Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Blisstonian 9th WIP

The past couple of nights have seen me working away at the first pair of the Blisstonian 9th, starting with a Penal Legionnaire and my Primaris Psyker, Plant Manager Burns. Initially I tried going with a much more desaturated look but that turned out bland and awful. The grey tones made everything blend together and was boring... in fact worse because it felt like there was nothing on which to focus and was not pleasant to look at. The desaturated effect can look great in more realistic military color schemes, but with this selection of colors it simply was not working for me.

I therefore went back to my original paints to restore the richness of the colors and am significantly happier now with these fuller tones. The guardsman still has quite a way to go but the Psyker's robes are done and show how my army's main colors should look. The boots, gas mask, and other equipment are all a soft, neutral brown while the lasgun will end up being olive drab or perhaps leaning towards a tannish green. I was uncomfortable with how it was all coming together until I at last painted the basecoat for the lasgun and the psyker's staff. Having done so I now feel good about the overall appearance and am confident going forward with this scheme.

[Edit: I realized the morning after writing this that I really wasn't feeling as confident as I had stated here. Perhaps I was trying to convince myself with some painter's bravado, or maybe it had just gotten too late so that I didn't notice the disconnect between my perceived state of mind and how I truly felt. Regardless, the relief expressed in my comments at getting some positive feedback is genuine and accurately reflects my feelings some hours after writing.]

I chose these color to be a change of pace as well as a personal challenge since I rarely use blue and almost never paint with purple or violet hues in any significant amount. It's a shame too because I really like painting purples but only ever seem to use them when working on historical minis from the Alexandrian and Hellenistic periods. I am not, however, a fan of painting blues as I find them both frustrating and even a bit dull visually. I suppose that's why I tend to avoid using a lot of blue on my miniatures. I therefore will be painting purples to have fun and blues as a challenge, hopefully learning how to enjoy them and to establish a more harmonious attitude toward that part of the spectrum.

Really though the most important factor for me is that theses color satisfy my admittedly vague sense of a Simpsonian palette, those colors and color combinations which I feel would be appropriate for my animated inspiration. I wanted something colorful and even somewhat playful but still with a feeling of coldness and menace, or at least cartoon menace, which I think these colors convey. Plus I like how the color scheme looks and it shouldn't be too difficult to paint, so that's nice. I anticipate being very happy with an entire army painted this way and feel good about going forward with my plans. I'll likely finish painting Burns as I begin working on the rest of this Guardsman's penal squad.

Yeah, painting is fun!

9 comments:

  1. Wow. Not at all what I expected, but it looks very nice!

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  2. Ah, very good. I've been kind of nervous about this one and for a while thought I might be making a huge mistake. I've painted guard armies before with a more traditional military appearance so I'm happy to be trying something a little different this time around. I'm glad you like it, I feel quite relieved... thank you!

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  3. I like it. Very nice work done on the robes, its a type of scheme that is new but has worked out well!

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  4. Nice. Not exactly what I was thinking you were going to come out with, but Slaanesh tones do look good on the models.

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  5. Thank you very much, Ruina! I really appreciate any feedback that I can get on my painting but especially when I'm not sure if I'm taking a project in a good direction. Thanks!

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  6. @ Magilla Gurilla - Thank you! I thought it might be sort of a funny way to use those colors since they are so strongly associated with Slaanesh and I'm calling the regiment's home world Blisstonia. I do really like the way the colors look together but when I worked on Chaos stuff it was always Khorne and Nurgle that got my attention so that I never got to work with these colors. As I said, I'm think this will be a nice change of pace for me. Thanks again!

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  7. Somehow the colours give me an old school necromunda feel. Don't really know if I described it right. But definitely good vibes!

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  8. Interesting... I think I do know what you mean though I can't really explain it either. Thanks, it's great to hear from you!

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  9. Update - It was Cawdor I suppose that had a similar color scheme. These colors are also very reminiscent of the old Genestealer cults.

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