

If you're like me, you probably bought an airbrush because you don't want to waste time doing that most boring of tasks - undercoating and base coating!

An airbrush can be so damn helpful that it will revolutionise your painting workflow so that not only will you get more work done in a smaller period of time, you'll also probably start to enjoy those menial tasks.

If you're like me, you also got straight into airbrushing without a thought for the layering of paint and the slightly odd way in which you need to highlight using an airbrush.

This is called pre-shading.

Here is an example of models that have not been pre-shaded -

Note the flatness of the armour. I'm showing you this on my night lords because pre-shading is so much more important with darker colours. Lighter colours can easily be washed and a great effect can be achieved. Dark blue for example, however, is not a forgiving colour. 

My method for pre-shading with an airbrush is simple and effective, allowing for a dark colour of your choosing to go over it flat without too much hassle.

1. Start with a black undercoat.

2. Using a smaller nozzle (I recommend a 0.2mm or 0.3mm), carefully apply a light-medium grey to areas you want to highlight. 

In my case, it is from the top, down, as I like to achieve a semi zenithal highlight effect to my flat armour panels.

example

3. Being extremely careful, use your 0.2 nib to highlight those grey areas to white.

example

These models are now fully pre-shaded and ready to basecoat. For my Night Lords, I like to basecoat with a 2/1 mix of vallejo model air french blue and signal blue. I find those two together are probably my favourite colour for night lords. Add a drop or two of thinner with it to make sure that pre-shade comes through - signal blue is quite dark and I find its' pigments ro be quite overbearing if not kept in check with some light dilution.

Here are both of those squads fully basecoated.

I hope you enjoyed my lesson. Stay tuned for more midnight clad antics.

What have I been up to?

So last friday I had a minor operation on my spine. Been a little lazy. Anyhow, I've been working on the scourges again and I primed and base coated a couple of raider craft. I'm not sure if you can tell on the raiders (crappy washed out light, can't afford a new work light) the hulls are highlighted and weathered with an airbrush. The weathering is just secret weapon's armour wash, which I'll be brushing into the armour recesses for that added depth.
With wyches being made nearly redundant in the new codex, I chopped up one of my squads and gave them kabalite weapons - because you can never have too many raider squads right? They're not painted yet, but I'll include some pics anyway - maybe it will give someone an idea or  two!
I'm going to start working on the diorama again this week, so hopefully I'll have something new to show off :)

Like my razorwing?

Still deciding whether or not to turn the rest of those bubbly blister like protrusions into gems or not...

Jetfighter is fully weathered and the cockpit canopy was completed first with brush and then with airbrush.

I havent finished the missiles yet, but for this one - I was gonna go with the necrotoxins to complement the disintegrator cannons for maximum infantry butt-hurt.

I have another razorwing (unbuilt) which I'll either kit out in factory standard dark lance/monoscythe missle loadout or sell and get a voidraven for maximum tank busting!

Sigismund - finished :)

I finished Sigismund this morning. I'm super happy with the job and I cannot wait to get started on the rest of the diorama.
The Emperor's Champion model is one of my favourites of all time and I had to paint Sigismund in the metal version of it. It fits perfectly with my vision for the diorama (if you're lucky, I'll do a crappy drawing and post it up).
I'd thought about doing some conversion work on the model pre-painting such as adding that strange wing thing from the Celestine model or even using the EC sword arm on Forgeworld's company champion model in its heroic pose. I just couldn't bring myself to do it! I just love the model too much! I did however add an iron halo and some grenades with a scroll from the grey knights kit just for some extra flavour.
The other marines in the diorama will no doubt have some conversion work. I have an idea for an astartes in mkIII armour with a bolter, his front leg resting atop a slain ork while he fires his bolter into the onrushing horde.
I'd also thought of maybe doing some freehand work on the cloak - perhaps a celtic weave pattern in white along the hem - but I really dont want too much going on on the individual level when the diorama will have so much already.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy Sigismund and stay tuned for WIP shots of a big ugly dragon.

Sigismund, Emperor's Champion

Working on this fella for an Imperial Fists diorama (great crusade era) featuring Legionaires in mk's III & IV armour battling against maybe orks? With Sigismund at the fore.

As you can see, he's not quite finished and I'm still waiting on those forgeworld kits. I also have to build a diorama box but I cant decide whether to make it a corner of a box or one with 3 sides.

I'm hoping to have it finished by November 22nd for a painting contest my local GW is running.

Wish me luck, and as always - constructive criticism is encouraged.

Sculpting progress

Been doing some sculpting today. Duke Sliscus' flayed skin cloak is very nearly complete, maybe an extra patch of skin sewn on or maybe too. 2 trueborns with shardcarbines now have cloaks underway also.

It really surprised me how long it was taking to complete the fabric cloaks compared to Sliscus' cloak, especially considering the level of detail going into the stitches, a face and a few fingers. I was really having some trouble with the folds and contours in the cloaks.
Perhaps I'll start the trueborn's cloaks again and this time make them from 'a very rare leather'.

Black Guard, Trueborns and more

Work continues on the Black Guard. Yellow, I've decided was a bad choice for the cloaks. It takes so damn long per layer!

Here are those Dark Eldar Trueborns with Duke Sliscus I mentioned a while back. I went to sculpt the cloaks only to find that my greenstuff had fouled, so I had to buy some more. The paint scheme for these looks terrible, ergo I am repainting them once they're sculpted (obviously) to match the rest of the army. 

Here's a closer shot of the Duke himself, with the beginnings of his flayed skin toga which I sculpted from milliput. The rest of it will be with greenstuff. 

Also, this happened. I like it.

Working on Dark Elves

This morning, I've been working on dark elves again - freehand on the banner plus some highlights.
Cleaned up some previously built Black Guard for priming this afternoon. They'll be painted much the same as the rest of the army, only with yellow cloaks.
The Black Guard will be increased to a 20 strong unit for added survivability - pesky archers and war machines are bound to want to shoot an unbreakable unit of ASF great weapon wielding elites.

I think I'll give the infinity stuff a rest for a week or so and get a couple of units of dark elves finished :)

Mmmm progress

Got some nice freehand done for the Knight's banner. Some sweet close-ups of the knight also. Still a lot of work to do but I'm proud of the thing so far. I also did some more work on those dark elf swordsmen from ages ago.

Enjoy.

WIP Fusiliers

Here are some Infinity Panoceania minis I'm working on at the moment. As with all of my Infinity stuff, metal is non metallic and they feature varying degrees of object source lighting.

WIP Imperial Knight

As promised, more work in progress pics :)