Alzer Paints Toy Soldiers!

[Alzer]

So this is the painted part of my collection up for all to see (and judge).

Alright in case the links aren't working you can simply go straight to the Gallery Here: http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...hine%20Hordes/

Full Crusade


Battlebox


Vindictus


Kreoss

[Alzer]

Crusader


Revenger


Repenter


Vanquisher (In need of some repairs)

[Alzer]

The Boss himself


The Boss's Bossing Stick


Support group:
Choir


Paladin and Vassal

[Alzer]

Zealots w/ Monolith Bearer (Last 4 models primed to paint)


Errants (Officer and Standard Primed to paint)


More to come soon. Precisely
-Reznik
-Max Bastions
-Min Deliverers
-4 more Zealots
-Errant UA

And since my inner grave-robbing immortal was calling.
-Scaverous
-2 Nightwretches

[darisus]

Your whites look really thick you may want to try base coating with a tan or something else before doing whites...

I like the color scheme as it is really close to mine, except for maybe a little too much gold on the jacks... personally i prefer my golds as accent or trim not as a base color.

Overall, keep painting, i have found painting can be just as enjoyable as playing once you gett all them dudes on the table.

[Dacian]

Nice start!

Get some basing done and they will look 10 times better!

Perfection comes with practice, keep it up

[Minotaur]

I agree with Dacian on the basing. The gold on the jacks is very nice. You gonna do a wash on 'em?

[Autumn Stone]

Ok, so I'm a little delirious with a fever at the moment, so forgive me if this doesn't come off right.

First of all, I like. The lines are fairly crisp, and the colour scheme really works.

Where it's falling down is the whites. Whites are hard. Everyone ... And I mean everyone ... struggles with whites. On these they look too stark. I recommend having a look a Ghool's tutes on white on handcannononline.com or YouTube. They'll soften the starkness of the white, and pull tour army from being well painted mini's the being menites who have been frozen in pewter and shrunk to one inch scale.

Cheers
A.S.
Cheers
A.S.

[Alzer]

Cheers folks!

Basing is on the list of things I need to attempt. This is my fourth wargamming army, I suppose it's about time to look into that.

The whites, amazingly enough, are basecoated with Khaki AND beige. It would probably be a really good idea for me to go through them again and work on pulling them back. My initial thought was Menites are so focused on the black/white right/wrong aspects of life that they would want all their warriors to be blindlingy white and "pure."

I'll do some work on them (The Crusader and Kreoss really need a bit of love) and see what I can pull of. Thanks for the input!

Also my group is getting together today for some "hobby time" so I should have pics sooner than later of updates. Granted it only took me a year and a half to get pics of these guys (Battlebox Errants and Vassal at least).

[Alzer]

Errant Officer and Standard


Back Shot


Nightwretches!


Bonechicken "detail shot*

[Alzer]

***Next paycheck I should be getting a copy of Colossals, I'm gonna be looking into basing supplies as well. Was thinking of going for a "Bloodstone" base idea where it's primarily sandy ground with large reddish rocks strewn about, Planning to remove the Warcasters from their bases so I can get a bit fancy with their basing. Any Advice would be MUCH appreciated.***

Anyhow here's what I've gotten done recently. Faces make me feel justified in always having played robots and monsters in the past, new, tinier brushes are on the shopping list!
I've been trying some different techniques with the whites so they aren't stabbing people in the eyeballs anymore, I'm really liking the frosty look that I'm achieving right now. Thoughts and comment are encouraged!


High Executioner Reznik


Deliverers


Bastions


Next in Line!

[darisus]

I did a "bloodstone' like base for my idrians i am working on, i like how it really sets them apart from my other bases, makes them stand out more:



Is this kind of what your looking for?

[Alzer]

Yeah that's about it. I was thinking a little darker red for the rocks. I'll practice my search-fu for some tutorials unless someone decides to be awesome and has a link handy.

Also your facework is really great, the eyes make me think of Luke Skywalker for some reason.

[darisus]

Don't have a tutorial on mine, but it is pretty simple. Take bag o glass you get from michaels', find the right shape pieces or break bigger ones till you get some you like. Glue pieces to base, glue large grain sand to base near rocks, glue finer grain farther away. Prime white, and paint to order. When done afix mini to base and add static grass/flock to suite

[Drzombieface]

Your Idrian looks tons better than the rest of your stuff. Practice makes perfect.


The basing really helps too. Keep up the good work and improvements.

[Alzer]

's Darius's Idrian....

Also thanks for the run through. Got some time to drop by Michaels tomorrow, there's one just down the street from my office.

[Drzombieface]

's Darius's Idrian....

Also thanks for the run through. Got some time to drop by Michaels tomorrow, there's one just down the street from my office.

Oh... wasn't paying attention. When people post pics in a pics thread it makes me think it's the OP when I'm not devoting full attention to said thread. My bad.


Awkward... But yeah, aim for something like he did as a jumping off point.

[Nossie]

...You did add "and judge" up top.
I'm very sorry to say it, but you need some serious painting practice, or a smaller brush. Just reading the "how to paint" sections in the PP books help immensely for some good techniques.
Your color scheme is very unbalanced, having both silver and gold on it + this awfully cold white. Even the bases are painted unevenly. You need to start practicing making smooth surfaces, that's all you need to know really. How to paint smoothly, and to keep the colors "within the lines", so to speak. Don't let the menofixes bleed out onto the shoulder pads that way, it just looks bad. In short: Paint smoothly, make sure the paint doesn't spread outside the intended areas and use WASHES for shading and DRYBRUSHING for highlights. Try to figure out a better way to put the red, white, silver and gold together as well. Models are in the end small works of art and need to be treated as such, composition and color schemes are important, which is also mentioned in the painting guides of PP.

Basing is also pretty important, a model looks far more impressive when it's based, it's really easy to do it and all it needs is a few layers of drybrushing to bring out the shapes of the sand/pebbles. Invest in some modeling grass as well and it'll pimp your bases quite a lot.
I make custom sculpted bases for all mine, but that could be excessive to some.

[WarlockFiretopMountain]

I love that you've just gone for it, instead of obsessing over a small handful of models. You've got the base coat on everything, so the whole army is painted and ready to play.

Your painting reminds me of how I used to paint before I had the benefit of the internet. Here's a few tips that transformed my painting.

You're putting the paint on pretty thick: thin it down with water, maybe 50/50, and apply a couple of coats, letting it dry completely in between coats. Do a bunch of models at a time so you're not bored waiting.

Your gold has some green in it: I think that's the black undercoat showing through. Paint your gold silver first, then a coat of gold. It really zings.

You could do with finishing off these models by shading, and possibly highlighting them.

Shading. Either use appropriately coloured inks, or for a cheap and easy fix, use brown wood furniture polish (seriously). This will put shadows in all the creases and crevices, and make the models look as three-dimensional as they should. It'll look awful when you first put it on - like brown slime - but let it dry for 24 hours, after which the brown will only be really visible in the creases. A warning: the varnish should look good on the silver, gold and red, but will probably make the white areas look dirty and weathered. However, 'weathered' models are in fashion these days!

Highlighting. Take your original paint colour, coat your brush, and dry it on a paper towel. Then brush this residue colour over the surfaces. It'll stick to the raised areas and make them look lighter.

[Alzer]

...You did add "and judge" up top.

And I've been responsive to, and accepting of, everyone's criticism. Not sure what your point is. Please don't appologize or make excuses for your opinions, it's honestly insulting.


I've read through the painting section of Prime MKII since I last posted something, given me a few ideas. I've been afraid to over-wash and I'm really heavy handed in my drybrushing, Reznik was a big step in the right direction with that. Definitely do have more practice with my techniques. Trust me this is leaps and bounds ahead of my Necrons from way back

I've picked up the broken-glass, haven't grabbed new brushes yet. My old brushes have been through the ringer, time for a whole new set methinks. I've also dug through some old warmhammer bits I have to add flavor to the bases, I have plenty of skulls and bones and such from my vampire-count collection that I think will add a lot to my cryx basing when I get to it.

I was originally basing my gold with yellow, I'll try the silver, i've been wondering why I get that green (which consequently is WAY worse in the pics, but needs to be attended to either way).

Cheers!

[darisus]

Yellow over black primer tends to look a little greenish... definitely base coat in silver or some other color to give better coverage over the base black.

I don't usually have problems too much with my metallics but i am one of those wierd people that primes white and then basecoats the metallic areas with something else first.

Glad you liked the glass idea... I use them for all kinds of rocks or if you want you can ink them and they make great crystals or just leave them plain and a light blue drybrush for some icey effects. I find since it is such poor quality glass you don't get too many sharp edges either so it shouldn't cut up your brushes. For breaking it, i just put it in a plastic bag cover it with a towel and smack it with a hammer a few times.

[Alzer]

Right on.

The glass I got is actually kinda amber colored with little cracked patterns in it, so I'm planning to paint it up. I gotta pry myself away from New Vegas for a while and get working on it. I was thinking to just form the rocks around the tab-base connector on the model, is there something else I should be planning to connecting the model or is that the easiest way?

[Alzer]

Ah, I got "Mosaic Shell Tile" I'm smart. Been fiddling with it and I think it'll work out though.

Haunted Collector is on, time to do some basing!

[darisus]

I almost always jsut cover the tab hole in bases with tape or greenstuff then glue over the top. I sometimes leave some room for a pin if i want extra stability and the model will look good still, otherwise i clip all tabs off bottom of my figures.

[Zakmahr]

Some of the pro painters I've spoken to in my very short painting career have told me that washing golds with black can cause it to turn green. Try undercoating your golds with a darkish brown and washing them not in black but browns. It makes a world of difference!
As several people have already said, white is hard. Keep at it and you find a technique (or develop one of your own!) that you will like. It takes me alot (I mean alot) of coats to get a smooth white.

[Alzer]

*nods* multi-layering is something I'm not doing, and I have some REALLY thick old citadel Skull White (I think I got it in '03?)

I've been washing the golds in browns, my newer models the green is a lot less apparent.

I put together Vindictus's base using that stuff, I'll edit this post in a bit to show what I've done with it. But first, off to the shop to see if my sanctifier kits came in. Updates on bases and such this afternoon for sure though!

[Zakmahr]

Basing is fun - you can really do lots to add character to your minis! Go nuts and enjoy yourself! Sand, dirt, small rocks, big *** boulders, glass, water, grass, snow, trees, other minis(!!) the list is endless.

[Alzer]

Alright, here's my progress for base attempt #1. Since I'm smart and plan things I started with a warcaster because it doesn't matter if I screw that up

Currently waiting for the greenstuff to dry before I cover that up and get to painting proper.

[Alzer]

The whole group. Getting some bases working. Will be cranking them out while the Sanctifier and Reckoner get painted up


And my modded Scaverous. Went for a more "by the book" approach.


Profile


EDIT: *Facepalms* of course...I'd rotated the image in photobucket. I'll get that fixed later, time for bed.

[mariyafrankjon]

These are so lovely and are beyond the judgement. Have you worked on these plastic soldiers?

[ZeeWulf]

*sniff*sniff*

Hmm. Alzer, I think a Bot Necromancer just raised your painting thread to sell its wares....

[The_Wretch]

Well, while this is back from the dead: I like your Cryx stuff better than your Menoth, not saying either is bad of course. I don't know what it is, but I think it's the problem with the chunky whites that everyone else was mentioning.

[MikeyC]

You have a good start. You need to use thinner coats of paint and you need to apply multiple coats of light colors over black to make them look right.

Try not to call them "toy soldiers" though. I don't know about others but to me that is a flat out insult to the hobby and to those of us who paint and play.