Death Korps of Krieg Commander

[matty1001]

Hi everyone, here is my latest miniature for your viewing pleasure.

A few days ago i was looking through the Ravage Mix Open magazine and thinking what it was that these painters had that made thier models so amazing. The main factor I noticed was they all had a very strong sense of light direction and the use of shading to create immense depth.
So in my quest to better my painting skills and move into the more realistic painting style I decided to ask a few questions.

A few days ago Anders (Ritual) had given an explanation on how light reacts on different surfaces over at World Of Minis. So i thought who better to ask than the fella who knows his stuff!

Then i started PMing Anders with a range of colour theory questions and begun to create an understanding of colour use and tonal depth.

This then became a series of WIPs in which Anders helped explain where to apply colours and which colours to choose.

All shading and shadows are painted and not a trick of my lamp! And iv overcame the intimidation of using black and white for extreme low/high lights (EricJ manages this style expertly)

With all this going on, i decieded to paint a model which really showed the struggle of the 40K universe, the never ending war over pieces of desolate land.

So please enjoy my Death Korps Commander:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics11/img45f067acb2b76.jpg

CMoN VOTING LINK (http://www.coolminiornot.com/151925)

And last but not least a HUGE thanks to Anders for his patience and help. A big cheers to Eric Johns (whose stuff i looked at alot whilst painting this) and all the painters who were featured in the Ravage magazine. You all help me push my skills to the next levels.

[Ritual]

Wow, you allready finished it! :) You must have been really motivated on this one!

It looks great and I really like the colours you've chosen. They are muted and look like something a real soldier could wear. I think the lighting worked out pretty well. Now you only need to practice on the smoothness! ;)

I think you've rushed over some of the small detail, though. Things like rivets and straps, for instance, and you seem to have painted over the belt loops of the coat with the same colour as the belt. These things pull the impression down a bit, I'm afraid, and make the whole mini look less neat. You should also put a little extra care in neatness around edges and contours between different areas. These things are a bit tedious and demanding, but the end result becomes so much better if you just put the extra bit of effort into it.

I don't mean to sound harsh, and you can still go back and fix these things! :)

Glad I could help you out, Matty!

[matty1001]

I didn't even realise those belt loops were there! Or i probably thought they were little packs or something!

And yea, i really enjoyed painting this mini! As i told you in a PM i got a bit carried away last night and had to tell myself to go to bed about 2am!

Hopefully now the smoothness and neatness will improve with each new mini.

[cdukino]

Looking good. The efford really shows and I can see you picked up a lot of skill and knowledge. I'd say continue with it.... it's worth it

[thewartoad]

Great looking miniature...I'm a huge German/Russian history buff...so any miniature that has the look...I'M HOOKED!! Cheers!

[Jester]

I'm very curious - nice painting by the way but Anders pretty much covered it - because I've been VERY interested in the Forge World Death Korps pieces... how did you find the resin casting? Size of the miniatures, mold lines, flash, bubbles, etc? Are they worth the $$$ or should one just steer clear?

Thanks.

[matty1001]

The size is slightly smaller than the GW standard scale but larger than the Reaper scale. I would say this are rougly true 28mm. The casting was fantastic, slight bend here and there, one airbubble on this piece (IIRC) and a very faint moldline. But nothing that couldn't be sorted with a knife, hot water and wet and dry paper. Considering this squad was only 40p more per model than GW sells its stuff at (5 man command squad), its well worth the price considering the detail and quality.

But i do know people have recieved bad castings from forgeworld, but apparently the customer service is spot on, and all problems were sorted out quickly.

[callumrice]

Painting is improving all the time Matt. I too am messing with lighting and shading effects, its the only way to better yourself. Youll see in my IP entry, messing about is definately the word!

I like this though matt, agree with what ritual was saying but its much better than the first load of stuff we saw from you. Not that even that stuff was bad, your older stuff was ok, this is just much better.

[matty1001]

Trust me my first stuff WAS bad, il be the first to admit, even my old IP entrys were bad now i look back at them lol