Drug-Crazed Psychic Vampire Space Elves

Hm. I was ok with the smoothness because of its similarity to mud flats and lava flows, but now you've got me curious, so I may mess around with some test bases and see what happens.

The GW paint didn't exist when I started these, although I categorically do not buy GW paints, because they're just going to discontinue them again, and I need to be able to match the color schemes in my various armies. I've never used liquid green stuff, but after two experiences trying to work with the nightmare of stupid that is finecast, maybe I should pick some up anyway.

There's also the fact that I have nearly 40 finished models based like this, and the current system is already pretty labor intensive, with each small base taking about an afternoon to do (the flying bases take a week or more). So while I'm curious if there's an added touch that I might like more, I'm also nervous about what that would mean for my work load.

Out of interest, why does each base take a long time? I originally thought they were molded bases bought in a packet from somewhere... do you make them from scratch?

I totally understand your decision on GW paints! Although, unfortunately i've already spent too much money on paints!

You can get a decent crackle paint from a craft store or Michaels quite cheap, fast and easy to use, I have one that is a clear glaze that I either tint or paint over after application, and of course I can vary the colour underneath before lay it down, too.

And they won't get discontinued.

GW makes Martian Ironearth and Agrellan Earth, red and light brown colours respectively, that crackle when they dry.  I saw an image where someone applied an extra think layer of Martian Ironearth that caused the cracks to be accentuated when done.  Again, very quick and easy to use, but yeah, there's that discontinuation thing.

The Agrellan Earth would not be dissimilar to what you are lying on in the desert, especially if you dry-brushed some edge highlights on it, and perhaps some tried an oil wash in the cracks?

That's not me in the third picture, just my boots in the first.

I won't buy GW paints, because GW will discontinue them.

The bases are made from scratch. I got the concept for them from this tutorial.

In practice, I discovered that crackle paint really wants to pull away from whatever surface you've painted it on. I bought a tub of Marthe Stewart crackle paint, which didn't work, so now I order the crackle paint used in the tutorial online. In the tutorial they apply the crackle paint to PVA glue. I tried three different kinds of PVA glue, and none of them worked, so I started experimenting with other materials. The one that worked was green stuff, so long as the green stuff hadn't cured yet. This is still faster than just sculpting each base out of green stuff.

I have had the layer of crackle paint and green stuff start to lift off a few bases. Krazy gluing it back down isn't hard, and after that it's not going anywhere, but now I've started scoring the surface of the base in order to give the green stuff more to adhere to. This is still faster than just sculpting the base out of green stuff.

Flying bases are more complicated because of the slope, which I hate. In order to make them more flat, after the crackle paint has crackled, I build up the edges with green stuff over it, basically just following the lines. All of the "panels" on the edges of the flying bases are green stuff sculpted over crackle paint (painted on green stuff). I've been experimenting with bulking up the bases with plasticard, filing it down, and then applying the green stuff and crackle paint, with promising results but there are still some kinks that need to be ironed out.

Each model is pinned onto its base. (Each base is also fitted with a neodymium magnet, so I can transport my models in a metal tool box without worrying about fitting spikes, sails, etc in a foam case. On the flying bases I dremel out a magnet-shaped hole on the underside for it to fit in.)

Each base is painted, washed, and highlighted with a 3-step nested line highlight, meaning I paint the edges of each "panel" three times with incrementally smaller lines. Sometimes I pick out the corners with white. This takes a couple hours on a standard base.

So it's a lot of work. But the important thing, the thing that makes me consider it worthwhile, is that I like how they look.

Calyptra wrote:

So it's a lot of work. But the important thing, the thing that makes me consider it worthwhile, is that I like how they look.

That's the main thing. It's YOUR hobby, so as long as you like it that's what's important!

If you were interested in adding to them, liquid greenstuff would probably be the quickest and the least labour-intensive. You could stipple is on, let it dry, then quick touch-ups. If not, that's totally fine.

P.S. nice work on making the bases from scratch, I thought they were store bought!

nexs wrote:

P.S. nice work on making the bases from scratch, I thought they were store bought!

Me too, they are easily as good as commercial ones I have seen.

A couple of other mediums I use from time to time on bases are Vallejo's range of textured pastes, and paper clay. But having invested so much into these, if I was you, I would also be nervous about changing anything.

Cheers.

Hey Calyptra. Great job on the venom and your force is really looking fab

I am a big fan of the bases, although I can see next point. When I first saw them I thought they needed some static grass or something to break the lines and smoothness up a bit but as your project has moved on I actually really like them as they are. They are very alien in appearance (to me at least) and they complement your dark paint scheme very nicely. I agree I don't think the smaller crackle paint would have been suitable to achieve the effect you were after with the large dry cracks. The effort you have put in to sculpt them really shows, and lifts your whole army.

SC

DUDE. Your work is phenomenal! I love the swirly designs, especially the ones on your Coven units. Those purple wiggly spirals are so unique. I used to put lots of little spirally doodles on my Rackham minis... I need to trick out my Eldar too, I guess. XD

Hi Calyptra,
Really nice paint scheme and I love how your scapel squadron looks like. Really appreciate your tuto on wrack skin. And I also really like their "skirts" shades. About the bases, the color gives a good contrast without getting eye focus from the mini, and thats really important. About the crackle effect, I understand why you decided to make it big, making all the highlight on tiny crackle, would have taken a long long eternity. Maybe a very small addition of sand (and not homogeneously) on the flat area could help for the desert effect and make it less plain.
Please keep in mind that I just try to explain my feeling and being constructive.
On your previous mini my jaw dropped when I saw your harlequins, especially the death jester, his color scheme is full of wonderfull idea and pattern. I will try to steal it, not sure I will be successful. ..
Faust

I think I have the solution to your base 'problem' and help with adding a little pop to the overall scheme: orange lichen and pigments.

Some lichen on the bases would break up the uniformity of the bases. You've used gold as the contrast colour, to the purple, but I reckon some orange would be ideal. Pretty sure the lichen would give a more alien feel too.

Pigments are dead easy to apply to bases and work superbly: combos of yellow, orange, and brown should do the trick!

It's a good idea, but I'm not going to add lichen because I want the bases to be flat, barren, and lifeless. I did make a test base with some sand added, and I don't like it. (I forgot to snap a picture of it, but I will if people are interested.)

Anyhow, I have a couple conversions to share.

First, here's the unusuable Dark Reaper exarch I converted into a usable Dark Reaper exarch.





It's pretty silly, I know. I actually cut the missile launcher down in size, but it's still huge, which is why I added the support arm in back. The hand I sculpted also looks oversized, but I swear it's the same size as the metal one. I probably could have gotten better results if I'd used beads for the joints, curves, etc, but I didn't for the same reason I didn't scratch build a more reasonably-sized missile launcher or cobble it together from other Reaper launchers - I wanted to just work on the model, rather than getting caught up in planning and ordering materials. In the end, I think it looks fine, and I had fun making it.

Here's my Jesus Haemonculus.





I actually really like the sculpt on the Jesus Haemonculus, but there were two problems. First, the model is supported on a pipe and other detritus which have no business protruding from my flat, barren, lifeless bases, so that had to go. That meant I needed to figure out another way to keep the whole model from snapping off at the prehensile spine. The second problem is that however much I may like the sculpt, it still has the misfortune of being cast in the nightmare of stupid that is finecast.

And that's why I converted a Haemonculus with liquifier, flesh gauntlet, and melee weapon into a Haemonculus with liquifier, flesh gauntlet, and melee weapon.

The worst part was, after I did this conversion, the stupid resin sagged, leaving the model leaning to one side. I should probably be relieved that I hadn't painted it yet. I heated and straightened it, then used greenstuff to extend his coat onto the support bone, so hopefully his spine won't go flaccid again.

I'm not touching a model made from this garbage again until I inevitably start to forget how awful it is, and then the cycle can begin anew. Or maybe I'll just smash the next one with a hammer. We'll see.

Heh. Nice.

Other than the models, I loved the narrative in the story. Bravo, bravo!

What made you use greenstuff on the haemy base instead of your crackled scorched earth?

I needed to sink the little pedestal the model is, er, "standing" on into the base in order for it to be flat, and I wanted to ensure that the cracks went right up to the spine, while still looking like the spine was resting on top of them. I also angled it slightly so that the model wasn't leaning to one side (for all the good that did me).

The thing about working on these two models at the same time was, I'd forgotten how wonderful lead is to work with. It's easy to cut/file/drill, and I don't have to worry about taking an entire limb off when I try to remove some of the flash. Ah, "progress."

I'm just gonna go build some Squats.

I find that metal is a real bastard to convert, I think that fine casts only positive quality is that it's easy to manipulate and super glue bonds it super well. I once converted a(metal) lizardmen leader from being on foot, to being dinosaur mounted and it was (for lack of better terminology) a freaking bitch. I never hated converting more than I did that day!

Keeping on-topic, you did a good job at simulating the crackle effect with greenstuff.

I like the changes you have done to the haemy, it definately looks better . I feel your pain on the finecast front. I discovered my talos one morning (the ctan conversion) bent over double where the finecast cloth could not support his weight. I have had to shove a clear rod up his back to support him and stop it happening again

Calyptra wrote:

Ah, "progress."

I'm just gonna go build some Squats.

Squats! SUCK IT, 21st CENTURY!









Also, I painted some Mandrakes for some reason.

Just catching up on this thread and your dudes are fantastic

Love the paintjob on the OOP Rangers. You've managed to capture the vibrancy of the older styles of GW painting, but they still look modern somehow. Really well done.

Love the Wrack skin and the freehand too

I'll also echo your severe dislike of Finecast. Personally I won't touch the stuff. Any conversions I do are strictly from plastic, and anything that's not made in plastic is either converted from it or I'll hit eBay to find a good old fashioned metal model

I am also painting Mandrakes at the moment, but the progress I'm making is so slow it is almost demoralizing. Of course when you have to spend the first week straightening up floppy Mc.Noodleswords due to 5 of them being finecast you know it is going to take time. A batch of 10 models is also not ideal I have concluded. Nevertheless, seeing how fine yours turned out have inspired me to sit down and work on them again.

Thanks! Mine are metal (I may have an allergy to Finecast, because I break out in incoherent rage every time I try to work with it), but they were still a pain in the butt. I had expected them to be easy - they're compositionally simple, with a limited palette (I thought about it and couldn't come up with something I liked better than the traditional/studio look) - and they weren't. It took me 38 hours to paint the five of them.

Part of that was because the clothing/skins they're wearing are beautifully sculpted, and though the garments are simple, the surfaces on the models are extremely complicated and detailed. I don't like drybrushing and paint in all my highlights in successive layers, typically 3-5 steps, so picking out all the contours and edges was pretty time consuming.

The other reason they took so long was I found that the black skin made it really hard for me to see where the edges of the runes were. Honestly, I think it would have been faster if I'd filled the grooves in with putty and just painted them freehand, instead of all the hours I spent correcting my mistakes and trying to figure out where exactly the stupid line was. The last few of them I actually painted in a midtone first, so I could see what I was doing, before darkening to black and then adding some subtle highlights.

Here's a better picture.

This thread is awesome! As someone who is just getting into making their own Raid and a bit afraid of free hand seeing it done so well gives me a bit of hope lol!!

Your painting is second to none and looks stunning sir! keep up the good work!!

your painting is awesome, please keep up the posting and of course painting

I painted up some real, actual Squats, and nobody had anything to say about that? I am disappointed in you people.

Here are my Dark Reapers. When these models were originally released, I thought they were knockoff, wannabe Death Jesters. Feelings can change over the years, though, and now I think they're knockoff, wannabe Death Jesters with charm.







It took me 14 hours to paint the Exarch. I'm not really sure why it took that long.





Finally, in case anybody actually reads this stuff, I thought I'd share some end-of-year thoughts on process.

I keep track of how many hours it takes me to paint a model to keep me from getting frustrated and discouraged - by focusing on hours and process rather than number of models completed, I'm less likely to get down on myself for not getting more done. It's harder to think you're a slacker for not having more stuff painted when you know how many hours you've put into working on it. This is why I don't participate in the Monthly Vows, even though they look like fun - I think I'm both happier and more productive if I focus on process rather than achievement. Tracking work hours also helps me to have more realistic expectations about how long a given project will take.

I also keep track of how many models I paint. I'm really tired of having boxes upon boxes of unfinished models hanging over my head, like the miniatures projects of Damocles, so I have a personal rule that I will not buy more models than I have painted so far that year.

In 2016 I painted 36 models. 19 were for Super Dungeon Explore (you can see them here); the rest were 40k and have been posted on this forum except for some updated Marines which are waiting for me to get around to finishing their squad. I also spent 25 hours converting a Strigoi for my Vampire Counts, which I should photo and post to my VC plog before I start painting it.

Up next will be a random little pewter dragon model (I have no idea how I ended up with it, to be honest) that I want to paint as a gift for me niece. After that, I dunno. I'm being indecisive.

Calyptra wrote:

I painted up some real, actual Squats, and nobody had anything to say about that? I am disappointed in you people.

I stop paying attention to the project logs for five seconds and someone paints phenomenal Squats?!

Those look hot. I hope to hell that they redo them at some point. There's a guy in my local group that has an entire army in the blisters ready to go that he will never paint. I've been trying to convince him to sell them to me so I can paint a whole army.

@Calyptra I love the creativity of your conversions and greenstuff work here.  Getting these old sculpts to look relevant and modern is a real art.  There's something appealing about the early models but the low detail quality really forces you to up your game with the paint job and these models look great. There's so much detail like painting in all the gems and the freehand work that adds so much to the models that's not really there in the original sculpt. Nice work.

@EvilSpaceElves I'd love to see chaos dwarfs squats.., imagine these guys in pope hats!