The Art of War, James McPherson plog

[James McPherson]

First post reserved for contents

 

 

 

 

[James McPherson]

Was looking through some old family photos earlier and found these!

[James McPherson]

Been getting my bench all setup recently at my mums art studio in Devon, UK this is home until September.

[Dez]

Nice Games Day shirt, ha!

Really nice setup too, I see a lot of Nurgly buggers coming in the near future.

[James McPherson]

here's the first wave!

 

[James McPherson]

I've been getting excited about paint, I mean really frikkin excited, way more excited than I probably should do for a man my age.... Infact I haven't been this excited since my divorce papers came through for my ex wife....

 

I watched an AWESOME DVD

about airbrushing techniques for model painting recently by an old master, and delved deeper on the subject and began looking at automotive paints. In particular chameleon flip paints and color shifting paints began to grab my attention, along with pearlescents (for my stormcast starter set) .

 

I invested in a few different kinds recently and plan to paint my Realmgates with some over the next few days. These paints are just nuts and will look super cool when applied to those whispies on the interior of the realmgate.

and this is the finish

 

and this is a color flip pearlescent blue gold pigment I picked up to test out on some Stormcast

 

Now I just need to get hold of some Spaz Stix Candy Apple Red paint from the US somehow, without paying the ridiculous prices for it here on Amazon.co.uk, and I can paint up the armor on my Khorne Bloodbound and my FW Skaarac Bloodborne to look all nice and lacquered the same way they paint the Brass Scorpion and Chaos Reaver Titan

[Ben]

Colour me interested.... 

[Dangermouse425]

10 hours ago, James McPherson said:

Now I just need to get hold of some Spaz Stix Candy Apple Red paint from the US somehow, without paying the ridiculous prices for it here on Amazon.co.uk, and I can paint up the armor on my Khorne Bloodbound and my FW Skaarac Bloodborne to look all nice and lacquered the same way they paint the Brass Scorpion and Chaos Reaver Titan

Have you tried the method Forge World use? It's Tamiya Clear Red. I believe one of the FW hobby masterclass books has a step by step.

[James McPherson]

Yeah I think the whole 'clear' revolution in model making ie painting a ghost tint over a metallic , then varnishing with a thick clear coat over the top may have been inspired/borrowed from the auto industry. I think its a hobby cheat to imitate colored metallic automotive paint but I could be wrong. Spaz Stix make the real thing, for remote controlled car makers/builders ie Auto paint designed for application to models . Check out this chrome look ,

and imagine some of that shizz on your Stormcast, you'd need sunglasses man! Spaz Stix and plenty of other 3rd party suppliers make a nice candy apple red for the model car builders,  I'm not sure if you basecoat in white gloss, black gloss or a metallic color, I think you chose white or black gloss depending on the finish you want as the metallic is already in the red color. But after applying that its all about giving it some very thick coats of clear coat ontop to get that deep lacquered look. I haven't read the Forgeworld books and could be wrong,  but I think that's basically the effect they are going for..

****Edit - After further research yes, you use a high gloss backer, but you do this first, THEN a layer of metallic silver as a backer to the Candy, then finally your chosen Candy over the top, then layer in several coats of clear over the top to give it a nice deep finish.

The way FW would've done the Brass Scorpion's armour plating would've been to add some pre-shading onto the metallic silver backer, before the candy red went down on it I think. But I haven't read the FW modelling masterclass books so really not sure if that is how they did it, just guessing. Edit**********

credit http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/102626-1940-ford-candy-red-custom/

And once you start throwing in chameleon flip paints from the auto/model industry onto wargaming models things can get crazy fast!

 

Aside from automotive paint , you can also get some pretty cool special effects paints from places like stage design/t-shirt makers/interior decoration/crafts/ film/tv/theatre/prop builders/UV blacklight specialists/specialist SFX suppliers, I picked up some holographic paint to test out recently too, will do some tests on some plastic spoons or something and post the results .

 

[James McPherson]

20 more Plague Monks with Woe Staves and 10 more Censer Bearers base coated and added to the shelf, I now have most of my Clan Pestilens basecoated which is a good feeling.

 

This is whats currently on the table

1 Skrolk

1 Nurglitch

1 Plague Lord

1 Verminlord Corruptor

40 Plague Monks with Foetid Blades

40 Plague Monks with Woe Staves

20 Censer Bearers

2x Plague Furnaces

3x Plague Claws

[polarbear]

Love seeing a big Skaven army. Looking awesome!

[Tom W]

Great to see a pure Pestilens army. You have a lot of options there for the various battle scroll formations. I hope that GW release the factional abilities, arcane items and spells (like the newer factions) retrospectively for Pestilens.

[James McPherson]

So I've been busy in my Pestilence workshop making more layers, and defiling the odd carpet here and there up and down the country.

I am pushing for a much more of a highly saturated look now on my mid tone greens, I want them a lot more vivid and to pop more and be more high fantasy instead of the more washed out sun bleached look they currently have with the pastel shades..

So I began applying a very very thin glaze of Moot Green (because you can never have enough disgustingly bright vivid green everywhere right?!) over all my fabrics highlights and mids to really pop them and I'll probably go over them with a yellow too in places and work on the contrast ratio more.

But they are getting closer to where I want to be with them and I am loving the new vibe. The inspiration for this came partly from the cover art , and not wanting to copy the studio example which are a bit conservative for me and partly from spilling Moot Green everywhere at the weekend, I think I am having a Warhol moment and just want to spread it everywhere, even on my toast and front door....I might even start wearing it, I cant get enough of that ******!

Also just felt they looked too pastel and washed out and non-threatening, at least they did to me. I want them to look loud and obnoxious and offensive to the eye. Like extremely fresh bright green bogeys straight out of a Great Unclean ones sock drawer.

The best example I can find is the cover art. Well call me Mr original.

 

Now they are looking much louder and brighter like this little aberration of nature above, and look totally awesome and I'm a lot happier with them!

You can see in the following pics both of the Plague furnaces and one of the Plagueclaws where I've begun to work this look in and on Skrolk too.

I need to get some reds in there in places too, so I will make their boils and skin red in places again like the cover art, to get that nice complementary color going on which makes them harmonious to the eye and pops them even more.

So I am busily working away because I want to finish my army in time for Warlords on Sept 9th, then I'm moving to Wellington, NZ the following week. So I've absolutely got to finish up as much as possible and get it looking the bomb. The next few weeks should be filled with some frantic updates, then it might go quiet for a bit while I get over the jet lag and find somewhere to live / start back at Weta.

I want to take some group photos of it all finished and looking baddass together on the tables at W.hWorld too and have it looking nice and ready for people to enjoy playing against and show off the filth and turn up and reprazent fo' Clan Pestilens yo. Say whaaaaa!?

Basing wise, the reason the bases all currently look like they are wading through a sewer full of you know what, is because I am going for a 'churned up muddy ground' type vibe, imagine muddy ground in the rain, with pools of scenic water, churned up mud, footprints, wheel tracks, battlefield debris, maybe the odd patch of worn muddy grass here and there, but mostly churned up ground, like a real battlefield.

Might be a bit ambitious with the time I have left, I am wanting to use pigments for dry areas, glosses for more wet areas, resin water pools built up with some subtle green stuffing, and plenty of small accents like battlefield debris or lifeless corpses, arrows, things like that. I'd really like to convert some Monks to be walking around carrying torches too on the Furnace bases, but again time is a limitation.

If anyone reading can suggest any good bits from any kits to make flaming torches for some Monks to carry let me know, I am thinking maybe Plague Cart or Mortis Engine, or maybe Flagellents or something Empire-ey

 

 

Weekly Targets

Tues 16th - Sun 21st

Plague Furnaces

 

Mon 22nd - Sun 28th

Corruptor, Priests, Censer Bearers

 

Mon 29th - Sun 4th

Monks & Plagueclaws

 

Mon 5th - Friday 9th

Bases, objective markers, if time them Nurglitch & Plague Lord

 

WIP PICS

 

 

I've managed to get the whole range of Spaz Stix paints I needed sent over from the US now, so they are ready for when I start doing tests for my Candy red on my Bloodbound or Chaos Dwarves too, and I also go the Mirror Chrome and some Holographic to play around with. And I also picked up a cheap paint mixer after seeing the Bad Dice review of the Badger one as I have plenty of old pots that need some love. And also some cool FX fabric paints to experiment with later on when I get a spare moment, these have a cellular honeycomb finish, and although they remind me of something my Ex GF in Beijing would have put on her nails, they could potentially look good on some Plague Drone wings or Blightking armor or banners or something. The shop had a ton of different shades and colors and metalic ones, but I went for Pink and Green in the end, the colors of 90's Nurgle Plague marines!

 

 

 

 

Help/ Advice??

Painting wise, one thing that keeps messing me up recently (other than spilling pots of Moot Green everywhere!)  is when I apply citadel shades such as S.Sepia or A.Earthshade or A.Camoshade, I am ending up with VERY shiny glossy results as opposed to matt. I tried mixing in Matt Medium but it doesn't seem to help, what do people do to get around this? Layer on some matt varnish? use a different medium or something? or just avoid the citadel washes? I'm sure I never used to get those kind of results years ago when I did my 'flesh' washes. Agrax Earthshade has been making my Rhinox Hide dark burnt umber wood colors shine as if it is wet in the rain! The amount of times I have had to paint over shiny washes recently has been a nightmare! Can anyone help with some advice?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chikout]

If you paint a separate layer or two of lamian medium ( or any other matt medium) over the glossy areas it should take the shine off. I hope that helps.

Also don't forget to shake the washes. It helps.

[James McPherson]

awesome, that's so good to know, thanks =)

[Ratamaplata]

The two colour pearlescent would be perfect for Alarielle's beetle

[James McPherson]

 

1 hour ago, Ratamaplata said:

The two colour pearlescent would be perfect for Alarielle's beetle

yeah there's a lot of stuff in nature that has that color shift. Bluebottle / Greenbottle flies were my inspiration as I've been looking at interesting ways to tint semi transparent Plague Drone wings (I made a mould to re-cast some in clear resin) and also considering it for their abdomens,

 

 It would also work great for beetle shells you are right, and raven wings, probably metallic chaosy Tzeentchian armor too. And Realmgate whispies. A lot of possibilities to explore.

The way to do it correctly on the Alarielle beetle would be to start with a primer, then a very high gloss black backer built up in a few thin layers to give good coverage but not obscure details. Then build up very very thin layers, so thin you can almost not see one layer just by itself, ideally with airbrush ( if its auto paint you can thin it down with thinners or turps or white spirit or whatever) , and making sure the areas you want to catch the light the most have a few more layers on than the rest. After that you can cover it in several clear coats of something to help set it back 'into' the shell a bit and make it look part of the shell.

The trick to a really subtle look, the same way often seen in nature is really getting the pearlescent applied in thin enough coats to not be so visible or apparent to the normal eye when just sat down in a dark corner of a room, but when you pick that badboy up and hold it up to the light you get that momentary flash or glint of color. Unless you want to go full nuts with it and just slather it on , like the example posted earlier, which can look cool too, but seems to suit hard edged man made materials more than 'organics'

I've seen people trying to do similar stuff on youtube with GW paints, using washes and gloss varnish and stuff, but this is a different way to go about it, taking inspiration from the wider model making community. Think of a Blue steel effect on a gun barrel aka Robocop or some such like (No not Derek Zoolander!) you can achieve that by going high gloss black > thinned down metallic blue (automotive would be good) over the area of the barrel you want to glisten in the light.. Pearlescents can be used to work the same way..do them thinned down over a gloss backer and they will get the correct specularity of a deep shiny metal, whilst also maintaining a subtle shift in the light.