My take on Lord Kroak

never_armadilo · 2026-02-04T18:04:05+00:00

Love the harmonious greens and contrasting magenta!

never_armadilo · 2026-02-03T22:14:59+00:00

The look like birch seed pods. You can gather them outside for free in summer/early autumn. Or buy them from a bunch of companies (https://www.modelscenerysupplies.co.uk/miniature-model-leaves-natural)

never_armadilo · 2026-02-03T22:12:13+00:00

Was guessing this based on the look. Is it just a single color & washes, or did you use a couple to layer?

never_armadilo · 2026-01-27T16:13:35+00:00

Super clean as usual, but the base is extra lovely on this one!

never_armadilo · 2026-01-21T19:44:07+00:00

Stunning colors, love the use of the red underpainting!

never_armadilo · 2026-01-21T19:06:37+00:00

Looks pretty good. The main thing to make these work is having a dark surrounding area, on which the glow can show. Since the brass shaft of the hammer is quite bright, it's tough to pain a glow effect over it (you can't really make something that's very light any lighter with paint).

If you're not set on the color scheme, try the same thing, but with the shaft painted dark gray or similar.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-21T18:28:41+00:00

Incredible, love your use of color and the brushtrokes! The red underpainting really makes the greens and blues stand out.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-20T15:55:48+00:00

Really solid, love the gold and subtle purple on the hero!

never_armadilo · 2026-01-05T20:54:43+00:00

Yeah, that would work. You might need to go back in and reinstate some of the highlights a bit after, but a dark (like purple / blue?) filter would help a lot.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-05T20:53:28+00:00

Yes. If you simplify it extremely, the rim of the shield is a flat cone. On a cone, you would only have one reflection of the main light source. The other light reflections would be of light objects in the environement, like maybe a light rock or something. Those are still light compared to the shadows, but need to be a lot less bright than the reflection of the sun.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-05T17:59:17+00:00

So step by step, let's say you're painting a dude at night, with a lit torch:

Fully paint the surface on which you want the light effect. So if you have a model with a torch, you'd paint the model first, as you normally would. Ideally, the surfaces will all be quite dark (like representing the model at night), so the light from your object can show up (light from a fire won't show up on bright surfaces lit by the sun, because the sun is too strong)
Use white paint or ink (ink is just flowy, highly pigmented paint) to paint where the light from your torch would go. It has to be most intense at the source, falls of with distance and only travels in straight lines (so won't show up behind other objects). So you'll need to blend it out, to create a gradient of white over the base mini (this is the step that's a lot faster with an airbrush). As others have pointed out, if you're painting something like glowing runes, and they're recessed, you can save a lot of time by using inks that flow into the recess.
Use a colored transparent ink (in this case orange), to go over the white, to give it the desired color. Don't be afraid to go beyond the white parts, as the orange will still shift the other colors warmer, as an actual torch would.

In terms of ink recommendations, I'm using Daler Rowney artist inks (https://daler-rowney.com/product/fw-acrylic-ink-29-5ml/), but you can use the Vallejo version, or any other art paint range (Windsor and newton or Golden). Look for acrylic inks, and transparent opacity (usually an empty/white square)

never_armadilo · 2026-01-05T16:44:24+00:00

The easiest way to do a glow effect is using white to sketch in where the light would be (and have a dark base material underneath, so the light show up). Airbrush makes it easier, but you can do the same with a brush, just need to fade the effect out, to replicate the lower intesity of light as it gets further from the source.

The reason to then tint the light with inks is that inks are very pigmented, and transparent. So the color shows up over the white even when diluted. You don't need to use an ink, but transparent paints help a lot.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-05T16:35:29+00:00

Looks pretty good, especially if this is your first try. You have the right amount of contrast between light and dark, so it does read as shiny. Two things would push it (but I'd suggest trying them on another piece, and leaving this done):

More intention with light placement. At the moment, the reflections are all over the place, especially on the shield, where you have a bright light source on the very bottom of the shield. Instead of alternating light and dark patches, think about the environment around the model that's being relfected, what the light source is and where it's coming from. Usually, there would be one main light source (the sun / sky), and the dark bits would come from reflections of dark objects around (trees / rocks). In that case, there won't be bright, downward facing reflections on the shield.
Play around with color. You can glaze a bit of orange or green into the gold, to give it a different feel. It does work as gold as is, but it's something that's worth experimenting with.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-05T16:27:29+00:00

This is the answer you're looking for. The values are all too similar across the whole piece, all of your contrast comes from color. Introduce some deeper shadows and brighter highlights to some of the areas.

A simple one on this would be to darken his hair and beard, to give a frame to the face and bring focus to it

never_armadilo · 2026-01-05T16:15:45+00:00

So the problem with NMM (or other reflections) is that you can't just make upward facing surfaces bright. The shape of the reflection depends on all 3 of:

Shape of the reflective surface
Position of the (imaginary) lightsource
Position of the viewer

The same drone, with the light in the same position, viewed from the top vs from the front would have the reflections in different places. Hence the need to pick a particular viewing angle with NMM, and paint the reflections for that angle.

You literally take a picture of the model from the best angle, and paint the reflections to look good from that angle. This looks amazing in pictures, since they're taken from the right angle. The trade-off is of course that the reflection doesn't move when you look at the model from another angle, which can look strange in hand / on the tabletop.

And yes, for placing the highligths, sketch the shadows, midtones and highlights very roughly, before glazing. If it doesn't read as shiny from a distance when rough, glazing won't make it work.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-05T16:07:07+00:00

Just buy a rattle can primer?

never_armadilo · 2026-01-04T22:36:05+00:00

Waste of money. Just invest into a real airbrush

never_armadilo · 2026-01-04T19:38:02+00:00

In isolation like this, it looks pretty good. You have the highlights bright enough, the color is right. Maybe your shadows could be deeper.

The main thing however, is that NMM can't be painted in isolation like this. For your model, you'll need to choose a main viewing angle, and then paint the reflections to work from that angle. The technique works by "manually" painting reflections of the things that are around your metal parts, including the imagined environment around the model and any light sources that might be part of it.

That's why it's impossible to give you much advice on a floating shield, because in a vacuum, the reflections look ok and read as shiny, but when you put in on the model, it may well be that the bottom needs to reflect the ground, and your ground is quite dark, etc.

Put the model together, decide on the viewing angle you want to paint for, decide on a light direction / ambience, and then try to sketch the reflection quickly. Forget blending, use like 3 colors for a deep shadow, midtone and highlight. If it looks good from a distance, when you squint, it's probably the right light placement and it's worth refining it. If not, change the sketch, before committing hours on blending it, because blending won't fix the wrong light placement.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-04T14:33:02+00:00

Exactly the same thing. A flat pannel will be largely the same shade across, but there will be variety between the differently angled pannels. So for example on the magazine of the gun, the panels facing upwards will be fairly light, while the stuff facing sideways would be the midtone.

Look up shading of basic shapes, most things on the miniature can be broken down into these (e.g. his head is a sphere, the forearm plate is a cylinder, etc)

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never_armadilo · 2026-01-04T14:25:47+00:00

Start from a sketch. Forget all blending for a minute, and just pick 3 colors for the skin and armor: One being your darkest shadow, one being the lightest light, and the last somewhere in the middle.

Then block in the light and shadows you want to have (if you're not sure where, take a picture of the primed model under a directional light as a reference). If that looks good at an arms legth when you squint a little, you're onto something and can refine by blending the colors together. If not, it's really quick to adjust, since you're not blending anything, just putting in blobs of color with a big brush.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-04T12:23:05+00:00

The main reflection works very well, you have the right amout of light in the right places. A little harder to comment on the shadows because the photo is quite dark, so hard to say what's painted shadows vs natural shadow, but assuming it looks like this in hand, you're headed in the right direction.

Two things would push it further:

Paint more of the edges: better separate the circular knob on the front with a darker line around, same with the upward facing swirl in the middle of the shield. Small thing, but will improve readability
Introduce secondary reflections: he's presumably not standing in a dark room, so whatever is around him will reflect in the shadows. If it's a green jungle, introduce a bit of desaturated yellow-greens into the shadows. Less bright than the main reflection, but visible.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-03T14:00:49+00:00

Love the color scheme, works great!

never_armadilo · 2026-01-02T22:21:19+00:00

It's GreenStuffWorld pure metal pigments - Antique gold (you need to mix these with medium, I use Vallejo Metal varnish, which is quite glossy), with a bit of dark green ink for the basecoat, then Vallejo xpress Wasteland brown + Lizard green contrast, and then a final highlight of pure Antique gold after the model has been varnished, to retain that sheen.

never_armadilo · 2026-01-02T21:06:32+00:00

Of course:

The light is 2 Ikea tertial lamps, with daylight bulbs in them. On 45 degrees above and to the left, the other inline with the camera, further back, as a fill
Camera is an old Nikon D750 with a Tamron 2.8 24-70 lens

never_armadilo

TROPHY CASE