syph0n Posted December 16, 2018 Author Share Posted December 16, 2018 Some better photos today. Unfortunately my camera isn't working right, so still using my awful phone camera. However, I'm over 1000 points painted since returning to the hobby in February this year. Just a another dragon, hydra, finish another unit of Knights (have 5 mostly finished really) and that's 2000 of Order Serpentis. Hopefully I can do that within a year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 I've enjoyed seeing these on Instagram. Do you have a guide to teh skin on the Dragon? I've had a star dragon on my shelf for 5 years. I think you have inspired me to get it painted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 16, 2018 Author Share Posted December 16, 2018 1 hour ago, Ben said: I've enjoyed seeing these on Instagram. Do you have a guide to teh skin on the Dragon? I've had a star dragon on my shelf for 5 years. I think you have inspired me to get it painted. Cheers Ben! Happy to share. Black undercoat Black / Stegadon mix 3:1 As above, 2:1 Stegadon Stegadon / Fenrisian mix 2:1 Fenrisian On the wings, I painted more of the Stegadon stages, to lighten them. Similarly, the underbody is less black. I used Nuln oil/Nuln gloss and a touch of Abaddon Black to shade around all the recesses, wings or otherwise. Those pics are better, but the green tone is lost slightly. I was trying to emulate the Eavy Metal Sorceress Black Dragon but I lack the skill and the colour scheme! I'll try with the next one and use a bit of Sotek before Fenrisian. Edit: always used Lahmian Medium this time to thin paint too. More for the highlights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 I'll give it a go. Mine was base coated dark blue. I gave it 4 coats of nuln oil overnight. I'll see how it turns out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 You should post these in the gallery section btw! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 1 hour ago, Ben said: You should post these in the gallery section btw! I will do. I always forget about the blog and gallery on here because I use it on mobile. I got the DSLR working and have a new phone in the way so I might take a load of individual shots and post those instead. 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lavieth Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 One of my favourite logs. The painting is excellent, the basing is excellent and it's not a typical army. Just wonderful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 @syph0n out of interest how are you lighting your models for your photos? And do you own photoshop/elements/lightroom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 1 minute ago, Overread said: @syph0n out of interest how are you lighting your models for your photos? And do you own photoshop/elements/lightroom? I've got a daylight lamp, which I tried to diffuse with baking paper. My lights at the end of the room are also daylight bulbs, but aren't overly bright because it's in my living room. I've got French doors behind there as well! The camera took much better photos, but it's got a shutter fault so I had to give up and use my rubbish phone. Got the DSLR working last night though, and also have a new phone coming, so I'll do some better photos again for the gallery. I do own Photoshop, luckily I have a license through work. However with me taking them straight off the phone I made no edits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 4 hours ago, Ben said: I'll give it a go. Mine was base coated dark blue. I gave it 4 coats of nuln oil overnight. I'll see how it turns out! When I did the scales, I did very thin Stegadon, followed by a mix with Fenrisian and then spot with Fenrisian. Otherwise I think I'd lose my sanity doing 4 or 5 layers! Other options to darken the model is to do Abbadon Black:Lahmian 1:5 or something like that and shade. Nuln Oil never goes as dark as I'd like, especially the gloss version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 14 minutes ago, syph0n said: I've got a daylight lamp, which I tried to diffuse with baking paper. My lights at the end of the room are also daylight bulbs, but aren't overly bright because it's in my living room. I've got French doors behind there as well! The camera took much better photos, but it's got a shutter fault so I had to give up and use my rubbish phone. Got the DSLR working last night though, and also have a new phone coming, so I'll do some better photos again for the gallery. I do own Photoshop, luckily I have a license through work. However with me taking them straight off the phone I made no edits! Ahh I did wonder as I notice that a lot of your photos have quite a lot of "top down" light which produces very strong shadows over a lot of key detail areas that you're trying to show. I don't know what position you've got your lamp in but I would consider moving it to a new position. Try moving it to the left or right and lowering it down. If you think of your subject as a box where you are taking a photo against one flat side, position your lamps in line with the corners of the box facing that flat surface you are facing (ego a 45degree angle either side of you - the camera). If you use a lamp on one side and position it so that the ambient light from the room is most of the other side it might work, but you might find you need two lamps to properly get a nice even covering - or just dim the lamp a little (more layers of paper) and then take a slightly longer exposure or use a higher ISO. Another option is in editing when you're processing the photo add some brightness or adjust the curves (if that means nothing say so I can give a little more detail). If you take photos in RAW then boosting the "shadows" slider can be a nice quick fix to heavier shadows Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 Just now, Overread said: Ahh I did wonder as I notice that a lot of your photos have quite a lot of "top down" light which produces very strong shadows over a lot of key detail areas that you're trying to show. I don't know what position you've got your lamp in but I would consider moving it to a new position. Try moving it to the left or right and lowering it down. If you think of your subject as a box where you are taking a photo against one flat side, position your lamps in line with the corners of the box facing that flat surface you are facing (ego a 45degree angle either side of you - the camera). If you use a lamp on one side and position it so that the ambient light from the room is most of the other side it might work, but you might find you need two lamps to properly get a nice even covering - or just dim the lamp a little (more layers of paper) and then take a slightly longer exposure or use a higher ISO. Another option is in editing when you're processing the photo add some brightness or adjust the curves (if that means nothing say so I can give a little more detail). If you take photos in RAW then boosting the "shadows" slider can be a nice quick fix to heavier shadows Thanks for the tips regarding the lighting. I had the light to the left, and I rotated it around a few times to avoid the shadows as much as possible. Truthfully, I was just so annoyed at the camera not working (and my missus was bored of holding the sheet up) I just took some quick phone snaps and left it there. I spent 5 mins on PS last night but I felt like I was polishing a ****** with the quality of my phone camera. I teach PS so I know my way around, but I was that annoyed with the original photos I left as is! 😂 Instagram did a reasonable job of the contrast and brightness etc, but it obviously can't fix where the colours are just lost to my poor lighting or camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Sounds like you need another light. Another option is to get a cardboard box and cut the sides out and put a sheet of white paper over the removed sides - giving you a basic lightbox. Then you can flood light in from the sides without having to hold the sheet and can use alternate light sources to give you light from both sides. Saves the wife from having to hold the paper in place. Of course the other arm saving option is a pair of flashes, cables or a remote trigger system, a couple of stands and softboxes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 1 hour ago, Lavieth said: One of my favourite logs. The painting is excellent, the basing is excellent and it's not a typical army. Just wonderful. Thanks for the very kind words. 1 hour ago, Overread said: Sounds like you need another light. Another option is to get a cardboard box and cut the sides out and put a sheet of white paper over the removed sides - giving you a basic lightbox. Then you can flood light in from the sides without having to hold the sheet and can use alternate light sources to give you light from both sides. Saves the wife from having to hold the paper in place. Of course the other arm saving option is a pair of flashes, cables or a remote trigger system, a couple of stands and softboxes! I had a lightbox the last I was into the hobby, but it didn't survive the loft! I'll keep practicing. My daughter is getting into photography and has a camera on the way for Christmas. Maybe a little pop up studio will be purchased in the future... Otherwise I'm saving my money for my plastic addiction!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saikological Posted December 18, 2018 Share Posted December 18, 2018 Very nice army and well painted! And lovely bases! Care to share the gold recipe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 18, 2018 Author Share Posted December 18, 2018 Thanks @Saikological. Here's the recipe. Gold Armour Retributor Armour Gold Reikland Fleshshade Retributor Armour Gold / Lahmian Medium Auric Armour Gold Liberator Gold Liberator Gold / Runefang Steel Runefang Steel Druchii Violet I always use Lahmian Medium to mix metallics. This doesn't cover application / techniques but it's basically edges and recesses as always. The violet helps in the recesses, but also enhances the silver too I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saikological Posted December 18, 2018 Share Posted December 18, 2018 thanks, gonna try that one out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 19, 2018 Author Share Posted December 19, 2018 No problem, good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrocks Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 On 12/17/2018 at 11:26 AM, Lavieth said: One of my favourite logs. The painting is excellent, the basing is excellent and it's not a typical army. Just wonderful. agreed - one of the best looking armies I've seen ... and that's with your cam.' issues! not read all of the above- have you tried 'decent' diffused daylight (even a lightly overcast day if you can set up near windows and have the light coming from behind you [but obviously not so as you block the light yourself!] as you take the pics?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 21, 2018 Author Share Posted December 21, 2018 5 hours ago, harrocks said: agreed - one of the best looking armies I've seen ... and that's with your cam.' issues! not read all of the above- have you tried 'decent' diffused daylight (even a lightly overcast day if you can set up near windows and have the light coming from behind you [but obviously not so as you block the light yourself!] as you take the pics?). Wow thank you. There should've been lots of light behind me there, I took at the lightest part of the day with 2.5m of French doors and windows! I just need to work on my photography! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syph0n Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 Entered the Winter themed painting comp at Warhammer World. No way I'll win, but it's nice to have it in a cabinet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arnied3 Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 On 12/22/2018 at 2:39 PM, syph0n said: Entered the Winter themed painting comp at Warhammer World. No way I'll win, but it's nice to have it in a cabinet! Oh it does look fine indeed!! Fair play to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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