[PLOG] Zlatan's painting blog

[cultofkhaine]

wow - like the sorceress. The effects in the eyes and hands and chrome effect on her chest plate is looking great! Really brings the model to life. Have you thought about bringing the colour from her hand and face onto the staff as well? My only negative comment is that the paint looks a bit grainy - have you tried watering your paints down a bit? Your technique is getting better all the time.

[Zlatan]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you recognised what I was trying to do with the chrome effect. I'm planning on continuing this on the staff top, and yeah I'll carry the blue glow over to the staff.

I know what you mean about the grainy texture and its something I've always had a problem with! I already thin my paints quite a lot, almost to te point where it starts to run into cracks so I have no idea what I'm doing wrong... It doesn't look too bad in reality, but really seems to come out on camera or in particularly bright light.

Maybe it could be because I only get to paint fairly late under artificial light, so it's hard to see how thickly I'm applying highlights, or it might be fine dust from the pretty old palette I've been using?

[Jarvax]

or it might be fine dust from the pretty old palette I've been using?

It's true that you have to keep your tools clean, but I post on this topic now because I just realized that I haven't commented here for a long time and some wonderful things are happening here. Where can I start? The dragon with the smooth highlights/blends? The dragon rider's shield with the awesome metallics? The corsairs? The crossbowmen? Or the sorceress with the perfectly painted chrome? This chrome is award winning by itself.

This is a thread that I'll keep my eyes on from now on.

[Yamagogimon18]

NMM looks great! That chrome effect is awesome.

Love the dragon too; the boney plates on its chest and the eyes especially.

Keep it up!

[Zlatan]

@jarvax and @yamagogimon18 - thanks a lot! It means a lot coming from you two. I've subscribed to your plogs


Here's the progress on the dragon. Apart from the base and a banner for the throne, I think it's finished, unless anyone can suggest any improvements?








online photo sharing

Please let me know what you think and any suggestions...

[van Awful]

Wow Brilliantly done!

[cultofkhaine]

No comments - looks brilliant!! and that shield should tie in well with the new warriors.

Well done.

[Jarvax]

Can I buy this?

Well done mate!

[Helle]

Your Dragon is stunning! Absolutely amazing, I love it!

[Zlatan]

Thank you all very much for the positive comments!

[Yamagogimon18]

Wow, amazing final product. Your NMM continues to astound me, those dragon bracer things especially. It's something I've never tried because I mostly like to layer and NMM seems to synergize best with wet blending, which i don't no much of because my paint always dries too fast. Are you using a paint retarder?

If there's anything you could fix I'd say you should fill in your cracks. It's a little late now but for your future projects. I think it might bother me more than other people, (I've green-stuffed Cold One teeth for christ sake...) but I think it looks better.

Also I think some of the horns, teeth and spikes look a little flat. Those breast bone-plate things look perfect, so if you carried that over to a few of the horns, etc I think it would look a little better.

These are pretty nit-picky comments, but there are always thing to improve on and I know I like to hear what I can do better. After laboring over a model for 20+ hours I tend to lose perspective...

In any case, your model is awesome! I've got a dragon sorceress conversion that i wanna paint soon (well, with new models otw, who knows how soon...) and I'll definitely be looking at this one for inspiration, especially the wings. I've struggled with wings in the past and I think yours are exemplary.

[Zlatan]

Thanks a lot. I'm quite happy with the way the wings turned out. It was actually really simple: 50/25/25 mix of abbadon black, mechanicum standard grey and Naggaroth night, then lighten by adding Rakarth flesh to the mix bit by bit. Drybrush on. Final drybrush just on te edges and highest areas is 50/50 Rakarth flesh and Naggaroth night. Then apply a really thick reikland flesh shade wash. Finally a nuln oil wash in the crevasses where the wing skin meets the finger bones.

[Meraklis]

the only thing I can criticize here is the lack of proper ligthing in your pictures.

The rest is simply awesome! Especially the dragon! I love it! How did you paint the skin? (btw thx for the wings recipe!)

[Loran]

Like everyone has said: Stunning work, mate! Looks really good!

I'm a huge fan of the Dragon especially. I've had a bit of a problem of getting the wings to look good, so thanks for the tips! I'm hoping to have time to try the colour scheme out later today Keep posting pics, as seeing models painted by other people is probably the best way to get fired up on my own painting!

- Loran

[johemero]

Great stuff, keep it up!

[Zlatan]

Thanks to everyone for the comments.

@meraklis: the skin is just a black spray, and then successive drybrushing (starting with "wetbrushing" and moving on to proper drybrushing.

I added mechanicum standard grey to abandon black for the first few coats. As I approached pure mechanicum standard grey I started adding a 50/50 mix of Rakarth flesh and genestealer pink to the mix, bit by bit, to lighten it further. The final drybrush is just rakarth flesh/genestealer pink mix, very lightly drybrushed on the highest areas only (around the head, ankles, and where the fingers/toes meet the claws).

The underbelly/neck/under the tail was done with a mix of rhinox hide/mechanicum grey/and Naggaroth night as a basecoat (I can't remember the ratios). Lightened with a mix of Rakarth flesh and genestealer pink for the highlights. Finished with an agrax earthshade wash and a final drybrush of terminatus stone (very light)

The whole upper part of the body was given a nuln oil wash at the end, and then once that was dry I used an agrax earthshade wash where the black skin meets the brownish skin on the belly. Finally I did a watered down druchii violet wash around the eyes and mouth.

[Zlatan]

Here are the first of my new goodies.

I've tried to get them to a tabletop standard only as quickly as possible, so they're a bit rushed.


screenshot pc

[Lion of flanders]

Zlatan: I think you paint too well to be satisfied with "tabletop standard".

I realize that these were a bit rushed and they are quite nice. I'd suggest one EZ and fast thing to do that will make a big difference in your WE...and that is darken the area around the eyes. You can decide how harsh you want to go with eyeliner (I'd suggest harsh as hell ), but a simple darker skin tone applied thin to the eye socket before you paint the eye itself will take no time and really make the eyes stand out.

[Zlatan]

Thanks for the advice Lion. I've done as you said picture's really bad quality I'm afraid but I'll post a better one when it's daylight.

I agree it looks much better and didn't take any extra time. I literally just blobbed on some bugman's glow and repainted the eye

[Phierlihy]

They both looks great! I'm not going to say I'm a fan of the red bra but both models looks really good.

[Kurze]

The painting looks fantastic

Scale looks out though, is the witch elf actually bigger? Could just be me.

Oh, and the dragon is superb! I would be proud to have my general eaten by that

[Meraklis]

cheers for the colour recipe!!! I appreciate it!

oh, and by the way, great work on those "rushed" models. They look great. What did you buy from the new models?

[Zlatan]

Just finished my new assassin. Fairly pleased with the cloak but not too sure about the armour.

[Lord Drakon]

Just wow, impressive!
I love the armour, you just inspired me to use the same, but I will change the blue/purple for red

[Jarvax]

The armour is great. If I ever get that mini I'll do it that way but with all black cloak.