37 replies to this topic

[ThornDJL7]

So, in an adventure that is two weeks away I suspect that my players will finally come face to face with the quarry they've been chasing for 8 levels now. So, finally I decided to track down a mini for Auren Vrood whom the players have only ever had described to them by a Goddess as the necromancer wearing a ribcaged breastplate. Oddly enough, Malek fits that role pretty well.

Here he is cleaned up and set into his slotta base. All the flashing should be removed, and my next step is to start basing him with sand and gravel, and glue him into place. Something that I don't like about these Slotta Bases is that the bottom isn't solid. I think I'm going to fill it in this time and see how that goes. If all goes to plan and I don't forget to stop, the next time you'll see him is before I prime him.

[Atramagus]

I'm actually running that adventure path right now... Currently, we are at the end of the second chapter. We seem to be running through the campaign fairly slowly, so hopefully I'll have this figure from the Kickstarter shipment before they get to him.

Nice find, by the way, he does seem to work quite well

[ThornDJL7]

So, I got the dirt on him. I used a process where I laid thinned glue down, and then dunked the base in coarse gravel, and then tapped that off, and dunked him in fine gravel. I usually add a rock, but decided not to, because the skulls he's standing on should be interesting enough for a base IMO. The final step to the basing was to give it all a even more thinned coat of glue using the capillary effect. This keeps it all in place when I base it all, so I don't have little flecks of dirt everywhere.

In the last shot you'll see where I played around with my green stuff and filled in the normally hollow base of the mini. I attempted to put my initials and the year there...Mixed results is what I call it. :P

Next step will be priming in black, which is a new thing for me. I've never primed a mini in black before.

[ThornDJL7]

Over the weekend I managed to get a couple coats of base onto the cloak, and I got the first shade layer in place. This is my first attempt at doing blending without relying on washes and highlights. Definitely a learning curve since this is very hard to do compared to the other technique. The base is midnight blue, the shade is a mix of pure black and midnight blue. If I hadn't stated earlier. I use Reaper MSP paint for reference. The shade was basically pure black, and I mixed in blue till I could see that it was actually blue. The next step is the final shade, and I'll be using pure black for that.

[ThornDJL7]

Shade in Pure black complete. Going back to the base coat and thin it down, and try and make the shading look less stark. Then I will give it the first highlight. See you in a bit.

[ThornDJL7]

Well, as I've been working in my new "studio" in my new house. I've been hearing a lot of creepy noises, stuff getting moved, and so on. Turned out it was my damn cat. Apparently since he's a black cat, he decided to get in the Halloween spirit and give his owner the heebie jeebies. We'll see who doesn't get fed tomorrow....

Anyways, I got the highlights finished on the cloak. They there enough to say "I've got highlights" but not there enough to say "black cloak". It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn good for what I've done in the past. I normally HATE cloaks because of my lack of skill.

Next I will do his flesh. I will do the whole thing in one go. So he should be base coated, shaded, and highlighted next time you see him.

[ThornDJL7]

Flesh completed. It's 1am where I am and I need to be up in 6-7 hours. Time for sleep. As always C&C welcome. G'night

[ObsidianCrane]

I think at this point it is time to echo Buglips "lining is everything"

With the deep black of the cloak in contrast to the paleness of the flesh getting the borders of the flesh with the other materials lined is going to be important.

Also in the picture there seems to be only a limited transition between the shadows and the highlights in the flesh. All the shadows are on the muscle lines with none at the bottom of the muscles if the light is coming from above (like it usually does).

Consider the shadows on Mr Marsden here as a real example. Now on minis we are not going to dupicalte these hard shadows like those cast by his head onto his chest (except in Object Source Lighting projects), but the mini will look more realistic if there are shadows included on the lower sides of muscles.

[Adrift]

I agree with ObsidianCrane's assessment of the skin tone. It would behoove you to set up harsher transition between the cloak and his exposed musculature.

I'm enjoying your work!

[ThornDJL7]

Noted on both the lining and the muscles. I was happy with what I'd done last night, but now I'm feeling challenged! This is my first mini with defined muscles, and the second I've done with any serious amount of flesh visible. He's a learning project. :P I'll need to review lining techniques since it's one I've never truly given a college try on before.

[ThornDJL7]

With the deep black of the cloak in contrast to the paleness of the flesh getting the borders of the flesh with the other materials lined is going to be important.

I plan to go back and touch up the lining on the cloak after I go back to the skin today during my extended lunch break (3+ hours).

Also in the picture there seems to be only a limited transition between the shadows and the highlights in the flesh. All the shadows are on the muscle lines with none at the bottom of the muscles if the light is coming from above (like it usually does).

When you say limited transition, do you mean that I need more shade/highlights? As far as better shading regarding the muscles, that I understand. I hadn't really thought of that before it was mentioned. I've been using this photo from CMON as a reference.

http://www.coolminio...5d5a7cbedef.jpg

[CashWiley]

I'm not much in the way of an example, but I was shooting for what I think OC is talking about on my current WIP in this forum (the McVey Drone).

As he says, I'm not going for cast shadows (what I guess would be called self-shadowing in video games), outside a pretty limited effect. I'm mostly focusing it on the arms being lit from a diffuse light above, so the shadows on the upper areas are lighter than the highlights in the lower areas.

[ThornDJL7]

I went over the flesh again, and did some cleaning up of the lining. What do you guys think now?

[Argentee]

I went over the flesh again, and did some cleaning up of the lining. What do you guys think now?

I can see a definite difference! It looks much crisper now, if that makes any sense...

*waits for someone who knows all the technical terms to chime in*

[ThornDJL7]

The hand is bugging me. I need to go over it again.