Hi, I'm trying out some new colour schemes on a couple of skinks before deciding how to paint my army. I've used Jade green and and orange/red, and a bit of ink. I pretty much speed painted them (I want a scheme I can paint a whole army up quickly in). I was quite amazed at how much these little skinks come to life if you can just paint a couple of teeth white, and make a half-reasonable attempt at the eyes. I've stayed away from a blue colour scheme. Despite all the fine examples of blue skinks I've seen done by others, mine are always a disaster. I spend ages blending various hues of blue on their bodies, give them a fantasic white crest.....all for them to turn out looking like anorexic smurfs! Anyways, I'd appreciate some comments about whether the orange/red works with jade green. Pav
Your pics are a bit bright and washed out, but they look very cool! I think the jade green has worked really well with the red/orange. Of the bottom three, I like the middle one best.
Just a few minor points; - Those silver crests look quite odd. - I think the scheme could be improved by doing a basecoat of jade green and black (rather then having a basecoat of what seems to be pure black) - Make sure you slice/file of every mold line (bottom left skink has an obvious one down its scales) I like the scheme in general though.
looks good, and seems like a fast paint scheme. its always a toss between, what works fast and does it look good on the table. i also would stay away from metallics on the skin, but a fortress grey streaking effect would look good i think. maybe with a blue wash on top?
Hey Guys, Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it as it's the best way I'm going to learn anything and improve my painting (and miniatures photography!). In reply to individual comments: Strewart: You are right about the pics being "washed out". I didn't notice as I loaded them onto my laptop, and then just tilted the screen assuming the problem was down to sunlight on my screen. I think the actual cause may have been taking them against a backdrop of brilliant white paper. I'll have to experiment some more. I've attached a slightly less washed out pic in mitigation! I'm glad you liked the middle one of the 3 skinks as it uses an extra colour for the scales (red on orange). It's my favorite scheme also. Kroxigor01: Those silver crests are actually white, but yes they do look odd. It's not due to the photos being washed out either. I think perhaps white is just too much of a contrasting colour at times. I will try giving it a wash of red/blue, and probably try yellow/orange/red crests on my next couple of skinks. Basecoat? What basecoat? I actually went straight on with the Jade green and then used black ink. I'm really trying to find a quick way to get the rank and file troops done, so I admit to cutting corners here! I think it's "passable"? The mold lines really caught me out on these little skinks. I hardly noticed any before painting, but my "slackers" painting/ink method really showed up some awful lines on the tails, legs and scales. I've now got a little mold lines checklist I can use for the rest of the skinks. jochemvh: I agree about painting being a trade-off between models looking good and getting a painted army onto the table. My plan is to paint up the rank and file troops really quickly, and spend time only on champions or larger models. By law of average, if I paint 20+ of anything, at least 5 should look good enough for the front rank! Incidentally, I use Jade green for my other armies (Dark elves, SpaceMarines, Imperial Guard), so you can imagine the panic I was in when I was told GW were not doing the colour any more. I have since found an unexpected source for my jade green paint - DIY stores. If you go to B&Q or any of the big DIY chains, they usually have a section for paint stencils. These often seem to be stencils of animals/toy shapes for painting onto childrens and nursery room walls. These are usually accompanied by a small selection of acrylic paints in garish/florescent/luminous colours. These are labelled with brands such as "BrushStroke", "HomeDesign", "RoomDeco" etc. According to the label the paints are made by Humbrol and I've found them to be identical to other acrylic modelling paints. Also, the best bit of all, is they cost between £2 and £3 for a 100ml jar. Definitely worth a try, but you need to hunt for them as even the DIY store staff never seem to realise they sell them. Pav
Now the background colour is too close to the skink colour and it draws the eyes away from the skink. You need a neutral background, white can be fine or a piece of cardboard usually works well. The last skink is a bit out of focus too, take the camera back a bit and try experimenting with the zoom function. It also helps immensely to have a lamp with a white bulb above the model (or even do it outside), this gives natural brightness and will often suffice instead of using the flash on the camera, which tends to end up too bright. I do like the crest on this last pic, making it look bone looks pretty cool.
i have to agree on the background, it overwhelms the model. piece of white paper works fien, or cardboard from a inside of a pizza box, those bend nicely so they stand up where you want them. i agree on the lamp, but let the bulb hang slightly in the front in stead of right above. as it is the frontside of the model you want to photograph. just try it out and see what works best for you. like the bone like ridges, look really nice. looking foward to the rest of the rank and file troops, and seeing what it w'll do for those models.
If you set the White Balance on your camera beforehand, then you won't have this problem as long as the lighting is good. As an added bonus, you don't need to use flash either!
Guy's, That last pic was a slightly tounge-in-cheek reply to Strewart's comment. It's actually the worst of the washed out pictures from my original posting with a texture and sky replacing the white. In fact the background was so whited out that photoplus didn't find any little off-white bits to leave behind. Anyway, thanks for all the advice about taking photos. I suspect the lighting is the main problem, made worse by something in the camera trying to compensate for it. I've also just found that I had "automacro" turned on. I believe this puts the camera into macro mode if I get too close to something (which I must have done at some point). So I'll also turn that off, as well as looking at white balance setting etc. I managed to take some decent pictures of garden birds with the same camera, so don't be surprised if my next photos are of perfectly in-focus skinks lined up on a tree branch. Pav
Haha that would be great, lining them up on a tree branch. Lots of people do swear by the macro function, and I have tried it and got a few good photos. It is indeed good for close ups, but it tends to distort the colour a bit I think. With most cameras, you can make them big enough (ie. resolution or number of pixels) that you can take the pic from a bit further away, crop the outside area and still have a good size photo. Taking it from a bit further away also helps reduce the effect of the flash.
Really good night camo on those fellows. They should probably realise that their green would stand out better during the day though.