My Model Painting & Dioramas

Lone Crusader

The Savage Ninja!
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Nov 24, 2011
18,890
Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Well as it's looking I'm getting bored with everything and I'm not working now due to certain medical conditions and needed something to occupy my time otherwise I'd go stir crazy. I've decided to get back into painting miniatures, not so much for gaming though, more or less just for the painting aspect of it. Although the miniatures I used to paint way back in my 20's were pewter and very small and so far the ones I've been painting lately have been quite large. As I progress through each figure that I'm painting I'll show you all my progress, sort of a glimpse of what's to come. So without further ado let's get crackin'. :)

Here's some examples of what I'll be painting.

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What are you currently working on at the moment Mate?
Presently I'm working on a diorama with Luke & Leia on Endor about to take out a couple of speeder bikes with scouts. It'll have giant oaks, bushes, saplings and ferns galore and speaking of ferns. I ordered pretty much the best ones you can get direct from the distributor in the Czech Republic and man oh man anything coming from over there into the States takes damn near forever. I can't go any further with the project until I get my blasted ferns! There'll be 20 of them and then I have to use my new weathering pencils on them, then cut them from there templates, shape them to their desired position and apply each one with glue to the dio. Because you know on Endor the place was extremely overgrown with ferns everywhere.

Weathering Pencils
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What a fern will look like.
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Presently I'm working on a diorama with Luke & Leia on Endor about to take out a couple of speeder bikes with scouts. It'll have giant oaks, bushes, saplings and ferns galore and speaking of ferns. I ordered pretty much the best ones you can get direct from the distributor in the Czech Republic and man oh man anything coming from over there into the States takes damn near forever. I can't go any further with the project until I get my blasted ferns! There'll be 20 of them and then I have to use my new weathering pencils on them, then cut them from there templates, shape them to their desired position and apply each one with glue to the dio. Because you know on Endow the place was extremely overgrown with ferns everywhere.

Weathering Pencils
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What a fern will look like.
View attachment 489380
And you gotta do 20 of these :wow: Gonna be impressive :thumbs::D
 
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I’m still at this but I had to put it on hold because I’m in the process of moving and so I had to pack up all my paints and supplies and once I get into my new home and get everything unpacked and in it’s rightful place I’ll start up again. :)
 
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Been working on The Hashomer last couple of days. The hole in his head is because there's a piece that fits on his head. Just been working on his painting right now. There's another model that goes with him called Eliumbra but I haven't started on him yet.

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Been working on The Hashomer last couple of days. The hole in his head is because there's a piece that fits on his head. Just been working on his painting right now. There's another model that goes with him called Eliumbra but I haven't started on him yet.

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Great to see you back at these mate :D
Looking forward as always to seeing the progress :thumbs:
 
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Progress update! I went through three color changes on this guy, I just couldn't decide what color I was happy with and still I'm not totally satisfied, I think that white/grey should be a darker shade of grey but I digress.
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WIP
Well The Hashomer is mostly finished, I still have some touching up to do and I'm waiting on some craft paint to arrive before I paint the cracked rock under his hammer and the base. Plus I'm adding some additional structures around him as well that I have to work on too. Not to mention the other figure that goes with him named Eliumbra The Master of Masks. It came as a set.

Still quite a bit of work to be done on the whole set as a whole. The first set of pictures I posted his upper body was a Ulthuan Grey and it was just too light for my liking so I instead opted for Fenrisian Grey with a wet blend into Vallejo's Duck Egg Green, thought the colors went well together.

Vallejo's Light Rust Wash really sux, it is so weak once it dries you can't even see it. I put down some Typhus Corrosion and then covered it with some of AK Interactives Light Rust Wash which is an oil based paint, turned out exactly how I wanted it to.

All in all it turned out pretty nice.


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I've pretty much finished The Hashomer, I only have the split rock under his hammer. I'm waiting to finish it until I start on the base. I didn't wanna show pictures and spoil him until it's all finished Presently I started on Eliumbra: The Master of Masks which is the companion model for The Hashomer and here's his WIP.

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@Savage Clown Just looking back through your stuff as I'm considering getting into painting miniatures myself (most likely Star Wars), and I'm in awe of your skills all over again :OMG: :notworthy:
That's cool that your starting painting miniatures. How ironic that your gonna start on Star Wars figures as I've set aside fantasy miniatures for Star Wars ones for a while. The Hashomer and Eliumbra I'm setting aside because I don't wanna screw them up as I've already stripped both models once and felt like I needed to give them a rest for now. As you may know I've done a piece on a At-ST diorama, I'm now working on a Tie Fighter diorama. I love the Star Wars models way more than fantasy ones and felt that they are more my calling. Here's my progression so far.

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Just finished priming parts here.

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Painted interior and exterior main coat and wired up an LED for fire effects since it'll be a crashed Tie Fighter on a distant planet.

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Solar Panel are put together, primed and painted.

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Temporarily put together as a rough fit to see what my next step would be.
I'll be demolishing parts of the cockpit as well as the solar panels for a crashed effect.

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The base with a coat of filler over XPS panel pieces. Still needing a little sanding and a whole bunch of other stuff.
I almost like basing as much as I like building and painting the models themselves. I get so involved with it, and it's so fun to do.

So glad your getting into this, I think you'll be very satisfied, for me it's very enlightening and I love it. Can't wait to see your work. :coffee::thanks:
 
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That's cool that your starting painting miniatures. How ironic that your gonna start on Star Wars figures as I've set aside fantasy miniatures for Star Wars ones for a while. The Hashomer and Eliumbra I'm setting aside because I don't wanna screw them up as I've already stripped both models once and felt like I needed to give them a rest for now. As you may know I've done a piece on a At-ST diorama, I'm now working on a Tie Fighter diorama. I love the Star Wars models way more than fantasy ones and felt that they are more my calling. Here's my progression so far.

View attachment 530064
Just finished priming parts here.

View attachment 530065
Painted interior and exterior main coat and wired up an LED for fire effects since it'll be a crashed Tie Fighter on a distant planet.

View attachment 530066
Solar Panel are put together, primed and painted.

View attachment 530067
Temporarily put together as a rough fit to see what my next step would be.
I'll be demolishing parts of the cockpit as well as the solar panels for a crashed effect.

View attachment 530068
The base with a coat of filler over XPS panel pieces. Still needing a little sanding and a whole bunch of other stuff.
I almost like basing as much as I like building and painting the models themselves. I get so involved with it, and it's so fun to do.

So glad your getting into this, I think you'll be very satisfied, for me it's very enlightening and I love it. Can't wait to see your work. :coffee::thanks:
That's awesome man! Love that you're going as far as even adding LEDs too. Looking forward to seeing the finished product :D

I started out looking at Warhammer stuff, which looks cool and I may still give them a go eventually, but Star Wars is more my jam. I'm just gonna begin with some Stormtroopers and keep the details simple, then hopefully work my way up to dioramas like yourself.

I never actually realised how expensive it can be, so I might regret it lol. Like you said though... I think I'll get a lot of satisfaction and joy out of it, so i'm sure it'll all be worth it in the end :)
 
I never actually realised how expensive it can be, so I might regret it lol.
It all depends on how much you want to invest in it, it can be as little or as extravagant as you want. On this one just the realistic vegetation and trees only I spent $260 and then all the supplies and tools I needed was about the same and that's after fine tuning and finding easier and more cost effective ways. You don't have to spend that much though, after I planned out how I wanted everything I then formulated a list on Amazon with all the tools and supplies that I needed for me to put it all together. You find shortcuts or substitutions too like for an example, instead of spending $15 for dread grass tufts I spent $3 on a cheap paint brush with beige bristles that can sub as grass straws. After cutting them from the brush with the desired length just clump a bushel of them and put a dab of school glue down and stick them in the glue where there standing up and you have a clump of tall weeds. It's how creative you can get it and you'll find different things like this that in the long run that can save you a fortune.
 
It all depends on how much you want to invest in it, it can be as little or as extravagant as you want. On this one just the realistic vegetation and trees only I spent $260 and then all the supplies and tools I needed was about the same and that's after fine tuning and finding easier and more cost effective ways. You don't have to spend that much though, after I planned out how I wanted everything I then formulated a list on Amazon with all the tools and supplies that I needed for me to put it all together. You find shortcuts or substitutions too like for an example, instead of spending $15 for dread grass tufts I spent $3 on a cheap paint brush with beige bristles that can sub as grass straws. After cutting them from the brush with the desired length just clump a bushel of them and put a dab of school glue down and stick them in the glue where there standing up and you have a clump of tall weeds. It's how creative you can get it and you'll find different things like this that in the long run that can save you a fortune.
Thankfully I already have most of what's needed when it comes to tools/supplies, since I paint other things. It's the models themselves I was referring to in terms of price... would've expected them to be quite cheap considering they're just unpainted bits of plastic, so they literally costs pennies to manufacturer.

Good tip for the grass tufts! I never would've thought of that lol. There are a ridiculous amount of stuff that they try to convince you need to spend money on... like washes for example. Just make your own!

By the way, when it comes to the game based models, do you actually play them? I didn't realise you can't pick them up separately (at least with Star Wars Legion anyway) and have to buy them with all the other junk i'm not interesting in such as cards etc.
 
Thankfully I already have most of what's needed when it comes to tools/supplies, since I paint other things. It's the models themselves I was referring to in terms of price... would've expected them to be quite cheap considering they're just unpainted bits of plastic, so they literally costs pennies to manufacturer.

Good tip for the grass tufts! I never would've thought of that lol. There are a ridiculous amount of stuff that they try to convince you need to spend money on... like washes for example. Just make your own!

By the way, when it comes to the game based models, do you actually play them? I didn't realise you can't pick them up separately (at least with Star Wars Legion anyway) and have to buy them with all the other junk i'm not interesting in such as cards etc.
Washes are not as simple as you think but jump on YT and find the recipe for making them, I made some of mine. As for game based models if your buying Legion models then yes unfortunately they also come with game materials as well, but some you can find in other model kits like the AT-ST comes in both Legion and Bandai also make one. Speeder Bikes come in Legion and also Bandai make one but it's also 1/12 scale too which is actually a perfect size if you want a showcase sized model, I've even seen some people make a diorama out it. When it comes to model brands Bandai makes the most studio accurate models and the pieces fit almost perfectly with one another. MPC and AMT models are older brand models and are not as accurate as Bandai and they might or might not need either some kit bashing (creating custom pieces) or just some simple model putty to fill in a gap or two. As for the price of kits, most are moderately priced but some like the Bandai 1/5000 scale Imperial Star Destroyer starts at around $75 and goes up depending on where you might buy it from. Like the Bandai Perfect Grade Millennium Falcon which is 1/72 scale will set you back $325 or more depending on which version you get. I have the ANH version I just haven't started it yet. Perfect Grade meaning it's almost studio accurate.
 
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Washes are not as simple as you think but jump on YT and find the recipe for making them, I made some of mine. As for game based models if your buying Legion models then yes unfortunately they also come with game materials as well, but some you can find in other model kits like the AT-ST comes in both Legion and Bandai also make one. Speeder Bikes come in Legion and also Bandai make one but it's also 1/12 scale too which is actually a perfect size if you want a showcase sized model, I've even seen some people make a diorama out it. When it comes to model brands Bandai makes the most studio accurate models and the pieces fit almost perfectly with one another. MPC and AMT models are older brand models and are not as accurate as Bandai and they might or might not need either some kit bashing (creating custom pieces) or just some simple model putty to fill in a gap or two. As for the price of kits, most are moderately priced but some like the Bandai 1/5000 scale Imperial Star Destroyer starts at around $75 and goes up depending on where you might buy it from. Like the Bandai Perfect Grade Millennium Falcon which is 1/72 scale will set you back $325 or more depending on which version you get. I have the ANH version I just haven't started it yet. Perfect Grade meaning it's almost studio accurate.
Already done bud... have been making them myself for a while now :D

Ohh ok, good to know! I'll have to look into it, so thanks for the info :thumbs:

I'm probably a long way off from even daring to throw that amount of money at the hobby anyway... I need to improve my painting skills before I even consider attempting the larger/more expensive stuff. I'd certainly like to give a diorama a go at some point though!
 
I'd certainly like to give a diorama a go at some point though!
Man I love doing dioramas especially ones involving epoxy resin. I guess I like it so much because it's completely made by myself. Where a lot of people fall short is the diorama where they don't put as much effort into it as they do the model that goes in it. I like building the dio almost as much if not more than I do the model. When I show it off I'm like "Hey look at my wonderful diorama Oh and by the way, there's a model there too.". :LOL: :D
 
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