pale skin

Pale Skin Tutorial

Every now and then I get asked for hints how to paint the pale skin like I do. I've tried my best in replying these requests by writing simple tutorials, but when thinking of it more, explaining how something is done is far less interesting and educating than actually showing it.

Now I won't be showing you 2 hour video about me painting miniature. That would be just plain dull thing to do. What I will do is present a short tutorial with step-by-step pictures how to paint the pale skin, similar to those Arco Evisorators that I've painted.

So here we go...

First of all, I prime my miniature almost always in grey. I find it being gentle to my eyes and makes it easier for me to perceive details.

For base colour I used mix of five colours: Codex Grey, Skull White, Tallarn Flesh, Khemri Brown.

Add more white to mixture and paint couple of highlight layers. Remember to keep the paint enough thin.

Shade everything with a wash made from a mixture of Asurmen Blue and Gryphonne Sepia. Asurmen Blue breaks the over-warm tone of the Gryphonne Sepia. This trick was introduced to me by Steve from Spyglass Asylum.

Now comes the interesting part. Add some depth to recesses by painting some brown-red ink in them. I'll get back to this later in this post.

Paint couple of thin layers with the basic colour made out of those 5 paints used in the first few steps, highlighting a bit with adding a drop of white in the mixture.

Add some blue grey in the mix and start shading the areas between the original skin colour and the deep red ink areas, blending these two radical colours together with the cold blue tone. Blue works also as a complimentary colour in shaded areas, making the skin more alive, so make a note in what sort of lighting the character could be standing in.

Now you can start seeing how the red and blue tones make the pale skin look like a translucent layer of thin skin; joint areas are red and deep, rich with blood, whereas large surfacing areas are pale, tight and low in blood. Makes sence in a way, doesn't it?

Keep working on with the skin by highlighting it, adding more white to the base colour as you go. Final strokes should be made with plain Skull white. Add some details with Scorched Brown, like moles etc.

There you go! As you can see, this receipt is quite basic and simple, but requires patience to pull out. You shouldn't mind using bold and strong strokes, as long as you keep your paints enough thin and running. Have fun experiencing different techniques and don't mind about smooth blends.

I hope you will find this tutorial helpful in your task painting the pale skin. Please drop a comment if you need further information regarding the steps.

Cheers!

- Kari

Monday, July 11, 2011

Tips & Tricks - Fine Rope

It's time for me to become a c-c-c-combo breaker and end Mikko's chain of posts with this rude interruption. I've been working very intensively with one of my new projects and haven't really had time to post anything at the Spiky. Until now!

Today I'll be sharing a neat trick with you. The trick shall be called as "how to create a fine rope for your miniature project". I'm aware that there are many ways to do rope in 28mm scale, eg. putty-rope, metal wire rope, real thread rope and so on. I find those previously mentioned methods a bit clumsy for my liking and wanted to find out how to do more realistic rope in 28mm scale.

So I went to my storage room and rummaged around to find some old cords to use in my plans. I happened to find an old Amiga 500 mouse that had been blasted open and decided that it would be perfect object for my little project...

Destroyed Amiga mouse.

So, I cut the mouse's wire open and found out that it had this very fine metal wire braiding running through the whole wire. I cut four to five of those strings and twisted them in to one thicker wire. The outcome was just what I had been looking for. This twisted rope has nice texture in its surface and it really looked awesome. You can also easily vary the thickness of the wire by using more or less of the thin strings, what ever is your plan...

Metal wire braiding.

Solid copper wire and two self-made fine ropes.

This string rope holds it form when bent and doesn't unbend

barrels how to

Barrel bundles

from:

http://ogre-mini.blog.ca/2011/12/19/barrels-bundles-12328379/

I wanted to make objective markers and scenery incorporating fuel barrels. GW makes some lovely ones in their battlefield acccessories pack, but at 15$ it can get rather expensive if you want to make a fuel depot...

Then I took a look at internet for other solutions. Not a whole lot of cheaper alternatives and, to my suprise, no castable barrels. So, I decided to try and make my own mold... that didn't come out so great. Next step was to try and scratchbuild my own.

Wooden 5/8'' dowels, thin string and carpenter's glue. First cut 6x pieces of dowel 7/8'' long. Mark where the "bumps" should be. Pre-cut lengths of string, enough to wrap once or twice, according to the diametre. Dab some glue to the end and wrap string. I used an old crafting knife to help work the string in it's proper place. Do the same to the next dowel, by the time you have glued the first "bump" to your six barrels, the first will be dry enough to wrap the second. Go through your barrels again and then again with the next "bump" and so forth... I'm sure you get the idea.

The end result might not be high quality, but it does the job at a minimal cost and time. Took me an hour to do the six barrels. Mixed in with the real GW stuff, it comes out ok.

Oh! If you're wondering, the palets are WFB monster bases with the sides cut.

Barrier how to

Dust barriers

by OGRE-mini @ 26 Apr. 2012 – 19:51:02

Getting into Dust Tactics/Warfare. This game is great, nice minis and all, it just lacks a bit of 3D on the board. There are some that have made paper scenery like these :

...but folding paper and waiting for the glue to set doesn't agree with me. So, inspired by the second example, I decided to make them using my trusty styrofoam cutter.

First stage : make a cutting template using thick card.

Then a mitre cutter jig with a few pieces of scrap plywood. (Sorry for the 90° turn... I'll fix it eventually)

Assembling the pieces by gluing them on card and caulking the joints.

Once painted, they don't look too bad. Just a couple of hours' work...

cork base how to

Hello Bell of Lost Souls Readers, Lazuli Miniatures Studio here with a special article on how we make our display level bases.

Recently we have seen a lot of people incorporate cork into their bases. Cork is a great tool for basing; it gives an interesting finish with varying levels of elevation while still allowing the figure to stand properly.

The first thing that must be considered is the model or faction's theme. Are they fighting in a desert, a jungle, or in a post-apocalyptic urban ruin in the far-future? Wherever your miniatures are fighting—anywhere from the frozen tundra, volcanic mountain, or even ancient undersea ruins—cork may be used for base.

Before you begin basing, you need to gather a few supplies. Other than cork and glue, there is an infinite amount of other materials you can use. Here is a list of supplies that the Studio used:

Cork Tiles (you can purchase these at craft stores like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby in packs of 4 for about $5 each; $3 if you use a 40% coupon for either store available online).
-Super Glue
-Wood Glue
-Hobby Knife
-Side Cutters
-Paints
-Citadel Scorched Grass
-Citadel Dead Grass
-Citadel Middenland Turf
-Citadel Mordheim Turf
-Army Painter Highland Tuft
-Army Painter Jungle Tuft
-Army Painter Wilderness Tuft
-Army Painter Meadow Flowers
-Woodland Senics Clump Foliage
-Various grades of flock (beach sand, fine gravel, etc.)

The first step is to prepare the bases by cutting them off the tabs and cleaning the edges.

The next step is to prepare the cork. First remove the straight edges of the sheet by tearing them off. This will give the final rocks a much more natural appearance—after all, nature does not build in straight lines. Now you can rip off pieces of the cork in varying sizes. While size does not necessarily matter, it’s best to avoid excessively large chunks. Random sizes will allow you to build up the base in layers.

The third step is to glue the cork onto the base. You may choose to stack the cork in layers. When doing so remember to take pieces that go well with each other; a little bit of cork hanging over the sides gives a scenic feel. On typical infantry figures, I try not to stack more than 2 or 3 layers high. You want the miniatures to stand out, but not look silly standing next to your opponent's figures.

The next step is to take Wood Glue and apply sand onto the parts of the base not covered by cork. In some instances you may apply sand onto the cork to add more texture. We do this on some urban themed bases.

Now it is time to paint the cork. We airbrushed various shades of grey, black, and white onto the base. When we were happy with the color, we drybrushed the rocks with Army Painter Matte White.

For the painting, you can use any color you wish. For the Chaos Space Marines we were painting, the client wanted the bases to match his red Martian-themed table. We started by laying down a coat of Reaper Master Series Redstone Shadow. When the base coat dried, we overbrushed Reaper Master Series Redstone leaving the Redstone Shadow in the deepest recesses. Next a lighter overbrush of Redstone Highlight was applied. For the final highlight, we used a very light drybrush of Reaper Master Series Redstone Highlight and Army Painter Skeleton Bone.

Finally we used Army Painter Matt Black on the rim of the base. Pro tip: When applying the basecoats on the base with dropper bottles, you can greatly increase your speed by applying small dots of paint onto the base and spreading them with a wet brush.

Now for the final step. We applied a variety of flock, including the Army Painter Tufts and static grass. The key for this step is creativity; don’t make each base look like the other, but as if they came from the same terrain. We used a wide range of materials varying from store bought items—like clump foliage, tufts, and moss—to dried plants we found in the woods.

Now you have nice-looking bases, but you're not done yet! Another advantage of cork is its flexibility. When affixing the miniature onto the base, cut the tab off the feet leaving only a small section on underneath one of the feet. Take your hobby knife and cut a hole into the cork where you want the tab section to be inserted. Use superglue to glue the model in place. Technically, you could simply just glue the miniature without qualms; however, leaving a section of the metal tab gives the miniature much more stability and gives the superglue a larger surface area between the metal and the cork.

See, the key to fancy bases is the variety of materials used along with composition. Here are some examples of other works we did with cork:

Of course, cork isn't limited to miniature bases, here is some cool terrain also done with cork:

 

Lastly, one more cool thing to do with cork: display bases! These Space Marines were actually one of my very first painting competition wins, painted when I was 13.