Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

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Elugin
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#31 Post by Elugin »

Prince of Spires wrote: I'm not sold on Naidra. The leaning back pose looks a bit silly to me. Also the outfit can't be practical... Though that's a fairly standard female fantasy outfit I guess.
I see what you mean. I have to admit that the leaning back pose is partly my fault, the way I re-based it now enhances the effect. However that is a temporary solution and I'll glue the model to the base only after I am done painting. I'll keep in mind your comment and try to put her back at a more natural looking angle.
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Elugin
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#32 Post by Elugin »

Some updates with more conversions. I battle brother at the Grey Knights forum suggested that the Olaf model could be modified to become a two-hander (as the actual character is). I studied the model for a while and decided it was worth trying.

First, the shield arm. Since it was an assembly kit I did not have to cut anything. I drilled a hole for a support pin, cut a piece of cotton swab and used it to give structure to the arm, I retrieved the "finger pointing" arm from the GKT set and started building up.
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So far the arm is too thin, so I made it larger with green stuff, modeled the joint and the elbow cover.

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The hand still looks a little too large but overall I am satisfied with it.

Next is the sword, as it is the hilt can easily be that of a two-hander but the blade is too short. So I cut it, inserted a pin to sustain the severed blade and make as a separator, then I reconstructed the blade with green stuff. May be not a pro job but I am pretty satisfied with it.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#33 Post by Prince of Spires »

Thanks for the detailed in progress pictures. They give a clear idea of what's going on.

The end result looks great. Some really good additions to a nice model I think.

Rod
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#34 Post by Elugin »

Finally some updates.
As soon as I started painting the first model I realized I had a major problem: the undercoat with the spray white paint was awful.
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I know that you should not spray when there is high humidity so I waited when the weather website was claiming the air was dry... apparently in Miami it's never dry enough.

So I had to strip the base coat. For most miniatures it was easy (my wife's acetone nail polish). However I read that acetone is bad for green stuff and, for the converted models I had to find a good cleaner. In the end 24 hours of soaking in pure Lysol (tip for painters in the U.S.) and an old toothbrush did the job. Now for the basecoat I use the black GW primer and then a layer of white GW basecoat.

Eventually I have been able to do the real painting and here is the finished Naidra:
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#35 Post by SpellArcher »

Nice colours and detail work.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#36 Post by Ferny »

She looks very good painted :)
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Elugin
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#37 Post by Elugin »

Hi all, after a long time I'm back. A new job and a relocation took their toll, but I've been able to paint a little bit.

Eurk is ready! It took me a long time to finish him, I didn't like the skin tone I used the first time (reddish) and repainted with the greenish colors. I still have to varnish but I'll wait the warm season when I can open the windows to clean the air... Taking the right pictures was a nightmare, I finally managed to do it in the bathroom (by far the brightest room of the house) with a black (t-shirt) background and a bright white additional target (you can see a bit of it in one of the pictures) to avoid saturation on the mini.


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Santa brought me an airbrush! I stripped the other minis of this project from the primer and primed them again with the airbrush (Vallejo white). The result is very good, although I recommend to use it with open windows... What I don't recommend, instead, is the GW brush primer, it's a sticky thick kind of gluey thing that goes in the recesses and hides most of the smallest details.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#38 Post by SpellArcher »

There's a real contrast between the predominantly earthy colours and the blue.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#39 Post by Prince of Spires »

Love the paint job and the mini. The contrast between the blue and the earthy colours is indeed great.

I'm a big fan of airbrush priming. It allows for a much thinner layer and really gets the primer where you want it to. Also, it's a much cheaper option in my experience then spray can primer and a lot faster then doing it by hand. I personally use a transparent primer, which I can then give a black, white or black and white base layer.

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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#40 Post by Elugin »

So, I've been away for a very long time. I would say "family business" since the family became larger and I've been away from brushes for one year. It took me a couple of weeks to finish what I was working at before the break, and more than two weeks to take decent pics...

And here she is, Elahna is finally ready (and I managed to take a few "decent" pictures ;) ). Originally I was planning for a different color scheme, but it's inspired to my wife character, and she decided to make it blue on honor of our baby boy. :)

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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#41 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

good to see you've started up again, and congratulations
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#42 Post by RE.Lee »

Very nice skin tones! =D>
cheers, Lee

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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#43 Post by Prince of Spires »

Welcome back. Family tends to come in between hobby time every now and then. Especially if it involves that family becoming larger...

I like Elahna. Nothing too flashy on the paint job. The natural colors work well on the model.

Rod
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#44 Post by Elugin »

And here comes Olaf Gunnarson the Daemonhunter, Knight of the Purifying Flame, ready to unleash the power of his unfaithful sword Shingrang the Devil.

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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#45 Post by SpellArcher »

Love the daemon head!

:)

Looks like he might be a good fit with Sisters of Battle.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#46 Post by Elugin »

SpellArcher wrote:Love the daemon head!

:)

Looks like he might be a good fit with Sisters of Battle.
Or... I am too dedicated to 40k Grey Knights 8)
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#47 Post by Elugin »

Phelonius the elf, astronomer mage.
The work itself was surprisingly quick, other things got me distracted. I'm very pleased with the night sky on the tunic, my first attempt at wet blending. First the pic that inspired me, than the model itself.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#48 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

nicely done.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#49 Post by Prince of Spires »

I like him a lot. For a first attempt it's very impressive. And you've gotten pretty close to your inspiration pic I think. And the small details, like the source lighting on the hood are great.

How did you manage the stars?

Rod
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PS: Bring cookies!

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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#50 Post by SpellArcher »

Lovely job, the colours are really alive!
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#51 Post by Elugin »

Prince of Spires wrote: How did you manage the stars?
For the isolated stars I did dots with a very thin brush (I don't remember if I used 00 or 000).
For the white diffuse glow of the Milky Way I used drops of very thinned down white paint. This part is trickier because the drops created unpleasant rings, I had to re-paint over the white background a little to remove the rings.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#52 Post by Prince of Spires »

That's a really cool idea for the milky way. Thanks for sharing it!
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
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Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
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Re: Under the vaults of Elugin's Arcanaeum - The Beginning

#53 Post by Luna Guardian »

Great job, especially for a first attempt! If you hadn't said so, I would never have guessed =D>

Yeah, those rings are always a pain when using watered down paints, I wonder if using Lahmian Medium or something similar would work better?
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