Shoeshine's Skellies(Hey, everyone is doing it!)

[shoeshine 8]

My goal to have my whole first core of Waiquar painted up in a week was slapped down due to an emergency room visit followed by medicine that makes concentration impossible, but I'm back to it today. Hoping I can finish off the Reanimates today, and get going on my test model for the archers. I'm using paint a bit thicker than I normally would, as I've decided to do a run at using the Army Painter method for a change, get the troops out the door quickly while still giving them a quality job I like.

Attached is my test model for the Reanimates I did a week ago. My critique? Overdid the patina on the chest armor, so I'll bring it down a little bit. The eye glow is effective, but I'm not sure about green. Might do it in a blue instead. While the green is nice, it's too close a color to the patina to really pop. Also, do not use Badger Minutaire lacquers. Don't do it. I bought some because I couldn't find my Liquitex stuff, and this photo bears the issue. Badger's flat varnish is more of a semigloss and their satin is a gloss. So I need to revarnish once I find my good stuff. My other critique is that I did too much, but I enjoy the look too much to simplify. As it stands, including different mediums and colors, I have 19 different bottles hitting the model before it's ready to be varnished and based. So they take a bit longer to finish than I had wanted.

And it doesn't really show in the photograph, but I used a 50/50 mix of Liquitex's iridescent medium for the purple fabrics. It gives this really cool effect that sparkles slightly in the light. I applied the same purple mix under the emblem on the shield before painting it silver, so when the light catches it you see a hint of purple underneath. Which is very, very cool. I'm considering doing that as a different color for the forces as well. It's definitely something I will utilize when I paint the carapace of the worm.

 

Edit: Basing was done with Vallejo's thick mud in dark brown, followed by some of Army Painter's brown battleground material being pushed into place. Grass will happen in about a month when my flocking machine comes in from Europe.

Edited April 23, 2017 by shoeshine
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[Klaxas 203]

Looks nice! Hope everything is ok with you.

[shoeshine 8]

Okay! Picked up some dip last night(wanted to try the Army Painter dip, I've used Minwax in the past) and they were dipped this morning. This is them after curing, standing behind their test model that was brush washed with the Strong Tone ink, 50/50 mixed with their new dip medium that is supposed to make the ink work more like a dip. There's definitely a difference between the two, but after highlights there shouldn't be so much of a difference that I need to redo the original model. He'll just be a tiny bit cleaner than his buddies, which is not a huge deal in the midst of large ranks of skeletons.

[Ranger421 36]

33 minutes ago, shoeshine said:

Okay! Picked up some dip last night(wanted to try the Army Painter dip, I've used Minwax in the past) and they were dipped this morning. This is them after curing, standing behind their test model that was brush washed with the Strong Tone ink, 50/50 mixed with their new dip medium that is supposed to make the ink work more like a dip. There's definitely a difference between the two, but after highlights there shouldn't be so much of a difference that I need to redo the original model. He'll just be a tiny bit cleaner than his buddies, which is not a huge deal in the midst of large ranks of skeletons.

Which do you like better???

[shoeshine 8]

2 minutes ago, Ranger421 said:

Which do you like better???

Between the Minwax and the AP dip, or between the two looks? If the former, it's hard to tell. I haven't dipped in a really long time, and don't have any of those models anymore. But there's not really big enough of a difference to be worth the cost difference? Although I do have more confidence in using it, as I know it's been formulated to work with acrylic paints and plastic models. Minwax always scared me to use on materials I haven't tried it on before, because I'm scared of models melting or something reacting with the paint. So that part is very nice.

If it's between the two looks, I definitely like how grungy the skeletons are, and how much better it picks out the chainmail pieces and little indents in the skull than a wash would.