Dark's WIP

[Darkmessiah]

Hello everyone, my name is John, am from the UK and I mainly stick with 28/54mm minis but I do like me garage kits so iv been making to get some done!

Here is my current project, Taco-34 Beetle Bot, its my first real effort to paint a large vehicle and iv really enjoyed it so far.

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

the scene is about 90% done. Any feedback would really be appreciated :)

[singlemedia]

that looks really awesome. and that is quite big looking at the keyboard on the background. what company it? or is it scratch built?

[Grail]

" Hello everyone, my name is John, am from the UK and I " ...am AWESOME! Great paint job!  

Only crit, is the telephone pole. It feels a little out of scale, and I think is distracts from your killer work
on the rest of the piece. Just me. Still looks really cool.

Love the attention to detail on such a small kit like the Taco, the color scheme and paint is awesome, weathering is cool,
and it looks very original.  I like the Taco Beetle a lot and you have done it justice in my opinion.
Stellar work.
Hope to see more from you.
Cheers!

[Ezechiel]

Love the look of the weathering, very gritty!
I'll have to agree on the pole, it looks a bit small.

[fil dunn]

as a long-time figure painter myself my only critique (apart from the telgraph pole) is the that the lenses look like a scaled up version of a 28mm gem/lense. the technique loses something when they are made larger. a bit more detail/reflection etc would bring the lense inline with the rest of the paint job which is fantastic. the weathering is top notch too. loving the oil stains.

just my 2 cents

Fil

[Darkmessiah]

@singlemedia - the kboard is all scratch built kidda, plasticard and balsa wood all the way!
@Grail - now that u mention it! I think the height is ok, but it does look like it could be thicker, am gunna leave it for now though and see how I feel about in a few days
@Fil - your right on that one, especially the top lens, it looks great from one angle (it prob why iv kept it for so long!) but it does lack depth. any suggestions? maybe pull the midtones out a little? I had a look at ur larger mecha stuff on cmon, but u cheated and lobbed crosshairs on urs lol!

Here is an update on the bot, he is about 95% done, iv gone in and finished the metallics, done alot of dark lining and shading, just so define and separate objects. Theirs also another mini I might add to the scene, this model is for vehicle catergory at Salute (one of the bigger comps in the UK) but I dont want the bot to be moved in to a different category because of her, some advice on whether to include her or not would be great (she will be goin in the fire place hiding)

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Cheers for the positive comments, very much appreciated!

Also, here is a sneak peak at a project that is running along side this one Here and Here. ill post more when the bot is finished :)

[Will Vale]

The robot is gorgeous, it looks really solid and weighty, and the pose with the elevated back legs is a win.

Take this with a pinch of salt since I'm no expert, but while I recognised the "gem" light, I think it looks good and the translucency reads well from the angles you've posted. It is quite diffuse, but it still has depth. I suppose you could add concentric rings to make it look like a Fresnel lens, but I think maybe that's nit-picking.

What I do wonder about is the wall - I don't know if that's all done yet but you've got this partially demolished wall, lots of rubble, but the ground at the broken end of the wall looks like pristine tarmac. More rubble, scarring, and a differentiation between inside + outside would help there.

Cheers,

Will

[fil dunn]

Hehe very true john, but mine had to sit alongside 28mm figures......i cheated :)

If you frequent Coolmini, check out Konflicts Imperial guard commisar's bionic eye :)

I think adding contrast and some sort of detail would be best. whether thats horizon lines or the concentric circles mentioned is upto you but that large area could be broken up.

nice work fella

Fil

[Darkmessiah]

cheers for the feedback fellas,

@Will its not 100% complete yet, i will be goin back to tweak things, although ur spot on with the outside/inside comment, what do you reckon on lino tiles for inside?
@fil cheers for the link

well iv gone back and tweaked and tried the concentric rings, what do u think? iv also made the eye lens brighter so its more of a focal point

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

[Grail]

I think you nailed it. I didn't even think fresnel effects were necessary but you did a nice job. Well done.
Chop down that tele pole and call it done     

[Will Vale]

Looks great. And I think you're right, lino tiles would be a really good choice for the indoor bit. It's unmistakably indoor, it's humanising, and you get to have fun with a tasteful (or tasteless!) pattern. I'd be tempted to print a pattern onto a big self-adhesive label and cut it into tiles, but that's only because I'm a terrible freehand painter...

Cheers,

Will

[fil dunn]

fantastic fella :)

and that World Eaters dreadnought looks very nice too :)

[Darkmessiah]

well i got the taco bot finished! I entered him at salute, quite a big comp in the uk and he came 2nd in catergory, first big win in the uk so am chuffed :)
for finished pics you can check out my topic in The Model Gallery

Right! so on to my next project! Iv been working a contemptor dreadnought from Forgeworld now for a few months and iv finally got started to paint,

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

and finally some paint :) iv placed alot of the colours down just to get an idea, but now am focussing on gettin the model lit correctly, starting with the shoulder pad

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

[Grail]

Love the way you start painting light. I do that in a lot of my day job stuff. Cool work.

I like the new project. Looking awesome, but being that this is a new kit, I would start a new project wip.

Cheers

[Darkmessiah]

@Grail - painting in light is an idea I learnt from Jeremie Bonamant Teboul, he is one of the worlds  best miniatures painters and the stuff he was teaching just turned my brain to mush at the time, it was years ahead of what the UK mini painting community was doing and still is to a certain extent. iv been painting miniatures with light and contrast and colour theory now for the last 18 months, its somethin I wanna really push on the contemptor and is somethin am looking to push on the mecha gk iv got aswell :) whats ur day job grail?

as for a new topic, what i like to do with my wip is keep it all in the same thread so if people are interested in what i do or they want to ask a question they can do it all in the same place, if the threads are ran differently on the forum I can start putting new stuff in its own thread, not a problem :)

more progress! again just gettin the lights and shadows down for the blue

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

got me eagles today so iv lobbed em on

Dark's WIP

[Will Vale]

Congrats on doing so well with the Taco Bot - a worthy winner!

The contemptor looks very dynamic - the painting technique looks like what the AFV modellers call "colour modulation" - almost cartoon-like over-highlighting and shading of the shape and details to make them read really well, which then gets dulled down by the weathering. I guess with minis you retain a bit more of the lighting?

Thanks for the link as well, his stuff is amazing. I love the skin-under-translucent-fabric effects (and not just because of the subject matter!)

W

[Darkmessiah]

thanks for the congrats will, yea jeremies painting is really on a level where few can follow, its the speed of his painting that took me back, if u take his Minotaure from start to finish including the base was about 10 hrs, he was knocking 2-3 competition standard models a day at the workshop. As for the colour modulation, its not the technique am using at the moment, what am using is called zenithal lighting, its just trying to paint a model with realistic lighting, its somethin thats used quite alot in miniatures, I painted my Emperors Child in the same way :) if u lob a model under a lamp and see where the light and shadows fall, its pretty much the same

[Darkmessiah]

a little more work this evening, had a chat to a friend about the light on the shoulder and he pointed out it wasnt quite correct so iv changed it

Dark's WIP

more updates 2morro :)

[Darkmessiah]

more progress, its still rough like, his left side is mostly lit properly (i need to do some bit by brush coz their too small n fiddly ), his crotch plate and mid drift are also done, just working on the other side now.

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

Dark's WIP

[MGmodeler]

Darkmessiah, I've been trying to get this zenithal lighting technique down as I've actually tried it on my Zeta Evolve.  I guess it just takes practice to get it down as go as you do it.  Thanks for the great inprogress pics!