The Forsaken

I managed to get some painting done dispite the lack of daylight. The Daemonettes have been basecoated and I have done up a test model to see how the scheme will look. I wish I had canverted these models but I couldn't think how. The models are pretty goos already. They don't fit into my theme that much and making them look 'viking' didn't seem possible. Anyway so far I am pretty happy with them. I incorporated the burning lava armour from the Chaos Warriors. So they should fit visually at least that way! Big furry cloaks just didn't seem appropriate.

I haven't really done much with the skin on these ladies. The little I have done has shown me that there is not much contrast on the skin once I begin to hightlight it. While that is essentially what I want I don't want them to look like they are just pure white. I began the process by painting them white, a good solid basecoat. I washed this with a very dark purple. It actually dried quite pink which was suprising. It looked alright though but not perfect. I then highlighted up with pure white. The white is transparent enough that it takes a few thin coats to build up to a pure white. Anyway you can't see this in the photographs as I hadn't done it by the time I was taking them. Maybe during the week I will get a few more work in progress shots and have gotten closer to a better skin.

I had actually intended to give these a very pale flesh colour. However after I had washed them all purple I remembered it! I had the wash on before I thought about what I had intended to do. It was too late by then. Anyway I think they look okay this way. The armour has come out a lot better than I though it would. It gives a very good contrast to the skin. I don't know how I will do the claws though. I have looked at a few different things but at the moment I really don't know how to proceed. I was thinking of a really dark brown.

A weekend, I won't know what to do with the time

As predicted work has swallowed a lot of my time. I finally have two days off together so I intend getting some painting done! I managed to win the Northern Wasters painting competition this month so I have decided that the next months theme will be "the best of the best". It is intended to have the elite members of the amry represented so I will be doing some painting on my unconverted Forsaken. I have used Daemonette models for them in games. I have to say they were pretty useless and tended to be free victory points for my opponents. I would like to use them more so I want to get them painted up. I will be doing them in a white scheme but hopefully with the burning armour you have seen on the Chaos Warriors!

My tournament didn't go so well last weekend sadly. One of the games ranks as the possible worst ever both from my point of view and possibly my opponents. More of that later! The tournament itself was great. Organised well and run well, the only complaint was it running a little late meaning I didn't get home until midnight. Wwell it wasn't home but to a friends house that night. The first game was against a decent Dwarf gunline with an anvil. It lead to a very tense game that was decided by some very lucky rolls on my behalf. I managed to hold a decisive charge on a double one! That saved the game for me. It ended up a draw. I was happy with the result to be honest. If it had gone on longer I think I had the edge but a fair result by the end of turn six was a draw.

Game two was a different story altogether! I played another Wwarriors of Chaos army. These civil wars are often very bloody and this game was no exception. My opponent had no magic defense instead trusting to the most elite troops! I got first turn and advanced with everything. He did the same and suddenly I was pinned behind a wall of chaff with knights pointing straght at me! There was little I could do to stop the worst but I managed to hold off the worst charges and get in some of my own. The trouble, in my opinion thats of course biased, is that the guy I played against had never been in a tournament before. He played and acted a little too agressive and wasn't following what would be considered standard tournament etiquette. He would vaguely measure things and then move them while I was telling him that wasn't possible. Things like spawns moving through friendly troops became the point I lost my cool. I admit I eventually couldn't stay calm. We more or less had to keep the ref beside our table to explain everything. I just sat down and didn't care what happened. By turn four I was prepared to concede. I had had enough. Once the turn five was finished we had been told that there was five minutes left. Aat this point the opponents general and main regiment of knights was fleeing. I stood up, said sorry, and went to the toilet. While I needed the break to stay calm I knew that in taking it the game would be a draw. Bad tactics I know but I really couldn't do anything else. When I came back there was a minute or two left so I started my turn six (I went first). The judge decided that as there was no chance to finish the turnj we shouldn't start. The game ended up a very minor win for me, 12-8 in ETC terms. So I pulled a bad tactic. I felt shit about it but in the moment it seemed appropriate due to my opponents behaviour. No excuse though....

Game three was what the doctor ordered! A great friendly opponent playing a fun army, Savage Orcs! The game went well until shagga's sword got close to my character bunker and tore my Chaos Warriors to shreds. I lost badly 6-14 I believe but it was a fun game. I have to thank my opponent, if he ever reads this. That game was really what I needed.

So in the end without painting points due to my hastily assembled Forsaken I came 26th of 32. A bad result, possibly my worst ever, maybe a good sign that Karma exists!

Getting warmer...

So after a long night of wondering about light, fire and miniatures I have managed to figure out a little more of the OSL. I put it into practise today and came up with a few interesting results. I have realised that I don't need to change the temperature of the light when it gets further from the source. I also needed to consider the role of ambient light better! Now I don't have a clue if I am using the correct terms but I am attempting to explain in an easy to follow manner. I hope I manage that!One of the things that is probably important is to only introduce the light source once it overpowers the ambient light. So essentially only paint the orange colour once it is as bright or a little brighter than the surface it is reflecting from.

I began with the robes. I painted GW Orkhide Shade back over the area that I intended to illuminate. I did this as the area would be much brighter than the rest of the robe which only gets ambient light. This place reflects both ambient and source light. With the basecoat down I then decided upon the colour to warm everything with. I chose Vajello Hot Orange. This I then mixed into the Orkhide shade and layed it down over the illuminated area leaving a little of the pure Orkhide around the edges. I layerd this on with progressively warmer mixes. Once this was dry I watered pure Hot Orange down to a wash and layered it over the areas closest to the flame. After a few coats this came out very bright on the highest surfaces. I then watered some Vajello Gold Yellow down and put the tiniest layer over the closest surfaces. This changes the look dramatically and it is important to be very sparing. Too much on makes the area look light it is a light source itself. Once this was all dry I looked at it and decided that it was much too bright. I had intended it to be so as I knew with a wash of orkhide shade I could turn down the intensity. I washed the entire illuminated area including the spots that I had left with the mix of Orkhide shade and Hot orange with a very thinned down Baal Red. This tied any mistakes from the washes together a little better. Once that was done on went the wash of Orkhide Shade. This worked like magic. The glow was dampened to a more realistic level.

The flesh proved a little more difficult. As it is lighter it can't really be done in the exact same way. I haven't figured it out exactly yet but the results are passable. I simply put GW Tallarn Flesh over the entire are to be lightened. I then washed it as I did the robes and finally washed the entire area again with GW Tallarn Flesh. This leaves a strong contrast against the pale flesh. The tallarn wash gives a very warm rosey colour that rises to the orange of the flames. It has a little less strength in the colour than upon the robes but that is fine as it is fractionally further from the source. So what do people think? I would really value some feed back on this as I don't know if it looks that good. As I am generally always unhappy with my painting I sometimes can't judge if something actually is okay. So let me know if you like it or more importantly if you don't.

I have been experimenting a little further with the robes on the Cultists. I guess experiment is the wrong word. I thought the grey section of the robes I am painting at their backs was pretty boring. I am going to free hand some designs onto them to enliven the miniatures a little. Here is the beginning of a design on the first model.

My arm is on fire

I am struggling with Object Source Lighting. I have started the first flagellant that will have the effect and well parts of him look good. I struggled first with painting the flames as they should be. I have managed that decently but not perfectly.

The Flame: I began with a solid white basecoat which I washed with yellow a number of times to build up the colour. I then washed orange over a smaller area and finally some red. This turned out oaky. The problem I have encountered is that the flame tongues are rather large and round and almost feed from the base of the flame right to the top. This means that when washing the watered paint will still run to the base if too much is applied. I had to thicken the paint a little more to prevent it running too much. Eventually I realised that this was not enough and went back over the entire flame with a yellow wash. This tied stuff together well but sat deeply in the long crevasse at the centre of the flame giving a solid yellow centre that didn't look right. I went along then and shaded the flames to remove some of that yellow and enliven the whole effect I darkened the tips to GW red gore with a little black at the very top. I will have to go back and ass some white to the flames I think but so far they seem to have come out alright considering that I have done them rather quickly. There is a good tutorial here.

The Light: This is tough. A lot tougher than I imagined and I didn't help myself much with the colours chosen. The problem I am having is with the change in the spectrum of the light due to its proximity to the source. I was using Vajello Hot Orange for my light base colour which I intended to highlight with a little yellow. Firstly the model I was working on had blonde hair. Straight away I didn't really know how to proceed. Eventually I felt brave and just applied some orange 'highlights' to the hair. I remember Old Fogey on the Warhammer forum remarking that OSL was just highlighting with different/funny colours. With that in mind I applied some yellow over the orange around the hair and face. This is the area closest to the flame. I then washed this with Baal Red to see what happened. Once dry it looked great! So I am pretty happy with the face. The light skin and hair took the paint and OSL well.

Now everything else I wanted to put the light on was further away and as such the light would have grown less intense. I felt that the orange was still fine and that a slight yellow highlight would be best. I went straight to the dark green robes and put on the Orange. Immediately this was looking wrong. The orange gave a strange effect. I continued onto the arm holding the brand and applied the orange. Again it looked wrong. I continued as sometimes only once the model or technique gets close to being done does it start to look correct. Alas this still ended up a failure. I washed it with red to darken the colours but no that didn't help. Simply put it was terrible.

I still don't have it figured out but I went back and in putting the base coat over everything again I realised that maybe I was forgetting to generally highlight the robe around the light source and that leaving it dark just wouldnt work. The daylight faded here now so tomorrow I will continue. What I am guessing I need to do is give the robe in this area a much lighter tone highlighting it up well beyond what I have done in the other areas. Once this is complete I can then apply some of the light from the source. I really don't have a clue what colour I should use. Stick with an orange or change to red? Hopefully this will be the solution I need. A good look at some different light sourced models can be seen here.

The flesh is a different story as it is the exact opposite of the robe and is already very light. When reappling the GW Tallarn Flesh basecoat it looked horrible. I will have to redo the arm completely. I experimented with some red gore as a wash along the skin but it looks a little like blood. Possibly some vajello Hot Orange would be best? As this part is of the same intensity/distance as the adjacent robe I am assuming that they would both need the same colour. However as one comes from such a dark base and the other such a light one I can't seem to get it to work. I remember that Curse of Beers on the Warhammer Forum mentioned that the object recieving the light needs to be dark enough to show it. Maybe that is where I am going wrong with this? I need to have dark skin.

I have seen a great article here that deals with a blue light source. I really think that I could manage that fairly easily. It seems that the more fickle spectrum of fire light is causing me a lot of problems. Anyway it seems I will have to start bugging some better painters than I for some answers!

The Sons are ready

The Marauders are now finished. I wanted to get them done for the Northern Wasters monthly painting challenge. While the deadline for that is next week I know I won’t have much time to get them done with work coming up! I am happy with how they came out. The cloaks could have been better. My sculpting skills are not really that good yet and while the painting made up for it a little I still think I could have done better. I do want to add some ivy to the bases here and there, but that can wait until after this tournament. As the ivy is expensive I will have to reserve it for the front ranks and sides as there is little point in having it buried deep in a regiment where nobody can see it. I might look for some ferns too as they would really add a good undergrowth feel to the bases.

The army has garnered a lot more attention on the Warhammer Forum than my stuff usually does, so that’s nice. I intend only putting up finished work there rather than the work in progress shots. I will use this blog for that. I also intend having all the photographs up here first so blog followers get a preview!

Now that the Sons of the Bear are finished I have started on the Keepers of Truth. These represent a southern cult that now accompanies the army. I have wanted to paint these models since they were released. I really think that they are quite characterful. I am keeping the robes as dark as possible while maintaining the pale skin. The reason for the dark robes will be the regiment wide object source lighting effects. As four of the models carry fire brands, well one guy has his head on fire, I want to do some OSL. My first attempts with the hounds were poor so this is still going to be a steep learning curve. I hope that by making the robes dark I can more easily make them appear to brighten due to the glow of the fire.

At the moment I am attempting to figure out a nice way to paint the fire. I thought it would be easier than it has proved. Looking at a lot of guides on the internet has just proven that everybody does it a little differently! I am having a major problem in getting the fire to look dark as otherwise the entire regiment will need to be lighted. The achievement of the darkness of the fire is hampered by the fact that the flames are massive. I have left my test to dry overnight so hopefully when I check tomorrow it will have begun to look nice.

I will be beginning work in my new position on Monday. I am pretty excited and a little overwhelmed. Hopefully all goes well. I got the grand tour of the office yesterday. It was nice to see how these games get developed. My hours will be quite flexible so if it suits I might still catch some daylight for painting. I will know after a few weeks. I had better stay searching for those lamps I think. My tournament preparation continues. Resurgence 09 is only a week away. I have the entire army based but not painted. Hopefully I will still qualify for some of the painting points that way. It is far from ideal but all I can manage at the moment. The lists have been submitted and it seems every Elf army has a dragon. I haven’t really played against large flying beasts much so hopefully I can avoid draws against these players. At least there are no Daemons or Lizardmen armies present so I am a little happier. They are two armies I don’t want to face. We are just awaiting a ‘hardness’ rating for each of the armies and then they will be drawn against each other based upon that rating. An interesting system that will hopefully have the true nastiness facing each other as much as possible!

Here is a nice shot of the sunset behind my house just as I am typing this!