Kingdom Death by candlelight

Having noted that the world of Kingdom Death is utterly dark, save for the light of fire and lantern, I thought it would be fun to experiment shooting by candlelight. I set up a couple of tea lights and a taller candle for these shots. Canon set on a tripod with manual exposure settings. I think it worked a treat, no image manipulation involved. If you play the game (when it eventually comes out), playing by the light of subdued lamps and candles has to be the way to do it.

Coming out of the darkness... Gorm!  O'O

Illumination of the lure accomplished by a Maglite from below.

I haven't varnished this yet, otherwise there would have been glossy reflections on the eyes and maw. Will retry this set up at a later date.

My apologies in advance if this gives you nightmares...

~J~

UPDATE...

This is for Ilias, who requested a list of colours that I used on Gorm. The palette was quite small.
Liquitex Concentrated Artist Colour - Mixing Grey, Pale/Light/Deep Portrait Pinks, Burgundy, Unbleached Titanium.
Vallejo - Sky Grey, Dark Sea Grey, Red.
For the maw I used Alizarin Crimson (combined with the Light Pink) which ought to be in any good range of acrylic (mine is from a defunct range)
An old Bone colour from Citadel, but any bone will do for the teeth >> that Titanium colour was used to highlight it, but can equally be used on its own. I applied a little blue-grey around the eyes and stalk, the bulb with as bilious a green as I had and lightened with white.

Things to note: this model is BIG compared to its human KD relatives, so big it's like painting a fat hamster. Don't get caught up with tiny details. I would suggest not gluing the stalk until you are near the end of painting.

It took a good while to start painting. I stared at it. It stared back  O'O
I had to make some sort of commitment, so I started by applying Mixing Grey to the body in a wash and lightly wiping most of it off, leaving grey in the skin detail. This was more to help visualise the colour scheme, but it helped to have it as a base coat anyway. The head had to be pink - I  could see no other way of doing it, so how to phase the colour into the body? For some reason I just went for the Red and laid it on the neck and belly, thinning where appropriate. I'm very glad this Red has a 'natural' quality, distinct from something purer like a Cadmium Red.

The rest of the body is painted with the greys with added Deep or Pale Pink. The head with pinks and some red to help blend the transition.

Kingdom Death: Manhunter

This is going to be my entry for the KD painting comp at WAMP. For a $25 voucher just for entering, its got to be worth it. And I still have time to enter the Gorm I will start painting soon...  O'O

The Kickstarter has come at a bad time for me. The best I can do for now is a $10 pledge. If KD is new to you, go check it out, the figure sculpts are outstanding.

I've been paying attention to taking progress photos on this project. This will give you a solid insight into my particular painting technique. I've not used any metallics on this, so in a way this is my first try at NMM painting.

So, model has been cleaned, assembled and undercoated with Vallejo primer though an airbrush. I only started doing it this way in the last couple of months - I would always prime by brush, because I am vehemently against waste in any form, particularly if its from a spray can. Priming by hand has its merits too - I find myself examining every detail of the figure, and going through a sort of painting preview. I miss Citadel's old Smelly Primer, it dried to a good even finish even via a brush, had a great tooth to it and was durable. Vallejo does not paint as well, not particulary durable and has a plastic looking finish when dry, but looks terrific applied through an airbrush and has a decent tooth.

Onward. First application of paint is a wash of burnt umber (Daler-Rowney Cryla) on the coat and anything that was going to have a browny or muted naturalistic colour. This is how I have been painting some figures recently, an approach I think I first started on my Khymerae.

And I carry on applying burnt umber  to the coat, wash after wash, allowing the coat to self shade the paint. I would add other colours to create help generate variation, like burnt sienna and  crimson near the end. With sufficient washes, you don't end up with a wishy-washy look as in the early stages. The white primer shows through the translucent paint. Result - highlights that didn't need painting.

Flesh tones added. Sort of flesh. Inhuman flesh. Built up with thin coats of Liquitex Deep Portrait Pink, Twilight and Bergundy, later using Pale Portrait Pink for lightening the mix. I applied a basic milky wash, and before letting it dry would mix a different colour balance on my palette, typically more blue, and blend that in. Let it dry. Repeated with same colours. And again, this time adding lighter colour while wet. The gallows was painted more conventionally. I wanted a silver-grey like old oak, but it was never quite right and I went with grey-brown in the end.

And some more views of the 98.5% finished article. I wasn't sure how to approach the beads on his wrist. What are they made from? I like to use any reference material, descriptions, etc., to help shape a colour scheme. One idea was to have them bright colour, as if taken from Saviour, but the art print shows them sort of sparkling with light. Light, though, is in short supply in the darkness of Kingdom Death. Gemstones? Will be coming back to this tomorrow with a fresh eye.

Showing the full development of all those washes on the coat. The sword is something needing adjustment though...

Sometime this week I'll take photos with my main camera and with as good a lighting setup as I can manage. I still need to tweak minor details as well, like the sword.

~J~

The Quest for Chaos (Oldhammer)

Another glimpse into the nascent Realm of Chaos. Filling in the last of the first edition scenario sheets - there would have been another, but it disappeared into the warp.

Full scan - http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk212/exiztenzial/01-1.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk212/exiztenzial/02-1.jpg

For reference, the sheet came with the second version of this box set:
http://www.solegends.com/citboxes/c2s1chaosw.htm

Now for a nice Sunday of painting...

~J~