Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Inq28 Squad: Painting in Progress

You know that dramatic, sharp intake of breath we see in the movies and television so often? The one that is so very well rehearsed, and used whenever something shocking has happened? Yeah, that one. It's got to be fake, right?

Not when you step on your Inquisitor at 7:45am as you try and get you and your son out the door in the morning, it isn't. That dramatic intake of breath is very real, let me tell you.

...enough of the drama that I started my Monday with yesterday, lets take a look at the progress so far.

I decided to start this portion of the project and approach it in a way that I'd never thought to do when it comes to painting for a competition...batch painting. Well, sort of at least. I didn't want to get stale in my painting or my progress, so as I began on Saturday, I skipped around between the Storm Troopers, the Vindicare and the Cyber Pooch. Doing so actually worked better than I thought it would. Whenever I reached a part on any of the figures that began to frustrate me, I would just put it down and pick up a different figure to work on. Perhaps batch painting isn't the best term for this, but it's the best I have in my brain at 1:30 in the morning. Regardless, it worked! I was able to work consistently without losing focus.

The Cyber Pooch was the worst culprit to make me want to throw a model across the room. I never did, but it came close on occasion. At the same time, I'd never truly painted an animal's fur/hide/hair with the express purpose of doing it well. So it ended up being a big of a learning curve for me, especially mince the Mastiff has a short hair coat. All smooth and no texture, so I had to create the illusion of subtle texture myself. I think it turned out well, actually. It better have after 8-10 layers of glazes and paint!

In the midst of that model, I went to and from my Storm Troopers and Vindicare. Many of the same colors are used on all four models, so it gave me a bit of a monotonous break from the dog. The Vindicare was originally to be just a touch-up job, but not being ale to leave well enough alone, I put a bit more work into him than I thought I would. I'm happy I did, he looks so much better now, but it was time I wasn't expecting. Ah well.

Saturday blended into Sunday, and I ended up throwing some paint on the Tech Magos as well once the Cyber Mastiff was finally done. Sunday blended into the fateful Monday morning where I did everything but crush my Inquisitor underfoot. Luckily all I did was pop off his hands from the arms, and weaken the joint of the back banner. I spent a few minutes re gluing, and then I was off to work. I'll be honest, I expected it to affect me a bit more than it did, but I fixed it all and still made it to work on time, the model and myself both no worse for wear.

Last night I finished all three Storm Troopers, the Vindicare, and have the Magos 80% done now. I also blocked in a little color into the remaining two figures. The main display base has also seen some preliminary work! Provided I get done in a timely enough manner, some subtle freehand will also be included...

...who am I kidding, I'll be up late adding freehand once all the figures are done.

The pictures shot and placed throughout the article are all shot on my phone, because I didn't charge my flipping camera, by the way, but they aren't bad for a phone camera either.

More progress soon!! Who's going to Games Day this year?

- Tim

 

13 comments:

  1. Condolences for the beat up inquisitor. Just the other day, I managed to drop a whole tray-load of painted miniatures on the way out to give them a bit of clear coat. The door jostled me. I don't think that door will ever know just how close it came to becoming unhinged.

    Models are looking great, though! Awesome stuff.

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    1. OUCH!! any requiring patch-work? that stinks and I can completely understand. Glad you like how they're coming along though :)

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  2. Awesome work man! Love how they're coming together - I definitely struggled with the arbites cybermastiff as well, there's not a whole lot of detail on the model. You've done a great job on it!

    Keep up the fantastic work!

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    1. Thanks Mordian :) I just wish I wasn't having to crunch-paint in these last 3 days :P

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  3. Ahh! How are you and Mordian working so fast?! Damn you! Damn you for inspiring me so!

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    1. Look above to my reply to Mordian ;) CRUNCH painting. I dislike it, and so does my wife, but it is effective in increasing productivity :)

      And hey, that's what all this is about, right? Inspiring each other?? :)

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  4. Cool stuff, I really like the tones of the red.

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    1. You know...all these comments on the red tones make me want to do a tutorial on how I paint reds. Would that be of interest?

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  5. Edge highlights on Stormtroopers the finished result? If so, they seem a little too stark and simple for GD competition level. (Says the bloke who's about as far from that as one could be.)

    Elsewise, fur on the mastiff is convincing and your magos is super slick. Those reds are fantastic.

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    1. The edge highlights on the Storm Troopers are a bit deceiving in the pictures, unfortunately. I blame the phone and the photographer who took them at 1:30 am. There is quite alot of blending that is actually there, it's just subtle and is not showing up in the shots. The highlights are just hitting extreme edges.

      Though I greatly appreciate the reinforcement on the mastiff's fur! that was quite frustrating, let me tell you.

      The reds in the magos are done in the exact same fashion as the reds on the Troopers as well. :)

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    2. Darn you Dai...I went back and added very sutble glaze of a burgundy color to the grey-black gradient parts to give them a hint of color after rereading your comment...

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  6. Really inspired stuff dude. Love the cabling on the magos and the overarching red of the painting

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  7. Have you ever considered full color 3D printing them.

    http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/mount-druitt/other-business-services/3d-printing-service-in-sydney/1023993442

    I use these guys for my TAFE art work jobs all the time. They're pretty good.

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