Hello guys, welcome back to Not Just Mecha, it s Marco here and today we
work on the second step of the plan Speed Painting a Full Box Set in a Weekend !
In the last video I went fully illustrational using exclusively drawings and artworks to inform
and guide my work on the Rotmire Creed, but in this case, even if I really really like
and still want to catch the vibrant sketchy energy of this picture
I prefer the more balanced scheme used on the physical models.
You know that I usually suggest to avoid using other miniatures as reference for
your own painting simply because they are already a simplified version of a render of a render of
reality but this doesn t mean that you cannot use their general scheme and its proportions!
Thinking of the box set as a whole, something like a cohesive single artwork, I made
the Nurgle guys my warm force, and even if this scheme is based on the red core of the armours,
I planned to create a general sensation of contrast between the two warbands setting
this unit in a colder mood and environment, something like a well lit night scene,
able to make the silver elements look like high quality steel and the gold really pop.
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After all this talking about cold vibes I m sure a lot of you have already predicted my first move!
This blue foundation is here to infuse every single subsequent layer with its tone
and temperature, that with all their subliminal storytelling will give a strong character and a
powerful first visual impression of the warband. In other terms; your eyes may not notice it,
but your brain will! Of course this is also a great way to cut the full step of simply
priming the plastic out of the process and as you ll see in the next steps,
it s also an extremely efficient base to speed paint the other overlapped layers!
Here blue is not only the cold delivery system of the environmental mood but also a great source of
contrast with the warm tones of the general colour scheme and with this quick step I make it a more
explicitly functional part of the visible scheme. I use a deep warm violet blue instead of a simple
darker blue to add a bit of subtle extra variety to the flow of cold notes
and spraying from below with a steep angle I set in a single pass all the deepest low shadows,
basically creating with this value jump the sensation of a zenithal light source.
In the spirit of a super efficient speed painting workflow here s the most daring trick of this
process. These models are covered in armour that mathematically represents the major volume
of the sculpts, so I choose to set these large areas in the quickest and simplest way possible.
I spray this mid, slash, high value neutral silver with a strong
zenithal angle to maximise the ability of the spray to passively catch and render volumes,
instantly setting eighty percent of what I have to paint!
Metallic paint is never fully opaque, especially when atomised through the airbrush and in
the outer borders of the spray cone and it s always sensible to the tones it has underneath
so another important effect of the light blue base is to fill those micro gaps with its colour.
Having a non metallic tone in the shadows helps setting stronger and deeper shadows
that don t passively catch and bounce light like the metallic finish of the upper parts
but the two blocks still flow well into each other
thanks to the satin finish of the ink over the super mat foundational layer.
The combination of the perfect smoothness of the
airbrush and all the cold interference creates a shiny bluish steel finish!
And as mentioned before, the previous work on the lower midtones
and the proper shadows is all still here in the metallic to non metallic flow.
I reinstate a non metallic warm mid value for skins and fabric using a fairly opaque Raw Sienna.
With a bit of practice you can push the use of the airbrush to the most advanced and smallest
stages of the work. In this case is kind of a double edged sword because yeah, it gives me a
ton of speed in rebasing the higher spots of these areas but it also makes everything smooth as the
metallic parts; doing this step with a brush I can for sure create a more interesting textural
contrast between clean polished metals and rough warrior skins without the need of extra specific
work in the wet palette stage but this is a speed paint and the ticking clock sets my priorities.
I didn t forget the low tier non armoured warriors!
Here I simply skip the silver stage, because the cold blue layer is again a great contrasting base
for the yellow warm turn of the lower midtones! I know that I m going to lose some saturation in
the optical mix of this complementary overlap but in this case the desaturation is quite contained
due to the relative opacity of this Raw Sienna that builds up over itself.
And I paint a quick highlight using a light skin tone on a steep angle from the top.
That becomes a proper full body zenithal for the little guys and their
simpler and lighter overall scheme! Depending on your precision with the
airbrush you might have the need to fix a few spots here and there! In my case I
quickly check the borders where the two tones and finishes meet and I rebase the big chains
in the middle of the white fabric where again I gave coverage priority to the larger volumes.
Now I m at the top of the hill and every new
step will be the snowballing effect of this well calculated preparatory work!
I prepare my own custom tone for the reddish sections of the armours. Here I planned to use a
tiny drop of Cygor Brown to tone down the vibrancy of the mix but in the end I didn't need it.
But I add a few drops of my fluid silver to make the mix more intrinsically metallic.
Painting GW Contrast or inks over a light metallic base you usually don t need anything else to get a
fully functioning cloured metallic finish, but in this case I know that my edges and outer borders
are not incredibly precise because of the sprayed skintones, so that tiny bit of metallic pigment
and it's extra opacity will automatically fix and uniform those elements without really
altering the behaviour of the paint in the middle areas. Two birds with one stone!
I render the base for the bronze gold elements
with a simple single pass of pure Aggaros Dunes over the metallic silver.
With the gold and the bases in place and a more defined plan for the oil stage in mind
I felt that the red armours were a bit too dark so I go back pushing their value to
higher territories using my original mix that is still here on the table
but with more silver inside to make it a bit lighter and more opaque!
The work until this point has been super quick and carefree and to maintain this positive trend
still efficiently fixing all the loose ends I need oils to do the heavy lifting
and that s why I m using dark rich highly pigmented paints with more opacity than my
usual selection for washes to maximise staining power and the intensity of the dark definition.
The dark opaque and semi opaque colours in the middle are the core ingredients of my
mixes and magenta and blue are here mostly to add extra vibrancy and saturated tones.
I use a dark blue violet on the red plates.
As always the wash is a simple mix of paint and odourless white spirit applied over
non varnished models that gives me the advantages of being more versatile, easier to control and,
as you can tell from my careless application, more forgiving than its acrylic counterpart!
Then a heavy coat of dark blue on the silver parts both to set super sharp panel lines and tones.
I use a warm mix of black, brown and magenta for the gold elements.
This is something I decided on the spot after seeing the other tones applied;
I want the helmets and the gold ornaments to pop out from the scheme as something
different so I maximise their contrast with all the rest making them my warmer elements
coming out the general cold palette! And a similar but less vibrant and more
brownish mix for the skins that need some extra warmth to become more realistic and alive.
After fifteen, twenty minutes I clean the excess of paint with q-tips and the
tiniest hint of white spirit to keep a clear separation between the different
applications and clean sharp lines and edges. Make-up sponges tend to spread and blend the
excess creating soft organic, flowing transitions but on armours and sharp geometric shapes I prefer
the precision, the short range and the controlled motion of the cotton swab that I use against the
details and with a zenithal motion to leave more paint in the recesses and the lowest parts.
And this is what I ve got after three hours of work!
I always tend to need a couple of hours on the wet palette to feel good about my speed
painting renderings so I already know that I ll end up around the five hours,
but considering the small size, the crazy density of details of these models and the
extra little touch up on the values of the red armours I m still pretty happy with the result.
To the new wet palette to add the organic brushstrokes
and the painterly energy of the illustration! And to one of my most contained selection of tones
for something like this! Black and white,
a couple of red tones and two classic not super imaginative colours for the skins.
I start with non metallic paints because I want the focus to remain on armours and equipment so
in the last stage I can easily balance the impact of the different elements pushing definition,
saturation and general visual interest of the focal points.
Because of the small quantity and size of the organic elements this stage of the work
is extremely quick and simple and mostly focused on breaking the smoothness created by airbrush
and oils to render painted and physical tactile contrast with the polished metals all around.
As promised the gold highlights are my warmer and most saturated point of light to make helmets and
heraldry pop! I have a good value jump and a fairly strong chromatic contrast between
the painted gold and the one on the palette so a few well placed
highlights on the higher spots are more than enough to set a powerful final shine.
The metallic elements here are my real protagonists, able to bring everything together
with the continuity of the edge highlights that, with just a few brushstrokes. make
shapes and details more defined and easier to read and in general more interesting thanks
to the dynamic and unpredictable behaviour of real light over the metallic finish.
My original mix for the few edges of the red pectorals.
And a simple low key silver for the trims! Uh and of course all the nipple piercings I
don t know you but I would keep those under the armour just to be safe in battle
And here s the final result! My spin on the studio box art scheme and rendering of this warband
that shows how a specific style or finish can be reached in many many alternative ways with still
the space for your personal cinematography. Again oils are the main engine of the workflow
able to turn a simple structural sketch in an almost finished model in a single quick and
loose application, even if these minis have waaay more details than the simple super organic sculpts
of the Rotmire Creed. But as always products, steps and techniques are a secondary thing, that
comes from a strong vision of the result, in my case a cold scene set in the lifeless desolation
that these guys spread wherever they go, that informed my every choice from start to finish!
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