You were there at the dawn of the 3rd age of wargaming....

L

lastbesthope

Mongoose
In the first age, LBH did not wargame...

In the second ag, LBH gamed with counters, and bought massive amounts of as yet unassembled pewter...

Now at the dawn of the third age, all that has changed.....


WARNING

Place all food and beverages on a secure and stable surface, swallow any and all food or beverages in your mouth before proceeding. Please ensure your seats and tray tables are returned to their upright positions and please remain seated until the plane has come to a full stop at the terminal......

Everyone ready (deep breath)

2011_0417_150941.jpg


2011_0417_151009.jpg


2011_0417_150951.jpg


Still need to add some detailing, boltgun to t he turrets and engines, and I decided not to applyblue any further back on the Griffins and Vladimir.

I put a fair bit of attention into the undersides as well, maybe get some pics of that later.

So what do people think? It's my first time painting, so be gentle :lol:

LBH
 
Well, I'll start with the massive positive response so that when I offer some advice it doesn't sound negative!

Even ignoring the fact that it's your first time painting an army/fleet/model etc you have there something better than 50% of the models I have seen at club level gameplay. You have assembled, undercoated, more than 1 colour, thin paint coats and a sensible colour scheme which puts you in good stead. Now if we add in that this is your first painting session and in the advice you've been given there are a lot of techniques well beyond the norm of 'blob paint where you want it straight from the pot' you've done really well.

It's also worth saying that this photo is a lot clearer than a few of the others you've taken, no criticism of the earlier ones but this one shows the detail more clearly by far.

So, feedback for the future...

You've got a good clean result here with only a few spots that I could pick out as needing touching up (last photo, top row, 3rd from the left looks like it needs the rear-most blue edges tidying as an example).

I know that you used several layers from dark grey working upto white, but I'm not seeing much of the darker greys in the recesses. The idea being you paint 100% dark grey, then 90% lighter grey, then 80% off-white then highlight the very edges pure white but I can sympathise, armour plates are difficult to do that with as the recesses HAVE edges but finding the areas which would be darker and leaving the lower coat there would help give shadow. This is another reason why I love black undercoat :)

Other than that improving your painting is really just a case of following that highlighting process on smaller and smaller areas. Out of interest what size brush are you using? I rarely use anything other than a 4/0 these days, which would make most people cringe...

If I get round to it I'll dig out a few links for you that I've been enjoying about painting and you might enjoy watching them. Painting is one of those things where you learn 10x more watching someone than reading about it and 100x more trying it out for yourself :)

That reminds me, I have 2 fleets part undercoated that need another coat. An Al-Malik fleet and a Full Thrust NSL fleet.
 
Thanks Stormrider,

Yeah, the layering thing is something I need to work on.

But I'm pleased you say I'm in the top 50%, for a first go under time pressure I'll take that as a job done decently.

As for the touch up you pointed out, there's supposed to be a gap there between the twopatches of blue, and from that angle it looks like it's not there almost. also there's a white turret I'm going to boltgun as well, the more up top angle shows it better, 1st photo top row 3rd from the left also 2nd photo front row 3rd from the right. I should have left the gap greyer, a trick I learnt in time to do better on the Griffin and Vlad.

As for the photo clarity, all previous photos have been on a crappy autofocus 5 MP phone camera.

These ones were on my proper 10 MP digital camera, hence the massive increase in clarity and detail.

Thanks for the feedback

LBH
 
Looking at the photos, I'm much happier with the bigger ships. Part of this is that they're easier to do at thatsize, and partly because I did them as a second batch, all the baby ships were done together as the first batch. I think I improved slightly between batches

Batch 1:
Wayfarers
Hornets
Dariuses(Dariuii? :) )
Malcolms
Fitzhughs
Kestrels

Batch 2:
Griffins
Vladimir

LBH
 
Very nice work LBH. That is a fleet that you can be proud of - especially as it's your very first attempt. :shock: I hope you carry on painting - you've got a lot more potential and I can see you getting better and better!
 
I would really like to, but money is a big problem atm - oh, and transport, lol! I think I shall be concentrating on sorting my fleets (and my life!) out this year - maybe I'll be at next years, lol! As a fellow Hawkwood player - I'll be supporting you I think, but for reasons that I've gone into elsewhere - I predict any decados players in the tournament will be surprising a few of their opponents!
 
Well I've done the nozzles. turrets, and what looked suspiciously like airlocks to me on the Griffins in BoltGun.

Damn Boltgun looks good once it's on, not sure I'll bother colouring the engine nozzles, they look pretty cool as is.

Photos to follow, perhaps tomorrow I am tired, I've done full lots of day job, chores and on top of that painted minis at least one session almost every day this week, and 3 sessions at the weekends. I am knackered.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, varnish application, then basing, then preparing one of the below to hold my minis.

n70ap.jpg


Fortunately the foam is to an extent preperforated.

LBH
 
I'm looking at your photos and I'm seeing you under-gray bleeding through your white. Remember that white is a very hard color to paint, sometimes its best to use a white primer when you expect to have such large areas of white or super light colors.

Best way to paint white is NOT to paint white, sounds crazy I know, but here's the reasoning. There is no color whiter than white, so you can not highlight it. What you do a series of layers like this... (Ill use GW Colors for simplicity)

1. Base Coat, Space Wolf Gray
2. First highlight 50/50 Space Wolf Gray, Skull White
3. Second Highlight 25/75 Space Wolf Gray, Skull White
4. Painting only the very edges paint Skull White

Paint very thin layers, but because the color is so fine and thin you may have to paint each one of these 'Highlights" more than once to keep the color under it from bleeding through. When I did my Hawkwoods I hat to paint the base coat three times to cover the darker primer.
 
Great job there LBH. Sit back and admire them, that paint job is all yours, so bask in it. And boy does it look so much better then bare metal.

Bit of feedback for you.

As godsgopher has said, white is one of the hardest colours to paint well (along with yellow), and you have a done an excellent job with it for your fist attempt. It's by no means perfect, but that is nothing that practice cannot solve. Oh, and make sure you finish off all the little bits still needing done.

You did a good job of cleaning the minis, there are no obvious mold lines or flash on most of the ships. The long one that's on the house could have done with a little more work though - its not as well cleaned as the the other example.

Your colour scheme is solid and well executed - nothings makes you go "but why?" For the most part the colours look smooth and clean, a few bits here and there could be tidied up a little, but you have to look hard to find them.

Your paint job is not going to win you any prizes - except that we can no longer mock you quite so much about the fantastic quantity of unassembled, unpainted metal in your posession. But it is a lot better then many of the minis I've seen painted, or even advertised as 'pro-painted' on e-bay.

Best advice on how to improve is just to practice, practice, practice.
 
they're looking ok. if i were you i'd give them a light brown wash to bring out the detail and make the edges look a little cleaner.
 
Your fleets look good. Better than mine will - I realized after I ordered my Mega Bundle that most of my tools were worn out and in need of replacement, so I haven't been able to start on the painting part, yet. I still have assembly and filing to do! :)

Here in the US, I've found that the best army/fleet carrier is a rifle case like this one - http://amzn.to/gymqqy - it's not as customizable as one of the minis-dedicated cases, but at a quarter of the price, I'm not going to complain too much.
 
Thanks guys for all the feedback.

I'm done with paint for this fleet, no more detailing, though I have done the Boltgun (see below). LEaving the engine nozzles blank I like them like that, maybe next time.

Next time I do a white fleet I'll basecoat in white and wash them to dull them down, but in this case I'm happy with the grey that I arrived at.

Just applying the Army Painter varnish to the crappy Malcolm (@Silvereye, that's the one on the house, it had SEVERE moulding issues, so Matt sent me a replacement, decided I might as well paint it as not, hey it's an extra carrier if I need one) as it gets used as the crash test dummy, along with the fighter bases. If the one coat of that that I'll get on tonight goes well I'll do the whole fleet in two coats this week after work, sunlight and weather allowing.

Anyway, photos of the finished bar the varnishing and basing fleet

DSCF0066.jpg


DSCF0067.jpg


DSCF0068.jpg


DSCF0069.jpg


DSCF0070.jpg


DSCF0071.jpg


As you can see, everything has at least a adab of Boltgun to signify an engine, also the turrets on everything, the noses on the Hornets and the top things on the Kestrels, also what I thought looked like airlocks on the front port and starboard of the Griffins.

The coins are there to provide scale for my parents who have been wondering what I've been doing the last few weeks and have no concept of the scale of the painting I've been doing.

So, all done bar the varnish and basing now.

The cases I have are designed for tools, so I'll likely just nestle the sockets of the base mounting between the preperforated foam and let the 'egg box' style foam in the lid do the protection, maybe cut some slots for stowing stems and flat bits of the bases, and dice and a measuring tape. The boxes I have are twice as big as I need for one fleet box, but since I have a Dreadnought on order and intend to get an Osprey that's no bad thing.

Damn I love how much better they look with engines and turrets in metallic!

LBH
 
Well the first coat of varnish is on the testbed MAlcolm, looks OK, takes a little shine off the Boltgun, but not too much, at least it doesn't gloss up the whole ship.

Fighter bases got a coat as well, if it all still looks good tomorrow, 2 coating all of the fleet will begin, then basing and casing.

Then I actually get to think about how I'm going to play in the tourney, I've been working on this painting in prep or doing it in one form or another since I bought the fleet at the Open Day a month ago.

LBH
 
Who are you? And what have you done with the real Lastbesthope? :wink:

Those are pretty darn good for a first go dude.

I'm glad you are enjoying painting, it really is quite a satisfying part of the hobby. There's nothing like the warm glow you get from looking at a finished fleet/army on your painting table, and planning on how you will use them to smite your foes. :twisted:
 
Thanks Banichi, I am quite pleased, and want to improve, I do have 4 other fleets after all, and am tempted to buy a second Hawkwood box, although I do have a Hawkwood Dreadnought on order, and am planning to pick up an Osprey.

I got the varnishing done tonight, at least 2 coats on everything, harder to keep track off than the black undercoat whilst you're doing it, and it does dull the ship down a little, but better that than make it too shiny I think for my first go.

So all that's left is basing and casing.

LBH
 
And here we are, the fleet gathers...

DSCF0072.jpg




ANd gets packed away for the tourney

DSCF0073.jpg


Despite my intention to use short stems on the big ships and long stems on the small ships I have ended up doing the exact opposite quite by my own stupidity, maybe when I build another fleet I'll sort that out by adjusting the stem build for that fleet to suit, but it will do in the meantime. As you can see, plenty of room in the box for my Dreadnought, Osprey and perhaps another Vladimir, and another whole fleet box should I wish it.

LBH
 
LBH,

that has got to be the cleanest painting station that I've ever seen!!

nice work on your ships fella,

if you wanted some tips I could something on my blog for you have a look at if you want??
 
anton970 said:
LBH,

that has got to be the cleanest painting station that I've ever seen!!
Click to expand...

It's never been used before. Soon it'll look like a bomb has hit it, don't you worry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top