I’m getting more used to posting works in progress, though I still don’t enjoy the mess :)
I felt I had to pop this up though, as in response to a post over at the Brush Brothers where you can see someone achieving what I’m trying :)
The brush brothers post has shown me I need to push my contrast harder. I’m getting some smooth blending, but its too subtle in the colour range.
Now, this isn't finished, I had planned to take the gold to white, the silver isn't even started yet and the furs need more. I did think I’d done with the armour, and I am for this model, as I’ve done battle damage and some feeble freehand already, but the next one will get more contrast.
So what am I trying to achieve?
I’ve a post coming about my armies and my next project, but basically I’m going to build a Loganwing. (I know, let the next post deal with the wailing and gnashing of teeth, I know it sucks, but let’s talk about the model for now, the army later :)) Mainly because I’ve always fancied and all termie army and the wolves just have the coolest fit for this.
I decided to try and do a good job on the paint for each model. I know this doesn't look like it yet, but I’m going to be learning a lot here and setting myself new challenges. I’m not using any washes. I’ve become too reliant on GW’s “make everything look better juice” so washes are out. metallics are out, and NMM is in, smooth blends are in, paint chips are in and crappy freehand is in, cos gods know I need to practice that.
I still haven't got the bottle to freehand the wolf that walks between stars though, I’m going touched up transfer there.
Anyway, I hadn't posted in a week, so I thought I’d let you know what I was up to.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned, cos he might look better when he’s finished!
Be interesting to see how these turn out as nmm can make or break a model though I'm sure with some practice you will crack it and will look forward to seeing how you do it.
ReplyDeleteI've got the same issue with NMM when I paint up my power weapons. I just need to break out of my shell and go for more extreme contrast (and a good bit of trial and error) to fix it up.
ReplyDeleteHaha! 'make everything look better juice' love it!
ReplyDeleteI love the color of the armor here, what was your recipe?
Looking great so far!
I'm trying to get into some NMM and I'm still trying to master blending in general. I'm wondering how thin you make the paint when you are trying to do the smooth gradations like that? Would love advice on your process in general, thanks :)
ReplyDeleteHi guys, thanks for dropping by and commenting.
ReplyDeleteO'shasar, I'm interested to see how i do too :) although it's not my first nmm, having done normal wolves, some gk, and mordheim figs, oh and a chaos warrior. however this model has probarbly the largest uninterupted smooth areas ive tried to do it on, and it's been a while :)
Phillip, yeah I can and have pushed the highlights, which has helped, just need to remember that specular highlihgt cos without it, theres no gleam
Whencannonscade the armour colour is totally stolen and mixed from various schemes on the web. so i claim no credit. but the recepie is - darkest shadows, VMC Basalt + VMC dark sea blue then Dark sea blue. mid tone is VMC french mirage blue then introducing space wolf grey for the highlights, with fanal highlight being to add a tip of VMC ice yellow.
Ninja s, thats an interesting question, and the (totally unhelpful) short answer is "it depends"
for a smooth blend on a large flat surfac you need to be quite dilute, say 10-1 or more, but for the final highlight gleam on the gold, maybe only 2-1 just to help consistency. I think the main things to remember, try and experiment with are -
the paint is pigment suspended in fluid. we can make the fluid thinner, and help us shove the pigment around easier.
when painting with thin paint, dry your brush before it touched the model.
paint from where you want the least pigment to where you want the most. dragging the pigment with you
dont get frustrated and expect big changes with 1 brush stroke, you want to see slow gradual change with each stroke.
Maybe this will get it's own post sometime, but for now, I hope that helped.