Painting the Third Scourge Part 4

I managed to get the stomach and chest painted up over the last week and what a diference this makes! Suddenly the mini looks a lot less incomplete and closer to being finished. 

This is something I should be used to by now as it's a direct result of my painting method. Because I focus on an area and work it up to a finished state before moving on to the next one my jobs often appear to progress in fits and starts. Linking up the already painted areas of the head and legs gives me a clearer feel for how the mini is going to  turn out.

Armour Amour

Painting the third Scourge part 3

February hasn't been a very productive month but when I've been able to pick up my brush and paints  things have gone well! Painting the NMM armour on my third scourge has turned from a pain into an enjoyable challenge and although the progress is slow it still feels like progress so I'm a happy bunny.

The armour on the first two Scourge minis was often resolved by trial and error. This time around I'm aware of painting the in a more organised/formulaic way with distinct stages.  I'm sticking to the same colour palette as before and using my photography of the first scourge as reference. Although I'm not going for an exact copy many of the tricky decisions about how to treat the armour have been worked out on the earlier minis. I'm able approach each area with more confidence, concentrating on achieving the effect and spared the stress of having to first figure out on what the effect will be!

Painting The Third Scourge part 2

This week I've moved on to start painting the minis legs and it's been a much more positive experience than the one I had painting the head.

Before I could start on the armour I had to tackle the under suit and initially it looked as if my painting troubles were still be following me. Working up from a base of scorched brown I highlighted by adding an increasing amount of Rakarth Flesh. The colour was good but became a little too pale and slightly dusty looking. It was (I thought) a simple fix with a glaze/wash using some of the new Citadel shade colours. Unfortunately, unlike the old citadel washes, these colours dried on my mini with a shiny finish and looked horrible! That was unexpected and a major disappointment. I shall have to experiment with washes to find where I can get the best matt finish. Luckily I had saved a small amount of some of the old washes and was able to sort the problem.

With the under suit painted I could begin painting the armour plates.  The initial highlighting is fairly speedy, working up with increasing amounts of Adeptus Battlegrey added to the Calthan Brown base colour. This acts as a sort of underpainting for the blue,grey and orange tones that give the colour palette a more nuanced feel. This stage can be a fiddly business and requires a fair bit of going back and forth between colours and tones but it's worth the effort. After that it's a matter of keeping the highlights fine and sharp.

Painting The Third Scourge part 1

I'd guess that nearly all creative types hit a bad patch now and again and the trick in dealing with them is knowing when to push on regardless and when to leave well alone.

So far painting the third of my Scouge minis has been a long hard slog. I've struggled at every stage and at times came very close to giving up on it! On a few occasions I had to quickly down tools and put the mini aside or risk doing some serious damage.

On the positive side I'm pleased with the results so far and I've managed to solve a problem I've been having matching the blue/grey tones on my Scourge minis. There are parts of this that could be better but it's good enough for me to now move on and paint other parts of the mini. Later on I should be able to review the work on the head more objectively and in the context of the overall mini. Sometimes there is very little difference between refining and obsessing!

It's about what you do, not how you do it!

It's that time of year again. A time for new beginnings and a time when the year ahead is full of possibilities. I don't go in for specific new year's resolutions as I think they are often doomed to fade and fail with time. I prefer to look at the coming year in terms of an opportunity to set out some broader goals. Rather than giving myself specific targets I try to set out the spirit in which I will approach the year ahead. I like to think of it as an annual tone meeting.

I do, of course, have some specific goals and targets but everything is negotiable and I see no point in beating myself up over things I've 'failed' to do. Life can, and will, throw many a curve ball but in the long run it usually provides as many new opportunities as it does obstacles. The trick is to be flexible and adapt to the situation.

So that's my goal for this year - to have a positive and creative attitude and make the best of the years opportunities whatever they may be.

With regards to mini painting and this blog the big thing for me this year is to enter the Golden Demon for the first time in 23 years. My Dark Eldar diorama is finally beginning to come together and will be the focus of my efforts for the following months. After taking a small painting break over the Christmas holiday I've picked up my brushes and begun painting the third of my Scourge minis.

The big challenge will be in pulling together all the elements of the diorama to tell a cohesive narrative and it's here that I really need to raise my game.

This is something that I may have mentioned on this blog before but I'll make no apologies for repeating one of the best bits of advice I was ever given. When I was fourteen I was way ahead of the other boys in my art class at school. As a result My Art Teacher Mr Oliver decided to put me in for my O level exam early (I got a 'B" grade). What he said to me was that I had all the practical skills I needed to pass the exam and no longer needed to worry about how I did something. The important thing was what I did and not how I did it. Mr Oliver's advice (along with his recommendation that I consider Graphic Design as a career option) has stood me in very good stead for the last 32 years and is as relevant today as it ever was.

It would be all too easy to get bogged down in the detail of painting my Scourge minis to a consistent standard. Achieving a high quality finish on all the detail is vital but I mustn't loose sight of the of the overall composition. As I bring together the base, Scourge minis and all the scenic and snow elements (I haven't forgotten those experiments with snow & ice effects) I need to keep Mr Oliver's advice firmly in mind.