The Glow
There a lot of incredible tutorials on source lighting techniques. Sadly, what follows would be denied admittance into their hallowed halls. Instead I went for something fast and identifiable, since it was going to have be duplicated so many times, on so many models. For every step to follow put this in your brain-wet paint, wet paint, wet paint!
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
Starting with some super wet VGC Ultramarine Blue and my Standard brush I painted the areas that I wanted to be lit, or glowing. After that I painted the areas nearest the glowing parts to create the light pollution effect. As long as the paint is wet there is little need to be super careful in this step, the more mess, the brighter the light.
Once I had the coat I liked, I covered all the Ultramarine Blue and surrounding areas in a wash of CW Asurman Blue, straight out of the pot. I made sure I covered all the blue I painted, but wasn't really careful with where else the wash got to further create the effect of the light source.
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
*Sorry about the crap focus on this pic, it didn't look that bad last night :(
Once the wash was dry I used my Standard brush and VGC Magic Blue(You guessed it, very watery!) and painted the interior of the lights, as well as the edges of the areas around the glowy things. This is the exact same principal as I used for every other part of the model, however instead of my light coming from the top, it came from the things I wanted to have appear as glowing. Then I went in again and did the same thing with VGC Electric Blue, only filling in less area on the "light" parts.
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
I switched up to my WN S7(Windsor Newton Series 7) 0 for the next step. I created a heavily thinned (water/matte medium) mix of 1:1 VGC Electric Blue and VGC White. Just like on the other parts of the model, I painted the corners and the highest areas surrounding the "lights". I also painted the center of the "lights" with just dots, making it look like the brightest point. Once that step was completed I used a watered down (3:1 ish) mix of water and CW Asurman Blue over everything I had painted with any kind of blue. This glaze helped to smooth out the colors between steps.
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
When the models was finished, like after being coated, I went back with VGC Gloss Varnish and hit the areas emitting the light (Not the surrounding areas.) to make the look more like like an LED-thing.
Squad Insignias
Before diving right in, let me share something I wish I would have learned a lot sooner. I used to spend far too much time on freehand. I would obsess over every little detail until it was near perfect, which normally resulted in me messing something up. I was talking to someone once and I was saying how much I really admired their freehand. They said they spent almost no time on it. Looking closely I could see that it wasn't as exact as a Golden Demon model (No Jesus on a cloak eating a corn dog or anything.) but it looked good. Fact is, I am not trying to win a Golden Demon, so I am good with getting something down that looks cool from four feet. That being said, when free-handing squad insignias I prioritize thusly: identification, replication, and then exact.
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
Using VGC Bone White and a Standard Brush I drew four-ish lines where I wanted the squad insignias to be located (Shoulder, right side of the pulse rifle, and left side of the helmet.) with thick lines. After that I just used the original base color, CGC Knarloc Green (Didn't add water but I wish I had.) and cleaned up the lines. Once the bars were to my liking I added the dot over the first two with the Bone White.
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
You see that glob of paint on the final bar in the picture? That is why I wished I had thinned the Knarloc Green. I went back and smoothed it out after the pics. I also realize that the picture being in that tight is not doing me any favors for pointing out that from further off, those bars look straight, but they do. For the last step in the insignias, to add some depth, I used some thinned VGC Off White to paint over the bars and the dots in the higher areas. The picture doesn't really show the difference, because it is subtle, but it does make the insignias look a lot less flat.
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
I will also use this step to clean up my lines a touch, though I will not let myself dwell on them.
Back to the Base
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
I am not sure what to call my whole theme with basing, other than "Shit I like to glue on bases". I used Woodland Scenics tree flock and honey colored static grass. Not all of my fire warriors will get the tree flock. They don't all get to be standing in or around shrubs. I just attach both products with a dab of super glue. I should note not to press down on the flock when adhering it the base. That stuff is flaky and porous, so you just end up with your finger covered in glue.
For the sake of my brush I made sure my glue was dry before dry brushing the tree flock with VGC Dead Flesh and the static grass with VGC Off White. Once the flora was taken care of I painted the black ring around the bases with a couple coats of VGC Earth.
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
It was getting late so I really rushed the painting of the outer ring of the bases. Next time I will go a little slower and use more coats so the paint doesn't look as chunky. Even still, it is the bottom of the god damn mini, and no one is gonna notice.
Finish Line
Once everything was done, I loaded the fire warriors up on a box lid and took them outside for a coat of Citadel Purity Seal and let them dry over night.
This morning they looked good to me so let's call them done.
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| From Stuff I Have Painted |
That concludes my fire warrior series. If you have any questions don't hesitate to shoot me an email.
Thanks for reading,
T
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