No apology needed, one post isn't a derailment. But it's one of those topics that tends to divide people and the ensuing discussions invariably end up derailing threads. I just thought I'd nip it in the bud before everyone decide to offer their two-penn'orth (2 cents, for anyone outside the UK!). I think my next picture post will be Friday. I have to have my Blood Angels sergeant ready for judging by Saturday, so basically Friday night is the deadline, although I'm well ahead of schedule. Last month I was still up at 2am on the Saturday of judging finishing a Stegadon.
Sadly, due to unforeseen computing issues involving my computer not powering up properly, the eagerly awaited Step By Step for the elves pictured in this plog will now have to wait until I actually have a computer that will power on for long enough to actually allow me to log on to windows (hopefully some time next week or the week after!). Currently I'm posting from a mobile phone and I have sporadic access to a laptop, so it's not ideal But, because I think you guys are so awesome and you've been so appreciative of my work (not like some of those meanies on Coolminiornot!), I will paint some other stuff (I'm not short of work in the regards) and I'll finish off my Elves when I can get step by step pictures to you. In the meantime, on Saturday I'm entering the High Elf Lord on the Gryphon into a painting contest at my local GW store. I also have a second entry (on the Lizardmen plog in my signature) of a Slann Mage Priest and if I'm lucky and nothing else goes wrong between now and Saturday I'm hoping to get a Third model ready to enter. Wish me luck folks!
I'm not gonna lie, that guy looks really great! I love the job you did with all the gems, and that blue power-sword with the lighting on the arm looks awesome I think the lighting is a little too much though, that or you need to make the sword a little brighter Still, loads and loads better than I could ever do so I can't talk much Looks epic though, I love it!
Yeah, I used a blue glaze on the sword and it's dulled it down. I think I probably need to go over the brightest parts again. Also got some advice from the GW store manager about using a thinner wash as the base on the red areas to help the blue lit areas fade more naturally, still, all things considered, it's not a bad second effort. You probably could paint like this, I spent a lot of time with trial and error, but I plan to put some step by step guides up for things like gemstones and what have you. They're easier than they look, small ones can be a bit of a faff but chunky gem stones are easy once you know how.
Those yellow sashes really bring the unit together. The blades look maybe a little dull in the photo, for a sparkly elves unit. The copper looks good, though.
I did them in bronze rather than silver. I'm going for the ancient look so wasn't too bothered about "shiny" Elves. I want something slightly more brutal whilst still maintaining a regal and imperialistic feel.
I have a Lizardmen plog too, separate from this. Some people asked to seebother bits of my work, so I started this thread so as to keep my Lizardmen one "pure"
These look beautiful. The light reflection highlights on the armour plates look amazing. The bases are plain, but well done. Maybe worth removing the overflowed sand on the edges of the bases?
these look great, very unique theme and colour scheme. i really like the bases, they look realistic and complement the painting. great stuff!
They're technically gaming bases so I didn't really want anything too complicated as it generally just makes things fragile and unsuitable for gaming. The effect I was looking for is kind of that dusty, Mediterranean landscape with dry grass.
Have you entered/do you plan to enter these guys in any competition? They are fantastic. I've been checking out your blog. Really enjoying it, especially the detailed step-by-steps you're giving. One thing though, is that the photos are often not white balanced, and it can make the stages hard to compare. Most image editors will have an automatic white-balancing function, if you're interested.
Thanks for the advice on the photo editor, I wasn't aware of that! I've just edited the photos for one of the tutorials using white balancing and I can see the difference. I'll do the rest tonight and re-load them into the blog. As for competitions, I sometimes enter the monthly painting contest at my local GW store and I generally.did quite well (never outside the top 3). I've not being doing so as much recently for a two reasons; a couple of dubious winners and a sudden change of "standard" which means my gaming models will struggle to compete against some of the display pieces that were appearing. Not really sure I'm really up to competition standard outside of my local store though, I've looked at some competition entries and they totally blow me away! Plus, I can't do non metallic metals which seems to win big points in painting contests. Once I've worked through the outstanding armies I've got I'm might have another crack at that competitions but I don't want the distraction of the contest at the moment - it slows my painting down. Not good when you consider the following are all sat on my painting shelf Island of Blood Skaven (up next!) Dark Vengeance Dark Angels & Chaos Space Hulk Terminators A few Riders of Rohan Lord of The Rings Moria Goblins The Hobbit Escape From Goblintown Dreadfleet (minus.2 ships) Empire.Halberdiers Mannan's blades 6 Bretonian Knights of the Realm 16 Bretonian archers A large selection of supporting miniatures for a Dark Heresy game All in all, I need to pull my finger out! I'm starting a Tale of Three Gamers (similar to those previously seen in white Dwarf) with a couple of friends to try and get through my next army in a more reasonable time, painting two regiments per month. So the Skaven should be done by the end of August/mid September, all things being well. So Skaven are up next although I'll be painting the odd "distraction" to stop me going mad.