Monday, March 21, 2011

Venerable Dreadnought - Arms and Weathering

Some more work on my Venerable Dreadnought.




I've had a lot of trouble applying weathering to large surfaces and edges. I either go to far and it looks messy as hell, or I don't emphasis the right points and it looks wierd. I think I've hit an ok balance with this one.

There are bits which need more and some areas are conspicuously missing weathering, but overall I like how it looks. Big thanks to Brother Michael over at 40k forums for his assistance in how to do the weathering. As with everything, practice makes perfect :)

Overall there seems to be quite a lot still to do. Both arm units need to be completed, more weathering needs to be applied, maybe some pigment work, but from then on it's mostly detail work.

I must say he looks quite imposing with his arms on. I like it ^_^
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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Venerable Dreadnought - Day three

A smidge more work on the venerable Dreadnought. I'm usually a 'Base Last' kind of painter, but I was getting bored with the body so figured I've move onto the base early.




I love secret weapon miniature bases. They do 80% of the work of looking cool. All it takes is a few build up layers of drybrusing and a few minor effects (The road lines) and you're done. I normally paint bricks red, but as there's so much red already I went with brown and I think it works quite well, both the grey and the brown. The yellow gives it a touch of color which is good too. I'm going to add some fake grass in there somewhere as well at the end...

On the body I started all the little stuff like the wires and the helmet. These are more guide colors than anything else and they were done with straight foundation paints. I'm going to brighten them up a little with regular paints next...

Still to do:
The Feet - I've been looking over the best way of doing dreadnought feet and it seems heavy scuffing is the way to go... Not totally sure on the technique but it's always fun to play... ^_^

Lenses: He's got quite a few of them at eye level... I dunno whether to do them all green or a variety of colors?

The red: Touch ups and stuff still to come...
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Head choice from last time.
Wow... Talk about varied opinions... Some people say one type looks great while others hate it... Personal flavor rules the day I guess... I'm leaning towards 6, 3 or 4... I like the simplicity of 6, the lethality of 3 and the regal bearing of 4... Maybe I should paint all three and see how they look then?
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Monday, March 7, 2011

Day Two of the Venerable Dreadnought

Day Two of the Venerable Dreadnought. Not really that much work done today. Considering 'The Wise Man's Fear' came out today I'm surprised I've done any work what-so-ever... Or even remembered to shower and eat for that matter...



Done today:
1. Seals: Worked the seals in Dark Angel Green then lightened them with varying shades of scorpion green. Glazed with 1:1 green : water. I also darkened up the parchment with another targeted wash of sepia...
2. Cloth: Foundation purple with a purple wash, more highlights happening... Heh, there better be anyway...
3. Red Armor: While it may not be overtly visible I cleaned up a lot of the armor with some touch ups and started a little bit of blending...

Wow... Considering all that took me like 90 minutes it doesn't seem like much work does it...


Starting some more prep work for the Shadow Sanctus Captain I'm sending to whalemusic. I've had a few people say they didn't like the head I decided on so I figured I'd throw out some alternatives. If you like one let me know!

Oh well... Back to my book...
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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Venerable Dreadnought - Day One or OMG HE'S NOT DEAD!

Day one of actual painting for my old school metal venerable dreadnought. Yes, that's right I'm not actually dead...



This has been sitting around for awhile, a long with a few other things... I've been combating some pretty major loss of inspiration lately. So much is going on with Earthquakes, and people and work and painting has seemed less important with each and every day I've been putting it off...

I'll talk a little bit more about losing motivation to paint in a few days, but first let's see what I've done today:

1. Red. Basecoat red was done with my airbrush (Which then broke. I shit you not, broke. But that's another story). The red went over black so has come out a little bit dull for a miniature with such large areas, I'll be trying to brighten up the red in places with brighter coats and some blending.
2. Gold. The gold is my standard recipe (BGM > BG x 2 > brown washes). Those with sharp eyes will notice a difference between the golds though. That comes from using different washes at different stages. They'll all be tided up later on, and some highlighting applied.
3. Skulls. The skulls are done with 2x layers of bleached bone and a wash of Orgyn Flesh and a light brush of badab black (spelling?). Again; touch ups & highlights need to be applied.
4. Parchments. Used Menoth base (p3) for the parchment base coat and have only applied one layer of Sepia wash. I'll need a few more layers of the wash to achieve the right brown; one that is different enough from the gold...

That's pretty much it so far... My lack of motivation and inspiration is quite telling when I look at the dreadnought; I haven't taken care in some places and there's significant paint transfer... And in others it just looks wrong. I hope with a little more care it'll start to improve...
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