Nazgob's painting blog - Long time coming

[nazgob]

I will be proud to do some painting.

No question. Even if I hadn't lost my Nanna last year, I'd be willing to help the Roy Castle Foundation.

Pm will be coming soon Frank.

[Giraffe]

Oh, right, sorry, I didn't know bots could search forums for these details...that explains all the spam I've been getting lately...Piousman, Burgun, I'm grateful for the advice...

And the event's called Thrudball, 6-7th August, its a 110% not-for-profit (as it normally costs me a couple of hundred quid every year, also I never can resist bidding in the auction) Thrud-The-Barbarian themed Bloodbowl tournament in aid of Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation with Wandering Thrud, Dock Bowl, evening entertainment (Most Thrudlike,Sponsored Bush Tucker, Sponsored Make-Frank-Suffer projectle challenges(bring on the paintball & BB gun, catapult and dart board!), "The Wide Zone" a game show that for litigation reasons is NOTHING like the cube, "Who's LOS is it anyway" our attempt at improvised comedy, wish us luck, and more fun than you can shake a stick at!!! See http://www.thrudball.com for details...

As you may gather, I never sut up about it...they don't call me Mad Frank without justification!

Mike thanks a million for agreeing to paint for thrudball...now all I have to do is outbid everyone else there and I could actually OWN a team painted by you!!!

Just going downstairs to raid the girls piggy banks

[nazgob]

I'm sat hoping for the postman to come and doing some research.

And have just been seriously freaked out - some painters are far too dedicated. Plus, there have to be health and saftey issues for gaming with models finished like this:

Using Real Blood: And finally what could be better then real blood ? No need for any type of varnish, white glue ect… I can imagine what you’re thinking “ that guy is crazy I shouldn’t be reading stuff like that !!!!” But relax !!! I don’t go around mutilating myself to have real blood on my minis. It is possible to buy some blood from a butcher. Blood can be mixed without any problem with paint and inks but it dries pretty quickly and can damage brushes once it dries and coagulate. The only problem with real blood is that you’ll obtain dried blood, so if you want a fresh blood effect it’s not easy. By adding some varnish in the blood it self you can have something a bit brighter upon drying, you can also make it brighter by applying a couple of red washes once it’s dry. But I think the easiest solution if you want a fresh blood effect is to use only inks, but in the case of dried blood real blood is definitely better

http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1252

[Giraffe]

but would be popular with vampire coaches!

[nazgob]

Well, I'm still sat waiting for the postman to bring me some models for Thrud, as well as procrastinating about work, so I thought I'd get my hands dirty again. This is a piece I've been wanting to paint for ages. It's obviously still a WIP, but I'm pretty pleased about how it came out. Its also the first model I've painted with the intention of using it to improve my painting skills, notably freehand. I've also been using very, very thin paints.



The pumpkin was done in two stages. First I did the 'lit' areas. Base coat Iyanden Darksun, and then progressive highlights with Sunburst Yellow and Skull White. I also mixed in quite a bit of gloss to give it a bit of a sheen. The outer Pumpkin was a base of Macharius Solar Orange, highlighted with a mix of Sunburst Yellow and Fiery Orange, with progessively more Sunburst. But when I say highlighted, I mean more of a glaze. Its not something I'd ever played around with before (glazes), and thought I would give it a try based on some reading I've been doing over at http://www.coolminiornot.com. Several successive glazes seem to have produced a good tone with fairly smooth transitions (although I realise I've messed up under his mouth somewhat).

The sign was for me to play around with wood and with writing (I hate painting writing), and I'm reasonably pleased with it. The wood is painted onto a grained surface, so isn't really freehand, but was a simple case of successive highlights using Calthan/Vomit Brown. The letters were sketched onto a piece of paper so I could get an idea of the size required. I then did a quick base coat in Dheneb Stone, before following up with a Skull White highlight. Important: When painting onto wood grain (sculpted), the paint will tend to pool in the grooves. This results in an effect that can look something like this:

This is something you need to be aware of. I think its hard to avoid totally, but I did manage to mitigate it by having as little paint on the brush as possible. (Hopefully the diagram makes sense).

As for the witch herself, she is going to be in black, with patterns. I'm thinking roses (freehand practice). She may also be wearing stockings - I haven't decided yet. The cat is likely to be black and white.

Coming up in a future episode:
*will nazgob be able to restrain himself when the postman finally arrives?*
*how to make a display stand, the miser's way*

[Giraffe]

Postman Pratt should have delivered the Chaos Football Team donated by Gaspez Arts today...

I've only managed to paypal Gaspez today for :









Have asked him to send them direct to you, ptherwise will post to you when they arrive with me.

This should make 13 minatures in all, enough for the full Chaos Pact Team.

Thought the pics would help you with regards to determining your colour schemes, etc.

Hope you like them!

[nazgob]

It's alive. ALIVE!!!

*ahem*

Arrived.

One package from Mr Frank Hill.

[Oly1987]

Nazgob i feel a little bit inspired reading this thread. Im also a man with a lot of unpainted 40k (80% of a company of space marines unpainted but now i have the full company im hoping its going to inspire me to paint them all) and a human BB team which is coming along nicely but now i have to get into gear and get them finished before the White Isle tourny. Must say im very impressed with your models and was just wondering how you managed to get the detail on helmuts eyes and the general bit between the visor

[nazgob]

Oly, glad you enjoy the thread. Helmut's visor was tricky, but not actually as bad as it looks. Turn the model so that the visor slit is parralel with the point of your brush. e.g. If you paint with you brush held vertical, turn the visor vertical.

Basecoat with some form of flesh (I forget which), then and GW Flesh Wash. Drop some Elf Flesh (my default skin highlighter) onto the nose and eyebrows. Then, very carefully apply Skull White and Chaos Black for the eyes. This may take several (read a lot) of sttempts to get perfect. Its important to keep your paints thin for the eyes.

Then do the helmet around the face. Do it first and you'll only have to touch it up later.

Hope this helps, and good luck with the chapter. I'm sat on around 2000 points of unpainted Grey Knights, 2500 points of High Elves and maybe 150 points of Privateer Press Skorne. I can motivate myself to paint Bloodbowl, but nothing else it seems. Ah well

[nazgob]

Still waiting for some more things from Frank, so I did some more on my Pumpkin Patch Babe.



The skin is a simple Vomit Brown base with Flesh Wash inked in, followed by Vomit Brown/Elf Flesh/White highlights. I did have to do an Elf Flesh glaze because the skin began to look a bit chalky though.

The eyes were done following a tutorial on CMON, and I'm pretty pleased with them.

The lips/eyebrows were experiments, and I think that both still need some work. The eyebrows need some highlighting, while the lips need some more correction. I think that they actually look quite good, but its obvious that I need to smooth out the skin colour on her face, both where I added extra ink to the recesses, as well as where I made errors applying her make-up.

The hair is a perfect example of how helpful google is to the painter. Very few 'real' painters paint without inspiration, so when you're soing red hair, google red hair. If you're painting a Norse player, google Vikings. You will quickly find yourself at an advantage. Solar Macharius Orange, 2 coats of Baal Red, then highlight (NOT drybrush) with mixes of Sunburst Yellow and Fiery Orange. I stopped short of pure Sunburst, but if you wanted a dark blonde model, you could just keep highlighting.

[nazgob]

My witch is finished.







But I do have several important tips. And I do mean important.

1) When undercoating models by hand, ensure you move the piece you're currently working on away from your workstation. It is depressingly easy to play 'spot the white splashes' on the witch.

2) When planning freehand, make certain that you know what you are aiming to achieve. Don't just do what I did and start with a vague thought; 'I just want some squiggly bits'.

Still, I've enjoyed painting the witch. Her stockings were an experiment in painting sheer clothing and it doesn't look too bad, but if I had the chance to do it again, I think I'd add a few more layers of highlight. (It's charadon Granite highlighted with successive mixings with Tallarn Flesh). But why don't I just do that now? Well, quite simply, I have more important tasks to attend to.



The astute amongst you will have reaslied that he is not a member of the Chaos Pact team. There's been an adjustment, and instead, I'm painting a Norse team. Just working on the skin so far (Tallarn Flesh, Devlan Mud, Tallarn/Elf FLesh/Skull White for highlights).

[robsoma]

I'm loving that fleshtone!! consider it knicked lol. I'm thinking about moving to a grey primer, i've always worked from a black undercoat do you find that the grey is giving you a brighter finish?

[nazgob]

Feel free Rob. I used to use solely GW black spry paint back in my 40k days, but I seems to undercoat all of my bloodbowl models by hand because I never have enough to warrant getting the cans out - that's probably the main reason why I use the grey undercoat (in this case Dheneb Stone). However, I have found that the GW foundation paints (brilliant product) not only sticks to anything but provides a great surface to put any other colour onto and still offers brilliant coverage when thinned. For answer to the brightness of the colours, I used a similar undercoat for my Harlequins - the blue/grey foundation paint that's just off white. ***edit: I checked and its called Astronomican Grey***

I will say that I have noted a marked improvement over black when it comes to getting whites white - I used to have real problems with Warhammer High Elves.

[nazgob]

A slight change of pace today. A few times people have said very nice things about my painting and then gone on to say that they could never do anything as good. If I say it didn't happen overnight, they don't always believe me, so I thought I'd prove it.

My very first model. Please note the brilliantly smooth yellows and exquisite free hand on the armour edges. 14 years ago


I've misplaced/sold a lot of my models from the following five years, but this guy has survived. Like so many, it was never finished. Almost all of it was drybrushed or inked. Look closely, and I'm willing to bet that you'll find some mold lines. 10 years ago



I took a break from miniature gaming when I met the future Mrs Nazgob (being a shy and gawky teenager), so I stopped painting for quite a few years. I think that this was probably the first model I'd painted in about 3 years. Please note the heavy handed drybrushing. I was extraordinarily proud of this model, and still am really, but there are definitely some flaws. 5 years ago


The biggest one is demonstrated in the next piece. I entered the a competition marking the 25th anniversary of White Dwarf. Originally he had chains coming from his wrists, but they seem to have gone walkabout. What's truly fantastic is the thickness of the paint - his skin is so textured its disturbing. 4 1/2 years ago


After I finished Uni, I was unemployed for a while, and spent most of a week painting five of these guys instead of looking for work. 2 1/2 years ago


I started painting a bit more regularly after that. I've got most of a dragon, a load of Skorne for Hordes, some boats for Uncharted Seas. And this guy - Morghoul. He was the first model I spent a really long time working on. About 11 hours. 2 years ago


After these guys, I found Bloodbowl again, which would lead you back to the start of the blog. Since then, I have painted more and more regularly and I think that my painting has improved because of it. These are just a selection of the models I have painted, but I think that they're illustrative of my painting ability over the years. And hopefully you'll be interested.

[robsoma]

I've just recently bought my own house so I've been slowly moving some of my old 'stuff' from my parents. so i've had a trip down painting lane! Its funny now looking at those horrible brightly coloured blobs and thinking wow that miniture probably took me twice as long to paint as the things i do now, but at the time i was so damned proud of it!
Experience is the 2nd biggest thing for mini painting, the biggest is thin your paints.