He's A Big 'Un

This is the largest thing I've printed in resin, and also the largest figure I've painted. Obviously I was trying to capture the look of the cinematic version. I wanted to capture the feel of that moment where his face starts to light up, and you just know there's a big energy blast coming. The Destroyer
I airbrushed a primer coat of Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black. I then sprayed Vallejo 71.073 Model Air Metallic Black from around 45 degrees above, Vallejo 71.072 Model Air Metallic Gunmetal from around 10 degrees above, and Vallejo 71.065 Model Air Metallic Steel from directly above, pretty much just on the head and shoulders. This left some black visible on the downwards-facing surfaces.

I painted Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black thinned with a lot of Vallejo 73.596 Glaze Medium directly into grooves. I actually went over the spikes with a light drybrush of Steel, as I felt they were not standing out enough and I wanted them to pop a little more.

I built up the glow by painting layers into the grooves, then drybrushing the same colour around them. I started with Vallejo 72.711 Game Air Gory Red thinned with a bit of Glaze Medium for most of the grooves of the face, then drybrushed Citadel Foundation Mechrite Red onto most of the face. This was followed with Vallejo 72.106 Game Color Scarlett Blood painted then drybrushed over a smaller area (again thinned with Glaze Medium for the grooves). In the same way I worked through Vallejo 72.008 Game Color Orange Fire, Vallejo 72.007 Game Color Gold Yellow, and Vallejo 72.005 Game Color Moon Yellow thinned and painted into face grooves and eyes.

I had been applying the layering at a small scale on the eyes to create a transition, taking it all the way up to white by painting Formula P3 Morrow White thinned with glaze medium into centers of eyes, drybrushing Gold Yellow around the eyes and surroundings, touching up a smaller area of the center with the white, drybrushing Moon Yellow over the eyes and immediate surroundings, and then a final tiny spot of white in the very centers of the eyes.

I had a lot of difficulty with the base. I thought of warm desert tones, to match the Earth terrain the Destroyer walks across at the end of Thor, but with how dark the model is I was afraid even darker warm tones might distract slightly from the glowing face, which I really wanted to be the center of attention. So I went for cold tones, representing the vault on Asgard where we first see the Destroyer. I initially basecoated with a roughly 2:1 mix of Vallejo 70.899 Model Color Dark Prussian Blue to Vallejo 70.862 Model Color Black Grey. I then drybrushed on The Army Painter Warpaints Viking Blue, then a very very light drybrush with The Army Painter Warpaints Ice Storm. This created a much brighter and more saturated look than I had hoped for. I was able to darked and desaturate it somewhat with a drybrush of grey (I don't remember the exact shade); it was still far from perfect but I didn't know what else to do.

I applied an airbrushed layer of Vallejo 26.517 Gloss Acrylic Varnish, then I brushed Vallejo 26.518 Matt Acrylic Varnish directly onto the base to matt it down.


Overall it's a fairly simple model with a fairly simple colour scheme, but a surprising amount went wrong. I left supports to the software, and they were not as well placed as they could have been; cleanup was quite a pain. Some of the grooves, especially around the head, needed to be deepened a little. I didn't want the spikes to be too sharp as I felt this would leave them more vulnerable, so I used a rotary tool with a very soft fiber buffing wheel to take off the tips and leave them more rounded.

Perhaps the most frustrating part is that I actually printed some smaller test pieces, and got results that I liked for the metallic effect, with a shiny metallic effect that seemed to add depth and highlighted the model's contours. But when I attempted to apply the same method of zenithal basecoat to the actual model it looked a fair bit more dull and flat, and just less metallic. I tried to take a picture to illustrate the effect; it's not obvious in the photo but you can still see the model in front is shinier and more metallic, and the difference was clearer in real life: I was having a lot of issues with my airbrushes when I went to paint the actual model, so that was probably part of the issue. I suspect I might not have been heavy enough with the Vallejo Steel, or perhaps I had the airbrush too far away so the paint dried too much before landing and didn't form a smooth shiny layer?

I dunno. I guess he looks good enough overall. Hopefully future statues will come out better.

Soviet Steel

I finally went back to my X-Men miniatures. I figured Colossus would be quite quick to paint, and he would have been if I'd had the time and motivation to actually sit down and finish him. Sadly, lately I've been lacking in both.

The other reason I elected to paint him next out of my superhero figures was that I figured he would be a good model to test out an idea I had. You see, I've been focusing on painting smooth gradients across organic shapes (that is, comic book style muscles) when painting my Knight Models minis. So far I've been painting each gradient with a single colour, however with some miniatures - such as Pyotr here - there's instances where a single shape (muscle) requires painting in two colours. This would mean trying to match the gradient when painting two different colours at two different times.

This sounds challenging to me, so I wanted to see if there was an easier way. I've read in the past about shading in greyscale then applying colour on top; this sounded like it could solve my problem, so I decided to try it here.

I painted the metallic skin first, trying to get smooth blends from darker to brighter metallic shades the same as I would with normal skin/spandex (I believe this is similar to "true metallic metal" techniques). Then I painted the rest of the model in various shades of grey (I purchased several new greys specifically for this; I think I have around 8 different shades now, and I still think I need more sometimes), building up my gradients as before using heavily thinned paint mixed with medium and drying retarder. Finally I applied a wash of Badab Black over both the metal skin and the spandex costume. I think the first wash was watered down, then I applied straight Badab Black into recesses such as the lines across his skin for extra shading.

I then glazed the different areas of his costume with Badger Minitaire Ghost Tints: Fresh Blood and Yellow. Finally his hair was Vallejo Black-Grey drybrushed with Mithril Silver (I think). His eyes were just dots of Scale75 Speed Metal.

The whole experiment didn't work as well as I had hoped. The colours came out darker than I had expected - especially the red. Meanwhile the raised areas (which were also the brightest highlights) weren't as saturated as I had hoped - you can see the red is quite pale (without necessarily being overly bright) in some areas, especially around the legs and shoulders. The gradients don't look as good as I had hoped either; they look a bit flat to me overall. Perhaps I could have avoided that if I had added more contrast in the greyscale stage, but I think I will try painting the next "dual-colour" costumed model more traditionally, and just try to match the gradients manually.

Having said all that, I think he looks decent overall. Not one of my best to be sure, but certainly table-ready.

One of the better Knight Models casts I've had, although some of the muscle striations were lost and I had to try to carve some back in. As usual I tried to add a bit of variation to his base.

You can see his card in the background, which I was using as a reference.

I named him Ivan Danko, after a Russian character played by seven-time Mr. Olympia winner Arnold Schwarzenegger. I think it fits.

Coloured Metals

I painted this model as a gift for a friend, but it did give me an opportunity to experiment with painting coloured metals. After some experimentation I managed to pull off a couple of useful new techniques; techniques that happily work very well together.

Basically, I painted the entire model gold: Citadel Doombull Brown, Citadel Auric Armour Gold, washed with Citadel Devlan Mud, drybrushed Auric Armour Gold, and finally Devlan Mud was applied heavily into the recesses. I then edge-highlighted in Scale 75's Speedmetal, which is a super-bright white metal colour, for a model with a fair amount of contrast and very bright highlights.

I then simply glazed the red areas with Badger Minitaire Ghost Tint Fresh Blood, and the yellow areas with Badger Minitaire Ghost Tint Yellow. Finally the blue glows were applied using drybrushes of Citadel Temple Guard Blue, Citadel Baharroth Blue, and Citadel Blue horror, with Skull White highlights and Badger Minitaire Ghost Tint Plasma Glow as a sort of wash/glaze.

The base was just Citadel Doombull Brown drybrushed Citadel Blazing Orange and washed with Citadel Devlan Mud (it probably would have looked better with a cooler colour like plain grey considering Iron Man's warm colour palette, but I wanted the base to fit with the previous model I painted for my friend). I used Mr Super Clear UV-Cut Gloss varnish, and matted down the base with Vallejo's brush-on matt varnish.

The results are pretty good. Using the Ghost Tints over a metallic base was the best way I found to get coloured metals, and the yellow over Speed Metal gives a fantastically bright gold; I think it's a much better way to highlight gold than my old way of just using Mithril Silver highlights.

I'm not totally happy with the glows: they are a pretty clumsy, and the blue wash around the eyes ended up going over the yellow base to create a greenish tint. But they don't look too bad overall, and I didn't have time to try to do any better (I'm far from certain that I even could do any better to be honest).

This was a fairly fun model to paint since it was just two simple colours but was still something new to experiment with. The amount of edge highlighting needed was a bit of a drag, but it wasn't too bad and the results are worth it. I did have to try to do a bit of repair work on the model thanks to Knight Model's usual casting issues, but it was far less problematic than some of their other models that I've had to deal with - plus I was a bit lazy and didn't put as much effort into repair work as I should have, but most of the problem areas were ultimately mostly hidden by the paint so it wasn't too bad overall.

Overall I'm happy with him. Fortunately I have another piece waiting for when I put together my own Avengers models, but the way things are going that day is a long way off.


On a related note, I've been a bit demotivated when it comes to painting. One reason is that my last model, Cyclops, drew a measly two comments on the forums even though I thought he came out quite nicely. Couple that with a lack of games or people to talk to (in person at least) about miniatures, and, well, it's hard to find time for it when there's so many other things for me to deal with. So yeah, I'm probably not going to be getting too many models done for the foreseeable future. This makes me sad, but there's not much I can do about it. Oh well.

The X-Men's Smurf

After impersonating the Incredible Hulk and destroying my Drakhun, I went ahead and started on my X-men because, well, you can only play videogames for just so long before your guilt forces you to pick up a paintbrush and try to push that rock back up that grey plastic and soft metal mountain (hobbyist know what I'm talking about).

I started with Cyclops because I figured he would be a good model to practice painting gradients on (the way I accidentally stumbled onto with Batman) since, well, I hate him. A lot. So I'm actually kind of conflicted about the fact that I think he came out looking pretty good.

The model was fairly easy to put together; his left arm was a separate piece but I decided not to bother with gap filling, and it looks OK. There was of course some cleaning involved, but I don't remember it being too bad; the model is largely smooth, so it wasn't too hard to clean off mold lines and such like.

Similarly, it was quite easy to paint. The blue was basecoated in GW's Regal Blue, washed with GW's Asurmen Blue, then drybrushed in Regal Blue again to better show the topography. The first highlight was in GW's Enchanted Blue, and the second was in GW's Ice Blue. The highlights were thinned to something like a 2:2:1 mix of Lahmian Medium : Phoenix Acrylic Retard Medium : paint. I was trying to get something very transparent that would flow well. Unfortunately, even with the drying retarder, the consistancy changed as I was working (my wet palette was actually not wet enough I think), which led to some difficulties, but I was mostly able to fix them.

However, my repairs were not perfect because of a strange property of Enchanted Blue. I love the colour of Enchanted Blue, but for some reason when you thin it, it actually changes colour a little, becoming less saturated once dry (this is an actual change that doesn't seem to depend on how many layers you put down: the colour is just different). I've actually given it the saturation back in the past by lightly drybrushing the unthinned paint on top of the painted layer, but in this case I only drybrushed on top of the trouble areas while trying to fix them. As a result, there's a couple of spots on the model which stand out a bit because the colour is different, most noticeably the right thigh and... surrounding areas. It's quite annoying (and, to be honest, embarrassing).

Anyway, once I finished the highlighting I decided that the Ice Blue was too desaturated and it didn't look very good, so I wanted to glaze it with something a little saturated to tie the colours together. I settled on my brand new, unused Badger Miniataire Ghost Tint: Blue, mixed with a lot of Lahmian Medium (perhaps 2:1 medium:paint) because I was afraid it would be too strong straight out of the bottle. The result was a big improvement, helping to unify the layers and smooth the transitions.

The gold was GW Skrag Brown (I think) followed by Scale75 Elven Gold. The arm and leg bands were then washed with GW Orgryn Flesh and edge-highlighted with a mix of Elven Gold and Scale75 Speed Metal. The skin was undercoated in GW Bronzed Flesh, basecoated in P3 Ryn Flesh, then washed with Ogryn Flesh. Ryn Flesh is pretty much the exact same colour as GW Elf Flesh, but I tend to have having trouble getting a smooth surface with Elf Flesh, I was hoping Ryn Flesh would go on a bit smoother. I haven't really tested it enough to say if it does, but it looks good so far.

I decided to switch to a more neutral grey for the base; I used GW Codex Grey (I think, the name has worn off the bottle), lightly drybrushed with VMC White Grey, then washed with GW Badab Black. Speaking of the bases, normally cut the tab off models and pin them to their base, but with the latest batch of Knight Models I had decided to try actually using the models with the slot in the base as intended. This is the first time I noticed something: there's only one cast. All the Knight Models bases are exactly the same. I hadn't realised this before because I had been sculpting over the hole and then orienting the models freely, but now that I was sticking them all down the same way it became dramatically obvious that they are all standing on the exact same patch of dirt.

It's just one more way that Knight Models is getting on my nerves, just one more hassle you have to go through with these figures, one more problem for inexperienced modelers. I have to assume they don't really expect you to actually use the supplied bases or something? Since these are apparently figures for experienced modelers (as evidenced by how big a pain they are to put together sometimes), I guess they just assume you've got your own fancy bases you're planning to use. Either that or they just don't care.

Anyway, I ended up sculpting over a fairly large area of the X-Men's bases to try to hide the similarities. Maybe I'll just give in and stop using the supplied bases, I'll just have to figure out an alternative that fits with the models I've already done.

Just a small note, but this is the first model I varnished with my new spray-on gloss varnish (before using my usual spray-on matt of course). I left the gloss to dry for about a day before applying the matt, then right after applying the matt I somehow managed to knock him against a shelf as I was setting him down to dry. I didn't think I had hit him too hard, yet the paint was damaged (it was a small area, luckily not hard to do a passable repair job afterwards). I'm wondering if the varnish did not turn out as tough as usual? Really hard to say since I've never really done much testing or anything, but I'm planning to try to apply the gloss more generously next time. I might also change my method a bit; right now I leave longer than I probably need between sprays as I believe it helps avoid the Sugar Coated Frosting of Doom, but I wonder if that adversely affects the strength of the varnish coat. I'll try spraying more quickly next time, while still trying to avoid putting so much down that it runs. Well, I'll have to try on a test model first.


Overall I'm very happy with how he came out. I had some trouble with some of the larger, flatter areas, but overall I think it looks good. I'm also happy about how quick he was to assemble (barring the base) and paint. Actual painting took me almost exactly a week from start to finish (and I don't think I painted every day in that time), including varnishing, which is very quick for me. The rest of the team is more complex so I don't expect to get them all done that quickly, but I'm still hopeful that I'll manage to turn them out at a decent pace (by my standards at least), if I can resist the temptation to spend too much time on other projects. And assuming I don't need to go job hunting, which I might soon - although to be honest, I would probably get through them more quickly if I was unemployed... sigh.

Captain Deadpool!

This guy was a gift for a friend. I was experimenting with a different light setup for photography, so the photos are perhaps not quite as good as they might have been (if nothing else they are a bit warmer than they should be).

This guy was an opportunity to practice highlighting muscles and that sort of organic shape. I think he came out quite well; the black didn't quite work the way I wanted it to, but it's not bad, and the red is pretty good I reckon. The belt buckle was a bit of a challenge; the results may not look amazing in the photos, but in real life his belt buckle is so tiny that I think most people would agree that what I managed is pretty good.

As is usual for Knight Models' stuff, assembly was a complete pain. Bad mold lines (you can see that I didn't manage to completely get rid of a few), plenty of gap filling required, including merging the model to the base, and of course the swords were so ridiculously flimsy (I practically could not handle the model without bending them) that I simply had to replace them, which was a bit of a job. Of course, me being me, I only pulled the trigger on that after I had already attached the arms and sculpted over the join. Then of course I snapped an arm off while drilling the hole, meaning I had to repeat the sculpting part... sigh.

The sheaths weren't as bad as the swords, but they were still vulnerable to bending. Plus they looked too small to me; I think they were actually narrower than the original blades. So I put together replacements for them as well. Then I lost the replacements and had to assemble another set... sigh. Well, the second set of replacements actually ended up looking a fair bit better than the first, so that's alright I suppose.

Overall I enjoyed painting him (if not assembling him) and I'm happy with how he turned out. I think he was a good learning experience. I'm starting to enjoy painting Knight Models a bit more; while painting my 40K stuff has mostly been about highlighting armour, and painting my PP stuff has mostly been about picking out all the detail that covers every surface, painting these models has been more about highlighting organic shapes, which is something I haven't really done very much of so far.