So again it's time to document my Road to Competition, and for those of you that already saw the previous posts, you'll know that my first project is getting McBain from my tabletop standard to competition level. Note that for KublaCon with an open judging system, it's not so much "competition" against other people as it is just a judging. I really like this format as well because it encourages more people to enter. It also gives people bars to strive for by having two different levels of judging. I will again be entering the master level and hoping to at least capture a bronze. But, before I get ahead of myself, I need to focus on my entry...
Often times I pick a model and then try to paint it to a high level. But sometimes I discover that a model is a real joy to paint and just go with it. The Legion Shepherd was like that for me, and there have been others. When I started McBain, I didn't expect him to be. I saw him as my last unpainted merc, and an opportunity to close out another faction. But as I worked on him, I found myself spending more and more time on him. I was imagining a grand base for him. I was doing a subtle bit of OSL for the burning end of his cigar. I was very pleased with the results of painting his face. And that last point is what turned the corner for me. So now I find myself happily spending more and more hours tweaking and refining various parts. So each of my subsequent RtC posts on McBain will be about the additional tweaks I've made since last post to bring him to a higher quality level.
Skin - I did a bunch of work on the skin, particularly his arms. I did some more highlighting and shading, and then a couple of glazes of very thinned down GW Ogryn Flesh Wash. This glazing really helps to smooth the blending and especially create a bit more of a translucency to it. I chose the Ogryn Flesh shade because it has a hint of red and to bring out McBain's inner anger. I'm thinking at least 2 more glazes are in order.
Gun grip - I did some additional highlighting on the gun grip. Just some thinned P3 KRH to brighten it up a bit, but not too much to draw attention away. The goal is to keep the face as the brightest part of the entire model, but have other bright areas throughout the model to help draw the eye around a bit.
Lots of black-lining and shadow deepening - Particularly on the sword I did a lot of this, but also in armor creases. This really helped to bring the brighter sections out more without actually making them brighter. I'm always challenged in my own painting style to keep the brightest highlights from being over 75% of white. I fail routinely, and feel like this is one area where getting better at this would really bring me to the next level.
New To-Do List:
Often times I pick a model and then try to paint it to a high level. But sometimes I discover that a model is a real joy to paint and just go with it. The Legion Shepherd was like that for me, and there have been others. When I started McBain, I didn't expect him to be. I saw him as my last unpainted merc, and an opportunity to close out another faction. But as I worked on him, I found myself spending more and more time on him. I was imagining a grand base for him. I was doing a subtle bit of OSL for the burning end of his cigar. I was very pleased with the results of painting his face. And that last point is what turned the corner for me. So now I find myself happily spending more and more hours tweaking and refining various parts. So each of my subsequent RtC posts on McBain will be about the additional tweaks I've made since last post to bring him to a higher quality level.
Skin - I did a bunch of work on the skin, particularly his arms. I did some more highlighting and shading, and then a couple of glazes of very thinned down GW Ogryn Flesh Wash. This glazing really helps to smooth the blending and especially create a bit more of a translucency to it. I chose the Ogryn Flesh shade because it has a hint of red and to bring out McBain's inner anger. I'm thinking at least 2 more glazes are in order.
Gun grip - I did some additional highlighting on the gun grip. Just some thinned P3 KRH to brighten it up a bit, but not too much to draw attention away. The goal is to keep the face as the brightest part of the entire model, but have other bright areas throughout the model to help draw the eye around a bit.
Lots of black-lining and shadow deepening - Particularly on the sword I did a lot of this, but also in armor creases. This really helped to bring the brighter sections out more without actually making them brighter. I'm always challenged in my own painting style to keep the brightest highlights from being over 75% of white. I fail routinely, and feel like this is one area where getting better at this would really bring me to the next level.
New To-Do List:- Bolt on gun grip - Just missed it before
- Sword re-highlighting
- Armor screws
- More armor cleanups
- Buckles
- Grill on back (add blue glow?)
- Smokestack highlights
- Sword glow
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