jdeckert's Northern Khador

[jdeckert]

Decided to put my Khador progress in a separate thread. I've got a couple of WIP: pButcher and my converted Bokur. I'm putting the finishing touches on these guys, but thought I'd solicit feedback in case anyone has ideas for making some relatively quick improvements.

Kapitan Leroy "Hot Dog" Zanzibar

[jdeckert]

pButcher:

[John Q.]

The Butcher looks good, and the frosty blue/white looks nice, but I think these models would benefit hugely from the addition of another colour. A contrasting colour, even on couple of small plates of armour or something.

As it is, they look kinda unfinished, I think the addition of another colour would really make them pop.

Anyway, nice work, looking forward to seeing more.

[Thracy11]

Its true .. white has this funny property of making models look "in progress" if its not done properly.

I struggled with this on my pureblood until I finally gave up and just redid the thing basecoated with GW's Dheneb Stone.

[jdeckert]

Thanks for the tips! I see what you guys mean. Do you think I could make them look more finished by using more metallics? I like the blighted gold I used for the Bokur's shield, maybe more of that? I've been hesitant to add red, going for a more pure white look, but maybe I should add some in places. I have been doing a bit of blood effects to add color but I'm not sure that is enough if I do it in moderation. Maybe I'll add a bit more gray to the base coat in the future...

[Anurien]

Basing them and maybe black lining some of the armour plates to give them a seperate appearence? Or maybe just painting in some of the rivets on the armour plates.

But it is a nice colour scheme and it would be a shame to change it too much

[jdeckert]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. I was planning on painting more of the rivets/etc., and blacklining seems like it might be a really good solution.

[jdeckert]

So I made a glaze of darker blue/gray, and went in to try to get more definition. Let me know how well you think it worked, or if I should go further or do something else. Also, I got new bulbs for my lamps and taped a paper filter on them, so my amateurish photo box seems to be working better. C & C always appreciated, feedback from these forums have helped me a great deal!

Butcher:

[jdeckert]

The Bokur. I should have paid more attention to the leg armor on this guy. I'll probably go back and work on it a bit more.

[jdeckert]

And the devastator twins. Proud of the way these guys turned out, these guys are some of my favorite minis in the line, and are really one of the things that drew me to Khador. So I took my time on them and tried some new techniques:

[Revamp]

Nice paint Job! I really like the color scheme, and the addition of something dead at the butchers feet.

[Mr.chair]

The devastators are looking nice. Looks like you took some extra time giving them their high lights.

[jdeckert]

Thanks! Yeah, I actually did layers and blending and stuff on them I'm working on my juggernauts now, and they're not really coming along as nicely as I had hoped. I've been having a much harder time getting coverage with my grays on them. I might post some WIP shots...

[jdeckert]

So I was making good progress, and then Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur, and Mass Effect 3 came along in rapid succession. Anyway, here are my juggernauts. I like the decoration, but I don't think it's my best painting. I ran into a couple of issues. First, the models are really old and second hand. There's some detail loss from worn metal and heavy gluing. I re-assembled them a bit, but they were pretty difficult to work with. Second, I primed white, and I don't think I'll be doing that again. It's just too hard to get coverage over the white primer, even with my blue/gray shading. Metallics are obviously a challenge. After these guys I even went back and re-primered some stuff gray, hopefully that works better for me. But, without further adieu, Mittens and Snowflake!

[jdeckert]

Epic Vlad is done, C & C would be appreciated:






I think I need a new matte spray, it just doesn't seem to dull the finish enough (as evidenced by the cloak) despite several coats of the spray and of Reaper's brush-on matte varnish.

[John Q.]

Vlad looks great, the metallics on his armour are particularly nice. And for some reason the blonde hair really works.

As you said, the cape could do with having the shine taken off it, but the rest of the model is great.

Nice work!

[jdeckert]

So I wasn't really happy with the way the photos were turning out. I switched to a gray backdrop and crafted a lightbox out of a milk jug like Jolly Angus suggested. Then, I took a picture of the Beast-09 that Mr.Chair painted up for me so that I'd have a picture of a well painted model and be able to tell if the problems are in my photography or my painting. Mr.Chair did a fantastic job on this guy (and I like showing off my conversion, too ) so I thought it would be a good test.



Looks good, so I thought I'd try some of my other stuff. Here are new pictures of eVlad after a few more matte coats. Better shots of the face, which I was proud of.

[jdeckert]

I also did some quick conversions of Sisters Repentia to Doom Reavers. I speed-painted them for a tournament, but I thought people might like to see them since the idea of using those models for doom reavers has been talked about a lot but I've never seen pictures:



Standing next to a regular doom reaver for scale:

[PG_ratch]

The Bokur is, Interesting... the Paint is really good. i considered a Gunmetal look for my Red on Grey Khador, but i prefer the actual moving parts be the gun metal and the armor plating be a different color =]

[Seventhprophet]

i like your conversions. the war trophy look on the jacks is really creative and a win. The lightbox does wonders. these are all very cool

[jdeckert]

Thanks, guys! I need to do a little more work on the paint on the Bokur's legs. I think I got a little lazy there. The light box made things much easier. I'm going to see if I can get one of those larger water jugs so that I can make it a bit bigger, enough to fit units or larger models more easily.

[PG_ratch]

Yeah the thing that weirds me out is the Man-O-War Arms... i think they are a little over the top IMO. Does Bokur even have a Shield?
Yeah, the arms are a bit much, but your pretty good at painting and made it work really well.

on another note, "Dragon slayers" this entertains me. eventually when i post it i have a FanFict Revolving around a Character i created, Viktor Kruzinov. Short of it is his Ancestor(Great Grand Dad ATM) Dishonored their family during the Khardic Rebellions against the Orgoth. When the Motherland called his Ancestor did not answer with himself or troops. So he was stripped of title and power. I was planning on them being one of the last of the Horselord Families as well. in Further Disgrace this Ancestor Defects to the Cygnaran empire after the Orgoth are defeated and order is restored. this Ancestor's Sun begins the Family Oath of restoring the Honor and Dignity of the Kruzinov name. the Ancestor's Son enlists into the Khardic military under a false name and eventually becomes a Iron Fang Pikeman. in time he passes his Pike, now named Redemption, to his son. thats is all covered in more detail during the prologue. the story starts with Viktor as a Mercenary, his father was killed and before he died hid Redemption until he was of Age. Viktor was Raised by his Aunt Nadia. in time the story goes from Viktor being a MErcenary Warcaster to an officer in the Khardic Empire. from there no longer does he seek Redemption but now Revenge. He is given command of Reserve Forces and is sent on missions, however his fame grows with the slaying of some Everblight Dragons. thats how he gets his Name and that of his Forces as Dragon Slayers...

And now you know that i ramble, IRL or on the screen lol

[ChaosPhantom104]

Why you no likey legion beasties?
nah I kid. Very cool looking, and the paint jobs all look very good and thoughtful.

[jdeckert]

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Legion. I actually don't think they're OP or anything, and usually have fun games against them. But for the first year or so I played this game, I couldn't beat them. The losses were widely varied, sometimes I'd just get stomped. Sometimes I'd get blindsided by something (like moving Borka up really aggressively and getting eLyltyh assassinated bottom of turn 1). But most of the time, I'd be doing well, have the game in hand, and then something ridiculous would happen. These varied a bit, too, but I had one where I had successfully forced Saeryn to use her feat defensively, letting me get the alpha strike with Kromac list. I threw a carnivean out of her control area with a shadowhorn. My stalker ate his angelius. And then Kromac, already in beast form, went after typhon who had no defensive buffs up. I feated, and needing 5's to hit, rolled 4 or less on about 9 of my 14 attacks. The few hits I managed didn't even take out an aspect. Another time I was playing pVayl with pNemo, and had the thunderhead all loaded up to do his auto-hitting assassination thing. I moved to about 6" away from Vayl, but thought I'd go a little further just to be sure I'd catch her. That little bit further made it 5", which triggered dark sentinel, which allowed her shredder to walk up and engage my thunderhead preventing ranged attacks. As one last example, I had a pButcher list that had cleared all of my opponent's army except for a teraph and the caster. I don't even remember which caster, but I do remember the teraph rolling double sixes to hit and 17 on the damage, and then the caster rolling exceptionally well to finish the job.

But I do like the challenges Legion presents and our local Legion player is super nice, so I always have a fun time versus them. And, long winded-story finished, thanks for the compliment!

[Peg leg Pete]

i really like the sisters repentia doom reavers. why not throw some lady psyco prisoners out there with the men?

i also think the models with a bit of gold stand out a lot more.

love that vlad! he looks very similar to Chris Hemsworth Thor.

[jdeckert]

Yeah, I'm starting to incorporate more gold. I also really liked how the reds turned out on Vlad, so I'm adding more of those in, too. Mostly for unit leaders and such, but the IFP have red cloaks now and I really like how they turned out. I've got WAY to much stuff that's WIP right now. I've bitten off a big chunk as a summer project, but hopefully can show off a big group shot in a couple months.

And the Thor compliment is huge, since that's kind of what I was going for. I saw him and thought viking warrior, which fits in perfectly with the northern theme (and my heritage ).

[jdeckert]

Progress has been slow the past month what with getting married and all. But I finished up the IFP. It was a team effort between me and a newer player/painter Dominic (say "hi" if you're on the forums, Dom!). Here's shots of the UA for now:




I also bit off a huge chunk - assembly line painting the full WGI death star and rifle corps. It's going pretty well, actually, and I've tried a few new time-saving tricks. Here's a WIP shot, probably about 15 minutes into the model so far: