Galpino's Thunderers WIP

Galpino

Member
As mentioned in my showroom thread, here are my remaining citadel [EDIT: Marauder] handgun-toting dwarfs.



I'll post my progress below.

Bit of background: What you see here is my interrupted first attempt painting them back in the mid 90s when I was about 14. [EDIT: ...except the first on the left. I'd given him a shade wash before the photo was taken.]
 

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Galpino

Member
First guy

Just a 'finished' model here. I'd never done stripes before and had to redo them cause they were really wonky at first. His gun and accessories have passed through several garish stages of different colours. I even attempted blue steel on the gun barrel. I'm pleased with the natural style that I settled on. Unfortunately I dropped the guy after completion, that's why there's a few strange flattened areas on the front :(
 

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Galpino

Member
Second guy

Actual work-in-progress here. I've done the base, and the skin/face, only now noticing that after two or three attempts, he's still completely bog-eyed. I've been working a LOT on the jerkin-type jacket he's wearing too. I've recently seen Jaeckel's astonishing work in the showroom section (hope you don't mind me linking), and had the yellowish leather look in mind as I did mine. I struggled to make it look good and in the end was more comfortable painting this more brown look. I'm not 100% happy with the look though, especially as I'm finding it difficult to make a neat job of it!
 

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Galpino

Member
Haven't been able to paint for a while due to a flood in the apartment and starting a new job. Managed to do another session or two on the second model in the batch. I work very slowly in a really trial-and-error fashion so not finished yet.



In the first shot I've worked on the hat and the sleeves. They had really thick pale green and pale beige paint respectively. I'm trying to maintain but finish my boyhood painting so I've tried not to change the colours too much.
On the hat I added shading with Caliban Green and rhinox hide. It comes across as bluish, but no blue was applied. Highlighting was with dilute bronzed flesh. The sleeves have been changed to grey using layers of black and white in various ratios. I've also shaved off an apparent mould line on the front top of the hat. The paint was so thick I only got down to the original pale green layer before the surface became smooth. Unfortunately I managed to chip paint off the nose and eyebrows at this time, so I've touched those up.



In the second shot I've highlighted the hair and beard by overbrushing white then yellow and orange inks. I've highlighted the plate foot armour/shoes with white, re-shading with black ink. I've softened the original primary colours of the pouches. For the yellow one with diluted Bronzed Flesh, and for the red one with white overbrushing then yellow/orange/red inks.
I've retouched the brown jerkin using beige highlights, mellowed with tan brown glazes and washes.
The horrible half-paintedness of the gun was really annoying me so I've done the barrel in Chainmail and done a bronze effect on the other metal parts. I used a base of dark brown (Rhinox Hide)/red/tan (Snakebite Leather), washed with black ink and layered with red-tan then Bronzed Flesh. Final highlights in pure white. At the ink wash stage I washed the whole gun. I've also started on the powder horn, with some black-lining and experimental pale yellow colour (ink over white); and done touch-ups on the skin.
The eyes are still unfinished, and I'm not sure about the grey sleeves. I think I preferred the pale yellowy beige colour.
 

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Jeff McC

Member
He's coming along nicely. I think you may be right about the sleeves, the grey reads to me as though it's the same material as the armored feet.
 

Galpino

Member
Thanks for your comments Jeff! Stay tuned for the next modification. Does anyone else paint this slowly?
 

Galpino

Member
I think he might be nearly ready now. I prefer the buckskin colour of the sleeves, and I'm very pleased with the powder horn, something I've struggled to get a convincing look on before, and I've finally got the eyes half sane-looking. Any tips for finishing touches?

Technical bit:
For the sleeves I did yellow over the grey, then layering Bronzed Flesh up to white highlight, with some chestnut glaze in there too.
The powder horn is done - Br.Flesh, orange ink wash, layered to white highlight (Dark brown shade on the end parts for a leather effect) and red, with thinned red ink over white highlights for the rope ; the gun has had its light and shade ramped up. I thought the face had too much red in the shadows so I re- did it. I Br.Fleshed the face, shaded with red ink and layered up from Br.Flesh to white. To cut the harshness of the white I mixed it with the Br.Flesh and a little red ink and applied a very thin glaze. I've inked the shoes in black and brown, and put some colour back into the beard highlights with red/yellow/good old Bronzed Flesh.
 

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Galpino

Member
Third guy

I think the 2nd guy's more or less done, so it's time to get on with the third one from the first photo.


Here he is in his original roughly paint-daubed form. The colours and matt texture make me think I might have done this in enamels. I remember using them on my first miniatures. Not entirely sure if this was one of them though.


I started on the skin. I chose a dark colour because I wanted practice painting dark skin.
[orange/brown base, red ink, white highlights shaded yellow/brown/Bronzed Flesh I think]


I've continued the blue trim on the hat, gone for a red henna hair colour, done the gun in black with yellow details; the shoes in green and the bag and pouch in yellow ochre. For some reason I felt the green shoes were needed, but it didn't look good to me. I've changed them to red and blue parti-coloured, after the hat colour scheme, and a pair I saw on a web search. I might change them both to red.
The yellow ochre is an artist's colour, and I've just worked out how to use them. I had tried before mixing them with water, which gave a gooey slimey mess that you can't paint with. You have to just brush a damp brush over the thick paint to pick up a tiny bit to paint with. Check it on your kitchen towel or hand and it works fine.
The skin in the final frame has gone yellow because I messed up trying to make the tone more realistic. I had done the knuckles a paler highlight colour, before realising that dark skin is darker at the knuckles (mine are pale). I'll try to return to the original tone, with or without added realism.

Hope someone enjoys. As usual tips are welcome.
 

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Galpino

Member
I think that's as good as he's going to get. It's amazing what a difference highlights and details can make. I think the face pops a lot more now, which is interesting as it's the hair and the gun that have changed. The brown gun works a lot better too I think.


I re-did the shoes using a tip I got from doing the belt. I'd undercoated it in black, then painted it red with a tan highlight. The red shoe got the same treatment, the blue one got the black then a blue-grey-tan mix layered up to pale blue-beige. The sleeves got beige, chestnut and brown shade, and were re-highlighted in white. The gun was redone in tan with a dark brown lining and wash. The hair got my now usual treatment of extreme highlight (beige, white) coloured with glazes (yellow, orange and chestnut inks in this case). Details have been picked out - hat buttons, rope, buckles- mostly in dark brown and light beige for high contrast. The pouch has had its lid-flap upper bit glazed in red, after I did an image search in 17th century bags - seems two-tone was in.
 

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Galpino

Member
#4





I'm pleased with the way the hood's going. I'm using yellow with yellow ochre for shade and Bronzed Flesh for highlights. The green is a bit trickier. I've tried lightening it up quite sharply to create contrast.
 

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Galpino

Member
Many thanks again Blue.
Just a question, does anyone hate the pink gloves as much as my girlfriend does? I thought they were quite funny, like he was in the middle of doing the washing up when he heard the call to arms.
 

Galpino

Member
I'm calling time on this one. I'm not calling him finished, and I can see quite clearly where I could improve him. I've struggled to get a good looking face on him especially, hopefully it doesn't show from a suitable distance! And so ends my thunderers painting project.
 

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Mophus

Member
Great paintjobs. Only the dark skin of the dwarf with the red/blue hat is imho in need of improvement. The highlights look to yellowish. Thank you for making the step-by-step pictures. It's great to see the progress and the final superb results. It reminds me, to better finish a miniature at all costs and don't give up because a early stage feels like a deadend. I like the pink gloves. The pink fits well in the scheme. I don't think, that they look like rubber gloves. Maybe an apron and a washboard would strengthen your initial intention.
 

Galpino

Member
Thanks for your comments Mophus. I'm glad you enjoyed my project, unfortunately that's all my dwarves. I don't mind the yellowish skin, it's partially the photo that does that. Also, the pink gloves were just my teenage decision, I kept it for the nostalgia factor when I completed the painting in this project. I had thought of adding a little detergent bottle but wouldn't trust my sculpting to be honest! Thanks again.
 
Your pictures remind me of the old White Dwarf painting instructions where you had 4 or five pics of different stages with the colours mentioned below :grin:
 

Galpino

Member
Let's see if I can get my painting down to just 4 or 5 stages! The trial and error is a big part of the fun though.
 
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