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?

Ultramarines Tactical Squad

I started work on this Tac Squad for the annual Relic forum competition. I'm using it as an excuse to try zenithal highlighting with an airbrush and to showcase the helmet crest conversion bits from Secret Weapon Miniatures.

The fourth photo down, of the Tac Marine without his gun, does a decent job of showing the airbrushed highlights. Using an airbrush is an easy way to create smooth transitions for directional lighting. The style isn't for everyone but I'm a fan.

I have also included a shot of the sergeant with his squad to show the combination of the Greek and small Roman style helmet crests in action together.

Storm Wardens Roundup

When I was approached to paint a model and supply bases for the Storm Wardens Project I was thrilled. We set a goal of raising $1,000 for Doctors Without Borders.

Well here is the completed army shot - without all of the extras like custom dice and templates. All of the bases are from the Secret Weapon 'Flagstone' theme -- and I'm very happy to announce that we not only met our goal but exceeded it.

The total collected was

$16,107.00

for Doctors Without Borders!

I kid you not.

My heartfelt thanks go out to all of the gamers that contributed to the project - and to the incredible team of people that made this happen and allowed Secret Weapon Miniatures to be a part of it.

The Mathieu Fontaine Workshop Ogre

I was lucky enough to spend a weekend with Mathieu Fontaine at one of his masterclass painting workshops. The experience was incredible and this is the Ogre I painted. I'm still not convinced that it's finished - but I'm going to stop here for now and apply the techniques I picked up to other models.

If you get a chance to attend one of these masterclass workshops don't miss it. Really.

My thanks to Mathieu for his incredible help... and patience!

Storm Wardens: FINISHED Land Raider!

Here it is, my finished contribution to the Storm Wardens Project - raising money for 'Doctors Without Borders'.

More than 600 people have already contributed and there's still one week left to add your name to the roll for a chance to win the entire army -- including custom dice, accessories and a carrying bag!

I'm fairly happy with how the model turned out and took step-by-step photos of the rust in the hope that I'll have time to put together a new tutorial in coming weeks.

Head over to the Storm Wardens Project HQ to see a photo of the finished army -- and remember, more is on the way!

Storm Wardens: Project Update

The community has rallied behind the cause and over 570 people have made a contribution to the Storm Wardens Project and therefore Doctors Without Borders, our chosen charity. But we know there are many more of you out there who want to contribute!

The basic idea is that when you contribute via the Paypal button on our blogs, you are entered in a drawing to receive the entire Storm Wardens army (in the vicinity of 2,000 points) along with a bunch of great swag - such as GF9 Storm Wardens templates, Storm Wardens dice from Chessex, a Battlefoam bag filled with custom cut foam for the army, and even a couple of Storm Wardens T-shirts so you can wear them with pride as you play the army in your FLGS. The army will be fully assembled (mostly converted) and fully painted by some of the most renowned US hobbyists across the blogosphere.

The final drawing takes place on Sunday July 25, on a Special Storm Wardens Edition of Jawaballs Live!

We also have a lot of other prizes being given away over the course of the build, keep an eye out on Santa Cruz Warhammer and From The Warp each week for information about these bonus prizes, contributed by the community.

Every dollar donated goes to Doctors Without Borders (apart from the PayPal fees of course) as all the other swag (including the original models) have been donated by the painters themselves, by their FLGS, or by a list of other great companies. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can contribute - we will ship the prizes anywhere in the world!