Thursday, July 3, 2014

Sending Curt's Entry Fee

I finally finished those late war Germans! Here they are in all their glory.


Sorry for the shadows, I only had one overhead lamp handy and the light from outside was pretty weak and indirect. I also used flash and just the Macro (Flower) setting on the camera.

I like how they came out in the main, particularly the camo. I think the build up of grey was a nice technique, I will continue to explore the idea of shade, mid and highlight. To me the wash is still what made it come together. I used my grunge wash recipe (4 Raw Umber : 2 Burnt Umber : 1 Black) all over and just Burnt Umber on the flesh. I also mixed black into my ancient Boltgun Metal, because I wanted to be black but more metallic looking. I do have a metallic black but this came out better. I had difficulty with the hair on Steiner and Meyer. It wasn't really sculpted and I'm not sure my dabbed on highlights were totally successful. Schnurrbart's mustache may be a tad too subtle with the highlights in raw and burnt umber. Stransky's eyes were also a tad problematic, I'm worried that he looks a little too Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture show. The only other thing I did was use Vallejo Matte Varnish everywhere except on the Schmeissers, there I used the Liquitex Matte Varnish as it always comes off with a slight shine. This is something I wanted to try after dulling down all the armor on the Treyine figures. This seems to be a workable solution to "too matte" on metal.

These guys were fun to do and I learned a lot. Most important lesson? Get some decent brushes. I think this is probably the thing that is making my life the most miserable when I paint at the moment.

I will endeavor to keep doing some painting every day so I can whittle away at my pile and actually have nice looking, finished, stuff to game with.

22 comments:

  1. They look simply amazing Sean! Good one man! And you are right, decent brushes really matter!

    Awesome stuff!

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    1. Thanks Jiaqi, I need to get some ordered.

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  2. Great painting Sean, they look awesome!

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    1. Thanks Ray, I pushed my technique more on these.

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  3. Wonderful looking bunch of Heer.

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    1. Thanks Tamsin, your praise means a lot to me.

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  4. Fantastic work Sean! I can see why you call it your grunge wash. They look like nice and grimey, like they've been weeks without a visit to the dry-cleaners :-)

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    1. Thanks Red Dog. At some point I'll try for a more varied weathering. Sometimes the grunge can be a little too heavy, but it definitely gives that on campaign look. What I'd really like to do is figure out how to do light to dark from the head down to the toes. So far my attempts at selective weathering have been meh.

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  5. What a great job Sean, I'm sure Curt will love these.

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    1. Thanks Michael, I gave Curt a preview and he said he wanted them all. I tend to focus on the problem areas and not the overall model. I will say that each project gives me hope for the next one.

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  6. "I'm worried that he looks a little too Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture show"
    You say that like it's a bad thing :-). These are very nice indeed mate.

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    1. Thanks Millsy, maybe he's from Transylvania.

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  7. These Germans are really nice, great work!

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  8. Nice work, Sean!
    Curt will be very happy with this fee. ;-)

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  9. Excellent looking Germans Sean! Great work!

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    1. Wow, thanks Rodger! I always admire your stuff.

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