Holy mother of Tau!

This was a beast! The KX139 Ta’unar Supremacy Armour kits is by far the physically most complex one I've put together to date. Almost 12 hours of building; of course I wanted a more dynamic post, so the 10+ part legs took some time to get right... Clearly I need to grow another set of arms!

The color palette was the client's choice - to fit in with his extensive existing army. As you know I like richer reds, so there was not much room to play with contrast etc with the colors I was working with.
As someone pointed out - it is big enough to have its own shading/highlighting!

Something goes bump...

This ork stompa, Forgeworld variant, was by far my largest project to date.

Chipping was achieved with Ammo Chipping Medium; Light on the top, Heavy towards the bottom, laid over a rust primer coat which has some browns modulated in.

After drying overnight, I scratched the surface lightly (using a small wire brush with flexible bristles). Water was added to the surface, and paint scrubbed off with a cotton bud - lots of them. This step took over 2 hours alone!

The chips were the shaded with a black wash, and highlighted with the base ochre and some P3 bonejack.
All of them. Each. And. Every. One.
This almost drove me nuts. It took over 3 hours.

 

 

After sealing the model with Testors GlossCoat, I applied oils. This is difficult to explain in detail, but you essentially add random, small, blobs of colours that contrast and complement your base. So I used Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Titanium White, Lamp Black, and some Prussian Blue in spots. All W&N high grade oil paints.
Lighter colours applied higher up, darker below.
You then drag the colours, using a  ~1cm wide short bristle brush, downwards... needs a demo.

After that the excess paint is removed, with a cotton swab (I went through a box of 100 for this project), to reveal the base coat below. Some oil sticks to this (as the surface is uneven). You can clean up spots with turpentine... on a cotton swab!

 

Metals were GW Boltgun Metal, applied wet, but leaving some deep areas the base rust. Washed with my super-secret formula (not really that secret..), allowed to dry, and then washed with Rust-All (wonderful stuff).
Chainmail scratches were then added.
Copper pipes and wiring were GW Beaten Copper, with a Vile Green wash.

For the lifta-droppa I chose a contrasting blue; I figured that a magnetic force, generated by electrical energy, was as good as any way to pick something up!
These were airbrushed on, using Badger Minitaire paints, from the darkest blue, through to a final white - 5 different layers for the fade.

Oil streaks were added with Burnt Sienna oil paint.

Rust powders (Secret Weapon Miniatures) were then added, in three layers with each layer's fix allowed to dry between.

After everything was dry, I sealed with Testors Dul-Coat.


Hope you enjoyed this, and thanks for reading!


~FNP

Solar Auxila

As part of a client package I've been working on a few units.

These have been finished finally! They were quite challenging to paint (and I'm not convinced I've done the sculpts full justice).

Solar Auxilia, from Forgeworld are beautifully sculpted models with some great details; much of which is lost at this scale, but someone had the mad skills to sculpt them.

Please feel free contact me at  FrozenNorthPainting@gmail.com

~FNP

Something different

I was asked, at short notice, to paint up some 3d-printed scale houses.

These are to be used in a  TV commercial, shot in Vancouver and LA, for a luxury car company. The ad will be run at Christmas.

The models I was provided with presented some new challenges. I've never painted a printed model before.
The laminar nature of extrusion printing created channels that paint likes to run down, very enthusiastically!
As the producers wanted the option of lighting the models (they'd done some tests with prototypes) I was to leave the windows bare where possible, so I masked as many as I could prior to priming. This would allow light to spill out once LEDs had been inserted in drilled holes in the base.

The scale varied from about 8-10mm for the first 3, to ~4mm for the bottom one.

There were 2 more, but I was no able to complete them by the cut off. This was about 10 hours work.

Please feel free contact me at  FrozenNorthPainting@gmail.com

~FNP

Thanatar-Calix Siege Engine

To say this was hard to put together would be an understatement!

The leg assemblies are not for the novice model maker by any stretch of the imagination... FW's instructions are lacking in clarity (far too common...), and some parts are just not identified on the sheet.

Once together it was an absolute joy to paint. I had the opportunity to try out some chipping/weathering techniques I've been learning for the past couple of years; I think they worked really well.

I also worked up the reds from the Minitaire range for paints from Badger. Reds can be challenging in any paint range, but the boffins at Badger, along with their testers, came up with some superb colours. And they airbrush beautifully.

Hopefully the client will be happy, and I get to paint some more for him!

Welcome!

Hi everyone!

Welcome to Frozen North Painting.

This is a new North Vancouver, BC based contract painting service. I specialize in units and character models for table top wargaming such as Warhammer FB and 40k, Warmachine and Malifaux. Pretty much anything you need to have painted, I can do!
Unlike other services I do not offer "levels" of painting - I take pride in my work and will paint everything to the highest standard I can.

My rates, therefore are not cheap; I aim for about $20 per hour.
Negotiation of the work is a matter of communication, and we will discuss what you want done, my artistic input, and how much work (and therefore the cost) I think it will run at.

I do not charge for materials I use - that is built into the cost - but I do charge extra for assembly of the models.

I have over 40 years of model making experience, and I have a shelf full of awards for my armies.

Hope to hear from you!
~FNP