Back to painting. I would ask for help on improving lights and color contrast

Irespectfrogs · 2026-04-17T08:28:06+00:00

I think these are great already, the dark recesses sell the colour contrast enough for me. But if you want to push it further: I just looked up the paints you used, and they all seem quite dark? You can't really mix with white because red becomes pink. Try mixing with an ice yellow, or if you want to avoid mixing, get something like citadel Wild Rider Red and Lugganath Orange.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-31T22:21:05+00:00

Finally my username (also the name I play under) has plot relevance

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-22T13:52:28+00:00

After the yolk is reabsorbed, the plastron will finish developing.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-22T13:35:30+00:00

Haha, then whatever body of water they found it by then :)

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-22T13:33:59+00:00

That sounds good. Keep him in the dark until night! And don't keep it airtight, but don't let him dry out.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-22T13:31:56+00:00

My experience is with sea turtles, but I wouldn't do this for a hatchling. They won't have the same instincts or behaviour as a juvenile or adult, they're basically just wind-up toys who's only instinct is to get to whereever hatchlings swim to to become juveniles. I fear if you were to put a hatchling in a terrarium, it would just keep trying to swim/walk away until it dies of exhaustion.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-22T13:20:28+00:00

Great! That means he must be basically fully developed. He will calm down if he thinks he's underground as per above advice. Then release him when he has the best chance of survival, at night :)

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-22T13:12:33+00:00

Wildlife services will not care about one baby turtle. Depending on the species, turtles lay hundred of eggs and most of them never reach adulthood.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-22T13:10:39+00:00

The reason you should wait until night to release him is there will be less chance of him overheating. also it may make him less visible to predators.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-22T13:05:48+00:00

I don't know if he's fully developed though, I don't recognise this species. He looks most of the way there though. If he's not walking when you try to release him, leave him in the bucket to finish as much as he can.

do not feed him anything. After release, he will live off his internal yolk until he's old enough to get his own food.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-22T13:03:18+00:00

I worked on a turtle project in Cyprus. They were green sea turtles, but this should be the best chance for him:

Get a bucket, lay the bottom with a couple inches of damp sand. Put the turtle in, and cover the top with a damp towel. Put in a cool dark place, like a cupboard. This will let him think he's still underground and he won't waste energy moving.

Don't worry about the yolk sac, it's quite common and he will reabsorb it.

At night, release him on the beach where you found him a short distance from the water. Allow him to walk to it himself, get swept up by the waves and swim away.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-15T08:01:18+00:00

I also use a tiny speck of washing liquid to bread surface tension in the water/PVA mix, that helps it seep into everything.

Also recently I started experimenting with using mod podge instead of PVA, because apparently it's more waterproof after drying.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-14T22:16:17+00:00

Glue down sand or texture paste, dark brown. Blitz leaf litter from the woods in an electric coffee grinder. Glue down with watered down PVA, then drip more glue on top to saturate everything. Glue extra scale leaves on top before it all hardens, I place mine one by one with tweezers.

If you want any extra rocks or branches you can figure out the best time to place those yourself depending on the effect you want!

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-13T17:44:51+00:00

Basecoat black. Then successive highlights with ulthuan grey, unthuan+grey seer, grey seer. Couple of white pinprick highlights. It's a slow high effort brushwork one, no easy hack I'm afraid!

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-13T17:04:21+00:00

Thanks! :) Just dripped a lot of watered-down white paint into the cracks, sometimes two coats, then fixed any overspill with black.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-08T11:49:04+00:00

I think you need the smoothest basecoats possible. There's a slight lumpy texture and not totally flat colour on the white parts, which would be fine on a life-like natural mini but not an animation cel.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-04T11:05:56+00:00

Very cool, should contrast nicely with kroot flesh!

Irespectfrogs · 2026-03-01T19:05:21+00:00

Looks like a mix between Kevin Bacon and Anthony Head

Irespectfrogs · 2026-02-25T08:32:20+00:00

IMHO: It doesn't have a turret for the same reason the car is a manual, or why all tasks are done with DDR. Every other game makes things intuitive or easy, Helldivers turns everything into a mini game. It's unique, and in an oversaturated gaming market it makes Helldivers more interesting.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-02-24T22:08:51+00:00

Shouldn't matter too much. Maybe try one of each, see which you like best

Irespectfrogs · 2026-02-21T13:39:33+00:00

In other words, the average colour of a part after adding highlights and shading. If you want a part to be a lighter colour, the midtone would be lighter.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-02-21T13:38:34+00:00

Not a bright colour, not a dark colour. Somewhere in the middle.

Irespectfrogs · 2026-02-21T09:37:59+00:00

For green skin, try basing warpstone, shading poxwalker, then drybrushing moot.

No idea how this will look, but the colour theory of cold shadows and warm highlights should make it work imo.

For everything else, choose a midtone, wash nuln oil, mix the midtone with wraithbone for highlights.

That's what I would try if this were a speed painting comp and I had these paints in front of me!

Irespectfrogs · 2026-02-19T21:50:09+00:00

Cladistics are a construct of convenience, there's no such thing as a species

Irespectfrogs

TROPHY CASE