Thursday, February 3, 2011

WIP: High Elves Sea Guard part 5

Previously on... WIP: High Elves Sea Guard

The rest of the metallic parts follow the same routine as the one for the blades. This time I won't have to think about it so much because I won't be using any masking tape at all.

So, first, basecoat of mithril silver with the brush.



First matt shadows with Turquoise and Dark Green with the airbrush, again, glazing as gently as possible.



And now, shadows with a mix of Blue and Red Inks from Andrea, added to the previous mix.



The final shadows will be done with the brush, as these final shadow points are too small for the airbrush. The same happens with the final light spots.

This finishes the airbrush stage of the painting! Let's get to the brush stage.

First, easy and relaxing basecoats of Chocolate Brown (Vallejo) for the wood/leather stuff and Dark Green (Vallejo) for the little green waves of the bottom of the tabard.



Followed by some more relaxed basecoating of Orange Brown to the golden parts of the miniature.



This Orange Brown serves as the basecoat for the shiny gold paint. Metallic paints cannot be compared to the usual colours we use. The metallic paints contain shiny pigments which resemble the shine effects we see in metal. Therefore, we shouldn't use these metallic colours to paint a entire surface without using matt shadows. Metallic paint can be used to emphasize the exact points in where the metal reflects the light. So, the way I'm going to paint the gold might seem a bit strange to you, but is an alternative approach which suits me very well. Rather than basecoating the area with pure metallic colour (as I did with the blades), I use a matt orange brown (as you would do when painting gold using the NMM technique) as the base, and then use metallic paint for the lights. Shadows are done with matt colours as well, as I did with the spears.

In the end, I will cover the orange brown with the shadows. Then, why not basecoat entirely with golden metallic paint? Well, just because in my experience, matt paint with a normal brush covers much better a surface painted with another matt colour. Painting matt acrylic with the brush over a previously metallic painted surface can be quite tricky. You'll find out that paint does not adhere the same way. Therefore, a matt basecoat will make the work easier for me, and the results will be the same.

So, enough said. Some highlights to the golden areas using Shining Gold from Citadel:



Now it's time to get rid of the Maskol on the gems, and also do some shadowing to the golden shelly plates on the side of the armour.




In miniatures like this, in 28 mm scale, defining volumes is key, especially when looking at the miniatures from far away. If you define very well the shapes, painting won't be so blurry. This is called outlining (at least in spanish the verb is "perfilar"). It's painting the edges of volumes to mark the separation between them. This is done in two steps, shadow in the gaps between volumes and light on the edge of volumes. Now I am only going to do the shadow part of the outlining.

So, at this point, I turn the miniature upside down and look at it from the rear. Then paint all the areas which are normally facing down to the floor with a dark colour (never use black). I used in this case a mix between dark green from Vallejo and a bit of Red and Blue inks from Andrea. Its a very dark and saturated colour which gives me a lot of depth in my shadows. As you can see, I am only using very few colours on my palette, nearly always the same.



You see the result is a very defined miniature, maybe too much, but don't worry, in the end the result won't be so abrupt. I also began the painting of the clothing on the torso.

Now, some more outlining on the golden metal parts (check out the shoulder pad) and I also painted the waves on the low part of the tabard. The waves are dark green with a bit of light mixing dark green with turquoise and then outlined with space wolves grey. This is a perfect example of complete outlining, shadow on the gap between volumes and then a light on the edge of the volume, which is not uniform, it is only given in the edges where the light should directly fall upon.



Work on the back part of the miniatures.



Not all the elves are the same, there are two miniatures which are different, this is, the musician and the captain. Here's the musician in the stage right before the outlining:



And this is the captain, the miniature with the greatest number of details, already outlined and close to be finished. I really like the fish head on the helmet, gives him a lot of personality.



Well when I said close to be finished I meant the front part because the rear is in process still. See the shield, where the star has just been based in turqoise (ready to begin shield work!) and the hair has been also base with the red, so I can check out the effect on the rest of the scheme.




WIP: High Elves Sea Guard part 6

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