Saturday, August 8, 2015

Seeing Red

 

EDIT 05/28/16
Mortal Arrow will only be distributing Fractured Dimensions miniatures until the end of this month (May 2016). A word to the wise: get them while you can. 
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The Fractured Dimensions' bodak is complete. Actually the painting was done a while ago, the application of matte varnish and picture-taking (simple tasks) proved challenging.

Army Painter's Anti-Shine has worked well for me previously but here it fought me tooth and nail. The initial application dried glossy in spots. The second wasn't any better. I thought the weather might be to blame. ( horror stories of humidity adversely affecting matte varnishes abound, and it has been very humid here of late.) I thought too that the fact I was using an old bottle of the stuff or that I wasn't shaking it sufficiently might be at fault.

I armed myself with a new bottle of the product, waited for the humidity to break, and got good results... on everything but the minis bright red kilt. This stubbornly refused to cooperate despite repeated applications. Eventually I got a result I could live with and called it a day. (Still, I wouldn't call it matte.)

The Kilt in Question

To its credit, Anti-Shine dries crystal clear. Five or six coats of any other matte varnish I know of, would have ended in hazy catastrophe.

I then took some pictures and the fun resumed. Cut to the chase: red background (my initial choice) = glossy red bits while purple or off-white backgrounds = reasonably good results. Same camera, same lighting, same everything. Eventually I got where I needed to be but Lord only knows what unrecognized principle of physics/digital photography was causing me so much trouble.

Bottom line: outstanding mini, great fun to paint, some delays getting over the finish-line.

Oooo! Brassy!

I was trying for NMM brass with the metal bits. Everything but the kitchen sink went into this paint-wise. Colors used pictured below (plus GW Sotek Green & Vallejo Ivory for the verdigris).

Base & Highlights
Shading
Bases painted separately

    More pictures:





  
Two points in closing:

1) FD may call this guy a bodak, but he works better as a death knight from the old Fiend Folio IMHO. I'm going to consider him as such and use him to jumpstart my long dormant Fiend Folio Project (maybe).

2) FD's Dispater is next up (the base is already done). There figures to be a good deal of red involved here as well. Wish me luck.

21 comments:

  1. looks fantastic finch, especially love the brass!

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    1. Thank you, Chris. Reaper's olive skin triad seems a good starting point for NMM brass.

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  2. That is a great looking mini - nice job! The brass on the armor and hammer is perfect, and the red really sets the whole thing off.

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    1. Many thanks. Tried to get out of my comfort zone with the red. I tend to gravitate towards greyed-out, desaturated colors.

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  3. Wow... simply Wow, Finch. That is a stonkingly good paint-job, and what a wonderful contrast between the flesh, brass and gorgeous red. Cracking base too. Just stunning :-)

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    1. Thanks, BK. The bases' stonework provided the chance to go with a bit more color than usual.

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  4. Whatever trouble you had, it was worth it dude! That is simply stunning Mr. Finch.

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    1. Thank you, Bob. All's well that ends well.

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  5. Varnish and cameras... I don't need to go any further.
    Some excellent painting skills. Really top job

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    1. I've had reasonably good luck with both until now. Hopefully this was a one-time aberration.

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  6. Brilliant painting! Matte varnish though... I almost long for the days when gloss varnish was the only option....

    Warburton

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    1. Amen, brother. Even so, and despite my grousing, the AP stuff is the best I've found by far.

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  7. That Sir, is a little masterpiece! The shading, the basing, the lot - all perfect!

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  8. Fantastic job Finch! I need to get myself one of those matt varnishes. Any brand you would recommend or are the ones you mentioned in this post the better ones?

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    1. Thank you, Kuan.

      Despite my recent difficulties, Army Painter's Anti-Shine is still the best brush-on matte varnish I've found.

      The staff at my friendly LGS highly recommends Krylon's spray-on Matte varnish but I've yet to try it.

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  9. Excellent work mate. Looks fabulous.

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