Dozer & Smigg | WIP | Step by Step Part 4 (final)

One month ago I planed to post an update every week, but plan schman. So here's the final part of my painting tutorial/step by step for Dozer & Smigg.

When the skin was done I started to paint the "rockgrow" (those rocks trolls grow on their back and chin that make 'em look so distinguishable) with a basecoat of pure Khador Red Highlight (P3). I painted these in two steps of thin layers.

Next I gave it a very thin wash, containing of Wazzdakka Red (Citadel),  Flash Gitz Yellow (Citadel), and Ember Orange (P3) mixed with some water and Mixing Medium (Vallejo) into the Khador Red Highlight, in a ratio of 2:1:1:1:1.

When this wash dried, I added additional Flash Gitz Yellow and started to highlight the edges of the rock.

With an additional layer of paint, consisting of even more Flash Gitz Yellow, and gave the rock edges more brightness.

I added some Ivory (Vallejo) into the last mix I used and painted addtional highlights, only on the lines where the rock edges connect. 

I thinned some Lamenters Yellow (Citadel) with a drop of Mixing Medium, ratio of 2:1, and gave every rock a very thin layer of this glaze (I dipped my brush into that wash and put most of the paint soak into a paper towel before I applied).

When the last glaze has dried, I added even more Ivory into the last mix and highlighted every top rock edge with very short lines. Now Dozer's rockgrow seemst to be very fiery, giving that a nice cold-warm contrast between rockgrow and skin. Basically every good paint job is about contrasts.

When Dozer got finished, t'was time to get the little fella on his back done. For Smigg's skin I mixed a basecoat containing of Kantor Blue (Citadel) and Thunderhawk Blue (Citadel), in a ratio of 1:3.

I added some Underbelly Blue (P3), in a ratio of 1:1, and highlighted Smigg's skin.

For the last highlight I liberally added Pallid Wych Flesh (Citadel), in a ratio of 1:1, and highlighted the top spots of Smigg's body.

Since Smigg is kin he of course has some slight rockgrow too. I mixed some Mephiston Red (Citadel) with a little drop of Matt Black (Warpaints), in a ratio of 3:1, and carefully painted every rockgrow.

I highlighted every rockgrow and added some Evil Sunz Scarlet (Citadel) to the prior mix, in a ratio of 1:1. In this highlight I chose an certain angle, looking down on Smigg, and highlighted evey section that was visible to me in that angle.

I added Khador Red Highlight to the mix and gave another highlight.

Finally I painted some Bloodletter (Citadel) on every rockgrow. Here again I let a paper towel soak some paint after I dipped my brush into it and before applying it onto the model.

As the final step in this article I show how I painted all those leather straps on Dozer. I made a smooth dull mix of a non-descript brown, containing Dark Flesh (Citadel), Skavenblight Dinge (Citadel), Beast Hide (P3), Dark Sea Blue (Vallejo), and some drops of Mixing Medium, in a ratio of 1:2:1:0.5:1.

When every strap got a basecoat, I highlighted those parts with a mix in which I vigorously added Beast Hide, in a ratio of 1:1. 

 The final step on the straps was a wash, making the straps looking more reddish-brown and also giving it more depths. I added Dark Flesh and Mixing Medium to the prior mix, in a ratio of 3:3:1, and as always I let a paper towel soak some paint before I applied that wash on the model. That step with the paint soaking paper towel is important to prevent paint pool on the model and thereby leaving ugly spots, streaks, or even a hugh amount of pooling paint that drops on already painted areas (oh, how many times has this happen in the past....).

Certainly, Dozer never would pay a single buck for a sound Manhattan manicure, so his finger nails (and those on the toes, too) are somewhat yellow, broken, and certainly nothing pleasing the eye. I gave that a basecoat of Averland Sunset (Citadel), Screaming Skull (Citadel), and Skragg Brown (Citadel, in a ratio of 1:3:1.

For the highlight I added more Skreaming Skull, in a ratio of 1:1,  and painted thick lines on the nail, to indicate several layers of callus.

The highlight lines were painted from the middle to the nail point, whereas the last wash, was painted close to the nailbed. I made a glaze of Dark Flesh, Khador Red Highlight, and Mixing Medium, in a ratio of 1:1:4, and, again let a paper towel soak lots of paint before applying, painted several thin layers on the nailbed.

That's it. Basically. Several other details I didn't cover, but that's intended and okay. Painting the shells, umpteen bags, uncountable buckles, cleaning spots, cleaning interconnected parts, and so on. That is tiresome and not very helpful, for it is no part of a general tutorial to paint that model, but only occasional cleaning of that very model of mine.

So here are some group shots of the final model, together with his buddies Jarl, the Bomber, and some whelps. The colours don't come as good as IRL and the light created some heavy shadows, but that's how you cope with some mobile phone camera. I hope I can get an acquintance with his super awesome camere to get me some nice pictures of my Trollbloods, soon. But he rarely shows up at the LGS lately...

BANG!

Dozer & Smigg | WIP | Step by Step Part 3

At the time I'm posting this part 3 of the Step by Step, the actual model is already done painting and fielded one time. On a scale D&S's performance oscilated between "meh" and "okay", but that's mainly because my opponent had his Lord Arcanist Ossyan using his feat (making my ranged attack damage roll losing one die) and D&S didn't hit, so it was a POW 7 hit against ARM 19 Hypnos and several ARM 18 shield wall Helbardiers. When D&S charged Hypnos the damage outpout (-4 on every melee damage roll) wasn't enough to cripple a single system and Hypnos served his vengeancy cold and swiftly the following round.

So back to the painting tutorial, I rather save my war stories for later.

When I had a lot of the bandages and clothes finished, I decided to paint the loincloth in a qitari pattern and also paint some of the heavy leather straps all over the armor. 

I started with a basecoat of Bootstrap Leather (P3) and Dryad Bark (Citadel), i a ratio of 1:2.

 For the first highlight I added two small drops of Cold Grey (Vallejo).

After this I made a wash consisting of Bootstrap Leather, Dryad Bark and Skrag Brown (Citadel) and put painted them in two thin layers into all recesses.

For the finishing highlight I added  Hammerfall Khaki (P3) and painted several smaller lines to indicate some texture on the loincloth.

As a complementary colour to the loincloth's brown and the intended pale skin with a slight blue hue I chose green for the right colour on the qitari. So I mixed a light green consisting of Warboss Green (Citadel), Moot Green (Citadel), in a ratio of 1:1 and a single drop of Cold Grey.

I painted squares (pure Caliban Green, Citadel) where the green lines on the pattern met each other and additional lines of pale orange, using Skrag Brown.

At this stage I'd thought, it'd be finally time to get started with the skin. But at first I needed to paint Dozer's mouth, for when I paint all adjacent areas in a pale whitish-bluish grey and put then a drop of dark red on the skin, it'd be hell to paint over it.

The mouth's inner parts like tongue, teethridge, oral cavity, and the roof of the mouth were painted with the same basecoat: a 2:2:1 mix of Mephiston Red (Citadel), Dark Skin (Citadel), and Matt Black (Warpaints).
 

To the prior mix I added Khador Red Highlight (P3), making it 1:1, as a highlight for everything but the tongue.

An additional highlight with even more Khador Red Highlight, focusing on the front teethridge.

For the tongue I chose a very pale purple, consisting of Light Flesh (Vallejo) and Xereus Purple (Citadel), in a ratio of 2:1. (Since the Vallejo paints containing so much more pigments, it was actually a brush fully loaded with Xereus Purple and only half a brush of Light Flesh.)

For the teeth I added lots of Hammerfall Khaki right into the prior mix for the tongue.

Into this paint I mixed in Screaming Skull (Citadel), in a ratio of 1:1. At this stage I painted single lines on the teeth connecting at the pointy end.

 Additional Light Flesh for the teeth.

Since I didn't want the teeth to look as white as a covergirl's bright smile I put together a reddish-brown glaze, consisting of Carroburg Crimson (Citadel), Reikland Fleshshade (Citadel) and Glaze Medium (Vallejo), in a ratio of 2:1:4. I painted three thin layers of this glaze betwen the teeth in the upper jaw, but took more time for the lower jaw's teeth, since they are more defined. I let the glaze pool at the lower areas of the lower jaw's teeth to indicated little oral hygiene but much using of the teeth (saying: biting big chunks out of dragonspawn).

The last step before painting the skin was to prepare the eyes. I painted the eyes completely with a layer of Thunderhawk Blue (Citadel) and Matt Black, in a ratio of 2:1, and created a 'mask'.
To be honest, I already started to paint the eyes either (which can be seen in the next pictures) but after I finished the skin, I repainted the eyes with more matching colours.

For the skin I wanted something really pale, so I took the trollblood paints Privateer Press put on the market and added some white here, some grey there, until I was satisfied.
My basecoat to go was a mix of Thunderhawk Blue and Slaanesh Grey (Citadel), in a ratio of 1:1. As can be seen on the picture the paint is much brighter when it has dried out.

For the first highlight I added Trollblood Highlight (P3), in a ratio of 1:1:1.

For the next highlight I added a single drop of Underbelly Blue (P3) and two drops of Pallid Wych Flesh (Citadel), in a ratio of 2:1. Unfortunately I forgot to make a photo after apllying this highlight.

I wasn't done with the highlights right now but it was time to add the first shading. So I mixed some Underbelly Blue with Trollblood Base (P3) and lots of Glaze Medium, in a ratio of 1:2:5. The idea of this wash isn't to cover all areas and literally flood them, but to paint very thin layers with this wash ('glazing') in the recesses and those areas where an unspecified light source wouldn't get through.

I added Beaten Purple (P3) into the wash and put about three additional thin layers on the model. 
When this was done, I painted another layer (consisting of Underbelly Blue and Pallid Wych Flesh, in a ratio of 1:1) and put highlights on all the spots where an unspecified light source would certainly put light on to it.
I also painted some curves on all the heavier muscles to define the different ridges of muscle.

After painting two very bright highlights I added one more a darker glaze, consisting of Beaten Purple, Dark Sea Blue (Vallejo) and Glaze Medium, in a ratio of 2:1.5. After this I painted a final highlight of pure Pallid Wych Flesh on the heavier muscles.

When the face was done I mixed a little bit of Fulgrim Pink (Citadel) into Pallid Wych Flesh, in a ratio of 1:3, and glazed the lips. The eyes where painted in Bloodrider Red (Citadel), with Averland Sunset (Citadel) for the pupil and a small line of Dark Sea Blue for the iris.

Dozer & Smigg | WIP | Step by Step Part 2

In the past few days I spent a lot of 'quality time' with D&S and made good process in painting that unique couple. I went on painting the biggest metal parts by finishing the bombard.

I mixed myself a dark red that looks fairly khadoran to me with Mephiston Red (Citadel), Dryad Bark (Citadel), in a ratio of 3:1 and a single drop of Steel Grey (Vallejo | Game Color). Again I ripped of some foam to get an irregular shape. I stippled that on the bombard and made sure to leave wide patches untouched - especially at the bombard's muzzle.

When I had enough irregular patterns on the bombard I painted most of the gaps since I didn't want to have the paint chipped that heavily as it looked on the first picture. Still, I left the muzzle untouched, indicating heavy bombardements through the years. 

The next step was to paint an additional layer of light red. I used the dark red tone from before and mixed some Ember Orange (P3) into it, in a ratio of 1:1. Also I used pure Matt Black (Warpaints) - the best black paint out there! - to put lines at the edges of the red paint to give an impression of shadows, since there the paint is likely to peel and chip off even further.

Right now only the bare metal of the bombard is showing enough signs of weathering but the red paint does not. So I grabed the still wet pigment mixture I used on the metal parts and mixed in additional Black Pigments (Vallejo) to have it more visuable on the red parts.
 I didn't apply the pigments directly on the rivets and recesses of the bombard, but wiped off most of the pigments from the brush on a paper towel. After the brush was less loaded I put the brush's tip on every single rivet to and painted a single line into every recess.

After drying the pigments created a well used look on the bombard. That's where I left the weapon, concering the metal. The leather straps and the shells will be painted later.

I wanted to paint to the skin as soon as possible but before that I needed to paint the 'gloves' and the bandages, that were wrapped around both arms and feet first. I needed to do this in this sequence because the skin will be a very light color tone. Having the skin all done and do something on an adjacent segment and put than accidentally some color on the skin will be very difficult to get undone. It's über-difficult to reconstruct a very light tone without making it look blotched.

For the basecoat of the gloves I used Gnarls Green (P3), Canvas (Vallejo | Panzer Aces) and Steel Grey, in a ratio of 2:3:1.

When the basecoat has dryed I added again Canvas, in a ratio of 1:1. 

The next layer contained more of 'Jack Bone (P3), in a ratio of 1:1.

For the final highlights I added Dorn Yellow (Citadel) to the last tone, in a ratio of 1:2.

When the last layer has completely dried I made a glaze for shading. I used the last paint for the highlights (counting as 1 for the ratio) and added a single drop of Coal Black (P3), Gnarls Green, Matt Black and Glaze Medium (Vallejo), in a ratio of 1:2:1:3 and a lot more of water.
Since that is a shade I soaked the brush completely and wiped off about 90% on a paper towel before applying it on the model. On the picture you see the results after shading the recess five times. Glazes should be done in several layers to get a better result. Using simply one strong wash and paint it into the recesses and pleats will create something unnatural and comic-book like shade. That's something I don't want to have on D&S, for it would look like hastely done.

Before I started to paint the bandages at the hands and feet, and also the blanket on the right arm, I painted several other parts, but those will be covered later. The bandages and the blanket got a basecoat of a mix of Canvas, Hammerfall Khaki (P3) and Glaze Medium, in a ratio of 3:2:1.

 

For the first highlight I added 'Jack Bone, making it a ratio of 1:1.

The final highlight is almost pure Screaming Skull (Citadel), making it a ratio of 1:3.

For the shade I added to the last highlight Gun Corps Brown (P3), Bootstrap Leather (P3), Gnarls Green, and Glaze Medium (and a single drop of Coal Black), in a ratio of 1:2:1:2.

On the last picture you can see I already painted the axe on the left arm plates. The wooden axe handle* I painted in a pure basecoat of Gun Corps Brown (P3). With a 1:1 mix of Averland Sunset (Citadel) and Ivory (Vallejo) I painted the wood grain lines. Next step was a wash containing Carroburg Crimson (Citadel) and Lamenters Yellow (Citadel), in a ratio of 1:1. When that wash has dryed I washed the axe handle again with a mix of the former wash and additional Drakenhof Nightshade, making it a ratio of 1:1:1. Thats it.

*For a great tutorial on how to paint wood grain, please have a look at Forces of Warmachine: Mercenaries, there it is covered very nicely (a four step tutorial which I used precisely on this axe handle, just switched the recommended paints).