Friday 5 April 2019

Terrain is everything - Sanctum Imperialis - moar from the inner sanctum

The big piece needed its grunge shading, it's come over all Tudor dwelling like.


Welcome to the grotty grotto.


I just wish I could leave things at this stage...


...but you know I can't and I'll be all over this with more paint...


2nd highlights, not sure if I've lost or gained with this? Definitely lost some of that oil paint effect :( but it was a bit OTT


I think I've got a mixture of both + and -. I just sponged on an even lighter shade.


Still some details to pick out and some shade applied in the recesses.


All the internal bronze 'skirting boards' need a sponging of Balthasar Gold. Ultimately the net gain or loss doesn't really matter. I'll do my process and what the end result is will suffice so it's best not worrying about it really.


Strong Tone wash in all the creases on the medium piece, as well as 2nd highlights.


At least there's consistency across the pieces. Don't know whether those two panel things on the right hand side are electrical switch boxes with wires/cabling going inside or just structural features. If they're cables I'll do my usual of a red and a yellow/black stripe.


The little control panels should be fun to paint.


Corner piece, first highlight on the left, second highlight on the right plus some verdigris on the bronze skirting boards. They were indoors at some point so they would never be as weathered as the outside brassy bronze. Still need to finish off the base as well but otherwise I'm almost finished with this piece.


Verdigris pictures next...

Monday 1 April 2019

Terrain is everything - Sanctum Imperialis - the inner sanctum

I was a little disappointed with how my highlights had gone in my previous post so I decided to bring back the redness with a glaze of Bloodletter, followed by some purple shadow washes and I'm much happier.


Here's a before and after, although colour accuracy is far from perfect you can see it's definitely changed and more importantly for the better!


But despite the desire to make these buildings fit the Red Planet BASE! of Ferron Proxima so it wouldn't be too distracting in battle I had decided to flip that vision for the interiors.


We paint the insides of our homes and offices independently of the exterior anyway and bone [Magnolia] seemed like the obvious choice. This way from the outside it blends in with the board but from a different angle viewing the inside you get a whole different effect.


I scruffily stippled on the paitn as I will be adding a lot of shading to make the dilapidated interior I have visualised in my head.


Aeverything has been shaded with my Burnt Umber art acrylic. It's a funny paint with the consistency of tooth paste that looks like a desaturated brown, but when thinned and dries has this aged speia tone that is very reminiscent of Blanchitsu.


I have never done this before, but I theorised it would look like this and once again I'm in love with the brush marks.


I haven't quite visualised the next step, I know it needs more shading in the recess but a stippling of the lighter colour will cover up some of the underpainting already visible and possibly the brushstokes I need to retain.


That said the bone colour isn't right so I really need to find the subtle path to what I'm after, even if I don't quite know what that is yet.


Luckily I have the small piece to test my approach. I've added the Strong Wash in the creases so I might focus on this to get a sense of what I need to do on the bigger pieces.


I also need to do all the Burnt Umber on the biggest ruin so I should be achieving both quality and quantity in my output for the next update...

Friday 29 March 2019

Terrain is everything - Sanctum Imperialis

With every intention to finish of my Dark Shroud I was then tempted to put some effort into my Sanctum Imperialis while my magnetising efforts cured. I'd finished building it in September 2018 and that was a distraction from my Hierophant. I'd also dropped this part like a hot potato when I came to paint the Warplock Bornze on all the buttresses and doors. But with time to fill I finished all the bronze off and in some areas mixed a replacement with some craft acrylics - bronze+metallic black+brown.


I then shadow washed it with a mix of Burnt Umber+Black art acrylics. You can also see I stippled on som vermilion in places - a mistake, as a drybrush would have acheived better results. I also washed the bronze in places and it looks so awesome and yet I'll cover that all up with extra highlights. I don't know why I can't leave well enough alone?


The side walls will be drybrushed with vermilion next.


The taller structure and at this stage this is about as grimdark as I've possibly ever got. I need to remember this for a future project as I know I can't stop here and need to do my usual highlights. But this is just so much more realistic than I normally do and my Honored Imperium statue is what I'm heading for. This means I'll be verdigri'ing all the bronze, the doors will be less so and all the red needs highlighting.


I'll be possibly be picking out the scrolls as parchment and the lenses in the lanterns.


The doors will be the same brassy bronze I usually do, while all the vertical support will be well green! This is because the doors are polished while the structure is just weathered.


And this little corner piece. I don'tknow whether to create some broken stained glass panels for the windows, it might be nice as I've nothing much else to attempt them on.


And here we are with the highlights and they're much yellower than anticipated. I might glaze this with Bloodletter to see if it brings back the redness.


I might have goe a little overboard on it, I'm pining for the lost grimdark as I've gone down my over-staurated reds & yellows.


How does it compare? I'm not even sure if the Verdigris is the right thing to do now.


I desperately want to do something much greener and I love how the statue turned out but as much as I miss the red Sanctum of 3 highlights ago I also love this grungey version


The dark bronze is just rich and most of is is going to be covered up, which will at least help where I've caught the metal with my drybrushing.


The other question is do I keep those gothic finials as solid bronze, or paint each facet as encased red glass? I'm thinking glass because it'll look cool.


Perhaps the solution is I need more buildings so I can explore these variations...


Monday 25 March 2019

Genestealer Cult Graffiti

Back in January, before the Genestealer Cult release/'Day of Ascension'  you may recall the Warhammer Community Facebook post about the Genestealer Cult Graffiti.


Well it transpired that it was in Manchester [where I work] and I immediately recognised the area and visited it as my own pilgrimage to meet this 3-armed Emperor.


I took some pictures but promplty forgot to share them on the blog, though probably did on twitter. It was amazing to see Chris Howker's work first hand [even if it had been defaced and repaired the day before].


It was quite the experience, even if the weather was a bit grim.


But an amazing piece and still in-situ and pristine in Manchester's Northern Quarter on Thomas  Street.


Alongside the Kellermorph are some equally filthy furry Xenos, which I believe are Flerken.


And these skelebob creatures that might have been done by Jay Sharples Art.


Teh full mural.



And this heresy - burn it! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Friday 22 March 2019

Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire Garrek's Reavers - TO DONE!

Garrek's Reavers - TO DONE! There was a point with these where I had no idea where I was going with them.


Luckily I had my Imperial Knights to focus on and with no real reason to be painting them the end result and the decisions needed to get there were broadly irrelevant.


Which is a wonderful learning experience -you have freedom to explore with no expectations and no targets to meet.


Although it helped I wasn't trying to follow a style it was a slight hindrance in that I had those questions about soft fabrics and wrappings.


So I'd definitely recommend doing something purely frivolous if you can fit it in amongst 'must do' tasks.


And as a palate [or even palette] cleanser it's also helpful in setting up your next project. It gives you renewed purpose having explored new territory.


Good old Garrek, he's a beast of a model in fact. As a sculpt it's really quite clever how subtly he's elevated to the leader status


The hair was almost by accident that I used purple to shade it. In fact I used it on the skin and all the armour plates. I'm not even sure if it's apparent but I felt like it was tying it all together.


I should have got a close-up of the decapitated head, it was one of the last things I did and really rough but came out quite cool - clearly newly severed.


Now, the scars... I'd had them all red but they looked too understated so I went purple on them and maybe they've gone too far the other way.


Possibly a couple of more washes, even a black might have made them less cartoonish but I wanted something else and that's what I got...



This guy's brand looks more like and open wound - the Tamiya Clear Red X-27 really came into it's own on these.


And just adding the gloss varnish on his helm I felt was a nice touch.


Come at me bro! Some black wash was added to the Tamiya Clear Red X-27 blood to make it darker. it also makes it matt, so you have to offset that with another dab of Tamiya Clear Red X-27, or gloss varnish.


A touch of blood from the spines rupturing out of his back - little touches just add more drama to the mmodel.


I don;t know why but I think this is my favourite of all the reavers. Maybe it;s because I think he looks like Willem Defoe?




The white background pics.





Individual character shots






And the Big Teal Stamp of Approval for giggles.