My Little Vampires -- Been a while.

[Tawg]

RE: My Little Vampires

So I finally finished Molly, and just in time; I will be entering her in the necromancer challenge this month, as well as a local contest at a hobby shop. I am not hoping for much

At anyrate, it took me far less actual time than the time elapsed from when I started (Over a year, great Nagash!), and I really need to work on keeping my focus on things, but with my paint table revived this should work much quicker now.

A few of the pictures are kinda blurry, but my brothers friend was kind enough to allow me to take pictures with his phone (Which is better than our digital camera.. that's cool). Just gonna thumbnail the more blurry pictures so they don't take up too much room.


Front picture, blurry unfortunately


Front again, still a bit blurry


Side/behind, kinda blurry


A much more crisp Side photo, you can see the (Attempted) OSL, as well as NMM sword on the skeleton.


Very nice shot of her back, I think the OSL went up the dress a little high, but I didn't really put too much thought into it that direction. I had done a quick check on the 180° arc that her back would be covered, but not how much of her be-dunk-a-donk blocked the light source from above. If I had to change anything I'd want her upper butt area to look more normal dress coloured.


Other side, slightly blurry. Nothing much noteworthy, the sword has slight OSL on it's back face that is towards the Grave stone.


And front shot, much better quality.


So there it is. Basically the first mini I've painted in.. years (Or at least a literal year, since I started her a year ago :Vampire1: ), I haven't finished anything else for my VC yet, though I do hope to put more work into them (I do so love the VCs).

It was certainly the first time I ever used NMM or OSL, though I have read extensively on the practice, and seen more than my fair share of beautiful models both here and elsewhere. I had a very strong challenge with NMM, although I can't tell if my issue was one of being overly critical of myself, or if I was really having issues. The OSL I just kinda dove head first at, and I think it shows; It's not the most refined or well executed, but it is serviceable. At least I think most people looking at it would understand the intent.

So yeah. And if you're looking at this and reading this far, just.. I'd much rather have critically constructive comments over compliments; I don't know if it's weird, but I just prefer being told what's wrong and not praised without the critic. So at least tell me something I could improve if you note it.

Thanks for looking, hopefully it's worth while, and hopefully I can keep this Plog running.. this time around

 

[Mad 'At]

RE: My Little Vampires -- And here we all thought I never painted (I don't)

Good to see your plog up and running, I certainly hope to see some Empire stuff up here soon.

If it is criticism you want I'd say her hair could use some more work. It looks pretty flat as it is and in desperate need of some highlighting. Hair also tends to be brighter towards the end than by the roots.

However I must also compliment you a little, as the colours you used looks great together. The beige and red of her dress looks fantastic

 

[Tawg]

RE: My Little Vampires -- And here we all thought I never painted (I don't)

Thanks, I appreciate the input Mad'At; But yeah, that is probably what I've heard the most, that the hair is a bit bland. It was the last part of the model I ended up doing, and honestly I didn't really know where I was going with it, it was really awkward. I wanted a sorta Auburn hair, to keep the colours on the warm side, but I really didn't know how to paint it :ghost: I ended up putting on a few coats, and like, applying the darker colour as a wash to try and bring out the detail. Although the "Darker Colour" was Graveyard Earth, so it didn't exactly "Shade" the deeper recesses. The hair has really fine detail as far as it's strands though, and I think I ended up settling with what I had in the pursuit of actually "Finishing" something for once (A goal I often miss, mind you).

There is definitely a lot that I could have improved there, but I am kinda relieved to have something done for a change (Well, done-ish). It's really a thing I need to work on, the mentality of finishing projects, especially my own. Although looking at where it started to where it ended, most notably the NMM sword the skeleton has there:



Vs Originally being



There is definitely an improvement. And I'd say the photo's themselves are about on par, so hopefully the first one doesn't just look more well blended due to blur. Although honestly, I really think one of the major factors between the two is what colours I used? The one I did first looks very much more blue-toned. I feel like I just chose colours to blend into each-other poorly perhaps, though the blending itself clearly was less quality. Also the addition of picking out the "Pox" marks in the blade, and giving it the opposite reflection to make it stand out also helped, so I dunno how much better the first one would have looked with that. No need to really pay attention to this rambling, just trying to critic/reflect on progress.


In other news, my Necrons arrived about a week ago, I sprayed them down with EZ Off (It's an oven cleaner, very toxic/powerful) inside of zip-lock baggies, aaand just today I scrubbed them off/cleaned them up. Really did wonders, got all of the layered paint off, even some of the base coat; In fact on the Metal models it pretty much stripped them clean, good as out of the blister. The plastic ones were a bit less "Cleansed" but, certainly did the job, since I was trying to get rid of some very textured/bumpy paint to smooth them out before I paint them myself. It also ended up breaking some of the models apart, I guess they were all glued with Super Glue (Rather than plastic glue on the plastic ones), because they fell apart with the gentle scrubbing of the brush at times. A few others I accidentally broke arms of, with my more zealous scrubbing but, over all I'd say it was a very successful job. I need to figure out a basing scheme (I really want to try and get a very uniform/engaging base theme across the army for them), and take an inventory of what I actually have all told and assembled. A few things are missing parts/broke, so it'll be a bit of work before I get to the basing, or further painting them. But it should be good.

I also plan to bathe my Crypt Horrors here soon (They have been sitting around too long) and prime them; Hopefully they'll be the next project I can actually get going and finished.

 

[Tawg]

RE: My Little Vampires -- And here we all thought I never painted (I don't)

So, I wanted new brushes, since I have a friend or two who am I kinda tutoring in the ways of painting, and I've come to start utilizing my "Fine Detail Brush" (GW brand) rather much, how ever I only have one; It's a slight problem when two people are trying to do very fine details, especially when I am instructing them to use said brush and how, and we have only one between us.

So I went and got some brushes from my FLGS while I made a run up there. As it happened, we were slightly rushed near check out (They were about to close, and needed us out), and I hadn't exactly looked over the brushes yet (Just wasting time drooling over models), so in a quick glance I decided to take one of the packs of brushes that included a similarly small brush for detailing. It wasn't completely random however, it was the Red Sable brushes I rather much admire, and still to this day use, due to their quality; The same brand, same type of bristles (Not really sure how much bristle type matters still, but I may find a difference eventually), and I had sorted though the packs looking for a less "Mussed" up looking bristles (A few packs had rather frayed bristles in the wrapping, which is just unacceptable, certainly not worth buying). So I get back home, and I set about using my new set to try them out. Very nearly as soon as I started using the "Fine Detail" sized one I noticed that it was quite unable to hold a point! Quite unfortunate, since really, what goes does a brush with two points do? (Maybe I'll use it to make my twin-tailed comets more accurately) I also ended up laying them besides each other, my new and old Atlas Red Sables, and found that my old 5/0 size is nearly twice as thick as the new one, and tad bit longer (With a fine tip, to this day). I found that odd since I would figure a single brand would keep consistent sizes, but it has been a long while since I originally got the ones I love (Probably over 8 years). I also after looking them over noted that the new set was labeled as having been made in China, where as my original finer quality ones are labeled with Japan, and I'm not gonna say that's definitely the breaking point, but I can tell the quality of their supplies has decreased with time. It actually makes me appreciate my GW brushes quite a bit, they are very good compared, and hold a point well. Granted care for brushes is paramount to keeping them from flaying, but seeing as I opened the brushes and set to work, I can fairly certain say I wasn't at fault for their shotty quality.

I took a picture to compare the sizes, though you can't see the splitting of the bristles as I smoothed them out for the picture. The splitting mostly happens as you draw the brush carefully across the mini.. which is rather much a bad time for such a thing (If ever there were a good time).



The caked on yellow one is my trusty old 5/0, while the one to the right is the new one. I'm not much for complaining, or I'd probably take these back to the hobby shop for a refund/exchange. I am still looking for new brushes, but I have a feeling I will need to seek a different source for a new set rather than my FLGS, since their supply is fairly limited. It definitely looks like they use far less hair for the actual brush, which I can only assume degrades the quality. It's a bit sad since I liked them so, but I'll have to find a new favorite, perhaps even just GW since they have not treated me poorly yet.

Anyways, this is just a Tirade about my experience, and I suppose a cautionary tale (Atlas Red Sable are definitely of poorer quality now) to anyone searching for a good set.

I also took a picture of my thumb for fun.



Apparently it wasn't in focus (My pointer finger was for some reason..), but it get's the point across: this is what it looks like after I get done painting a model. I use my thumb to test the wetness of the paint, and the volume I have in the bristles. It helps me understand how flowing it is, and how well the paint (Or wash) will cover. Usually I want a coat to not show skin through it if I am applying a layer, and to smoothly run onto my thumb, but not leave any sort of pooled paint. For washes I aim for the pigment to generally fall between the minute creases of my thumb's skin (Which form from the movement of your thumb over years) and not fully obscure my skins colour. That I allow being a bit more wet, and don't really have a set "no-go" level for wetness. Although I will say that if you have paint too wet, you're better off than too thick. One of my favorite advantages being that you can easily (If quickly) take a second damp brush and "Soak" up the wet mistake, which often leaves nearly no paint behind, and can save your hard work from being messed up, and the time it'd take to go back and fix it up as well. There will still usually be a faint bit of pigment (Especially on the edge of the "pooled" paint you didn't want), so you might have to go over with a very fine layer to fully erase it, depending on the colours/contrast involved.

I dunno if anyone is bothering to read this, and there are certainly far greater painters than I, but perhaps sharing my experiences could help someone, or at least give them insight they may have neglected previous.

I've got to head to work to close really quick, but when I get back I'll make another post on the last mini I finished (In only two days, which is shocking from my experience, I usually take so long). (And I guess if you look at my PB, you'd very well be able to look at her yourself already).

 

[Tawg]

RE: My Little Vampires -- Paint brushes and Thumb palettes

Soo, once upon a time my friend bought me a model named "Bella" for my birthday because I just started into Vampire Counts, and he is terribly clever. It was kinda nice, funny perhaps, but unfortunately he didn't varnish the thing, so even with careful handling (That I ascribe to all my minis *CoughDon'tlookattheboxmyentirearmyisjammedinCough* ) it managed to flake/chip the paint. I decided to repaint her really quick, although I should add he painted her in flesh tones, which I don't think vampires should ever be (Warm blooded? Bleh!) so that was another fairly good reason to repaint her.

At any rate, this is where I ended after about two nights effort.



Front, kinda blury



Front right, kinda blurry



Right side more clear, there is blood on her hand/sleeve where she would have wiped it off her face from feeding, dripping down onto her pants/shoes. Not a fan of the Blood Red, for being called blood red, it kinda missed the mark, but there is a vast difference between fresh bleeding blood, darker scabbing blood, ect. but I don't see blood red fitting any of them really. Might just be because it's such a starkly bright colour contrasted with the more subtle/darker tones of everything else.



Left side, nothing too special, there is more than one colour in her hair, but I feel like it doesn't exactly show. There is "Blue" for the kinda.. sheen you see on shiny black hair? It's usually represented with blue, if I'm not mistaken; There is also a lighter grey highlight, focused towards the tips (As per Mad'At's suggestion) but it doesn't show well.



Closer shot of her face. I used "Blood Red" to paint.. well blood on her. I think it looks a little lacking. It's like, super bright, and.. it just doesn't really do it for me. I plan on getting some Tamaya Clear Red here soon and I'll try to do it over darker, then with the clear red.



Another closer on her face; The camera is not terribly great quality, which surprises me because it's 7.1MP vs the 8MP my friends phone had that took way better pictures of Molly. I am unsure if it has much to do with steady hands (No tripod unfortunately) or other such errors, but it feels so much less crisp. Her face looks really well done (To my eyes) but in the shot it's hardly translated well.



Face from right side, close. You can see a bit more of the depth of colour along her nose towards her eye from this angle.



Hair from behind, up closer; It's easier to see the grey highlights in this shot, and you can kinda make out the blue? But then again I know where it is, so you might not see it as well.



Head/hair from the left, trying to get a shot of the different shades in the hair, kinda failed.



Her back farther out.



This is a shot of her back, and jacket; I am rather impressed how it came out, honestly. It's my favorite part of the model, or at least my paint job.



Face from the left, with the bloody stake in her hand. Sweet bewbs, if I haven't mentioned those yet.


So yeah. It was a quick-as-fuck job for me, since normally I take what.. 5-8 days.. over a year.. to paint one model? Surprisingly quick, hopefully things can move that smoothly in the future.

I tried out a bit of different things than every before with her. Normally I layer up colour from darkest to lightest, just always in that order; For Bella I did the mid-tone first and then "Dark lined" her with a black/scorched brown mix in the shadowed areas. And after that I did two more highlights, one over the larger majority of the open space, and then a very light/thin edging with the very brightest colour. I also hit that colour above the darkest areas to really make them pop, and I think it looks great. I did that with her jacket and her flesh tones, but the boots/pants/shirt got a lot less attention (Although they also have a bit less detail to accentuate). I think it turned out very nicely, although you can't see it sooo well on her face, I think even the pictures of the jacket look decent enough to show what I mean.

She's also one of the only model (Well the only) with her "Name" written on her base like that. My friend did originally since half the joke was "lol Bella! TWILIGHT! VAMPIRES ARE GAY!" But I mean, it's kinda an interesting thing to do; I was considering maybe doing it to some of my other models seeing if I liked it on like, characters, or just random pieces that called for it (Like Bella here). Probably not a good idea on say, zombies, although I toyed with the idea of just labeling them all "Zed" or something... and on the more crazy side it might be funny to actually give every zombie in my army a name

"NoooooO! Why did your Chaos Warriors kill..! *Checks the zombie's bases* Tarrance, Fred, Tommy, Karen, Frank, Gustav, Kyle, Ryan, Billy, Ernest, Quin, Larry, Leopold, Nancy and Bill?! WHYYYY?!"


EDIT: Oh I should note, the basing for the model was done in the style that my friend who gave her to me does. It was generally in a "Generic theme" with greens/whites for which ever way I decided to base up my whole army. He does quite a bit more work on bases than I do, but isn't quite as good at painting IMO.

Also I took Bella to show him at work, and he dropped her on the ground chipping her paint :Vampire1: and she fell off the base, and he picked her up and was like "Oh she's not pinned!" and I was like "UH YEAH YOU BUILT HER!" [/LeSigh] Time to fix her up.

 

[Santawraith]

If I can make a suggestion about brushes... Army painter makes some good brushes. But even better than army painter brushes are the reaper brushes. You can get them as large as a 3, and as small as a 40/0. They also make a small flat drybrush that out performs the GW drybrushes.

The difference between synthetic and sable bristles is not so easy. I find synthetic bristles easier to clean, but they don't have the life in them that a good sable brush does. Even a shoddy sable brush has a longer life span than a synthetic bristle brush. While sable is harder to keep clean, it's easier to keep a good point on it.

Bella looks good, for being a whiny teenaged vampire wanna-be. Love the highlights in her hair, they look good.

 

[robtion]

I agree about Molly's hair. Maybe try a darker wash then highlight it with a much lighter brown to get some contrast? Just a thought, I'm no expert when it comes to painting.

Bella looks fantastic :| I really can't fault the paintjob, great shading/highlighting (especially the jacket), nice colour choices, very smooth/clean looking paintjob, excellent base. Perhaps some 'Tamiya clear red' over the top of the blood for a more glossy/wet blood effect?

Keep up the great work

 

[Tawg]

If I can make a suggestion about brushes... Army painter makes some good brushes. But even better than army painter brushes are the reaper brushes. You can get them as large as a 3, and as small as a 40/0. They also make a small flat drybrush that out performs the GW drybrushes.

The difference between synthetic and sable bristles is not so easy. I find synthetic bristles easier to clean, but they don't have the life in them that a good sable brush does. Even a shoddy sable brush has a longer life span than a synthetic bristle brush. While sable is harder to keep clean, it's easier to keep a good point on it.

Bella looks good, for being a whiny teenaged vampire wanna-be. Love the highlights in her hair, they look good.

Ahh, thank you! I really wasn't sure about where to head with my brush issue (There was that thread in the Dying to Help section that didn't see much in depth answers), but it's good to know; I had never really considered most of the miniature producers as a good source for brushes before, which is kinda odd I guess. I'll probably end up with quite a collection of brushes, just to try out a few brands. My current brushes (Besides the Atlas I love) are just some random $1 synthetics I picked up to just do base coats/glue stuff. But thanks for the suggestions, must better than stumbling around blind.

And yeah.. I think she was suppose to be a Vamp hunter by her sculpt, which I guess would be kinda funny with that name, but I made her a vampire so she'd fit in the army (I'll just assume she disarmed a Witch Hunter for that steak.)

Btw, have you seen that amazing "Power Palette" on their site (Reaper), I just accidentally found it; It's kind of amazing! Do you ever use that thing? It let's you sample the pixels of an image to match against what "Colour" paint it would most likely be, so you can match colour schemes/images, and of course it lets you build a paint set out of them (Wee give us money!); But really it's kinda fun, at the very least

I agree about Molly's hair. Maybe try a darker wash then highlight it with a much lighter brown to get some contrast? Just a thought, I'm no expert when it comes to painting.

Bella looks fantastic :| I really can't fault the paintjob, great shading/highlighting (especially the jacket), nice colour choices, very smooth/clean looking paintjob, excellent base. Perhaps some 'Tamiya clear red' over the top of the blood for a more glossy/wet blood effect?

Keep up the great work

Yeah, I can see hair being a bit of an issue for me atm; One of the biggest issues being that I feel like I don't quite have a grasp on which actual colour combinations to employee to get hair that doesn't look too cartoony/off the wall.

But really, after I did Bella's flesh I looked at Molly and I was like "What was I doing?" Except I know the answer to that.. I took too long between a lot of steps for Molly, and I kept forgetting what shade of grey I was on for her skin, so it ended up being really poor, unlike Bella who I did almost in a day, so I couldn't forget.

 

[Santawraith]

Who says vampires can not use wooden stakes if there prey is another vampire. erv:

I have seen it yes I have a account with them with a discount. No I actually don't use color wheels. I have always had the ability to do it all in my head, sounds odd but true. People often joke I am a walking color wheel.

Best way to not forget paint schemes is write them down took a week to recover a few I didn't write down thankfully I had some half started that helped with the key ingredients

 

[skullgrl]

Bella is awesome looking. Its good to know that I'm not the only one who tests their paint on their thumb. I usually more use the finger nail though. I like to see how fast the paint dries in a light layer, especially if I'm working on blending.

 

[Shareya]

Poor Molly, summoning up a perverted undead who just happens to crawl out of the ground under her skirt

 

[Tawg]

Best way to not forget paint schemes is write them down took a week to recover a few I didn't write down thankfully I had some half started that helped with the key ingredients

Yeah... I would probably do well to keep notes.. I guess that's partially what Plogs like this are for, although I don't always take WiP shots nearly as much. Not in the middle of painting anyways.

Bella is awesome looking. Its good to know that I'm not the only one who tests their paint on their thumb. I usually more use the finger nail though. I like to see how fast the paint dries in a light layer, especially if I'm working on blending.

Thanks; But yeah, I mostly just check the consistancy, or to get off the excess that I don't want pooling off. paint drying usually ends up as quick as I manage to apply a layer across the model. But I don't do terribly much wet blending atm. I have a really old Warp Spider (Eldar) that I painted, and I wet blended his blades (With far too much, not watered down paint, but it actually didn't turn out too bad because the blade is low on detail) from black to a light sea-foam green (Forget the GW name), it was like.. the most amazingly well blended colours I had ever done. And then I tried to paint the white details over the red base colour.. with my non-thinned down paint.. and that did look atrocious :ghost: I think he's been dropped and neglected for far too long though at this point, chipped paint and everything bad, I should strip him and repaint him

I don't suppose you've made progress on your undead that hasn't been posted to the plog eh? Still never saw the results of your dragon work.

Poor Molly, summoning up a perverted undead who just happens to crawl out of the ground under her skirt

Well hey, it's easier than walking! Amirite?

I have a back story for her, she's the only one so far though. I was thinking about writing something up proper and putting it in the.. I don't know, writing fluff section of the forums. Von Grossman is makin' me jealous.

 

[Shareya]

Do it! The more fluff the better!

 

[robtion]

Do it Tawg I am definately interested in Molly's fluff o_o That didn't sound quite right did it. This is your PLOG so post it wherever you like.

 

[Santawraith]

My wip are ussually taken when the model must dry and I have to walk away or work on something else. I take one before I start again.

 

[Tawg]

My wip are ussually taken when the model must dry and I have to walk away or work on something else. I take one before I start again.

Hah, yeah I normally just spend a lot of time staring down my mini's wondering why they don't just paint themselves! No, but I really do things fairly slow, so paint normally doesn't need too much time to dry, and I don't really do heavy washing most of the time, which would probably be more of what would need time to dry. I usually spend time just looking at what colours I think look good where, or how to keep things in line without getting too far off track with the scheme, although now that I think about it, I really don't know terribly much about colour theory, at least formal knowledge anyways.

 

[Tawg]

So, it's been a while.. again. These things happen. But recently I've gotten back into the game (More so with 40k) and with AoS I was drawn towards Warhammer, at least in passing, and I of course, still love Vampires. So I am working on getting back at the hobby a bit more (More than I use to hopefully).

To that end, I have started a model I hope to finish semi-quickly. It's the first model I've dealt with from CMON, their new game Wrath of Kings. Hard plastic, there are very scare mold lines on it and it is certainly good quality, though the hard plastic makes my normal method of scraping the mold line with my hobby knife much more difficult than it has been in the past. It may also have been the fairly tight/small spaces I was looking to correct, which made things difficult on their own. Hopefully I do not have too much issue moving forward, but I chose to start with one of the larger models in the set. I picked up the starterset for the faction that is Vampires/Werewolves, so it might be a bit off topic game wise (Who cares though), but they are thematically in the correct area, plus since I plan to go towards round bases and AoS I have no issue with using them as stand ins for my main army as well.

Anyways, here's the beastly Wolf, been a while since I was on the forums, so I don't know how posting pictures goes now, but we'll find out:

Front

And Back

There were a few gaps I had to sort of fill in with greenstuff, you can see the backpack part best in this shot

His waist also connected a bit poorly, but beyond that it was a fairly painless build.

Looking at that first shot, I can see the mold line running down his left leg's armor, and that's what I was talking about. with the spikes and small distances to clean, my hobby knife method was nearly unworkable. I'll have to try getting a file out and using that. I'll probably just be painting this guy up and leaving that for now, hoping it isn't too obvious once paint is on, but I'm sure if anyone inspects the model it would be fairly clear. And I like to paint for inspections, not table. Ah well, working with this hard plastic is a first for me surprisingly. I didn't realize how much I took the softer materials GW prints models on for granted, their plastic anyways. Metals I had worked with before, so that's not too new, though even those seemed to allow the blade scraping sideways to work better than this. Not sure if it's because I haven't changed my blade in for ever or just not the right application of tools.

At any rate, here's a picture of his base alone, first time I really have done up a base like this: Corkboard for the most part, bit of rocks (2 actually) and sand with PVA. For the higher up cork I put a layer of just.. manilla folder cut to the shape of the cork to create a smooth surface as though it were a.. like tile or concrete, some smooth rock surface, rather than the craglike broken up surface of the cork.

And

So yeah, hopefully that turns out well. I'll probably paint the base first, since that'll be fairly quick, and then get at the model.

Hopefully my one friend isn't paying attention to this thread anymore (I can't imagine he is, unless he has email notification), because I plan to paint up two small armies for this game and surprise him. I've never actually had a painted up army before (Shocker I'm sure, looking at the work times on the two projects I've posted on here :ghost: ), so getting a small army like this done is a good goal for me. I was working on a small army of sigmarines, but I think this is a slightly more interesting project for the moment, so I will be doing it up first.

EDIT: Whooap Large images. Fixed to Thumbnails + Links.

 

[Borgnine]

Good luck on coming back again For some time I was interested in the Wrath of Kings, they had a bit of vampire-looking miniatures, but werewolves are cool too. Also, never imagined that hard plastic would be so troublesome.. Good luck with the rest of them too.

Bella miniature from back when is also cool, I like the color composition and the skin