Sunday, October 21, 2012

From Zero to Hero: Coppelius - Malifaux Neverborn Minion

Hey guys,

today I wanted to show you, how I painted my Coppelius figure. In a previous post I stated, how much I hated putting this mini together. Because of that, I only did a very basic paint shop this miniature.


After assembly, I primed the miniature with Vallejos polyurethane gray primer.


I basecoated the coat with VGC Imperial Blue, the hair with VGC Sombre Gray and the skin with me VGC Stonewall Gray.


The coat was highlighted by mixing more and more VGC Magic Blue into the base color concentrating on the folds of the coat.


The trousers were basecoated with VGC Hexed Lichen. For the highlights I mixed VCG Squid Pink into the base color.


The skin was highlighted by glazing VMC White over the gray areas, which were raised to the light.


The eye was based with VGC White and a small amount of VGC Magic Blue was used for the iris. The pupil dot was made with VMA Black. I find it easier working with the Model Air colors because they are thinner and you have more control when painting very fine details.


After giving the model of a heavy coat of gloss varnish I used an oil wash to bring out the fine details.


As Coppelius has a very large fluff focus on eyes I  decided to do a slight OSL effect to bring out the eyes of this model. For this I mixed a very thin yellow (VMA Model Air thinned 2:1 with Vallejo Thinner) and applied this mix with my airbrush around the eyes. To highlight the eyes an to give the OSL a focal point, I added a small dot of a 1:1 mix of VMA Yellow and VMC White into the center of each eye. This is important as an OSL effect always goes from light to dark. If you want a glow, you'll need a brighter source for the glow, as otherwise the effect might look off.







All in all one of my less favorite models in the Malifaux range, but I think I captured some of the menace and grittiness of the figure.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Problems with Maelstrom Games

Hey guys,

Normally I would just write a review of an online store I have purchased something from. But these are special circumstances, because I have had so much problems with this particular service. I'm talking about Maelstrom Games.


Seriously, stay far away from these guys...

I have ordered a bunch of Malifaux and other hobbies supplies over 2 1/2 months ago. All these items were in stock (according to their website anyways) but the first shipment took quite a while to get to me. It seems that they didn't have all these items in the warehouse so they ordered them as soon as I ordered from them. Because of this, my order got split numerous times. Which might be a good thing in hindsight, because if the rumours around the Internet are true, Maelstrom Games is insolvent.

I have read quite an informative thread over on Dakka Dakka yesterday which highlighted the problems this particular online shop has had in the past.

So do yourselves a favor and stay away from this store, because I'm still waiting for part of my order. Granted, it's just a Malifaux 1.5 Rulebook out of a 200 GBP order, but it still sucks. I read read about some other guys ordered quite a bit of stuff in the last months and haven't received anything so far.

Cheers,


IK-Painter


Sunday, October 7, 2012

From Zero to Hero: Stitched Together - Malifaux Neverborn Minions

Hey guys,

today I wanted to show you, how I painted the Malifaux Stitched Together minions. I started out by pinning and mounting the miniatures to the corks, removing the mould lines and priming them with black surface primer.


I then applied a basecoat with VMC Leather Brown to both the figures.


Highlights were achieved by adding the VGC Bonewhite to the brown basecolor. In several small increments, and the amount of Bonewhite  was heightened, until the last highlights was pure VGC Bonewhite.


You can see, that this made for a very fine and very smooth gradient in the highlight.


All the areas, where the stuffing of the Stitched Togethers shows through, was basecoated with VMC Vermillion.


I then added random spots of the VGC Hexed Lichen and VGC Squid Pink to the red areas, to make for a color variation in the internal organs and the gore which is shown.


The spine and various bone parts are painted with VGC Bonewhite.


The stitches, which hold these evil burlap sacks together, are painted with the VMC Ivory, to make a nice contrast to the main colour of the model.


The lantern on one of the minis is painted with a 1:1 mix of VGC Brassy Brass and VGC Black to make a nice dark metal basecoat.


The eyes of the figures are painted with VGC Livery Green.


I overpainted some of the areas when adding the VGC Livery Green, but I fixed this mistake again with the highlight color, which made a very nice effect. When adding high contrast colors too deep recesses in the model, it is always important to make a nice clean cut between the different colors,  so they will really pop.


When all the main colors where blocked in, I gave both figures a heavy coat of Vallejo Gloss Varnish.


The coat of varnish protects the model for the next step, a brown oil wash.


This wash was applied very liberal over the whole model, making sure to get enough shading in the deep recesses.


After the wash was dry to the touch, I cleaned it up with a bit of isopropyl alcohol and a make-up applicator.


For a bit of a OSL effect, I glazed VGC Livery Green over the eye area of the model. This was done in a lot of passes making sure that the later passes where concentrated on the areas closer to the eye, so it would look like that the brightest point is near the eye socket.


When I was satisfied with the shading, I gave the models a heavy coat of Matte Varnish.


I really love painting these figures. They were creepy and loaded up with the detail. And I really do think, that these two are some of my best work so far. I leave you with some shots of the finishing models.

Cheers,


IK-Painter







Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Harder & Steenbeck Infinity CRplus 2 in 1 Review

Hey guys,

I uploaded my next video today. In this one I review the Harder & Steenbeck Infinity CRplus airbrush. This is the 2 in 1 version with both the .15 and .4 needle and nozzle.


I will be using this brush in the next few days to get a feel for it and experiment, what I can do with it.

Cheers,


IK-Painter