Friday, November 21, 2014

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.5)

Well, yesterday was a productive day on the painting front!

I managed to get the base layer done for all the purity seals/books, so, aside from the NFW and other glow-y bits, my models are now fully base coated.

It's amazing what a little beige does for the look of a model, I remember getting to this point with my last batch of GKs and feeling the first real sense of accomplishment. Of course, I still have a ways to go, but hopefully now that I am done the uphill scramble it will be smooth sailing from here on in.

Here is another shoddy group shot of the WIPs:


To start, I used some Beasty Brown mixed with Sombre Grey (for its superior coverage property) to go over all the areas that will be beige and/or brown leather. The formula is below.

Beige/Leather Undercoat:
1 : 1 : 1  -  Beasty Brown : Sombre Grey : Magic Wash

This generally required two good layers to cover the black. Nothing special.

For the parchment (and random bits like bones and skulls that GKs seem to like carrying), I then went over this first layer with straight up Bone White. I did not dilute this, as I felt it was unnecessary and I wanted to get it done quickly, but at most a 2 : 1 mix with Magic Wash just to give it a bit more fluidity. The (highly complex) formula for this step is below.

Primary Parchment Basecoat:
1 : 0   -   Bone White : Nothing!

The leather bits (i.e. the garter around the right leg of the Justicar, and the utility belt optional bit) were done very much the same way, straight up Beasty Brown.

Primary Leather Basecoat:
1 : 0   -   Beasty Brown : Nothing

That's about it for that part of the Step-by-Step...   ...or IS it!?!?

Because I was anxious to see how I will fare with shading and re-highlighting the helmets/shoulder pads, I decided to have a test run and throw caution to the wind.

I used the formula below to create my light blue wash.

Purifier White Shade:
1 : 1 : 6   -   Blue Shade : Black Shade : Magic Wash

As you can see, it was diluted significantly. I ended up using 2 washes, speeding up drying time by using a blowdryer on low heat (don't melt your mini!). I did not take any pictures of this step, but will do so when I follow up with the remainder of the group. From here, I used the same formula from Part 4 to build up my mid-tone white. Then, I used pure Dead White to edge highlight.

Purfier White Highlights:
1 : 0   -   Dead White : Nothing

Overall I am quite pleased, although I am not sure if I want it a bit darker for next time, perhaps a 1:1:5 ratio is in the cards.  Painting totals below.

The beige/brown under coat took 1 hour, 45 minutes over 1 painting session.
The primary beige/brown base coats (+ Purifer shading test) took 2 hours, 30 minutes over 1 painting session.

Total Painting Time for Part 5: 4 hours, 15 minutes over 2 painting sessions. 

Total Painting Time to date: 29 hours, 55 minutes over 22 painting sessions.

____________________


If I get time later today, I will continue on my painting rampage. Next I plan to do all the shading washes. After that, who knows?

3 comments:

  1. Looking good! Take some close up shots of some of them if you get a chance! It's hard to see your work at such a distance!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know, I should bust out my lightbox and take some decent ones but I am cramped for space and its a pain to set it up after each step. Eventually when I get a second workspace in my office I can keep it set up pseudo-permanently. In the meantime I will grab some detail shots after my next step (as well as add a random post with the dilapidated door pics I mentioned on your blog - I found them all, but still have to reduce the image size for reasonable blogging)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Image sizes...you know that every image I put on FYN was 1500xY...and then I found out weebly was maxing them all out at 800x600...

      You can always throw some big ones up on imgur for free and link to them!

      Delete