Steve Troughton-SmithAn evening of edge highlighting later, and I’m almost ready for the next step. Gonna try to push these through my painting desk to clear up space #minipainting
All that’s left is spot highlights, basing and transfers, I think! Well chuffed
Group photo! It has taken six years to make inroads on this box set 😰 And there’s still a lot to do before it’s complete… Something something ‘slay the gray’, something something ‘pile of shame’
Feels real good to move these off the painting desk 🥰 #MarchForMacragge
Halide is definitively my weapon of choice for taking RAW photos with the iPhone. This is 'just' a 12 Pro Max, but it consistently outperforms all my remaining, aging DSLRs by almost every metric, and Apple's Camera app by a wide margin. Really looking forward to a 48MP periscope assembly this year…
Next project for my painting table: Cadians! Hopefully this one won’t take 2 months…
…starting with a little bit of a touch-up on this Sentinel I painted in 2009 (💀). I will go back and give it a finer edge highlight later, but for now it's a little bit more respectable
Minor tangent I can paint up while I wait for new brushes. Could be a quick one
For context, this is part of the 1997 limited edition Imperial Guard Praetorian XXIV box set (pic 1) that nine year old me was enamored with. The last batch I painted turned out like the second pic, but yes it's taken 25+ (and counting) years to actually paint it all up 😅 And yes they're based on Zulu
Today’s side project: take this crummy 2009 paint job (first picture) and make it a little more respectable. Let’s see… /cc @pilky
Batch painting is exhausting and doesn’t have any real payoff until the end, so I’m gonna try doing some single minis to completion instead. It’s funny just how bad that first layer looks before highlights
Phase 2. Good opportunity to catch up on Critical Role 😄 /cc @dskuza
And some fine edge highlighting before bed. Pretty pleased about how much I can do in a day this way 🥹
Making good use of my fresh new size 000 Windsor & Newton Series 7 🤓
Back to the Cadians. If I’m lucky, I might get these done before the end of March. A decent month for minis!
A lot of edge highlighting left to do, but they’re starting to shape up
Honestly these are harder to paint than the Space Marines 👀 A lot more steps and more-organic highlights to worry about, but I can see an end in sight and they’re looking 👌
Last thing to do on the model is the skin, which I have no practice at. Can’t ruin it too badly from here though!
Final spread for the month of March! A touched-up Sentinel and Dreadnought, and freshly-painted Cadians, Praetorians, Intercessors and a lone Hellblaster. Very happy with every bit of this, and big chunk of progress made on the pile of shame 😄 #WarhammerCommunity #warhammer
Johnathan@stroughtonsmith these look amazing. How did you learn where to put the paint lol? Like highlights and stuff? All the detail. I used to paint space marines as a kid, but they were always super flat, and today I don’t think I’d be able to make them any better.
@johnathan there is so much knowledge on YouTube these days that it's hard to go wrong, if you can afford the paints and tools to match the techniques https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhOBAMaUmbA
How To Paint Cadian Shock Troops and Diverse skin tones | Astra Militarum | Imperial Guard
Anthony Allison@stroughtonsmith I am constantly amazed at your various ways of holding these models.
Curtis McHale@stroughtonsmith your work is awesome
Arkadiusz Matecki@stroughtonsmith Nail polish stand? 😃
@Danteusz perfect for paints
@stroughtonsmith one of the best hobby cheating tools 😃
Josh Wold@stroughtonsmith what are you using to hold the figure?
@joshuawold just a Citadel Painting Handle (https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Citadel-Colour-Painting-Handle-2020) but there are plenty of popular alternatives. You can also go for a clothes peg with some blu-tac, which I do when painting the base
@stroughtonsmith thanks so much! I bought a kneaded eraser and will try sticking it on a cup. First painting session ever for a figure tonight. So excited!
@joshuawold definitely send pics!
@joshuawold don’t go straight from the bottle, put the paint on a plate (or palette) first and add a drop of water, remove most of it from the brush. You want it to be like milk when you apply it, might take a couple of coats to get a nice solid color, & let it dry before adding more. Takes time — listen to a podcast or audiobook or something while you paint. My first minis were all like this
jmorris1974@stroughtonsmith this has been truly fascinating to watch. The closest I got to doing something similar were some Gundam models I did over twenty years ago.
@stroughtonsmith If you aimed at eavy metal, clean look, you easily achieved it
@Danteusz got a ways to go yet, but thanks
@stroughtonsmith In this hobby nothing is so perfect that it can’t be criticized 😉
Cassio GondimBeautiful! Congrats
Brian G.@stroughtonsmith Really enjoying your painting posts, keep them coming! I'm just getting back into the game after MANY years away since my boys have shown some interest. Just in time for 10th! I used to play... *checks wiki release dates* 2nd edition. Yikes.
@BrianGee the last time I played might have been 2nd edition too 😂
Jason O'Donoghue@stroughtonsmith my brother used to paint Warhammer figures about 30 years ago. They were metal back then. Any difference in detail between plastic and metal?
@i_jason plastic allows for larger, thinner and lighter pieces, and much more intricate detail; combined with the shift to digital sculpting, there's a huge gulf between minis from then and now. A lot of the past several years has been re-doing old minis to modern standard & scale
@stroughtonsmith that’s one of the few examples of where plastic is a better material than metal, when weight isn’t the key factor then (apart from with the larger pieces).
Conor@stroughtonsmith is there a scale where artists move to airbrushes?
@conorporter usually anything larger than this, like vehicles or terrain. You'd use it for some things at this scale too
David Skuza@stroughtonsmith gotta finish before the new sets are out! 😂
@dskuza this one is already from one edition ago 🫠
Nick Kohrn 🔭 💻@stroughtonsmith I’ve seen you post many models like these over the recent week or so, but I admit that I don’t know what they are. Do you mind sharing what you do with them when they are finished?
@nickkohrn https://warhammer40000.com for a primer; mine go in a cabinet, though
@stroughtonsmith @pilky sandblast and start fresh?
@conorporter nothing that drastic. Just a redo of all the highlights and the base
@stroughtonsmith I like the darkened seams on the helmet and do not envy those gold coat edges.
@conorporter Contrast paints did all the work 😂 I just slopped them on. This was a quick paint job