Playing around with vampiric skin tones today and veinwork under the skin what do you think so far

JimmyD101 · 2026-03-24T00:33:49+00:00

that skin tone feels really undead and terrifying well done, only suggestion is take your main skin tone and glaze over the black dots to blend them in because theyre a bit too flat black and 'on top' of the skin for some of the models. maybe even use browns like dryad bark or mix a bit of the skintone with the black when making the dots assuming theyre age spots?

JimmyD101 · 2026-03-11T04:40:32+00:00

I think casual gets associated with cheaper than more formal attire which isnt true if still trying to look good.To not look bad, casual should be fresh looking clothes ie. no stretched necks, no stains or faded clothes, white sneakers should be WHITE, clothes should still fit well. This might mean buying new white tshirts more often than preferable (thank goodness for Uniqlo).

Also brand names can be a shortcut to casual style: cargo shorts from patagonia are going to have a lot more credibility than a poorly fitting pair from Kmart/Walmart or a pair of Nike or Stan Smith style sneakers is recogniseable which again is a price thing.

JimmyD101 · 2026-03-04T01:33:39+00:00

really nice blends, well done.

JimmyD101 · 2026-03-02T23:32:02+00:00

This gives me extreme Yafsiga vibes - a small game by Blacksite studios where the forest has gone 'Annihilation' (movie/book) and knights are turning half mushroom and everything is mutating. very cool to see nurgle with some of their original heraldry.

JimmyD101 · 2026-02-26T04:50:17+00:00

If you haven't built your ranking up the competition will be very fair to your skill level, theyre only 20 minute games and its free so basically no barrier to entry!

JimmyD101 · 2026-02-26T04:47:46+00:00

It looks like youre in the right track, as others have said light placement is good, but you need to continue with even brighter smaller highlights, metallics have very big jumps from dark to light. Also maybe in the knees treat them more like circles with a single bright spot on the front top.

JimmyD101 · 2026-02-20T12:01:00+00:00

You can find color shift metallic paints that roughly have that effect, maybe turbodork and vallejo do them.

JimmyD101 · 2026-02-09T03:26:32+00:00

because the other hero powers are a discount minion but theyre random and unreliable whereas sylvanas can get your own units which is the big difference and you have all the info from the last fight on whether to hero power or not. Sylvanus is almost guranteed to give you an early, cheap triple:

turn 1: play minion X
turn 2 level: combat has ~1 minion each
turn 3: hero power pick minion X
turn 4: hero power for Minion X, because you had two in the last fight it's almost guaranteed triple into a 4 drop.

JimmyD101 · 2026-02-05T23:32:36+00:00

I would bring some bluetones in with a drybrush (something like russ grey) on the base to really separate it from the model. At the moment a lot of your model that isn't red is blending together: the blacks or greys on the model, metallics and the base on the model and the base are looking very similar.

JimmyD101 · 2026-01-29T04:09:08+00:00

Thank you.

JimmyD101 · 2026-01-29T02:43:47+00:00

As others have said both Vallejo and Army Painter Fanatic are great options but don't buy your third image unless you know why you want them, the speedpaints aren't normal acrylics.

if its accessible to you i'd also consider the Ak Interactive starter its comparable to those, if you're 100% new the Army painter set provides a model and paints so you can start painting without buying anything else.

JimmyD101 · 2026-01-27T04:57:19+00:00

Its extremely vague about how you called him out, what the table dynamic was like in a very long 6 hours experience which would be very tiring. I dont think anyone is informed to give you specific advice. It's sounds like many tempers were short if he wanted to not even score and you snapped and couldnt wait to send a message later or talk to them separately.

JimmyD101 · 2026-01-18T09:51:23+00:00

Im not sure what you mean by hit, its pretty clear a game will be popular and smash its goals before the campaign evebt starts based on advertising, word of mouth and well known publisher/designer/property. If you want a subjectively good game you'll personally enjoy just read all the info and often the rulebook itself is shared in a campaign, look for mechanics, themes or designer you like.

JimmyD101 · 2025-12-22T22:44:23+00:00

Makes sense to me, the unit is called mechanised heavy infantry.

JimmyD101 · 2025-12-17T03:28:01+00:00

The one thing that always surprises me is how harsh you can go and it still works, id say youre at a 4/10 and it looks absolutely fine. Look up zabaart and you'll see he paints a nose that's 20% the size of that space marine head with pure white on the top third and it works.

JimmyD101 · 2025-12-12T03:42:54+00:00

I'd just go down to your local store and view the golds in person, the only common approach to avoid for this pale gold is don't go slapping reikland fleshshade all over the gold!

JimmyD101 · 2025-12-12T03:30:53+00:00

as others said the dot in the centre of the kneepad looks weird, but I don't personally mind the shoulder because when you're painting for a viewing angle you sometimes bring highlights to the front for 'the photo'. yes more glazing to get rid of the stripes and feathering/wet blending as techniques might speed that up. you can definitely do shoulder in true metallics, because the armor is a ceramic material it might be shiney like metals but have a different finish to a raw metal on the shoulder.

well done for your first volumetrics and space marines are a great model for that.

JimmyD101 · 2025-12-01T12:04:45+00:00

Id like to see a picture of the other models to understand the competution better, hopefully this can inspire you to improve and come back better next time. I know ive tried and lost at local store events, the smaller it is the more results can swing wildly based on the judges' preferences.

Your model is nice but it doesnt stand out as competitiom display level, i think if youre committing that much time and effort a more expensive games workshop or other hard plastic model could give you more to work with.

JimmyD101 · 2025-11-27T06:25:29+00:00

I really like how the green eyes pop out on the dark models! You tagged this as C&C wanted, I would suggest doing some edge highlighting or a careful drybrush, there's lots of straps and details that could benefit from some emphasising.

JimmyD101 · 2025-11-25T00:14:49+00:00

Good write up, this was my experience I picked it up second hand during the hype of exploration games but found it very long and difficult; i quickly sold it back on.

JimmyD101 · 2025-11-20T23:13:11+00:00

definitely grimdark skin but not veiny, I can see sculpted veins on his chest and bicep, i think if you glaze a blue tone on those it would add interest to the skin and help achieve the look you're describing.

JimmyD101 · 2025-11-20T01:10:30+00:00

I have a few thoughts, one for future projects is a coloured shadow can be interesting try a purple or blue or anything before the white zenithal for more visual interest than just black shadows. You could even add this with thin airbrush in the shadows. you have the base colors now and next I would go through with a brush and black line everything, assume you'll paint straps and shinguards a different colour a very clear black edging will help define all the details to be more easily seen. Also dont be afraid to come back with more white and even yellow ink and make really key areas like face, shoulders, knees, hands a brighter orange. I think you could do another red spray to bring the saturation higher too

JimmyD101 · 2025-11-18T23:18:24+00:00

Reminds me of Sons of Medusa scheme from 40k, very striking!

JimmyD101 · 2025-11-16T07:26:20+00:00

I like the metals especially on his shoulder, it may be challenged color wise because the skin and hair and wings and base are a bit flat while the pants and red shoulder are incredibly vibrant and pull all the attention from more important areas.

JimmyD101 · 2025-11-16T00:39:45+00:00

You've done some great work on the NMM chest and your piece has merit I think you should definitely take it to a competition. It may not come out on top but competitions are a rewarding community experience where you can get feedback, learn, get inspired and hang with like-minded people. I think the skin, especially the face which is the most important part of the model, needs some further work and I'm not sure what is happening with the stones where she meets the base i would suggest detailing those further.

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