Next steps...

[stainsbury 47]

I'm new to miniature painting - any next steps which you guys can suggest for me to improve? Be brutal!

http://imgur.com/a/8cLCE6d

 

%5BURL=http://imgur.com/a/8cLCE6d%5Dhttp://imgur.com/a/8cLCE6d%5B/URL%5D

 

[Brightguy 130]

If that's your first outing, you're off to a great start.  

If you want suggestions, here's what I have:

Looks like Leia's yellow stripe could have used an extra coat to even it out.

And Luke's shoulder (and I suspect right elbow) could have used some green stuff to fill in the gap.  Being able to use that to fill gaps is also useful for several of the rebel trooper sculpts.

But that's really all I see.

 

[stainsbury 47]

Thanks! Yeah, I wish now that I'd spent longer removing seam lines and filling gaps on the core set...I was just so eager to get playing! I've been really impressed with head-swaps and customisation I've seen others do on this forum; makes me want to get another core set and spend quality time getting two really nicely done rebel trooper units and a Mon Cal pilot for the ATRT, not to mention two more stormy units - I really rushed them, last time around...

Thanks for the advice - I'll definitely do that on the next squad, whoever it ends up being.

[Mep 2,291]

It really comes down to how hard you want to try. Right now what you got is pretty good. To take it to the next level will require more work. The highlighting can always be more. The shading/washing can be more as well. The contrast is good but not outstanding.  Your Veers/Thrawn doesn't have red eyes. Sakura pens come in red, so you can add them in easily, if you wanted to spend the money on some pens.

For casual gaming these are great. If you wanted to do painting contest then yeah, pay a lot of attention to all of Sorastro's videos and others as well. Practice more and put more into the models. If you don't want to do that, then what you are currently doing is certainly fine.

[stainsbury 47]

Fantastic! I've really been struggling with eyes, especially Leia's which I couldn't just slodge red into like Thrawn's (he has no white, iris or pupil...just red!). 

https://imgur.com/gallery/YRgfV8r

 It never occurred to me to drawn pupils in with a pen! I'm off to Amazon to find some Sakura pens - I'd never heard of them before but 0.2mm sounds amazing. So do people paint the eyes white, then do the rest of the face whatever skin colour, then go in with the Sakura and put a brown/blue dot inside the white?

Im really struggling with most everything else, too, so please keep the tool/technique suggestions coming!

Thanks again Mep.

Edited June 18, 2018 by stainsbury

[Dragon_King 159]

that AT-RT is just.... wow, love the "Fun"-freehand!

[BigBadAndy 640]

Your stuff looks great.  As good or better than mine.  You could use to thin down your paint for thrawns face and looks like maybe the white paint is a little old or too thick - it’s leaving little bits.  Otherwise, just artistically thrown/veers is very white.  Not a lot of contrast there.  Might want to exaggerate the shading more either with zenithal highlighting or using two times and wet blending or even just more washes.

Leia’s yellow strip couldnuse another coat unless you were going for dirty or faded.

probably my only really useful advice is that you can link the Imgur pictures directly if you wait a bit and then link each picture instead of the album.

 

Edited June 18, 2018 by BigBadAndy

[stainsbury 47]

On 6/18/2018 at 9:10 AM, Dragon_King said:

that AT-RT is just.... wow, love the "Fun"-freehand!

Yeah, I hated the idea that both ATRTs would look identical, so I added bits of plastic to 'up-armour' one of them; ended up looking very much like a face or animal head, so I thought...what the **** - teeth!

[stainsbury 47]

On 6/18/2018 at 11:33 AM, BigBadAndy said:

Your stuff looks great.  As good or better than mine.  You could use to thin down your paint for thrawns face and looks like maybe the white paint is a little old or too thick - it’s leaving little bits.  Otherwise, just artistically thrown/veers is very white.  Not a lot of contrast there.  Might want to exaggerate the shading more either with zenithal highlighting or using two times and wet blending or even just more washes.

Leia’s yellow strip couldnuse another coat unless you were going for dirty or faded.

probably my only really useful advice is that you can link the Imgur pictures directly if you wait a bit and then link each picture instead of the album.

 

 

Ummm...how did you do that, please?  When I try to put picks in using the 'Insert image from URL', it just flashes red and doesn't let me do it.  Are you saying I just wait a bit, try again, and it will work?  

Yeah, I wanted Leia's trousers/pants to look like she's been trekking through the Endorian forests for a while - not exactly a 'straight from the dry-cleaners' situation.

Not sure what to do about Thrawn...I sort of figured that, as a Grand Admiral, he probably would have people to do his laundry for him, even on Tatooine.  He strikes me as the kind of prim and proper gentleman who has his seams pressed and his collar ironed, even before a battle!  Maybe a watered down nuln oil (or equivalent) wash would work?

[Drasnighta 26,832]

Upload to imgur

ckick on the images in imgur

copy the “direct link” link on the side - the one that ends in .jpg or whatever file type you havr

 paste THAT link here

[BigBadAndy 640]

3 hours ago, stainsbury said:

Ummm...how did you do that, please?  When I try to put picks in using the 'Insert image from URL', it just flashes red and doesn't let me do it.  Are you saying I just wait a bit, try again, and it will work?  

Yeah, I wanted Leia's trousers/pants to look like she's been trekking through the Endorian forests for a while - not exactly a 'straight from the dry-cleaners' situation.

Not sure what to do about Thrawn...I sort of figured that, as a Grand Admiral, he probably would have people to do his laundry for him, even on Tatooine.  He strikes me as the kind of prim and proper gentleman who has his seams pressed and his collar ironed, even before a battle!  Maybe a watered down nuln oil (or equivalent) wash would work?

@Drasnighta has the right path for Imgur.  I use my phone and after I upload I give it a minute to finish uploading (this matters). Then I select an individual photo and use the “send to” icon down at the bottom.  Select “copy link” then simply come to the forum and paste in the link.  You know you have it right if you see .jpg at the end.  It should then automatically lose in the picture.  It’s inportant that you simply paste the link into your text.  Don’t try anything fancy like hitting the “insert other media” tab.

Honestly, your thrawn looks great and I wouldn’t worry about it at this point.  If you were going to do a new one I might suggest painting the armor plate gray - so it looks like the admiral has strapped on an armor vest over his dress uniform.  But this is minor and just to try to give the model a little contrast.

[Drasnighta 26,832]

2 minutes ago, BigBadAndy said:

I might suggest painting the armor plate gray - so it looks like the admiral has strapped on an armor vest over his dress uniform.  But this is minor and just to try to give the model a little contrast.

It would increase the contrast....

 

but it decrease its adherence to Canon.

Thrawns armour plating on Atollon was, indeed, as white as his uniform.

[stainsbury 47]

On 6/19/2018 at 5:59 PM, Drasnighta said:

It would increase the contrast....

 

but it decrease its adherence to Canon.

Thrawns armour plating on Atollon was, indeed, as white as his uniform.

I thought  that was the case, though I also thought I'd seen him with a grey/green (olive drab) colour in an earlier battle, perhaps before his promotion to GA. 

Maybe just a grey wash, then.

Thanks so much for all the thoughts, everyone.

❤️

[Mep 2,291]

White is one of the hardest colors to paint. The key is you paint grey and highlight up to white.

[stainsbury 47]

I'm now trying my hand at converting stormtrooper minis with a scalpel, some green filler putty and white milliput. I've also added some brass tubes as scopes/blaster barrels, and some green florist wire as oxygen hoses.  I took the macrobinoculars from the rebel leader mini and the backpack from the rebel heavy weapon trooper and gave them to a trooper. Vader' saber is now in the squad leader's hand...Kreel, maybe? ?