Skaven Warlord - Shading Armor & Skin

With the cloth more or less settled I have moved on to shading the bronze armor and his skin. My goal is to have a largely monochromatic model and using the same green on the armor as I did on the cloth has helped.

My feeling at this point is that I need to go back and really re-touch the base colour on the armor. It's too green and the transition is too sharp. I am very pleased with how keeping the light on the armor near his face has helped to draw the eyes there though.

The top shot gives a fair look at the actual shading on the helmet. It was taken with two lamps positioned to eliminate natural shadows. I made the crest very dark to help draw additional emphasis to the model's face.

I might go back and add some additional layers of shadow to the cloth in the folds closest to his belt line. The base colour seems to cover too much of the side there and I want more stark separation.

So next up: more of the same, really. It's all about back-and-forth at this stage.

(you'll notice three new tags in this post - Blending, Metallics and Skin - that will follow this model to the new blog format in coming months. I will focus less on specific types of model and more on specific techniques and PARTS of models.)

New Tutorial: Weathering Decals

I have posted a quick video tutorial on using sandpaper to weather decals over at the Secret Weapon blog.

This will be the first of many new tutorials as I renew my ties with ++ From the Warp ++ to properly launch the "ask misterjustin" tutorial series.

If you have a hobby related question you'd like to have answered drop an email to misterjustin at secret weapon miniatures dot com.

This blog will continue to focus on my current painting projects - but will also get revamped as I narrow down that scope to make it more useful and relevant to readers and less, "here's what I painted."

The Annotated Workspace

I get a lot of questions about what my workspace looks like so I thought I'd snap a photo this morning and add some notes to it.

If you click through you will also find photos of the additional items to the left and right of my desk. Of course my desk area is only a small part of the overall workshop space -- so I'll get photos of that online at some point too.

Skaven Warlord - Shading the Cloth

The moment I saw the new Skaven Warlord in the "Island of Blood" box set I knew I had to have one. In fact I knew I'd have to drop everything and get one painted.

I eeked out a couple of hours today to base coat the flesh and start the shading on the cloth. I tried the first highlight as well but I'm going to scrap the highlight and redo it.

What I'm debating now is whether or not the cloth actually needs to come darker at the bottom. What you see is mostly what you get though -- the photo was taken with top and front lighting. With the exception of a slight shadow in the top pic from his cleaver the painting is, for my first time, not too off in the photo!

I love this model. I can't say it enough. The new "Island of Blood" models are incredible. My bits order included the Warlock too - but I'm not as excited by that.

Feedback welcomed. Questions answered.

-- misterjustin

Rethinking the site....

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Things are going well for Secret Weapon Miniatures and I have a son on the way. There simply hasn't been much time to paint.

This has given me an opportunity to think about misterjustin.com and what I'd like to do with it. In the hope that some of my readers, and now 85 followers, will share an opinion I give you part of my vision:

An "ask misterjustin" segment. This would start monthly and focus on a question on techniques sent in from readers. I love making tutorials and I'd really like to make a regular thing of it. This would likely include video.

If I can get enough interest in this segment I will archive the current posts (all of them) so that the new labels are easier to navigate.

I'll still post what I'm working on but I'll focus on the techniques I'm using rather than just "here's a model" posts.

So, what say you, my invisible audience, do you want me to launch an "ask misterjustin" blog?