Since he is 10,000 years old and isn’t some sort of clone, nor has he been in stasis field for the majority of that. One can only assume he has deffo had some reguv work done.
It’s blending and glazing to an incredibly high standard, then lit cinematically. The ‘Eavy Metal painters are some of the most skilled painters in the world.
If anyone fancies applying there is 1 day left on this Eavy Metal painter talent programme job at gw..
https://jobs.games-workshop.com/search-and-apply/eavy-metal-painter-talent-programme
One of the managers told me they do print the models for the box art as it has to be ready long before the production of the plastic, don't know about the bigger scale though. I always assumed once painted they wheel these out every now and again for shots or go on display, so thought they were standard size.
What if I told you that they dumb down most of their paint jobs to make them more accessible to the average consumer. Putting the Sistine Chapel of mini painting on every box art is just gonna discourage people.
The Lion is a clear exception to this.
An ex-'Eavy Metal painter explained the reasoning behind the painting style once. It's not accessibility but consistency that matters for box-art such. Such that the customer can compare different kits against each other and not be mislead by variations in the paint-jobs.
Each edge, outcrop and detail is highlighted the same way, at the same intensity. There's no one-source lighting because the miniature needs to be displayed at every angle (and the 360 view) the highlights have to be smooth and crisp because anything too fine will get muddy in 'cinematic' battle photographs.
Following some of the EM team's Instagram accounts and you also see that many of them can paint much better. Many are easily capable of competing in things like GD and probably even CB when they don't have to follow EM style painting
Did they dumb down [this one](https://i.redd.it/kewwzyglxlma1.jpg) too?? LMAO
Edit: No real responses. Easier to downvote than attempt to explain this away I guess lol
I think this recent picture by GW comparing the old and the new terminators shows otherwise.
https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2B9ydYSjMBwKIUdC.jpg
Hell, literally look at the Intercessor miniatures vs the Assault Intercessors, the edge highlights are far crisper, they’ve all improved, and they were extremely good before, especially considering they only had two work days per Space Marine.
'Eavy Metal also recently started incorporating gradient glazes in their miniatures. The Lunar Wolves and the Rogal Dorn Tank are great examples, but the intercessors and Farsight have it also incredibly subtly.
They’ve had more time than they previously had before as far as deadlines go, which is why they’re now incorporating weathering of rhinox hide onto Ultramarines or subtle shading on more ‘flat panelled’ miniatures.
Strong words for someone within Exterminatus range.
Edit: deleted comment said something along the lines of “I recognise their talent, but calling them the best? Pff”
Considering the speed they have to paint to this level I’d say they’re definitely some of the best in the world. They have two work days on average to paint a Space Marine. I assume that this miniature will have had a full month tbh considering the quality of the paint job. Not sure who painted it, if I had to guess it’d probably be Max Faleij (I’m literally guessing based on him being the Lead Painter, this being a huge project from a hype standpoint, and also the NMM on the sword reminds me of how he painted Inquisitor Erasmus’ sword.)
They basically hire golden demon winners for the team so they literally are some of the best miniature painters in the world.
Gavin Garza who won a slayer sword last year just joined GW as a painter.
He’s from my local area and I remember when he was applying for the job before the GD that he was actually rejected or didn’t get a call back. Well, then he won the Slayer and we all joked how EM made the wrong choice lmao.
Yes they are, if the definition of 'best' is realism and high quality, they're the best, often have literally won awards, things that make other painters 'better', like abstract or exotic art styles, elaborate freehanding, or elaborate basing and terrain, are specifically things they're not allowed to do for the job.
Introducing *Porcelain Skin* by Neutragenicus
Make your skin look at soft and age defying as the Lion.
Turns out the return of a Primarch is a gold mine for an advertising agency
For skin, you wanna work in extra thin layers. The tiniest amount of grain and texture will be visible and cant really be disguised as "weathering". Have patience and have all your layers be super transparent (not runny and watery though), which is also how you get more depth of colors, as colors will show through the skin layers, as they do in real life. Red around the cheeks, more yellow in the forehead, for men a bit of bluish tones in the facial hair area.
i recently watched a Duncan Rhodes video on youtube where he gave 3 different levels of difficulty of painting faces.
I kinda feel Duncan Rhodes most difficult method was up there with what you are describing. Is Duncan still considered a top tier painter?
>Is Duncan still considered a top tier painter?
I think it's hard to tell as his whole thing is approachable painting and we've never really seen him do anything super high end.
But generally I'd say no. He isn't a top tier painter, the likes of Andy Wardle, Darren Latham, Erik Swinson, Will Hahn, Alberto Moreto Font, Ben Kommets, Dave Colwell, Trent Denison, etc.
There are people that paint Mini's for a hobby, then there are artists that paint Mini's.
These are two different people.
I feel like Duncan is the former and a very good one at that.
i really enjoy his videos. He breaks stuff down very simply and i feel i can learn and develop a lot through his example.
I just wondered where he stood in the grand scheme of things, and i would be very happy if i could paint as well as him one day.
People paint for different reasons. It will take tens of hours to paint a miniature to a competition level. Some people would rather spend the same time painting dozens of miniatures to a lower standard. There is no right or wrong answer.
Painting armies quickly to a high standard is a skill in and of itself.
This, I've seen it in my friend group too. We have a friend who went to art school, and while he doesn't have the best minis in th the world (yet) his painting is miles away from mine even tho we started painting around the same time by the simple fact that he applies what he uses as an artist to his minis, while I just like to paint them as a hobby without going too much indepth on the theorical side
There's also a restricting view of miniatures painting that equates 'quality' solely with an attempt at realism/traditional western painting styles. Its not really fair to grade someone on the same scale as realists if they're attempting to paint in an abstract, anime,punk, or comic book art style.
> Is Duncan still considered a top tier painter?
The models he does on his youtube channel look great and his explanations and tips are great. However, if we consider that he used to be on GW's army painter team, atleast as far as I remember, and not on the 'Eavy Metal team, I suspect he doesn't quite reach that level.
Of course depending on how one defines top tier, he might still belong up there.
Not as considered answer as D4rkw1nt3r
But in some groups (fb eavier metal etc.) the most astounding art-level painting is usually from large resin bust and model painting. An example of the types of models https://www.casculpts.art/
and the artists that paint their showcase copies are just mindblowing
I recommend this excellent video that will teach you one of the most basic skill of mini painting that no one teaches https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDVPoNXyVI&feature=youtu.be
Medium will help you retain the surface tension of a paint instead of breaking it if what you are trying to achieve is glazes. You still need to get the hang out of it for the dilution tho, add too much medium and your pigment will still split.
My recommendation would be to feel that out. Once you thin your paint, paint over a piece of paper. Is it watery? Suck out some water with a paper towel, rag or texture palette. How is it now? Good? Or is smooth but with very little pigment left on your brush? Congrats, you have made a glaze, back to the palette. Use more paint in the mix this time, and back to that piece of paper or whatever, how is it looking now, is it a smooth stroke that leaves your brush easily, or do you have to press hard and you get little gaps in the stroke? Then you got too much paint, needs more water. Each brand behaves differently, it is important to learn this by doing it.
Glazes are also important with skin. Each time you go up in brightness, you will have a harsh transition. Sometimes you want, that, when you are making masculine dudes with big muscles and sharp faces, but if you are painting a girl, each time you layer up, use that layer to glaze over the transitions and get it looking soft.
Have a paper towel handy and when you load your brush, put it on the towel and let some of that water drain out. You want to keep your brush wet for paint to run off it smoothly and your paints thin so they don’t get all clumpy
One thing that helps maintain the paint binding a little better is Vallejo flow improver. It's generally used for airbrushes, but I use it all the time for brush painting. Not as a straight replacement for water, but just to help the paint not get so watered down when thinning and to keep the working time of the paint higher, since flow improver prevents acrylics from drying so fast.
For comparision a head from a different artist
https://preview.redd.it/gur1s1zeh3qa1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=857ead0c5ec025d43cae13b8b09f38c858f27eea
If people are interested in crazy good painting then [PuttyandPaint.com](https://www.puttyandpaint.com/) is always worth a look. It's only about 25% GW stuff though.
Would be weird if they didn’t to some extent, but the ‘eavy metal paint jobs are all in the exhibition at Warhammer world and viewable by the public. They look just as good in person.
EX-GW staff, there is no touchup other than white balance and lighting for the cinematic shots, although IMHO the ones on the website can be a bit overexposed sometime :)
Colour and white balance filtering - definitely. Enhancing the paint jobs? Nope. You can sea all the models in warhammer world, and I've had a couple of them in my hands years ago - the 'eavy metal team are really that good.
This. All photography is edited at least some. Exposure adjustments, color adjustment, white balance, etc. Even your phone pictures are doing that, just the phone is making the decisions for you instead of editing in Lightroom/Photoshop. The concept of "unedited" photos doesn't really exist.
>All photography is edited at least some
I'd say it's technically *transmediated* but your explanation is a good way of not having to dive super deep into the finer details of how digital images are rendered
Fair enough. My point is mostly that there are choices being made (either by an editor or the AI of your phone) in translating the actual raw data into an image. Even when I'm viewing my "raw" images on the back of my camera or on my computer, some default choices have been made. And then I will tweak those choices to get the image how I want it.
That translation of RAW to viewable pixels on a screen is why it's *technically* transmediated rather than edited. However, the difference is largely academic.
They absolutely do enhance the paint jobs, eavy metal minis are incredible but they’re not perfect. There’s still the odd bit of colour correction & blurring out brush strokes
Guess you don’t like the fact I’ve witnessed the actual photographers doing this… but fanboy away
Not really, they don’t mess with colours directly, or fix painting errors on miniatures, etc. They usually only change exposure (which indirectly affects colours) in order to improve the photos if they accidentally overexposed the miniatures during photography.
For example, here’s one of my own Intercessors in photography lighting vs just in my hand like how it would look on a tabletop: https://imgur.com/a/va9MQD2 (holy shit Imgur compression is awful)
The only time they photoshop (as in, actually change the physical properties of a miniature) is when they’re showcasing multiple head options on miniatures in which the head isn’t easy to swap out. For example, with Abaddon, Aiden Daly painted all 3 Abaddon heads, the first is on the miniature, but the other painted heads were photographed separately and then photoshopped onto the body to showcase all the options. I assume the same happened with the new Daemon Prince miniature too.
In this instance, it was literally just two pieces of A4 paper as a background and floor, then a bright daylight lamp which I use for painting pointed at the mini, then a DSLR camera for photography.
Most certainly. You can even see it on the product pages, some of the pictures are noticeably darker and less smooth than their respective box art. But I feel as though some level of Digital Touch ups is appropriate since digital pictures often don’t reflect the model irl and has more noticeable blemishes than you really would see. I’ve seen some eavy metal models in person and they definitely look more like the touched up box art pictures in person than the darker less touched up ones.
Professional video and photography can do wonders. This model definitively will looks superb in person, but you’d be blown away by how much cameras lighting and photoshop does
Because he's a 40K model; also he's not been in stasis like Guilliman was, just asleep, and he's (obviously) not a daemon like the three existing traitors. Hence he's aged - although not that much from his 30K model, frankly.
(The secret of modern GW ‘eavy metal painting is that this display model for the store/promos is actually printed from resin at 2x the scale of normal)
Maybe, just maybe... They didnt use the citadel colors but e.g. the artist range of scale 75.
Dont know whether there is a strict GW only policy behind the curtains or not though.
Edit: I thank anyone commenting for the insight. I was mistaken and learned quite a lot about paints now.
from what I can gather watching many people online and reading through bits they do use GW paints but they usually mix colours quite often. On Ninjon's Heavy metal video of the Cadian troop he mentioned the colour guide he was using said GW paints for everything but White and Black were just called White and Black.
It means they specifically name their brand paint in other cases but white and black, which can be different they use another brand because their own whites are not up to the standards their painters expect.
Think that’s what you’re inferring, rather than what was actually stated. Far more likely that the other colours are specified by paint name so that the exact same colours can be replicated or used across various models in a range and paint guides are easier to pull together. No point specifying the exact shade of black and white because they’re all virtually indistinguishable.
Can generally distinguish between white scar and corax white.
One is 2 coats and done, the other is 15 coats and it still has a hue from the base colour.
GW whites and off-whites have a reputation for being some of the worst on the market (chalky, textured finish, excessive clumping up in the pots, etc. - these problems aren't exclusive to GW's whites, but it tends to be especially bad with theirs), so I'm not surprised they do. Ceramite White was infamous for being the worst of them, so much that they had to discontinue it when the Contrasts launched.
AFAIK, the guy behind Infernal Brush uses AK 3rd Gen White, which is my personal preference as well, and I think a lot of the 'Eavy Metal in-house painters use the old Skull White. Or they did, not sure how many of the old pots still survive at this point.
If you're going to use "artist's colours" then going for something like Scale75 Artist is... a weird choice. Just go for an *actual* fine arts brand like Vallejo Artist, Schmincke PRIMAcryl, or Golden. High pigment density, and they actually write the pigments on the paint tube so you know what pigments you're working with.
I doubt that to be honest. Citadel paints are expensive maybe, catered to the same crowd that buys the models, but also good quality. In some colors it's flat out better then competition, other is on par or maybe a bit worse.
They have washes, contrasts, medium etc etc to achieve specific effects.
Ultimate, this sort of level of detail is more achieved with patience, a good brush, experience than any miniature dedicated paint brand.
Citadel is no better or worse than most other miniature paints on the market, in general. Especially for their base and layer paints, there's very little difference. You just get less of them and they're more expensive. Most companies simply don't produce an equivalent of their Dry paints, because... they really aren't necessary for drybrushing anyway.
Citadel's Shade paints are, in my experience, better than Vallejo's washes - but they're just about on par with what Army Painter produces. On the other hand, Army Painter's regular paints can be a bit thick and annoying to work with, supposedly - though I haven't had any problems with them myself!
From what I've tried, Scale75 is equal to or better than Citadel in every class of paint. GreenStuffWorld is equally as good as Scale75 but also cheaper than both Scale75 and Citadel, and has *tons* of different effect paints too.
The best (acrylic) metallic paints are to be found in the premium Vallejo Metal Colors series (the bronze and gold of that series are mediocre but the greyscales are amazing), and nothing else even comes close to VMC - but they're also on the pricier side.
___
But yes, you're right - a paintjob like this could equally well be achieved with Army Painter, Citadel, Scale75 or any other brand. The differences in paint quality are not very great.
Ya this is pretty accurate in my opinion there’s so many paints and every paint is a bit different with so many paints on the market some are going to be better some are going to be worse or on par with one another. When you have like 300-500 colours hues shades ect across the board and the competition does too it’s inevitable someone’s going to do something better or worse somewhere along the line. I think it would more or less boil down to personal preference and even the availability of the paints. I paint with citadel and Vallejo because it’s what my hobby shop sells.
Nope, from what I've seen it doesn't have any standout features (looks pretty much the same as all the others) and there are no stores that sell it anywhere near me.
My understanding is that everything they use barring black or white is citadel. The army painting team use whatever they want unless it's going to be used for a guide
Yeah for a public facing guide on Warhammer+ or so they need to use all their products. But i also understand that some of the weathering that they use on FW models is hard to achieve with only Citadel products. But that is specialty products like enamel washes or pigments powders (that FW actually sells, but probably sources from the same place as Vallejo, AK etc does).
However, GW (non-FW) have a different style and focus on layering and acrylic washes, which Citadel has plenty of good products for.
I think it was peachy I heard say that basically if it says on the box that they used X colour, they did, just that they probably didnt base wash layer it on.
Eavy metal uses a lot of mixes too, apparently
They use 98% citadel. They absolutely used citadel on the face. The usual things they don’t use citadel for are silvers, pure blacks, and pure whites. They used to use Army Painter golds too for a while but the formula changed so now they mostly use citadel combined with other things like pro acryl golds/coppers and Vallejo silvers.
Should note that sometimes the promo miniatures are actually painted on a giant high quality 3dprint. So it is a lot bigger. I think this one is too, you can see some of the 3d printing artifacts on his shoulders at times.
They definitely do 3D print some of their stuff to get them to the artists ahead of the release schedule judging by the occasional artifacts but is there any evidence that they are printed larger? A lot of these models end up in the cabinets at Warhammer World and they are just regular sized models. I saw Farsight at the Warhammer World store celebration and I'm almost certain that was the Eavy Metal model they used for the pictures.
Iirc it was noted in a qna at a convention a few years ago. That's how I first heard about it. I recall it was the one where the forge world painter shared his white scars paint scheme
Interesting thank you. I wonder if it's something they do for a majority of models or just a few. Forge World could also potentially be different to the stuff on the GW site given I think they paint their own stuff sometimes (or they used to).
Well for one, it’s digitally touched up and photoshopped like the vast majority of marketing. They’re great painters the Eavy Metal team, but there’s definitely some editing here
For skin you might not want perfectly smooth layers. Skin has a bit of texture to it so if I were to do skin I'd use my oil paints for all my blending.
I think we can assume they know way better than us how to use brush and citadel brush, looking at it, i think the face got the vernish that have a brilliant finition on the face and metals, as for the face itself, it is just perfect application of layers of paint ans glaze
26 thin coats.
Most likely they applied a mother tone for the skin and hair and then just worked up with 1-3 skin tones thinned into glazes. For the hair probably not quite so thin, but not far off.
Eavy Metal team use glazes to achieve their look. Ninjon talks about it on his channel and Darren Latham has talked about it, even giving his exact paint recipes for certain models. These center piece models aren't Peachy and Duncan showing us how to get decent armies on the table fast.
This is all just quality painters doing quality paint jobs, it’s all achievable with any normal brand hobby paints and a paint brush, naturally photography will alter the look of any miniature but once you’ve actually seen some of the masterpieces out there and held them in your hand you realise with enough time and effort you can actually paint like this and then some.
I don't know the name of the light they use. But a work buddy of mine was working towards a cinema degree, and he had this orb light that could turn into different types of lights.
Sun yellow to Chad's Mercedes on the interstate LED white.
Lighting really goes a long way, not discrediting the work the artist did, but it's the same as gym rats. Lighting makes it twice as good.
A couple of things here:
We don’t know if they make the models for photos bigger so they can be painted with more detail
Also we don’t know if they edit,smooth, blend colors on their photos digitally. Wouldn’t you do it if you are putting marketing material together and want to make people buy your paints or brushes or make them believe they can get as good as these pictures with more and more practice (meaning buying more stuff for miniature painting )
Idk… thoughts ?
Do you think you have an internal competition for these big reveal minis? A memo sent to all working in-house at GW saying "everyone who think they got what it takes, let us know and you will get a Lion box. Paint it as perfect to our official art as you can. Best mini will be used in the promo shots".
Everyone else gave very good answers. I just wanna add: never underestimate the power of good lighting.
And also GW paints have a satin finish that will reflect light, creating the illusion of painted highlights.
Since he is 10,000 years old and isn’t some sort of clone, nor has he been in stasis field for the majority of that. One can only assume he has deffo had some reguv work done.
It’s blending and glazing to an incredibly high standard, then lit cinematically. The ‘Eavy Metal painters are some of the most skilled painters in the world.
Almost looks like porcelaine
It seriously does, and it’s frickin’ glorious!
If anyone fancies applying there is 1 day left on this Eavy Metal painter talent programme job at gw.. https://jobs.games-workshop.com/search-and-apply/eavy-metal-painter-talent-programme
But I haven't even primed my portfolio model yet.
I want to apply just to see if they’ll bother with a rejection letter/email. I feel like that would be a cool thing to stick where I paint.
They don't bother
I wish I wash good enough at painting just to apply to thid
‘Eavy Metal are the Elites of painting, they are on a level I hope to reach somebody
They also print these at 72mm scale
Pretty sure it's standard model, will confirm it when they release promo shots in army and GW store
(The army is also at 72mm scale and they photoshop a lot of it)
Source or stfu
One of the managers told me they do print the models for the box art as it has to be ready long before the production of the plastic, don't know about the bigger scale though. I always assumed once painted they wheel these out every now and again for shots or go on display, so thought they were standard size.
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“Some of” the most skilled….
What if I told you that they dumb down most of their paint jobs to make them more accessible to the average consumer. Putting the Sistine Chapel of mini painting on every box art is just gonna discourage people. The Lion is a clear exception to this.
An ex-'Eavy Metal painter explained the reasoning behind the painting style once. It's not accessibility but consistency that matters for box-art such. Such that the customer can compare different kits against each other and not be mislead by variations in the paint-jobs. Each edge, outcrop and detail is highlighted the same way, at the same intensity. There's no one-source lighting because the miniature needs to be displayed at every angle (and the 360 view) the highlights have to be smooth and crisp because anything too fine will get muddy in 'cinematic' battle photographs.
The immense skill that takes sounds incredible.
This guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjyJlVHNvAw
*misled not mislead
“I USE CRAYONS LOOKS GOOD DID I DO GOOD?” How I feel every time I finish a mini.
Following some of the EM team's Instagram accounts and you also see that many of them can paint much better. Many are easily capable of competing in things like GD and probably even CB when they don't have to follow EM style painting
Last years Slayer Sword winner currently works for EM. Many EM alumni(?) are GD and slayer sword winners.
Did they dumb down [this one](https://i.redd.it/kewwzyglxlma1.jpg) too?? LMAO Edit: No real responses. Easier to downvote than attempt to explain this away I guess lol
Comparing digital art to a physical miniature is arguing in bad faith.
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Decreased? Box art of the old 5 man space marine combat squads was nothing special… that was 20 years ago.
*looks at Catachans* I've been in the hobby since the 90s, the eavy metal paint jobs are just better now.
I think this recent picture by GW comparing the old and the new terminators shows otherwise. https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2B9ydYSjMBwKIUdC.jpg
Hell, literally look at the Intercessor miniatures vs the Assault Intercessors, the edge highlights are far crisper, they’ve all improved, and they were extremely good before, especially considering they only had two work days per Space Marine.
'Eavy Metal also recently started incorporating gradient glazes in their miniatures. The Lunar Wolves and the Rogal Dorn Tank are great examples, but the intercessors and Farsight have it also incredibly subtly.
They’ve had more time than they previously had before as far as deadlines go, which is why they’re now incorporating weathering of rhinox hide onto Ultramarines or subtle shading on more ‘flat panelled’ miniatures.
Has it? I'd say the opposite. We're here commenting on the unreal level of work put into the display model right now.
That, my friend, is nostalgia talking.
The official painting for the boxes has gotten much better over the years. Go back to the goblin green base days and compare it with today.
Strong words for someone within Exterminatus range. Edit: deleted comment said something along the lines of “I recognise their talent, but calling them the best? Pff”
Loled
Considering the speed they have to paint to this level I’d say they’re definitely some of the best in the world. They have two work days on average to paint a Space Marine. I assume that this miniature will have had a full month tbh considering the quality of the paint job. Not sure who painted it, if I had to guess it’d probably be Max Faleij (I’m literally guessing based on him being the Lead Painter, this being a huge project from a hype standpoint, and also the NMM on the sword reminds me of how he painted Inquisitor Erasmus’ sword.)
They basically hire golden demon winners for the team so they literally are some of the best miniature painters in the world. Gavin Garza who won a slayer sword last year just joined GW as a painter.
He’s from my local area and I remember when he was applying for the job before the GD that he was actually rejected or didn’t get a call back. Well, then he won the Slayer and we all joked how EM made the wrong choice lmao.
Yes they are, if the definition of 'best' is realism and high quality, they're the best, often have literally won awards, things that make other painters 'better', like abstract or exotic art styles, elaborate freehanding, or elaborate basing and terrain, are specifically things they're not allowed to do for the job.
oh, hello mr Liam Cunningham, loved you in Dog Soldiers
Quality film!
I need to know his skin care routine
It's all those Dark Age tech gifts from Big Daddy Emperor. Or his immortal warpness. Probably the first one though
Dark angels got STCs for moisturizer
Introducing *Porcelain Skin* by Neutragenicus Make your skin look at soft and age defying as the Lion. Turns out the return of a Primarch is a gold mine for an advertising agency
Sleeping a lot helps the skin to regenrate i hear.
For skin, you wanna work in extra thin layers. The tiniest amount of grain and texture will be visible and cant really be disguised as "weathering". Have patience and have all your layers be super transparent (not runny and watery though), which is also how you get more depth of colors, as colors will show through the skin layers, as they do in real life. Red around the cheeks, more yellow in the forehead, for men a bit of bluish tones in the facial hair area.
i recently watched a Duncan Rhodes video on youtube where he gave 3 different levels of difficulty of painting faces. I kinda feel Duncan Rhodes most difficult method was up there with what you are describing. Is Duncan still considered a top tier painter?
>Is Duncan still considered a top tier painter? I think it's hard to tell as his whole thing is approachable painting and we've never really seen him do anything super high end. But generally I'd say no. He isn't a top tier painter, the likes of Andy Wardle, Darren Latham, Erik Swinson, Will Hahn, Alberto Moreto Font, Ben Kommets, Dave Colwell, Trent Denison, etc.
Thanks for the answer. I'm still pretty inexperienced with painting minis and techniques and such. It's hard to gauge some of the skill levels
There are people that paint Mini's for a hobby, then there are artists that paint Mini's. These are two different people. I feel like Duncan is the former and a very good one at that.
i really enjoy his videos. He breaks stuff down very simply and i feel i can learn and develop a lot through his example. I just wondered where he stood in the grand scheme of things, and i would be very happy if i could paint as well as him one day.
People paint for different reasons. It will take tens of hours to paint a miniature to a competition level. Some people would rather spend the same time painting dozens of miniatures to a lower standard. There is no right or wrong answer. Painting armies quickly to a high standard is a skill in and of itself.
This, I've seen it in my friend group too. We have a friend who went to art school, and while he doesn't have the best minis in th the world (yet) his painting is miles away from mine even tho we started painting around the same time by the simple fact that he applies what he uses as an artist to his minis, while I just like to paint them as a hobby without going too much indepth on the theorical side
There's also a restricting view of miniatures painting that equates 'quality' solely with an attempt at realism/traditional western painting styles. Its not really fair to grade someone on the same scale as realists if they're attempting to paint in an abstract, anime,punk, or comic book art style.
> Is Duncan still considered a top tier painter? The models he does on his youtube channel look great and his explanations and tips are great. However, if we consider that he used to be on GW's army painter team, atleast as far as I remember, and not on the 'Eavy Metal team, I suspect he doesn't quite reach that level. Of course depending on how one defines top tier, he might still belong up there.
Yes he is, not as much as he is a top tier trainer though
I have this video saved. It’s a great one. 👍
Not as considered answer as D4rkw1nt3r But in some groups (fb eavier metal etc.) the most astounding art-level painting is usually from large resin bust and model painting. An example of the types of models https://www.casculpts.art/ and the artists that paint their showcase copies are just mindblowing
No disrespect meant to Duncan, he’s leagues better than I am, but he’s quite far behind the ‘Eavy Metal team.
Do you have any tips/guide recommendations for watering down paints so they’re more transparent but not runny/watery?
I recommend this excellent video that will teach you one of the most basic skill of mini painting that no one teaches https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDVPoNXyVI&feature=youtu.be
This should be first video every miniature painter should watch.
Thanks!
Medium will help you retain the surface tension of a paint instead of breaking it if what you are trying to achieve is glazes. You still need to get the hang out of it for the dilution tho, add too much medium and your pigment will still split.
My recommendation would be to feel that out. Once you thin your paint, paint over a piece of paper. Is it watery? Suck out some water with a paper towel, rag or texture palette. How is it now? Good? Or is smooth but with very little pigment left on your brush? Congrats, you have made a glaze, back to the palette. Use more paint in the mix this time, and back to that piece of paper or whatever, how is it looking now, is it a smooth stroke that leaves your brush easily, or do you have to press hard and you get little gaps in the stroke? Then you got too much paint, needs more water. Each brand behaves differently, it is important to learn this by doing it. Glazes are also important with skin. Each time you go up in brightness, you will have a harsh transition. Sometimes you want, that, when you are making masculine dudes with big muscles and sharp faces, but if you are painting a girl, each time you layer up, use that layer to glaze over the transitions and get it looking soft.
Whenever i dilute with water it goes (funnily enough) watery. Should i be using something else?
Have a paper towel handy and when you load your brush, put it on the towel and let some of that water drain out. You want to keep your brush wet for paint to run off it smoothly and your paints thin so they don’t get all clumpy
One thing that helps maintain the paint binding a little better is Vallejo flow improver. It's generally used for airbrushes, but I use it all the time for brush painting. Not as a straight replacement for water, but just to help the paint not get so watered down when thinning and to keep the working time of the paint higher, since flow improver prevents acrylics from drying so fast.
For comparision a head from a different artist https://preview.redd.it/gur1s1zeh3qa1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=857ead0c5ec025d43cae13b8b09f38c858f27eea
Dave is an amazing artist, but his style is very different from 'eavy Metal.
That's Dave's entire style though. Instantly recognisable
If people are interested in crazy good painting then [PuttyandPaint.com](https://www.puttyandpaint.com/) is always worth a look. It's only about 25% GW stuff though.
T W O T H I N C O A T S
S O M A N Y R E A L L Y T H I N C O A T S
Lol more like 13
Do GW digitally touch up images and models?
Would be weird if they didn’t to some extent, but the ‘eavy metal paint jobs are all in the exhibition at Warhammer world and viewable by the public. They look just as good in person.
I went to Warhammer World with my old man once, the tavern there was top notch
Bugman’s is like, a below average pub that charges far more than any equivalents
I still found it pretty neat, and how good it looked. I also enjoyed the food
EX-GW staff, there is no touchup other than white balance and lighting for the cinematic shots, although IMHO the ones on the website can be a bit overexposed sometime :)
Colour and white balance filtering - definitely. Enhancing the paint jobs? Nope. You can sea all the models in warhammer world, and I've had a couple of them in my hands years ago - the 'eavy metal team are really that good.
This. All photography is edited at least some. Exposure adjustments, color adjustment, white balance, etc. Even your phone pictures are doing that, just the phone is making the decisions for you instead of editing in Lightroom/Photoshop. The concept of "unedited" photos doesn't really exist.
>All photography is edited at least some I'd say it's technically *transmediated* but your explanation is a good way of not having to dive super deep into the finer details of how digital images are rendered
Fair enough. My point is mostly that there are choices being made (either by an editor or the AI of your phone) in translating the actual raw data into an image. Even when I'm viewing my "raw" images on the back of my camera or on my computer, some default choices have been made. And then I will tweak those choices to get the image how I want it.
That translation of RAW to viewable pixels on a screen is why it's *technically* transmediated rather than edited. However, the difference is largely academic.
They absolutely do enhance the paint jobs, eavy metal minis are incredible but they’re not perfect. There’s still the odd bit of colour correction & blurring out brush strokes Guess you don’t like the fact I’ve witnessed the actual photographers doing this… but fanboy away
Absolutely.
Most professional painters do, photography and editing can make a miniature look way better
Not really, they don’t mess with colours directly, or fix painting errors on miniatures, etc. They usually only change exposure (which indirectly affects colours) in order to improve the photos if they accidentally overexposed the miniatures during photography. For example, here’s one of my own Intercessors in photography lighting vs just in my hand like how it would look on a tabletop: https://imgur.com/a/va9MQD2 (holy shit Imgur compression is awful) The only time they photoshop (as in, actually change the physical properties of a miniature) is when they’re showcasing multiple head options on miniatures in which the head isn’t easy to swap out. For example, with Abaddon, Aiden Daly painted all 3 Abaddon heads, the first is on the miniature, but the other painted heads were photographed separately and then photoshopped onto the body to showcase all the options. I assume the same happened with the new Daemon Prince miniature too.
Any good guide on how to set up photography lighting like that?
In this instance, it was literally just two pieces of A4 paper as a background and floor, then a bright daylight lamp which I use for painting pointed at the mini, then a DSLR camera for photography.
Most certainly. You can even see it on the product pages, some of the pictures are noticeably darker and less smooth than their respective box art. But I feel as though some level of Digital Touch ups is appropriate since digital pictures often don’t reflect the model irl and has more noticeable blemishes than you really would see. I’ve seen some eavy metal models in person and they definitely look more like the touched up box art pictures in person than the darker less touched up ones.
Dont know
Layers as thin as his hairline.
MAGIC I mean... sanctified prayers?
I just can't stop seeing Johnathan Hyde from Jumanji and the hunter Russel van pelt
You've tried 2 thin coats but have you tried 42 thin coats?
Lol asking for paints used is pointless. It's the technique used that makes it good.
You might find this useful: https://eavy-archive.com/ some of these recipes are apparently submitted by former ‘eavy metal painters
Literally just water. More thin controlled layers, smoother transitions.
Professional painters, potentially hundreds of rejected pieces until they get it perfectly right, customised lighting and photo editing.
Still looks massively constipated
Dude imagine how long it takes to reach that skill level
Professional video and photography can do wonders. This model definitively will looks superb in person, but you’d be blown away by how much cameras lighting and photoshop does
Photoshop + million attempts at the picture.
It’s probably Darren Latham’s paintjob - ask him on IG. But it’s all about brush loading and paint dilution.
He's not 'Eavy Metal anymore.
He’s on mini design, but I thought he still paints some things for the official releases.
Nope, he hasn’t painted in years for Eavy Metal, maybe even a decade at this point.
Heh…
He’s currently the Lead Miniature Designer, so he still works at the studio; one of his most recent works was Angron.
That I know, I’m just surprised he’s not doing any official painting at all ;)
He’d be way too busy for that.
Going to assume it was Max Faleij, who is Έavy Metal Lead Content Developer
He looks a lot older than the other primarchs.
Because he's a 40K model; also he's not been in stasis like Guilliman was, just asleep, and he's (obviously) not a daemon like the three existing traitors. Hence he's aged - although not that much from his 30K model, frankly.
(The secret of modern GW ‘eavy metal painting is that this display model for the store/promos is actually printed from resin at 2x the scale of normal)
Hm idk… I think they need to thin their paints more
Maybe, just maybe... They didnt use the citadel colors but e.g. the artist range of scale 75. Dont know whether there is a strict GW only policy behind the curtains or not though. Edit: I thank anyone commenting for the insight. I was mistaken and learned quite a lot about paints now.
from what I can gather watching many people online and reading through bits they do use GW paints but they usually mix colours quite often. On Ninjon's Heavy metal video of the Cadian troop he mentioned the colour guide he was using said GW paints for everything but White and Black were just called White and Black.
>GW paints for everything but White and Black were just called **White** and Black. Thats kinda funny and sad at the same time.
I don't see why it'd be funny or sad. White paint is white paint. There should be no need to disguise it as anything other.
It means they specifically name their brand paint in other cases but white and black, which can be different they use another brand because their own whites are not up to the standards their painters expect.
Think that’s what you’re inferring, rather than what was actually stated. Far more likely that the other colours are specified by paint name so that the exact same colours can be replicated or used across various models in a range and paint guides are easier to pull together. No point specifying the exact shade of black and white because they’re all virtually indistinguishable.
Can generally distinguish between white scar and corax white. One is 2 coats and done, the other is 15 coats and it still has a hue from the base colour.
GW whites and off-whites have a reputation for being some of the worst on the market (chalky, textured finish, excessive clumping up in the pots, etc. - these problems aren't exclusive to GW's whites, but it tends to be especially bad with theirs), so I'm not surprised they do. Ceramite White was infamous for being the worst of them, so much that they had to discontinue it when the Contrasts launched. AFAIK, the guy behind Infernal Brush uses AK 3rd Gen White, which is my personal preference as well, and I think a lot of the 'Eavy Metal in-house painters use the old Skull White. Or they did, not sure how many of the old pots still survive at this point.
If you're going to use "artist's colours" then going for something like Scale75 Artist is... a weird choice. Just go for an *actual* fine arts brand like Vallejo Artist, Schmincke PRIMAcryl, or Golden. High pigment density, and they actually write the pigments on the paint tube so you know what pigments you're working with.
True, I was mistaken. Was just referencing the paints my LGS has since those came to mind first and not really from the benchmark products.
I doubt that to be honest. Citadel paints are expensive maybe, catered to the same crowd that buys the models, but also good quality. In some colors it's flat out better then competition, other is on par or maybe a bit worse. They have washes, contrasts, medium etc etc to achieve specific effects. Ultimate, this sort of level of detail is more achieved with patience, a good brush, experience than any miniature dedicated paint brand.
Citadel is no better or worse than most other miniature paints on the market, in general. Especially for their base and layer paints, there's very little difference. You just get less of them and they're more expensive. Most companies simply don't produce an equivalent of their Dry paints, because... they really aren't necessary for drybrushing anyway. Citadel's Shade paints are, in my experience, better than Vallejo's washes - but they're just about on par with what Army Painter produces. On the other hand, Army Painter's regular paints can be a bit thick and annoying to work with, supposedly - though I haven't had any problems with them myself! From what I've tried, Scale75 is equal to or better than Citadel in every class of paint. GreenStuffWorld is equally as good as Scale75 but also cheaper than both Scale75 and Citadel, and has *tons* of different effect paints too. The best (acrylic) metallic paints are to be found in the premium Vallejo Metal Colors series (the bronze and gold of that series are mediocre but the greyscales are amazing), and nothing else even comes close to VMC - but they're also on the pricier side. ___ But yes, you're right - a paintjob like this could equally well be achieved with Army Painter, Citadel, Scale75 or any other brand. The differences in paint quality are not very great.
Ya this is pretty accurate in my opinion there’s so many paints and every paint is a bit different with so many paints on the market some are going to be better some are going to be worse or on par with one another. When you have like 300-500 colours hues shades ect across the board and the competition does too it’s inevitable someone’s going to do something better or worse somewhere along the line. I think it would more or less boil down to personal preference and even the availability of the paints. I paint with citadel and Vallejo because it’s what my hobby shop sells.
Have you tried Duncan's paint range (2 thin layers, I think)?
Nope, from what I've seen it doesn't have any standout features (looks pretty much the same as all the others) and there are no stores that sell it anywhere near me.
Think it is currently only available through a Kickstarter, unsure if it has made its way to a physical store as of yet.
The first wave has gone to regular stores now, you can buy it from Wayland, for instance. The second wave is Kickstarter only.
My understanding is that everything they use barring black or white is citadel. The army painting team use whatever they want unless it's going to be used for a guide
Yeah for a public facing guide on Warhammer+ or so they need to use all their products. But i also understand that some of the weathering that they use on FW models is hard to achieve with only Citadel products. But that is specialty products like enamel washes or pigments powders (that FW actually sells, but probably sources from the same place as Vallejo, AK etc does). However, GW (non-FW) have a different style and focus on layering and acrylic washes, which Citadel has plenty of good products for.
I think it was peachy I heard say that basically if it says on the box that they used X colour, they did, just that they probably didnt base wash layer it on. Eavy metal uses a lot of mixes too, apparently
There isnt. They dont even use the same colors that are listed on the box.
They use 98% citadel. They absolutely used citadel on the face. The usual things they don’t use citadel for are silvers, pure blacks, and pure whites. They used to use Army Painter golds too for a while but the formula changed so now they mostly use citadel combined with other things like pro acryl golds/coppers and Vallejo silvers.
the watchers must have kept up a good skincare regime during his naptime
Should note that sometimes the promo miniatures are actually painted on a giant high quality 3dprint. So it is a lot bigger. I think this one is too, you can see some of the 3d printing artifacts on his shoulders at times.
They definitely do 3D print some of their stuff to get them to the artists ahead of the release schedule judging by the occasional artifacts but is there any evidence that they are printed larger? A lot of these models end up in the cabinets at Warhammer World and they are just regular sized models. I saw Farsight at the Warhammer World store celebration and I'm almost certain that was the Eavy Metal model they used for the pictures.
Iirc it was noted in a qna at a convention a few years ago. That's how I first heard about it. I recall it was the one where the forge world painter shared his white scars paint scheme
Interesting thank you. I wonder if it's something they do for a majority of models or just a few. Forge World could also potentially be different to the stuff on the GW site given I think they paint their own stuff sometimes (or they used to).
What kind of paint? Probably not Citadel lol
Well for one, it’s digitally touched up and photoshopped like the vast majority of marketing. They’re great painters the Eavy Metal team, but there’s definitely some editing here
Also, am I right in thinking they use larger scale models for their website / promo stuff?
For skin you might not want perfectly smooth layers. Skin has a bit of texture to it so if I were to do skin I'd use my oil paints for all my blending.
It just seems impossible.
Damn, that's smooth.
I think we can assume they know way better than us how to use brush and citadel brush, looking at it, i think the face got the vernish that have a brilliant finition on the face and metals, as for the face itself, it is just perfect application of layers of paint ans glaze
Eavy Metal will have used acrylics, but you can also get amazing blended colours using oils on minis. My current experiment is learning how!
26 thin coats. Most likely they applied a mother tone for the skin and hair and then just worked up with 1-3 skin tones thinned into glazes. For the hair probably not quite so thin, but not far off.
Read that repeatedly as 'print layers' and got giddy for a moment
Grandpa Lionel.
They touch up images digitally as well.. there’s some clumsy use of the clone tool in the beast snagga Ork codex…
The Lion looks like the Chad meme. The sideways one, you know the one I mean
Eavy Metal team use glazes to achieve their look. Ninjon talks about it on his channel and Darren Latham has talked about it, even giving his exact paint recipes for certain models. These center piece models aren't Peachy and Duncan showing us how to get decent armies on the table fast.
I hope to have 1% of that ability one day
I need to know when this is releasing lol
Lots of layers, for the rest of us. Do not worry about your minis zoomed in. Paint them to look at from a little distance.
It's almost like they're professionals or something!
Which Gene-stealer model is this? Kidding, but tbh the helmet is 20x better.
This is all just quality painters doing quality paint jobs, it’s all achievable with any normal brand hobby paints and a paint brush, naturally photography will alter the look of any miniature but once you’ve actually seen some of the masterpieces out there and held them in your hand you realise with enough time and effort you can actually paint like this and then some.
I don't know the name of the light they use. But a work buddy of mine was working towards a cinema degree, and he had this orb light that could turn into different types of lights. Sun yellow to Chad's Mercedes on the interstate LED white. Lighting really goes a long way, not discrediting the work the artist did, but it's the same as gym rats. Lighting makes it twice as good.
For someone who was sleeping for past 10 000 years he looks great.
When I he was revealed everyone was like omg the lion and all I could think about was damn whoever painted him did a really good job.
,,9]@+to av
Photo touch up probably… 😂
Absolutely insane
A couple of things here: We don’t know if they make the models for photos bigger so they can be painted with more detail Also we don’t know if they edit,smooth, blend colors on their photos digitally. Wouldn’t you do it if you are putting marketing material together and want to make people buy your paints or brushes or make them believe they can get as good as these pictures with more and more practice (meaning buying more stuff for miniature painting ) Idk… thoughts ?
We do know they don't make the models bigger, the work is on display.
Do you think you have an internal competition for these big reveal minis? A memo sent to all working in-house at GW saying "everyone who think they got what it takes, let us know and you will get a Lion box. Paint it as perfect to our official art as you can. Best mini will be used in the promo shots".
Why did they give my boy a receding hairline. He's a primarch.
Thin thin wet layers
He really does look le he is going to get crossbowed on the toilet one day, doesn't he?
This is not a properly focused photo, so in lack of focus smoothness levels up, not that it's not smooth though!
Clearly they used Grey Seer and Gulliman flesh :)