WIP-Archmage of Light

[Marek]

Hi All,

I'm currently working on an archmage from GameZone Miniatures. He is supposed to be a member of the College of Light, hence light colors. The current status is like this:

Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image

What I concider finished is the mage itself and the horse's skin. Of course if you can suggest something about these two parts, feel free to post it.

The leather parts will get a green wash to smooth the highlights.
The golden amulets will be corrected. I started with snakebite leather and then put a thin coat of burnished gold and got a darkyellow shining thing.

I need some help with the wooden saddle. The base color is bestial brown, followed with washes from chestnut ink, green and red. The highlights are made with kommando khaki and white (the photos enhance them, in real they are not that ugly) but it doesn't look nice and I have no idea how to proceed. Can you help me?

Thanks in advance for all the feedback.
Cheers,
Marek

[Demi_morgana]

I don't think I have any good advance for avhieving convincing wood, but I know Your work needs more smoothness
I also think that some washes on metal parts could also work

[Nameless]

I know that it's not GW, but there's a slaaneshi logo on imperial horse

As for the paintjob - try to make it cleaner and smoother. Some blacklining would be welcome.
Horse's skin is very good... for a nurgle model though.

[ToMaZ]

You need contrast, blacklining and more smoothness.

Blacklining between different parts. Like between the cloth and scrolls on the last picture for example. The colors are to similar.

Contrast in this case could be dark/light. Add more shading and highlighting to the cloth and horse skin and hair. And make the wood a nice dark color.

Smoothness: you're transitions could be more subtle. Achieve smoothness by sufficiantly diluting your paint and using more thin layers (when you use the layering technique). Or use a couple of glazes in the end to make the color transitions less obvious.

For the wood, you could start with a dark brown and paint on streaks to resemble wood, going lighter and lighter, then use a dark ink or paint to glaze the surface a couple to give it a nice look of old (church style) wood. There is a 'painting wood' tutorial somewhere I think. I'll see if I can find it.

[ToMaZ]

Here it is: Painting woodgrain on a flat surface

[Demi_morgana]

thanks matey!

[Marek]

Hi, thanks for the remarks.
I will try to smooth it, I know that this is the main problem.
As for deeper shades, well, he is supposed to shine from the inside, in some sense. He is the archmage of light, you know. So I tried to make the shades rather subtle. Therefore I use brown, grey/blue and green instead of black in the recesses.

I know that with my skills it won't look the way I want, but anyway I will try.

As for the blacklining, I will try to define better some of the elements. But again, I won't use black for that. Deep brown should also do and will fit better in the color scheme. I guess that BLACKlining could actually be BROWNlinig, couldn't it?

I don't agree that the horse's skin is good for Nurgle rider. Maybe it looks on the photos as rotten or something, but in real light it is almost white with pearl (soft pink, brown, light grey/blue) color in the shades. I won't change it 'cause I like it that way.

I will think about painting texture on the wood, but the sculpt is already complicated and putting additional texture on the very small parts can result in mess. But I decided to change the color and make it darker.

And, Nameless, yes, it really looks like a Slaanesh symbol (?) Others may recall a modified Mercurium and/or Venus mark used astrology. You see what you want

Thanks to all for the advice!

[ToMaZ]

So basically what you're saying is that you won't change anything

Deeper shading doesn't necessarily mean a darker mini. It depends on the color used and how large the surface is that you use for shading.

Blacklining is just a term. You can use any color you like that will devide certain areas. Dark grey, blue, black, brown,...
In your case I would use dark grey.

I don't think that painting woodgrain on those surfaces would be that hard with a bit of patience... And if you keep it subtle, it won't result in a mess. But it's your choice. You asked for a way to paint wood, we delivered

[Marek]

So basically what you're saying is that you won't change anything

Oh no, I didn't want it to sound that way. I've already repainted some parts. The more comments the better for me. I just wanted to justify myself why I painted this guy the way it is painted now.

[ToMaZ]

Don't worry I was just joking Paint it as you want to, it's your fig!