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Chasing Daemons!! The Golden Daemon painting competition is something that goes on during Games Day events, both in the US and around the world. Each one is an incredible showcase of artistic talent. The caliber of the competition has been skyrocketing in recent years. Not only does the aspiring winner of the Slayer sword need to be a top-notch artist, he or she will need to painstakingly detail the model with the most minute of flourishes. There should also be pieces with high technical difficulty, perhaps using NMM (non-metal metallics, a process by which normal paint and carefully applied lighting effects are used to simulate a metallic surface such as a sword or a piece of armor) or Source Lighting effects (additional colors and highlights as well as shadows are used to make a "light source" on the model look as if it actually projects light) for example. In addition, a great deal of conversion and even sculpting work is almost necessary for consideration. A base that hasn't received a lot of detail can ruin a model's chances as well. Let's look at the individual parts, then I'll show you a few ideas that I've had. Please note that the information below is not intended as a tutorial, more of a showcase and a definition for the techniques. Some of the techniques I don't currently use, but I intend to learn them. When I do, if I think that it would be worth while (or I get requests, hint, hint...) I may put together some tutorials. Please note that the images below are not my models and they are used without permission. I have no intent to challenge their status or suggest that these models are mine. Please click on thumbnails for larger pictures. Painting is the focus of the competition, so you are going to have to pull out all the stops here. The first thing to remember is to take your time. Anyone can paint better simply by taking more time. Paint more slowly and carefully. Thin your paints and paint layers to avoid blotchy coverage. If you mess up the tiniest bit, make sure that you go back and touch it up. Use lots of Shading and Highlighting to pick out the contours of the figure, and use layers to gradually brighten those Highlights or darken those shades without making sharp lines. Use Inking to blend some of those colors together and make the base colors and details really stand out. You can use blending similarly, by gradually painting one color into another. Details. Detail the details. If the character is wearing a leather belt or pouch, make the highlights and shades on that a brown base, and maybe add bits of wear and tear to it to give it more detail. Add Extra details. You don't have to stop with what is on the model, use Painted patterns and flourishes to make areas stand out. A painted-on trim along the edge of a cape goes a long way toward making it look more realistic and stylish. 
Non-Metal Metallics, as previously mentioned, use normal paint to simulate the way that metallic surfaces shine. NMM is one of the latest hot techniques used by the better painters to really set off their models. It is also a very old technique, used by the painters of antiquity in paintings and other artwork before metallic paints became available. Essentially paint your metallic surfaces with highlights, much like standard highlights, but consider the reflectiveness of the surface and add more. Think of each one as getting a number of layers all the way up to straight White. Standard NMM works best for standard metallic surfaces, whereas SENMM (Sky-Earth NMM) is very good for extremely shiny or polished metallic surfaces, such as chrome. The essence of SENMM technique is to have each separate surface reflect the Sky and Earth (where do they come up with these names?) as a mirror would. While you won't generally be painting entire scenes on your metallic bits, you will paint a sky-ish area and a horizon. The contrast between your darkest shade and brightest highlight should be much greater in this technique and, due to the reflectivity of the surface, much sharper. 
Source Lighting effects are another hot technique that has reflections in antiquity. While it can be effective to put an LED or other lightsource in your mini, not only is it not always practical, but it's not as much of a technical challenge to your painting skills. The idea is to use paint to make the item appear to be glowing. (Blending up to pure White or at least pure White highlights works pretty well.) Then you make additional highlights and spots of color on the model and the base to show that light is coming from that source. (As a note, make sure that you use a highlight color based on the color of your light source.) Then add additional shadows that would be cast by objects hit by the light. 
Conversion and sculpting work is important for making your model different from any other model out there. Some simple conversion work can quickly change the look of your model. Head or weapon swaps are generally easy to do, and can really help set your model apart. However, for the big leagues, you'll need to do more than that. Making a more dramatic pose really adds to the feel of the model. You can re-pose legs and arms, twist the body, raise or lower an arm and the aggregate look will be quite dynamic. Beyond adjusting the model itself, you will probably also want to sculpt some totally new things for your model. Adding capes or cloaks or totally changing body parts can be accomplished by a number of techniques, most of which involve some sort of sculpting. Greenstuff is one of the most commonly used materials for this, though it is certainly not the only one around. 
Bases are what your models stand on, and like the frame on a painting, they provide a good backdrop that showcases and complements the art. For a Golden Daemon attempt, you'll want a Scenic Base. This is more than just a bit of flock and some static grass. You want details here, whether they are rotted skulls or blooming flowers or flowing water. Set a scene for your model, something that goes with your theme. A brooding model doesn't look as good on a sunny plain sprinkled with flowers. See the previous picture for an excellent example. Okay, now we've got an idea of how we need to paint and base and convert and challenge ourselves, now we need an idea, something we can hang these ideas on and see what works. I'll arrange these ideas, from fairly simple to extremely complex. Please note, some of these are completely beyond my skill level, at least for the next year or so. In addition, I'm unlikely to make these for a while, due to time constraints. If you are interested in one of these projects, please email me and ask, I'll probably be fine with you doing it. I just want to make sure that we don't both end up doing the same thing! Sheep's Clothing. This is a diorama that features some Catachans wearing Gaunt “cloaks” (hides with the head still attached, maybe legs hanging down their sides.) They are trying to sneak up on or sneak past some Gaunts. Perhaps have a Lictor stalking them in turn. This gives plenty of opportunity for fantastic painting and posing techniques (hunching the Catachans over to represent how they are sort of posing as gaunts and skulking past should be a good challenge.) In addition, the size of the diorama should give lots of scope for sculpting and being a scenic base. Fear of the Darkness. This is another diorama. A Space Marine firing his bolter at close range into a Gaunt. The only illumination on the piece is the Source Lighting of the muzzle blast from the bolter, so it lights up the front of the SM, the Gaunt being shot, the several gaunts immediately behind it and the eyes of the swarm of them behind them. Everything else will be done in shades of brown and black to give the idea of complete darkness. Again, plenty of scope for challenging painting and converting and the like, plus the challenge of trying to make the Source Lighting look right. I think it'd take me a while to get ready to do this one. I'd have to do a lot of work with light and shadow maybe even putting the models up and putting a light bulb in the middle to mark highlights and shadows. Even so, I think I could do it, it'd just be a lot of work. Lurking Lictor. The Lictor's stealth abilities and Chameleonic scales are well known. I've seen a Lictor cast in clear resin to reflect this, but it didn't look right. (Plus, of course, it wasn't painting, which is what this is all about, right?) On the other hand, I've always thought of them as having that "invisibility" effect that the Predator had in "Predator." Basically, you could "see" through it, but it was sort of a hazy effect, so you could sort of see it if you knew where to look. My idea is to put the Lictor against some sort of background, then paint it exactly like the background. The difficulty here is that viewing the model from different angles would quickly screw this up. However, if you put the Lictor in the corner of a ruined building so you can only see one or two sides and it’s pretty clear what is behind him, it should solve most of this issue. Alternately, you could try flattening the Lictor against a wall, like it is trying to hide, which could also solve the issue a bit. I would approach this one by building the scenic base/background first, and taking a picture of it. Then I would build the Lictor and take a picture of it on the background. Using the picture as a reference, I'd paint the backdrop surface (bricks, for example) onto the Lictor's skin and carapace. This should again give lots of scope for painting and sculpting challenges, plus conversions to re-pose the Lictor, such as flattening it against the wall or something. This is one I might be able to tackle over the next year as my painting improves, but it'd still be pretty tricky due to perspectives. The Duel. A Space Marine or other hero in reflective armor is battling some sort of Daemon, but only the Hero is featured. Aside from the action pose, the only thing that tells of the Daemon’s presence is it’s reflection on his armor. This would be a real mind-bender to paint, heck, even to look at! It will be reflected on most of the larger surfaces of his armor to varying degrees, and will be distorted a bit depending on the shape of the surface. For the reflections, get images of the Daemon and look at them in reflective surfaces. Also use some shaped reflective surfaces, like the back of a spoon, to get a feel for what the distortion might be like. This one, I'll readily admit, is totally beyond my abilities. If I just studied painting for the next year, I might be able to tackle it, but that seems a bit unlikely. It's a cool idea, though! If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |