Large scale diorama finished and much painting done (of sorts)

Well luck was with me and I did get to do more paving work, but on Christmas eve.  I did the mortar work on Christmas day however.  Then a rest day on Boxing day and onto assembly of $800 of Ikea furniture and two clear coats on all the wooden bits (with the wife helping out so the job only took half the time).  So much painting was done, but most of it was with a 2 1/2 inch brush ;)

So nice now the blood and sweat is washed away

Sometime in all that we had Christmas and I routed out two table tops which are next in the pipeline.  But apparently this blog is about miniature painting too…

Given the time constraints I targeted a few small areas.  First off was the shotgun, which I’m 80% of the way there.  Happy with the result so far.  I will have the shotgun with the hammers facing the ground to try and hide the fact the piece was miscast and only has one hammer.

Two barrels, one hammer.

Second was the start of the dust work on the boots.  I did a glaze of AP Desert Yellow followed by a mixture glaze by adding some VGC Earth until a final glaze of almost full VGC Earth was done.  I will be using pigments to finish off the dusting but will do that just before the varnish coat as pigments are too messy to be hanging around for long.

Dusty boots

I also used a much reduced version of the first dust glaze on all the armour to give it a bit more depth (and less shine).  The result was very good.  The shine is gone, but the highlights and shadows are still there.  Also a few bumps and hollows have been picked up and in all the armour is finally getting to what I want.  Took a long time but I’m no longer worried about the armour finish.

Ammo and armour

I also finished off the ammo belt front and did each of the shotgun shells.

Yep, that doesn't work at all

Lastly I had another go at the puffy right top sleeve.  I just can’t get what I want and the few attempts so far just don’t tone with the rest of the figure.  The colours grate.  I tried some yellow on the deep recessed parts of the sleeve but it came out much too bold.  Just going to have to try something else there.  Failing that it’s time to cut my loses and go total repaint.

More armour shading and large scale diorama work

Get me painted!

So the never ending quest for metallic shading continues on El Torres as I reworked his entire front breastplate another two times.  Just can’t seem to get what I’m after here.  The full bloom effect is now gone thankfully and I’ve reduced the spot highlights down to two small areas on the middle part of the breastplate.

I’ve also cleaned up the face a little and starting detailing up the ammo belt that he wears across his chest.  I think I’m going to have to stop working on the armour otherwise it will end up death by a thousand cuts.  Plus the more you fiddle on a figure, the more likely you end up with a mess of lumpy paint and inconsistent shading.

Rusty tongs, wood post optional

I’ve also painted up the rusty tongs.  The rust was done by painting on brown and then orange spots and then used pigments (red oxide, dark ochre) over the top.  I plan to varnish the tongs (to seal in the pigments) and then I’ll do an oil wash over everything.

On the Doom side I finished the six Hell Knights.  They are now waiting for a varnish before being put back in the box never to be used again :)

Just like a real one

Also I stained and varnished the display plinth.  Next step is to add some putty/clay/something to the top to make the ground level for the figure.  I might even use the modelling foam I have as that is very easy to work and not as messy as clay.  Good thinking Batman.

Road base done, just add sand, pavers and sweat

I had hoped to do a bit more but I’ve been working all weekend on a large scale 1:1 diorama.  Many trips to the hardware store and much shovel work was involved.  If I’m really lucky I’ll get to do some paving on Christmas after lunch.

Merry Christmas to all and I hope Santa got all your letters.

El Torres and display plinth

As usual a few different painting streams going on this week.

Firstly the Doom figures are moving slowly.  I’ve finished the shading on 5 out of 6 Hell Knight figures so may be able to finish them all off next week.

Getting tired of being on this stick

Secondly I worked on the breastplate and shoulder pad of El Torres.  I’m pretty happy with the back, but I’m thinking the front is too clean and shiny.  I need to add some damage wear to make the whole thing look more realistic.  At the moment he looks like he just stepped out of the buffing machine.  I also cleaned up a few mistakes where I had missed with the brush and also tidied up his left eye.  I still need to clean up a few marks on his face where the blending isn’t good enough and you can see the different colour lines.

Hello Mr Hell Knight in the distance

Since the photos I have also worked on this ammo strap at the back and the smaller straps on the knees/elbows that hold on his armour there.  My dark to light mix there was

VMC German Black Brown
VGC Earth
VGC Khaki
VMC Iraqi Sand

Thirdly I’ve started working on the display plinth.  Originally I was going to use a rectangular piece of pine but changed my mind when I saw a raw wood lounge leg in Mitre 10.  These legs are the kind that screw into the bottom of your lounge and can be stained to suit.  Not sure how you would loose a lounge leg in the first place.

Traditional Cedar stain test

I removed the screw, plugged the screw hole with a piece of dowel that I glued in and reduced the height by approx 1/3.  With the wood that was removed I did some test stains/paints.  I tried enamel satin black, a Japan black stain and a “Traditional Cedar” stain.  The picture is with the traditional cedar with I think looks the best.

So next week will hopefully be more Hell Knights, armour damage on El Torres and starting the diorama extras (gun, cup, tongs) for El Torres.  Also I need to go back and have another try on the sandstone.

Weekly update

Still grumpy

This week I’ve been continuing on with two streams of painting.  First off I’m working on some more of the Doom Hell Knights at lunch time fixing up the shading.  I have the first figure I completed as a guide and am slowing getting through the figures.

Secondly I have started the metallic shading on El torres.  I’ve done the knee pads, elbow pads, gloves and lower armour skirt so far.  I’m pretty happy with the progress as there isn’t any big obvious line of black paint in the shadow areas but instead the shadow areas just look darker.  I can’t paint this at night as the lights reflect too much of the metallic paint.  I need some natural light it get the highlights right.  My dark to light paint mix is

VMC Black
Citadel Blotgun metal (old range)
Citadel Chainmail (old range)
VMC Silver
VMA Aluminium

The aluminium is used just for the extreme edge light bloom as it really pops.  So next daylight session I have I’ll finish off the breastplate and top shoulder pad.

Knee pad action

I’ve also started making notes on all the mistakes I’ve noticed so far, e.g. where I accidentally brushed some metallic on the pants.  That way I can have a clean up session and not miss something which I saw one day but forgot/didn’t see later on.

These are slightly smaller than Vallejo bottles

I have a number of old Citadel and Reaper paints that are slowing drying out.  To extend their life and increase paint density on the desk I purchased some paint dropper bottles off eBay (20 15ml bottles for $5) and decanted the old paints into the new bottles.  I also purchased another Miniature Scenery dropper paint rack from The Combat Company as well.

While at The Combat Company I picked up a copy of F.A.Q 2 from AK Interactive.  300 pages of AFV painting and weathering techniques gold with great quality pictures.  Looking forward to reading this.  I also got some complementary glow in the dark dice.  Cool but pretty silly unless you play games under a black light :)