Mittwoch, 28. November 2012

Nurgle Blight Drone Step by Step

Welcome to the next Step by Step!
This time, we'll paint the Nurgle Blight Drone from Forgeworld.
You will notice, that there is a socket in the first pictures, which was replaced with a normal gaming base.
The project changed during its process, I decided to use the drone as gaming model in my new Nurgle army.
The base won't be finished during the article, because I have to wait for some basing materials.
As the whole thing became gaming stuff, there are areas which could need a little bit more work, but hey, investing more time wouldn't be a problem for cabinet stuff.

We start as usual, with our list of needed stuff:
Games Workshop colors:
Castellan Green
Incubbi Darkness
Abbadon Black
Flash Git Yellow
White Scar
Nurgling Green
Slanesh Grey
Deamonette Hide
Sreaming Scull

Brass Scorpion
Screaming Bell

Vallejo colors:
Dark Sea Blue
Silver

Tamyia colors:
Clear Green
Clear Yellow
Clear Blue
Tamyia Thinner XV-20A

oil color:
Burnt Umber
White Spirit

Ard'Coat Gloss Varnish
Lamyian Medium Matte Varnish

Masking Tape

Part One - the armour

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 will 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 colored 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.


Then we apply some more gloss varnish to protect our work.

Part two - the skin

We start with Nurgling Green as basic color, and add Slanesh Grey where shadows would be, using the wet in wet technique, which means we cover the area with Nurgling Green that is creamy and add thick Slanesh Grey direct on the model, while the Green is still wet, then we blend both together, using the miniature as palette.


Paint small areas, so the color doesn't dry to fast.



We add more Slanesh Grey to the shadows, using thinned layers.




Now we add Deamonette Hide to the shadows, covering smaller and smaller areas.



For the last shadows, we add Dark Sea Blue to our mixture.
The lights were painted using mixtures of Nurgling Green and Sreaming Scull.



Some of the more rotten areas were covered with Lamenters Yellow, but it didn't effect the end result, after the oiling. Because I want to own a finished army in about ten years, I decided not to work this areas out.
Now the oil color is applied to the skin, after some drying we remove the bigger part of it with a clean brush and white spirit.
The goal is to add more depth to the wrinkles.




Part three - the metal bits

Again, some trouble during my last system crash, some pictures missing. So I'll describe what I did and show the results, but I think you can see what I did.
I used Brass Scorpion as basic color for all the metal parts. The i painted Screaming Bell to random metal bits, to achieve a variation of tones. The Screaming Bell will bring out a red metal color.
I mixed Vallejo Silver into the colors to highlight them and used more and more Abbadon Black to create shadows.








I painted all metal parts this way, painted the big lens with dark flesh, mixed with screamin scull to highlight.

Part four - The result

Now lets see how all this comes together.






I know this article is short at some points, but the most important part, the demonic armour, is detailed.
You can find many great tutorials in the web, using oil color and painting skin tones, metal etc.
I hope you learned something new here and maybe I could inspire a few.

Greets Martin


Sonntag, 25. November 2012

A big thank you!

Hi my dear readers,
todays post is just for you.
Last week, we reached our first 50 followers.
During the last weeks, there were a lot questions around the internet, what this is all about?
Why follow, why some bloggers do more to get them, why blogging, teasing, etc.

So I thought I'd answer this questions from my view.

What does a follower mean to me?
Well, I don't get money for them, and hell, I wouldn't want to! One more follower means one more human, one more art loving and/or doing person that liked what I said/did.
One more person, that waits for news, thought my work is good enough to follow and decided to show this.
I am really happy, when I see how many people liked what grew here through the last year, how many people read here every day (up to 300 persons when we post something new!).
I mean, how cool is that? When I started painting, there were a few families in my town with internet, of cause, mine not.
Looking for some painting wisdom, I went to the town's library and browsed for 50 Cent per hour.
And now, years later, painting and learning new stuff is so much easier, it's so much around, you can't get it all.
This is a beautiful evolution and we all win there.
Every reader and follower means more spread wisdom, techniques, hobby.
Our hobby grows and we become more than the sum of our parts.
Knowing that I can add my part to this, this is what followers mean to me.

Why blogging?
I like to document my work and I like to share this, this means a lot of work.
Tons of pictures that have to be taken and reworked at the pc, texts have to be written and all this in two languages.
 Some forums allow only a limited number of pictures per post, some have just national readers, and most I know have terrible complicated uploaders.
The blog is the easiest and fastest way for me to document my work, everyone who wants to read it can get here easy and I don't need hours to upload stuff.
And, most important, it shows the whole picture. The improvement, lost projects, that had so much potential but will never see a gallery post, the feelings, thoughts in short, the person behind the work.
I think, this way fits me best.

And now, the part about thank you...
I'd like to give something away to say thank you.
Right now, we are thinking about possible things, like a miniature, painted by one or all of us, maybe a special one that will be given away every time we hit a new mark. So there would be a collection of them out there, each one unique.
This won't happen that fast, but it will.
And now the clever part:
I decided to choose one of the FIRST 50 randomly.
Every time we hit a mark that seems important to us, we will give something to the people already following.
So the ones that follow us since a long time get it.
I think this is quite fair.

Have a nice evening my friends, I'll edit some drone pics and my cats are really demanding right now ;)

Hallo liebe Leser,
der heutige Post ist für euch.
Letzte Woche haben wir die ersten 50 Follower erreicht.
In den letzten Wochen kamen im Netz einige Fragen auf, was hat es mit diesen Followern auf sich, warum tun manche so viel, um welche zu bekommen, warum bloggen die überhaupt alle...etc.

Also dachte ich, beantworte ich das mal aus meiner Sicht.

Was bedeutet mir ein Follower?
Gleich zu Beginn,  ich krieg kein Geld dafür und das ist auch gut so.
Einer mehr bedeutet, ein Mensch mehr, der Kunst liebt und/oder selbst ausübt und gut fand, was ich gemacht habe.
Eine Person mehr, die auf Neuigkeiten von uns warten, die all das hier gut genug fanden, um es regelmäßig besuchen zu wollen.
Ich bin wirklich glücklich wenn ich sehe, wie viele Leute mögen, was hier im letzten Jahr entstanden ist, wie viele Leute wir täglich erreichen (bis zu 300 pro Tag!).
Wie cool ist das denn bitte?
Als ich mit dem Malen anfing, gab es in unserem Ort eine Hand voll Haushalte mit Internet...unserer zählte natürlich nicht dazu.
Um etwas neues zu lernen, ging ich noch in die Stadtbibliothek und surfte für 50 Cent die Stunde.
Und heute, ein paar Jahre später, ist alles viel weiter, Wissen wartet überall im Netz darauf gefunden und angewandt zu werden, so viel, dass man gar nicht alles aufnehmen kann!
Ich finde, dass ist eine wunderbare Entwicklung in der jeder gewinnt.
Jeder Leser und Follower bedeutet Wissen, Inspiration und Freude, die verbreitet worden sind.
Unser Hobby wächst und wird mehr als die Summe seiner Teile.
Dazu einen Teil beizutragen, das bedeutet ein Follower für mich.

Warum das geblogge?
Ich dokumentiere meine Arbeit sehr gern und verbreite das auch, das bedeutet allerdings eine Menge Arbeit.
Viele Fotos machen und nachbearbeiten, Texte in zwei Sprachen verfassen und das alles noch online stellen.
Manche Foren erlauben nur eine limitierte Anzahl Bilder pro Post, manche haben eine regional beschränkte Leserschaft und fast alle, die ich kenne, haben schreckliche Uploader.
Der Blog ist für mich der schnellste und einfachste Weg meine Arbeit zu teilen, jeder kann ihn leicht finden und ich brauch keine Stunden für das Erstellen der Posts.
Für mich am wichtigsten, es zeigt das ganze Bild auf einen Schlag. Fortschritte, Rückschläge, verlorene Projekte, in denen viel Inspiration steckte, die es aber nie zum fertigen Werk schaffen werden, Gedanken, Gefühle, kurz, die Person hinter der Arbeit.
Ich habe für mich entschieden, dass der Blog die angenehmste und passendste Art für mich ist.

Und nun zum Dankeschön...
Ich würde gern etwas verschenken, um Danke zu sagen.
Momentan überlegen wir noch, was ein schönes und individuelles Geschenk wäre, vlt eine von einem oder allen von uns bemalte Mini, vlt eine, die wir zu jeder von uns gesetzten Marke wieder bemalen und verlosen.
Es wird eine Weile dauern, aber definitv passieren.
Und nun zur Besonderheit.
Wir verlosen unter den ERSTEN 50 Followern, so dass die Leute, die schon länger dabei sind,  das Dankeschön bekommen.
Das wird dann auch jedes mal so laufen, immer unter den jeweils ersten X Followern,
So haben Neulinge bei der nächsten Marke die Chance und die alten Hasen öfter.
Ich denke, das ist ziemlich fair.

Schlaft gut Leute, ich bearbeit noch ein paar Drohnenfotos und dann hör ich auch schon die Katzen nach Aufmerksamkeit rufen...








Sonntag, 11. November 2012

Introducing: Putty and Paint

Hey folks,
much work for my studies at the moment, so the step by step will take a little longer, but I have something to sweeten the waiting time ;)

Yesterday, a great page launched and I want to share it with you.
I am talking about: Putty and Paint !

This is a new online gallery, already featuring some of the worlds most talented miniature artists.
Why not painters? Well, as the name suggests, it is about all hobby aspects, not just painting.
A nice and fair voting system, the easiest upload I saw so far, great design.
What are you waiting for?
Check it out!

For me, this is way better than Cmon and worth a membership!

Also a little WIP, speed paint again. Had a nice weekend with some painting friends who visited Dresden.




Stay tuned and have a nice week, I'll travel to Prague to see Parov Stelar and I am pretty sure I'll come back full of inspiration and energy :)

Donnerstag, 8. November 2012

Finally Pictures

Aloha to you, dear reader.
I finally managed to take some pictures of the last few projects, I finished. And I noticed, that it has been over 1 1/2 years since I posted some of my miniatures - oh, what a shame.....
So, enough words, bring in the pics:


King Maulg, Lord of the Trolls
Figorin 54 mm



King Leonidas
Yedharo 54 mm



The Lord of Carnage, Champion of Khorne
Games Workshop/Scratchbuild 32 mm



Conan, the ursuper
Nucturna Models 54 mm



Lord of Decay, Champion of Nurgle
Games Workshop 32 mm



Blood Angle
Games Workshop 32 mm



I really had some fun painting all these little fellows, especially the Space Marine on his Juggernaut was a real pleasure. Both the conversion and the painting process taught me so much....

So, I hope you like this bunch of guys
Greetz Bloody