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Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Ironworker on September 03, 2007, 11:37:35 PM

Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on September 03, 2007, 11:37:35 PM
(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/legionofshame.jpg)

This is the Legion of Shame.  One hundred of my most neglected shelf queens.  Most of these troops have been on my shelf of shame for 6-10 years gathering dust and getting damaged from various falls from the shelf.  Years they have spent on my shelves or in boxes under my shelves lonely and forgotten.  How many times they sat by while newer and flashier troops were painted up and fielded in important conflicts?  How many times were they forced into dungeons or onto fields to perform the role of stunt double simply because they were close at hand?   How many nameless battles were they cut down like dogs in their shameful nakedness trying in vain to defend themselves with blacken weapons and un-blazoned shields?  How much longer will they be forced to endure such misery?  No longer!  They have gathered in force and demanded the attention they have been denied for so long.  Give us paint or give us death!  Their battle cry rings across my studio so loud that it cannot be ignored any longer!  As the vanguard of their forces pushes it’s way onto my painting table I see a mixed company of unlikely allies.  Four undead witches I converted years ago for “The Witchfire Trilogy”.  A young wizard in a pointed hat I sculpted and had cast in limited run.  Nine mixed Empire soldiers.  Another wizard with a staff and crystal ball seemed to be aiding those men.  And behind all those came a savage pack of beastmen from the dark forest of the Empire.  They drove my current projects from the table with a furry that would frighten the gods and then held their ground looking straight at me.  Or at least they would have been looking at me if any of them had eyes to actually look with.  Still it was clear that my table would know no peace until their fury was abated.   So it is with brush in trembling hand I approach my painting table uncertain of my fate.  Will I be able to finish these troops in time before the next wave is upon me?  Only time will tell……
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on September 04, 2007, 02:31:04 AM
(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/legionofshame02.jpg)

Ok I've got the base colors down on the first five.  I think I have about 3 hours of paint time in here but I didn't keep real close track because I had to get up from the paint table quite a few times.  Now they are ready for their wash.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Wallyocerous on September 04, 2007, 06:01:29 AM
Good luck on your mammoth task!  I'm curious to see how well you do...   :wink:

What kind of timeline are you trying to get these all painted in?
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Auton on September 04, 2007, 09:49:36 AM
I wonder how many of us have a similar amount of 'hidden' figures..?

I myself have an entire Foundry Imperial Roman army still in the blisters from nearly 10 years ago  :D
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Rhoderic on September 04, 2007, 12:06:06 PM
Yeah, I can relate. I have a Taifa-load of Andalusians and a couple of 6mm sci-fi armies. And a bunch of spaceships and Jovian Chronicles exos, but them I'm starting to get around to painting now.

And like Ironworker, I've also got a bunch of old GW stuff. I don't really plan to ever return to painting them, though. Except maybe the Kroot and Dark Eldar Wyches for some sword-and-planet style gaming. And the odd Chaos or Lizardman miniature for Broadsword Adventures.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: poulppy on September 04, 2007, 01:36:26 PM
Quote from: "Auton"
I wonder how many of us have a similar amount of 'hidden' figures..?


an urban legend says if a wargamer paints all his minis, he will die the next day at midnight he finishs the last one  :lol:  :lol:
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Hammers on September 04, 2007, 02:16:39 PM
Fiddlesticks! I have two complete ranges of Mithril Miniatures (that is a thousand plus miniatures to you) of which half of them I have always intended to paint. The oldest have been sitting arround since '82.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Hammers on September 04, 2007, 02:18:05 PM
Quote from: "poulppy"
an urban legend says if a wargamer paints all his minis, he will die the next day at midnight he finishs the last one  :lol:  :lol:


 :lol:

That's why I keep a healthy padding of unpainted miniatures.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on September 04, 2007, 03:03:30 PM
Here's this group with the wash.  I think I have about two and a half to three hours in them not counting watching the wash dry.  I did some skintone work on the Beastmen while the wash was drying.  I think I can finish these in about two or three more hours of painting at the most.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/legionofshame03.jpg)
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on September 04, 2007, 03:10:27 PM
Quote from: "Wallyocerous"
Good luck on your mammoth task!  I'm curious to see how well you do...   :wink:

What kind of timeline are you trying to get these all painted in?


My timeline is as soon as possible.  I'll be quite happy if I can finish 25 a week but I do have some other projects as well including the lead painters legue which some of these might get entered into.  And then there is my regular work.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: SirFuzaba on September 05, 2007, 05:51:38 AM
Whats figure on right, with the funny hat?

Thanks

Fuzaba
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on September 05, 2007, 07:33:29 AM
That's Omar.  He's a character from one of my friends art series.  I sculpted him and got the opertunity to have him cast up along with a few other sculpts of mine.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Gluteus Maximus on September 05, 2007, 09:57:47 AM
"an urban legend says if a wargamer paints all his minis, he will die the next day at midnight he finishs the last one"

I'm hoping that the opposite is true - I have enough to keep me painting every day for about  70 years & I'm 46  :lol:

Hey Ironworker, you've given me some real inspiration to try the same thing with some of my poor neglected little friends.

Good luck & keep us posted!

Ian
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on September 05, 2007, 11:37:58 PM
Well I finished these 5 today.  I think I put another three or so hours of painting into them which makes the total time spent painting these five minis between six and eight hours.  Not bad I suppose but I'd like to get a bit faster.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/legionofshame04.jpg)

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/legionofshame05.jpg)

They ain't super pretty but they are serviceable.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Wallyocerous on September 06, 2007, 03:55:48 AM
Those skeletons have a good head of hair on them!  They look like Rocker Skeletons!   :lol:   Good job on getting them painted so fast.  Keep us posted on how you're doing.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Gluteus Maximus on September 06, 2007, 08:48:33 AM
That's the Stones in a couple of years  :)
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Argonor on September 06, 2007, 11:28:19 AM
Quote from: "Auton"
I wonder how many of us have a similar amount of 'hidden' figures..?


I have a Foundry Celtic (Brits) army, bought just after the release of WAB. It has never been unpacked (still lying around in the original plastic bags)...

I'm positively never going to paint it. I also have several old GW blister racks (from my days as a games shop manager) fillled with blisters of all kinds... and several (large) cardboard boxes filled with the same motley crew. Guess at one point I'll have to make some decisions 'bout what will have to go, and what to keep  :freak:
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on October 23, 2007, 05:35:33 AM
Ok I've not finished any legion of shame lately so here's another unit.  Some Necromundia Redemptionist from Game Workshop.  these guys really represent the legion.  Figures I've had in this state for over 10 years and to top that off I think I used the cheapest flat black spray paint I could  find to basecoat them.  Strip them?  NEVER!  We don't strip Legion of Shame minis.  We get them the funk painted.  Here they be in all their nasty crappy primed form.
(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist01.jpg)

I plan to paint them using a limmited palette and since they are Legion of Shame I must use only craft paint brands.  To further add to the insanity of the project I'm going to attempt to use nothing by drybrushing for shading and highlighting.  MU HA HA HA, MU HA HA HA, MU HA HA HA.....

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist02.jpg)
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on October 23, 2007, 05:37:26 AM
The most common thing people do when painting a miniature is to paint from the skin out.  While this has it's advantages it can be problematic for speed painting and in particular drybrushing.  I gernerally prefer to paint largest to smallest when drybrushing instead of skin out.  So with these guys I started with the robes.  I wanted some faded brown robes so naturally I drybrushed on a heavy coat of dark blue first.  I did the whole unit.  Then in another break from convention I did the brown all the way up to the final highlight on each mini before proceeding to the next.  This gave me some wet blending.  Why yes you can wetblend and drybrush at the same time.
(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist03.jpg)

Here is a step by step though somehow I skipped a step because I did four layers.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist04.jpg)
note I left a lot of blue showing for shadow.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist05.jpg)

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist06.jpg)

The whole group with their robes done.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist07.jpg)

Very messy at this point and quite impressionistic.  Of course Impressionist paintings continue to break sales records to this day.   :devil:

Oh I almost forgot to mention.  I'm logging my time.  Started the robes at 12:30 pm and finished them at 2:17 including taking time to do several photos some of which ended up here and a few other breaks, phone calls, and distractions.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on October 23, 2007, 05:38:49 AM
Ok so next I did the hoods and tabbards since this was the next largest area of color.  I chose to make the hoods look like slightly faded red so naturally I started with a layer of green.  I don't use tube green in this pallet which is similar to my canvas painting pallet minus the metalics so I had to mix it up.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist08.jpg)

Then I used a cool red drybrushed fairly heavily over that.  Oh and this time I found a better way to keep track of my layers.

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist09.jpg)

I mixed in my warm red about 50%.

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist010.jpg)

Then I did a layer of warm red only.

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist011.jpg)

Then to get the faded look I mixed some warm red, yellow ocre, and just a slight dab of white.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist012.jpg)

The whole group with hoods and tabards.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist013.jpg)

Time log was 3:00 pm to 5:08 pm.  I think I had more distractions but these smaller areas take a bit more carefuly drybrushing as well so it goes a bit slower.  I'll get back on this later tonight but it may be a few hours before I am able to update and I'll probably do a few steps at a time but now you can get the jist of what I'm doing here.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on October 23, 2007, 05:40:10 AM
Ok I basically worked on the smaller details from 7:30 to 10:30 minus about 10 minutes while I made myself a roast beef sandwitch and had a beer.  It's far harder to dry brush on smaller details than largers surfaces and I'll admit that on their skin tones it's really more of a quick highlighting than drybrushing but the 10 year old wally world spray paint primer job was really nasty so after struggling with the leather bits I decided to be more careful with the skin tones.  Those skin tones where mixed with my pallet colors.  No bottled flesh tones were used.  Same for the faded purples and greens used so far.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/Redemptionist/redemptionist014.jpg)
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on October 23, 2007, 05:52:54 AM
Sorry about the update spam.  I have another legion of shame thread on the Reaper forums and I forgot to update this one as I updated that one.  The reason I'm using so much drybrushing is due to a minor skirmish that's been going on between the army/game painters and the contest/display painters over on that forum.
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: P_Clapham on October 23, 2007, 06:27:09 AM
I find your choice of basecoat colors to be a very interesting tecinique.  :)
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on October 23, 2007, 06:39:37 AM
I'm trying to push some color theory and basic canvas painting techniques like mixing flesh tones from regular colors and stuff to be a bit extra cheesy for the miniature artista 40+ hours per miniature crowd.   :lol:
Title: The Legion of Shame
Post by: Ironworker on October 28, 2007, 04:00:34 AM
I didn't have a big enough block of time to work on the Redemptionist during the week due to work and other projects but tonight I managed to speed paint a Gargoyle in the Legion.  I think I have about an hour in him tops as he's pretty much all drybrushing and washes.  

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/gargoyle01.jpg)

(http://pinphoto.tripod.com/natesmiscpics/gargoyle02.jpg)

Sorry about the back shot.  It's really out of focus but I'll post better pics when I finish the base.  The glowing eyes effect is only my seccond real attempt at object light source.  Still a long way from mastering it but I think I have the basic idea down.