Thanks for the kind words. The orange streaks look pretty bright in this picture. It is a bit more toned down in real life. The green pigment in the water also keeps changing position as it is setting. Weird. I was hoping to create an effect where some nasty water was seeping out of the pipes.

I have a bottle called "Realistic Water". It isn't too hard to use. Just have to be careful not to add too much or it causes the paint to crack. Hopefully there is no cracking this time... For this one I just let the paint dry and then poured about 2mm of the liquid water in, let it set, and then add another layer 24 hours later.

For anyone considering buying some, I have seen another product being used that is like a thick resin varnish (like 50 coats per layer they say or something). It would give a harder finish. This one gives a soft finish that deforms a bit if you put models on it and it can collect dust a bit too. Not a huge deal, but it is a bit annoying. It was expensive though, so I am trying to use the whole bottle on interesting projects. Like maybe 1 or 2 more water reservoirs like this... Maybe a modular canal or something too.

Ah ok you've got the bottle.
I have this bag:



Haven't used it yet. You have heat some crystals on a spoon or so before using it. That fact alone makes me feel like a crack junk.
Anyone has experience with this type of water?

Hmmm. May as well try it out. Make something small and simple like my waste water reservoir or a fountain or something and then give it a go. I am a bit reluctant to do anything too fancy that needs water as the chances of it not working out are fairly high.

Yeah I still have to try it out. Have that bag for a couple of years now and still haven't found the "ideal project" to use it on. Guess I will have to create a nice test case for it.

Here are some finished pictures of my waste water reservoir. I added some water effects with camo green mixed in that adds some nice bright color to my terrain collection. I also put a small rat in the large pipe (thanks for the inspiration about zombies Mordheimer!).












The pictures are not great. I really need to print some background and set up a little light booth to improve my pictures.

As always, comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated!

Yes! I've been waiting for this =)

I really like the rusting effect, and I trust that the flash is overexposing the pictures a little (having the exactly same problem). The water is for me just the right amount of gross, I find that the swirling green is über nice! Much better than just overall transparent green.

I do not understand the colour of the rat? Is he albino?

The overoall feel is, as with the rest of the pieces in this thread, very coherent and I find the use of "cheap materials" very inspiring.

Thank you for the update - I needed it

Thanks for the compliments and understanding about the flash.

Ach. The rat. The rat is my nemesis. I had trouble painting him. He looks ok in real life (not good, just like a generally bad paintjob, tabletop quality, maybe). Unfortunately the flash totally overexposed him. I really need to set up a little light booth or something. The flash was reflecting off the water and overexposed the rat. It looks bad. I added another wash to try and improve it. The rat is actually dark grey.

This piece was pretty hard to photograph. Maybe tomorrow I will try to get some better pictures. These ones are a bit disapointing.

I am fairly pleased with the swirling effect as well. Next time I might try and go a bit further with it by having clear and green effects and placing them in different spots at the time of pouring to create different areas with different colors. I would make it a little more transparent too, so you could still see more of the detail underneath.

This terrain is amazing - After the IG are finished I must go back to terrain building. I would love to play on you scenery board - it will make for great death squads!

Laney

Freakin' awesome! The dead pool is looking great!

Laney-I know what you mean. I am struggling to get any models done while I am in this terrain building phase. It is silly though because grey plastic looks silly on painted terrain. Hahaha. I need to find some local people to play with though so I can start using some of this terrain I have built up. I figure I have enough 40k stuff to cover half of a board decently now. I also have some trees and fantasy buildings and corners to flesh out the rest of a board. Just need some opponents.

Gatlag-Thanks. Maybe on the next one I will add a dead body to it as well...

Narcissus... don't know what to tell you! This is amazing. Your talent creating rust is par none. We all bow to your incredible talent. I honestly can't figure it out. I mean, I hear DeafNala giving instructions and I understand. I know I can't do it yet... but I understand what he does. Same thing with Laney and Komfritten... I can follow what they say, I'm amazed by what they do... I still know I can't do it yet.

But your work? I may as well try to figure out how to navigate to the Warp and visit the Emperor. When you explain it is so far beyond my imagination that is like 'in one ear, out the other.'

PLEASE don't stop. At least I can wonder at your genius.


What to add, besides uncompromising adoration? FLASH. I think I can help you with that. The problem I see you guys are having is that the Flash is directly reflecting on the subject. Look at this picture below. What do you see?





INDIRECT light! Sure, pro equipment or photo-booth works VERY well, but there is a cheap way to do this. The money you invest ALSO helps with painting. Take a couple regular lamps (does not matter) and put NATURAL LIGHT bulbs. The bulb is the key! Any other light is 'yellowish' or 'blueish'. Natural Lights looks (and photographs) EXACTLY as if the subject were outside. It would be nice if the bulb are not exposed (you can accidentally touch them).

Put the model over LIGHT background. I like white, but DeafNala has great results with baby blue. Pleace each lamp on the side (slightly forward, towards you) of the model (2 or 3 feet away) and point the lamps at the subject. You will get TWO nasty shadows (diagonal back). Now, put a white paper over the light (if you can tape it is good!)... now... look carefully. The objective is to minimize the shadows (as close as you can to eliminating them, but still visible.) Play with the distance of the lamp and subject. If you have to move the lamps too far and still get too much shadow, then as an alternative, you can point the lights AWAY from the subject towards a WHITE surface. The white surface should reflect the light back in the right amount. Once you reach it... you are ready to take pictures WITHOUT flash.

Now.. look at the pics above. You see the tricks? Why this works? Because you are putting as much indirect light as possible, minimizing glare and shadow.

Hope this helps. The Tutorials on taking pics are pretty good. Check that section! Good luck and thanks for sharing your wonderful art!

Thanks Mordheimer. My issue is definitely with flash and not taking time with setting up pictures. I had been thinking about making a little light booth but I think I may just try adding some parchment paper or white tissue or something over my lamps (to diffuse the picture) and setting the photo up better.

The rust on these pieces is incredibly easy, it is just a bit tedious. Just basecoat, then lightly sponge dark brown, medium brown, boltgun metal, vermin brown and then add streaks with gryphon sepia and tamiya clear orange (just two layers of devlan mud or gryphon sepia works fine too). Try it out on some scrap or something. Just use a little piece of blister foam or a little foam brush. I have that tutorial on my blog that I will post up over here as well (when I get some time).

Woohoo, over 2,000 views now.

Here are some updated pictures of the waste water reservoir. I tried some better lighting techniques, with mixed success, but I think the pictures now look a little better.

Grats on your 2000 annivers'ry!

The pictures are way better, and I still find that the water effects with the swirling green is very cool - it looks absolutely deadly!

I see the rat now - I see it! And now it's not an albino anymore =) It's a fun ol' rat.

As said OH so many times before (but repeating is not stupid!), the rust is really good. I just believe in it.

Way to go - hoping to get my IG's finished too, so I can go on with the Shanty-challenge soon. Happy building!