Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: Moshes on August 02, 2016, 05:55:51 AM
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Hi everyone, and wellcome to my first post here about the stuff I actually do.
As an introduction, I show you my last mini I painted, some sort of gunpowder Black Numenorean.
I hope you like it.
Cheers!
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Wow neat... what's he made from? Mainly LotR parts or is that a Chaos Dwarf head of some kind...?
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Original stuff. Looks like a mash up of marauder legs and dwarf hammerer head, maybe a few empire weapons?
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Thank you for your comments, gents!
For the sake of curiosity, the complete list of parts is as follows:
Head. GW Dwarf heavy dudes (I think they are Hammerers).
Torso. GW Chaos Marauder.
Legs. GW Chaos Marauder.
Right arm. GW Bretonnian Knight with Empire swordsman weapon.
Left arm. GW Dwarf flamethrower guy with Empire pistolier ehem... pistol.
Pouches. GW Dwarf crossbowmen and Bretonnian bowmen.
Side weapons. GW Empire bits.
Chausses. Zvezda roman shields.
Pauldrons. Italeri roman shields.
Banner. Zvezda samurai.
As you see, it seems a miracle all these bit and ends could work together. lol
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Thank you for your comments, gents!
For the sake of curiosity, the complete list of parts is as follows:
Head. GW Dwarf heavy dudes (I think they are Hammerers).
Torso. GW Chaos Marauder.
Legs. GW Chaos Marauder.
Right arm. GW Bretonnian Knight with Empire swordsman weapon.
Left arm. GW Dwarf flamethrower guy with Empire pistolier ehem... pistol.
Pouches. GW Dwarf crossbowmen and Bretonnian bowmen.
Side weapons. GW Empire bits.
Chausses. Zvezda roman shields.
Pauldrons. Italeri roman shields.
Banner. Zvezda samurai.
As you see, it seems a miracle all these bit and ends could work together. lol
Excellent conversion! I think You'll have a good time on this board. :)
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Looks cool dude!
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That does look like a pretty neat conversion.
Give him a more futuristic weapon and he would look just right in an Inquisitorial retinue.
8) 8)
And: Welcome aboard!
:D
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Thank you for your comments, gentlemen.
I have just finished one more mini, a female companion for the other guy. Although I donīt plan to do AoS, I will keep the round bases for skirmish type games. Normaly I paint unit by unit, or small batches of minis at a time, but working one by one lends me with more flexibility, specially when it takes too long to assemble all the bits. ;)
Cheers chaps!
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Top tier conversions.
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That's some seriously impressive kitbashing. :) You'd be hard-pressed to tell they're not from a single box!
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Another fine addition! Nice style you got going with these.
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Another fine addition! Nice style you got going with these.
Wot 'e said.
8)
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:o Nice conversions.
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I'll be honest with you...I hope you aren't offended. Your conversion work is WONDERFULLY imaginative & BEAUTIFULLY crafted, but you need to expand your color choices. They deserve color...drilling out your gun muzzles would be cool also (I recommend a #64 drill bit).
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I like the colouring, personally. I think he should've done the bases in the same monochrome, though.
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Thank you gentlemen for your comments and suggestions, I am really surprised and happy to have such amount of ideas and feedback.
In regards of the colour, this is a deliberate choice (Iīm sorry DeafNala). I want these guys to be the baddies of the story, drak, grim and elegant. Of course their adversaries will run the gamut of colorings, but I must admit that I tend to gravitate towards gritty, dull tones.
Iīll leave you with a couple of examples of how I like to do things.
But, believe me, I am flattered by all that feedback you gave me, and equally open to all of your comments. :)
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I'm glad you weren't offended. In the end the only one you have to please is yourself; you are the one that will see them most often.
SPLENDID WORK on the more colorful Fellows!
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Hello, gentlemen!
Today I bring you my latest ...thing I made. I have never done two versions of the same character, but now I need a leader for the other blokes you have seen. As in my setting it would be a crue of pirates, the minis in the warband only wear heavy plate on land, for obvious reasons, so I decided to do two renditions of the yet nameless leader. One is in full attire, with backbanner and guns, the other, a more diplomatic and explorer-like gear. As such, I have a civilian to guard in his interactions with locals by the two plated buddies, or a fearsome leader for a coastal raiding party.
Hope you like them!
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Hi, folks, old Moe here!
Today I show you my very particular rendition of something akin to the Nightīs Watch, who will serve as mooks for the rest of the army. I plan to do two more 25 strong units, so I can reach the goal of 500 infantry minis, and then move on to another way.
I have lowered the standards a bit with these chaps, with no highlights, simple conversions and a very, very limited set of colours (although only one area in each miniature is actually painted in black). Moreover, they are the first unit in a batch of 75 minis I am working on, something very excruciating to work in bulk...
Well, enough rambling. I hope you like them.
Cheers.
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And another pic...
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Hi, gents!
Just showing my weekly output. Now my holidays are over, and I decided for this week to try to finish one mini each day, so the focus now is on speed painting and cheap, easy conversions.
Hope you like them.
Moe.
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I love your kitbashing skills. Very good eye.
The last ones all ranked up made me laugh...... are the gobbo and dwarf intentionally kept apart to stop them fighting each other? lol
Regards
PM
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I love your kitbashing skills. Very good eye.
The last ones all ranked up made me laugh...... are the gobbo and dwarf intentionally kept apart to stop them fighting each other? lol
Regards
PM
Thank you, Pappa Midnight!
As you mention, it was totally unintentional, as I ranked them by height, but after reading your comment, maybe I was trying to prevent a brawl even without knowing it.
Anyway, there are no method in this madness. Total randomness, going to bed not knowing what mini I will be painting next day, or how I will convert them.
:D
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Some really nice original conversions you've got there! They strike a good balance of looking fantastical, yet still believable.
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Hah, the stumpy bloke on the horse is pure gold. Keep it coming! :--)
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Hi folks!
Hah, the stumpy bloke on the horse is pure gold. Keep it coming! :--)
Thank you, Schrumpfkopf, this is exactly what I am going to do... lol
Some really nice original conversions you've got there! They strike a good balance of looking fantastical, yet still believable.
Much appreciated, Globlin. My goal is pretty much as you said, to get the most realistic fantasy minis, or at least try to do it. This is why I chopped off enormous weapons, rework the proportions of the minis, use dull colours, three days beards and general un-glamour to them. I like them as such, and it implies certain challenge to me, which in turn keep me motivated. You know, red era minis can be very rewarding when you make them (at least) credible.
Well, letīs move on.
Time to do a weekly update. As the previous post, I have been painting one mini per day, more or less, so I have finished the week with this bacht of models. I continued to do easy conversions and quick paintjobs, but in this occasion i went celtic, and tried to do some tartan, just for fun. As the models will end all cramped up in messy, big units, I care not too much for individual look, but I tried my best to make every mini unique in its way.
I hope you like them!
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And more pics, with a group shot.
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Hi, folks!
Just another update with my recently painted byzantinesque minis.
Hope you enjoy it.
;)
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Loving these mash ups! :) 8)
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Loving these mash ups! :) 8)
Thank you, warburton!
Having completed the last four minis, I think it is high time to show you a group shot of the whole "unit". Honestly, I donīt believe in fixed units, but I tend to work in batches up to 25 models, just for the convenience of they forming perfect square groups. So, when I finish one of those batches, I move on to another thing, whatever inspiration takes me.
Hope you enjoy it.
Cheers!
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And two more pics. 8)
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lovely eclectic mix, and I like how you still get a unit feel with your choice of colours
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lovely eclectic mix, and I like how you still get a unit feel with your choice of colours
Thank you, psullie.
(Next is my POV about colouring the models. It is my personal opinion and I not want to critisize any modeller style or approach, all are valid to me as a viewer. These thoughts I share with you are only meant to explain my own personal style, and how I define it. No offense is intended to any of the superb artists of this community. And, beware, I know I can get boring sometimes, so I warned you lol)
Regarding colour, I think there are two schools of thought, both equally valid and both equally pleasing to the eye. One is made to highlight the model using contrasting colours, often using complementary ones, like red and blue, green and yellow. This palette goes to the brightest tones in the highlights and tends to put interest in shape and contrast. One can, with this method, easily see from across a room large areas of a miniature, sharply contrasting things like clothing, armor and shields. There are plenty of examples of good painters doing it with gusto, and I usually like the results.
The downside of this approach is overcontrasting tones and unusual choices for certain areas. Brighter colours are not suited for campaign live, and degraded fast under sunlight. Constant washing helps dulling the colouring, as seen many times in colour fotographs of troops and other people who work outdoors. For me, it results in a suspension of disbelief if the effect is too pronounced. Take for example the napoleonic reenactors, and how the highly coloured plates and paintings of the uniforms donīt match the real ones. Blue often goes to black or grey, white for ochre, red to a madder tone, and so on. Even in a context of fantasy, more low than high, these things have to be considered.
The other objection is related to the classic Citadel style of painting models, as developed from the 80īs to the 90īs and continues to exert its influence. The question arose when one has to paint groups of minis, and must reduce its palette for speeding the process. In that case, you take a colour, paint one area, move to the next mini, and paint another one. Rick Priestly expanded on this in 5th edition WHF and the Citadel How to Paint Miniatures. This is coherent with the overall image of the unit, and very convenient to economize time, but came at a cost. If I start painting goblins, and you choose red for the boots, and then move to the next mini, and applied red to the clothing, and the same red to the weaponīs shaft in the next, and so on. Seems correct, doesnīt it? Well, and this is my opinion, this method lends poor results in large groups, say 25 or 50 men strong units. It maybe work for fewer minis, or skirmishers who are spreaded out, but only at first glance.
Colour is a function of the material the object is made. Leather can be coloured, but with a limited extent. Metallic arms and armour too, as they are made of very few materials, namely iron, steel and broze, for the most part. Clothing can be as flamboyant as one desire, but the grim reality is that they tend to be made dull or get dull as time passes. Having say that, it is pretty much incoherent to paint one model boots in a shade of red (soft leather) and then apply the same tone in another mini shaft (wood) or clothing (wool, mostly). And the brighter the tone you want to apply the more weird the effect is. Donīt get me wrong, the overall visual rithm is mantained, but the individual models end up as something akin to a carnival. Same goes to another combinations, as you can see wood and leather on the shields painted as clothing, armour painted as soft textiles, semi rigid leather painted like another kind of clothing, and so on. I am pretty aware that there are historical examples of fanciful colouring about there, but I always made the same caveats, as hard evidence tends to be elusive.
Thus, what is it up to me? Well, I really choose the colours in relation to the material the object is made. This is why all the metal is painted the same, being it bronze or steel, or the hard leather, to say a few. With the years surprisingly I have reduced my choices only to clothing, which is not allways so visible under the equipment, and shield patterns, although in this category I reamin a bit silly. Even with these items, the duller the better, for me, with really not very bright colours in any model. In practice it translates as a constant pattern in painting, which depends on the materials:
Soft leather-Reddish brown (webbing, pouches, shoes) or Ochre yellow (Buff, bandoliers).
Hard leather-Dark brown (armour, boots, heavy gloves).
Wood-Cork brown (shafts, shields, missiles).
Heavy wool-Dark grey (cloacks, mittens, robes).
Weapons-Steel (metallic bits, weapons heads).
Armour-Steel or Bronze (Steel for heavy armour, bronze for lighter pieces).
Having said that, the only real choices left are tunics and pants in the majority of minis. And even in these areas, the palette is reduced by not using any of the colour listed above, nor using any industrial based tone. Modern colours which were rare in ancient times tend to set me apart, as well as cold tones (blues, greens). And thats all, no worries about choice of colour, save the shields and nothing more.
So... What could this be helpful for you?
In two words, realistic blending. Although I must admit that I miss more time that I hit the target,the goal is always the same: how to blend a disparate number of minis from many different manufacturers and styles (and heavily converted in most cases) into something visually coherent. And being disciplined in colouring the minis, in addition to reasonable conversions (trimming off oversized bits), helps a lot. The result is what now you are watching. It is helpful for me, I am happy with it, and I have found that I am not the only one who finds this approach interesting.
Please, forgive my overextended rambling, but I hope it would be of reference for the community.
Next time I swear I will post pics of the minis, not only text.
lol
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Greetings, gentlemen!
After being busy in the right sense, I bring you some of my latest minis that I have been working on. Also I have added a sample of what I like to do with the dwarves to "enhance" their mobility.
Enjoy.
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Very clever conversion. I'm tired of seeing dwarves always portrayed as stumpy beer-bellied knee-less dudes.