I've been back in the hobby for a few years now after a long hiatus. Prior to this I was into army painting and have four completed 8th Edition armies. My painting techniques were batch painting with a limited colour palette and basic layering techniques. The individual models would not win any prizes but en masse on the tabletop they looked ok. On returning to the hobby I wasn't playing the game any more and I started to paint in a different way. Through online forums I met some amazing people and started painting for competitions. When I did the test model for this army I was just enjoying the process of painting the individual model. So I employed a lot of the techniques that I'd improved at and learnt such as glazing and NMM. These are great when you have plenty of time to spend on a model but I have come to realise that doing a whole army like this is going to be more difficult than I first realised. However, I've started so I'll finish and I have to admit I'm pleased with the way they are looking.
Below is the first unit for the army. 10 Thunderers with a full command unit of leader, musician and standard bearer. This comes to a total of 156 points.
Going forward I will need to adjust the way I approach the painting process. The yellow is built up on a black undercoat with four different colours being glazed over each other to build up colour and contrast. Whilst I think it looks great it is time consuming and I will need to think about the process going forward so that I am not struggling to hit the deadlines for future instalments. The other mistake I made was painting the armour and gold in NMM. I don't have any alternative now that I've painted the first unit and I think that it contrasts nicely with the yellow and black. I realised that as the painting process was dragging on that smooth blends weren't going to be an option if I want 1500 plus points painted in a reasonable time. So I'm hoping that layering so that contrast creates the illusion will cover up the lack of smooth transitions. Below are some more images of the regiment showing each of the models form three different angles.
The next unit I'm attempting are 15 miners. These are mainly clad in mail coats so I'm going to get lots of practise with NMM chainmail. Wish me luck and see you next month.
Don't sell yourself short, these are absolutely fantastic, even on a mini-by-mini basis! I think the NMM looks grand. Keep it up and this army will be astounding. Looking forward to seeing more
ReplyDeleteHi James, Thanks for the encouragement. Much appreciated.
Deletegreat painting! I like them and especially appreciate the colour palette!
ReplyDeleteMuch appreciated Andrea. Thank you.
DeleteGreat looking Dwarfs! Painting a full-NMM army is pure insanity but doable, I wish you the best of luck!
ReplyDeleteAlso, not sure what paints you're using but the new Army Painter Fanatics have a really great coverage, even the yellows. Maybe try them as a basecoat?
That is a great piece of advice Kuqry. I haven't tried the AP fanatics range but it looks like I might need to purchase some. Thanks for the kind words.
DeleteAbsolutely fantastic. The dwarf with the pipe and the binoculars is my favourite - love the choice of white as that spot colour! and like James says, they look banging on a one on one basis, so they're gonna look absolutely incredible once they're all done! (You can always go red for the scale armour of the dwarfs 🙂)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words. I have to admit he is one of my favourites as well. So full of character.
DeleteYou have done a fantastic job painting these guys. I love the yellow and the faces especially. The guy with the pipe is great and my favourite
ReplyDeleteCheers. I have to admit I do like painting yellow. I think I just have a masochistic streak. Thank you for the encouragement.
DeleteI've still not successfully completed a single NMM model, so I'm in awe of anyone who attempts an army. You've made a good start and I wish you luck with it
ReplyDeleteHi Shadespyre. I think you have the right idea by avoiding NMM. Thanks for the encouragement. I'm hoping that I don't get sent to the field of bones due to the fact that I miss deadlines because of the speed of painting these guys.
ReplyDeleteAmazing work, and to think that the entire army will be painted like this is mind-blowing!
ReplyDeleteThe steel parts are great but the brass on both standard bearer and music is top level!
They look amazing! I know too the difficulties of painting yellow, yet yours look spot on. If you want to reduce the number of layer but have fast smooth transitions, why not using a bit of contrast/xpress paints + medium (in order to decrese their opacity) apolied as a single layer of glaze as the last layer over the others?
ReplyDeleteThe metallics are amazing, impressive mmm as It is