AidanO's plog - ISS - Sun Tzu WiP (05/05/19)

Remaking my plog from the old forums, with some of my newer WiPs. Pretty much ISS only, although once I'm happy with them, will be starting Nomads (I really want to paint their TAGs) and the occasional mini from other armies that I really want to paint.

I'm not a great photographer, these pictures are all taken with my phone camera.

 

Now onto the WiPs. Umbra Legate because I've wanted a break from ISS minis before getting back into them. I'm trying to decide what colour to make the front panels. The edging of the pink armour plates and shoulders are going to be NMM gold, but not 100% sure on what to do for the tabard-esque front panels.

 

And starting Wu Ming while I wait for more paints to arrive for the Umbra. I'm taking quite a lot of progress pics for my friend, so he sees how it all starts to come together. This is Base coat plus first layer applied to the chest, but just the basecoat of the teal on the rest of the armour.



First layer done. Except for the guantlet on the left arm and the helmet, it got done after the photo. You can see the extra highlighting on the chest compared to the boots already, allowing for extra shadows and to draw attention to the torso/face of the mini.



I like to get my undersuit done at this point, once I've mapped out where the colours go on the armour, I then finish the undersuit, red through to orange. I didn't take pictures of the intermediate steps.

 

Pretty easy actually: P3 Murderous Magenta as a base, Vallejo Red RLM (71102) as an intermediate layer. Then P3 Carnal Pink as the next layer. Mixing 1:1 between each layer and some white edging mixed with the Carnal Pink for the highlights.

 

A bit more progress on the Umbra, sorry about the fuzzy shot, it was taken with my phone. After seeing how the Gold NMM turned out (in person, it's a bit dark in the photo), I've settled on doing the gauntlets in gold as well. Still not sure what to do with the front panels. Also thinking gemstones rather than glowing orbs for the normal osl areas.

 

Getting some quality work done. So some more WiP pics. Realised why my pics are blurry, in addition to my skills with a camera being bad, the phone camera is a bit scratched, so I will be getting some done properly when it's finished. But at least some of these pics are lit with daylight.

Nighttime progress shot of the gold gauntlets and NMM sword


Base coated the front tabard thingy. But it's daylight and gives a bit better lighting.


Managed to get better lighting and focus on this one. After I finished the blue of the tabard.


It's still a little desaturated, but should be able to see what's going on. Next steps. Finish the white on the tabard thing and then grey/black highlight of the wires on the body that I didn't want to do in blue. Probably the same for his boots/feet and then basing.

 

Well I finished him, but some late afternoon photos before the light ran out were achieved and I borrowed a camera. Although they were rushed. But he's done for now.



I'll get some proper pictures in the morning. Ignore the dodgy MS paint copy and paste in the top left, it's blocking out a sunbeam that was distracting from the mini.

 

Thank you, but I'm nowhere near that good. I'm just lucky CB makes such beautiful minis that make my average skills look good.

But I am pretty happy with where I've gotten to, especially since I don't use an airbrush. It does make it take a lot longer

 

Fully finished pics of the Umbra.

 

Today's progress shot, took it as the sun was going down so it's got the flash on and the edge highlights are showing a bit too harsh.

Back onto the Wu Ming. A cool group of minis, but not as fun to paint as the Umbra.



Definitely need to tidy up the helmet a bit more. But guns and other black/grey parts to go and then we're done on this guy. I'm aiming for one fun mini, then one Wu Ming, to break up the repetitiveness of painting the same unit.

 

The blue/teal uses GW paints. Base Incubi Darkness -> Sotek Green -> Temple Guard Blue -> Baharroth Blue -> White. Often with a 50/50 blend between layers. If the transition is too rough, often hitting it with a glaze of Sotek Green to smooth the transition out.

The only difference between the armour plates and the blue cloth on the Umbra was a wash made from Vallejo Night Blue. to deepen it and turn it from a teal into a blue.

 

So the Wu Ming is almost complete. Just basing and some details to finish off. But my Luxumbra KS arrived. So I'm going to finish off the Wu Ming at some point (he's probably not going to be used without his four friends anyway).

This is my next project. I'm thinking chrome for the left arm, David Sarif style.

 

So I've been distracted and by the time I've been getting home from work, it's too dark to paint, plus I went down and visited Cancon this weekend, so I picked up some stuff to help. Grabbed a painting halo, so the led strips will give me plenty of light. But I also grabbed some Knights of Dice terrain. Quick review. This stuff is AMAZING. The detail and scope of the KoD terrain is fantastic and the tolerances of the mdf are incredible. But onto the pictures...

 

Hsien WiP, been doing some non-Infinity stuff, but going back to my ISS stuff.