Sunny's Painting Log

[The Sun King]

I've been wanting to make a plog on here for ages, but never quite got around to it. But now the time has come! I'm going to start off this plog by posting what I've painted of my brand new undead army. Please don't hesitate to comment and come with feedback.

 

[Unas the slayer]

Grteat effects on that rotting flesh!

 

[The Sun King]

Thanks Unas the slayer !

 

[logan054]

Only I can see wrong is they aren't on squares looking really good, the new GW models for AoS are amazing.

 

[The Sun King]

*insert joke about square peg in a round hole*

 

[logan054]

What have I started now lol

 

[The Sun King]

Camilla von Carstein daughter of the legendary Isabella

 

[Seneschal]

yeah, I'm not worthy of your skills, lol. The rust effects, the freehand script, the basing...it's all so very well done. Amazing!

 

[The Sun King]

Thanks a million my friend! That means a lot to me!

 

[Cthulhu]

These are soooo good! I love the bases, and super cool how you brought the vegetation up onto the zombies themselves, that's a brilliant effect. I have some grass tufts with a simple flower texture but not nearly as pretty as those, mind sharing what you're using?

 

[The Sun King]

Thank you so much Cthulhu ! My recipe for the bases are as follows:

I give them texture using Earth Texture from Vallejo. Then I base coat them with Hull Red from Vallejo (similar to Rhinox Hide). Then I drybrush them Ice Yellow also from Vallejo (just an amazing highlight color all around). Then I shade them with an all over coat of Biel Tan Green (Citadel). After that I apply plenty of the following tufts and foliage:

• Army Painter: Battlefield Grass Green and Steppe Grass.
• Gamer's Grass Green Shrub, Dark Purple Flowers, Violet Flowers, Yellow Flowers and Dry Green (2mm).
• Woodland Scenics: Bushes Dark Green

Make sure that you vary the types you use and try to integrate them into each other so that it looks like it is random and grows wild. The human eye is really good at spotting "artificial" looking things, so the whole trick is to make it look like nature. Reference pictures are always a good idea. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Sunny

 

[Cthulhu]

Many thanks for that! You're very good at creating that random natural variation!

 

[Sume]

I love the zombie skin tones. How did you pull it off?

 

[The Sun King]

Cthulhu thanks and you're welcome mate!

Sume thank you for the kind words! I use Grey Seer as a base coat. Then I use Inktense Violet (thinned 1:1 w. airbrush thinner) in a reverse Zenithal highlight. Then I use Vallejo White Air as a Zenithal Highlight. Then I use Magos Purple Contrast (thinned 2:5 Lahmian medium) as overall shading. Then when the rest of the model is done I give it all an enamel coat of Slimey Dark Grime. Let it dry. Then clean up big surfaces with a q-tip and odorless thinner. I clean it twice this way. Remember to remove the lint from the model when it is dry - you can do this with a big dry brush. You can see my use of the enamel at my Instagram here:

Instagram

 

[Sume]

Sume thank you for the kind words! I use Grey Seer as a base coat. Then I use Inktense Violet (thinned 1:1 w. airbrush thinner) in a reverse Zenithal highlight. Then I use Vallejo White Air as a Zenithal Highlight. Then I use Magos Purple Contrast (thinned 2:5 Lahmian medium) as overall shading. Then when the rest of the model is done I give it all an enamel coat of Slimey Dark Grime. Let it dry. Then clean up big surfaces with a q-tip and odorless thinner. I clean it twice this way. Remember to remove the lint from the model when it is dry - you can do this with a big dry brush. You can see my use of the enamel at my Instagram here:

That is very stunning. I remember finding a neat zombie skin recipe here back in 2015. I forgot what it was. Think it used rakath flesh, highlights with palid witch flesh. Then I remember using one of the brown washes but I cant recall which between serphia sephiam or agrax earthsade, then used the purple over it. Gave a convincing undead flesh look. I really like the way you did these, and is there a good way to get something similar with the gw washes, and contrast paints? As I have all the washes and a handful of the contrast ones.

 

[The Sun King]

You are so very welcome Sume and thank you. If you don't have an airbrush and only have access to citadel paints then you won't get the same result but you can try something like: Prime the Chaos Black with spray. Zenithal highlight using Grey Seer spray (don't leave much of the black). Then give the model a thin coat of Magos Purple Contrast (thinned 2:5 with Lahmian Medium). Then go back in an reinforce the shadows with a thinned down Druchii Violet (make sure that you don't put the shade on any raised areas only in the shadows. Then an overall coat of Athonian Camo Shade thinned 1:2 with lahmian medium. However, I would highly recommend getting AK Interactives Streaking Grime - it is pure magic on your minis.

 

[Sume]

Thank you so much The Sun King. Oddly enough I don't have an airbrush. It is something I would like to get sometime. My biggest concerns though are they look like a lot of mess to clean up, and then ventilation issues. Since it would be used in my living space, and I have a little kitty with me.

 

[The Sun King]

Sume I had the completely same worries when I got my airbrush because I live in a small apartment. But no need to worry. It isn't messy at all you just need a spray booth. Getting the equipment is not cheap though but in my humble opinion it is the best hobby investment you'll ever make. To get started you need: airbrush (I highly recommend the brands Badger, Harder and Steinbeck or Iwata - just make sure it is gravity fed), hose, mini compressor, spray booth, a holder for the airbrush, airbrush cleaner liquid, airbrush thinner liquid, airbrush flow improver. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. You can use All types of paints, no need to buy new ones.

 

[The Sun King]

Right - so my New Year's Painting Resolution was to finish my first 1000 pts of Maggotkin of Nurgle. And wow did I surprise myself. I am normally a slow painter - but this time I set myself the goal of finishing the painting of my first batch in a single weekend. And I did it! Down below you can see the first big step in getting a Nurgle force battle ready. I am very satisfied with the achievement as it got done really fast. This has inspired med to get even more painting done, and I thing I've learned some valuable lessons about motivation and productivity.

Another important note about this project is that I wanted to get out of my habits and therefore also wanted experiment with something that is unlike my normal style. I've read up a bit on colour theory and wanted to test it out, so I decided that my Nurgle army should have cyan and magenta base colours. Pretty extreme, but a daemon army is a good chance to test wild stuff like this out on. I'm very happy with the result and what I've learned about how colours interact. I'm also happy with my decision to do snow bases (even though I do not have a snow battlefield at hand) - because it gave a narrative reason for the cyan coloured skin of my daemons.

 

[Seneschal]

You have mastered your craft, good sir. Good on you for trying something different.

 

[Cthulhu]

That is stunning! Loving the cyan+magenta combo, so bold, especially for nurgle, and the rusty armour is the perfect tone to finish it off. I think snow bases was a very good choice too, another bright colour (if you had gone with green grass bases or such) could have been one too many, but the white lets the strong colours shine. Lovely smooth brushwork as well of course. Some of my favorite nurgle minis I've seen!

 

[Unas the slayer]

Finally something different from the usual rotten green. I love it, and your execution is flaweless!

 

[The Sun King]

Wow! Thank you so much Sen2 , Cthulhu and Unas the slayer - you are all way too kind <3

 

[The Sun King]

Here are some close ups

 

[Sume]

That blue looks amazing. Really digging the look.