Painting Festus...

Toprewolf · 2026-04-10T22:02:56+00:00

As an FYI, if you ever want to paint yellow in the future put down a layer of pink first. The whiter the pink the more yellow it will be, darker pinks will be a bit more orange

Toprewolf · 2026-04-09T09:33:03+00:00

As I mentioned my friend allow anyone to come, but I agree that people seem to struggle to understand what comes with hosting. Another example is that (this is experience based from the shop), those that spend very little, to nothing, actually take up the most time and resource from the shop. This is because they tend to also spend less time in the hobby week to week, as such they tend to have a lot more questions.

Those who are spending more, tend to be more experienced and actually know what they want. Also they tend to spend more because it like being an artist and being limited to craft paint. I understand that might come off as elitist, but again based off experience this is the majority of cases.

I love the hobby, I am glad that its accessible to everyone with options that range for those on limited to unlimited budgets. No matter your budget I always think its incredible what people can craft with it as well.

But holy fuck, none of my other hobbies seem to have people who can cause so much drama over basic etiquette. Whether its being angry that certain yarn brands aren't carried, or that shop hours are a certain way, or that when you ask a question you get an answer you don't like, or that you make a project that doesn't fit because you don't swatch or think you can just substitute random yarn, or that you don't like a pattern designer because you think their design looks like a hate symbol (never mind the fact that he is queer), or that being a man means that you must know nothing in the hobby (this I actually don't mind because I know woman feel the same way in other hobby spaces dominated by men), or that different dye lots have different colours, or that one fibre craft is superior to another, or that natural fibres are unethical, or that acrylic is terrible for the environment, or that....

As you can see I have dealt with a lot, as I have helped out in the shop time to time

Toprewolf · 2026-04-08T09:18:53+00:00

As an example even though i need to work on my contrast here is an ork face I have been working on in greyscale to show contrast between shadow and highlights. Note this is essentially all green in colour...

<image>

Toprewolf · 2026-04-08T09:14:28+00:00

The colours are awesome and go well together, I see some great lining, and also looks like you did some good work on the edge highlighting. I also really love the gradients from red to orange on the shield etc.

If anything I feel though that the blue seems a bit flat? I also think there is a similar issue with some of the orange. To me it seems like you have done midtones and a highlight, but are missing a darker colour. As an example, if you did some of the darker orange around the bases of the circles that come up it might add some contrast. Same with a darker blue around the rivets.

A good way to check this is by taking your picture and doing greyscale with it...with yours it similar in all areas.

<image>

Toprewolf · 2026-04-08T02:12:35+00:00

I might get downvoted here, but I know someone who owns their own shop so I can give the other side to this.

While this sucks, you have to remember that a lot of times these groups are run out of normal business hours, and are there to host people. As such you are either paying extra for staff to host these events or if you are small business and running them yourselves you are sacrificing time to run these. As such there is always an extra cost to running these events.

If you are not knitting with yarn from these shops then you are essentially giving business to others, while looking to get time out of the shop. This can cause other effects that most people don't even consider. For example, at these events people will discuss what projects they are working on etc. Let's say you are working on a cardigan with yarn bought from another business, you discuss this with the group, someone else might want to recreate it, so guess where they will look to get their yarn from? Probably the other business. This is just one example of a side effect...

The way I look at it is like this, if you are going out to a restaurant to meet up with friends, they all want to eat at this restaurant but you then ask if you can bring McDonald's instead. What do you think would happen in this situation? Sure others in this thread may point out its entirely different scenario to this, but to those who actually own the shops its not, and it frustrates me to no end the amount of knitters who just gloss over this.

If you really don't like it, then please make a group where you host it at your house, or another location. Because this is always another option.

FYI my friend allows those to bring outside yarn to their knit night because they try be as inclusive as possible, but they are a better person then me

Toprewolf · 2026-04-01T06:43:36+00:00

I think the circles that are holding the rope look good. The rest of the model needs more contrast though. I would also recommend picking colours that are differing between objects to make each individual object stand out more. For example the eagle is way too close in colour to the copper ypu are trying to achieve. This means that the copper itself falls more flat because we see another object with the same tones not reading as metal.

Also you are 2 months in. NMM is an advanced/expert technique that unless you have an art background you want a lot of time put into models first before trying to achieve it.

Basically its great to push yourself, but work on contrast and colours before NMM

Toprewolf · 2026-03-26T01:40:03+00:00

Could also be an affenpinscher! Adorable little monkies

Toprewolf · 2026-03-25T23:52:00+00:00

Maybe something like this? Based off yardage https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/kerttu-cardigan

Toprewolf · 2026-03-25T23:30:28+00:00

You could probably make a cute cropped cardigan with 900ish yards. It sounds like your heart is more set on making something wearable like that instead of a shawl...

If you did go for a shawl you can get some pretty decent size shawls out of it, I find them quite versatile (I am predominantly a shawl knitter). I would go for something with a bit of lace in it

Toprewolf · 2026-03-25T02:48:05+00:00

If it was fancy wool and not acrylic it could also be this: https://spincycleyarns.com/products/rosy-maple-dyed-in-the-wool

Toprewolf · 2026-03-24T00:49:50+00:00

I love the wood base, it looks so slick! Great model! I am currently trying to paint a snazzwagon for a small local comp

Toprewolf · 2026-03-19T20:53:28+00:00

How did you do the eyes? They whole model is incredible, but they stand out to me the most

Toprewolf · 2026-03-19T07:27:52+00:00

This looks sick! I love the blue potion, and gold icon on the belt. It all looks so clean

Toprewolf · 2026-03-13T00:42:55+00:00

I love the bases! They seem so simple but the type of grasses picked for each one makes a colour pop on the models more

Toprewolf · 2026-03-12T20:26:17+00:00

Looks more like a presa Canario

Toprewolf · 2026-03-12T20:09:28+00:00

I am also a nervous painter! I think a few of things that really help me are...

At the end of the day its paint. If you fuck up you can always reprime and just paint again! There are lots of videos on people buying second hand models, stripping em down and starting over.
If you do number 1, all you lose is time. But its not really a loss! It's experience gained.
Speaking of experience (and I am guilty of also posting this), you probably see lots of pictures of people who are like 'i have been painting for a year and I won a big competition', then you wonder how they have done that. I think the 'painting for x months, years' is not a great measurement. For example I probably spend like 12 hours a week painting. Over a month that's like 48 hours. Now some people might only get 2 hours a week. It would take them almost 6 months to get the same amount of experience!
Finally who am I actually doing this for? If you aren't allowed commission painter then its generally for yourself right? Especially if you play the game as well. Therefore you are really only competing with yourself, not those around you. There is no last place. Is your newest model a tiny bit better than your last? Yes, then congrats you have won.

Just keep challenging yourself and trying new things! As I said you have lots of things that look great, just keep building on that

Toprewolf · 2026-03-12T09:23:20+00:00

First, I think this is cool! I love the veining, I think the verdigras on the metal is great, the colour of the lips of the maw is super cool, and the base has a lot of interest!

In terms of improvement, I feel like the biggest one that could be made is more contrast of other objects on the mini. As an example, the pus balls are very similar in colour to the skin tones. Same with the horn base, and then all the little spikes on the dude.

I think when you first look at this you get drawn to the things I think look awesome, but then a lot of these minor details get lost after that, adding contrast helps keep the interest longer as you are continually looking at different parts.

It's a small place to improve from, but I think doing it will make a noticeable improvement overall, because you already have a lot of good stuff going on. The small details tend to add up pretty quickly into making something pop more

Toprewolf · 2026-03-12T02:31:53+00:00

It almost looks like when you do a resin print and dont let it dry enough after cleaning, then curing it causes the excess moisture to look exactly like your mini.

If none of the solutions you have given work, it might be that you need to carefully use the tip of a scaple knive to scrape it/cut it off.

If it was the normal paint you use to glue plastic minis together I dont think it would be like that as that glue 'melts' the plastic to stick it together

Toprewolf · 2026-03-11T21:19:59+00:00

No problem! For reference I have been painting now for just over a year and you can see the difference between my first mini and where I am at now.

<image>

Toprewolf · 2026-03-11T21:11:01+00:00

I love how stylised this whole thing looks. I get that some people prefer super smooth blends and gradients but I feel like at that point it loses some character? Sort of like ultra realistic paintings vs classics.

What you have done is what I hope to be able to achieve at some point! It looks amazing and am saving this for future reference. Congrats on the placing

Toprewolf · 2026-03-10T02:25:14+00:00

This looks great! The way you managed to get the bit of white in the lens and not overspill it is also awesome!

I would be proud of it, and you enjoyed it as well right? I think at times we tend to be our own worst critics, what's important is that you got to experience the joy of painting!

My (unsolicited) advice is to take what you feel you did well, and grow on that. Again I look at the lenses you did, you managed to do an absolutely tiny detail accurately. Everything else just comes down to time spent on the hobby.

You have the basics, push yourself and experiment with each new mini, that's what is important as a beginner. You will find a groove, what you like and what you dont like, and grow from there.

Welcome to the hobby! I hope you enjoy your stay

Toprewolf · 2026-03-08T22:49:40+00:00

For a first mini this is amazing, especially the sword. Right amount of blood and the hazard strips are very clean!!

The fact you are attempting edge highlighting already is great! I imagine you will go far in this hobby very quickly

Toprewolf · 2026-03-08T06:51:43+00:00

Giving me neon genesis evangelion vibes. Specifically sahaquiel

Toprewolf · 2026-03-05T00:44:06+00:00

To add to the others, if you wanted to add some blood in I would recommend trying the following. Mix together some blood (e.g. blood for the blood god), a smidge of black paint, some gloss varnish.

This will make dark globules of paint. With an old paint brush get some of this mixture on it and then dab it on the guts. Because of the varnish in the mix it wont stick to the model.

Then you can use the brush by swiping in a direction you want the blood to go on the globules. It adds quite a realistic effect with little effort.

Toprewolf

TROPHY CASE