The Undead Legion of Countess Ludmila von Karnstein

[Mad 'At]

Thank you all, I'm glad the sword gets so much love

@Monkey's Uncle: I too prefer that gold, so I'll be painting it from now on.

@Redarmy: I'll see if I can create a tutorial or something for the blades, wouldn’t until next week however. Apparently (I just timed myself) it takes about half an hour, a lot longer than I thought, guess the time just flies by because I'm having so much fun painting them ^^

@DoN: I too look forward to the full unit (and the tournament I painting the unit for) xD

 

[Tawg]

Simply amazing; I may soon be stealing that blade style for a vampire I am painting currently. Perhaps even the same colour?

I dunno, he's a Blood dragon (very red armor, with gold ornate accents and deep purple cloak, so orange might be the best compliment there?)

Very stunning work, love it :ghost:

 

[Sanai]

Orange would not be a good compliment to red armour, note how mad ats grave guard are largely blue/metal, as blue is a cool colour and orange is a warm colour, so this creates contrast, which is a good thing.

 

[Tawg]

Orange would not be a good compliment to red armour, note how mad ats grave guard are largely blue/metal, as blue is a cool colour and orange is a warm colour, so this creates contrast, which is a good thing.

Oh, I guess I meant more like 'analogous' rather than 'Complimentary'..? I think.

But with a Purple-ish cape, and Red armor, if I made the sword Orange, he would give a very 'Red' feel, since he's got three colours that all share the Red, and play off it the most.. right?

Dunno if that is the best idea; I guess I could go for a 'Teal/Sea Foamy green' colour for the sword, that is Complimentary to the Red/Purple both. I just don't know how much that would make his sword the focus or not, or the exact effects on his over-all pallet. I'm not exactly a professional artist.

I appreciate the.. advise, sorry to derail Mat'At's thread though :ghost:

 

[Mad 'At]

Orange would not be a good compliment to red armour, note how mad ats grave guard are largely blue/metal, as blue is a cool colour and orange is a warm colour, so this creates contrast, which is a good thing.

Oh, I guess I meant more like 'analogous' rather than 'Complimentary'..? I think.

But with a Purple-ish cape, and Red armor, if I made the sword Orange, he would give a very 'Red' feel, since he's got three colours that all share the Red, and play off it the most.. right?

Dunno if that is the best idea; I guess I could go for a 'Teal/Sea Foamy green' colour for the sword, that is Complimentary to the Red/Purple both. I just don't know how much that would make his sword the focus or not, or the exact effects on his over-all pallet. I'm not exactly a professional artist.

I appreciate the.. advise, sorry to derail Mat'At's thread though :ghost:

Feel free to take ideas, I'm always glad to inspire :)

As for the sword I think you could go either way. Painting it green (I'd paint it plain green rather than 'Teal/Sea Foamy green' as it is much more noble) would indeed make a very good spot colour, it would really shine. Though on a character I would make sure to use such a strong spot colour on another surface aswell, to tie it all together. Something like a gemstone could be used for this. You could look at the new necron models for inspiration, some of the have very cool green blades.

But just as you say painting it orange would tie it nicely to the rest of the model, keeping a limited palette can give the model a very nice feel. Hopefully the sword would shine bright enough so that you can still see it clearly, and it so the model doesn’t turn into a red blur. If you go for this I'd make sure the armour is pretty dark, a tip is to use blue shading in the recesses, this make is darker but not browner as plain black would do. Blue shading would also look good with the purple cape.

I can recommend White Dwarf 362 (beastmen on the cover) for further advice. I know it contains info about shading red and I think it also contains instruction for painting mirrored blades.

 

[Meraklis]

awesome work on those GGs! especially the swords! Love it!

 

[Santawraith]

I am really impressed with your graveguard. I wish there was more I could add all I can say Is impressed with them and everyone else has stolen anything more I would say.

 

[untitled_musketeer]

Great job! The red blades really make them 'pop' from the rest of the mini. They look really good too. I'm guessing you essentially follow the WD tutorial for the Eldar Crystal blades and replace the blue/turquoise for red/orange?

Cheers,

u_m

 

[Mad 'At]

Thanks!

Great job! The red blades really make them 'pop' from the rest of the mini. They look really good too. I'm guessing you essentially follow the WD tutorial for the Eldar Crystal blades and replace the blue/turquoise for red/orange?

Cheers,

u_m

That is exactly what I did! But I've mentioned it before, so don't think you figured out some dark secret about me u_m :tongue:

I'm glad you brought the blades up again because all in all I'm very pleased with them, but there is one problem. This unit is still a gaming unit so some wear and tear is to be expected, and the blades are in the risk zone. Being exposed and painted with thin layers the paint is quit likely to wear off.
My question is: How to prevent this? I've been thinking of 'ard coat but am afraid the gloss might ruin the effect. Do you guys have any ideas, I really need help?

 

[Tawg]

I'm glad you brought the blades up again because all in all I'm very pleased with them, but there is one problem. This unit is still a gaming unit so some wear and tear is to be expected, and the blades are in the risk zone. Being exposed and painted with thin layers the paint is quit likely to wear off.
My question is: How to prevent this? I've been thinking of 'ard coat but am afraid the gloss might ruin the effect. Do you guys have any ideas, I really need help?

You know, you can always use 'ard coat (Or any glossy varnish) and use a matte spray varnish to remove the gloss. It pretty much removes most any over-ly shiny-ness, from ink/washes that end up kinda shiny to gloss varnish.

GW makes the Purity Seal, which is what me and my friend use, so I dunno about other options, but it works. Plus if you need a specific part to be shiny (Often with slavering mouths or such) you can put the gloss varnish on afterwords to make the shine.

 

[Sabotage!]

Hey Mad 'At, I love your Grave Guard's swords and also the verdigris work. May I ask what greens you used to accomplish that, I think I have a decent rust scheme, but I think a good verdigris would compliment it nicely (if you don't mind me stealing xD). It looks like hawk turquoise, but I'm not sure the darker green.

As far as sealing models without gloss, I tend to use ARMORY brand Clear Matte Sealer, and it works very well (though it will make the models look rather matte), the only thing I would recommend is to make sure you are at it's ideal temperature range, as it can sometimes come out a bit "dusty" looking if you don't. Not sure if it's easily accessible in Sweden, but maybe Tamiya makes a similar product?

 

[untitled_musketeer]

Spray varnishes are great but they are often a little thin, especially for risk zones. I cannot recommend highly enough getting a tin of matte varnish for model planes and boats. A quick shake and just apply it with a brush. They're nearly all oil based so you will need a separate brush and something like white spirit to clean it. This should give a thicker harder coat and still keep the matte effect you desire!

Cheers,

u_m

 

[Mad 'At]

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it :)

I'm not too sure about spray varnishes since it would affect the entire model. This would make the grave guards armour, cloth and bone different from the rest of the army's. So anything with spray pretty much goes.

@Sabotage!: The verdigris is indeed hawk turquoise. First applied as a heavy wash over all the bronze and then washed into the recesses mixed with bleached bone. On bigger surfaces I drill some holes where the wash can flow into. This breaks the surface up and looks like places where the verdigris took extra hard.
The pictures of the grave guards aren't that great, I'd recommend going back a few pages and take a look at the skeletons to see what my verdigris really looks like.

@u_m: That sounds great! Just what I've been looking for. Can you recommend some specific product or company? Could of course be hard to obtain the same stuff here in Sweden but it would give me an idea of what to look for.

 

[untitled_musketeer]

I'm just trying to remember what I use. I can't for the life of me remember what it is. I know Humbrol do a really good matte so you could try them?

 

[Sabotage!]

I took a good look at the skeletons Mad 'At, and the verdigris looks great on them! Thanks for the tutorial, I'll definitely have to try it out on my next batch of skellies.

If you are looking for a paint on matte sealer I would try Tamiya or Reaper (not sure if Reaper makes a matte though), as they seem available in most hobby stores (I would imagine at least Tamiya is available in Europe). I found small paint sized containers of sealers in my collection this morning by both. I think the stuff Untitled_Musketeer mentioned is a bit more heavy duty and maybe be more suited to what you are looking for, the stuff I have at hand probably isn't the best for your front line brushes, but an old brush works fine and doesn't require a specific brush cleaner to clean.

 

[untitled_musketeer]

Are they water based Sabotage? If they are they sound like a great option too. The only thing I've noticed about water based things is they tend to be a plasticy and don't protect as well. What's your view?

 

[Sabotage!]

Are they water based Sabotage? If they are they sound like a great option too. The only thing I've noticed about water based things is they tend to be a plasticy and don't protect as well. What's your view?

Looking at the Tamiya stuff it appears to have some glycol ether in it (meaning that is at least has some oil in it), however it suggests using acrylic thinner and to clean up with water, which implies (at least to me, but I could be mistaken) that is at least mostly water based, but with some oil.

From a protection standpoint it seems to do it's job well, but I do feel that it can look a little "plasticy" in certain applications. I'm not super well-versed with how it does on it's own, as I usually use it to "matte" decals after I use softener and a gloss varnish to make sure they sit straight on the model. In the few applications I have used it on it's own it has worked pretty well, but has had a slightly plastic finish on particularly light colors (it seems to look pretty good on darker colors or metallics).

The Reaper stuff simply says "Water Soluble" and "Non-toxic" on it, this is a gloss varnish however (the one I use in the decal process I listed above), so it could possibly have some oil in it, but I'm not sure.

 

[Mad 'At]

Wow, thanks for all the replies u_m and Sabotage! Really appreciate it.

I'm going to head over to my local hobby shop someday next week to see if they've got anything good. I'm pretty sure they've got Humbrol. Tamiya stuff could be harder to get my hands on, but if Humbrol is no good (or I can't find it) then that is what I'll look for.

 

[jonny]

looking good. i realy like the skelly reinforcements:D

 

[Mad 'At]

Thank you Jonny :)

I've got a small update for you guys.

Here is my Box Vampire:


This is the guy being dragged by the grave guards. He is pretty much finished (unlike his box...) except for the soft fluffy thing he is laying on, to me it looks like a sponge... I'm not sure how to paint it though. Any ideas?

On the varnish side it is not going well. I bought a oil based varnish from Humbrol, and it seams to give very good protection. But it also gives a super strong gloss, even though it is matt varnish! :swear: You guys got any clues to what's going on?

 

[Tawg]

Thank you Jonny :)

I've got a small update for you guys.

Here is my Box Vampire:


This is the guy being dragged by the grave guards. He is pretty much finished (unlike his box...) except for the soft fluffy thing he is lying on, to me it looks like a sponge... I'm not sure how to paint it though. Any ideas?

You know what's ironic? I thought you had painted the stuff under him to look like dirt he's laying in/on.

The dark colour looked a bit like dirt, and the texture could certainly be, although it might beg the question of why there is dirt at all, but if you think of the legendary Dracula, in the book he was constantly having dirt imported from his home, due to it's magical nature and needing it to replenish his strength. Which make it make a bit of sense why he'd have some in his coffin then!

I actually like the idea myself, I might end up using that; Feel free to do so yourself :pumpkin:

 

[Malochai]

Got to say; I quite like the way your box vamp looks at the moment!

 

[Nikos]

I think the "fluffy stuff" is meant to be a terrible clown hair afro. Seriously. Better of painting it as mud or a pillow. Good work by the way :thumbsup:

 

[Jacques Dauger De Cavoye]

Fluffy stuff looks like dirt to me. Dracula had dirt. . . Got Dirt?!

 

[Von Calyptra]

In a number of stories vampires need to rest in the soil of their homeland, and fill the bottoms of their coffins with it. So my thought is also that it's dirt.