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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 7:27 pm 
Loremaster
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They look awesome, great work! In fairness, I'm sure a real Uruk would look "a little rough" up close as well! :P

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 12:50 pm 
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Cool, cool, cool!!
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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:11 pm 
Ringwraith
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Cool? No! Berserkers are hot-blooded feisty types!
They look fantastic - and well done on the award!

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 11:29 am 
Elven Warrior
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Thanks Gents. I have been neglecting this topic a bit, but also, have not really been making huge progress! I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Desolation of Stockport tournament weekend, but did not manage to get the force fully painted.
Well, tabletop ready? Yes. To my personal satisfaction? Definitely not.

And I have another tournament the first weekend of May, so am furiously painting again! In fairness, most of what I'm taking was my 500 point Isengard list for Stockport, and so they need bringing up to standard, but the basic work is done.
Then, I am taking a quantity of the plastic Uruks which I painted earlier in the year, so job done there.

But then there are these fellows (not a good pic, sorry!):
Image
Grima was an evening's work, and Saruman an evening plus another hour of fiddling.

And I started this guy last night:
Image

Still undecided on the colour of the horse. Perhaps a dark grey. The robe needs a top highlight, and a fair bit of smoothing on the blends. Happy with the face, although I think I'll probably pop a bit of cold wash under the eyes and around the temples, and a bit of a warmer flesh tone on the lower lip.

I'll be entering him in the painting competition this month, if I manage to get him done in time. It's a great motivator. Then I should have a few more evenings to get the uruk berserkers and ferals up to standard. I doubt I'll finish, but I'll do what I can.

All this painting makes me miss scenery building! I'm seriously considering snow flock on my board. The disparity between the realistic look of the terrain I've made, and the more cartoon ice look of the board itself grates on me. However, It has to be movable, storable and robust, and I just don't think flock is going to be the ticket for that requirement! If I had the space to just leave it in place I wouldn't mind, but it has to get put away in a large tartan bag every time it's used.

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 11:55 am 
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Wow amazing work on both of Saruman's robes there! I think your Grima mini is fantastic, no advice to offer as he is perfect. Really like how you captured his pale skin and highlighted the fur and black cloak. Very cold and menacing just like the his depiction in the movie.

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 2:12 pm 
Kinsman
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Very nice work, love both Sauraman & Wormtongue on foot

Have you considered a slightly darker colour for the horse?

Also sort out the terrain slacker :D
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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 2:17 pm 
Elven Elder
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looks great, nice bases to!

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 2:24 pm 
Kinsman
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Very nice work, love both Sauraman & Wormtongue on foot - suitably pale and evil!

Also sort out the terrain slacker :D
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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 5:24 pm 
Elven Elder
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Veri nice work mate.

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 12:26 pm 
Ringwraith
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I want to see more on this furious painting technique :)

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 1:44 pm 
Elven Warrior
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Thanks guys! I'm quite pleased with the speed I can bang out a half decent mini in. My problem is that taking three or four times as long doesn't make them much better!

Dorth, three basic components to the "technique" which I am using (and still a long way off perfecting) are as follows:

1. A Zenithal undercoat- auto-placement of light and shadow, which makes blending a lot easier. You can see this well on the horses head.

2. A mixture of wet blending with reasonably opaque paint, and glazing with more watery paint. I still need a lot more practice with paint consistency to be able to place the gradations exactly where i want them. At the moment I keep "tweaking" till the gradation is smooth, but it ends up where it ends up- I'm not good enough to accurately place it exactly where i want it, and keep it smooth as well. :o.

3. A wet palette: keeps the paint wet for longer, and allows you to mix up a number of different shades you're working with. I literally couldn't blend without one.

Sometimes I feel like I'm really making progress with my painting, and other times I just feel like I'm standing still or even going backwards. arrrg!!!!

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Saruman Mounted
PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 1:51 pm 
Elven Warrior
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So here is the finished (well, as much as ANY of my models are ever 100% finished!) Saruman:

Image

I'm quite pleased with how he's turned out. In truth, I'm photographing him today because I wanted to enter him in the monthly painting competition, but due to London Tube strikes I'm not certain I'll be in before the 1st to photograph him properly. If I work a bit more on him tonight and tomorrow night I may bring him in and re-photograph on Wednesday, in time for the deadline. However, I have a feeling that's going to be cutting it fine, and I didn't want to fail in my endeavour to provide something for the competition.

So, What am I thinking: the horse probably needs a little work on the forearm and legs, and I was thinking of bringing Saruman's robes up with a little pure white in places, especially leading up to his face, which I want to be the focal point for the model.

Anyway, he's ready for the battlefield this weekend, and that's the main thing!

I did some work on the remaining Berserkers over the weekend. I still have the skin of the Ferals and Crossbows to do, and four crossbows to paint from scratch. At this late stage I think I'll have to prioritise the crossbows over fiddling with the other models more. Those ferals will have to wait again!

More or less, here's the whole army:
Image

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 5:00 pm 
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He is pulling a Gandalf with that back lighting. I hope you get a chance to take better pictures, this one just isn't allowing to see the detail and color well (it looks lighter in the group shot than here where the colors look warm). Of course we all know you paint well, just need to get those pictures to suit it.

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 7:22 am 
Elven Warrior
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Oh, I didn't think it was that bad of a shot! The colour is closest in the WIP photo above, taken on a book called the "cycle of fire". Unfortunately the tube strike went ahead, and I just won't have time on Wednesday to try to take a better picture in time for the competition, as I will have missed work today. Anyway, it's the taking part that counts right?

I've got a few days to paint a warg rider and 4 crossbowmen, to a basic standard anyway. Out Wednesday and Thursday, so a slightly tall order! ho hum.

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 10:31 am 
Elven Elder
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I have to agree with Sithious, it's not your best photo, which has hidden a lot of the detail. For example, the top of the staff look very dark with no white orb.

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Uruk Berserkers p10
PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:45 am 
Elven Warrior
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Ok, here's another go. Longer shutter speed = greater depth of field, but requires a black background, otherwise you'd get even more "blinding light" than the previous attempt!

Image

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Saruman Mounted p11
PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 1:50 pm 
Elven Elder
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Better photo for me. Good light and dark transition. I like the brown stone base.

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Saruman Mounted p11
PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2014 3:57 pm 
Ringwraith
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Mertaal said:
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Dorth, three basic components to the "technique"


But where is the furious part? :)

As for the photo, go for a medium tone background, not black or white. Camera light metering systems are very sophisticated but extremes will always throw them a bit. Apparently the average tone of, well everything, is 30% along the scale between pitch dark and bright white.

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Saruman Mounted p11
PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2014 5:20 pm 
Elven Warrior
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That's useful advice Dorth- I've toyed with the idea of buying one of those studio background thingies, but never been able to find something that's the right size for miniatures. Any idea?

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 Post subject: Re: Mertaal's Wip: Saruman Mounted p11
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 7:24 am 
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You did a phantastic job. I am sure any Rohan player would be happy to stand against such impressive army!

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