Deepkin Undercover

 Not a lot done this weekend.  I could probably call this terrain piece tabletop ready, although it is far from being done.  I need to apply some verdigris, and paint the various fish, bottles, barnacles, and shells.  The overall paint job is a bit dull.  After washing the whole thing, I drybrushed it with a 1:1 mix of Tokai Grey and Brigadine Brown from Army Painter.  I did another lighter highlight with more of the grey, but really it barely registers.   After that it was Balthasar Gold from Citadel.  I am not sure if the Sigmar sculpture on the front is supposed to be wood or metal, but now it is metal.  I then tried AP Strong Tone for the first time.  It was not what I expected, and is very thick, with a slow drying time, so you could sort of move the shadows around a bit.  I liked it, and will use it again I am sure.

I wasn't feeling it for the old sharkie boy this evening, so I went back to my terrain piece.  Now that it was all brown, I knew I need to give it a black wash, but the thought of the cost involved was putting me off.  So I found a super cheap black wash recipe from Black Magic Craft, which in turn led me to an improved version he had done.  As it turns out, I had all of the required ingredients.  Blending Medium, Flow-aid, black ink and even water!  If I had to buy this, it would not have been a cheap wash, but as the monery was already spent, it felt free. Insert exciting picture of washed boat half that looks slightly darker than the other half.  This is a slow job, and the flow-aid was put in a bit heavy I suspect, as I am getting a lot of bubbles. I will give this a drybrush afterwards, to bring back some highlights, and knock back the shine.

Ok, the title might be just for the clicks.  I can always paint over this, so fail is maybe a bit much, but I ended up trying to put Hardened Leather Speedpaint mixed 2:1 with Medium on top of the PJs Wraithbone.  The result was expected, but not desired.  It look exactly as patchy as I had feared, and it dried so fast I really couldn't work with it. I am not enjoying painting this shark at all.  Smooth surfaces, but fiddly, so blending didn't seem like the best approach.  I will probably just eat the loss on this one, and try a different approach on the second shark. I also highlighted the armour.   

I finished the armour basecoat, and then threw the shade all over it.  I need to let it dry, so had no chance to highlight, so instead I focussed on the shark's Pjs.  I did two thin coats of wraithbone, but it has not been enough.  The reason for this, is so I can have a coat of light paint to cover with one of my leather contrast paints.  Although I have some concerns about contrast over such a large flat area.  Maybe this is a bad idea.  I will ponder.

Due to a bike ride that went a bit longer than expected, I was not able to do much painting tonight.  Not quite able to get all the first armour base coat on, but close.

So I decided since one of my completed riders from last week was actually a shark rider that I would go ahead and finish the Eel rider while also getting my first shark done. I did the usual zenithal, but decided to go "Great White" with the colour scheme, with a light underbelly of Wolf Grey from Vallejo, and an above with State Grey from AP.  Sadly I think the State Grey is a bit light, and doesn't give me much room for highlighting.  I also need to protect the underbelly white a bit better.  So I am going to go back over it again before doing any work on the shark's armour and accessories.

 ... a finished unit!  I ended up getting a fair bit of hobby time in this weekend, due to the cold wet weather.  One thing I am noticing about this army painting experience, was not what I was expecting.  I thought I would see an improvement in my painting skills, but instead, what I have seen is a reduction in my expectations.  This might sound like a bad thing, but for me I think it is actually a good thing to just feel like, "Hey, these look good enough". I am definitely over the halfway mark now, in terms of my model count, if not points, which I think are at 810 painted.

Back to the eels.  I finished the skin on the third one.  One interesting thing, was I used Citadel Contrast Medium with the Citadel Contrast paint, and found it to work less well that the Speedpaint Medium.  I ended up with some extra splotchiness in a few spots.  See, so very interesting. I actually did a bit of prep work on another piece, but I am not going to post pictures for that today.  I did take some though, so maybe I will do an epic "How I painted" post in the future, depending on how it turns out.

So I thought I would be able to finish the third eel skin this evening, but that is not what happened.  Instead I thought I would quickly airbrush a couple of the manifestation minis first.  I mean, it is an airbrush, so it would be really quick. Started with the usually zenithal white over black.  Followed that up with an undershade of Shyish Purple Contrast.  Then I found an old bottle of Sea Blue paint, made in Canada no less!  The Color Drop System (yes, they spelled color that way) by Global Games.  I had a heck of a time getting the paint out.  I could hear it, and it sounded like it was in good shape, but the nozzle was terribly clogged.  Except it wasn't clogged, but was so old you had to literally cutoff the end up the nozzle like it was a tube of caulking ;) Anyway, it is a really nice paint, too bad I can't get more.  I sprayed it from above, and stopped to look at my handywork.  Clearly it needed some drybrushing, so that hap...

So I painted the other half of the test eel I did yesterday, then painted another whole eel.  Well the skin anyway.  I put the new one up next to the old drybrushed one, and decided I would re-apply the Contrast in a very thin layer.  Not a huge difference, but I like the effect every so slightly more eh. I still plan on drybrushing the second one, just to smooth out a few things, but will apply a thin glaze over top after. Slapped some Reikland Flesh shade on the riders, to darken the recesses a bit before I start highlighting.  Very subtle. One thing I am struggling with the Army Painter paint is getting a smooth finish.  My effort thinning it has not gone well.  Likely a me issue, but it is leaving a very rough finish because it dries so fast, and tears.  Maybe I need a humidifier in my room or something.

I had a pretty strong vision in my mind.  High contrast, smooth blends, and shading that just brought out the slight undulations that I knew I couldn't tackle with my brushwork alone.  It was going to be the eel to end all eels. Instead, an eel was painted in a way that gently whispers "meh". Today's paints, are all from the Army Painter Fanatic line.  Grotesque Green, Camouflage Green and Woodland Green which are all from the same Olive Green family, from light to dark.  I had to add a bit of Matt Black to the Woodland Camo for the deeper recesses.  After finishing their application, I gave the whole thing a wash of 1:1 Contrast Mantis Warrior Green to medium. This was probably a mistake, and I was forced to do a drybrush of Grotesque Green over everything to tone it down.  This caught a few edges of armour, so will need to touch those areas up. I don't hate how they look, but may do something different with the next unit.

This post is really just for me.

 Somehow I didn't notice that I grabbed a shark rider instead of an eel rider.  I think these are supposed to be the Morrsarr Guard, which definitely has some meaning within the game.  I will not doubt master their use in the future. Standard armour stuff here.

 Well, the white suckers made all the difference, and really saved this mini for me.  Thanks mother nature!

So, I have heard it can be a challenge to highlight red without going pink.  It's true.  I feel like I will have to keep deepening the shadows, but I should probably watch a video or something.  Regardless, he is close to being tabletop quality, so I may just press on.  He look a bit busy, and i am not sure the red is going well, or even why I picked red, as I am not sure I have ever seen a red octopus.  Or an underwater elf for that matter. Ok, I just google a red octopus, and it seems like it might exist. I need to give it white suckers though. I also spent some time prepping the next unit.  Eeeeeels!  I glued the riders to some bases to see if it makes them a bit easier to paint.  I did not have a lot of fun with the already mounted Akhelian King ;)

Well, I ended up inking the bases after my last post so they would be dry for today.  Just used a 3:2 mix of Dark Wood Speedpaint.  Then after a trip to the tulip festival, I can home and gave them a Citadel Wraithbone drybrush, and painted the rims black.  I did notice I forgot to paint a little bauble hanging of the standard, so quickly covered it up before adding these to the painted table. Here is the whole unit:

Now you see 'em, now you don't!  Crotches Cloaked! I had a very productive day today, but sadly none of it had to do with painting or hobbies.  Tomorrow is shaping to be much the same, but luckily it is a long weekend, so still possible for me to finish. Just bases on the thralls and Lotann left.

Three of the five crotch cloaks completed.  I may try and deepen some shadows, but then again, I might not.

Today was largely a speed painting day.  I did AP Dark Wood Speedpaint for the weapon handles, thinned 1:1 with medium, as well as Akhelion Green Contrast 1:1 with medium for the clothes.  The weapons themselves were painted with AP Broadsword Silver Speedpaint.  I finished up with a very quick application of my usual orange blends for the tassles front and back.  They will end up blending in with the crotch cloaks, so I made little effort.  I considered making them a different colour, but I felt it would make the models look too busy. I should be able to complete this unit and hero by the end of the weekend, if all goes to plan.

 So I finished the skin, and went over the overbrushed green metallic highlight with some white, to prepare for some contrast. Oh, I was trying to do some colour experimentation on the Octopus With a Citadel Xereus Purple in the shadows, blending up to Army Painter Gecko Armour at the high point.  Need to figure out highlights, so lot to consider here.  Also, I just realized the title is misleading, the Octopus skin is not finished!

 I did an hour and a half of biking tonight, and while I felt I had the energy to paint, the results were not so good.  I found I was lacking any precision, and called it after doing a couple of Wraithbone skin highlights.  Hopefully I can finish their skin tomorrow.

 Lotann's face is already giving me nightmares, and I haven't even gone to sleep yet.  Even with magnifiers I can't see what I am doing.  Maybe I should have tackled it first, instead of last tonight.

 The standard base coat of green metallic with a dark green shade. 

I was going to deepen some shadows, and raise up some highlights, but am going to move on instead.  I could of course revisit these some day, but I think we all know how that story will end. On to the next batch!

Almost there, but I ran out of time.  Pretty confident I will be able to push these into the table ready pile tomorrow.  Still some contrast paint to apply, and a few highlights.

Ok, I could not in good conscience put the word crotch in the post title, but we all know what I meant.  Same recipe as usual for the orange.  I also splashed a little more blue on a piece of clothing I missed, see if you can spot it. So next up will be to finish up the various bits and bobs on the Thralls, and to tackle the fish on the Tidecaster.  Maybe a deep purple contrast base and highlight up from there, not sure.

I wasn't feeling great today and just didn't have it in me to do anything that required brush control.  So slapping thinned dollar store brown paint on some faction terrain seemed like the right choice.

 More of the same.  One more crotch cloak done, and did the fin/headdress on the Tidecaster.

 So I am going to take an informal poll on this one.  Should I post every time I make visible progress, or only when I complete a full set of changes for the current batch of models.  Since progress had slowed a bit, I thought maybe the latter.  Leave your thoughts in the comments, and I will tally up all the votes and make a decision. This was the same combination of Bakunin Neon for the recesses, then wet blending in various combinations of it with Invincible Orange.  Then a final glaze with Yutang Sunset and Matt White, also in various combinations, with a smidge of edge highlighting.  Whatever seemed right. 

 Pace has slowed a bit.  Not happy with the blue, especially the cloak.  Looks better on the underside, but I will probably have to repaint the other side.