Tutorial: Painting Eyes

This is a write-up of the 7 stage method for painting eyes that Meg Maples taught at her Masterclass in Montreal. I have seen this technique explained in images before, but I cannot find the original post I read, so I decided to make my own images, as much for my own memory aid as it is a way for others to learn. Indeed, reading the tutorial I previously found was not enough for me to be able to replicate it, I needed to see it in the flesh to be able to do it myself.

Something to bear in mind is that not all minis need their eyes painted fully, especially not the rank an file. I once read in a historical minis magazine that if you were to see a human at a distance where they were 28-32mm high, there is no way you would be able to make out more than a darker slit where the eyes are, which is important to bear in mind when you're filling up units of grunts, however, for the leaders, and display models, the eyes make all the difference, it's where our eyes are first drawn to on the mini. That's just basic human psychology/biology, we look at faces and eyes first. So lets take the time to get them right when we can.

One important thing that must be stated, the better quality your brush, the easier it will be to follow these steps. I know for many of you this is a no brainer, but I cracked out the sables for this, and boy did I notice the difference!

When taking up a new model, paint the eyes first. That way you can take your time and get it right before going over the rest of the face, and you won't have to redo the face, as you might if you do the eyes last.

Base coat the skin tone on the face, then go on with the following 7 steps.

Stage 1. 
Paint the shape of the eye black. If you go too far with the black, you can redo the flesh base colour to tidy it up now.

Stage 2. 
Paint a second oval inside the eye in off-white (e.g. Menoth White Highlight). Do not try to do brushstrokes. Jab/spot the paint in.

Stage 3. 
Do a black spot for the pupil. This is where I used to stop, if even I got this far, before I tried this technique, and to be fair, on most minis, especially rank and file, it's enough. The placement of this dot determines the way the mini is looking, so take care to make sure she is looking where you want her to, and most importantly, that both eyes are looking in the same direction. If not, go back to stage 2 and redo.

Stage 4. 
Put a circle of colour inside the black circle. The brighter the colour the better, as dark shades will not be seen after the next step.

Stage 5.
Put a second black spot on top of the spot of colour. Do not centre the spot, but put it at the top of the colour circle, and leave a crescent of colour showing through.

Stage 6.
Put a small white spot on the last black circle. This time use pure white, not off-white. On a larger eye, like a bust, more than one spot of reflection may be required.

Stage 7 (optional).
Gloss coat the eye. This does two things. It protects the eye from paint somewhat when painting the rest of the face, and secondly, it gives the eye a wet look.

Not all minis will have eyes big enough to do all steps. In fact, I myself usually stopped at stage 3 before I tried this (and had the proper brushes), but if you do have space for all 7 it can really make a huge difference to the mini. It gives them a window to their soul!

So there you go, eyes painted à la Maples. What could be simpler?

Tutorial: Ice bases I

Ok,so not so much a tutorial, as 'I tried this and here's what happened'

I was reading some blog/forum or other (sorry if you're reading this and it's you, but I just can't find the link)a few days ago, and I saw mention of ice bases. It struck some inspiration in me, ans i remembered a few years ago I had found some rubber moulds for rocks in a hobby store. I had tried to use these moulds with polyfilla as a quick and dirty way to make some scenic bases/scenery. That was a failure as the polyfilla never cured well in the moulds, and even a few years later the remnants on the moulds are rubbery and not set. Anyway, back to the now, and the idea came to me to fill one of the moulds with some Still Water. Ever keen to see what this stuff can be used for, I filled one of the moulds. As an afterthought, I realised this may have been better if I had first tinted the water with some blue/white paints. Instead, I ran to the fridge* and pulled out the baking soda, and sprinkled it on top (well the bottom of the rock). It floated, so I grabbed a spoon, and used it to push the baking soda into the Still Water. I then placed it on top of the fridge and left it to cure. 48 hours later, I pulled it out, and this is the result.

Flash to be trimmed

In the mould

Then on to cleaning up the 'flash', colouring the underside to give a tint to the ice, and finding a use for it. Both my Legion and Khador are Northern factions, and are therefore suited to ice terrain. Maybe a 'jack or 'beast base, as the mould I chose was larger than 30mm.

The above pictures show it off well, but in reality, it's a little too transparent, and there's no visible definition. A wash of some kind should bring out the details of the rock/ice pattern, but what colour to choose?


*As an aside, what is it with North Americans and their compulsion to put baking Soda in the fridge. I know the theory is that it soaks up the smells, but really, if your fridge smells, clean out the offending food! In all my years in the UK, I never had this problem, and yet here, every fridge! What's up with that?

How to display your minis...

With infinite space and cash, then this would be absolutely amazing for all those display minis we all have just 'kicking around'.

http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.ca/2012/04/how-to-display-miniatures.html

Very cool.

Actually, the little hanging light tubes should be really managable.

Urban War: Syntha III

Final group shots, with the bases of the Androsynths finally painted. I think I may go back and give the Pointman and Biomech bases another ink, as they're a little too plain as is.  Click for larger images. Below the cut there is the paint scheme I used. Again, this is mostly as a point of reference for me, if I want to paint up some more minis in the same scheme.

Paint scheme below the cut

95th Rifles Tutorial

 As an additional post, mostly for me, as I currently have my paint scheme jotted down on a scrap of paper, that is sure to disappear the next time I'm looking for it. Here is a tutorial on how these guys are put together.

My first dilemma was how to base them. Most larger scale games require riflemen to be paired up at least. I was looking to be able to skirmish with them in battles of less than 10 men per side, at least to start, but I wanted the option of putting them together on a larger base in the future if need be. This is more so the case the for French Infantry I got to fight against them.
 I solved this by getting the smallest bases I could get my hands on for a reasonable fee. 1c each to be precise, as they are based on pennies. On top of this, I have a mix of sand and Polyfilla. Simple, cheap, and I think very effective.

 Next, the paint scheme. I undercoated in grey, as I didn't want to go to black, in case it was too hard to see the dark green on top. Next, I do my base colours, let them dry, give a lavish coating of inks, then highlight to taste.

Colour choice as follows:

Tutorial Linky

I follow the Massive Voodoo Plog with one eye, and I like the turorials they have recently posted on miniature modelling. I repost them here for your reference and mine.


Realistic arrows
Underwater dioramas
Realistic spiderwebs

There's an overview of all their tutorials here. There,s so much to see on that website. Inspiration on a great many aspects of the hobby. Off to see what needles I can nab from the lab to use as arrow shafts. Not sure if I'll be getting an airbrush soon. That'll have to wait till I live somewhere with a garage.

Caledonian Highlander Army WIP

Here's the WIP shot of the Caledonian Highlander Army I'm working on. The SAS  has been quickly finished to less than table- top, but is the most complete. Next up is my piper/medic for my Caledonian Volunteers. The mini is Piper Bill Millin, from the Warlord Bolt Action range, but he fits in perfectly with the scale. I would have prefered if he were wearing a glengarry, like the rest of his squadmates, but I can live with the beret as I have yet to source heads wearing glengarries. I'd also like to add a rifle, like his comrades, just to bring the mini up to the same tach level as the rest of the group, but I don't really think it'll be an issue, afterall, the Highlanders in this game seem a little behind the times technologically speaking. Also, from my limited exposure to the game, the mini doesn't have to replicate exactly the arms he is allegedly equiped with in game. A red cross on one of his packs and we're good to go.

You can see I've started to try the tartan on the volunteer on the far right of the threesome. They'll be wearing government issue, or Black Watch tartan. I found a neat little tutorial on how to paint it and other tartans here. I think I'll be using my fine point marker for the black lines, to tidy up the join between blue and greed, and also to keep the line uniform. However, there's a sheen to the marker pen from some angles I'll have to work around. Maybe a layer of matt varnish at the end to tone it down.