Conversion plog: Halflings, p6 29/06/14

[Shteve0]

Cheers Axt! Glad you like them. One unforseen downside to the dwarves though, that I discovered only in fielding them, is that from directly above it's sometimes a little confusing to differentiate runners from linemen, so adding skill stripes to the bases (as I've been doing with the others) will be an important step if I field these again, I think.

Fassbinder - yeah, I need to get basing I've done one team - the Globerotters - but am yet to get round to the others! I'll give them a bit of basing once either (a) I have my stuff through from the UK or (b) I see my painting buddy and convince him to keep letting me use his static grass for free

In the meantime, a test colour scheme I'd be grateful for your opinions on. I'm basing my Orc team - "Borca Juniors" - on the famous argentinian association football team of a similar name. Quick disclaimer: I don't only own bash teams, it just so happens that my elf, amazon, human, dark elf and skaven projects are all sat in a container on the opposite side of the planet...

For the unitiated, here's Boca Juniors' Juan Roman Riquelme, one of the most wonderfully talented (but also one of the slowest) trequartistas of the 2000s:



And here is Borca Juniors' J. R. R. Ickelm, just one of the slowest throw orc mistas of the 2500s:





Plus a pic of him with some of his rivals from Kayseri Erikssonspor, the Gnarl'Em Globerotters, and the Wellington Skellingtons respectively. Another point of order here; I don't usually use this much yellow, but given the basis for the team theme I kinda felt it necessary.



The paints I used for this were mixed from heap acryllics and a handful of GW base colours as a tester, so I'm tempted to find an existing paint range that offers me the blue and green colours I'm looking for rather than attempt to remix a batch, particularly as I'm unsure as to go with a darker blue to match the newer kits. I might add a stripe to the trousers too, but I'm not sure what colour - I feel like my hand is improving since adding the stripe to the Globerotters. Finally, the linemen, Black Orcs and Blitzers will all be wearing football helmets, so I'm thinking to incorporate black or blue gloss helmets with a yellow stripe into the scheme.

What do you reckon? Any pointers? Sorry for the links - for some reason I can't post images today?

[velvet mark]

The dwarf and undead throwerlook really good Shteve, fantastic work!

The Borca Thrower (top name ) is shaping up nicely too the blue and yellow looks great. A coat of gloss on the helmets will look cool.

- just one thing though - http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3811/img4359ce.jpg It might be the picture but the white backside of the trousers looks a little roughly textured. Is it meant to?

[Shteve0]

LOL! No, no it's not supposed to look like that. Good spot! Doesn't look that bad in real life, but I'll revisit and try to tidy it up!

Managed to get some basing in yesterday after all, so here are some team shots. Lighting's a bit crap, but hopefully you'll get the overall effect!

[RogueThirteen]

Wow these teams come together nicely. Really like the color scheme and work on the Dwarves.


My only minor observation would be that the Ghouls and Zombies are a bit hard to differentiate.

[Shteve0]

Thanks, man The Ghouls have whopping great spikes on their spines, which does a lovely job of picking them out from above. If that fails, though, the easiest way is to say "the zombies are the ones lying down, the ghouls are the ones in the Dead and Injured box".

[Lunchab1es]

The khemri are my favorite. You did a great job with the tomb guardians, and the "Dirty Player" is IMO quite clever and my favorite model you've done! Keep 'em coming.

[Axtklinge]

Nice work, congrats!


Three comments/questions:
- Do you plan on keeping the basing equal on all the teams, or are you planing on modding according to the team (as an example giving brown/earth tones to the undead bases/grass)
- What's with leaving one model per team without basing? Some sort of punishment for having misbehaved in the last game or something?
- Is that an Igor with a shovel back there? Is it a conversion?

[Shteve0]

Cheers guys! Glad you like the DP lunchables, the necron kit doesn't lend itself well to a fouling pose and, while I was wondering what to do with the extra pointing hand... everything just fell into place

Axt, apologies for taking two weeks to answer your questions!
1) I've tried out a goblin green basis for the - errr - bases recently, and I think it's worked out a little clearer than the brown ocre I had on the undead and dwarf teams. I'm using a mate's basing supplies at the mo and like to keep costs down, so I doubt I'll be mixing things up too much with regard to flock any time soon!
2) Lol, no punishment - I plan to do 3-4 sideline staff for all my teams, plus 4 reroll counters. These guys are just WIPs from their associated teams! I've now finished the guys in the previous update... Here's two of them, in fact!

3)Yes, he is! I bought a whole bunch of clix miniatures on the cheap a year or so back as sideline staff, and am in the process of hacking them up and replacing various parts. The undead Igor is the first to be finished! The clix range is great for this stuff, though the level of detail can be quite hit and miss, with a rebasing, headswap and new lick of paint they come out pretty nice. Of course, it helps that you can pick them up for as little as $0.50

Igor started life as http://www.trollandtoad.com/p103691.html and benefits from a mantic zombie head swap.

More general update time, J R R Ickelm is joined in the field by a couple of blitzers, a wizard and some high quality line fodder!


Individual pics:



I feel like my painting skills are improving detail wise - I feel more comfortable these days painting numbers and text smoothly (except the umber '6'... yeah.) but I feel a bit lost with highlighting. I've tried edging and drybrushing, and feel like I want an effect that lies in between. Any tips for good, simple tutorial on out there?

Cheers guys!

S

[JT-Y]

Drybrushing is a rough technique, it can be used to great effect but if you want neatness best move on.

Extreme edge hilighting is a good start. Wet blending is basically an extension of that; try thinning the paint used for the hilight a lot and then floating it back over the darker area. The paint will become transluscent and you get a much smoother blend.
The same can bedone with the dark colour back into shadows and to smooth transitions further.
Many painters use two brushes to blend, one with paint, one wet with water, so that it is easier to float the paint around and get the required transluscency.

The real trick is to avoid mixing too many colours, or using too many stages. For example the model in my avatar only has two stages of hilight and one shade on most areas, fewer again on small areas.

Foundry or P3 paints are designed for blending and pigment heavy. Other brands are less help.

Don't be afraid to dick around and try things based on what you know, and on an idea of what you want.

Hope some of that helps a bit.

Cool conversions and great teams. keep 'em coming.



BTW, those Puppets Warheads look a bit larger than normal boyz heads. Are they, or is it just the pics?
Been considering them myself.

[Steam Ball]

Before going with wet blending two colors with two brushes (assuming that's what JT-Y mean), try just stacking multiple coats of thinned paint (not fully opaque, a tint of whatever it covers), each one smaller area than the ones before. You have to let them dry before painting the next (paint multiple miniatures so you don't have to wait), and it works both for shading and highlighting. Some call this glazing, and it also works for things like creating stubble, shaved heads, bruises, etc by using "the wrong color" (blue, green, purple, grey... over pink skin).

You can think of this like stacking color binders or any other type of transparent sheet, the more sheets stacked, the stronger the effect until it reaches full opacity. So if you cut the sheets to cover different areas, you can control the progression and get a smooth gradient.

Rereading, JT-Y talks about glazing with extra help to push the paint around and thin it a bit more once applied. Some people just move brush in the direction that leaves the thickest paint where they want, single stroke.

[Rubick]

I may have missed it in the posts, but where are those dwarf models from? There is something I just like about them so much, particularly the trolls slayers and the coach. Nice work, really like what you have done so far.

[Axtklinge]

Love that IGOR!
This is one of the reasons these forums rock and threads such as yours are great (congrats!)!
That's a awesome conversion right there, and since I missed the 'clix' thing altogether (and dont really know anyone using them), I would miss completely that model, and it's potential for BB.
Nice find, and fine job with it!

On the painting subject, yes I agree with you, the new minis clearly show improvements on the painting standards (congrats again!), in fact those sideline minis look plain great!
You've even found the nails of the dwarf!!!


Nice job!
A.

[Shteve0]

Hey guys - happy christmas! I got some great new models in the buildup to Christmas and the missus gifted me a Dreadball Striker level purchase to cap it off. Really happy with how the figs are coming on, I'll post an update soon

Foundry or P3 paints are designed for blending and pigment heavy. Other brands are less help.

BTW, those Puppets Warheads look a bit larger than normal boyz heads. Are they, or is it just the pics? Been considering them myself.

Thanks mate, great stuff. I'll certainly give that a spin. Just curious, you said your avatar uses two "stages" of highlighting - by that do you mean only two coats, or only two paint mixes?

The heads do feel a little bit large to be honest, which is a little disappointing; but once on and painted they don't feel inappopriate in the 'flesh'. The footballs included are perfect, though. All the items are marvelously detailed too, and arrived extremely well packed and for a very reasonable price.

Rereading, JT-Y talks about glazing with extra help to push the paint around and thin it a bit more once applied. Some people just move brush in the direction that leaves the thickest paint where they want, single stroke.

Great tip, thanks Steam Ball - this sounds like something I can certainly try. I'll give it a spin!

I may have missed it in the posts, but where are those dwarf models from? There is something I just like about them so much, particularly the trolls slayers and the coach. Nice work, really like what you have done so far.

Thanks Rubick! They're 6th Edition WHFB dwarf warriors, with some 40k Squat arms from back in the day thrown in for good measure. I sculpted some of the parts - the outstretched runner arm, all the shoulderpads, and the flesh and hair of the trollslayers - with some insanely quick drying plumbers putty (usable for about 20 seconds after mixing). In retrospect, it was a ridiculous endeavour, but three years ago it seemed like a good plan

Love that IGOR! That's a awesome conversion right there, and since I missed the 'clix' thing altogether (and dont really know anyone using them), I would miss completely that model, and it's potential for BB.

Thanks Axt! Chuffed you like him I took a bit of a gamble, buying about 30 models from a US ebay lister, with no idea of size, material or detail. As it happens a bunch of them aren't really usable (maybe 5 or 6) but at as little as 25c in some cases I figured it was a risk worth taking. The rest should all see daylight at some point with some (ahem) minor adjustments!

Incidentally, I also got in on the Reaper Bones kickstarter, so I've got a whole load of those due in a few months - can't wait!

[JT-Y]

Thanks mate, great stuff. I'll certainly give that a spin. Just curious, you said your avatar uses two "stages" of highlighting - by that do you mean only two coats, or only two paint mixes?

Only two coats. I use Foundry paint pretty exclusively, and with their range mixing isn't needed, as each colour comes in three shades. The green for instance is Foundry Moss Green, base coat of Moss A, first hilight Moss B, final hilight Moss C.
By floating the paint around, blending it over the previous colour so that the previous colour shows through where the hilight is most transluscent, you can reduce the number of stages quite dramatically, whereas with layering you find yourself working in numerous, slightly changing, layers.
It's hard to explain but easy to show, and quite easy to do, so do have the confidence to dick around and try it.

The heads do feel a little bit large to be honest, which is a little disappointing; but once on and painted they don't feel inappopriate in the 'flesh'. The footballs included are perfect, though. All the items are marvelously detailed too, and arrived extremely well packed and for a very reasonable price.

I was considering getting the Necrom Orcs, and picking up those heads as well for a bit more of a football team feel, and to get some variety in the line-orcs. The Necrom throwers look quite skinny though, so might not work at all.
Guess I'll just have to order them and see.

[Steam Ball]

Massive Voodoo has a tutorial about working with thinned/transparent paint, with a picture about how multiple applications add up to build a color. You can use thicker (comparatively) paint to only apply 2-3 steps, they just prefer very thin ones and apply lots of times so smoother transitions are possible, specially in bigger miniatures. What JT-Y uses is pretty much like this, plus using a wet brush to spread once in the miniature, for extra control. MV people achieve the "pigment pushing" with the same brush. In any case, you can realize the trick is the transparent, not evenly strong, layers to build a color transition. Sadly the picture in the tutorial doesn't show that uneveness part, then it would be a lot more clearer (bad, non intended, phun).

It sure saves time on mixing, as with a limited number of colors (2 are enough, base and the glazes one) you can get lots of visible colors, by means of the transparency doing the mixing for you.