Completed Spartan Hoplites - 75mm

[phil_h]

Thanks, Phil! I get that you're using the AG for base-coating. I've been doing that with my favorite acrylics, but after seeing your work, I plan to give AG a try. I picked up a couple of bottles, but they're so much thicker than what I've been using that I didn't know if they needed to be stirred first.

Ah, ok good . Since they can be a little thick, don't hesitate to thin them down with a little water. I usually add a drop or two to make them flow a little better.

Regards,
Phil

 

[phil_h]

Hello Everybody,

I've started on painting some of the metallic elements, so I thought I'd post another step-by-step on how I'm doing them.

For the metals, my idea is to go for some older, burnished, darker looking bronze metal. I don't want anything to bright. Here is the palette:

All the metallics are done with oils. All the paints shown above are from Williamsburg Oils with the exception of the Iridescent White, which is from Winsor & Newton and the Antique Gold which is from Schminke. The Iridescent Bronze from Williamsburg is by far the best metallic bronze oil paint money can buy. I love this paint - there is nothing that even comes close. Buy it now . Process-wise it's all the same; mid-tone, shadows, highlights, etc...

The mid-tone is a mix of the Iridescent Bronze, Burnt Umber, and Terra Verte. This is applied over the entire area (in this case the breast plate):

Next come the shadows. Here they are before they're blended:

And after they're blended:

Next are the highlights; here they are before being blended:

And after blending:

Here is another photo after some touch-up work. There are also smaller highlights added using the Iridescent White (mixed with a little bit of Antique Gold):

The next couple of steps need the paint to dry so they won't be shown here, but they are:

• Glaze lightly over select areas with the Terra Verte. This will give certain areas a very subtle greenish tinge to them, and it will add more color/tonal variation and greater depth to the metals.
• Add another layer of highlights to selected areas. This is very important, because we don't have enough contrast and saturation with our highlights currently. Once the paint is dry another layer usually does the trick and really helps make things come alive.

While not shown, these are actually the most important steps. Without them the metals just won't look finished (at least to me). I'll try to show them in a future post.

Thanks for reading!
Regards,
Phil

 

[Nap]

Hi Phil

Said it before going to say it again , great explanation of the steps and the pics with each stage ...spot on

I'm not a oily apart from using Water Soluable mixed with my acrylics but boy am I learning a lot in this thread

...and seeing the Figure come to life

Looking forward to seeing more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[phil_h]

Hello guys...

I've been very busy, and haven't had time to do more step by step stuff, but I have made some progress on these guys, so I thought I'd post a pic... Actually the figures are about 90% or so finished, and it'll be time to do the base.

Thanks for looking!

Regards,
Phil

 

[Russ]

At the risk of cutting short this treasure-trove of information and 3-D examples, I'm sure you realize that what you're doing here - your descriptions, the quality photos, etc. - is absolutely worthy of a book, or at least a bound pamphlet. I've paid good money for modelling books that don't provide half the perspective and insight that your posts here have done!

Speaking of: Any words you'd like to share on how you laid out and painted the designs on the shields?

 

[Babelfish]

At the risk of cutting short this treasure-trove of information and 3-D examples, I'm sure you realize that what you're doing here - your descriptions, the quality photos, etc. - is absolutely worthy of a book, or at least a bound pamphlet. I've paid good money for modelling books that don't provide half the perspective and insight that your posts here have done!

Speaking of: Any words you'd like to share on how you laid out and painted the designs on the shields?

Have to agree with that. I think a lot of painters (especially the "master" painters in their books) try to blind you with science when they do an SBS, and they over-complicate things unnecessarily. This though is how an SBS should be done: all the steps described clearly and concisely, without turning the whole thing into some sort of magician's dark art.

I'd also love some more info on the shield designs. I often struggle with those.

Cool figures too - I don't remember seeing them before.

- Steve

 

[Nap]

Hi Phil

Thanks for the pics you've certainly moved on with these , capes look impressive

Fully agree with Russ's and Steve's comment .....great SBS easy to understand and fully explained

Look forward to seeing updates when possible

Thanks for sharing

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[MCPWilk]

Very nicely done. I usually use oils for flesh and white. I'll have to think about going back to using them over the base colours again.

Mike

 

[MalcC]

Great SBS, very informative.
The figures are looking good.
Looking forward to the next update.

Malc

 

[phil_h]

At the risk of cutting short this treasure-trove of information and 3-D examples, I'm sure you realize that what you're doing here - your descriptions, the quality photos, etc. - is absolutely worthy of a book, or at least a bound pamphlet. I've paid good money for modelling books that don't provide half the perspective and insight that your posts here have done!

Speaking of: Any words you'd like to share on how you laid out and painted the designs on the shields?

Have to agree with that. I think a lot of painters (especially the "master" painters in their books) try to blind you with science when they do an SBS, and they over-complicate things unnecessarily. This though is how an SBS should be done: all the steps described clearly and concisely, without turning the whole thing into some sort of magician's dark art.

I'd also love some more info on the shield designs. I often struggle with those.

Cool figures too - I don't remember seeing them before.

- Steve

Thanks for the very kind words gentlemen. It's encouraging to know that at least somebody somewhere finds these helpful! With that said though, even though I've had to cut this one a little short, I'm trying to do an SBS for most of the upcoming projects I'll be working on - hopefully those will be helpful as well

As far as the shields go (or any freehanding I do for that matter), here is what I do:

• Find a decent reference. A good reference for me should be a) an historically accurate image/design/pattern and b) one that appeals to my sense of aesthetics. This last bit is important, because if I don't like what I'm painting, I'm not going to have the proper motivation to do a good job. It's something that sounds so painfully obvious, but it's worth calling out.
• Once I find a good reference photo/image, based on how easy or complex it might be to render, I might do a sketch or two with pencil or paper; this can be quite helpful in terms of just getting a better understanding of what it is you're actually going to try to paint, and where potential difficulties may lie. In this case, for somebody who has done a lot of freehand in the past, these images were easy enough for me to skip this step. The more experience with freehand work you have, the better intuition you have in terms of whether or not you'll need to do any preliminary sketches.
• Getting to the painting, I start with just very roughly outlining the main forms of the freehand. After I make a little progress with that, I have a mental checklist of things I'm specifically looking for:
  • Are things centered properly?
  • Are lines straight?
  • Are the lines of a consistent width?
  • Are edges crisp and sharp where needed?
  • Are the proportions correct?
• Now we get into the crux of it - 90% of the work now is just adjusting things based on that mental checklist. I use the base background colors to "erase" things or help make adjustments as necessary. For example, in the case of the shields, I have my reddish color that I'm using for the design on top of the metallic basecoats for the shields. So on the palette I have all the metallic mixes I need and if I mess up with the reddish color while "drawing" my patterns, I just go in with the basecoat and erase or adjust as necessary. There is a lot of back and forth here - it is very, very tedious work... but very rewarding, and ultimately worth it! In my experience, and I can't stress this enough, the result is more based on one's ability to persevere through all this back and forth work and making adjustments and practice, than it is artistic talent.
• As progress is made, I'll start filling in details, adding highlights or shading as appropriate. This is no different from adding highlights or shadows to any other part of the figure, except they're being placed inside whatever pattern or design you're doing.

That's pretty much it. There are a lot of other ways to do this, I know many like to work with grids or do pencil sketches on the actual figure, etc. But the above is how I go about it. Next time I do one, I'll try to include it in a SBS, to show the process better.

I hope this helps!
Phil

 

[phil_h]

Hi Phil

Thanks for the pics you've certainly moved on with these , capes look impressive

Fully agree with Russ's and Steve's comment .....great SBS easy to understand and fully explained

Look forward to seeing updates when possible

Thanks for sharing

Happy benchtime

Nap

Very nicely done. I usually use oils for flesh and white. I'll have to think about going back to using them over the base colours again.

Mike

Great SBS, very informative.
The figures are looking good.
Looking forward to the next update.

Malc

Thanks guys, glad you've enjoyed it!

Regards,
Phil

 

[Russ]

Thanks! Next newbie question, then: When you're doing some fine, detailed painting like that, is there a rough ratio of paint-to-thinner that you find works best for you? I know there are a lot of variables involved, and what works for one person won't necessarily work as well for someone else, but getting the paint to the right consistency for something like those shield designs, or even just stripes, always seems to elude me.

TIA!

 

[phil_h]

Thanks! Next newbie question, then: When you're doing some fine, detailed painting like that, is there a rough ratio of paint-to-thinner that you find works best for you? I know there are a lot of variables involved, and what works for one person won't necessarily work as well for someone else, but getting the paint to the right consistency for something like those shield designs, or even just stripes, always seems to elude me.

TIA!

Hi Russ,

When it comes to thinning down my paints, I try to put the bare minimum amount of thinner needed to to get the paint to flow smoothly. In this case, the only additive I'm using is Winsor & Newton's Liquin Original. I add this to the paint that is on the palette just a very little bit at a time, right until I can feel with a brush on the palette that the paint is flowing nicely.

It sounds far, far more complicated then what it is. I hope this helps!!

-Phil

 

[phil_h]

Hello Everybody,

Well, I finally finished these guys - here's a pic:

It's kind of amazing how in this particular project's case, the last 2% of the work really pulled everything together.

More pics can be found here

Regards,
Phil

 

[Russ]

WHOA!! Just, WHOA!! ROFFAM!!

I am beyond impressed!

Am I correct in assuming the bases fit together, or are they totally separate? And I've recently gotten some chunks of cork bark; I'm looking forward to using one as a base for a display like this.

Bravo, Phil!!

 

[Ferris]

Very cool!

 

[Nap]

Hi Phil

A real pleasure seeing the final result looks really great , the figures work so well together


*****PLEASE also SUPPORT the COMPETITIONS of your choice by going to the relevant thread on this link and enjoy ENTERING and VOTING ***

https://www.planetfigure.com/forums/bi-monthly-vignettes-dioramas-competition.196/

There's a Vignette & Diorama comp as well....

Thanks for sharing

Look forward to seeing more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[phil_h]

WHOA!! Just, WHOA!! ROFFAM!!

I am beyond impressed!

Am I correct in assuming the bases fit together, or are they totally separate? And I've recently gotten some chunks of cork bark; I'm looking forward to using one as a base for a display like this.

Bravo, Phil!!

Thanks a lot Russ - glad you liked the finished project. Yes, you are correct all the bases fit together to get everybody in that layout. Actually, I didn't realize that until I spent a bunch of time figuring out how I wanted everything laid out. After messing around a bit, I went to Big Child Creatives website to see what they did, and then I saw they all fitted together and went with that

Regards,
Phil

 

[phil_h]

Very cool!

Hi Phil

A real pleasure seeing the final result looks really great , the figures work so well together


*****PLEASE also SUPPORT the COMPETITIONS of your choice by going to the relevant thread on this link and enjoy ENTERING and VOTING ***

https://www.planetfigure.com/forums/bi-monthly-vignettes-dioramas-competition.196/

There's a Vignette & Diorama comp as well....

Thanks for sharing

Look forward to seeing more

Happy benchtime

Nap

Thanks for the kind words guys!