#WiP Wednesday No.1

So here it is, my first post in anger. I'm not going to start with anything taxing just the first in something I hope to do every Wednesday, post a work in progress. Of course the idea is stolen shamelessly from twitter.

 

So to start......an empire warrior priest

The skin on the face is about the only thing finished so far.

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Painting a White Horse

Hi gang!

I am really sorry about the quantity of updates I'm putting up here. I did intent to have more posts, but it turns out you can only post to a hobby blog when you do hobby related stuff, or more accurately "interesting hobby related stuff". Browsing CMoN does not a hobby blog post make! As I've said before,I've  moved home, but I'm actually spending weeks at time at my girlfriends, hence only dribs and drabs of hobby content. 

So I've been very slowly working on the horse which I showed pictures of in my last blog, this included a couple of green ink washes on the barding and the inital basecoat for the gold detailing on the armour. The most serious work I have done though is on the horse's coat. This is only the second time I've ever made a serious attempt at painting a horse. The first worked out ok, not great, just ok (I'll post a picture some time, as I also have to finish that mini!). Painting this horse is cheating really though as he's mostly all legs and neck, none of that tricky stomach/arse area. 

I begin with a basecoat of GWF Astromican Grey. This was followed by several thin washes of Vallejo Cold Grey applied to the shadow area's (under the armour), inside the knee joints and the depths of the leg and neck muscles to build up the shadow. 

The first highlight was achieved by mixing 3 drops of Vallejo Cold Grey to 1 brush load of Privateer Press White and 1 drop water and painting onto the definied muscles. When this was painted a second brush load of PP white was added to the paint mix along with a second drop of water to keep the consistency. This was layered onto the muscles. White paint and water in the same volumes were added a third time and once again layered onto the model. A final highlight of pure PP white was then applied. 

Ah! Thats about it for the update really. I would love to hear from anyone who might have a suggestion on how to improve the white. To date its probably the smoothest and nicest white I've managed to paint, but I'm always ready to hear tips on how to improve myself as a painter.

Horsey Bases!

One of the thing I've decided I need to work on is the basing of my mini's. Up until now they have been the standard PVA/flock combo, which does not really cut the mustard for the display mini's I hope to paint at some stage in my life. So I need to get practicing on improving my basing techniques. To that end I've attempted to make a start on the base of my Empire leader, which I showed pictures of when I first started this blog.

So these three pictures show what I've done. I'm trying to show a grassy overhang on a rocky slope. The rock was made out of some cork board, and the slope created from standard milluput, with a skull pushed into it. Hopefully by paint and the placement of flock will make this look a little more interesting than a normal base.

Finished the gold.

It was basecoated with scorched brown, followed by a highlight with 50:50 scorched brown:burnished gold, followed by 50:50 burnished gold: mitril silver. The gold was then given a final wash of Leviathan Purple

The skin was given a basecoat of Vallejo Game Colour Dark Fleshtone.

An updated picture of Aldebrand. I gave the metals a second wash with Badab Black, followed by some Orygn Flesh, and finally some Thraka Green. Highlighted a second time with Boltgun Metal followed by Mithril Silver.

I made a start with the headband, just adding the green banding, as well as adding the basecoat to the hawk with Chardaon Granite.

Detailing of the metal next, must come up with a good gold recipe! And I still can't make out with the detail on the right shoulder paint or the breastplate is! There is a scroll on the breastplate but whats above it i don't know, maybe a cherub?

Aldenbrand Ludenhof WiP

Inital metal and red work on the Hochland Elector Count