The Gopher Hole (Painting Blog)

[godsgopher]

Welcome to the Gopher Hole!

Over the next few weeks I plan on taking you guys through the various steps of this painting commission. I have been commissioned by Jeff Burke to complete a full starter box for game demonstrations. Normally I keep these things quiet until the project is finished but Jeff suggested I share my progress with the community as a whole. There are something like 36 pieces in this commission as its the full basic box. I'll try to show in this blog my step by step progress so those of you unfamiliar with painting can get a taste of how a project like this is accomplished. Of course "try" is the operative word so this might turn out to be very instructive in what not to do when painting This is my first attempt at a painting blog so please be patient with me.

Getting Started

Well as I have said before when your starting a painting project you need to first take a step back and define your goals. For some of you this may be as general as get all your stuff put together and have a coat of paint on it by the end of the month so you can play at the gamestore. For me its to complete the goals of this commission.

The commission

12 x Classic colored Battlepods all with full terrain bases showing the scale of the mecha.
1 x Zentradi Officer Pod painted in classic colors
1 x Zentradi Scout Pod painted in classic colors
1 x Zentradi Recovery pod Painted Green and Orange

5 x Veritechs in all three modes with full terrain bases that show the scale of the mecha
These will consist of
Roy Folker
Rick Hunter
Max Sterling
Ben Dixon
Classic Brown fighter OR maybe a Training Veritech

2 x Tomahawk Battaloids painted Brown with full terrain.

Jeff has requested my best work or for those of you who have read my "How to Paint Miniatures" posts these are all to be Level 4 paint jobs a.k.a Perfect! This is a sizable project and somewhat complex because of the basing and high level quality requested. Fortunately for my sanity Jeff has not given me a completion due date like my first commission for Palladium that had to be completed before GenCon. So I can take a few years on this... but then again I'm trying to be professional here so ASAP is my goal.

So lets begin...

[godsgopher]

Well lets get started. I have decided to work on the Zentradi battlepods first. My reasoning is pretty straight forward. The Zent pods are all going to be painted the same and no special modeling is required for them. So essentially even though I need to do very high quality paint jobs on these pieces, in really just doing the same thing twelves time in a row. This is perfect for factory style painting.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 5f28c8.jpg

Now because I am planning to do the bases separately I'm going to have to create some temporary bases to mount the battle pods on top of. To assist in handling them while they are on their temporary bases I'm going to mount them on top of old Games Workshop paint bases. To do this all you need is a little poster puddy. For those of you not familiar this is a chewing gum like substance used to mount posters on the wall without driving a tack through it.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 7e3fe1.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 95ada0.jpg

To create the temporary bases I will use polystyrene or what the British like to call Plasti-card. I just need to cut it up into strips large enough to glue the of the battle pods to.

Well now that we know we want to work on the Zents first its time to get them out of their frames. To do this I use two tools. A hobby knife and a pair of wire cutters. Mostly I prefer to use the wire cutters because I can quickly cut away the frame. Now I want to make a point here, I don't try to "precisely" cut the pieces loose. If I tried to do that I would risk damaging the parts with the wire cutters. When those things bite down they take everything in their mouth with them. So instead I am going to settle for cutting away from the pieces and then later trimming them down with my hobby knife. I find its much easier to make precise cuts when working on a single small piece rather than trying to do it while on the frame.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... c74d05.jpg

You will notice I have started with the main bodies. While its just about impossible to see here I have already trimmed away the excess flash from cutting these pieces lose. Next I have used a Emory board to file down any remaining nubs. In addition to this I also use a nail buffer to sand down the plastic bits until they are perfectly smooth. An Emory board and nail buffer are the perfect tools for working on plastic. Using standard hobby files will result in roughened plastic that is scratched all the heck and back. They will work, but anyone looking at its going to think your dog chewed it for you.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... f6346c.jpg

In the picture above I have already welded together the half sections of the body and hip joint. Each of these was joined using plasti-weld to fuse them together. Be careful when using plasti-weld to keep your finger prints out of the affected areas or you will have more to clean up later. After this was safely dry I used my Emory board and nail buffer to smooth away the same lines on top of the miniature. I want to eliminate as many seams as I can for the finished product.

Some of you may consider this excessive work and I guess it is. I would just note a few things, I am getting paid to do this, it does make the finished miniature look better, and I suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder due to German ancestory. Said another way, I think its worth it, what you do with your own units is up to you.

You will notice the mecha legs in the picture, they still have lots of flash left on them that need to be removed. I don't have a picture for it, but this has already been accomplished and all 24 legs have been sanded and buffed to a shinny finish, you would never guess they had odd bits sticking out everywhere. While you can see where some of the pieces were previously connected the actually surface is perfectly smooth. Once covered with my primer you will never know there was any imperfection.

Next to attach the feet...

[godsgopher]

Whew... long week. Not much progress from my last posting I have been ill this week. None the less some stuff has happened.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 6173e5.jpg

I managed to get all the legs lose from the frames and buffed out, to even my satisfaction. Yes many of those legs are free standing there not glued to the table. Its kind of creepy to look at. Its little wonder they call these things ostriches!

Now when it comes to putting these together it can get a little tricky. The legs and hip sections go together very nicely with a ball and socket connection. The problem is getting the leg and hip configurations correct. With the hips you pretty much need to stick to facing straight forward. If you don't you risk the legs not fitting with the body perfectly. This can cause the parts to not sit flush with one another and then you risk them breaking on you when playing. You have been warned.

The legs themselves will fit with any other leg configuration. This is very helpful. I found there are three leg types. The leaping leg or squat leg, the toe-on-the-ground, and the mid-step foot. I always glued the Toe to the ground on the ground or used the squat leg for the weight supporting leg. The mid-step leg is always up in the air because it looks like its not bearing weight.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... c9a87e.jpg

Over all even with only three legs you have plenty of configurations you can cook up. As you can see here.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 6f8cf4.jpg

You will notice as well that all the mecha are on temporary bases. They are attached with a single small drop of super glue that will (I hope) be simple to break off when I'm ready to place them on the real bases. I will fully paint them on these temporary bases before attaching them to the real base. This will prevent paint over flow onto the bases and ruin the work I plan on doing there.

[ZINO]

keep up the great work man

[godsgopher]

Alright well things are still happening slowly but better something than nothing I suppose. Jeff wanted me to make clear to everyone that this commission is for Palladium and not himself. That will no doubt come later and then you will pay Jeff oh yes, you will pay *evil chuckle*

So I'm all done! Yep its finished... assembling that is. No way I could finished a commission of this size so quickly. What were you thinking? No, right now everything is assembled for the Battlepods and I would like to make a few more notes about my experiences with these finial pieces.

I started by working on the side thrusters and top anti-missile turret. This proved to be very straight forward. Honestly I dont have much to say about this step because it went that smoothly. Just make sure you keep your thrusters pointed in the direction you want. Once there in place with glue or plasti-weld on them your going to have a devil of a time turning them before they completely dry.

The small auto-cannons on the lower bodes are very small. No brainier right? You already knew that didn't you? Well just be aware they are small and this causes a problem when removing them from the sprew. At first I tired cutting both connecting pieces of plastic but this just resulted in flying cannon parts.

Note to Jeff: Maybe we need an extra piece for the smaller parts of the pods? Say one small cannon, one extra normal cannon on each frame as a backup? Those things really like to fly and I'm afrade people are going to lose a few of them.

So here is how I managed to keep the guns on the ground after the first one did a Wright brothers impersonation. Only cut the back end with the ball socket lose. Then use your finger to twist off the barrel end. This made removing the parts much much more controllable. However...

Because I did it this way I was unable to sand the rough areas off. By now you guys know how anal I am about keeping all these surfaces smooth. But the barrels were just too small to handle and by this time I was thoroughly paranoid about losing one of my irreplaceable guns. So I used plasti-weld to attach the guns and now that they are firmly fixed I can sand them smooth in place!

To work on them while attached Ill be using my Emory board. Its pretty rough so I'm going to be very light with it as I don't want to remove too much material. But I can't get my buffing pad into so small an area.

Alright by now I think I can hear everyone saying; "Talk, talk, talk just show us the pictures Gopher!" Well here you go...

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... abbbe6.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... b6edca.jpg

[godsgopher]

Alright I just finished putting together the Recon Pod. I think these things are must haves for the Zentradi as they provide a +1 Attack to everything within 12". However they are a pain to assemble. Too many overly small parts and I regret to say I broke one of the small thin parts just trying to get it off the sprew. While I should have been more careful this is an example of what happens when you get a little too detail happy with miniatures. Jeff tells me Palladium has learned that cutting back on some details will actually improve the model quality and make them more robust on the table.

Remember mistakes are our greatest teachers. If you want to be a painter remember that, each mistake is an opportunity to learn. So don't be afrade to make a few

So I now have 13 miniatures on temporary bases siting on my desk. After a week of assembly its time to actually put some paint on some miniatures! But first we have to Prime! Primer is important to prepare the surface of a miniature whether metal or plastic to hold paint. Bare metal or plastic is a poor surface for water based paint as it just rolls down the side without sticking. Primer is created to stick to any surface and is rough enough on its surface for paint to grip to.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... fd2d75.jpg

Here I have primed 12 of the pods with Vallejo Brush on Primer. Of course I cheated and applied it with an Airbrush. This not only makes the work go faster but I get a much thinner and even coat. Still I had to apply two coats to ensure even coverage. Notice the difference.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 18b487.jpg

I love Vallejo's primer. It sits the flattest on the miniature. Many spray on white primers end up rough or bubbly on the miniatures surface. Not Vallejo's, its very smooth this is important on high detail miniatures because you don't risk filling in detail you want to show up on the miniature.

Propainting Tip: Allow at least 12 hours drying time after applying your primer. Even though the primer dries in just a few minuets its best to gives these things time to set. Your primer is the foundation of all your work. You want a solid foundation.

Here is a shot of the Recon Pod up-close. Notice all the detail.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... b5d463.jpg

I love this model but its a triple pain to put together. While I am only working on one type of miniature at a time. I went ahead and put the Recon Pod together because it has the exact same colors as the rest of the Battlepods.

Next time: Base Coating...

[ZINO]

N1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MAN

[Phaze]

Following with bated breath....

[godsgopher]

Alright things are happening but sometimes I don't have the time to get all the pictures uploaded and then write up what I have been up to. That and frankly after working all day its kind of hard to come home and put in any serious painting time.

So what was I doing? Oh Base Coating!

When base coating your trying to establish the general color of the miniature. Some painters will do all their base coats before building up highlight and shadows. Others will just work one color or even area to perfection before moving on. Because I am working on my white first I have decided to completely finish my whites before moving on.

White is a super tricky color to paint. This is because if I paint straight white I can't highlight it, after all nothing is whiter than white. So all whites are actually off whites! But there is still the issue of highlighting, Im actualy going to use white for all my highlights which means instead of having two or three highlights occupying 10% ish of the miniature each I'm going to have 40-50% of the total finished surface painted white. Confused? Well like I said white is tricky.

So here we go. I chose Vallejo Pale Blue for my basecoat.
http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 726c6a.jpg

Here is the model covered with two coats.
http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... f093fa.jpg

Looks almost like the primer doesn't it? That's partly my camera and partly the color. This is a very very light green blue.

Now we need Shadows. Even white can be dark. No really it can! Close your eyes, see how black white looks. Ok maybe that wasn't a good example. Well anyway were going to make white where the sun doesn't shine! I mean that literally by the way. To properly shadow I'm going to build up my shadows underneath the miniature. I can use my desk lamp to see where light falls on the miniatures surface. Where I see shadows there I need to paint shadows.

I have chosen the following colors for my two shadows. Consequently I am applying all of this with an airbrush. For those doing this the old fashion way just use a large brush with appropriately thinned paint.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 543cee.jpg

These are nice colors. There blue/green in tone and make for a nice shadowy white that isnt too dark. After all even dark white is still white! Lets take a look at it on the miniature.

Here is the first shadow applied.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 3b72d4.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... f309eb.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 78693e.jpg

I make sure to hit all the under-surfaces and line areas that I want to darken. It does take some experience to get this right but honestly if you make a mistake just go back and clean it up with your basecoat.

Now I still have to finish all of the shadows on all the battlepods before I can move onto painting the second lighter shadow that will actually partly cover the first. Its all about layers guys!

[godsgopher]

Well its been a while since I had an update, but I think things will move along a little faster now. At this point I have finished painting the white on the battlepods. This has taken quite a while because I am painting four separate colors just to get a white that I want. All of these were applied with an airbrush to get a misty blend of color so one color blends into another more smoothly than can be achieved with an airbrush.

Here is my color list.
Basecoat: Vallejo Pale Blue
Shadow 1: Vallejo Light Green Blue
Shadow 2: Vallejo Dark Blue Grey
Highlight: Vallejo White

Unfortunately my camera isn't the best and doesn't give a great impression of the work.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... e1d807.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 5d0f95.jpg

[godsgopher]

Well its been a while since my last posting. None the less progress is being made. I have finished the base coat on all 13 miniatures. From this point the real fun of painting actually begins. My next step will be to apply a liner to the miniatures to sharpen the divide between colors. This will also bring more definition to the pieces on the whole.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... fd8d47.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... a2f07b.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 9909b0.jpg

[Pythdamion]

Nice job

[godsgopher]

Alright its going to take me a while to get all of these done, but I have photoed the first one as an example. Lining is an important part of painting. It helps to bring definition to your painting and really makes your pieces stand out on the table. Now as I prefer to work over white primer I have to line my miniatures by hand and this is a time consuming process but much more precise than using a wash, or ink, or dip method that might be faster but would require far more clean up.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 506f1d.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... dae82a.jpg

So are you up for the challenge of lining?

[zyanitevp]

Alright its going to take me a while to get all of these done, but I have photoed the first one as an example. Lining is an important part of painting. It helps to bring definition to your painting and really makes your pieces stand out on the table. Now as I prefer to work over white primer I have to line my miniatures by hand and this is a time consuming process but much more precise than using a wash, or ink, or dip method that might be faster but would require far more clean up.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 506f1d.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... dae82a.jpg

So are you up for the challenge of lining?

Those look great!!

[godsgopher]

Anyone remember me?

I'm that guy who was going to paint some Robotech. Honest... I really was... I mean I am. Whew, well life continues and every once In a while I can pick up my paint brush. This has probably been the biggest hurdle of the whole project so far lining!

Now I am a huge proponent of lining. It does wonders for miniatures. That having been said its not my favorite painting activity. Still after a number of tedious hours its done. Lining is complete. Have a look.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... d89b43.jpg


Remember... Before
http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... fd8d47.jpg

And After
http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... ecba8a.jpg

Now to the fun stuff Shading!!!

[Pythdamion]

Nice job, I like the soft color palette

[jcherry33]

Man, great job on those. The lining you did makes all the difference.

[Conteshard]

while I don't think lining is always the best solution (I know Godsgopher that you are not saying that) and I'm a great supporter of wash and drybrush for a more "realistic" look, in THIS instance is perfect: it gives the pod a "anime" look that is exactly what i'll aim to achieve (WHEN I get mine, off course :°(°°° )

By the way, thank you very much for the wet pallet suggestion: I got one from P3 formula (10 GBP, around 15 $ I think on Wayland Games) and it's a time saver (and expletive reducer ), expecially with GW paints that dry so quickly.

[godsgopher]

By the way, thank you very much for the wet pallet suggestion: I got one from P3 formula (10 GBP, around 15 $ I think on Wayland Games) and it's a time saver (and expletive reducer ), expecially with GW paints that dry so quickly.

Wet pallets radically transformed my painting and took it to the next level. I honestly didn't quite get the wet pallet thing at first. But when I started using it and got comfortable with them I was shocked. I went from having 20-30 minuets of worktime to 5-6 hours. Suddenly this whole new world of painting opened up to me. I could blend, switch colors, then come and do touch up all at the same time. Before I would have had to stop and remix colors every time I wanted to work in something new. I never realized how much I was fighting my own painting supplies until I just didn't have to do that anymore! The amount of time I have saved as well as how much paint I no longer waste is amazing.

As for lining. I still use all techniques to accomplish it. I have tons of washes and inks and this's and that's. But there is a reason I went with straight paint for the Zentradi. First off there too large. Given the huge size of the models... yea I call them models not miniatures there is nothing miniature about them! I don't think a wash was the right product to use. The problem is the Zentradi pods are way too smooth. For a wash to be really effective and to work as its designed to work you need a lot of surface texture and deep recesses. Without it a wash doesn't sink into anything it just runs off and pools in the most unexpected places. This results in your wash working more like a color shade than a liner. Thats to be avoided.

One a side note I almost never dry brush anymore. Yes its a wonderful and fast technique for shading. But I personally feel its not the mark of a professional. It does not produce smooth blends and leaves many brush strokes. Still assuming your not an obsessive and compulsive painter like yours truly its a fine technique and will work every well on Robotech miniatures and models

[jdarr5000]

Gopher

What was the Vallejo color you used on the main body for the blue ?
I see in the back ground of some of your pictures.

Just checking I think i have most of what you listed in my inventory. I realy like that your using Vallejo vs GW i've pretty much forsaken GW paints after pot after pot has dried up or become to gloppy to use.

Jdarr

[godsgopher]

Jdarr

Its not a straight Vallejo color, its a mix. When Jeff commissioned me I questioned him about color this stuff needed to be and he told me "It needs to be the colors from the show, but not too cartoony."

I took that to mean I needed to avoid bright vibrant colors. To achieve that I mixed Vallejo's Deep Sky Blue with Reaper Paints Templar Blue 50% / 50%

Base Color: V: Deep Sky Blue / R:Templar Blue, 50%/50%
Highlight: V: Deep Sky Blue / R:Ashen Blue, 50%/50%
Shadow: Base Color + V:Turquoise, 50%/50%

The Templar Blue triad from Reaper paints is a chalky blue that toned down the overly vibrant Deep Sky Blue to something colorful but with enough of a dull cast to avoid looking like an anime character (Irony right?).

Also I made a mistake (kind of) when painting I accidentally painted my highlight in the pictures first not the base color. Ill be posting some pictures soon of the shading work that I am doing this weekend. I keep telling people to keep a painting diary and just three months after painting the GenCon stuff I forgot which was my base coat.

I commend you for moving away from GW paints. Honestly I have nothing against there paints when it comes to qualify. Its their paint pots I despise! Talk about wasteful I lose half the paint to drying out. Whats worse is the company knows this is the case and does it deliberately. I pay a small fortune for paint like all painters do. To have my money wasted by my paint provider is insulting. I therefor chose to vote with my money. I don't buy GW.

[godsgopher]

Alright so a great deal of work got done this weekend. But I just hit a point that I wanted something that was almost finished that I could look at to get excited about. So here is the first mostly completed Battlepod. I still need to apply the decals and some other insignia and there is more touch up to do. Still its my hope that all the others will turn out looking something like this.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... b01b91.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... f5d259.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... 8235da.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... af344f.jpg

Frankly while I knew the bases were going to be a bit of work it turned out to be more involved than I had planned. They look great in person, as always my camera and picture skills are second rate. But the detail on the street lines and car was more work than you would expect given there size.

[Phaze]

I'm stealing the car idea. Thats awesome!

[godsgopher]

Anyone remember me? Still alive honest! Sorry for the disappearance real life recently got far more interesting than gaming. But now I'm back! Alright that's enough about me, your here to see pictures and here they are!

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... ff7o8s.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... eg3uoo.jpg

Hopefully this actually looks like someone from the show...

[LtPebbles]

I really like your bases, Gopher. Very creative.

[wilycoyote]

Kudos to you sir, I have been following this and you have produced some stunning models.

These are exactly what are needed to put a positive spin on the game, what chance that PB could be persuaded to have a "gallery" for finished pieces?

[LtPebbles]

Being a miniatures game, they really should turn on image embedding for this forum. It is a shame we all can't easily see the great modeling work being done with RRT.

[Alpha 11]

Wow, man, you did a great job on those minis. Congrats! I'm hopping mine will look at least half as good as you when I'm done with mine.

[Phaze]

Very Nice! I'm Jelly Toast.

[godsgopher]

Well I didn't exactly hit the ground running when I returned home from the open house. After spending a week overcoming the Convention-Crud I've been a little slow getting back into the saddle. Still I'm getting back into the swing of things.

It was great getting to meet so many of you. Unfortunately none of your name badges had your forum names of them. So I'm not sure who some of you are.. even though I met you Oh well.

I'm getting close to finishing up the Palladium commission. Phaze offered some tool advice that has greatly speed up my ability to assemble the UEF units. HUGE thanks Phaze!

Alright.. time for pictures.

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... lxz1qu.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad24 ... itnhyc.jpg

[Phaze]

I want to interrupt this Blog with some other fantastic work from The Gopher Hole.

These are three resin Gencon specials that were purchased two years ago at Gencon. I was nervous about doing the painting myself because I didn't think I could do them justice. After becoming friends at the 2015 Open House, I knew I would have to let godsgopher paint them. I asked for three distinct paint schemes. A red from DYRL, a standard Green, and a purple.

All I can say is... I am stunned. I am in awe. They are gorgeous. I am so grateful of of the work you have done.

Here are some quick photos I would like to post.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g196/Jakovaltrade/Robotech%20Games/20150630_201053.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g196/Jakovaltrade/Robotech%20Games/20150630_201242.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g196/Jakovaltrade/Robotech%20Games/20150630_201305.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g196/Jakovaltrade/Robotech%20Games/20150630_201330.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g196/Jakovaltrade/Robotech%20Games/20150630_201354.jpg

Great Job and thanks!