Middle Kingdoms Team - WON BY SANN0638!!

[Insane_Prophet]

Quality painting and good photography too, which often lets a good paint job down.

Very impressed at your pace as well.

[The Painted Goblin]

Glad the photographs are turning out ok - I'm taking them on my phone!
It's all about lighting though - daylight bulbs are essential.

I managed to do a bit more last night:-

Blue and flesh base coat on the whole team:-


Then I couldn't stop, so put the yellow on too!



I find it easiest to paint a single miniature to get the colour scheme right, then it turns into a production line. It saves on sanity!
Not sure if I'll get time to do any tonight

[Master Wang]

Hoping to have the whole team done by Thursday

I'm hoping to have my teams done before I die

Looking great so far.

[The Painted Goblin]

Well that might have been a bit ambitious. We go on holiday on Thursday hence the self-imposed deadline

More pics:-
The Cyclops with base coat and first wash of flesh and yellow:-


The two throwers, and the other midfielder in the same state:-


The three strikers:-


And the three safeties:-


The reason I give the yellow and flesh two washes of ink is that the creases on the legs, and in the face are subtle, so a second wash really helps bring them out.

I've also finished the first midfielder, and photographed it inside my home-made lightbox (made out of an A4 box with the sides cut out and replaced with grease-proof paper, and lined with a blue-to-white background):-



I decided to do a black crest in the end, after looking at some photos of greek warriors! Really pleased with it.

More to come soon, but I need to spend some time with the missus tonight

[axiom]

I've also finished the first midfielder, and photographed it inside my home-made lightbox (made out of an A4 box with the sides cut out and replaced with grease-proof paper, and lined with a blue-to-white background)

The pics look good - I'm struggling with getting decent pics of my team at the moment. Are you using any external light sources for the light box? Any special camera settings?

Your light box sounds easy to replicate - any chance you could post a pic of the light box?

[sann0638]

More to come soon, but I need to spend some time with the missus tonight

Slacker

[The Painted Goblin]

More to come s oon, but I need to spend some time with the missus tonight

Slacker

Yeah I know, what can you do?

Actually, I managed to get the next set of ink washes done after dinner. I'll post pics tomorrow


Axiom, i'll also post some pics of my light box. And explain the set up tomorrow.

[Slackjaw]

Looking really nice! I've had my eyes on that team for a while, we'll see what happens after my Skaven..

Keep up the good work

[The Painted Goblin]

Okay - Axiom, here's my home-made lightbox






It's an A4 packing box (wich I got from my office supplier), with all the seams taped up with packing tape. Three of the sides have had "windows" cut out of them, and replaced with bog-standard kitchen greaseproof paper.

The inside is a print of a blue-to-white gradient background (which I downloaded from somewhere, can't remember), and plotted out. This is probably the tricky bit because I have an A1 colour plotter which I would imagine isn't readily available to most folk, so you may have to improvise there.

The trick is to stick it inside the box so that it covers the floor and then curves up to the top so that there's no visible corner, if that makes sense.

The lightsource is a normal desktop lamp, with a daylight bulb - that's the most important bit. Don't use halogen, it needs to be a daylight bulb. When the ambient light is good, the lamp is best positioned so it shines through the top, like this:-



However, if it's dark (as in that last photo), you have to shine the lamp directly into the box from the front. The results aren't as good, but if you're impatient, it works.

There's really nothing special about the equipment I'm using - it really is just my phone camera (Nokia Xpress Music 5800) - 3.2 megapixels, with no special settings.
Oh....make sure you turn the flash off

My photography skills are notoriously awful (I'm renowned in my family for it!), so I can honestly say it's nothing special that I'm doing. I've said it before, I'm sure, but the most important thing is light

[Grumbledook]

doesn't need to be a daylight bulb

you can get really good results if you can have a lamp or a flash at either side rather than at the top

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/sho ... p?t=281524

there is a link to 261+ pages of DIY lightboxes with varying levels of sophistication, there are some missing pictures early on in the thread due to the age of it

the camera quality doesn't really matter much if you get the lighting right

[The Painted Goblin]

Well, yeah.....your mileage may vary - but I've tried halogen bulbs, and I've tried normal bulbs. They change the colours too much (normal bulbs make them too yellow, halogen bulbs make them too blue). Unless you want to mess around with White Balance on your camera (which I never really understood), then daylight bulbs give the best results in my experience.

I've also tried camera flashes, and to eliminate any unnatural shadows, you'd have to have a rig with several flashes pointing at the model from all directions. My set-up won't stand up in comparison to a professionals equipment, but it's cheap, and it works.

Pics from last night:-

Cyclops killed with ink washes:-


Some black ink has spilled over into the face - inking is a messy business, but it's easily sorted. One thing I've learned over the years is that you have to get used to your models looking a bit scruffy before they start to look good

The Throwers and other Midfielder:-


The Strikers:-


And the Safeties:-


Hope you don't all think I'm spamming unecessarily, but I though you might like to see it all in progress!

[Grumbledook]

no spam, it is refreshing to see so many in progress shots imo

[purdindas]

Oooooh just noticed this thread. Very Nice work mate. I never really liked those mini's before but that paint job has turned me on to them.

[axiom]

Okay - Axiom, here's my home-made lightbox

That's brilliant - very easily replicated using materials I have to hand ( I may need to come up with an alternative background). My only outlay will be a daylight bulb. Thanks very much for the overview on that - really appreciate the detail and in particular the pics!

Oh, those new players are coming together nicely too

[The Painted Goblin]

Work is slowing down a bit now that I'm doing 11 figures at once

Ok, this is all the models with the base coat re-applied.

Cyclops:-


Throwers/Midfielder:-


Strikers:-


Safeties:-


Hopefully I'll get 1st and 2nd stage highlights done tomorrow night (I'm knackered tonight, so not doing anymore!)