Dom's WIP (Easterling Kataphrakts)

Xintao · **Posted:** Sat Feb 01, 2014 4:46 am

Really great work. I like your style and color choices.

Xin

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:07 am

Great work Dom, your blending is coming along nicely. are you seeing the difference now from your first efforts you posted ? You are definitely improving.

DomyHill · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2014 10:05 pm

I haven't updated this in a while so here we go...
Finished Glorfindel who is going to be the leader of my 500pt force, now need to do the mounted one. Unfortunately his sword broke multiple times and I was unable to repair it and the only spare weapon I had was a Knight of Rivendell's spear.

I've also been working on some other stuff which is completely unrelated. Some Gundabad Orcs:

And an experimental Gundabad Troll, I got this model for free from a friend's little boy but it was in a pretty bad state so I'm just using it as a tester hence the big gaps and mismatched armour.

And Thorin:

Major_Tom · **Joined:** Thu Dec 05, 2013 10:58 am **Posts:** 58

I quite like the spear, very nicely painted models as well!

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Thu May 08, 2014 9:02 am

Nice smooth work again Dom. The work on the shield and armour on the gundabads is first class.

Crucium Giger · **Posted:** Thu May 08, 2014 11:37 am

Everything looks rather tasty here

Khazad_Stan · **Joined:** Wed May 07, 2014 3:29 pm **Posts:** 4

How do you get the individual strips in the eleven plate armour to be so prominent? Fabulous looking models pal, I wish I could paint like that!

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Fri May 09, 2014 10:59 am

For a tester that troll looks pretty ok - you should be able to salvage it completely with some filler and who cares about mismatched armour on a troll - they steal from everyone!
They just cannot cope with burglahobbits

DomyHill · **Posted:** Tue Nov 04, 2014 1:30 pm

Not my best work because I suck at conversions, metal models and helmeted faces but I gave it a shot. Thanks DMS for supplying the head of Glorfindel.

Brettzky099 · **Joined:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 9:03 pm **Posts:** 3

Wow, you really nailed the cloaks! They look fantastic! I always have difficulty painting the whole greyscale range.
Nice work

SonsOfHurin · **Joined:** Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:54 am **Posts:** 42

Like those elfs!

Did you use NMM for all the armour of the elves?

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Tue Nov 04, 2014 7:22 pm

Firstly may I say welcome back, it's been way too long.
Now may I say the gap has not diminished your work, probably some of, if not, the best from you. Your blending has taken on another level and where before it was thick and mis matched, now it looks really smooth. That times time and talent, well done.
Now you are getting together with the blending concept I would like to see you pushing your light and dark contrast to really make your figures pop.

DomyHill · **Posted:** Tue Nov 04, 2014 8:14 pm

Brettzky099 - Painting greys has been a real challenge for me! On my Rivendell Knights it always ended up really blocky or really low contrast (all looked one colour). I eventually gave up on the big capes of the knights and just used metallics which seem to blend a lot more easily (possibly because of the reflection of light?). However the only thing I can say that helped with the infantry was taking it really slow with thin layers.

SonsOfHurin - I wish I could do NMM! Every bit of metal is painted with metallics with a really simple technique with two washes which I found a tutorial for online [1].

Gandlaf the Grey - Thanks a lot mate. Keeping it all smooth is something that's really important to me at the moment which I think makes me lose out on the contrast that would really, as you said, make my work "pop". Any advice on how to add contrast but keep it smooth would be great as I always find that last bright highlight often kills the naturalism of my figures.

[1] http://fromthewarp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/how-i-paint-tabletop-level-metallic-gold.html

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:29 pm

Practice practice practise is the answer. You can get some Vallego Model Colour Ivory instead of white.
It covers much better when thinned and doesn't give the grainy effect of a pure white. The difference in colour is almost impossible to tell.
When you glaze, ensure you push the paint to the lightest area and vice versa for darker colours, push the paint into the darker area.
Think of colour contrast also, using warm colours for highlights and cold colours for shade.
For example, I use a light yellow to highlight brown and then use thin glazes of purple and dark blue for the shading.

DomyHill · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2014 8:35 pm

Can anyone help me with the finecast Hobbit Elrond? I have real trouble painting anything other than plastic because I can't handle the ridges and folds possible with finecast. I've managed pretty well with the armour and I'm actually really pleased with the skirt but I'm really struggling with the cloak. It's just looking like a blocky mess. If anyone has any pictures of a well painted version of this that would really help (or anything similar). Advise would also really help. Thanks.

Gene Parmesan · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2014 12:18 am

Ok, at a glance it seems you're leapfrogging from dark to light. Ideally you want gradual lighter shades as you highlight up. Try about 5-7 layers. There are ways of saving it, but to be honest it looks like you need to work a little on recognizing shades. Where one ends and another begins. There are shortcuts but it's best to learn the hard way so your eyes know what to look out for. I paint so that I can see (paraphrasing Picasso). It's not as noticeable on glrofindel as all the ridges are vertical, and of the same depth

sorry if this sounds patronizing, as you seem to have nailed the skirt but here goes.

Try an old school exercise. As preparatory work get a sheet of paper. Paint a square of your darkest grey on one side, your lightest on the other ans in the middle do a 50:50 mix of the two. Then in between dark and mid mix a 75:25 dark to light square and the same ratio from mid to light. That should roughly give you 5 tones.

Start the cloak again all over with the darkest, then the next darkest,mid, mid-light, light. With each layer, paint a thinner patch. The darkest should remain in the folds and creases, the lightest on the ridges and raised parts. This should give a rough illusion of shadow and light.

you can use inks or washes to soften the transition, but time and patience will pay off most.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2014 12:09 pm

I think a darker basecoat will help, make it almost as dark as your deepest shade you want. Now start to lighten it in the raised areas. Do this slowly with glazes and you will start to see your picture unfold.
Just continue on with the glazing to reach your final highlights, trust me, you will see it start to work.

DomyHill · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2014 2:15 pm

Thanks guys. I just had another go and ended up with this:

It's a lot better but maybe to low contrast?

Erunion · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2014 3:17 pm

Your second attempt is much improved. I've found that what looks good on inspection often needs another level of highlights to maintain definition at the tabletop level.

Good work!

Eaothen-the-brave · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2014 3:31 pm

Lovely work! I like the colours on Elrond, I prefer this gold sheme over the GW one. Also like the cloak, just another drybrush, highlight and it'll look great!

Dom's WIP (Easterling Kataphrakts)

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