Saturday, September 29, 2012

No mercy - CHSM vs Krieg mini diaorama wip

Hello again! After a while i have somethink to share with you on pages of this painting diary. I just finished another part of sob commision(ll take pictures later)and right after a cigarete break i started preparing another project, this time for me to have another magnetized terminator lord serving as an action figure toy when im sitting bored at my desk;-) I decided to make him a decent base as i have few wooden ones around and finaly found use for this krieg mini i have in my bitz box for quite a long time. So far i ve used cork to to make me rocky looking base and completely magnetized terminator for all the weapon options, and even put magnets in to his feet so i can swith display base and gaming base with ease.
I came with the idea of making this mini diorama when i was ordering latest white dwarf and then i ve been thinking about what else should i add to the basket as it seemed stupid to me to order just WD and nothing else so i added this chaos terminator lord to the basket to satisfy my need to spend some money.

The plan i so to paint this terminator simmilar to my first iron warrior terminator lord and krieg ll recevie same colour scheme like the quarter master i ve been painting few months ago as i quite liked how the grey/blue colour scheme fits the krieg miniatures. I ve been even thinking about trying non metallic metals on the terminator as it would be exciting to try something new, but i cant help my self as i think this technique would not fit my imagination of chaos space marines so i ll better stick with my favourite vallejo metalic colours.
Base it self is going to be grey rock covered in snow while krieg ll have realy huge brutal looking blood trail behind him. I hope i ll  be able to give this scene atmospehere at least closing to the vision inside my head, but if not then nothing happen as im quite shure i ll enjoy painting this does not matter what;-) I have to  think about the base a bit more as i know its missing somethink and hopefuly i ll start painting this fun fun fun project by tommorow. Thanks for reading guys and see you soon. Oh, actualy very soon as i ll have to announce the winner of the painted chaos chosen giveaway in following days. See you then and i wish our chaos giveaway competitors good luck!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Never ending story - Sisters Of Battle wip

Im back again with quick update about whats hapening on my desk. As you can see i received another part of pretty big Sisters Of Battle commision. Right now i basecoated all three vehicles so they are ready to receive first coat of red colour, but still lot of work needs to be done on these and it ll be bussy for me as i promised i ll finish them till next sunday;-) On the other side i have somethink to paint till new CHSM dex ll be aviable in stores and little extra cash before new GW release is always useful. Painting these ll be quite challenging as i received the models asembled allready, but im getting used to it and and as long as custromer understand everythink can not be perfect when i recive model in this state im fine with it. Wish me luck and steady hand in following week and i hope afeter these ll be finished i ll finaly paint few chaos themed pieces! Thanks for reading and see you!

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Sisters Of Battle Rhino - another "repainting" commision

Hello everyone! Just finished another commision worth sharing with you.Again as in case of grey knight razorbacks i received painted model and was asked to do somethink about it. Model was in much better condition than in previevous case, however not ideal. I received the model sprayed in red colour whitch was almost great but colour created small thick pools around the edges of most armour plates and in some details like winged skulls and other details. However i never painted rhino with all of the extra fw upgrades on it and i must say i enjoyed the model almost like doing it for my own collection.
I started with black undercoat as i wanted to have model clean before i ll start working on it. Then followed grey highlight over most of the upper model model parts to add white highlight to most exposed parts. With model preshaded like this i gave it coat of vma fire red to create nicely shaded surface. It took some time as i ve been softening colour transitions and added one more fine highlight of vma scarlet red. Rest of the painting was rutine. Added chiping with mix of black/brown colour, oil washed rivets, painted the details, add pigments around exhaust and little bit of dust pigments around the tracks and thats it. Ressult is not perfect and im not happy with some details, but as i received model allready painted i could not do much with few extra layers of paint in fine receses. Anyway i hope customer ll be happy with the look of "refined" model and i ll be given oportunity to take care about rest of his sisters of battle vehicles.  Let me know your opinon, do you think this commision is worth 25USD? Thanks for reading and see you by the next pieces.

Monday, September 17, 2012

How do i take miniature photos

My photo setup
Hi again! I have been told many times that i have nice pictures of my miniatuares and while i was asked about my photo setup yesterday again i was thinking about that maybe they are probably not as bad as i think they are. And thats why i decided i might help somebody with photographing miniatures to share my setup and cheap photoshop trick i ussualy apply to my pictures;-)
As you can see on first picture my setup is pretty simple, using box i sprayed in black and some gradient i printed out as a background. You can use any stand for your miniatures but here you can see home made spining wheel i use when making video showcase. If you are thinking is made from dvd case and two dvds then you are right and i think its pretty obvious how to build one for yourself so i dont think its neceseary to write about that.
As a light source i use standart desk lamp with daylight bulb covered by napking or four napkins(it depends)to disperse and soften the light. Be careful if you ll try this and dont leave your lamp turned on with napkins on it for too long if you dont want to set your home on fire;-)
Third importantant thing you ll need is some kind of stand for your camera as you dont want to take pictures with shaking hands so for this purpose that big can of vallejo water effects serve really well.

Aprox curves setting
Now about the camera, i use really cheap Sony Cyber-shot digital camera whitch you can buy really, really cheap and if you are sick of photographing with your phone take it as pictures from mobile of any kind(you dont really trust cheap iphone adverts?)ll never reach same quality as mega pixels does not really matter and is the least important thing you should be interested in while buying a camera. Optics lenses and colour chip is what you are interested in and thats why mobiles ll never replace regular cameras as they simply dont have the room for that big lens and optics like even cheap camera have. Before i confiscated my girlfriends Sony cyber shot i ve been trying to take pictures with many other cheap cameras, for example Nikon coolpix for most of the time, but ressults were not even close to what you can get with that low end sony. It cost about the same, but if you are looking for really cheap camera that should replace your cell phone for miniature photographing then take your time and found that Sony CyberShot DSC-S730 somewhere;-)

Best low end camera i found for miniature photography
Ok now you took the pictures, have them in your computer and now what? I usually open photoshop, load the pictures in and do few adjustments. First thing i ussualy do is to auto adjust levels and then i go to curves and adjust them to somethink like you see on second picture. This may depends and it ll be different with each picture and you have to tweak with it by yourself but i wanted to give you at least idea what to do with your picture to make your photo as close as posible to the reality when under naked eye.
Hope this gave you idea how i take pictures and possibly help some of you out with your own pictures. Thanks for reading and see you soon as im having unexpected holiday and ll problably paint few models!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Painted chaos chosen free giveaway!

Hello everyone, when i was purchasing multiple chaos halves from the 6ed stater sets i was wondering what am i going to do with so many snap fit models while i ll have use maybe for one full squad of chosen in my chaos army im plannig to build and if i would need more of them i would probably buy chaos chosen boxed set as i dont want two identical models on board at the same time. I came with idea i should do somethink for those few readers of this little painting diary and give them away for free, just to make someone happy. As you can see, and if you are reading this blog regulary you allready know these are from first batch that arrived to my workbench and therefore they were test subjects in research whitch colour schemes suits these new miniatures best. Experiment did not provided any ressultss at all, as in the end im even more unshure what colours should i pick for the new project i ll hopefuly start next week, and i hope it ll start as rumored announcement date of new chaos space marines codex is same as my birth date(that would be a wonderful gift from chaos gods:-o). However i have 4 painted miniatures and i have no other use than collecting dust so why not make somebody who likes them happy;-)
Original idea was i ll give away each one separately, but as i live in country with moxt expensive postage on northern hemisphere of earth i decided there ll be only one winner that ll take all. Im sorry for that but postage cost combined with prohibition issued by our goverment this friday force me to save some money on this as i am working in family whisky/liqor store and i basicaly became unemployed at the moment prohibition was issued. Hopefuly this situation ll not last long and i ll keep smugling hat and tommy gun hidden in my closet, but in the end it has its bright side as well as i have a lot of models to paint left and now i can spend my time on them;-)

However lets get back to giveaway, if you like the models...thats the first assumption, and you want the models for your collection(ah thats the second one)you must do two things. First one is to have a look to the right sidebar of this blog and found the follow button and subscribe to this blog. The second and last thing to do is to comment on this post stating you want the models. 1st of october(or around that date) i ll randomly chose one of you and announce the winner. Then winner will have to contact me and tell me his delivery adress, but we ll talk about that later when we will know the winner. Please note im SHIPPING FOR FREE only to EU&RUSSIA + US, if you live elsewhere then i am sorry, but i cant afford that. Its simple as that, i hope somebodey ll want these models and i wish you nice weekned. Thanks for reading!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Black Legion Hell Brute - video showcase included

Hi again, im back with another finished model and another video showcase. Its the Hellbrute again, this time in black legion colours and much darker flesh colours then i used while painting first one. I did not succeeded to achieve exact flesh colours i wanted, but i got much closer to what i wanted than whith previevous model. I basecoated model with mix of skin tone and grey to airbrush shadows later shooting black shade wash. After the shadows were painted i continued to highlight flesh parts with pure skin tone and then i added almost final highlight of bleached bone. After that i glazed raised area with mix of bleached bone and white. Armour parts were basecoated by steel colour and then darkened by two layers of black shade wash. I know i could paint armour straight black and then highlight it with some gray tones but i like the effect the method i used gives. Gold parts were painted by vma gold and then shaded a bit with help of agrax earthshade wash. I felt like i should add somethink to the gold parts so i added some copper like rust by mixing turquoise and green colours and then i started feeling good while looking at almost finished model.
 Horns were painted with sandy brown and then darkened with agrax earthshade again. Tips of horns were highlighted with mix of sandy brown/bleached bone. I did not came with any idea how to paint "pilots" head and i was thinking about replacing it with more tentacles or by huge single eye, but the problem is i dont have any tentacles bits(and my ability to green stuff somethink sux) and eye idea came after the model was glued so there is no reasonable way to place some ball inside and paint it like an eye. However im quite happy with the look of this model, but i think i could do the various cables better as black colour looks quite boring. I know black legion armour should be pure black, but as i ve said before, i like the scorched armour like look this  approach give to the model and its closer to my imagination how chaos space marine armour should look. I hope you like the model at least same as i am. If not, let me know why and if you are impressed same as i am, then click on the play button below to watch video showcase of this piece;-) Thanks for reading and see you again very soon!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Chaos chosen finished pictures & video showcase

Not much to say, i finaly took pictures of testing pieces to found out im still not decided what colours im gonna chose for next starter set im going to paint:-o Hope they ll give you idea how these new miniatures looks in different colours and make your decision about colour scheme for your models easier. As you can see i tried violet emperors children-like scheme, semi metallaic scheme for iron warriors, turqoise with blue highlight for thousand sons and the last one is painted in red as they are featured on games workshop site. As i ve said im still not decided what i ll do with next batch of chaos chosen miniatures and still have lord and another two chosen left on the table just preshaded but i think i ll leave them till new chaos space marines codex ll be aviable as if i ll like it i ll probably chose iron warriors scheme and if dont...well i hope i will, but if not i ll chose brighter scheme, probably 1k sons or emperors children and just paint them just for my display cabinet. Thanks for visiting and if you want enjoy the video showcase! Thanks



Chaos chosen 1K sons theme & crimson slaughter Hellbrute

Hi all! Just cleaned my painting table of the mess i ve made on it during past few days while working on chaos chosen miniatures from the new starter set. I was unsure about colour scheme so i ve decided to try different scheme with each miniature as i bought multiple chaos halves and dont really have to care about every single model. At the begining i enjoyed painting each miniature different but now when i was testing thousand sons colours i cought my self just slapping the paint on to the model and not caring about the details. Thats why i decided to take a break for couple of days, do some other stuff and share with you whats done. I already shown you crimson slaughter, iron warriors and emperors children schemes so i ll not post all the pictures again(in fact im plannig to make showcase vid just after the lunch)and for now snap shot of 1k son facing crimson slaughter Hellbrute will do for couple of hours until i ll prepare the video. Please note these are just quick gaming pieces and there is still a lot of space for improvement and i hope i ll be able to grab at least some of it next week when i ll start working on another set. Thanks for reading and see you soon by the showcase video!;-)

Friday, September 7, 2012

Chaos chosen theme testing - emperors children, iron warriors

Hi again, im back to show you another two almost finished miniatures from new 40k starter set. This time i chose my favourite iron warriors colors and ugly looking emperors children theme. I know these are pre-heresy colours but i just cant stand heresy era emperors children scheme as it seems almost deviant to me:-o It was preshaded like i described in last article and given coat of Hexed Lichen followed by zenital highlight of HL again with some Squid pink added in to the mix. Iron warrior was done same as the terminator lord, Gunmetal basecoat followed by Steel Highlight and after that sprayed by vallejo Black shade wash. These minatures still need some finishing touches like weathering, battle damage and bases and i hope they ll really move forvard impression from them, however i still have thousand sons and maybee death guard themes to try out and most important is hellbrute still waiting not even primed on my desk;-) Let me know whitch colour suits to these awesome new minatures best and see you by weekend by hopefuly finished chosen models, thanks for reading!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

6th ed. starter - testing crimson slaughter theme

Hi again everyone! I ve just jumped out of the bed and made few finishing touches on the model i started to work on yesterday. I was surprised these minatures paint themselves alone, i dont know how i was able to paint this mini just under two hours:-o However i have to work on organic parts as im not satisfied with colours i used and ll have to improve this with next pieces. However im going to have coffe, cigarete and start working on next piece. I have chaos lord from the starter set allready painted red but i just cant resist to try next piece in black legion colours.
Anyway i like how red on this miniature turnde out as i tried to preshade model for first time over black undercoat with white and then started aplying reds from darker tones(vma fire red)and moving my airbrush above the miniature with brighter red(scarlet red) to finish highlighting with almost orange red(light red). Same approach like everytime i paint space marines miniatures but preshading model with white colour helped me a lot to achieve desired level of shading. I might do a step by step guide while i ll be working on more pieces but its a really easy way to make your miniature decently shaded. What a shame i did not tried this earlier:-/
Anyway thanks for reading and hope you like my first chsm testing piece.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Crimson Slaughter arrived to my workbench

Good morning everyone! Yesterday evening i finaly got my hands on to the chaos part of new starter set. I decided to try various colour themes on these miniatures as i have multiplne chaos parts of starter set incoming by post. Plan is to try crimson slaughter theme featured on the box, black legion and im really looking forward to try this as i want to try highlighting black to the purple as i ve been impressed by this in space marine video game and last theme im going to try is semi metallic iron warriors scheme i tried on my chaos terminator lord couple of weeks ago. Right now i ve got first batch of miniatures preshaded and tried airbrushing red on the claws-guy and i think i ve got a solid base to paint on.
Maybe you are wondering what am i going to do with various chaos starter set miniatures painted in different schemes...well i ve been thinking about it and after the job ll be done i might giveaway couple of them to my blog followers!;-) Yes this ll cost me a bit as i live in country with most expensive postage on northen hemisphere of earth but i think it ll be a nice way to say thanks to followers of this little painting diary watching my pregression with paint and brushes;-) I have quite bussy week ahead of me, but i hope i should have finished first pieces by the weekend. See you then and thanks for reading!;-)

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Bringing ruined models to tabletop quality - GK razorbacks

Hello again! I feel like i did not bothered you with update for some time, so i think its time to share with you whats on my desk right now. Unfortunately these are not new chaos models(hopefuly they ll arrive tommorow)but kind of unusual comission.
After i painted space wolves razorback last month and received very positive feedback i decided to do a discount comission offer for painting rhinos/razorbacks this month. I received question from the customer asking if i could repaint allready painted models in state as shown on the picture. I never tried somethink like this before and when i saw brush strokes all over the models i tought this ll be hard.  However i agreed, explaining i can do this, however i can not guarantee ressult. Customer agreed, models came by post and i started working on repainting these razorbacks to grey knights colour scheme. The main issue i had with them during repainting is that they are sprayed by cheap hobby store spray and vallejo colours are creating small crackles while applied on this surface even afer the models received two coats of grey primer. However customers request was to bring these to table top quality and i hope i succeed achieving this goal. What a pitty i had to give models two coats of varnish becouse paintjob was very fragile on this non ideal basecoat and could be scratched off by finger nail, and model lost its shiny effect the model air steel color usually gives, but at least painting is now durable and as i tested on the back door it can not be scratched off and should whitstand normal handling. Repainted two of these so far and another two just landed on my table right now as customer was excited about how his models can look like and bringed me the next batch i had to paint during today as i want to jump right on to the new chaos models as soon as the postman with package appear at my door. Thanks for reading and see you by next update, most probably containing new 6ed starter set content!;-)
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