Painting Table Update: Exchange Minis
Every so often the Press Gangers put together a painting exchange. We all put our names into as hat, pull out someone to paint a mini for, and go to town. It’s a fun way to paint something you wouldn’t normally paint, as well as meet some new people. Here’s the two minis I painted. Vilmon is for the most recent painting exchange, and the Gorax is a make-up for someone who didn’t get a model last time.
I started both these models after Meg’s class, and I used lots of 2-brush blending. The cloak and flesh were great practice, and I’m very happy with how they turned out. More models to come soon!
The blending on Vilmon looks great. Such a beautful model for this technique. I think you could push the contrast on the red and the armor more though, some cool shadows on teh armor plates and maybe one more highlight step on the red (without going pink or too orange). Did you wash or shade the metallics at all? They seem super bright, which works for the whole ‘clean bright armor’ thing you’ve got happening.
There’s a fair bit of contrast on Vilmon, but the pictures really wash it out. Here’s another attempt to capture the model’s contrast:
Vilmon’s Front, Vilmon’s Back
I really like the way the bronzed armor on the Gorax came out. Very cool!
Nice work as usual. I especially like how you managed to put a red cloak interior next to red…petticoats? man skirts? whatever you call them, two different areas of red with different shades to differentiate them. I’ve tried that a couple times in the past, with red in particular, and failed every time. Your results make me want to get back on the two brush blending learning curve.
Thanks! The reds were a lot of fun. The cloak interior is Sanguine Highlight at it’s lightest, and Umbral Umber at it’s darkest, fading through Sanguine Base. The man-skirts were Khador Red Base at their lightest and Umbral Umber at their darkest, and I faded through Skorne Red, which required a mixture of 50/50 Skorne Red and Umbral Umber to bridge that particular gap. On cloaks (where there are no hard edges) I’m finding it’s easiest to basecoat with the brightest color (the highlight) and then use very generous shading to get the fades.
I’m probably going to do a painting day at the LGS sometime soon, so I’d be happy to show you what I’m doing.
I’m incredibly jealous of your being able to field fully painted armies, so I’m trying to paint more often, and paint faster so I can get more painted pewter onto the table. Unfortunately, side projects keep getting in the way!
Painted armies might be a bit generous as I can really only field one iteration, but it’s a start. I’d say the key is staying focused on one faction but I have Legion on the table at the moment…
Laying real eyes on actual blending in progress might do the trick. I think I have the concept down, but putting it into action is bumpy at best. It seems so quick that I almost think it’s magic and can’t help but dream of what I’d get painted if I could shade and highlight both in the time it takes to do one layer of either.