Zen and the Art of Highlights/Shading Part III

Okay...I will keep this brief...and I must reiterate that uploading zoomed in pictures at 10 Megapixels is not forgiving at all. Case in point was the Skarlock post...when first uploaded Segrig thought that the paintjob was not so great but then when he saw it in real life it was actually better than he expected.

So...instead of put in many posts on every aspect of shading this little beastie I spent some time this afternoon and did the rest of the shading portion to the best of my ability. I think it has turned out really well for my first time and is starting to look really good in comparison to all my previous models.

A couple of points that I discovered, it is a lot easier to apply shading to light colors because it shows up really well. The challenge becomes blending the darker shade back in. On the flip side...shading a dark color is harder because you really have to get a shade that is dark enough to show, on the other hand it blends back in a lot easier...those are my thoughts at this point anyway.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is my first attempt and that people have been painting these models for years and still work at perfecting this aspect of their painting...

So without further discussion...here is my little Bile Thrall all grown up er I mean shaded...highlighting will probably begin this week.

Zen and the Art of Highlights/Shading Part II

Okay...so I did the original shading before supper...then everyone went to bed...I got bored and thought "Let's take a stab at Step 2 of the process".

What is step 2 you might ask? Well, if you remember from the previous post, when doing the shading we were only roughing in the dark spots so it looked nice but sort of clunky. The next step, according to the fine individual from the Painting Clinic, is to make a glaze (watered down paint essentially) that is the same as your base coat and then smooth in the shading to the base coat while at the same time sharpening the spots that you want shaded.

So I tried it...I haven't looked at the pics for comparison but on this picture I have tried to blend in the dark green body shading and the bone shading....the desired effect is that these look more seamless against the base coat and end up being the final definition of what will be shaded...without further adieu...I will post the new picture...because of blog space constraints I am only publishing the updated pic or else I would post all 3 for easy comparisons...if this feels cheap to you please feel free to click the "Complaint Box" link on the left side of the blog and let me know...if I get enough complaints I will post them all again in this post.












Well I just compared the pics and I can see a difference...however I might be a little biased...anyhoo...next post will be Part III where we start to add the first layer of highlighting to contrast against our shading...I'm so excited and disappointed at being a nerd at the same time...lol.

Happy Gaming Everyone!!!

Zen and the Art of Highlights/Shading

Well I know it has been a long time since I posted anything to this discussion. I have been busy with Warmachine...painting like a bandit, squeeking in the odd game here and there and I even built some terrain.

I bought an asswhack load of new models...so much so that I cannot, in good conscience, buy anymore until I have completed what I have now. The reason I bought so many was because my local gaming shop had a fantastic birthday sale that I just could not say No to...even though my wife was screaming it in the background! Another story for another day...

However...getting to the point of this post: I finally opened the Bile Thrall Box Set that I purchased oh so long ago...I was staying away from it because it is a multi-character unit that meant a major commitment to painting that I wasn't sure I was up to....but I bit the bullet and charged on. Much to my surprise (I guess it shouldn't have been much of a surprise in hindsight) because the Bile Thralls do not where clothes (I was going to insert a "per se" at this point but looking at the models it is much more of an "at all"). Literally they are nude zombies with guns...I digress...because  they don't wear clothes, when I opened the box I discovered little bare asses hanging out all over the place!!! This threw me for a loop...I had studied the box and it showed some excellently painted models from the front only...so I thought "How the hell do I paint these asses!?!".

Coming to the point of this post shortly...so I did what every good geek nerd battle doll player does...I did a Google image search on "Bile Thralls" to see how everyone else painted their asses..wow the segways that are possible here!  I will try to stay on point....in my search I found a particularly well painted set of Bile Thralls...and even better...a guy who has been painting miniatures for over a decade that had built a website dedicate to sharing his tips, tricks and techniques for great painting!!! What a fantastic find!!!

Without delaying any further...here is the link to his site: http://www.paintingclinic.com/MainClinic.dwt.htm

This site contains a wealth of information with step by step instructions on how to take your painting to "a whole nother level"...it is well work checking out, bookmarking and going back to over and over again. I was particularly impressed by his article on Highlighting and Shading. I certainly would not do it justice so I won't try to explain it here but recommend you read it for yourself.

I do need to summarize a little bit however because the next series of posts will be about my first attempt to implement the techniques he describes in that article on my hapless little Bile Thralls. The good thing is that I have 2 identical units...1 I will highlight and shade, the other will be used for comparison.

So here we go.....

The first step is  to base coat your model and get it painted well....this I did. The next step is too apply the shading (when you read the article you will see that this is rough shading and will be refined in the highlighting phase of the model.) The goal is to take your base coat color and darken it by several degrees (I will leave it at that because more detail is in the article) and then thin it out so that you don't really have a paint but a glaze. A glaze is much like paint but it is semi-transparent meaning you don't completely replace the base coat and you won't get that hard edge between colors that you would if  you were to simply apply a darker color paint.

So without further delay...read the article and check out my models below...I think the one is turning out well and hopefully with subsequent posts we will see it transform into an above average final product...I know...way to set the bar high...but hey mediocrity is still a goal isn't it??? Oh and BTW...I hate uploading  these pictures at 10 MegaPixels because every little mistake looks like a nuclear disaster but what the hell I am still learning.

fresh blood.

look at the blood that was spilled when i played a 400 point battle vs pete! no, its not a zit. i bent down to check line of sight from my gun mage captain and i got speared by a pointy ass pine tree he was standing near! owww!!!

we managed to play out 2 400 point games and im starting to feel more comfortable with my warcasters, especially siege. i can understand some of his little tricks a little better and have managed to pull them out a couple times. doing this has made me understand a little bit more about stryker and how i could perhaps use him better.

i have a shit ton of painting to do. should i post more pics of stuff as a get it done? perhaps when i get some work done on my TOP SECRET and MYSTERIOUS models?
should i look to make a battle report/ game analysis post?

we have one subscriber, perhaps that gourmand has a preference? (this is a test, to see if youre reading! HA!)

350 mangled metal

so as Xev already knows i took part in a 350pt warmachine mangled metal tounament yesterday. its was good, simple, one warcaster and as many warbeasts/warjacks as you can fit into 350pts.

however,

i got owned in the face.

well not completely, but basically. there were a couple of matches that were really close, but i ultimately lost them. i think that my problems all boil down to one thing: experience.
1) i was/am not familiar with many armies and faced only armies ive never faced before. this includes hordes forces, and the whole focus mechanic from hordes is unfamiliar to me....whatever i knew that would happen, thats cool.
2) my first reflection of my gameplay made me think i hadnt come with an optimal list, but now that i think about it a little bit more i think that i could have done some things differently and played what i had a little better. this is again an experience thing.

after all is said and done i feel a little exhausted from warmachine, but ill get back up on my horse soon enough. maybe even tomorrow with pete.

im not going to proof read this post, so fuck all yall.