Son's Commission's: Bully underway!

As venerable alluded to in his last post, I am starting to do some commission's. Really it came out of no-where and still feeling it out as a process. Most people do commissions I guess as a form of a side job, but really for me, its just a way for me to improve my painting skills by forcibly diversifying my pallet, and secondly stop my army attention disorder by people letting me paint some fantastic models across many ranges.

The one thing, unfortunately, is that I won't be doing army commissions, and will only accept the odd unit commission. Now while this probably will just bring the bushiness down to "zero", there is no harm in asking. I don't see any point in doing Ultramarines Squad 1 for example, but if someone wanted a unit of Harlequins, Mandrakes or Incubi with Venom for example, I'd certainly be up for that, as it fits both gorgeous model category and also bits I don't paint typically.

So really what am I looking for? Primarily "independent character" fodder. Individual center piece models. So could range from your Trygon to your Space Marine captain from *insert chapter*, Even something like a tank or a landraider would be great as they are brilliant canvasses to work off!

But worst comes to worst, fire an email my way and I can answer questions.



Quality wise, well really I'll give nothing less than what I'd be happy to field - this below really is my "minimum" quality - my Deathwing which to assemble, convert and paint took me less than 6 weeks while not actually slowing my life down.

My Belial gives a better indication of what, say, a Terminator Captain would look like.

BJORN THE FELL HANDED COMMISSION

So I got given a Bjorn (well a Venerable Dread from Forge World) to paint. First off, its an absolutely epic model, kind of makes me want to do Space Wolves again, I forgot how great their iconography is on their models. Its just immense.

I've recently just unlocked how to paint black and grey, typically I am displeased with the results I produce. I have a few ways of doing it, but none really fit with my "style". But fortunately I found it just in time to do this project.

Anyway onto the model, I spent quite a lot of time just looking at the naked model figuring out exactly what I wanted to do - I normally don't plan as far ahead, just "the basics" typically. There is a good bit of detail on the dreadnought, but also some great flat surfaces, so while I want to add in some motif's I don't want to over power the model itself. The customer wanted a dark grey, almost heresy like wolves armour, so that's my basis. Now I am not great with colour theory, but I knew I needed to keep the other colours quite warm - so a good solid red would need to feature - I figure the shins of the dread and the front of the banner will be perfect for this - with the lightning claw as a possible tie in.

The rear/metal parts I want to go for a dark and worn metallics that I've been working on. Starting from tin bizs right up to mithril silver with boltgun between. It gives the effect of a silver that's been battered and worn from battle - which I think is perfect for Bjorn - also its again quite "cool" against the red I will have, and look quite striking against the ice base. I think, given Bjorn was a fiery red head, his helm should mirror his former Celtic glory, and it will be a blend from dark red all the way up to orange.

The other warmth in the model will come from the pelts - one on the banner and one on the midsection. Quite simply will be a dark brown, fringe hightlights.

The "flair" on the model will come in the name of NMM Gold on the chest for the wolf decals and the chest runes, and some gold runes over the top of the red banner. Plus a "glow" effect on the plasma cannon and the lightning claws.The only thing I am really stuck on is the colour of the barrel of the plasma cannon, which I might actually need to evaluate when I finish the model itself - right now its between red / black / metal.

The base, given I love to actually paint on bases, will be a classic wolves theme of snow, but I want a ice pool infront, using a mix of ice blue / hawk turquoise and the "rupert slash rich fielder" line effect (both claim originality for this!) very simple effect (thanks boys) but oh so striking.

Any way - onto the project itself - here's some progress pictures!

So here we have the model basecoated somewhat.

I have actually done the metal on the back, which we'll see in a second but this shows how I paint sometimes, mapping out some bits to get into it - this time its the cannon and a tester on the arm.

The arm I wasn't too pleased with, I felt it was a bit sloppy, but I could fix it with some touch-up blending and better line highlighting.

The plasma cannon top needs some work as well - mainly because of the way he constructed it has blocked my dry brushing (one of the few times I actually dry brush).

I've base coated the model with the grey/black mix and added the wash of badab black - you can see where the darker parts have been "low lighted" - while not technically right, it sort of creates the same effect as the way I blend.

So here we have the back.

The metal is quite simple - the tin bitz, tb/boltgun mix then wash then bring it all teh way to mithril on the highest parts.

I may add some very watery gryphstone sepia to it to just give it a bit more tone, but I am not to sure to sure it needs it - maybe just the more silvery bits.

This also gives a sneak peak at the grey where I've left it.

The Front after highlights

So this gives a bit better a shot of the grey and the plasma cannon arm, which you can see I've touched up and now am much happier with.

The armour still needs a bit of work, I plan on adding some chip/battle damage to it, nothing over powering, and I'll do it post detailing just in case it might be "one thing too many" syndrome.

The shins are blank as they will be red markings - claw will also be red or OSL glow (with a black or metalic base).





So there we have it, think this is about 2 hours work all in all, in honesty I lost track of time, but I might keep a better record just to see how long it really does take.

The model will really come together with detailing, the red's should make it pop - and its one of my stronger colours to paint. I am trying a new NMM Gold recipe, which I believe is better than the current two I use so I am interested to see how that works. I'll do a tutorial stage by stage on both though!

There we have it, thoughts so far?