chimera tank auction ending today!

Don't forget, today is your last chance to bid on the chimera tank !

New step by step articles teaser, Blight Drone Tutorial extract and tutorial section launched

I am really happy to present you the new article and tutorial section !
You can find it linked on the front page.

For this blog is also a kind of diary, of my projects and thoughts, there are many posts just showing wip pictures and I think nobody wants to browse through all the months of posting, just to see wether there is something useful for him.
Every tutorial, product review and some philosophy articles, that had a great resonence, will be linked in the new section, sorted by name and category.
In the moment, there are just 6 articles, but the number will grow.

Right now I am working at three new ones, bigger  than any of the old ones.
There will be step by step articles, I remember how often I read the ones available when I started painting and they often were a great help. Whether you paint the same miniature, using the same techniques and colors or just using one effect, there is much to learn.

There will be one for the nurgle blight drone from forgeworld, one for creating fast but awesome  buildings for the gaming table and one explaining how to paint a vehicle squadron, fast and with stunning results. (aiming for the quality of the ork burna bommer and the  chimera tank (which is available at ebay until tomorrow evening) )

Writing them, taking all the pictures (which can be everything from hard to funny when you are alone) and editing them takes quite a time, but I'll present you an extract from the blight drone tutorial today :)
Maybe someone can use the effect achieved with the green armour. Whole article will follow soon.

...the model and socket were primed using the two component method, which means you spray the whole thing black first (everything should be covered, same procedure as usual). Then a coat of white spray is applied, sprayed from above the model and lightly, so the upper areas are covered in white, while all the shadows stay dark grey to black. This method has two benefits, you see where shadows and lights will be placed later and the color gets a better surface to stick to, because this method creates a rougher ground ( the eye won't see the difference, but the paint will notice for sure :) )

The next step is masking all the areas, we don't want to be green. The tamyia clear colors we will use as finish create a real flat and slippery surface and as I head to learn the hard way on another project, it is really hard to paint on that surface later.

I use tamyia masking tape, but you also can use different tapes, just be sure to stick them to any surface a few times before using them on the model, so it won't take the color with it when unmasked.

Now the airbrush work begins. I use a low pressure, around 1 bar. The colors are thinned in seperate cups, to avoid that flakes of paint jam our spray gun. The thinner is Tamyia X20-A thinner (GW colors wont work for airbrushing if thinned with water). Be sure to wear a mask and open every window you can while working with this stuff!

All GW Colors are diluted ca 6 parts thinner, 1 part paint, but I have to admit I never really care, it is more an intuitive thing for me when I am in workflow.

The clears just need little dilution.

Our first color is Games Workshop Castellan Green. We spray rough and big areas where our shadows should be later. Work with thin coats of paint, going over and over the model again! We don't want a covering layer, but many transparent ones that create a natural color gradient. I spray the lower parts of the big side areas and preshade the rims of every plate, where the next plate joins the last one.

For the next step we mix a small amount of GW Incubbi Darkness into our basic color. Again we use several transparent layers to make our shadow areas darker, taking care to spray smaller areas then in step 1! This adds contrast to our gradient.

To finish our shadow areas mix in a small amount of GW Abbadon Black. Again, light transparent color layer, just applied in the lowest areas and the rims. You can repeat the mixing in of more black as often as you wish, I used 2 different darker tones.



Time to enlighten the whole thing! We take pure Castellan Green again and mix in a small amount of GW Flash Git Yellow. Be carefull, the yellow has a real strong impact on the green and we dont want our first layer to bright!

Look at the still white areas in the pictures above, that is were we spray our ligt color. By leaving them white we have a bright surface and applied color will be bright and shiny. We would need much more layers if this area would be as dark as the rest of our drone has become. A very light layer is sprayed overlapping with the shadow area, to smooth the gradient.

The whole gradient needs more contrast and we mix in more Fash Git Yellow. Again, transparent layers and smaller areas covered with color.

For our final highlits I mixed in a little more Flash Git Yellow and a small amount of GW White Scar. The result is a very bright and shiny tone.

Now the basic work is finished. Lets achieve the shiny/slimy/demonic glow effect ...

First three coats of GW Ardcoat (gloss varnish) were applied to provide a shiny surface and strengthen the effect of the clears.

These colors are great. Applied to a white surface they will colorize it, as more layers you apply, as stronger shine and color will be. But you can also use them on colores surfaces, to add some more depth, vary the tone and so on. (Thats another reason why we left the highlight areas white during the first steps, the clear will have a great effect in this areas).

There were some problems with the camera and sadly some pictures are missing, I'll try to explain and show you the result of the clear work...

I started with two coats of clear green, this colorizes everything and adds shine.

The upper areas were then sprayed with a few layers of clear yellow, because the green had somehow weakened the yellowish appearence of the highlight areas (which I really liked).

The shadow areas were sprayed with a little clear blue.



...

I hope you enjoyed that little extract.

Read you soon

New atelier finished, new team member and thanks to my readers...

Everything is new then I guess.
There were so much changes during the last months, moving into the new flat with my best friend, getting my own atelier room (well, in the end everything has a good side, I just got the room because our friends were to loud to use it during nights for gaming) and getting more and more interior, using old furniture from the streets (thanks to everyone who threw away my new interior :) ).
Now I reached a special point, it is time to say  the biggest part is finished.
There are always minor changes, but everything is here now.
Enough room for 4 painters (not that there actually ARE 4 painters, but I like to have visitors), enough room to store my materials and projects, a place to assemble, a place to paint, a place to airbrush and finally again some music.

The team itself also changed three times. Some of you might remember. Trying to share this blog with people who were important to me was a great thing, as long as it worked...which wasn't that long in both cases.

I don't know whether you two are still reading this, but thanks, for a great time, many laughs and so much creativity. I am glad we had our time.

Now it is just me left, and because that can be very lonely from time to time, I decided to get someone new into business...(well, she is a sort of visitor for two months) 



She is trying to paint with me (some would say she just likes biting my brushes when I use them...) and is my main source of inspiration and good mood this days. Love her.

It has been a long time now, nearly 8 months since we started this blog and although it went into a never expected direction, I love doing it. And I won't stop, thats sure.

The last months were a period of trying, and much learning.

That things now will have their impact here, for example there will be an article section soon, inspired by the great blog Massive Voodoo (who inspired me to start this whole thing in the first place). There are tons of cool things here, but it is really hard to find them, if you don't know they are existing.

I am also looking forward for the biggest article that I did so far...a complete step by step guide to paint vehicle squadrons in short time and high gaming quality. Finishing him will take some time, but it will be very cool I promise.

I'd like to end todays post with saying thanks to you..thanks to all my followers, for I enjoy every time a new one decides to follow. Thanks to all the people reading the blog, it is an incredible feeling to know that sometimes over 300 people see my projects per day.

And special thanks to everyone who takes a minute to type a comment from time to time, your feedback is a great thing and makes me happy all the times.

If you got some hints, how to improve this blog let me know my friends.

Have a nice day, with some colorful moments...

Martin

Chimera on Ebay now

Another model hits the bay, another chance for you to get your hands on something I made.
This is the second time I have to sell a model, and what shall I say, it gets easier to accept it will leave next sunday.

You can find high resolution pictures here at Cmon: http://www.coolminiornot.com/311408
Thanks to everyone, who takes the minute to vote! Your ratings are my advertisement and without your help, there would possibly be no selling.

And here is the link to Ebay:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/271031214478?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

As always, the first bid is 1 Euro. Take your chance and get him ;)