Wednesday, March 7, 2018

To The Bitter End - was "A new project (4)

Hi all,
thank you for your feedback and comments!

Last night after work I looked at the piece again and was still pleased so I decided to finish it up.
Just some minor changes and then I removed the masking tape from the straight sides of the plinth and gave it several brown washes.
Once the washes were dry I applied a coat of gloss varnish and let it cure.

After cleaning up my desk and sorting the colors back into the rack I decided to take some first shots in the lightbox.
 
These are not the high-quality ones yet.
 
Just some first shots with decent light
 
and a black background.
 
I will do some better photos over the next few evenings. And by then I should also have a bit of a narrative to accompany the scene.
 
But these should do
 
and provide some detail shots
 
without the distraction of my cluttered desk.
 
I hope you like the shots
 
and the scene :)
 
I really like how the Valkyr turned out!
 
 
To The Bitter End
I hope you have enjoyed this rather quick project (I started on 14. Feb).
I did learn a few things, I did try a few new tricks, and I had a lot of fun :)
Cheers
Klaus

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

A New Project (3)

Hi all,
thank you for the feedback!

After the Chapter Master was mostly done I thought a lot about the colors for the remaining two characters.
I decided to use a kind of purple for the Terminator
 
Despite the ornaments identifying him  as a Blood Angel, I rather like to call him a "Cardinal"
It's an unusual color, but in good contrast to the deep red cape of the Chapter Master
And with the gold it looks even better and less pink.
 
So this completed the two central figures
 
With the Terminator supporting the dying Chapter Master
 
 
who fought "To the Bitter End"
 
So now I had to decide on the last character...

I was initially against a golden armour, as there so many wonderful and perfect NMM golden figures are currently on the Internet.
But since I needed a contrasting color to the other two and I didn't want to use green - too close to the Orks - I decided to give gold a try.
 
I never did a complete golden armour before
 
and it took me three days to come close to a pleasing result
 
Especially since I tried to use different light situations on the gold
 
It was a lot of work
 
But I think it was worth it.
 
Though none of the smooth gold seen so often
 
The tabbard became red
 
 
The Inquisitor has very dark skin
 
and blue eyes
 
And finally I used some dirt to do a bit of weathering and splashed a lot of blood on the scene
 
So here we are
 
"To The Bitter End"
 
Most likely I will let it sit a few days and then re-visit it and decide if I give it a little airbrush light - redoing the red and orange shine from the sides.
As a final step I will remove the masking tape on the three straight sides and work a bit with the wood - probably just a varnish...
So, what do you think?
Suggestions?
Thank you
Klaus

Thursday, March 1, 2018

A New Project (2)

Hi all,

the flu is pretty much gone - a few coughing fits left - and I'm back at work.
But I had time to continue :)

So I finished the base work by adding the ornament to the shield. As I didn't want to risk anything I decided to use my standard stylized Wyvern again.
 
And this is how my wet-palette looked after painting the base and all the corpses :)
Time to change diapers...err...paper :)
I thought allot about the color of the Chapter Masters armour...I didn't really want to do an established chapter, but I didn't really want to do another red armour (the Termie may become a Crimson Guardian though).
I never did blue armour - too much Ultramarines :D - but let's see how blue armour will do
 
I hope it is visible that the armour is "fading" to the de-saturated color in the dark areas, while the bright areas have simply more saturation 
 
To avoid the Ultramarine resemblance I decided to give him white shoulders  
I did have some time yesterday and was able to work on the red cape
 
So the Chapter Master has his little-red-riding-hood  
With the cape pretty much done I started on the gold 
 
So if everything goes to plan I'll start with the head tonight 
 
















So what do you think? Comments or suggestions, critique?
Cheers
Klaus