What I've been doing recently, a painting and modelling log...

Well, if you paint the guy and the throne separately, I think (like Punktaku said) it should be pretty easy to access everywhere. Looking at the picture of the assembled mini though, if you glued it all together first I think it would be hard to paint the cloth that's on the seat of the throne, and some parts of the guy's legs.

I see what you mean, he won't be glued in place, not during painting at least. No way I'd glue him in before painting commences, the airbrush probably wouldn't get paint in there properly either.
 
So, I spent about an hour this afternoon doing some stuff on Dragoth the Defiler...

I hate days like this, I didn't get a good night sleep, didn't help having mother's morning carer banging on the front door, ringing the door bell and then calling the home phone at 07:45! And so I'm tired this afternoon. So, of course stuff went wrong...

Quick photos below, apologies for any blur.


Whilst drilling a hole in the seat, with a Dremel-like multitool, I managed to grind the top skull on the back rest of the throne, that'll have to be replaced by some other skull! You can see my dodgy drilling attempt to try to make new eyes to fix it - having looked at my references, there's not meant to be eyes there, it's the top of a skull! I also filled the gap in the back of the seat, I'm hoping it still looks like skin draped over, but the figure somewhat hides that crime.
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I filled a gap on one side between the throne and it's base -
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Two holes drilled for pins -
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Two pins in Dragoth, one in the butt, the other in his left leg -
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Dragoth sitting in place -
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And a quick undercoat via airbrush. I gave the throne a Ctiadel Wraithbone undercoat to start with, but the stonework on it will get re-undercoated with black. Dragoth himself is undercoated in Vallejo Metal Color gloss black, my airbrush was playing up at this point (it didn't work well with the wraithbone), so I think I need to go back in with a hairy stick and do more of the gloss black in places. I took his head off (read it fell off) but I am likely going to use the skull head instead of the helmeted head, so that's no big deal, I cleaned up the CA glue in his "neck bowl" anyway -
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He was a non-trivial pinning job because of the way he sits on the edge of the throne. but I managed to get him so he sits OK. There's a tiny bit of a gap under his left foot and his hand isn't quite touching the arm rest properly, but hey ho. I was tempted to just do away with the butt pin, but didn't think the foot pin would be sufficient.

I didn't pin his other foot because I think that would have proved a little awkward as there's negative space behind the skull it rests on, and where to drill in the foot wasn't particularly obvious to me.

There's two massive gaps either side of the back of the throne and the sides of it. I'm guessing Reaper meant them to be there? Either way I don't see me filling them, as the only (read quickest//easiest) way would be to squeeze plasticard in to fill the gap and I'm inclined to leave them, just put some black paint in there for shadow.




Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.
 
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Spent another few hours this afternoon doing more of Dragoth the Defiler...

I fixed the ground down skull, using a Citadel skull, positioned as the original was. It's a tad too big for my liking but it'll have to do -
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Some black and greys on the thone's stonework, and Vallejo Metal Colors on his armour -
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Dragoth himself is pretty much done, just his head and sword and a detail round his neck to do, so bone, steel chain, gemstone and some glowy stuff. I will probably go in with some black ink and put in some black lining if I can in places, to tidy up it's definition...

The throne is where most of the work is now, I need to re-undercoat some of the bones/skin where I got black and grey on them, then I'll go in with some Contrast paints and some drybrushing to do the skin and bone. Having checked references, I've also noted that the arm rests are partially stone, so I'll have to go in and do those first next time I sit and do more on this...

I feel that I should stipple on some Citadel Karak Stone or something just for a bit of interest on the stonework but I'm kind of worried about it making it look bad at this point...



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.
 
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And, five hours later...

When I'm on a roll I'm on a roll!

Dragoth the Defiler, Undead Lord, aka my WHQ '95 Dread King, is finished.

There's a blob of gloss varnish still drying in these photos (It's dried clear now) and they seem a tiny bit over-exposed to me, unfortunately.

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Citadel Contrast paint + Contrast medium is "talent in a bottle" at times! All the bone and the skin is Contrast paint, although the bones did get a tiny bit of a drybrush with Citadel Pallid Wych Flesh.

I tried for glowing lettering on his sword, it didn't quite work, as the glow is still a bit too strong/bright at the edges of the blade. I tried darkening the edges of the glow with black ink but it just wasn't having it. The glowing gem on his chest didn't work much better. But hey ho, they look OK.

The skeleton on the left corner accidentally got some blue ink/glaze on the lower portion of his torso (how, I do not know?!), but I'm calling it the last of his "life force" leeching out...


Now, where's my Squig herd...



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.
 
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That's impressive painting for 5 hours - nice work! The OSL effects look very good in the photos. Perhaps a bit more highlighting for the red gem and the blue glow on the skeleton at the base, but the main man's eyes and the blade OSL are looking spot on in the pics!
 
Thanks Mr M. Technically it was 8.5 hours as I had a session in the afternoon and about 30 minutes the other day doing the undercoat. Recently I watched Sam Lenz do glowing eyes and Vince Ventruella do glowing runes, I think I was channelling them, or Bob Ross...
 
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So, this will be my Yakcomp 41 entry.

I am also building these for use in Warhammer Quest '95 though, so technically I only need D3 Squigs (1 card's worth), so 3 max, but I need 6 herders (2 per Squig according to the rules), which means I'm technically short by 4 herders, ho hum.


Sprues and bases -
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Close(r) look at the sprues (best I can do without massive shadows) -
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Most of the paints I'll be using, there's 2 pinks I want to buy that aren't there, I only need one of the two flesh colours on the left but they may or may not get used, I'm not sure of their state (I've had them for years and never really used them!) -
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Upon inspection it appears I have 5 full Squigs. There are a few with heads but no legs/bodies and one with no head. They do appear to be interchangeable though so hopefully I can make the combinations I want and 6 should be possible...

The Squig herders are all there on their sprue, but GW only give you two bodies, despite there being 4 herder options. Means I can't have the bagpiper and cymbals guys I wanted, I have to have one or the other and either a prodder or guy with a fishing rod. Yeah, thanks Geedubz! I would try magnetising them, but I don't think it's worth faffing around with.


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.
 
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I spent a short while tonight assembling the Squigs...

Photos, sorry they're a bit blurred, tired, mobile and all that -

Turns out I was short-changed on bases and have 8 squigs, these 5 will serve as paint mules to some extent -
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The 3 I have chosen as final examples, I left the face off the one on the left so I can still get at the gobbo inside, it'll get white-tacked on for undercoating -
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The two herders -
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Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.
 
Couldn't sleep tonight, too much noise from Storm Eunuch and I've been suffering with arthritis induced insomnia (hence why I had a energy burst the other day and finished Dragoth in one afternoon/night!)...

So, I decided tonight to spend a couple of hours on my Yakcomp 41 entry.


Photos of progress -


Zenithal undercoats all round, whilst the Gobbos were also zenithal undercoated, I'm only using it for their skin, hopefully it won't look too odd once the rest of them is done. The first Squig is my paint mule (you'll see below why I'm using one Squig as a paint mule), the other 3 are part of my entry -

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Citadel Athonian Camoshade wash, again the first Squig is my paint mule -

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Back of the Gobbo clanger after the Athonian Camoshade wash -

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Vallejo Yellow ink "glaze", a 1:2 ink:water mix, over the top surfaces of the Squigs -

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And this is why I use a paint mule, this is one layer of Vallejo Red Ink mixed with Vallejo glaze medium in a 4:10 ratio -

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Continued in next post...
 
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Yeeeeah! That was going to take me a zillion layers to get a good red, and because I used Vallejo glaze medium each layer would have taken eons to dry! OK, I'm exaggerating but you get the idea...


So, I switched to a 1:1 Vallejo Red Ink:Water mix instead, 4 layers later, looking better, I used a hair dryer to dry each layer, they call me Mr Impatient...

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After a quick drybrush of Vallejo Game Color Elfic Flesh and a Citadel Bloodletter glaze layer, along with tidying up the teeth and trying to restore some sort of zenithal priming, we have something that approaches a red Squig -

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So, I did the same on the 3 Squigs for my entry -

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And that's where I'm at with these. At least the red on the Squigs is done. Just details (including teeth) on the Squigs, the Gobbo's skin, and the rest of the outfits/details on the Gobbos to do...

The "tidied" up teeth look terrible at the moment, but I'm hoping glazing over them with Vallejo Elfic Flesh will remedy that. The Gobbo Inside™ of one of the Squigs also had a bit of a tidy up of the covered over zenithal undercoat and another Athonian Camoshade wash. That also looks terrible, but hopefully further highlighting and glazing will remedy that also...

In hindsight I should have put white tack or something over the parts I didn't want to get red ink over, to preserve the zenithal undercoat...



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.
 
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Sat down at the table tonight for another 3hrs-ish...

And the Squigs are done, bar a few tweaks and a varnish layer for some specularity changes...

I was on a bit of a roll so didn't take photos as I went along tonight, so I'll describe "wot I did" -

I "tidied" up the teeth with a Vallejo Game Color Elfic Flesh glaze.
Painted & highlighted the gums with a mix of Vallejo Red Ink and Elfic Flesh, did a bit of a Citadel Athonian Camoshade wash in the recesses of the teeth/gums for a bit of definition.
Bases got painted Citadel Mornfang, Scrag and Deathclaw browns with a shade of Contrast Wyldwood.
I also highlighted the skin on the Gobbo Inside™ with Elfic Flesh then gave it a Citadel Warpstone Glow glaze. It's nose got a bit of Army Painter Barbarian Flesh for a bit of colour and it's teeth were done with a quick light drybrush of Elfic Flesh. I also dotted in the eyes with Citadel Mephiston red, not that you can see them...
Finally I dotted in the Squig eyes with Citadel Averland sunset, although they don't show up all that well, I might go back at them with Citadel Flash Gitz Yellow...

Apologies for the slight blur on these photos, using my mobile again and I can't always seem to get it to focus at the moment. Final photos should be better.

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I'm not entirely sure Warpstone Glow was the "right" green to use as a glaze on the Gobbo Inside™, but I'm not sure I have Citadel Warboss green, and Skarsnik green would have been too light, so Warpstone Glow will have to do. Might have helped if I had not overdone the glaze whilst trying to blend in the highlights as they're a bit too subtle now, I may go back and exaggerate them a little...


Herders to finish next...


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.
 
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So, what storm are we on now in the UK, Franklin, Gladys, Horatio? Getting fed up with the noise...

I spent a couple of hours at the table tonight (Sunday into Monday), got tired, headphones battery ran out, so I gave up as I can't paint without listening to stuff, other than the storm outside...

I added some shade around the eyes of the Squigs, and re-did them in Citadel Averland Sunset and Flash Gitz Yellow. Now you can see the eyes! I did that to the eyes on all 3 Squigs, not just the one in the photo below. I also tweaked the highlights on the Gobbo Inside™ although when up close (particularly "on camera") they still look like junk on the legs -

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I also made more progress on the herders, they're a bit darker in these photos than to the mk1 eyeball, not sure why and sorry for the blur again, my mobile's camera playing up again! -

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I seem to suck at highlighting skin, of any colour, and I'm trying it in a way that I've never done it before, i.e. zenithal undercoat, shade wash, highlighting then glazing the final colour over the top. The highlights on the herders skin, particularly the legs, suck just as bad as on the Gobbo Inside™ legs! And I have lost all that "pre-shading", so much for trying a new (to me) technique!

I am hoping to get the armour on the prodder looking as dark as I did on Dragoth the Defiler, but I'm not entirely sure how I achieved that look - I do know that initially I used Vallejo Metal Color Magnesium, but I didn't shake the bottle enough, so it came out darker and thinner (i.e. not properly mixed) than subsequent layers, so that probably helped. I shook the bottle properly tonight, and it's not looking as dark on the first layer. I may have to try forcing some shadows and/or darkening down the magnesium in places with black paint/ink...

I have a plan for the black robes. They will be highlighted in greys, then I'll give them a thin layer (or two) of Vallejo blue ink. Reason? I've always thought Night Gobbos have some blue in their black robes, i.e. they're not completely black, however having looked back at mid-90s and onwards references, it seems I am misremembering. I'm going to try it anyway...


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.
 
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I know GW artwork often highlights black with blue. There was a thread about it somewhere round here. I may have seen a (night) goblin done that way, but it's certainly not the standard look.

It just occurred to me that squigs could be used as violent fungi in Frostgrave. Tempting...
 
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Pushed on with the Squigs and herders this morning -

Final photos. Unfortunately the models caught some shine off my lights in places.

The squigs -
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The herders -
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Group shot -
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I tried a new (to me) way of doing things. If I'm honest the only thing that went right on these was getting the Squigs done. The zenithal primer on the Gobbo skin was a waste of time, as my subsequent (poor) highlights and glazes made it pointless, and today my highlighting on the robes wasn't really all that great, I'm never going to achieve the 'Eavy Metal teams level/style of highlights, but I could have done better in places.

Anyway, at least they're done, and they look OK from tabletop viewing distance.


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.
 
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It's not about achieving eavy metal quality in my opinion. As long as you enjoy your hobby the quality can be of any quality really. It's what you get out of the hobby as opposed to how pro looking your stuff turns out. To paint 2k points of any army to that standard would kill what makes our hobby fun 😁😁😎😎
They look more than good enough and just aim to improve on your own standards and worry less about other standards on the internet. 💚💚😎
I personally love the squiggs and goblins. Excellent work all round
 
@Greenthumb hit the nail on the head there. I’ve been painting since the 80s. I nowhere close to ‘Eavy Metal standards. I don’t usually wash, glaze, shade, highlight, and I also found the zenithol priming method to be a waste of cash because I can see no difference between regular primer and that technique (I think it’s a plot from the spray companies to sell more primer).

Your squigs and handlers hit all the right buttons for me. I think they look great.