Ghassan & Zahira

[Rhoderic]

These are my characters for the same Broadsword Adventures PBEM game as Heldrak's Farouk the Trader. I've painted them to a semi-speedpainting standard that I'm considering sticking to from now on (basecoat and one highlight on all surfaces). You can't really see all the highlights, especially on Zahira where I deliberately used soft contrasts (probably went too far). Still, that's one more lesson learned.

This is pre-varnish. I'm afraid that once I coat them in matt varnish (which dulls down all metallic paints), the cloth-of-gold effect on Zahira's clothes is going to be lost.

[Doc Twilight]

Rhoderic -

I'm playing in the same game. These figs are great looking. I think I've got a fig in mind, but darned if I can't find my connection cable for the camera... if nothing else I suppose I can take a shot with a camera phone and put it up that way.

-Doc

[keeper]

They look pretty good, Rhoderic   Where are the figures from?

For the gold, you could always get hold of a brush on gloss varnish - GW do one, and I'm sure others do, too.  put the gloss varnish over the gold and other metal parts after the matt varnish and it should restore the effect

[Froggy the Great]

If you were to darkline the figure (takes about 10 minutes for rough tabletop standard, once you get practiced), you'd get a sort of "pop" on the effect even with the minimal highlighting you've done.  I like these, and they're really good for what you've done, but one more step will gain you a lot of bang for your buck.

[Heldrak]

Looking good there Rhod'. Can't wait to see 'em in action!

[Operator5]

Great figures. Let's see if they perform as well in game as they look in photos.

And for gloss as well, a cheap alternative is clear acrylic nail polish.

[Rhoderic]

The belly dancer is from Eureka's Pax Limpopo range, and the thief is from Black Tree's fantasy Saracen range. They just looked to me like they belonged together.

I might try the gloss varnish thing, just this once as an exception. I don't really want to start doing this to all the metallic surfaces as I specifically want to shave off as many painting stages as possible, but in this case I'd mixed the gold paint with some plain yellow, which already gives it a duller sheen to begin with, so it's going to need an extra boost in the end. Of course, I always gloss varnish all my figures before applying the matt varnish so one could argue there would be no extra painting stage at all, but I don't want to have to start precision-painting the matt varnish.

Darklining is something I'll probably leave be, on the same principle. It doesn't really suit my style.

This is also my first time using Tallarn Flesh for a "dusky" skintone. I was dubious at first but I like how it turned out in the end.

[UncleRhino]

I have been thinking that maybe it is possible to use some Future Floor wax on surfaces you want shiny AFTER you have already done your matte coating.  I was thinking you could make a sword extra shiny, or any armor for that matter, if you want that look.

Any thoughts on that idea?  I have not experimented with it, myself, as of yet

Ryan