Wednesday, 31 July 2013

Painting Station Review

By The Megapope   Posted at  11:14   tutorial No comments
So after three months of waiting, my painting station arrived! By the Emperor's withered testicles!

My friend and I ordered one each back in the misty reaches of April from the Polish company Hobbyzone. Their prices were very reasonable, though initially they didn't have a setup for delivery to the blasted wasteland of New Zealand. We haggled for a bit and they agreed upon a cheaper delivery price, which would take longer to arrive. I was in no hurry and promptly forgot about it for the most part.

Look! Boxes!


And inside, everything had survived the three month travel ordeal pretty much unscathed. One corner of the base had a slight bit of wear, easily fixed with some tape to stop it from deteriorating further. 



The instructions were easy to follow. There was a lot more gluing than I anticipated, but that's not really a complaint so much as just an observation.



Now for anyone else getting one of these stations, there's three pieces of wood that act as support beams for the shelves that you have to bend and fit into curved slots. One of the beams was 2 cm too long for the slot and so had to be cut to fit, and then it's just a matter of being very careful as you glue then bend it into place. Just slot one side in and then bend the rest into place in increments and you'll be sweet.

I then employed a ton of old fantasy books to weigh them down overnight while they dried. My house smelled pleasantly like my highshool wood-working class.




The next day! I glued the three main frames onto the back support piece and waited for most of the afternoon while they dried, then adding the two side pieces and giving it another couple hours. I also added some tape just to keep everything in place, but it held up fine by itself while it dried. 




And then it was just a matter of gluing the shelving frame down onto the base and weighing the sucker down with a bunch of books for a few hours. I noticed that the whole unit wasn't quiiiiiite flush in places, some of the measuring or possibly component cutting was a bit off in places, but not enough that it caused any major problems. 



And here's the station ready for action!




And here it is with all my paints, tools and stuff in place, ready for use.




All in all I'm very happy with the finished product. It holds my paint collection very nicely with a bit of room to add more, plus brushes, small water cups, decal solution and some tools. Most importantly it provides an easily mobile station that I can pack away under the table with lots of surface area for models.

The cheap plywood material was a bit of a concern and I ended up running masking tape all along the bottom edges and corners so that it would have some protection in the long term, but I think that's what you get for the low price and I don't really see that as much of an issue.

Would definitely recommend it! 

Sunday, 26 May 2013

Object Source Lighting 101

By The Megapope   Posted at  13:45   tutorial No comments

So after fumbling around a bunch I decided to do a Noobs Tutorial™ about my ongoing Object Source Lighting attempts. Basically this is about painting a model to make it look like a glowing object is lighting up part of it. Great for power weapons, flames, radioactive demon possessed cats, etc.

Disclaimer: This isn't intending to come across like I'm an expert at this whatsoever. This is OSL 101, I'm sharing as I'm learning. So with that in mind...

Model being used: Ultramarines Librarian. This is how he looked before I started.



So what I want to do is make his force sword look like it's glowing and casting light back onto the model. Looking at where it was positioned, I figured the light would be hitting the side of his cloth hood, the top of the blue psychic hood, the front of his shoulder pad and the edge of the purity seal on that shoulder pad. 

Quickie diagram below!



I got to painting and ended up with this.




HOW I DID IT

The main technique I used was heavily watered down paint for the flat areas, including the side of his head, the purity seal (photo didn't capture that very well but you can hopefully make out the red), etc. By heavily watered down, I mean putting paint on your brush, then dunking it in your water pot a couple times, and then wiping some paint off onto some tissue before putting it on the model. You're building up layers which will start off very subtle. This lets you build up the gradient, by which I mean less to more intense colour reflection.



But then I realised building up a soft glow didn't work where the light hit hard edges, so that became a matter of doing a standard line-highlight for the edges in the same colour. That for me was what made the difference from okay looking to... more okay.

I also used a brighter line highlight for the more reflective surfaces such as the metal pipe going into the side of his head.

Here's another shot of the sword if you wanna see that, with some glow going up around his head. 


So that's where I'm currently at. Like all painting it's a lot of trial and error and staring at other models a lot. The main tips I can share at my noob OSL level are these:
  • Use a mix of heavily watered down paint and edge highlights depending on what you're putting the glow onto
  • Imagine a 3D globe that is hitting your model from the source of the light and try not to miss anything out inside that globe
  • Remember that the light won't be uniform as it hits the model, it'll gradient away the further away it travels
  • Expect to mess up a lot but paint through the pain
Aaaaaand that's my OSL for complete noobs. This model is still a work in progress, I'm hoping to get it looking better over the next day or so, with some more layering along the hood to make it stand out a wee bit more, brightening up the whole effect.

More pics, though these were taken under a yellow tinted lamp.





Friday, 24 May 2013

Librarian Progress

By The Megapope   Posted at  16:35   Ultramarines No comments
And lo, the plague came upon the house of Megapope, and there was much sniffling and reaching of scented tissues.

But see! I have made progress on the Librarian!




He's almost finished, just have to tidy some bits up and paint his sword. The Ultramarines symbol was slightly larger than I realised so I'm not going to add the white lining underneath. I think it looks okay without. Pretty happy with how his glowing psychic hand of doom came out.

Meanwhile, the four remaining Sternguard are staring at me being all like 'why do you hate us?'

Soon, little Sternguards. Soon.

Saturday, 18 May 2013

Psychics and Shooters

By The Megapope   Posted at  21:31   WIP 2 comments
Hey look, it's a Librarian! So I got me the Dark Angels Librarian model from the Dark Vengeance set that someone was selling solo. A simple matter of covering up the shoulderpad with a cloth piece and brutally hacking off the insignia on his chest and viola.


I'm going to do a step by step guide once he's all finished and have been taking pics at each stage. But for now here he is after the base coat and inking is done.

The front cloth piece is a bit lacking and I'm thinking of adding in an Ultramarines symbol, possibly something like this... (30 second photoshop mockup incoming!)

What are your thoughts, internet? Think it works? Have other ideas? Let me know!

But! Also! Another Sternguard enters! I kinda love this guy. The bionic head is from the Forgeworld character set and the ridiculously oversized belt piece you'll probably recognise from the Marneus Calgar model.

He's about two thirds done, a lot of tidy up work, basing, drill that bolter barrel etc etc.

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Sternguard Glamour Shots

By The Megapope   Posted at  17:11   Ultramarines No comments
Three more Sternguard are finished. Here for your viewing pleasure are a bunch of pics with different angles and stuff. No expenses were spared!* No tea left undrunk!**

I decided to bust out some of my brass etch symbols for these fellas just to add even more levels of blingosity.

Battle damage on his shoulder pad! Pretty pleased with how it came out. Also made good use of my parchment decals on his right shoulder.


Another muzzle flash,  because why not. Also his bolter barrel was a bit lopsided (yaaay finecast) so this was a good way of covering it up.


Squad leader dude! I really love these Spartan style helmets.

Aaaaand that's it. NEXT UP: probably more Ultramarines of some kind. Woah.



* A lie.
** Not a lie.

Back to top ↑
Contact!

Who is this beardy weirdo?

My photo
Hatching from his egg high in the glacier crowned majesty of the Himalayas, the Megapope quickly devoured his other siblings and later on his parents, for being damned cheeky. He ran a bloody campaign of terror across the wind swept steppes of the north, coming to be known as 'That Horrid Bastard' by the terrified tribes of the region. Many years later he came second in a beauty contest, won $10, didn't pass Go and didn't collect $200.

Important legal disclaimer

Important legal disclaimer
© 2013 Paint Nerd . WP Mythemeshop Converted by BloggerTheme9
Blogger templates . Proudly Powered by Blogger .