I used this one to finally try out my new Andrea Brown set. There are six colors in it; base, three lights and two shadows. The paints have a nice, mat look when applied but mixing them with water can be a bit tricky as they tend to lose their consistency.
I used dark green for his vest and white with a light wash of brown to keep the color scheme consistent. And I'd known his hair would be red even before I started working on this mini.
The only thing I wasn't really able to get right were his eyes. I tried a few times but for some reason I didn't nail it this time. Maybe it's because his eyes are right below the line of his hat, which makes getting to them with a brush a challenge on its own.
This is the second mini from the Relic Hunters I've painted and I am really impressed with the amount of detail and personality packed into these miniatures. This one looks simply mean and his pose adds to this feel.
The base is a cast from Micro Art Studio. I applied a few layers of green wash to the gutter and added a layer of Vallejo Still water effect after varnishing but unfortunately that's not visible in the pictures.
I knew I'd be buying this miniature the moment I saw the artwork, regardless of the faction he'd belong to. It turned out he can be used for Guild so I was more than happy to order the Relic Hunter crew. It's been lying at the bottom of my cabinet for a few months but I finally got round to painting them, starting with Sidir.
The first thin you notice when you look at the miniature is that it's much larger than the other ones. He is a monster of a man and is a true giant.
His fluff is interesting, if somehow shadowy. He may have been a prince in the past who was disowned for his crimes. A some point, he run into Lucas McCabe and joined his crew of like-minded characters.
I didn't follow the color scheme from the artwork and chose to paint his sash red instead of blue. I felt that a warmer color would complement the color scheme better. Also, blue would make his skin look pale and I wanted to avoid that as I tried to make his skin look darker.
Painting his robes and turban was a great exercise in using white. I used several layers to make the transitions smooth. I worked with Andrea White Set, which is really great for this color. I also added some dry pigments to the bottom of his robe to make it look as if he had already seen some action. I left the boots unstained on purpose the effect wouldn't show on dark color anyway.
For the base I used Micro Art Studio's cobblestone cast. I got a few for my Relic Hunters and Riflemen.
A bit more progress on the nasty orcsss from Mordor. I've painted their clothes. I used various shades of black, brown/white and red. I had a chance to try my latest purchase - Andrea Red set. I'm extremely happy with it. The consistency of paints is perfect, the coverage is very good (two thin layers and you get a solid color). I've often struggled with red but this pain set makes life so much easier and I'm definitely going to stick to it in the future.
So, yes - another recommendation of Andrea products from me and no - they're not paying me for it and I'm not employed by the company. I'm simply sharing my impressions of a great product. I can't wait until the new green set is available from a Polish store where I always order these paints - JAMA, I cannot recommend it enough. Now, back to the orcs. They're slowly beginning to look like an army. I still need to do a lot to finish them. Boots and all the leather straps (plenty of them on these guys) are next in line. I'll follow with painting the wooden elements and the skin (I plan to use 3-4 different skin tones). I'll be happy if I manage to deal with that by the end of the week. If I manage to do it, the rest is a a piece of cake.
I know the pic isn't good but I want to show the overall progress rather than focus on the details. I'll take better pictures once they're finished. The Mordor-like look that I'm striving for will be achieved in the final stage when I start working with dry pigments and until then what I'm presenting is simply an early work in progress.
Painting white isn't probably the easiest aspect of this hobby. Achieving a solid color requires many layers of diluted paint. Depending on what effect I want to achieve I use different strategies. If I want just a "table-top" quality I start with Astronomican Grey and add white to this paint in a few successive layers until I reach satisfying effect. However, when I focus on a single mini I tend to start from slightly darker colors (browns, grays) and slowly build up the highlights. Thats's how I worked on the first version of Saruman. Excellent mini, I really like the way his robes are sculpted. I left this one with a bleached white cloak so that his white hair would add an additional element of contrast.
The mounted version isn't my favorite. The clothes don't look so nice on this one. It seems to me that the sculptor didn't really do his best on this one. The proportions of the wizard's body don't seem right with his right arm a little too large in comparison to the left one (which is obscured by the robes). The longish right sleeve makes him look a little clumsy. Or at least that's the way I see it.
The robes on this version were painted using Andrea white set. I followed the instructions from the leaflet attached to the box. It meant giving a solid layer of the base color (a slightly darker, creamy shade of white), building it up in three successive highlights and finishing by adding the shades in the recesses. I guess it's supposed to be a more 'professional' approach (adding shades in the final stage) and even though I'm not happy with the final effect on this one, I can see the potential of this method.
As for the choice of music to this post, there was only one option I could think of.
Here's a quick look at what I'm working on at the moment. As you can see I'm continuing work on the Easterlings. The pic isn't great as it's already past 10 pm here and taking pictures with artificial light and no background set up is not a great idea. Anyway, this is just a WIP so it doessn't really matter that much at this point. This time I'm painting only archers, 4 Kataphrakts and 2 Banner Bearers. The Banners will be the most interesting part here as they are nicely sculpted and have fairly big size (especially the larger one). I think I'll go for NMM here as true metalics don't usually look too good on this kind of surface. I started with the armor. I like to have this part finished before moving on to other areas like clothes, weapons, quivers, etc. At this point I'm more than happy with my recent hobby shopping, especially the Gold set from Andrea. In particular the Light White Gold color. While painting gold, I would always mix gold with silver for the penultimate highlight. This paint has just the perfect shade for this stage. I may finish this batch of minis in 2010 but with the busy Christmas schedule I cannot be sure. After these, I will work on several Harad minis and a mounted version of Saruman. Alrighty then, time to wrap things up and call it a day. One more "Christmas" accent and see you in the next post :)
In fact this year he's arrived a bit earlier. I took the liberty of ordering my gifts by myself (with my wife's kind consent ;) and used the opportunity to stock up on some of the Andrea paints. I've already written about them earlier . Basically the idea is that you buy a set of six shades of a given color. I've found the black set more than useful so laying my hands on other ones was just a matter of time. I decided to get a white, flesh, silver and gold set. Seemed like the most useful choices for me as I find it hard to get a satisfying effect using GW's metallics (especially when I work on larger flat surfaces). I really like the soft tones of colors in the white set. I will give it a try when I begin working on a mounted Saruman model that's also a part of the large commission I'm working on at the moment. The flesh set also looks very promising as the colors are nicely matched in this one. The gold set will definitely come in handy as I use this color frequently. I was a little surprised by the inks as the bottles are slightly different than the ones I'm used to - see the picture. It seems like an interesting solution. The only problem is that the black ink in the gold set was not packed very well and I had to spend a while removing it from other bottles and from the box.
Buying sets like these might seem like a solution for lazy painters. This is probably true but not entirely. Andrea's paints mix very well with other acrylic paints. Also, if you want to get a really nice effect mixing them is still a must. And to be honest, I'm a sucker for buying paints. I probably have more than I really need and a number of them is rarely used. I treat it as a part of hobby. Collecting miniatures, collecting paints, almost like two sides of the same coin. And since I paint large numbers of minis I like to have more options available at hand. Four "military" colors from Reaper and a pigment fixer from MIG complete my Christmas list. I really like paints from Reaper as they have excellent coverage and good consistency. The downsides are that the bottles are a bit smaller than P3, Vallejo, etc. and they tend to clog after a while. Now that all the paints are nicely assembled, the only thing lest to do is to start using these. Christmas break is getting closer so I may find some time for a solid painting session. And here's yet one more classic. Somehow I am drawn the music from 40s. It seems to me that singers didn't try to go all gaga about how controversial and original they were and simply put their energy into making really good show. They definitely had what many of today's artists lack; authenticity and charisma.
That's right - black is the colour. Today I finally received the Black paint Set from Andrea.
It's basically a set of black tones that are specially designed to work on this colour. Don't get me wrong though - it's not that I'm lazy and avoid mixing paints. It's just that I simply enjoy using different types of paints from different producers. Right now I have about 150 different paints and use pretty much all of them. There are some that I like in particular, e.g. Citadel metallics & purples, P3 Midlund Flesh, Foundation paints, citadel washes, golden metallics from Reaper, reds from Vallejo Game Colour or Green Grey and Negro Black from Vallejo Model color range). I could go on but the point is that for me this is also part of the hobby - collecting and using different acrylic paints.
Some of the paints that I use
I read about the Andrea range a while ago but it wasn't until recently that I learnt that they're available in a store in my country (I don't normally buy in stores abroad - the costs of shipping are high and you need to either gather a group of people to make a larger order or buy more products to get a discount).
All six shades, base with two highlights and three shadows
Apart from the paints you also get a leaflet with a tutorial(short but nicely illustrated with good pictures). Nice addition. I will probably test them while painting black elements on Catachan Guard and Ogryns. I cannot wait until I lay my hands on some these great Cryx minis - this black paint set will surely come in handy. If I like the effect I will also probably get the Gold set, which might be even more useful. I'm generally happy with the effect I can get using Reaper/GW gold metallics but still, I'd like to try something different.
