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Wanted to start off...


lare2

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... with an apology. My phone really doesn't have the best camera and I'm far too poor to invest in anything to improve the situation. Plus, any spare cash I do have, I'd rather spend on modelling gear and paints. Not really buying models at the minute. There's no need really with the amount of grey I have. I totalled up the other night and my unpainted SCE alone sits at over 7k. Ridiculous. That's kinda one of the main reasons why I'm pushing myself with this blog. I've so much SCE suddenly that I've written a new list to just run in friendly games whilst I'm painting all this. If you're interested, it looks like the following:

Knight-Incantor

Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis 

Lord-Arcanum on Celestial Dracoline 

Lord-Ordinator 

Judicators x10

Liberators x5

Liberators x5

Evocators x5

Evocators on Celestial Dracolines x3

Celestar Ballista x3

Comes out as bang on 2k and will be next up for painting after this. 

Anywho, onto the main reason for this post. I'll not be doing anymore painting this week so thought I'd give an update. One of the main reasons for this blog is to be brutally honest with myself and to maybe help others like me. I've probably put in about 5 hours of painting and all I've managed to do is one layer on the underarmour and straps. I've absolutely no idea whatsoever how people paint fast. It seems to take me bloody ages to just do one layer, let alone everything that's required. 

You can see in the pics that this looks terrible. The idea is to do them all in black contrast. With these areas, they're so hidden away that I'm not too bothered about them and black contrast is perfect for them, especially with everything else that comes later. The only problem is that you need to prep the area. I normally go for grey seer (seen with the sequitor) but on Monday night my pot was so dried up I abandoned it and moved over to corax white (as seen with the vindicator). Both paints are horrible to use and even with a wet pallet they dry up so fast. 

I'm not too bothered at this stage how bad they look as I know they'll be alright in the end. What concerns me more though is that they all need another coat of grey seer, especially the white which is far too bright for contrast black. I'll be able to pick some up tomorrow but that means I'll need to spend another ca.5 hours doing this... that's another week. Another week behind schedule. 

Alas, this is the tales and rambling of a mediocre painter so I'd expect nothing less than delays to the schedule. I hope you get something out of my mediocrity. 

Until next time and take care of yourselves. 

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Edited by lare2

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As someone struggling to be more than a distracted average painter my first advice is finding the best, comfortable position to paint in. Good lighting to prevent eye strain, good posture, and laying out your paints, palettes water etc. in a way to minimize movement and sorting when you get in the zone.
When painting feels effortless you will enjoy it more and get more done in less time.
Also brush care!

Do you find the Celestar Balista useful? I have no idea what is what with stormcast.

 

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11 hours ago, CrimsonKing said:

As someone struggling to be more than a distracted average painter my first advice is finding the best, comfortable position to paint in. Good lighting to prevent eye strain, good posture, and laying out your paints, palettes water etc. in a way to minimize movement and sorting when you get in the zone.
When painting feels effortless you will enjoy it more and get more done in less time.
Also brush care!

Thanks for the pointers. Light is a massive issue for me at the minute. I recently moved home and the room I now paint in has terrible lighting. I've been eyeing up natural light lamps and found a semi-decent one from Hobbycraft for £30. Saving up my spare cash to invest but for the time being I'm having to make do. 

 

11 hours ago, CrimsonKing said:

Do you find the Celestar Balista useful? I have no idea what is what with stormcast.

 

They're alright really. They're not super competitive and their new stats have just been leaked. Everyone over on the SCE section aren't that keen on the new stats though but whether or not a unit's meta has never really bothered me, to an extent. Although I love playing in tournies, I'm not competitive and can normally be found having a chuckle on the bottom tables. I've four in total but quite happy to run 3 with a Lord-Ordinator who currently gives them a very tasty +1 to hit. I kinda just love the idea of artillery. 

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My phone really doesn't have the best camera and I'm far too poor to invest in anything to improve the situation.

I think your pictures look pretty good already, but in any case, here's what has helped me take better photos with my phone camera:

  • Take a picture from further away and then crop it. That helps getting your miniature in to focus properly. Modern phone cameras have high enough resolutions that you won't end up with tiny ant-sized pictures, anyway.
  • Make sure you have natural light and a background for best results. In practice, that just means moving next to a window and holding up a piece of paper in the background.
  • After taking your picture, run it through automatic colour correction. You probably already have a program that can do this (as well as crop pictures) on your phone. Additionally increasing the "pop" slider makes your models even more readable by increasing the contrast between separate parts of the model.
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On 9/7/2021 at 9:47 AM, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

I think your pictures look pretty good already, but in any case, here's what has helped me take better photos with my phone camera:

  • Take a picture from further away and then crop it. That helps getting your miniature in to focus properly. Modern phone cameras have high enough resolutions that you won't end up with tiny ant-sized pictures, anyway.
  • Make sure you have natural light and a background for best results. In practice, that just means moving next to a window and holding up a piece of paper in the background.
  • After taking your picture, run it through automatic colour correction. You probably already have a program that can do this (as well as crop pictures) on your phone. Additionally increasing the "pop" slider makes your models even more readable by increasing the contrast between separate parts of the model.

Outstanding advice. Very much appreciated. I've only just seen this but will definitely be trying out these tips when I next take pics. 

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