Big Mac Tries Infinity - Nomads

[Big Mac]

My first post on the Data Sphere! RIP old forum, long live the new one.

This will be my painting log to record my latest project... the Nomad Nation. First up, painted over the past month for a small tournament, a Corregidorstrike team worth 300pts (ish). These guys were pulled together pretty quick as I wanted a fully painted team for the tournament, and I'm happy with how they turned out.







More pics and words on the blog (link in the sig), and of course more to come soon, as I expand the team!

[Big Mac]

The Gecko - my pride and joy.

The big guy took a whole day to paint, painted with the arms separate so I could get access to the smaller control arms and the chest. I'm happy with how the red turned out on this large model, especially with the weathering, chips and small symbols like the hazard triangles on the back pack.









Cheers for reading, as ever

[Ursun]

Oooh I love those, the Red is superd, really dark and gritty in a very clean way ... if that makes sense
Those small signs also really bring a sense of realism to those mini´s and damn, the wildcat hacker looks nice !

[Angelust]

Looking awesome! I love deep, rich reds, especially when they're shaded and highlighted well.

For purposes of picture taking, I think the workbench picture had much better lighting. The other ones look a bit washed out.

If you got a light box and a good camera set up, I think you could churn out really top quality pics!

[Maru]

red umber hue - nice one
scratches a bitto strong - to livesuch marks this must be an canon ordynance

[Harl3quin]

lovin the sinister spacy vibe you got going here. Keep up the good work!

[Harlekin]

Those look cool. I especially like the uniform look of your army.
Looking forward to see some more of your work.

[Arachas]

Nomads with Customeeple bases with a green base color and a rust effect! LOVE IT! Also happens to be exactly what I'm doing, so I'm biased.

Very awesome, the Gecko looks ace.

With that in mind: can I ask how you do your rust effect? It's tons better than mine!

[Uriel]

Loving the deep red. What's your highlighting technique? I'm currently trying a similar flow from deeper red to brighter highlights - although in terracotta.

[daktanis]

Looking awesome!

[Big Mac]

Thanks for all the comments!

The rust is done with a few different colours, my the main ones would be orange browns like the old Citadel Vermin Brown and Vallejo Yellow Rust. The main trick is not to paint it like you would anything smooth but to be aggressively blotchy and all over the place, with dry brushing, dabbing and wet blending all mixed together. It can be chaotic, but after a few practise goes I found the right mixture of techniques to get the effect I wanted. To the final stages, I lined the deeper crevices with a watered down orange, to simulate the build up of rust. 'Controlled chaos' would be the most accurate term - it looks random and messy but is actually controlled at all stages, to ensure the build up is consistent and effective.

The highlighting of the red was very different, highly controlled and smooth. I use a feathering style to highlight, sometimes the lines of highlighting are quite obviously visible. Starting with dark brown, I slowly add red for two layers, covering almost all of the brown, before adding more and more red at the extreme edges - to get this dark, deep red you have to do the bright highlights only at the very edges. When the pure red is reached, an ochre is used for the extreme edges. A mixtures of red and brown washes is glazed over to bring the colours together, but this needs to be thin so as not to destroy all the subtle highlighting work.

I hope this rambling has offered some insight into my painting style!

Coming so I'll have some better pictures and some works in progress - Intruders, more Remotes and even more Wildcats!

[Arachas]

Neat, thanks for that. I'm also looking to incorporate some paint chipping, but I have yet to figure out how to apply both to the same base: I want to create an effect that where the protective paint has chipped, rust has started to form.

[Big Mac]

Ah, a nice effect if you can pull it off. I've not done it with these guys so far but in the past I've had luck with painting the original colour first then painting the 'protective paint" paint layer over that, but leaving the edges and maybe some sections where it would naturally chip in the middle the original colour. Then highlight and add rust effect as you see fit!

[Arachas]

Ah, a nice effect if you can pull it off. I've not done it with these guys so far but in the past I've had luck with painting the original colour first then painting the 'protective paint" paint layer over that, but leaving the edges and maybe some sections where it would naturally chip in the middle the original colour. Then highlight and add rust effect as you see fit!

What I struggle with: if you take these Customeeple bases with the holes in it. What are the spots where it would start to chick and rust? Around the holes, you figure? But I fear that if I paint rust and chipped along all the edges, it will look too crowded.

[Big Mac]

The Customeeple bases are not easy to paint in the style we have both chosen, I too struggled with where to place chips. Ultimately I went for around the rim and a few of the holes, and even now I'm sure it's not accurate, nor effective. Time to find some actual picture of painted metal grills to use as a reference!

When in doubt, I love looking for reference pictures of rusted metal.

[Arachas]

Painted blue, rust coming through:



Rust eating away at the metal, leaves black holes underneath:



I must say in most places you don't really see the paint chipping: it's just the rust coming through whatever layer is on there.

What did you think of my effort?



Hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread a bit! Love the discussion so far.

[Big Mac]

I've been reading your blog, great stuff. The alguacil himself is fantastic, the trousers are flawless. I thought the rust on the base might have been either a bit too much, or perhaps a bit too uniform, so maybe it just needs to be a bit blotchier? Different shades of brown/ orange?

Leaving it as it is would work well though!

The reference pictures you've posted reminded me of a method I used to use with a torn up sponge. That would certainly give the impression of rust breaking through the paint, if done subtly enough. I might even start doing that myself again, especially so an upcoming 55mm base I need to paint.

[naztek]

I'm really digging that paint scheme here and I think you executed it quite well.

[Arachas]

I've been reading your blog, great stuff. The alguacil himself is fantastic, the trousers are flawless. I thought the rust on the base might have been either a bit too much, or perhaps a bit too uniform, so maybe it just needs to be a bit blotchier? Different shades of brown/ orange?

Leaving it as it is would work well though!

The reference pictures you've posted reminded me of a method I used to use with a torn up sponge. That would certainly give the impression of rust breaking through the paint, if done subtly enough. I might even start doing that myself again, especially so an upcoming 55mm base I need to paint.

Thanks dude. ^_^

I'm going to try and finish a bunch of minis for Icestorm today (demo day tomorrow!). I'll go ahead and try a new approach for the rust. If I work it out, I'll redo this guy's base for sure, because I agree with your assessment.

Expecting a lot of Customeeple bases today, hopefully in time for the demo tomorrow!

[Big Mac]

Right, got some better pictures now so I have updated the original Blog Post - http://fullsd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/th ... gidor.html

Also, for those interested, check out the round-up of a recent Escalation League I have played with a friend of mine! Nice way to get back into Infinity and force me to get the models painted - http://fullsd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/in ... -five.html











Thanks for reading, as ever

[mbdeyes]

Looks great.

I like the ones with slightly more subtle rust effects, but these last pics have those done really well.
From the reference material, it looks more like paint wore off or the rust is coming through so that's what I would do with the base:


If I were to cover the whole base, I'd probably bring the tone down a little, with just a few spots of the brighter rust like so:



I think chipping is more likely to happen on the armour itself, through wear and battle damage though. Something like this which is a combo of the chipping and the rust coming through:


Now, actually making my own minis look that good, that's another story entirely....

I love the way you have totally different textures between the rust and regular metal.

[Big Mac]

Update time! Ready for an upcoming tournament, we have a converted Intruder with HMG. All credit Hydra for the conversion idea, your Army of Three is fantastic!

[WiseKensai]

I very much like the color scheme you've chosen! I also went with a very subdued, dark color scheme for my Nomad forces, but I have to say yours is much better than what I came up with (and much better executed as well!)

Hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread a bit! Love the discussion so far.

Also not trying to thread hijack, but I thought I'd chime in on the subject of rust. I've found weathering powders to be pretty effective at giving gritty, built up rust effects. The bonus is that it's very quick. For example, my buddy and I painted up the ammo crates below in about 30-45 minutes:



And the side view (with scrounged 40k IG decal):



The ammo crates aren't great looking, but are serviceable considering the time spent. In contrast, your rust is really good looking, on the bases as well as the terrain in the background.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw out another tool for the toolbox, so to speak. The stuff I used is the Tamiya weathering powder. Just dab it on with a sponge applicator, spray it with matte varnish, and you're done. It sorta works like drybrushing. There were some casting defects in this particular crate, but that made sense for a rusty, beat up old ammo crate.

[Section9]

Also not trying to thread hijack, but I thought I'd chime in on the subject of rust. I've found weathering powders to be pretty effective at giving gritty, built up rust effects. The bonus is that it's very quick. For example, my buddy and I painted up the ammo crates below in about 30-45 minutes:

[ img ]

And the side view (with scrounged 40k IG decal):

[ img ]

The ammo crates aren't great looking, but are serviceable considering the time spent. In contrast, your rust is really good looking, on the bases as well as the terrain in the background.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw out another tool for the toolbox, so to speak. The stuff I used is the Tamiya weathering powder. Just dab it on with a sponge applicator, spray it with matte varnish, and you're done. It sorta works like drybrushing. There were some casting defects in this particular crate, but that made sense for a rusty, beat up old ammo crate.

You have a funny definition of "not great looking"...

Looks like I am definitely going to have to add weathering powders to my repertoire!

[Maru]

boxes i like
rust tend to get on edges on a places that got friction one on another - not on the middle of nothing

[Big Mac]

Update time!

Last week I attended a local tournament and brought the Nomads - overall a mixed performance but somehow ended up 6th place and won Best Painted! Great day, full report is here... http://fullsd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/in ... eport.html

Ready for that tournament, I also did some painting. A pair of new Remotes for the team, pictured below. More words and pictures on the blog, as usual - http://fullsd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/re ... ntrol.html







Thanks for reading, as ever

[Arachas]

Makes me want to buy a Tsyklon!

[Hydra]

They look awesome!

Really cool colorscheme. Make me think of flesh tearers

Seriously, at first I thought the quite low contrast would drink up to much of the miniature, but it works perfect.

P.S.: You terrain looks great to. do you happen to have more shots of that? And would you mind telling the trick for the graffitti?

[Big Mac]

Some Work-In-Progress for the latest reinforcements - Mobile Brigada from Operation: Icestorm. Slow going as I keep getting distracted by other projects. He has had his first appearance on the board, and I should remember never to use unpainted models - he was Hacked, Immobilised, and then shot to death by a filthy Naga.





Cheers!

[Harlekin]

Looks promising.
I'm looking forward to see your your progress.