Reaper chick for a painting contest (suggestions requested)

[Malebolgia]

Hi all!

This is my first post here and I mainly joined because I saw some excellent painters here that are no Minirealms regulars. And I am looking for some good advice from people that have experience with NMM. This is my third miniature on which I am trying NMM, but it is the first that is covered by metal for about 80%! In addition I am trying for a new technique (at least for me), that was inspired by CMoN "Arkaal" (The Rackham painter). So far it is going good and I'm fairly pleased with the colors and transitions so far. The main thing I am still doubting is the color of the Gold. I do like the cold and harsh gold color (I'm not a big fan of the "molten cheese" gold), but I'm not 100% sure yet (I think some smoother transitions) will help a bit too).
But do you guys have any suggestions or tips? Thanks!

And I will post after each night I have painted so you can see the progress...the deadline is Friday...so I'll have some work to do!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/malebolgia/fase4_1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/malebolgia/fase4_2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/malebolgia/fase4_3.jpg

Oh, and by the way...it is a white undercoat with several blackish and brownish glazes...don't ask :P

[Ritual]

Welcome to the Wyrd Forum!

Your mini looks good so far! I think your gold colour looks fine! I'm no fan of the 'molten cheese' look either (good name... :D). If I am to suggest something when it comes to the NMM it's that it seems you have concentrated so much on the blending that you have forgot about the contrast. Steel (and other metals) have plenty of quite sharp reflexes and that is something that makes it recognisable as metal. I try to use edges and sharp angles to introduce these sharp reflexes where I have quite dark shadow on one side and bright highlight on the other. For instance, on sword blades you can have one face of the blade very bright and the other much darker and keep the edge between them very sharp. I hope I make sense...

[Celtic Lilly]

The colors are lovely! I can't give any advice other than it looks nice, but perhaps the transition to your highlights might be a bit quick on the steel.

[EricJ]

I like gold too, you've picked a good one to learn from, Arkaal is one of my favorites as well.

The armor, I have to say looks white, and quite well done...if you want white armor. If you were going for NMM steel, it doesn't convince my eye that's what it is. Anders pretty well sums it up, in terms of nmm steel needing a lot more dark than you have there. The blade as well could use some more shading for the nmm to be more convincing as well...

[Jabberwocky]

Welcome to the forums! I would have to defer to the masters for any advice as I only do metallics (at not very well at that :) ). The armor does look white to me though--the addition of darker grays or even black in those places that...uhh...need it would add to the feel of a real metallic surface. You might want to take a look at either EricJ's or Ritual's most recent Viktoria miniatures over at CMoN for an EXCELLENT example of a sword. A picture is worth a thousand (or in my case more than that) words. Best of luck!

[Malebolgia]

Thanks guys!
Aha! Even darker...yikes! At some places I thought I was going too dark, but you guys are suggesting darker shading...ok! I'll continue the miniature first in the style I have now and at the end I will correct the darkness and sharpness of the metallics. I think I have a better overview and better idea of the result once the miniature is finished as it is now.
I'll continue painting tonight, so you can expect new pictures tomorrow :)

Marijn *who goes to CMoN to see the NMM Jabberwocky is talking about :)*

[Ritual]

The thing is not necessarily to make shadows darker, but to make the highlighted areas smaller. Let the midtone come forward and restrict the extreme highlights to more defined areas. Since you have so little midtone, the steel come out as looking white.

[Malebolgia]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/malebolgia/fase5_1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/malebolgia/fase5_2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/malebolgia/fase5_3.jpg
I continued yesterday and put your advice to the test....and I got really carried away. I started with more grey in the deeper parts, but kept adding more and more black to the mix until it was almost black (and it kept looking better and better in my opinion) and now I have this :)
Some of the blends are a bit harsh and need some work, but I'll go back to those on Friday. Tonight I will finish the miniature as much as I can, so I can do the last things Friday.

Expect more photos tomorrow :)
And of course, any advice or tips are still more than welcome :)

[Jabberwocky]

Better, Malebolgia! I think you are heading the right direction. I think you could still decrease the pure white highlights more, particularly on the right leg. The vertical highlight on the plate just above the knee is still fairly wide. The tricky part of smoothing the transitions (as you have already noted) needs to be made as well.

[EricJ]

I was looking at the style of armor she has on, and I realized it looks familiar, and I realized it was very similar on the legs to the armor on these guys

Crusaders (http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics7/img413555bd7ef4e.jpg)

I don't know if it's helpful to see my shot at nmm on them, but I thought it might.

[Malebolgia]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/malebolgia/fase6_1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/malebolgia/fase6_2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/malebolgia/fase6_3.jpg

Ok, so basically she is finished now. Tomorrow I will correct mistakes (some reflections are wrong) and make some blends softer and more subtle. And the base will have some more vegetation on it to give it a bit more colour.

@EricJ: Thanks for the link man! I will look at those when I will get to the legs tomorrow :)

[Jabberwocky]

Wow. Great skin and hair! Really brings her to life. Good luck in the contest!