Painting Stuff

 Just posting something here to prove I haven't died yet...

Cloud WIP New Progress

Howdy folks!

Did some fun progress on Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 and wanted to give an update.

I didn't snap any photos before this step, but essentially I did the excruciating work on the sword.

I started with blacklining all the shading of the sword, which takes a good wet palette, a teeny pointed brush, and some infinite patience. Making sure your brush point is, well, on point, and having thin black paint is critical. Holding your breath before you draw the line and exhaling once you start also helps, and a big factor is confidence in your brush stroke. Committing to the line without stopping makes things so much easier for you in the long run, as picking up halfway is really tough when making the black line consistent in line weight. Also being ready with a wet brush with only water helps erase mistakes before they dry, but that's a last resort for only big mistakes as the result is unpredictable. Also keep in mind that your highlights can fix the majority of your mistakes in blacklining will help prevent unnecessary modifications that you can't undo.

For the tiny little squares in the blade I used a wash to line instead of paint, it gives you more leeway in application and you can always add more to darken the line, but with paint you're giving yourself more chances to screw up in such a small space.

I then had mixes of my greys and whites for the edge highlights, which is what makes the finished product look awesome. Until this step you won't see the fruits of your labor, but once you get done with this you really see your NMM silver come together. Without this step it just looks bland and unintentional. Here you have to keep in mind how the light will reflect off the edges, and to not just have a single solid white highlight on the entire thing, it has to play with the colors beneath and only be a step above where it's reflecting. Because the blade edge is on a different plane then the flat of the blade I stepped up the white so it looks like it's reflecting harder than the flat space. I also kept in mind that the hilt of the blade needed to appear as a different material so I kept the color closer to neutral gray than the blade to give the impression of a block of sturdy metal rather than steel.

Lastly I carefully placed a very very very light glaze of turquoise in select areas of the blade to give the impression of steel reflecting sky. This makes the grey stand out much more and gives more of an impression of reflection than just using greys and whites.

Here is where I completed the hair, eyes, and a very small touchup of the face. The hair was based earlier with VGC Heavy Brown. I lined the shadows with GW Agrax Earthshade to give it definition. I then highlighted with a 50/50 VGC Heavy Brown and VGC Heavy Gold Brown. The trick to painting hair is to treat it just like NMM, where your reflections are coming from the bends of the hair and concentrating more on the middle portions of the shape rather than the traditional top-down edge highlighting technique most are familiar with. Once that was done a tighter highlight of just VGC Heavy Gold Brown followed by another highlight of adding white to the mix finished the hair.

The eyes, as almost all my eyes, are a happy accident. Every time it's a gamble and likely takes multiple attempts until I feel satisfied enough to leave them alone, especially when a model like this has a tiny eyeball. My normal technique was applied here. Earlier I did a small wash in the sockets to guide me and give more contrast to the eyes. I then painted the entire eye black, and finally come in with two small dots in the corners. This is a much better technique than painting the eye white then going in for the pupil in my opinion, as it is very tough to get the bottom of the pupil to meet the bottom eyelid, and if you don't you'll either get crazy eyes or the model is always looking up/down. It's also much harder to get the pupils to look in the same direction that way. With two dots in the corners you get a more pronounced pupil that stands out on the table better and is more likely to be the same size and look in the same direction. Granted, when I zoom in on the eyes, like, super zoom, the left eye is absolutely perfect and the right is just straight wonky, so take the advice with a grain of salt. Like I said early, it's a gamble, and I usually just leave it alone if it works well enough.

Here I started repainting the base. Although the previous base looks okay in photos, it's under a harsh light. When in normal lighting it's just too dark and he doesn't contrast well. I decided to go lighter and stuck with grey. Even though this whole model is almost entirely black, grey or white, I figured it would look different enough, especially with some washes and grass.

And here he is as he stands today. I ended up redoing the base twice essentially. I drybrushed some grey and white to bring up the brightness after washing the base with Secret Weapon Soft Body Black wash, but it was looking super bland and remedial. So I then added GW Agrax Earthshade and GW Nuln Oil to various areas to increase the contrast. I think I'll go back in with more drybrushing of grey/white to pick up more detail now that the contrast will show better.

All I'll have left after that is to paint his clothing and add some details to the base and he'll be ready to continue not getting over Aeris and moping around with existential quandaries and whatnot.

Malifaux WIP - Tara

Hey folks!

This weekend I also did some major work on Tara, using that awesome galaxy base I made and showed in the previous update a a little while back. I am absolutely pleased with how she's coming along, and only a few more (anxiety-inducing) steps away from being ready to rock!

I was painting her alongside the Cloud miniature I showed earlier and forgot to take pictures as I did the steps because I got too caught up in the work :)

Essentially prior to this stage I had her sticky-tacked to a stand to paint her off the base. I used VMA Dark Panzer Gray, then added some VGA Cold Grey until it was a pure grey. I initially wanted her clothes to be as black as Cloud's but let the grey get a little away from me. She still is pretty dark, so I'm okay with it.

I also painted the skin on her arm with a brush very quickly just so I can airbrush the blue where her arm is transforming into the claw. I picked blue because this is what I plan on painting her more alien crew members as, although I hyped up the lightness for her to make it stand out. On the other members of her crew, like the Nothing Beast and Void Wretches, I plan on going much darker with this blue being very sparing, just to make the OSL pink pop more. But with such a small area of "monster" on her I feel I needed to embellish the color to make it noticeable. A dark blue/black wouldn't look good and would get lost in the model. For the blue I used VMA Blue and VGA Electric Blue, a color I've been obsessed with ever since I painted that Blood Bowl commission a long time ago.

Here you see me finishing the skin tones in the arm and face. I used my tried-and-true combo of colors from Reaper, Golden Skin Shadow, Golden Skin and Golden Skin Highlight. Simple, but effective, and my favorite combo of colors for skin. I didn't use any wash so I could keep the values nice and soft. The trick is to paint the golden skin shadow opaque, but since it's over black it's a bit darker. When you're done doing the rest of the skin, you go back over where the layers are, well, layered, and do a small amount of shadow over the lines to blend it together. When it's painted over the base Golden Skin, it comes out with a much different tone and blends the two layers extremely well.

For the eyes, because they are just so ridiculously tiny, I decided to keep it very simple when I was in the middle of painting them. A trick I use when wanting to give a dark, ominous feel to a model's eyes, is to do a light wash of black in the sockets. This helps guide where my paint needs to go later when painting in the actual white and irises, but if you do it light enough to let the skin tone show through it really helps frame the eyes and gives that really creepy look to them. If you're doing a non-creepy set of eyes, swap out the black wash for a flesh wash. The definition does a ton of work for you but helps your eyes pop (not literally).

In this case I new they were just too damn small to do that. I originally wanted to recreate what I did for the Malifaux Child's eyes, where I painted the eyeballs grey and added bone to the mix and left it with no pupils to give it a dead, otherworldly stare. But it's just too damn small. So instead I did a heavier wash of black and made it look like nothing. She does have nothingness in her fluff, so I guess a black set of eyes does the trick of explaining my not-doing-more-workness.

I think it did a great job, because it puts the Golden Skin Highlight of her cheek bones right next a line of black, which does a great job of defining the face and where the eyes are and helps make the skin contrast very well.

Lastly, on this step I also did an additional drybrush of white/grey on the stones of the base, because they didn't stand out well enough in natural light. Once that was done I glued her to the base to make it easier to paint.

Here is her backside :)

Okay, a ton of work was done in this photo. I used GW Nuln Oil and a small brush to glaze the shading in her grey clothes. This was pretty time consuming. Then I took shades of Black, Cold Grey and and maybe some white, to line each crease of her clothing next to the black glazing. This was even more time consuming and frustrating. There are a lot of areas where I am just completely unhappy, but really the overall look is good, and when you're not staring under intense light and 6 inches away you will likely not notice them. It may bug me, but I know it still looks pretty good.

Adding in these highlights definitely took it from looking maybe like black to definitely this is grey. This is what I was talking about with Cloud, where it's a really fine line between keeping a model black and stepping over the line into grey, but luckily she can get away with it as opposed to Cloud who has a defined look.

After the excruciating work of highlighting I also painted the leather elements with a mix of VMC Woodgrain and VMC Orange Brown to block it in. I originally did the same to the bands on her wrist and ankles, but decided that stood out too much and painted them black with a highlight of GW Shadow Grey and Space Wolves Grey. They get lost in the folds of the clothes, but I found that I actually don't want those to stand out. 

Also, Tara knows the faux pas of wearing a brown belt with black shoes, but since she's less than 2" tall she doesn't give a crap. She needed something to break up the grey fields, and I once saw a picture online of someone doing the brown belt over a dark grey coat like this and I liked the look, so sue me :)

Lastly, you'll see I did the hair, and I was super happy with how it turned out. Hair like this can be a pain, especially when you want it to look like black hair. You can't go grey with this, like how her clothes turned out. So I did a simple trick that keeps it black while still having nice highlights. I just painted in the "bends" some GW Shadow Grey in the direction of the hair and left the primer in the darkest areas. Then I painted some lines of GW Space Wolves Grey to highlight those areas. It was super quick and I think is highly effective, and although it's another grey it separates well from the rest of the model. The blue tone of the grey ties the clothes in with the arm and base. It's important to think of those things to make a model look uniform, especially when you have such a wide array of colors on a model like this. 

Here this wasn't too much extra done, mostly the arm. I used some GW Blue Glaze (I forget the name) and painted them in the crevices of the monster arm. I then took some GW Purple Wash (forgot the name of that too) and glazed in the heavier shaded areas. Lastly I mixed some VGA Electric Blue with a bit of white and selectively added edge highlights. But only highlighting small focal areas I made it look much darker than it started out to be, which I think will help tie it in with the crew models I'll paint slightly darker, or rather more emphasized on the darker areas. It will make more sense when I paint those guys.

Here I finished, or rather started working the leather areas. I took the original VMC Woodgrain/Orange Brown mix, added more Orange Brown until it was pure Orange Brown, then added VMC Dark Sand for highlighting. I did this haphazardly to show worn leather rather than a clean set of layers. I then washed it with Woodgrain and finally GW Nuln Oil. I ended up going back over with my highlight mix to show more areas of wear by slightly stippling/randomizing the highlights.

And this is where she stands today. I painted the belt buckle up quickly with some greys, and did work on the hilt of the sword. The hilt I painted as a challenge to myself to try to do more brush NMM work, using GW Shadow and Space Wolf Grey with white as the final highlight, with a small glaze of VGC Turquoise. Because it's so small even if I mess it up it doesn't stand out too badly. I feel like I did the front of the hilt well enough but just crapped out on the back side. Honestly it doesn't bug me even though it's objectively the worst part of the model, but it was fun to try out some challenging new things, and I feel like I can easily translate this to other models in the future. If I had just had my mixes out and ready on the palette rather than mixing on the fly I think I could have done this better. Overall I'm pleased.

Next up I'll have to paint the OSL glow on the sword and the hole in her chest. I am excited about the final look, but am terrified of doing this as one screw up will negate all the hard work I did on her clothes!

Final Fantasy 7 Cloud WIP

Howdy Folks!

Just gonna show a quick work-in-progress on a cool miniature I got from eBay, Cloud from Final Fantasy VII!

This was purchased as a vanity project, but I'm going to use him as a Wokou Raider proxy in my Parker Barrows crew until the models are available again.

Here is is primed black. Not much of a step but a crucial one :)

I did a very heavy coat of one of my workhorse colors, VMA Dark Panzer Grey. This is a very good color to use when wanting to paint "black" without just being, well, primer black. Black is a very tough color to show values for and easily steps into grey when done too much, and this color being used as one of the primary colors is what helps keep it dark while showing value.

Next step is a highlight of my other workhorse color, VGA Cold Grey. I love this color so much, it's probably one of my most used ones.

Add a little white to the Cold Grey for the next step, you can see it coming together on the NMM of the sword (which I drastically change later). I believe I keep this highlight to the sword and base only.

Then a final highlight of White on the sword. Bling!

I felt like experimenting on the base so I did a recipe I only did once before, and I think I will paint over this now that I've seen it in regular light, but for this step I did a heavy wash of Secret Weapons Miniatures Stone.

Then I blocked in some colors for the hilt and skin. The hilt is GW Foundation Mephiston Red, an out-of-production color that I love and will miss when the bottle runs dry. The skin is Reaper Golden Shadow.

I block in the hair to turn him from Zack to Cloud :) and drybrush the base with VGC Dead Flesh. The base ended up being too dark in natural light and doesn't contrast with Cloud's clothes/boots so I'll likely change this to a brighter color.

Here I did a major overhaul of the sword and added some "gleams" to the front and more to the back, along with brightening the edge of the sword. Under my hobby lights the original gleam looked good, but in natural light it was entirely too dark. I also noticed that behind his head was almost completely Dark Panzer Grey so I had to fix that up, it looked extremely odd that it was really bright up at the top of the front sword but then almost black by the head. This was a ton of frustrating work to get right, and even then I just settled rather than keep fidgeting with the sword. The hardest part was getting the edge completed without screwing up the earlier work done on the blade, and you may still be able to see the mess but I'll be able to cover it with the brush highlights.

Somewhere along the way you will see I finished the hilt, I hit it with a heavy wash of GW Agrax Earthshade then highlighted with a mix of GW Mephiston Red/Reaper Golden Skin. I also finished his skin tones for the face and arm, although I'm going to go back and add a bit more to the arm and clean up his cheek bone area to make him look less gaunt.

That's where he's at for now, once I do the brush highlights he will look a lot better.

The Walking Dead - Andrea Complete!

Hey internet people!

So on Saturday I managed to paint my first survivor for the Walking Dead miniatures game, and I'm very very very happy with how she turned out, especially for the time I spent.

I knew since the game arrived that this model would be the first survivor I'd paint. Andrea was my absolute favorite character from the comic (who was given a disservice in the television series, yet her character was still enjoyable). She was a person who didn't want to be a victim and took training into her own hands, and managed to become one of the most reliable soldiers of the group and the best shot.

It didn't hurt that she had the best sculpt of the game in my opinion. Very rarely do we see sculpts of characters squared up for shooting. There's a possibility of this pose being a difficult sculpt or something, or perhaps it's not a dynamic pose, but I find myself wanting to see more of this in miniatures. It's also great to see a female character not cheesed up with skimpy outfits or over-emphasized body shapes. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy these models, but they permeate every game I have or look at and we need less emphasis on games overall. I like a good cheesy model, especially in anime based games, but it's not needed everywhere, and in this game it would betray the character anyway.

So I started out with my mantra in mind (get it table ready) but wanted to spend a little more effort on the survivors as they are the stars of the show. With this in mind I thought of quick techniques to utilize that still look professional - smooth textures for the shirt and leather, but drybrush for the jeans for speed. Lighter washes throughout the clothing to give smoothness and speed.

So with a light grey basecoat I sprayed 50/50 VGA Wolf Grey/VGA Shadow Grey for a lighter blue gray base. I then zenithal sprayed Wolf Grey then a light spray of Wolf Grey/White for the final highlights. I took SWM Storm Cloud Wash, which is a close color to the blue greys of Shadow and Wolf, mixed it with a few drops of GW Lahmian Medium to give more matte to the finish while keeping the wash viscosity properties, and a drop or two of water to make it more runny. I took this wash and heavily washed the shirt to tone down the white/lightness and provide soft shading throughout. Secret Weapon washes are excellent for this, as they're one of the only companies I know of that make light toned washes. They even have one that is a bright yellow green called Fallout. Having light washes is a good way to shade really bright tones and maintain its lightness, and most companies make very dark washes because it works most of the time.

With the jeans I based it with a few layers of GW Shadow for a solid opaque coating. I heavily washed with GW Nuln Oil, then drybrushed with GW Shadow and GW Space Wolf Grey (forgot the new name of this) to build up the highlights lightly and create that rough texture. Drybrushing has been a nice relief of a technique to use lately. Although I don't like the messiness of it (I like a lot of control for my blends) it's been nice to accept it as a valid technique for speed.

I used my usual Vallejo/Angel Giraldez recipe for the red leather on her straps and boots. For the hair I based with VGC Goldbrown, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, and highlighted with VGC Goldbrown mixed with successive additions of VMC Dark Sand. I think I successfully reenacted Andrea's dirty blonde hair!

I was really proud of her eyes, as I tried a different technique for painting them. I'm getting much more accurate with these, although it is a frustrating element of painting. It's one of those details that is just so annoying to do, and I always have to redo eyes for every model which risks parts of the paint drying thicker in different areas and affecting the dot of the eye's application. But when you get this right it unlocks a higher level in your miniature and draws the attention to the face even more.

Of course, I had to include a picture of playing around with my toys!

Pretty soon I'll have a demo set up fully painted! I'm concentrating on getting two crews of equal level survivors painted, which means I have to figure out what combinations are good for demoing the game first. I am not much of a fan of having Rick/Carl going against the generic scavenger gang, as it doesn't inspire much enthusiasm in me. I was thinking of having Rick/Carl go against Andrea and her sister as an even match, and maybe including one more beater on each side. Fans of the Walking Dead may not like Andrea going against Rick, but I think they are better models to display the game's range - Rick and Andrea both reflect strong characters with support models like Carl & her sister Amy that need protection give the leaders some synergy.

Anyway, let me know what you think! See you next time.