The Little Cars Are The Star..

 

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

Over the last year or so, I've painted rather a lot of giant robots (and a few monsters) for Botwar. It's not all giant robots (and monsters) though. The human factions employ some normal-sized vehicles and, for those of a certain age group, they might be a little familiar. 

     

These Botwars vehicles are mostly single-piece resin castings (although some of the larger ones come in more pieces) and the castings are crisp and sharp and contain just the right amount of detail for miniatures this size (the cars are roughly 15-20mm long) and the quality of the castings makes them easy and satisfying to paint.

When painting military models on this scale, you can normally get away with a basecoat, drybrush and pinwash but, as these models are based on street vehicles, with much more bright colours often on show, I felt a slightly more detailed approach was necessary, so they were given the sort of techniques usually reserved for larger scale miniatures. 

There's two very important things to be mindful of when working at this scale and at this level of finish. The first is to make sure your edge highlighting is very fine and precise, and that your blends are smooth end even. Also, don't be afraid to have quite a stark contrast between the darkest and lightest colours on any given area, as this will help to give the impression of scale. However, large jumps between colours or thick edge highlights will throw off the sense of scale and leave the end result looking messy, which is why it's important to keep things tidy. It's worth taking the time to be careful how you apply your layers to get a neat, smooth finish, although you could get away with some very careful drybrushing of the main colours. I recommend using a very soft makeup brush if you take this approach. A bigger, stiffer brush would make larger marks and, again, ruin the sense of scale. I spent a couple of hours on the main body panels of each of these vehicles to get them the way I wanted, before finishing them off with the generic details, such as windows, tyres, etc. 

All these models are available as a single set by clicking on the logo below:

Delorean

Over a black undercoat, I painted a coat of Leadbelcher, followed by an all-over wash of Nuln Oil. This was then highlighted with Leadbelcher followed by Ironbreaker, with an edge highlight of Stormhost Silver.

Phoenix**

Over a black undercoat I blended a highlight of a mix of Abaddon Black and Dark Reaper, followed by highlights of Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue and a final highlight, just on the edges of the roof, spoiler, etc. of Fenrisian Grey. The gold was Retributor Armour highlighted with Auric Armour Gold. 

Armadillo

Again, using a black undercoat, the lower half was highlighted with a mix of Abaddon Black and Eshin Grey, followed by Eshin Grey and an edge highlight of Dawnstone. The upper half was basecoated with Eshin Grey, highlighted with Dawnstone and given an edge highlight of Dawnstone/Grey Seer mix. The red was Mephiston Red highlighted with Wild Rider Red.

Nighthawk

I initially made the mistake of painting this black, as I used the wrong reference image, so it has a black undercoat. This one had a basecoat of The Fang, which was highlighted with Russ Grey, then Fenrisian Grey and a very fine edge highlight of Corax White. 

Interceptor

As with the Phoenix, over a black undercoat, a highlight of a mix of Abaddon Black and Dark Reaper, followed by highlights of Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue and a final highlight, just on the edges of the roof, etc. of Fenrisian Grey. 

Freedom Eagle

Over a white undercoat, I applied a basecoat of Gryph-Hound Orange (contrast) which was highlighted with Fire Dragon Bright then Luggunath Orange before being given a glaze of Cassandora Yellow. 

Freedom Eagle 2

The black bodywork on this was done exactly the same way as the Phoenix and Interceptor. The glowing scanner on the front was done with Evil Sunz Scarlet, highlighted with Dorn Yellow then White Scar. This was glazed with Bloodletter, and a couple of glazes were also applied to the surrounding area to give the glow.

Deepdive

Over a white undercoat, a basecoat of Blood Angels Red (contrast) with a highlight of Evil Sunz Scarlet, followed by Troll Slayer Orange then Fire Dragon Bright. An edge highlight of a mix of Fire Dragon Bright/Dorn Yellow was followed by an all-over glaze of a Bloodletter/Carroburg Crimson mix. 

Cyclone

A slightly darker red on this one, which was started with Flesh Tearers Red (contrast) over a white undercoat. This was highlighted with Mephiston Red then Wild Rider Red, Fire Dragon Bright and an edge highlight of Fire Dragon Bright/Dorn Yellow mix. This was then given a glaze of Bloodletter/Carroburg Crimson mix.

Airblade

Over a white undercoat, a basecoat of Thallasar Blue (contrast) was followed by highlights of Caledor Sky, Teclis Blue, Lothern Blue and a final edge highlight of Blue Horror. The jet flames were glaze with a wash of Casandora Yellow. This was then glazed with a couple of coats of Bloodletter, making sure most of the red was concentrated at the bottom. A light drybrush of Mephiston Red was done on the tips.

Buffalo

Again, over a white undercoat, I applied a basecoat of a mix of Thallasar Blue/Ultramarines Blue (both contrast) which was highlighted with Macragge Blue, followed by Altdorf Guard Blue then Calgar Blue, with a final edge highlight of Blue Horror.

Big Bear

Over a white undercoat, a base coat of Volupus Pink (contrast) was given highlights of Pink Horror, then Emperor's Children followed by Fulgrim Pink. This was finished off with a glaze of thinned Carroburg Crimson.

Convoy

Saving the biggest for last! Over a white undercoat, I started with a coat of Flesh Tearers Red (contrast). This was given a basecoat of Khorne Red, leaving the basecoat only showing in the recesses and gaps. This was then highlighted with Wazdakka Red, followed by Squig Orange and Fulgrim Pink. I then glazed this with a couple of coats of thinned Carroburg Crimson. The jet flames were done the same way as with Airblade.

And that's the lot! How many did you recognize?

Thanks for reading!

-Stu

*A point for each one you recognise...

**The temptation was to paint this one gold. A bonus point for you if you know why.... 

Shiver Me Whatsits! It's An Ogre Pirate

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

This week, I'd like to talk to you about this chap:

He is Gorlok Blackpowder and he is the leader of Blackpowder's Buccaneer's, a warband for the hugely successful Warhammer Underworlds game. I painted him for a recent competition held in my local GW store. The competition was held to launch the newly updated Citadel Contrast and Shade paint ranges and had to be something bought especially for the competition and had to make extensive use of the new paints. This would not be an issue for me as, since the launch of the Contrast range, I don't think I've painted a single miniature without using them in some way or another.* I've found them to be incredibly versatile, useful as glazes, shading washes, additions to base and layer paints for colour variations...I've even used them for their advertised purpose, on occasion!

As for painting this particular miniature, I was going to go through each stage, step-by step and describe each paint used and when, but I have decided against doing this, as I never originally planned to write an article about the painting of this miniature, didn't take step-by-step photos so I don't have anything with which to illustrate such an article. Without pictures there's not a lot of point. So what I've decided to do is instead focus on a particular technique that was used on the majority of this miniature. See, what I wanted to go for when I started painting was texture. I wanted his equipment to look old and weathered, without the smooth highlights that are my usual style. I still wanted it to be clean and bright, and based on the 'eavy Metal style, but I wanted there to be a certain amount of wear and tear and worn-in-ness to his clothing. As it was, I couldn't take it as far as I wanted to as I ran out of time to get him finished by the deadline for the competition but I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, particularly the leather of the coat, and this is what I'm going to talk about in this article.

So, for all the leather areas (the red of the coat, the black coat lining, the boots and the shoulder bag) I utilised a loose style, stippling and flicking the brush across the surface to give loose, random highlights, imitating a worn, battered effect. It's a really good idea to look at reference with things like this**, as it can show you things that you wouldn't necessarily have thought about. For instance, with old leather, where it wears away from use it naturally forms its own folds over time and, if not treated, those folds will crack and, being more exposed, will naturally get scratched and their colour will fade. when the colour fades and the surface cracks, the natural tan colour of the leather will show through and this is something that you should bear in mind when painting. The highlights of the colour will be the lighter tone of the base (eg. for black, it will be grey) but the areas of wear will be light brown. If you look at these pictures below, hopefully you will see what I mean. 

There's a clear difference between the grey highlights for the black, and the tan areas to show wear. I did the same on the boots but, obviously with the boots being brown, the difference is not as marked, although the effect is still there. As for how it was achieved well there's no great magic to it. I started each area with a very thin basecoat, using Contrast paints, sometimes mixed with Shades and then applied a deeper shade, wet-in-wet, to make it look patchy and uneven. I then used layers of opaque paints Bases and Layers, to build up the highlights. As I mentioned, these were not blended at all and were applied in a mixture of stippling (to build up the texture) and flicking across the surface (to simulate scratches and random wear.) Finally a highlight of light tan (I used Morghast Bone on all the leather areas) was applied more carefully to show the cracks and splits where the inner leather is showing through. I also added careful light drybrushing of this colour (used sparingly) to show where the top surface had been scuffed off. I then followed all this up with glazes close to the base colour, applied all over at first. These were very thin, applied carefully, the idea being to just smooth the transitions a little, but not too much. A stronger, more saturated glaze was then applied in the deepest recess (again, wet-in-wet, to allow a certain amount of bleeding into the thin all-over glaze). In the pictures below, you can see the difference between the red pre- and post-glaze (apologies for the discrepancies in the photos, they were taken while working on the miniature in less-than-ideal conditions for photography. Hopefully you'll get the idea.) 

As I said, I had then planned to go back and re-establish some of the cracks in the light tan, but I ran out of time. Maybe next time.

So, here's the end result.

In the competition he got second place, which I was chuffed with. In terms of the actual painting, I wanted to experiment with textures and work on my NMM and, in that regard, the project was a success. As I said, I'd love to have had the time to do more work on the wear and tear on the leather areas, and I'm still not 100% satisfied with the NMM, but I'm getting there. I had a lot of fun with this miniature. It's got bags of character, and one of those models that is a dream for the painter, with loads of areas of different texture to play with. At some point, I'm going to have to get round to doing the rest of his gang...

For those who are interested, here's the colours used:

BOOTS: Base: Garaghak's Sewer; Shade: Agrax Earhshade/Nuln Oil; Highlights: Doombull Brown, Tuskgor Fur, Jokaero Orange, Morghast Bone; Glaze: Agrax Earthshade/Athonian Camoshade; Recess Glaze: Garaghak's Sewer

JACKET: Base: Flesh Tearers Red; Shade: Nuln Oil; Highlights: Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Morghast Bone; Glaze: Bloodletter***; Recess Glaze: Flesh Tearers Red

JACKET LINING: Base: Basilicanum Grey; Shade: Black Templar; Highlights: Eshin Grey, Mechanicus Standard Grey, Dawnstone, Morghast Bone; Glaze: Nuln Oil; Recess Glaze: Black Templar

SHOULDER BAG: Base: Snakebite Leather; Shade: Garaghak's Sewer; Highlights: Flayed One flesh, Morghast Bone; Glaze: Seraphim Sepia; Recess Glaze: Agrax Earthshade

That's all for now, see you next week, where I'll be talking about some teeny-tiny little cars... 

Thanks for reading!

Stuart

*plus, I hardly needed an excuse to buy more paints, or  new miniature specifically for the competition... 

**And don't restrict yourself to looking at, for example, old coats as reference for old coats. Think about other things that might have old leather on them. I found some great reference looking at old sofas and writing desks...

***it's a real shame that GW have discontinued the glazes. I know they're easy to replicate but having them ready-mixed in the perfect colours, density and opacity was really useful, and I'll miss them once I've used them up.

Reports Of My Blog's Demise Were Greatly Exaggerated! (By...errr, me, mostly...)

 

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

After an absence of about 18 months, the Sublime Brushwork blog is back! For those who are followers of old, I'm sorry I've been away for so long, I'll try and make up for lost time. For those who are here for the first time, a brief introduction:

My name is Stuart Thomas and this, here, is my blog where I will write about stuff and things. 
Want a bit more info? Okay, most people know me as a former member of the Games Workshop 'Eavy Metal studio miniatures painting team (circa 1992-2001)* which is a very grand way of saying I painted toy soldiers for a living. Since then, I've done a variety of jobs, with varying degrees of lack of success, and I've come full-circle, back to trying to earn a living painting toy soldiers**. If you really want to know more, check out the Middlehammer Memory Lane, an autobiography of my time as a member of 'eavy Metal.

The purpose of this blog is to air my thoughts and indulge my love of rambling on about stuff, and spare the almost-but-not-quite infinite patience of The Better Half from said ramblings. Hopefully, some of what I write will be of interest to others. Most of it will relate to the world of miniature painting and games, but they may also include random thoughts about all sorts of things (usually thought of while in the shower*** or while doing the washing up or doing the cleaning at work****.) I've also been known to sometimes experiment with drawing, painting and writing and I may well subject some of those things for public scrutiny, if I feel brave enough but, mostly, it's going to be me talking about stuff I've painted. The main thing, for at least, is to have an outlet for my thoughts and ideas, techniques, inspirations, and anything else that comes to mind. You might even see reviews and videos, eventually.***** I have a gallery of the work I've done for Stuff Of Legends, which I'll update soon, and I've got a couple more galleries like that planned. 

I also want to throw in some actually useful stuff, tutorials and painting guides and the like, and I want to throw this open to you all out there in reader-land. If there's a particular technique, colour, style, effect, etc. that you are struggling with, drop me a line and I will do my best to help with it here.  I'd love to hear your opinions and any thoughts you have, or suggestions for content, etc. There's obviously going to be a period of finding my feet, seeing what works and so on, and any feedback or suggestions would be really useful. 

I'm  going to try and maintain a regular schedule of weekly posts but I know only too well how real life can interfere with the best laid plans, and I don't have anything even close to what could be described as  a "best-laid plan" so we'll have to see how it goes. 

If you want to see more of what I'm up to on a day to day basis, I (usually) post a daily update on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter so please feel free to follow on any of those. I really hope there will be some stuff of interest to you here. If that's the case, please feel free to join in by leaving comments and sharing it about a bit amongst your social medias. Anything that would help spread the word of what I'm up to here would be deeply appreciated.

The plan is to put up a new post every Monday and, next Monday, it all kicks off with a bit of chat about how I painted this guy. I hope you'll join me!

Welcome to the inner workings of the Stuey mind*****.

Thanks for reading!

p.s. if you like what I'm doing here, a click on the link below and the donation of the price of a pot of paint would be a wonderful gesture. I'm thinking of adding special stuff to the Ko-fi, like competitions and prize draws, so it'd be a good idea to at least have a look there now and then 😁 

*actually, most people who actually know me, know me as that annoying hairy guy who dresses funny and makes awful jokes

**amongst other things. I'm also a part-time night care assistant. I'm a keep-my-eggs-in-more-than-one-basket kinda guy...

***it's best you don't try to think about that bit...

****the life of a care worker is full of glamour..

*****if I ever get a setup sorted out and figure out how to do it

******such as it is...