Al Hippone's plaque - short SBS

This is gonna be really quick SBS, mostly photos (some of them not very good, using my phone's camera is much easier but there is always a risk that photo won't  be super sharp),  of how I made my plaque for Al Hippone.

First the idea was to order a plaque from Name It, as I always do. I like their elegant finish, and the fact that I don't have to worry about making them. Unfortunately the font I choosen doesn't really look good, so I decided to get a bit more creative.

Because ot the name I've choosen for my bust, Al Hippone (he has this old time gangster look after all), I decided to go for an old newspaper, preferably something about Al Capone. It would be a nice touch, known only to me, but still. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything in right format (taller than wider) so I went for just a newspaper from the right place and more or less time, and changed it a little.

When, after few unsuccessful attempts, I was happy with the look of the 'front page' I printed good few copies on tracing paper. In works like this I always prepare few copies just in case someting goes wrong, especially when I'm experimenting and can't be sure that I'll be happy with the outcome at the first try.

Next I applied paper tape under first few plaques to make it less transparent, and thicker, more sturdy. After that, I carefuly cut it out using a ruler and hobby knife.
Why even bother with tracing paper and paper tape, why not use normal paper? Thefirst reason is finish you get with the trace paper. It's more sleek than normal paper, and gives a bit more 3D effect due to it's thickness and transparency. And paper tape instead normal paper as and under layer, because tracing paper expands a lot when wet, and the surface gets wrinkly very easily. Besides paper tape is off white, creamy so it looks more like and old paper from the start.
And why did I use tracing paper not printing foil? To keep the paper feel to the plaque. With printing foil everyting would be easier to achieve, but it wouldn't feel like paper.

Now it's time for some weathering. Using only two GW washes (Agrax Earthshade and  Seraphim Sepia) I painted the back of the plaque, again due to the rippling properties of the tracing paper, I was careful not to soak the front, but few stains didn't do too much of a damage.

While  the paper was drying between aplications, the ruler laying on top of it was helping me to keep it more or less straight. It's not really necessary, but for me it was easier  this way.

With the 'back' as dark as I wanted (paint applied from the back still afected the front of the plinth), I just added few thin layers of wash in the corners and the plaques were ready. I was wery carefull not to apply too much of the wash in one go, to avoid wrinkling of the material. Unfortunately, when all was properly dry, I noticed that they are just too dark, especially placed on a black plinth. Below you can see photo of the plaques on white paper and black plinth, hopefully you see the difference (not only in the temperature of light).

 

The easiest way to make the plaque brighter was to add another layer of paper tape. So I just glued it on the back of the plaque and cut out excess of tape carefully.

After that there was just a matter of sticking the plaque to the plinth with use of double sided tape. Again, I glued the plaque to one side of the tape, cut out the excess and then removed the protect layer on the other sinde and glued the plaque to the plinth.

I hope you enjoyed this little SBS, and you find it inspiring in creating your own unique plaques.

cheers
'eM

Viking's base, phase two - painting

This time it's not gonna be step by step article. I will focus more on separate parts of the base: the trunk, bark, mushrooms and rotting foliage on the ground.

The trunk
Even though the piece of heather I used, looked already pretty much like a fallen tree, I decided to paint it anyway. For one thing I felt it lacks some discolourations and delicate moss here and there. But mostly because I feel that natural, unpainted materials look weird next to painted miniature. Painting them unifies the whole piece.

So first I took care of the naked parts of the trunk. Using GW washes, GW Graveyard Earth and P3 'Jack Bone I covered the areas in paint creating way stronger contrast and some variations in colour that could appear in a wood exposed to the weather for a long time.
The damaged parts of the front were a bit more tricky, as it was quite difficult to reach the deepest recesses with a brush. With a big and old brush I managed to introduce darks washes and some Catachan Green (GW) to emulate moss that could fint it's way there.


The Bark
For this part I used mostly dark brown, some GW washes, a bit of P3 'Jack Bone and lots of GW Catachan Green.  Brown, washes and 'Jack Bone was used to even out the colour (with drybrush), and introduce some contrast. Thin layers of green placed mostly under the trunk and in the recesses look like a moss that often grows on the older trees. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, just google 'old bark moss' and you can find lots of various examples.

Below you can see various stages of painting, from the very natural unpainted wood to the final version. I decided to post only one set of photos for both, the trunk and bark because they would be very similar, and you can see all the steps of painting here

Mushrooms
Mushrooms are the exception on this base. They were mostly left as they were in natural state. I was affraid that too much paint would cover the natural pattern of the tabacco stalks reminding so much the true mushrooms. I just used some GW washes (brown and green) to unify the colour a bit with the rest of the base. But as the shrooms are quite alive, unlike the fallen trunk, they grow and feed on, I kept them in warmer colours.
Below you can see photo with shrooms just after glueing them to the base and after washes. On the third frame, under different angle, you should be able to see the pattern I was talking about, darker an brighter lines creating some visual interest and emulating the real mushrooms.

Dead leafs and ground
This parts were painted mostly the same as bark. Dark brown washes and some  'Jack Bone to create contrast and unify these parts with the rest of the base and some green washes to emulate moss that starts to grow on the leafs. I was focusing the green mostly under the trunk, at the front, and in deep shadows, but there is also some amount of moss in the open areas. I assumed that if the leafs are laying there for few months, and starting to rot already, there should be some moss growing on them as well.
The photo below isn't the best one, but you should be able to see some greens on the ground.

Fern
Fern was painted mostly with the airbrush, with Catachan Green as a base and some mixture of GW Desert Yellow and Snakebite Leather to do the highlights. For the shadows I used various GW washes. I have no photos from painting this part (even though I'm pretty sure I took some), so you need to take my word for it:D

And I thinkt that's all I could tell you about painting this base.
I hope you find this tutorial helpful. And if you have any questions, or comments, just leave a note underneath, I'll be happy to answer.

Viking's base, phase one - building

cheers

'eM

Einstein's apron - leathers SBS

This time I'd like to show you the process of painting the leather like on my Einstein. The bust at this moment is still in progress, so you can check my earlier posts to see how it's progressing so far.

As you can see leather apron Einstein is wearing is very distressed, dirty and full of all sorts of discolourations and stains. It wasn't really planned this way from the beginning, but was more like heat of the moment improvisation.
Because I don't have  any photos picturing particular stages of the process I'll try to recreate the same effect on different piece (most probably the cartboard or something like that). To be fair I must admit that I'm curious myself if I can do that.

If you're  interested here's my other tutorial about painting leather

1. Basecoat
First step is pretty basic. Just apply more or less even layer of a base colour. In my case some sort of mixture  of: Graveyard Earth (GW), Desert Yellow (GW) and 'Jack Bone (P3).
The exact colours are really not that important, you can use your own pants and mixtures, but I'm gonna list them just in case anyone will find it helpful.
Because I'm  trying to speed up  my painting as much as I can, for such  big pieces, at this stage I'm mostly using airbrush to block colours and do initial shading. But you can easily do that with the brush, especially because you don't need an extra smooth  surface.

2. Basic shades and lights
For this step I also used an airbrush and simply sprayed some Graveyard Earth facing nozzle from the bottom of the bust, and then added few extra glazes with brush at the very bottom and in the recesses. After that few layers of 'Jack Bone on his shoulders.
I don't think I was worried too much about the shadows on the edges at this point, as I was planning to take care of them closer to the end.

3. Introducing texture, some colour variations and more contrast
After blocking first shadows and lights, I used thin glazes of various shades of brown, green, black to create some slight colour variations and more contrast. More 'Jack Bone and Dessert Yellow was used to brighten top parts of the apron.
At this stage I wasn't really going for smooth transitions. In fact some roughness, especially in 'light' areas was deliberate, and used to create leathery texture (vachetta leather - without a shine and rather dull when compared to the grain leather)

4. Splashes
When step 3 is finished the fun begines. Using thick and rather stiff brush, a toothpick and fairly dilluted paints and washes I created colourful splashes on the apron, trying to concentrate them on the middle part of the apron, where they're most likely  to happen in real life.
This metod is quite random and seems messy, but with all the 'non leathery' parts of the mini covered with Tamyia tape, and a bit of practice (to establish how dilluted part you should use) you can really go to town with it and create cool effects. And if something goes horribly wrong, you can always cover that area with base/shade colour and start over again. It not only won't  ruin the piece, but can even add a bit to the texture.
It's entirely up to you what colours you use for that step, but here's the list of those I used:
- 'Jack Bone (P3)
- Badab Black (GW Wash)
- Agrax Earthshade (GW Wash)
- Ogryn Flesh (GW Wash)
- Seraphim Sepia (GW Wash)

If you're not entirely happy with your splashes and dots you can add some with the brush. At this point I used slightly dilluted  washes to create 'coffee print' effect  with a paint pooling to the stain's edges, but it's really up to you what dillution you're gonna use.

5. Glazes of different colours to blend splashes and the whole surface together a bit
I used some Graveyard Earth, brown  and black washes to blend, and green, red and maybe even blue to add some colour niuances to the leather. After all, years of extensive use in different circumstances, had to left some marks and discolourations.

I know that the effect is not exactly the same with Einstein's apron, but I guess you got the idea how it was made so far. Changes I was doing from now on are rather hard to reproduce on the cartboard, so I'm gonna move back to the mini.

6. More contrast and weathering

After blending the whole surface a little, I reintroduced contrst with dark glazes (on the bottom of the miniature ans in the recesses, and light colours  in the brighter areas. Slightly 'chalky' finish in the highlights added some  texture and worn finish.

 

7. Edges
With the middle of apron more or less ready I took care of the edges. Bright colour applied with the side of the brush to the shapr edges of the apron and some glazes in the little holes and indentations  under them made the trick.
The same goes for all little holes in the surface. I applied some dark/black wash inside and then highlighted the bottom edge with Menoth White Base (P3)

8. Final touches
For now the apron is finished, but with whole bust painted I may add some more contrast or maybe few more stains. At some point I was thinking about making him more like a car mechanic, so there would be added some oil stains on the apron, but I'm not sure yet.

Well I guess that's all here.
I hope you'll find this tutorial helpful. If you have any questions, please ask. I'll try to help as much as I can.

cheers

'eM

GW Wraith step by step - part 1

The mini


I painted this miniature for 6th CofC Miniature Exchange. The reason behind this choice was lots of space for textures and freehands. Recently I paint mostly bigger scale, and ME mini has to be 28mm, so this wraith is win/win for me. Within the range of scale and enough of nice surfaces for some experiments.
By the time this SBS is published, the mini is with the recipient, but now I can only hope, he'll like it.

Preparation:
As you can see I skipped preparation of the mini. I was so eager to start working on this piece, that I forgot to take pictures. But the process of preparing this wraith for painting is pretty straightforward.
The mini consist of 5 plastic parts:
- 3 parts of cloak,
- hands and scythe,
- head (3 options available).
The parts fit together nicely, and the cast itself is clean, with good details. The assembly was easy and only small amount of putty was necessary to get rid of the junction.


The base

I decided to go for one of Scibor's bases from egyptian base kit.
I had an idea that the wraith is rising from the remains of a tombstone or something like that. To emphasise this effect I was thinking about somehow mixing the colours of the wraith and the stone on the places where they join. Or maybe simulate the 'sucking' of some sort undead energy from the stone to the wraith by painting thin, glowing 'veins' (in the wraith's colour) on the stone, gathering at the joining points.
But eventually I ran out of time to do that, so the message isn't that clear.

Preparation:
The Scibor's base was a little too big for the regular Warhammer base, and for what I was going to do with it, so I decided to modify it 'slightly'. On the photo below there is a base before and after modification. As you can see, I cut big chunks of resin, getting rid of most of the 'earth' and sand. I letf the insect on the cheek. I know it supposed to be a scarab, but it can also be a common forest beetle. I also separated the 'shield' a bit from the face, because after removing some of the earth from this side, it looked somehow odd.

After reducing the size of the base quite significantly, I made sure that there is a place underneath for the little rock wraith is attached to. I decided to glue it on the side, with both long ends of the robe touching the statue, to make it look like he's rising from the stone. I had to cut the outer side of the rock, and mask it with some sandy paste.

To make sure that both, base and wraith, are securely attached to the black base I pinned them together.

And now just a bit of  putty, sandy paste and few small rocks, and the ground is ready.

To emphasise the effect of life being sucked out of the terrain by creation of the wraith I decided to add few fern leaves half dry and dead. I know, a lot of Scibor's bases have sculpted ferns on it, and my idea isn't that original, but using etched brass fern should give me a bit more natural look than sculpted leaves.

Because etched brass is rather delicate, I thought it would be better to keep it and separately from the base and glue onto it when all painting is done. That's also the reason that all the moss was glued at the very end.

So at the moment the whole mini is ready for primer.
But more on that in the next episode:)


cheers

'e M

Talrashi - little mini, little update

I'm still not really fit for painting, but I managed to do some work on the mini and base.
Definitely less is done when it comes to painting, but the base requires less precision, and is more forgiving when it comes to fixing mistakes.

I'm trying to take a lot of pictures of the base, so I should be able to show you step-by-step article later (if the base will turn out as planned;p).

cheers

'eM

First blood - step by step

I know, I said that Menhom Dark Shadow is finished, and that I'm happy with the way he looks, but with time I came to the conclusion, that I could really pimp him up a bit, especially the sword. So I decided to follow one of Slawol's advices and add some blood (not rust though).
I think that Menhom will be just after a fight, with fresh blood all over him, but not in the place where the fight happened, so I won't have to deal with all the messy splashed and puddles of blood on the ground.

And here's step by step what (and how) I've done.

1. The Blood
To create blood I'm using mixture of Tamiya clear red (X-27), Badab black, Leviathan purple (GW washes) and Smoke (70939 VMC) to get more opaque look. After all blood is not very transparent fluid, even when fresh. Leviathan purple is bringing back some redness to the otherwise brownish mix.

Here you can see few samples I made when I was trying the colours

As you can see on the last picture I added some UHU glue, trying to add more volume and some stickiness. But the result is far from expected. My UHU glue (wich is UHU Power) is not the best one to do the task, it simply didn't mix with the paints properly, instead it's giving me something that looks like bits of solidified  blood and tissue (which BTW reminds me last episode of True Blood I've seen this morning;p). It's not something I can use in this project, as I'm going for fresh blood, but most definitelly something I'm gonna save for future.


2. Hand
Because the way he keeps his right hand reminds me of bird's calves (and because I'm not completely happy with the paint job I've done here), I decided that he's using his hand in the combat, most likely ripping enemies throats and tearing their hearts out, so his hand is covered in blood with possibly some droplets dripping on the ground. In this case I simply covered it with rather thick layer of paint. To do the hanging droplet  I used a hair glued to one of the fingers, with a little tear of paint at the end. Then I covered that with paint to hide the hair. Because I want that to be freshly spilled blood, I used gloss varnish on the top.

3. Sword
First, before I could apply blood on the blade, I had to make metal a bit brighter, so dark blood stand out better. I simply applied few layers of highly dilluted Chainmail (GW), to make sure I won't cover shades completely.
I tried to find some pictures showing how the blood on a sword should be placed to make it reliable. For the sake of realism  I even watched one episode of Spartacus. At some point I was thinking about something like aformentioned Slawol did on one of his Orcs (here), but then I decided against it, as it supposed to be a fresh blood, and 'fresh' in case of blood means runny and without any clots.
But then after all this research and thinking I simply went crazy with gore on the sword and the result you can see on the pictures below. As an excuse I can use that his right hand suggests that lot's of blood spilling was done recently, so sword basically bathed in blood should be justified.

4. Drops and splashes
First of all I did few drops on the ground under the hand, I'd do the same under the sword, but it hangs outside of the base, so it was impossible. I did these drops simply with the brush, because they're not splashes from a hit or something. Then I had to decide what I'm gonna use for more dynamic splashes  on the robe. I know red on red doesn't look too impressive, but that's different shade (temperature) of red, and after all, clean robe would look weird (not to mention a chance to hide a bit this awful head in the middle of his trophy chain). After few tests I decided to use flat and rather stiff brush and a toothpick, and then added few more spots with the brush. Results are on the pictures below.

And here are overall picture before and after:

5.Conclusion
I'm not entirely sure if I made Menhom look better, but at least different;] And I managed to cover with blood few weaker elements, so hopefully changes I made will benefit him.
Besides I learned something new, and that's always a good thing. So I'm happy that I tried new technique, and for the first time it's not looking that bad, right?

And while he's on the table I decided to tweak few more things... but about that tomorrow;]

cheers

'eM