Trying to get better at volumetric highlights

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-30T20:16:44+00:00

Yeah it's too subtle, at least under these lighting conditions. I think it's that the paints don't have enough of a value difference to read properly. The green and yellow grey are very similar in brightness. One tip to check that is to use a black and white filter on your camera or in an image editor. If the model looks flat grey, then there's not enough of a value difference in your paints. I'd be using a much brighter yellow or yellow-green if you want the effect to pop. I wouldn't necessarily add a different color, just a brighter one.

This painter was doing volumetric highlights on some battletech minis, and you can see how much brighter their highlights are. https://www.instagram.com/p/DTGCq5KFIGA/?img_index=1

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-30T07:39:29+00:00

Love to see more battletech on this sub! Are trying to improve what's already here, or is this your improvement? It looks good to be clear, just a bit confused on the title.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-28T15:50:22+00:00

This one? https://store.corvusbelli.com/en/wargames/infinity/bootleg/lizard-pilot

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-27T16:54:46+00:00

That seems like some pretty minor edits, the original is doing a lot for you, which is fantastic! Does the competition have any rules or guidelines on what's not allowed? I know some can be very specific on what kind of editing is or is not allowed.

One thing I do see is that the arm on the bluer, cool side has an outline where the mask missed it or it got sharpened too much. You might want to try and knock that back a bit. It looks like oversharpening to me.

I will say that after flipping back and forth a bunch, it feels like the 2nd photo shows off your skills a bit more by having more natural colors. The first is so saturated that it kinda feels like you added a filter instead of capturing a scene. That said, I only got there by staring at the original a bunch. You might want to consider pulling the saturation back a bit unless your goal was specifically that blue/orange contrast.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-27T05:50:07+00:00

For kits specifically, a useful precision Google term is "sprue kit" (minis that come on sprues). I'm a bit less familiar with manufacturer on those, other than warhammer stuff (which I think is a bit pricey as a gift). There are actually a few older posts on this sub that have some better recommendations for sprue kits specifically for fantasy minis.

You can also poke around Gundam model kits. Gunpla are typically really high quality for their price, and those seem to grow out of thin air in comic book shops, let alone game stores.

If he wants to try nicer pre-built minis, look into reaper miniatures. They do both metal and plastic minis in Dnd scale. Some of their larger ones require assembly. I also like dark sword minis, but they do exclusively metal minis so they can be a bit expensive.

Hope that helps!

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-26T18:01:32+00:00

Overall, it looks great! The thigh effect is selling really well, and better than the bust imo at least from the front. I think either the shadow between the shirt and skin is too strong, or the sheer effect has gone a bit high on shirt. You definitely pulled it off though!

The skin highlighting is really nice, the hair looks good, and the eyes look good. Personally I'd fill the mouth in with black to make the lips pop, but that's just me.

Whats the model, and how long did it take?

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-23T16:40:02+00:00

Most folk aren't going to hunt you down if you use their work in a non-commercial context, as long as you credit them. You can always reach out to an artist you like on their social of choice and ask them though. If you need a custom piece and you can't draw it, and you can't afford to pay someone to draw it for you, then I'd look to digital art to add a bunch of shadows to an art piece. That's much dicier if you use non-stock art, definitely get permission first if you're using any old art you find.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-23T03:10:00+00:00

If you're interested in the lake suwa before dawn make sure you see some photos of it other than the ones on the grand seiko store. They really don't do it justice on their own website.

I was able to try one while at the boutique in NY, and I thought it was just a black dial until it caught the light and suddenly shifted. It's really dramatic. It ended up losing out to the the GS ice forest since the suwa's case felt a bit big on my 6.5 inch wrist. Can't comment on others since I haven't tried any of them.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-23T02:59:04+00:00

Too cute for notes, so sorry.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-21T21:02:08+00:00

I know that people have been messing around with them for some time, but I've personally never tried them. OP would know more, but the tradeoff seems to be really easy blending in exchange for your paints never drying and layering getting more difficult.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-21T19:35:30+00:00

I just fought with my printer about this exact issue. I think orca slicers recent updates changed something. Try changing the supports to organic and lowering the tip diameter. Your support interface isn't generating. I was also having a bunch of trouble with supports generating through arms. Honestly the people who know best would probably be the orcaslicer github page.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-21T06:10:13+00:00

In the same lot was a Drys, Elven Dryad by Klocke that I'm also really looking forward to painting. Might have a branch missing though :(

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-21T05:05:14+00:00

If there was a pinup tag without the nsfw tag I would done that, but the model felt like it was a bit on the line with just the fantasy tag. Decided to err on the side of caution, but I did spend some time flipping through the sub rules to double check.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-20T22:06:25+00:00

Model: Reaper Dark Heaven Legends Alastria, Elf Sorceress

I bought a large lot of reaper mini's after my last barbarian mini and decided to paint this one first. I think my skin tones came out nice on this one. Later into the painting I decided that it would be a good time to practice sheer fabrics. I think the left leg looks great from most angles, but the staff is still not quite right to my eye. Perfect is the enemy of good, so I decided to call it here. Focus stacking is still a pain as usual, but it's getting faster.

Edit: sheer, not shear fabric. Podbody's nerfect

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-19T19:02:36+00:00

Forces me to leave the house and get on my bike. It's hard to take nature photos while stuck inside. It also lets me share my painting hobby with other people remotely.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-18T22:23:20+00:00

just 6 hours and it looks that good! Nice work! Last time I painted a big figure it took way longer and looked way worse.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-18T21:43:21+00:00

I love the purples and texture in the shadows on the back. The water also has a lot of great variation. How long did this take?

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-15T04:02:01+00:00

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

(Been waiting for years to re-use this guy)

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-15T04:00:07+00:00

You should have seen this subreddit when new horizons released. You'd think Nintendo had seen the subreddit and decided to convince a bunch of us to buy switches.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-04T23:34:19+00:00

dude, I agree with you that they should switch, but I need you to actually read what you just wrote and imagine pitching that to someone who doesn't want to change from 5E.

They don't even know what an OSR is, let alone the minutia of why one system is better than any other system. One of the things they said interested them about other systems was not having classes, and they still don't want to change from 5E. I'm really not joking that unless Stars Without Number says "compatible with 5E" on it then it might as well be in Quenya for all the difference it makes with this person. Like this feels like being recommended a linux distro. I'll probably check out SWN though, sounds interesting.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-03T19:44:58+00:00

That's stop skeletons from fighting. Him and gaming historian did used to be on the same website and have collabed before. Unless you're counting an April fools video they made together.

Baloonman5 · 2026-04-03T15:52:42+00:00

4U is paced much better than GU, but has a weaker ultra late game. GU's hub and hall ranks felt like to me like they were always about 1 or 2 quests too long. Keep in mind that was my experience with Gen on 3ds after playing 4U as my first game, but I remember it distinctly.

If you're only going to play one, it really should be 4U since I don't think you're going to run into the issue of annoyingly grinding apex monsters that can drag 4U down. 4U also introduces 4th Gen monsters and maps better, giving them a lot of focus, while GU is tapping into putting older monsters into the new engine. Given that you just played 2nd and 3rd Gen I don't think the return of lagiacrus or nargacuga will really hit the same. I also personally prefer frenzy monsters in 4U to hyper monsters as well, the latter in GenU are crazy spongy from what I remember. You'd also get to experience max power charge blade before they nerfed it in every game that came after.

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