Procrastination by Numbers

[Dave]

I followed that story through the social media of twitter, it was basically people complaining that they couldn't get out the office for their lunch/afternoon coffee and how rubbish was that.  Somewhat less extremist and shocking than an 'armed siege'.  Pretty sure the definition of siege isn't 1 man throwing stuff out of windows, but to be honest I can't be bothered googling it to find out, if only I had my own pet 'expert'.

[cunningmatt]

I was one of those trapped away from lunch in Sainsbury's! Forced to rough it in Tesco! Ewww

[cunningmatt]

Update 63 – Thursday 3rd May 2012: The Devil is in the Detail (as well as Anne Robinson)

Quick stop work for an hour, it's time for another bumper Warhammer related fun pack of painting excitement. Enjoy!

As the American tourist who accidentally paid for London Bridge to shipped out to the Nevada desert instead of Tower Bridge now knows – details are important. In fairness to said American this is an apocryphal story, and he indeed intended to buy London Bridge – another important detail.

Details are important everywhere, such "is this woman your girlfriend?" when deciding if it's ok to sleep with someone at your party. Or "which leg to amputate?" if you're a doctor. Or even "Did I know about the completely illegal activity taking place in my company that I was e-mailed about?" if you are James Murdoch. Details are important in modelling and painting too, as you're no doubt relieved to discover I have now got onto the point of this blog update. Depending on your skills you may paint very few details on your models. Perhaps detailing is only reserved for your characters and large monsters. Or perhaps you're the kind of talented arsehole who lavishes every single Night Goblin spearmen with intricate freehand on his cloak worthy enough to win a Golden Demon award shoved up your arse. Which given your entirely an arsehole, may be tricky for the judge to work out exactly where to put the previously mentioned trophy.

I fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, generally speaking my rank and file models aren't lavished with any freehand detailing, whereas it's nice to add a little bit of detail to a special character model or the like. Well that would be the case were it not for the famous saying originating in ancient China, that all High Elf painters have uttered at least once; "Who the hell modelling all this f***ing gems on my Spearmen that I now feel obliged to paint?"

In case you haven't guessed this blog is about adding those finishing touches to your models, those little details from eyeballs, to gems, all the way to banners and freehand artwork. Whilst all armies could benefit from a bit of freehand work now again, for me High Elves are one of the most worthy recipients. There refined nature meaning they are unlikely to have a plain cloak, or an undecorated shield. Let's face it if you went round to Prince Tyrion's house you wouldn't be expecting to see a budget pine DVD rack straight from the Argos Catalogue. With a whole host of High Elf goodies all on the cusp of being finished last week, let's get on with the detailing.

White Lions: Eyes, Gems and simple detailing.

While I don't want to spend too much time detailing the rank and file models that make up the bulk of my army. There are a few details I think it's worth looking at. In all cases, all the details are applied at the end of the final stage. During the earlier stages I don't worry about trying to keep the eyes or gems black, as attempting to be so painstakingly neat will drive you mad! Instead let the gems get painted gold, and the eye socket flesh colour, and fix it at the end.

Eyes

The detail that I do with every model is painting in the eyes, some people don't think eyes are worth doing, but for me they really bring the models to life. Not really of course, otherwise my bedroom would be full of High Elves marching across the bedside cabinet, and I'd have painted eyes on my live-size inflatable sex doll by now.

Moving on from that disturbing thought, and onto eyes. For creatures with "normal" type eyes, i.e. Humans, Dwarfs and Elves, it can be very tempting to adopt a cartoony approach and paint a white eye with a small black dot in the centre. However in normal circumstances your eyes don't actually look like this. If you look in the mirror, a situation that often makes me throw up. Look past your bloodshot eyes you should see that normally the darker part of the eye (that is the pupil – the black dot, and the coloured part – the iris), fills the whole of the centre of your eye. That is you cannot see the white part of the eye (the sclera) above and below the darker part of the eye. In case you cannot bare to look in a mirror like me or you're a Vampire, here's what I mean:



You only tend to see the white around the tops and bottoms of the eyeball if you are in particularly bright sunshine or you're particularly startled, such as if you've just seen this picture of Edwina Currie's bottom from Strictly Come Dancing without me giving you proper warning:



Apologies for that. Anyway my point is that you should avoid black dots in white eyeballs otherwise your models might look startled. At the scale of regular infantry I find it too small to worry about the iris, so the eye just consists of black and white parts.

The first step is to paint the whole eye black, this requires a lot of patience, a steady hand and a fine detail brush. Also keep your flesh colours close to hand as there's every chance you'll need to do some tidying up at some point. With that done your model might look something like this (apologies for the quality of this photo, but hopefully you get the idea – ignore the stray blue flecks from excessive drybrushing!!):



With that done, you could stop there, but I like to add in the white of the eyes too. Here just add a little white fleck into the very corner of each eye – and hopefully your eyes should look something like this:



Fingers crossed you can see these are really worth the effort and do bring the model to life. Faces generally are really important as your brain naturally focuses on faces wherever it sees them (part of your subconscious facial recognition!) so even if you don't realise it your eyes will be drawn to the model's eyes – like the beginning of a rom-com(though hopefully you won't end up having a marriage with your White Lions – even they are already dressed in an appropriate wedding colour).

Incidentally you can use the small black pupil on a white eyeball in specific cases to good effect. Here I've used it on the Stone Troll head on this Dwarf Troll Slayer's banner to show its startled, combined with stupid, reaction at the moment it was killed:



With horses, you very rarely see the white of the eye (unless they are startled – perhaps they've been watching Strictly too):



Incidentally this is a picture of a horse, in case you thought that was an extreme close up of Camilla Parker-Bowles. Sorry your majesty (guess that's my knighthood gone).

So with horses, you can simply paint the eye black, which is a lot simpler! Such as I've done here with the Ellyrian Reavers:



Big cats are the same too in the case of White Lions. Always worth Google image searching for real life reference if you are painting a monster based on nature.

With the more evil races you may not necessarily want to paint them with human eyes, for my Beastmen army I simply dotted their eyes with a spot of Blood Red which gives them a very evil look:



I didn't even paint the eye socket black, as I found the washing of the skin had got it sufficiently dark already. This technique works well on Skaven and Daemons too.

For larger monsters, with bigger eyes it can be worth investing a bit more time and effort:



This Chaos Spawn's eyes were painted over a Chaos Black basecoat, starting with Scab Red they were layered through the range of reds and oranges until there was a final sliver of Golden Yellow in the centre of the eye. A Chaos Black slit was then painted vertically down the eyeball – the slit nature giving the creature an even more crazed look.



For this Razagor I wanted a more crazed look, so the eyeball was painted Skull White, with a Blood Red centre spot and a further smaller spot of Chaos Black in the centre. Then red lines were painted on the edges of the eyeball, before washing the recess with Baal Red to complete the bloodshot eyeball.

Incidentally if the thought of painting eyes terrifies you, but you don't want people to notice this, can I recommend a Warriors of Chaos army – no one need ever know you can't paint eyes:



Gems

Any High Elf painter will know their models are bristling with gems (some of the other races also bare precious stones on their character models). Whilst it's perfectly acceptable to just paint these gold, it's actually relatively straight forward to make these look good rather quickly. Firstly paint the gem a base colour of Chaos Black:



For my rank and file High Elves I paint their gems either blue or yellow to compliment the fabric colours I've used. For blue gems, start by painting the bottom third or so with Necron Abyss:



Then apply a layer of Regal Blue over the lower portion of the Necron Abyss, leaving a strip of Necron Abyss showing where the coloured part meets the black (I've done my best with the snaps here, but the initial layers are such a dark blue that the camera has trouble picking them out against the black):



Repeat this process with Ultramarine Blue, leaving a strip of each colour now showing:



Don't worry about spills, like here, they can easily be tidied up with a reapply of gold.

And finally add a last strip, right at the very bottom of the gem add a strip of Enchanted Blue:



Lastly add a strip of Skull White in the corner opposite the coloured portion; this represents the reflection of any ambient light:



Yellow gems can be a bit more tricky, the key point whatever colour you use is to ensure that the first colour up from Chaos Black is sufficiently dark to make the transition smooth. This is particularly tricky with yellow, so here I have used 1:1 Iyanden Darksun/Chaos Black for the first layer:



If you are having trouble seeing it against the black background then that's good, you want the colour change to seem gradual.

Next apply pure Iyanden Dark Sun, as before let the base yellow show through nearest the black:



Then repeat with Golden Yellow:



Then add a final strip of Sunburst Yellow in the bottom most corner:



And as before add the Skull White strip:



For added effect, once you've matt varnished your models you can apply a coat of gloss varnish over the gem to make them extra shiny. I haven't got round to that yet – sorry!

Other Details

The main other detail to consider on the White Lions, was their banner. Fortunately this banner picture is sculpted on which makes the whole thing a lot easier.



Although I am just painting the banner with similar colours and stages as other parts of the model, it's sometimes helpful to save this until the very end and focus on it in one long swoop.





Always remember when highlighting and shading elements on the banner to pay appropriate attention to the folds in the banner which add raised areas where you might not normally be expecting them!

With all those details done the White Lions are finally finished:

Stage 4 - White Lions













Flesh (Lion & Elf): Highlight Bleached Bone
White Cloth: Highlight Skull White
Silver Metal: *NO CHANGE*
Gold Metal: Layer 5:1 Shining Gold/Mithril Silver
Lion Fur: Highlight Kommando Khaki
Lion Skin (Tail): Layer Kommando Khaki, then layer 1:1 Kommando Khaki/Skull White
Shoes & Leather: *NO CHANGE*
Base: Drybrush Bleached Bone, the flock with static grass
Wood: *NO CHANGE*
Yellow Armour Trim: Wash Ogryn Flesh, then highlight Bad Moon Yellow
Blue Feathers/Ribbons: *NO CHANGE*

Korhil even looks happy now he has a unit of White Lions to hang about in, well sort of:



Tyrion: Red Gems and freehand designs.

Red Gems

Whilst I stick to blue and yellow gems for my rank and file troops, I like to use red gems on my characters to make them stand out. Red gems can look the most impressive of all colours in my opinion. As before start with a basecoat of Chaos Black, then use Scab Red as your starting colour:



Then layer a strip of Red Gore over the top:



Then add a strip of Blood Red:



Finally add a final layer of Blazing Orange in the bottom most corner and a Skull White highlight as before:



For particularly large and prominent gems, such as the one on this Dragon's head, you may want to introduce more layers by mixing each colour to give a layer in between. i.e. between the Scab Red layer and the Red Gore layer add a 1:1 Scab Red/Red Gore layer.



Painting gems may seem like a complicated process, but with all your colours laid out you can get a relatively quick production line going over a unit of reasonable size:



With sufficient models in each batch the previous gem colour will have dried by the time you get back to that model again.

Freehand Details
Malhandir's barding at this stage was looking like a large expanse of white (which on a white horse isn't necessarily good), this seemed like the perfect opportunity for some freehand work.
Taking a cue from the artwork on 'Eavy Metal's version of Tyrion:



I added a yellow strip to the base of the barding:


With freehand on cloth, remember to make sure you follow the folds in the fabric – particularly with straight lines! Any mess can easily be tidied up by reapplying Skull White over the boundary.
The yellow basecoat was then painted up in the same way as the rest of the model:


I then wanted to add some High Elf runes to this panel, to make it look even more detailed. This is Tyrion after all, he's Anearion reborn!!
It's always good idea to find some reference for whatever design you want to practice, most of the Warhammer Armies books (particularly the older editions) feature a page showing the runes and lettering of each race:


The key with all free hand is to practice on paper before committing to the model, else you're more sure of making a cock-up than if you accidentally tune into Babestation Car Washing Night – I have no idea if such a programme actually exists! Easiest place to practice is on the edge of your newspaper you have laid down, but make sure you have the model close by for reference so you can make sure you are practicing to the appropriate scale! Sounds stupid but, much like a target on BBC Three's True Hustle it's easily done.

I decided I wanted to include a variety of runes on the trim (avoiding any that looked really complicated to paint), so selected some whose meaning felt appropriate for Tyrion from the above guide – so I used the runes for things like strength, eternity, line of the kings etc., and not runes for "I'm a fan of Made in Chelsea".

These were then practiced on a Post-It note until I was happy with them, don't feel shy to practice a number of times. At this point I am reminded to say that for all detailing you really need a well looked after fine detail brush. If your fine detail brush currently resembles a teenager's first pubic hair, it's time to break out a new brush. No need to throw the old one away, it could still be useful if you want to draw Xtra Factor presenter Caroline Flack into an elaborate trap, for example.



Once I was happy the runes were then as faithfully as possible copied onto the barding trim. Deliberately choosing the simplest of designs to sit on the folds in the cloth – there's no point in making it too hard! I painted on the runes in Ice Blue. I did find that some of the strokes that were making the runes up were coming out a bit thick, so I reapplied the original yellow basecoat, where I had a bit more room to manoeuvre to neaten them up and thin out the strokes. I then went round with a 1:1 Ice Blue/Skull White mix in the centre of each rune to give them a bit more definition. Here's the final results:









With those details done, Tyrion was now finished!

Stage 4 – Tyrion

















High/Dark Elf Flesh - Highlight 1:1 Elf Flesh/Bleached Bone, then highlight Elf Flesh
High Elf Silver Metal - Highlight 1:1 Chainmail/Mithril Silver, then highlight Mithril Silver
Dark Elf Silver Metal - Highlight Chainmail
High Elf Gold Metal - Highlight 5:1 Shining Gold/Mithril Silver, then highlight Mithril Silver
Dark Elf Gold Metal - Highlight 5:1 Burnished Gold/Mithril Silver, then highlight Mithril Silver
White Cloth - Highlight Skull White
Yellow Cloth - Wash Ogyrn Flesh, then highlight 1:1 Sunburst Yellow/Bad Moon Yellow, then highlight Bad Moon Yellow
Blue Cloth - Highlight 1:1 Ice Blue/Skull White
Dark Elf Leather - Wash Badab Black
High Elf Leather - Highlight Beastial Brown
Malhandir Flesh - Wash watered down Badab Black, then highlight Skull White
Malhandir Nose - Highlight Bleached Bone
Malhandir Hair - Wash watered down Badab Black then lightly Drybrush Skull White
Malhandir Hoofs - *NO CHANGE*
Tyrion Hair - Highlight 1:1 Bleached Bone/Skull White, then highlight Skull White
Dark Elf Hair - Wash Badab Black
Black Cloth - Wash Badab Black
Purple Cloth - Highlight Liche Purple
Rocks - Drybrush Fortress Grey, then wash Badab Black
Lion Statue - Overbrush Dheneb Stone, then Overbrush Bleached Bone
Base - Drybrush Bleached Bone then flocked with static grass

I have to say I really enjoyed painting the Dark Elf, I've always thought it would be fun to paint the antithesis of my noble High Elves and I wasn't wrong. Maybe I will be becoming a dirty Dark Elf player soon!!

White Lion Chariot: Freehand Banners

Freehand Banners

My massive mega High Elf army box set included another chariot so it seemed remiss of me not to paint it up. As I've been in a White Lions mood I went for a White Lion Chariot. The Chariot kit comes with a large banner without any moulded detail, which gives perfect opportunity for some freehand banner work. I've spoken at length before about painting "freehand" banners, using a grid technique – whereby you draw a grid on a similar size banner you like and then by painting a grid on your banner replicate the picture across.

For those of you who want more on this technique, check out this classic update from Tale of OG Gamers – High Elves:

http://ogforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=1294.420

Scroll down a few post to "Week 13", where you can see High Elf, Beastmen and Shakeaway banners made using this technique.

My previous White Lion Chariot already had the banner suggested by the 'Eavy Metal team, so I put my own one together using elements from other High Elf banners. Here's the banner I ended up with the gridlines on:



The banner, shown centre of the below photo, contains the large lion's head traced from the banner at approximately eleven o'clock on the page. The mountains were loosely copied freehand from the banner shown at approximately five o'clock on the page. And the elven rune came from the banner shown at approximately six o'clock on the page.



At this point it's worth remembering that while most banners only need a design on one side, banners carried on chariots or cavalry may need the same image on the reverse. For this I took a photo of the banner with grid (two photos up) and then bought it into my computer. In most graphics packages, even trusty Microsoft Paint, you can flip image, so I did this, and then copied the reverse of the image back into another grid I'd drawn on the other side of the banner.

The base colours were then painted on the banner covering the grid lines:



Before the banner was highlighted in the usual fashion (as per the colours used elsewhere on the model), to give the finished two sided banner:





The stars were added by painting a dot of Skull White for the centre of each one, then using watered down Skull White carefully painting a cross through them to provide the points.

Mounting that on the chariot gives the following finished chariot:









I haven't included a guide for this chariot, as you can see it's quite similar to the original one:



The only real difference is I've swapped over the locations of the yellow and blue to distinguish them from each other. Also I worked out why the charioteer with axe has oddly positioned feet, because he's supposed to have one foot placed on the railing!! If you want to see the original guide for painting a White Lion Chariot, check out Updates 19 & 21, which begin here:

http://ogforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2370.135

Phew that's it! Who'd have thought there'd be so many details, to do with details! Check in next week for the usual non-GW rants plus I'll be taking stock of where we've got to with the High Elves so far ready for the final, final push! There'll be some more Dreadfleet ships and I may even look at the new paint range. All of the above are entirely dependent on my lazy a**e getting into gear!

[DarkStalker]

Highly detailed coverage there cheers Matt....  I may well be pinching and trying out your gem technique when I eventually get around to finishing the fine detailing on my BloodBowl Highelves 

[Dave]

how do you fancy bringing my skaven army to life, only 260 pairs of eyes in need of painting?

[cunningmatt]

Highly detailed coverage there cheers Matt....  I may well be pinching and trying out your gem technique when I eventually get around to finishing the fine detailing on my BloodBowl Highelves 

No worries, think I stole the basic idea from Games Workshop in the first place! Show us some pics of them when done, would be good to see.

how do you fancy bringing my skaven army to life, only 260 pairs of eyes in need of painting?

If it's just the Blood Red dot like my Beastmen, then yes I'll do that. If you want black and white eyes, no.

[fatolaf]

Was a good article, but needed more cock jokes for my liking 

[cunningmatt]

Was a good article, but needed more cock jokes for my liking 

I don't mean to boast, but I wouldn't consider my cock to be a detail - you need at least a Tank Brush to get round that beastie!

[DarkStalker]

No worries, think I stole the basic idea from Games Workshop in the first place! Show us some pics of them when done, would be good to see.

Will do, they're number #2 on my 'to do' list........ although have been at #2 since April 2011 :/

[cunningmatt]

Will do, they're number #2 on my 'to do' list........ although have been at #2 since April 2011 :/

Haha don't worry my list goes a lot further down than #2! Anyone seen me paint any Dreadfleet, terrain, Warriors, Beastmen or get round to getting into 40K yet?!