Wednesday 2 June 2010

Talos the Bronze Robot - part six

In this series of images I show the fully painted Talos. The base has been painted in my usual colours of Dark Brown, Vallejo Game Color Charred Brown mixed with GW Chaos Black, highlighted with Charred Brown and lightly drybrushed with Charred Brown and Snakebite Leather. The rock outcrop and small stones have been basecoated with Dark Grey (a mix of Chaos Black and Skull White), highlighted with a lighter Grey and finally highlighted again with pure Skull White. The whole base was then given a 'wash' of Black and Brown before the base sides were tidied up with Chaos Black.

I have a theory about how to paint miniature bases; To achieve a uniformed theme amongst a whole range of (different manufacturers) miniatures, as I am trying to do with my Flash Gordon collection, it is important that all the bases are uniform (modelled in a similar style and painted with the same colour scheme), then even if the actual figures originate from a wide variety of sources, the uniform base unites the whole collection, much more than a uniform sculpting style or manufacturers style. In the same way, my Flintloque miniatures are all mounted on to 2p coins and painted with GW Snakebite Leather, my Space 1889/Aeronef craft are all mounted on to 40mm GW Round Bases and painted with a Brown/Red colour scheme.

Since the last post - I have amended the eyes, painting them first pure Mithril Silver and highlighting with Mithril Silver and Skull White. I have also highlighted the 'air tubes' from the power bottle on his back and further highlighted some of the chest detail with Mithril Silver.

As stated in earlier posts, I am very pleased with the way that this robot figure has turned out, the subtle changes and revised pose, help to make it less threatening, while the colour scheme remains very 'Pulp' or 'Space Opera'. Ideal for my collection.




The final post will show the varnished and flocked figure.

Tony

2 comments:

Green stuff and Alioop said...

I love this guy. But then I love all robots. Nice work!
Destroy all humans!

Rob Alderman said...

Hey Tony

it's looking really, really good!

I agree with what you have said about the regularity in your forces for specific games. Generally I try to base whole collections in the same way and in fact, few ranges are actually different!
For example, all my flintloque minis are on 25mm square bases with the edges painted bestial brown. Any names are painted on the front, in White.
For 40k, I put them on round 25mm bases and paint the edges black with an urban feel to the texture.
Same applies, really, for anything sci fi! Panzerfauste minis are based in the same style as Flintloque ones, but with round 25mm bases and a number painted at the back of each one rather than a name or anything.

I used to have it with painting skin and stuff, all my toads were BRIGHT Kermit the frog green, but my latest blog update shows a change! However, my orcs, bog orcs, elves, dwarves, they are all painted in one particular way for each race! Bog orcs skip a highlight I would usually give a normal orc, to allow for a subtle change and would sometimes get two washes of devlan mud if it is too subtle! Dwarfs base at Dark flesh and highlight up to elf flesh, elves vermin brown or snakebite leather up to elf flesh with a bit of white! Halflings are painted just like the ones in your article as my old ones were too dark (literally, they are HIGHLIGHTED with scorched brown/dark flesh 50/50 mix) and actually look a little racist to me now, so will get repainted.

Makes for some quite boring painting sometimes. However, I am going through my toads and actually reapinting their faces and skin now! This is proving to be really fun and allowing me to experiment with some really dirty and scummy colours which actually add more character to them! I have also started making their eyes have a 'slit' pupil rather than a 'dot' as before.

Anyway

Cheers! and keep it up
Rob