Get a comfy chair, I'm afraid this is a wall of text and pictures!!
Anyway I think it came out great. Really hope you do tackle some Eldar...
Well, first off, thank you so much for your kind words. Celestine was just one of those models that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get right...and it seems like a fairly simple model to do at first glance. The detail is so obvious and nicely pronounced, so it should be easy...but then that damn face. It's an area to work on.
I'm glad that the idea of me doing Eldar has piqued your interest...hopefull
y this update will please you!
Looks good to me Loosh. I can see what you and Cav are saying about the soft features and all the minor gradations in the sculpt. That makes you a very fiddly paint job. It would be very unsatisfying for me to paint her as well.
Forget the space elves, more greenskins for me please!
Thanks DoW, appreciate the kind words.
I'd love to oblige with the Orks...but my wife walked into our garage the other day and asked when I was opening my own branch of GW
I have shelves of stuff to work on and the things occupying the shelves are dominated by Eldar.
'An imperfect model'? What are you wittering on about Loosh she looks really really nice
I do get what you mean about the shallow details being much harder to paint. In general GW seem to have been moving more towards deeper detail which is much more wash-friendly but not Celestine apparently!
Yeah, the detail is actually good on most of the model...and in fairness, they have absolutely nailed the facial features. If they were trying to get the look of a young, fresh, pure female face, they nailed it. It just makes it difficult for a glorified paint by numbers painter like me (and I stand by that assessment of my abilities, as you will rarely, if ever, see top level effects out of me. I've tried, I've failed. Simple blends, washes and dry brushing are my staples...and as long as you stay within the lines whilst using thinned paints, you get a good effect.)
A-ma-zing!! Your manipulation of colour is top shelf, Looshkin. Couldn't get past the first page without having to express the awe your work evokes... Now back to perusing.
Hurry up and get to page 7! A lot of the early pages were work from 2015 that I hadn't got round to finishing completely. I only really got back into painting late in 2016, so I'm really happy with the fact that, even though progress is slow, I'm working consistently and getting a bit done every week. It doesn't lead to the biggest plog, but hopefully I'll never have to use threadomancy...and hopefully I won't burn out like I did in 2014 when I painted so much I couldn't face another paint brush!
Anyway, onto the latest update...and it's the most noteworthy 6 figure update that I'll ever post because I had to exorcise a lot of daemons in order to get this lot done.
It was the time for tiny diamonds.
I have been scared as hell of the prospect of painting Harlequins for years. Ever since the finecast miniatures were released a few years ago, I desperately wanted to paint them...and always avoided them because, if I paint a model, I want to do it justice. I've churned out a lot of work that I'm happy with because it fits the style of the army, whilst knowing that it isn't my finest work, technically...such as my Orks and Skaven. I've also done things like Swordmasters of Hoeth and the High Elf Prince on Griffon that I know won't ever see the battlefield, but I wanted to paint them and I'm proud of the results.
But Harlequins always seemed a bridge too far for me. They scared me.
Until I decided that I needed to grow a ball sack and at least try them. It helped that I had thought about them so long that some of my ideas for weapon colours and the like had been mulled and discarded long ago...I was initially going to paint the weapons bone coloured, but think it would have looked out of place...and the gold that GW uses is a scheme that I like and have a lot of recent experience with. It also helped that when I painted the Skaven Blood Bowl Gutter Runners, I was really pleased with the black elements of the cloaks. So the black and the gold elements I thought would now be less daunting.
So the only real mental hurdles were the tiny diamonds...well, I would do them first. If they didn't work out, I would start again. And again. And again, until I had achieved something I liked.
I had previously assembled the minis. I left them as the legs stuck to the bases, with the torsos complete, but separate. I had blue tac on hand to put the minis together as required so that I could see if what I was doing was working or not - and to assess the balance of the miniature (colour wise) as I progressed.
Enough with the prattle, on with the pictures. First, some WiPs:
Assembled, base coated black. Any motley first based with Calder Sky, then 2 layers of Lothern Blue.
The tricky bit. Thinned Abaddon black lines painted on for the diamond shapes. This is the hardest step throughout the process. I had to redo this several times on a couple of the models. The trick was ensuring the paint was very thin and then I did one line at a time, snaking around the whole limb. Then a line parallel to that. Repeat as required. Then go at it from an angle about 45 degrees off the first line. Do another parallel to that, then rinse and repeat.
Sorry for the next photo being a bit crappy. I then filled in the red diamonds using mephiston red. I wasn't too pleased with the result, but persevered.
I then cleaned up the diamonds slightly using Lothern Blue and Mephiston Red. That helped define the shape better. The key step was adding a highlight though. It really helped define the shape and make it pop a little:
I did the gold next. Retribution armour base, Agrax shade followed by he raised areas being picked out with Liberator Gold. A few fine highlights of Mithril Silver (Yup, still have some of that! But Stormiest works just fine) on the extreme points. I actually redid every weapon, as I highlighted everything too much and it washed out the colours.
I attacked the yellow cloth areas next. Averland Sunset base (what a great colour that is too!) with a Seraphim Sepia wash. Highlighted with Yriel and Flash Gitz Yellow. The masks were based with Celestra Grey (Holy amphetamine parrot Cav, you're right! What an amazing colour!).
I then gave the masks a wash of Asurmen Blue before applying White Scar to all the raised areas. I could have broken this down to Pallid Wych Flesh then White Scar for a more graduated finish, but didn't feel the need given the finish.
If you're wondering, the Neural Shredder is Kantor Blue, with Sotek Green, Temple Guard Blue and Lothern Blue highlights.
At this point, I started working on the hair and the gems. Blue gems, using Kantor, Caledor, Lothern and Baharroth Blues, with a dot of white scar...only the Kantor and Caledor steps are shown. The hair started with Xereus Purple.
I'm afraid that, at this point, I got rather carried away. I totally forgot any more WiPs! So we'll have to leap to the finished article!!!!
The whole Troupe:
The Troupe Master. I desperately wanted to give him a crystal sword, but I just couldn't nail the feathering technique required to get the right effect. I'll try again in the future, but I want to enter these guys into a local painting comp next week, so don't have the time.
I airbrushed on the diamonds on the cloak using a stencil. I have to go back and clean up the part with the damage...I'm amazed, but I genuinely didn't notice the damage until after I had airbrushed. Attention to detail Loosh!!!!!!
The hair, after the Xereus purple base, had a thin Sotek green layer from 1/3 of the way along. Then a thicker layer of Sotek from 2/3 of the way along. Tied together with Nuln oil wash and then thin highlights of Slaanesh Grey to half way, Baharroth Blue the rest of the way.
There's a lot more colour change in the red diamonds on the cloak, which isn't picked up in the lightbox.
Another of the whole gang.
Right. I'm exhausted. This is the longest post ever. I'm also knackered from all the painting. I'm also really knackered because I've spotted a gem that I need to paint (totally missed it FFS!) and also a few of the black highlights that I want to tidy up slightly.
These have been the most exhausting and most rewarding of all the models that I've painted. I like to think that I've challenged myself and I like to think that I've learned some valuable lessons on the way.
But yeah. Mainly I'm totally knackered!!