Kroooooooooooooooooot!

Right! So after the elf I started on these guys. I'm trying yet another thing. I didn't paint these guys in pieces and assemble them later, instead, I painted them fully assembled. They didn't come out to bad to be honest. On top of that, I only painted 4 out of 12. Turns out, doing this really helps me focus on getting a couple of models done and not feeling like its a chore. Is it faster to paint 12 at a time? I think so actually, but will they look as good? Definitely not. So from now on I'm only going to paint 4 or so troop models at a time, and then paint a special guy or a small squad of something else in between. I'm hoping this will pick me up and help me produce more stuff! Not that I need that... =)

Having learned how to make GOOD LEATHER now from the elf, I applied the same techniques to the leather bits on these guys too. I'm really glad I found that color set up, because if I painted these guys like the leather I've done for other stuff, I think it may have looked a little funny. But meh! You learn!

I also found that these guys were much easier to paint up than the typical armored things I paint. This was a nice surprise, and makes the other 8 not so daunting. Armor is just more time consuming because it requires you to really pay attention to detail with edges and stuff. Flesh, and cloth like things, do require a sizable amount of attention, but mistakes and some slopiness actually makes them look better. So, they were fun and easy to do in that regard. Also, I'm learning how to paint monster flesh a lot faster, and my style for them allows for harsher color contrast between high and low areas. This was something I kind of wanted to apply to the elf, but it didn't work out. Color changes for flesh, to me at least, seem a lot more subtle. I just couldn't get the blending entirely right. So kroot fit my desires a lot better. =)

Bones were another plus, and I think they look pretty good on these guys. Well, the idea is there, the next bones I paint will hopefully be much more improved. Basically though, I made a point of it to paint the high spots bright and leave the low spots dark. I certainly do this often, but this time I made the conscious effort to pay attention to that. I also tried my best on their flesh to do the same.

Again I worked to give their eyes a little depth. I painted a bright blue first on the orbs, and then dabbed a bit of a darker blue wash on it later. As always, this works out great! Though I still need practice. The orbs are a little too dark now, but the effect is there. Next guys I make, I'll try watering down that blue a bit more so as to not totally kill the blue color.

Anyhow, onto the next project. I'm not quite sure what that will be. Probably stealth suits, perhaps a battle suit! There's also that dragon I want to paint up. I'm kinda a little scared to do so at the moment though. In a way, I really want to finish my Tau, before starting anything really new. We'll see... I should be dedicating more time to costume stuff anyhow.