 Hello everybody and welcome to another PMP end of month review. What are we doing here? Why we're going through the end of month submissions for the PMP the painters motivating painters So this month's submission is armies, so we're gonna be looking at full armies And so that means we're gonna be evaluating these differently. We're not looking at the individual models instead We're looking at coherency the basing the story. They're telling how well they work as an army on the table So that's the basic concept If you want to join the PMP you can find the link to do so below just click on that You do have to answer all three questions once you're a member We invite all of our members to if they want to submit one up to one submission per month into the monthly event Where we then evaluate what's going on? Based on their feedback do please ask for specific feedback also don't write me a novel Just give me a story of what's going on very basically and what you need so With that being said let's go ahead and get into this we start off with Kenneth here He's got a Star Wars Legion force for us Really nice force looks cool. I like Count Dooku in here. It's a good example of what you know sort of basic What really tying everything together with just a basic scheme can do so I think it looks nice my best advice overall would be continue to Push the contrast a little bit With the various members of the forces as well as you may want to think about your basing scheme is cool But you could still talk you know kind of kick it up a little bit Have some things like little tufts or something like that around it whatever the case Just make sure there's something to kind of break up all the sand but overall very cool looking force. I like it Okay next up we've got Kevin and he says He's interested in getting pointers on the metallic paint theme for the entire force and the vehicular digital camo Sure, so the I think this looks really nice. I looked over this army The I think the digital camo looks great, especially with all the weathering over it I think the Dark Angels these guys look gritty and like they've been engaged in a force good Integration of sort of the earth and stuff like that into their forces You know dirt on the tires things like that so that looks nice The bases all look really muddy and rusted and thing and that sort of thing so all in all this is a great-looking force Really cool So I enjoy it. I think overall your basing seems really unique. It pops out. I think the The color itself of the Marines is interesting going for sort of the green metallic is an interesting choice you could Probably still push that up a little more by reintegrating silver and then a lighter green glaze the very highest points to really make those high Highlights pop, but that's minimal overall. This is a fantastic looking force. It looks great amongst all this terrain. So yeah, well done Okay Next up This is Adam and he's bringing us some blood angels. I think some red space brains You see wanted to know about basing and any suggestion that would push them the models to the next level So one of the things I noticed is that you know with red you really have to work to pop it up And it's actually the contrast is less about the highlights and more about creating deep shadows So integrating a little bit of blacks or deep purples or deep browns into your reds can be a great way to create shadows And I think that's probably would be my recommendation overall these guys look really nice You also may want to pop out some of the edges more edge highlighting space brains is an age old tradition The as far as the basing goes, you know, I think it's fine. You just probably need to integrate some color Maybe a little bit of reds and oxidation in the rocks and stuff like that And I think then you'll be in a better place You could also bring some dirt up onto the feet of the space Marines and that will probably Further make them a little more visually interesting But overall, yeah good stuff. I enjoy it Okay, next up Bill Bates oxy based gloom-spite army lava caves and ash and swamps Sure So very cool force now when we're working mainly in oranges the trick that we've got to do is still make that interesting I noticed a couple of these guys look shiny in the in the group shot And what I and I'm gonna leave it here because I think this is probably one where I can Really talk about the story the most the thing that jumped out of me is on the fleshy parts We need to come more up into a sort of Caucasian flesh tone in the orange parts We need to bring those down a little more into a bit of a brown tone and up a little more into a yellow tone So that kind of movement you still they're still gonna appear very orange if 50 to 60 percent of the surface area is still orange in color, but everything else can be can have lots of different colors in it That would that and then the black stone is what jumped out at me As not having enough sort of visual interest the big stone on the trolls in the back Especially our big dank hole boy there. There just doesn't isn't enough visual interest going on with that stone But overall this is a nice force You know the orange looks really smooth and creamy and bright, which is great That tells me you used a good color to paint your orange It's not fighting with like a black undertone or something so either you put a lot of layers on are you undercoded them smartly? So I do think that was well and the orange looks vibrant and natural and realistic like they feel like what orange colored Trolls would be so I think that's very effective Yeah, we just need to push that contrast a little more, but overall great-looking force. I enjoy it Okay, next up we have a Dax with his Jean Steeler cult army. He painted throughout 2020 Pre-shade and glaze technique for most of the army appreciate feedback on the color scheme surface treatment weathering and some tips on Photography, well, I don't know that I'm your person to tell you about photography. I'll say that So as far as like the pre-shade goes you picked odd colors to use the pre-shade and glazing because grays are really tough to do that with But I assume that's mostly for the purples and things like that. I think the army looks really good The sort of yellow sand is a great choice to offset against a force with a lot of purples integrated especially in the more Jean Steeler People like the the ones that are more tyranny Because you know yellow and purple being complementary colors means that that pops out quite well The dirt and dust on the tires then being brought up and on the bikes on the vehicles also looks really nice The patterning and things you did on the vehicles. I really like that as well I think this is a great example of using that technique in a good way. Everything is well contrasted. You picked out the individual elements really strongly I like the weathering and stuff like that on the vehicles. I mean, I think this is an overall really really strong looking force I really like these individual vehicles I think the individual Jean Steeler guys themselves here these cultists look really nice I don't know what their individual names are. I apologize, but um I think the the green is also a good choice. It's a very bright intense kind of fluorescent color that pops out well Uh, so yeah, my feedback is I think this is great You may want to on some of the more big bug models pick out a little bit more of sort of the carapaceae Make that a little more texturey You could do the same thing with some of the orange cloth that's in here That could again that is the only part that felt a little flat to me It doesn't feel like it's retaining the same contrast that you're getting with a lot of the flesh A lot of the purples and it's happening in a lot of the vehicles So there you go. Hope that helps overall very very cool looking force Something you should be really proud of very well done I love this dude. I'm so great looking okay Uh, next up we've got uh, michael uh with a smaller force of mainly some vehicle dudes Uh, which we'll just kind of go through Yeah, overall michael, um nice the pictures are a bit yellow and overexposed But I think you did a nice job making the army look coherent The use of the red and green is you know classic orc stuff obviously again Red does make things go faster But also red and green being again naturally complementary colors work pretty well And you've desaturated the red in a lot of cases with a very desaturated green So they don't feel you know overtly christmasy or anything like that The vehicles have a lot of nice dust and dirt and and things like that on them So I think that that works out really well Uh, I think that's solid And I think overall, uh, this force came together nice I really like the details here like these insignias and things on there the check patterns and stuff like that The racing stripes all of that looks really really strong Uh, so overall, I think this is a really nice force I think you could go for some even more heavily weathered Uh items here to bring out some more rust spots some more streaking especially on the vehicles I think that would be my sort of feedback for you Uh overall probably if I was going to say here are a couple of tricks that can take it to the next level A little more carefully placed specifically scratches dense weatherings chips and rust streaks Would be my item I would go for that would be my pick Fantastic force though overall very well done Okay, so Let's keep going Next up we've got paul Bringing us a stormcast army has been working on Only been in the hobby for a year, but he tried to go as hard as he could for most of these models Sure, so we have a little bit more of a concept army type scheme here, you know very focused on individual colors Kind of more of like the warrior with the ghost thing. I think this is a perfectly fine play for an army My recommendation would be you want to keep it a little more consistent Like some of these guys have a little more green kind of the nilic oxide colors than others And when you're doing this kind of scheme My advice is pick out some of the elements like these guys look better than the other ones that look a little more ghosty Because they have their individual elements kind of more strongly picked out And and that's really the the challenge that I have when I when I look at this Is that some of these appear very Straightforward and and very clean and picked out and some of them appear very much more ghostly Now I suspect what you were going for is saying like oh these are the the evocators and the ballistic things are like real people and the the Sequiturs are like they're summoned soldiers and stuff like that That aren't real more like ghostly spirits or something That's fine You still want to make sure you kind of signal that by having some individual elements picked out on them defining the individual pieces and parts Of the storm cast even if it's a statue or meant to be an animated golem or spirit geist or something like that Whatever it's meant to be Can still really help and then having like these guys with some of the green energy Work a lot better than the ones that are more flat So that's kind of where my feedback would be overall cool stuff Okay Next up thomas, uh just batch painted some uh some bone boys and the gash Any suggestions on painting the armor? It's supposed to be glossy black enamel paint under a cold light Sure so You know these guys are a great paint Really nice force overall They do need more contrast especially on the bone The bone looks rather flat and it's a lot of this these models I think that's your biggest opportunity for improvement in here as I look at the force like I like that Nagash has the red but the contrast overall is missing and it's especially noticeable on the bone As far as the highlighting on the armor goes Sure, I don't know that it really works as glossy black And that's mainly because you left your black satin and the highlights are more matte So you actually kind of have a challenge there and that the wrong things are reflecting the light that you're shining on the models But the biggest opportunity you've got is in bringing up the bone in these guys and making the actual bone look more interesting Both with deeper shadows and higher highlights Because that makes up so much of the model And that's the part right now that's kind of flat So that's my feedback for you there thomas overall very cool looking force. It definitely is coherent I think you did a nice job with it All right, uh Okay, mika uh me close sorry Uh This is his first army painting project And he said if I spent 10 more time on this what could be the biggest opportunities for improvement Uh, sure Hello, there we go. Okay, so Big old, uh thousand suns force here. So let's take a look Uh Very nice looking army again thousand suns being something that's very Distinct and has you know a really really nice look to it lots of different surfaces Lots of different ways to make popping colors bright blues and yellows things like that zinge in general Is sort of a one of those options where you can get bright Now my biggest issue here is honestly with the tanks the tanks are super boring and aren't doing anything interesting The little freehand touches are nice, but they should be Colored they should have something interesting going on the individual elements and details aren't really picked out They feel like they didn't have the effort put in That's what if I was going to spend more time on the force Honestly, it would be making those tanks have a color and Refining the freehand and stuff like that and picking out the individual elements. I do think the horrors look nice I think you did a great job with these. I don't see any issue there The thousand suns as well themselves the space brains These guys all you know look more or less as they should that is to say your traditional sort of blue and gold thing Uh, so yeah, I mean that's kind of my main feedback the vehicles I think were the main part that kind of let me down here Uh, the monsters and the zan gore and stuff like that. I was pretty fine with all of those Um, the lighting isn't great in these photos, but the vehicles are the thing that jumped out at me So that would be my feedback for you Okay, uh Jonathan his counts as converted scratch built quadrant junk force overlords. Yeah, I know this army. It's great Uh, general feedback areas improvement. I color code units for clarity Um, but try to paint elements spaces of graffiti and whether it helped to tie everything together Yeah, I see no issue with this. I love that as a strategy by the way color coding units and having slight variation I think as long way especially with a heavily converted force like this. It's perfectly fine I think people get too hung up on having colors be consistent across the whole thing It's about thematic consistency not color consistency We sort of take color consistency in place of thematic consistency and those aren't the same things You can have lots of different colored stuff in an army and it still feels very coherent Lots of real militaries have different color uniforms for different troops or slightly different out You know, like outfits is the wrong word, but you know what? I mean Um, and they still all look like the same force because they all still have the same sort of theme and visual cues and markers Right, and that's what actually ties the force together. Um, I mean this force is a singular piece of genius My friend, I don't I'm not going to have much feedback for you here to be completely honest because I think it's absolutely fantastic I've seen this online. It's absolutely one of my favorite things. I've seen in the past couple years between the graffiti in that particular style The the incredible conversions of the Arco and the little halflings leading their their little arco robots The nature of the specific Balloon boys and things like that. I mean This army is just a singular work of staggering genius. I really mean that Uh, I don't know that I'd have much feedback for you I mean, honestly, some of the colors could be popped a little more You're very much relying on weathering and stuff like that to do a lot of your work for tonal variation And that's fine. You could still have a little more contrast in the base color That's not going to be something you can go back and fix now because we're past the weathering stage It's fine. This is like if you wanted to take this to a You know 11 from a 10. Okay I think this is absolutely one of the most brilliant unique clever forces I've seen in forever you're the the the love put into the scratch build vehicles The way that they work the conversions on the individual troops and what they have I mean each one of these is absolutely wonderful Uh, so Jonathan, I think you should feel nothing but thrilled at this army Um other than perhaps the slight Color contrast on some of the smaller guys like the arco dudes Setting the initial tones. I literally have no feedback for you. I think this force is a masterpiece So, yeah, very very great work Okay, next up, uh I do not know this I I'm not even going to take a shot at that name. Um Oh, there you go. I think just call me arvin. All right arvin. There you go. Thank you I appreciate that arvin. You know that I have problems pronouncing people's names. I don't want to insult people Uh, overall, this is my one year and a half of progress painting an army Uh, so there we go Uh, so He said one thing he's not quite comfortable yet to try his weathering, which I think I need Yeah, it can be a great thing, especially in tau to do uh to really kind of pop out some elements I like minor weathering on tau and like super super duper beat up tau though. You can't do it I mean, but tau have a sort of high tech Yeah, futuristic is the wrong word, but you know what I mean feel to them So they feel like they should be a little cleaner But some minor weathering some edge chipping They have some nice forms that really like they have a lot of angular forms That really do well to sort of edge chipping So that's kind of one of those things that I I think works well with them And when I'm looking over the force, I think you could we'll kind of go through these here in order in the close-ups I think it's the thing that could make a little bit of a difference Just some very minor scratches hashes dabs and dots could could do a lot of work But this is a good looking force I think you did do a good job with the contrast on the red especially on these shapes It's it's minor but effective the edges are well picked out. It's clean These guys look very, you know, sort of anime, which is I think what tau are clearly inspired by I think you did a great job with these dudes Overall, I think this force is a lot of fun I'm not supersighted that you decided to stomp on an imperial fist, but we'll forgive you These little stealth drones I think are are good The purple here though is where I think we have some of the most opportunity If we look at these guys compared to the red These guys are the less visually interesting because they don't have the same sweep of tone And they don't have the same potency of kind of the shadows and the edges and the light variation that your red dudes have Some of that's the design of the models like when I look at this guy He's so much more visually interesting as far as what's going on Now part of that's because you've got a little more lights on him And he's doing a little minor osl stuff and things like that Whereas the purple ends up being a little more flat this very light And I love this purple by the way using the purple blue is a great call. It's a really nice color But yeah, I think that's where our options are now She looks great. I apologize. I do not remember her name the special character lady She looks great I think she came out well and again It's because the edges are stronger the shadows are stronger the other light sources and and sort of popping colors are stronger So yeah, there you go overall arvin Great force. You should be again very proud of this. I think you made a really incredible towel force there All right, Brandon His first plunge into warhammer minis one of the scheme involving turquoise and orange which first of all a plus choices right there so far Trying to make an army. It didn't look like a blob of one color, but all of a sudden they kind of fit together Yeah, um general advice on next steps for improvement would be great I also tried some things like osl on the arcon and non-metallic on the sword. So I feel pretty mad about them. Sure Um, yeah, I mean so the key with this is when you've got this Contrast on the individual elements help break it up. So it doesn't all feel like it's one color And as well having these pop colors and you've done a good job with that the turquoise and orange is a good pop color Um because you can use purple and a pretty desaturated purple integrate a lot of very dark colors You know make a very deep violet and then you can have the turquoise and the orange carry a lot of the weight And I think overall these guys look very striking on the table Um, I do feel like we need some more edges here some more elements picked out Maybe a little more in designs and stuff like that some of the the vehicle doesn't I think maybe this is the one that's still in progress I don't know These guys feel a little unexciting The I don't remember what these are called homunculuses. Is that what they are? I don't know. I'm probably wrong Anyways, these you'd feel like they probably and that's because of the gray skin when you do this kind of flat gray skin You really have to work hard in a monotone type way to pop it up and make it interesting The green is a good shot, but it feels kind of messy We would need the lines to be much sharper thinner and cleaner And then be casting an extremely soft glow and that's kind of a tough thing to to do Um, the vehicles I think look absolutely wonderful. This is my favorite vehicle in the bunch I really do like this. I'd love to see even a little more purple integrated into it Maybe if like these little I don't know the handrails. So this guy doesn't fall out. I assume If those were purple I think that would actually go a long way because it would then create a visual line between the stripes you've made these These little stripes by the way are super cool. I really like the design you've picked here Um, these dudes, I think look good. You're you're basic. I think calibate warriors is these The name of these dudes. I'm sure these dudes look good We need to sharpen up our edge highlighting our edges are a bit thick and fat So we want to go back in with the base tone you want to push the color up to the edge Like you take this black tone and you push right up to the edge and you sharpen your edge highlights That's what you can do if you get some fat original edge highlights. It's it's not a problem. It happens to all of us So that's why you just take that original tone and push push push against it until you get a nice sharp edge Uh, yeah overall, um, I think it's a cool-looking force I think the non-metallic metal by the way is fine. It just needs smooth to keep pushing Like that's how you learn you try we fail a little but you get partially there and then you do it again You know like that's that's I think this is a really nice striking thing I think it's great for character models, especially with power swords. So I say keep pushing man You're not that far off. You just need to smooth it down some. I think it's a nice-looking base So there you go Okay, next up jasper, uh counts as an army just over a thousand points of trolls. Um, yeah, sure It's fine. That's certainly counts specific question You previously mentioned to add a greater variety of color tones into the troll scan as they were looking too flat And the more recent ones I've glazed in purples and shadows, but I don't think that is taking it far enough I'm thinking of blazing pinks flesh tones the underside of skin areas and glazing desaturated greens at the top of the skin sections Are these the correct steps to liven up the trolls? I think that's something like that could go a long way Yes, I think that's exactly kind of what you want to do now green as your high color might be rough Might be better to integrate some of the pink into the low tone flesh tones into the high tones And then you could have greens kind of slightly off highlights in the upper areas Don't don't glaze right over the top make a kind of if this is the highest highlight then put it to the sides So for example, I'm mr. Troll belly here The lower areas might have the pink tones and stuff like that glazed into it and then on the sides here We'd have greens but leave this kind of in that gray So the highest highlights are still reading as the ambient light color because if you if you turn that green It's going to feel like he's under a green light because that pure light reflects white Right, there's my there's my hand under a very bright light that's just off camera Okay Um, but I agree with that that is where I would push it. Um, that's absolutely where I would go I mean, this is a super cool force. I like how you have all these different little Uh guys in here Yeah, we just need more tonal variation and pop up and create more visual interest And when we're using color We need to make sure that color has that contrast and stuff to it So for example our sort of half trolls here that are coming up out of the ground Which is a neat effect We don't want to make sure that they have these like the green parts Their shoulders have a lot of contrast to them because that can be an area of extreme visual interest. So there you go Okay, next up rafael, um, you may remember my black tank from months ago. I asked about painting checkers Here's the horse heresy dark angels army I painted since then um So the plasma weapons I chose orange because it complements the blue black armor That's fine doesn't I I never am bothered by other color plasma weapons You can paint a plasma weapon whatever you want It just it's about the it's about having the extreme highlight and making it look like plasma It's not about the color. You can do a pink orange green purple blue. It's irrelevant. Um Okay, um Some of them are quite happy a second point on the black of the marine armors on some of them I'm quite happy on some others. It feels very very dark blue gray Use advice in the next batch of having trouble going from black to white or even like gray on such small services Yeah, I mean it's it's tough. Um, you know, you have to kind of pick a point and say like yep That's good enough Because otherwise you're just gonna loot you get kind of lost and you do end up here with a very blue gray And it's because too much of the armor Is not Black that's what's happening. So we've got to remember the 50 percent rule If you want something to read as a color 50 percent of it has to be that color And here we've got too much too much still too saturated blue Some glazes of black over the top or like a pain's gray ink would bring it back together. Okay Um Now that being said, I really like the vehicle. I think that looks really nice. That's working well for me You know because of the the element we talked about here the Hazard striped tanks here look nice. The rush streaking looks good We are ending up with a very blue tone armor if that's what you're going for fine I don't know if that's the appropriate color or not. I'm not sure what the Color tone is for these guys But those those dudes do appear more blue the dreadnoughts the bigger guys here They feel a lot more like they're black with some slight highlights But again, if you if you go too far, it's okay To bring it back together. You just glaze in like with an airbrush some pains gray ink over that area I like the red pops here. I think that looks nice the actual steel metals need a little more visual interest They're still a little boring. So that's what I would work on Okay Overall very very cool force something again I say this many times because any time you have a finished army You should be really proud and this looks good. Like this would be something you should be proud to have on the tabletop It's very striking. It's a nice scheme. Don't get hung up on some individual models Maybe having a little too much of one color or another It's okay. Like you look at this shot. This is a coherent army This sells it looks like a force. It looks like it belongs together. You've done it. So great work All right, next up Lee. This is an army in my head for two years a sort of vietnam theme army of catechin Uh used a very limited green palette to paint the minis and basing which I use plastic plants This army has my 2021 project and I have so many ideas for it. Sure to keep expanding it. I assume Uh, yeah, these guys look really good man All the the vine coverings and stuff look nice good contrast on the little plastic plants that you're using on the base They don't feel like they're fake or anything. They feel like they're part of it Really good integration of the patterns these guys feel very naturey I like how you've picked just some specific colors to pop out And that's really important when you're using a a very like camoed meant to be coherent scheme Right like these guys are meant to be green and blending on the forest They can't have bright poppy colors too much that aren't green But there's also still models and an artistic expression and they need to read on the table So I like how you've integrated the silver especially the red I like the little touches of red and stuff in there I think those work really well to create some distinction. You can also Keep pushing a little bit more of the weathering on some places on the big dreadnought the tanks. I think it looks nice Overall, these guys look good. Like this this vehicle looks Solid. I really like the way you kind of did the rusting and and Dabbing of the weathering here, especially on the areas where it feels like things would be normally scratched and dented Like here on this this looks really solid. I enjoy that I mean, it's great use of sort of sponge weathering type stuff and those kinds of things The ogrens here are pretty fun I enjoy that Of course, I do love that multiple people have surfboards. Yes, I get the reference. Yes, it's wonderful Yes, this guy's great and good stuff So the But overall, I think this is really good, man I think this is a really fun force One thing you may want to think about is the integration of a little mud into things like the tire tracks And on feet and on the feet of some of the troops if you're walking through a jungle jungles are often very wet very muddy ground So you can you know, you could have Especially if you're talking about more of a tropical type of setting and so Um, where it's just often very humid And so, you know, you can have a little bit of that coming up onto the tracks or onto the feet and stuff like that I think that'll really sell So there you go Okay Let's see Peter about a year ago made the decision to paint an army with non-metallic metal gold Turn out to be a bit of a painful one. I'm just looking for general feedback on the army, please. Sure So yeah, choosing to paint an army and non-metallic is very punishing. Um, it will make you better That's what I'll say. Like you will work through it. Um, you'll you'll learn a lot as you go through Looking at the non-metallic. It's really tough because to make it sell you have to spend time Smoothing everything out and that's really the number one thing I notice here You're running all the contrast, but a lot of the blends aren't quite as smooth as they could be So that's kind of what's jumping out at me on on some of these troops. I think it's a good looking force Like at a distance, which is how you're going to normally view these from an army level I think it's fine non-metallic metal That is to say when you look at them on the table, you're not looking at the fig You know, you're not looking at it close up, right You're not looking at it like this where you can see the blends You're looking at it like this out here or on the table or far away and it's actually going to do the work there It's kind of like a pointillism effect. So I think at a distance it sells I wouldn't beat yourself up over it too much at all I do think if you're looking to improve things, that's what I would do I would go back in and smooth things out also be careful with some of your edge highlights Like in the blue a couple on these guys are a little fat So very cool force and I appreciate the the going for it Okay Chris a military orders army. I've been painting first project I've tried to really push myself It's possible to display standard trying to do reflective black armor on all the models as well as minor freehand Looking for ways to improve basing going forwards. That seems to be area. I'm not sure how to Improve it sure Yeah, the basing looks pretty boring and what we need to do is stop laying down that crackle paint just on top of the base Build something up put down some other texture and make the crackle paint than part of it This is something I do a lot where I integrate it in if you go back and look at the 24-hour ogre army I painted you'll see their bases You can see how I integrated in the crackle paint same with I think the I think I did the same thing with like the fec force That I did very recently For a video and so you want to mix that in and then also have like maybe some tufts some skulls some plants some discarded whatever like Little rocks little stones, you know, you just need to think nature and everything that could be there Now as far as the reflective armor It works on some of the characters where it's clear you spend a lot more time Some of them do look a little flat some of the pictures are fuzzy So it's kind of hard to to read exactly. We've got a very shallow depth of focus here I think some of these dudes work better than others Um, you know, if you're going to do it, I would keep pushing it all throughout not like you have the highest highs Being brightest, which is good But I would still push some edges or light catches or something like that down to the lower areas You don't need to run the same full volumes But there still has to be like light is still filtering down there. It's not going to be completely in shadow But overall neat stuff. Hope that helped Okay, john prince, uh, painting a soul-like grave lords army Uh, the last piece of feedback I received from you was on your photos lighting in non-metallic mouths So I know if I'm moving in the right direction with the nmm Uh, photos are good enough to give proper feedback on Uh, sure So, um Overall, this is a heck of a that's a heck of a pack of zombies. Um Yeah, cool stuff We're gonna I'm gonna kind of jump Uh through them to just look at the other forces Um, because I mean the the pack of zombies work The they they look a lot of these zombies look pretty rough And I would add in a little more color. They almost feel like they're they're black and white Which I don't maybe that's what you're going for. I don't know Maybe it meant to look like zombies out of a black and white movie, but then it's strange that you have color The the other big things here I can give some more detailed feedback on like the The this purple is good to work near the wings. It needs to smooth out We don't we can't have this hard line So you want to again glaze over top of each other, especially on these big models and bring them back and forth I have a very old video, but that still is completely true on how to paint detailed wings Uh and textured wings, uh, and I would go check that out because I talk about glazing and those colors into the lines there With this kind of stuff with the ghosty effects, I would continue to push the contrast up We need a little bit more white to really sell that they're ghosts So you have to bring it up into a a very spectral color, which normally means very desaturated high tint whites That kind of thing I think the stonework looks nice the vampires sell for me So it's mainly just the ghost part As to the non metallic metal we're still a little rough and we're still kind of not completely selling it But yes, there is improvement So now we need to look at things like bounce lights and what that means is here's your primary reflection But there's no secondary reflection down here light would bounce off the ground and reflect here We've got to bring out the size of the highlight and smooth out the transition into the darker color I mean non metallics a really complicated effect to sell it just is So, you know, if you're going to go for it, you it's it can be really challenging Um cool conversion by the way for your vampire lord on uh zombie dragon Yeah, overall, I think the non metallic your main point is we need to you know work on smoothing out those lights Something like this little the little as we hand or sword or whatever That one works the best for me right now Um, just because it the way you happen to place the highlights here actually really sells And it has nice edges. So that kind of thing you want to you know, it still needs a little smoothing But it's it's working for me Some of these other ones it doesn't quite feel like we we have the same space If you go back and watch my recent video on how to paint non metallic swords I think that'll really give you the extra tips that you need to get moving along But uh, overall, uh, very cool force, man. I like the necromancer. It's a nice big force go, uh, go Go lord over people with these soul light man. It's fantastic. You're now a lot of fun with this army. That's for sure Okay, next up, uh, sylvaneth So just one photo, but yeah, really good looking force. Uh, I like this. This looks nice Got the big kernoff pack. Allario looks nice raised up like that I really like how you built that up with the the pillars and sort of the the background cave I'm obviously that's very similar to what I did and I enjoy that really love her wings. It's very striking She stands out. Absolutely is the centerpiece the but everything feels very coherent Overall, man, this is a really nice work So yeah, good stuff. I enjoy this one. I'm not sure what feedback I'd give you the pictures a little far away for me to really get in and give some individual feedback So I'll just say it looks great. Well done Okay, joshua, um, aos the start of the pandemic Uh, really want to make ko to feel like they're made of uh, metal and heavy as most armies I see don't I love to know if I've gotten in the ballpark I just also wanted to have ships to have a sense of speed and not just floating them over the battlefield Sure. So I mean, I think the metals if you're if your question is did you treat the metals here well I think the answer is yes for the most part you've you've done a nice job of Really making them feel distinct and picking out the individual elements And making them feel bright while also having color pops. So I think that all works for me When it comes to heavy, I don't know what that means Like a lot of these guys don't really can talk about heaviness because they, you know, they're floaty guys So it's hard to communicate that now as far as the movement on the ships Yes, I think you accomplish that things things like tilting them in the in the You know, so they look like they're actually going in some direction. I think that's absolutely working for me I have no issues there. The color scheme here is great across the army. I love the the Purple the patina bronze the the pink as your pop color. I think these are excellent choices So having them more forward moving climbing or or descending. I think absolutely works And the pink glow effect really does sell. I'm you're doing a lot of that with an airbrush, but it's still absolutely working for me I have no issue with it Um, yeah, I mean, I think pop wise that might probably my only Concern is maybe the green is a bit off-putting the little shots you have out of the front of the fluorescent green I'm not sure that sells for me and the reason is because it's the only example of it And it's kind of one color too many in some of these cases. It's really bright. It's really fluorescent It's really eye-catching and I can't see anything else. This unit would honestly I think be a lot stronger without those green Explosion tips, but it's my honest answer Um, because they're so distracting from the rest of your color scheme because they're the only thing I can see like when I soften my eyes the only thing I see is those green tips That's it, right? Whereas like even on this big shot, they're so noticeable Um So that I mean you're you're into it now It's fine. It's not like it ruins the army or anything, right? Like it's a beautiful looking force. You did a great job. The snow, by the way I didn't comment on it, but your snow bases look really really wonderful So a plus work there that really feels like naturalistic snow and I see a lot of bad snow bases. Yours look fantastic So well done there My it's just that's probably the only real Flaw that I notice so but that's okay. It's still a fantastic looking force. It does feel great I really like what you came with there Okay, next up Franklin back into painting last October Started conventional base coat layer highlight approach I've tried out volumetric highlighting with the lieutenant ancient guy along with true metallic metal shading Um, sure any advantage how to push the characters the next level? Yeah, I mean, I think what we need keep pushing the volumetric So like looking at it this these guys These look so much better than these guys like it's just not even close, right? So I think continuing to push and explore this is where you need to go I think overall you you are I can see the definite progress as you're going through in those guys and experimenting These dudes are looking good. Keep pushing that is my best advice. It's really at this point just repetition I think the color looks nice the deep blue with the sort of bronzy coppery color Is a great pull. So I like that Um Yeah, the the bases are a little boring So again, you may want to think about integrating as the same stuff I mentioned earlier with the red crackle bases, you know Integrate in some other rocks and things like that or build it up first and then put the crackle paint on top So you have different varying heights and rocks and textures that the crackle paints laying over that kind of stuff But yeah, overall absolutely fantastic looking force coming along keep pushing it with the volumetric Those look so much stronger than the other guys. I can't even it's it's just not even close. So yeah Um, I think as far as the characters go you could push the volumetric highlighting even a little farther Keep pushing the contrast, but honestly My advice would be Just work on that and I think you're in the right direction Okay, edwin lockdown army of luminous realm lords, uh, would it get my attention during a painting competition? That's a that's a tough question Um, so let's take a look So my answer is given a lot of the armies I I've judged it looks nice. It wouldn't you wouldn't win anything That's I like it's my simplest answer I can give you and the reason is because the the general contrast smoothness and and Uh elements here aren't picked out strong enough So like the contrast on the black is too low. The red is too low The uh, like there's there are really good elements in here that I like things like the banner look really nice You know some of your like the basing is is interesting and varied So it's you know, your weapons look interesting. It's not that it's bad It's just you It probably wouldn't make the cut and that's mainly because some of the elements here oops, sorry Need to be picked out and pushed a little more The reds especially are what I'm seeing as your big area of opportunity for improvement But these guys like your your sentinels again, so much of them is in the black and so much of the black is quite flat So having that kind of stuff, I like the little scratches and dashes I I enjoy discovering that but things like these little banners on the back like the sides clearly have a different material Why aren't that why isn't that picked out in a different color or something like that to separate it? Why don't I have more variation in the reds, right? That's where I'm really noticing the issue Same with the yellows like the yellow feels like it's it doesn't feel like gold It just feels like yellow I'm not sure what it's going for and that's would be a problem for me If I can't read what the material is supposed to be or what your artist intention was That's a challenge, right? Don't get me wrong. This is a good force. You're going in the right direction There's a lot of things I like like I like the variation in the horse's skin tone I like what you're going for in the weapons But we have to continue pushing a lot of sort of the contrast up and things like that Check out Martin Orlando's work in his uh, lumineth. I think they're probably some of the best lumineff around Uh, maybe the best lumineff army I've seen and that will give you some ideas on how to push that contrast up All right, uh, yo kim, uh, never really painted anything in my life But about six months ago decided to give aos a try Uh, awesome. Welcome Uh, he said I've painted two armies one aleroth and one venari, which I'm going to plan to play as Lumnia. Sure Uh, simple color scheme because I wanted to get models done mostly from suggestions on how to make my hero stand out more We just focus on improving the need to spend hours every week. Sure. So welcome to painting. It's great I'm so glad it is super good for your mental health. Love the two forces having the different color things Again, it can still work. You have a you have a singular base color The what you're going to need to do on your characters is again just pick out more of those details So when they come in rely less on your kind of overall color scheme and more on the individual elements Like having them have slightly different pop colors having the details jump out in different ways Having more contrast run going back in and spending more time doing volumetric highlighting on the characters things like that like here's our our Lore seeker guy like with this duty doesn't really stand out and he should so let's work on like adding more contrast to the red Or making the blue stand out a little more with a little more silver highlights catching the edges Having the cream colored armor have a little bit more clearly defined white light catches You know stuff like that You're but you are doing a good job of like really going in and paying attention to the detail picking everything out Which is fantastic. I see a lot of people not do that Uh, but I think you did a good job with this for just starting out. This is really good work With the big stone mountains. I see a lot of opportunity for for improvement here Do go watch my video on realistic snow basing That's going to help say that it looks more like snow and not like they're kind of standing on powdered sugar Um, but yeah, that's that's my general feeling overall cool stuff. I hope I gave you some ideas for your characters there All right, next up Matthew Rowland Uh We ended up going so started painting six munches for covid and really threw myself in any feedback would be appreciated Sure So here's another fun thousand suns force. Yeah for just starting out. I think this is a great looking army My main feedback to you is going to obviously be the thing that all new painters need to work on which is contrast, right? You're doing a great job keeping everything very clean in your application of paint, which I think is really important When new painters start out, they often have a very messy paint style. They're not separating their elements correctly I think for the most part you're doing a better job of that Now we need to work on adding in contrast. So adding in additional colors and tones, especially on things like the golds and the metals Um, so watch my video on highlighting, uh, true metallic metal I like the effect you achieved here. Um with the airbrush on the held rake. I think that looks really nice Um on the wings there. I think that's cool So I think that's a nice eye catching detail that I enjoy My best advice for you is yeah, just continue to push up the contrast look into like volumetric highlighting and how to establish those And I think that's where you go for your next step. But overall for just starting out You're doing an absolutely great job and it's a wonderful looking force All right next up florian, uh, so This is his big sister's army and he's explaining that there's a lot of different sort of color elements and stuff like that Yes, okay. So, um, overall really fantastic looking force I like the different sort of slightly different color schemes going throughout picking out the individual units Again, I've talked about how theme not color is what draws an army together Um, and they do look like they're part of the ecclesiarchy, ecclesiastie. I don't know what the proper term is there Um, but be and and I like that you've separated the different sort of squads in that way um The I I like all the different pinks Um, the the tank looks nice Some of the highlighting on the tank is kind of nonsensical What I mean by that is you're clearly using the airbrush to establish these different like volumetric colors Some of it doesn't really feel like it makes sense exactly what's going on given the other highlights that are around it So you kind of have to pick a direction It's either all toward the bottom all in the middle or all toward the top or something like that Um, it kind of varies a little more than I would want Uh But overall the the force looks really nice I like the couple real standouts that are something very different right and they're meant to be like the assassin Or the you know, these dudes right here that clearly look like they're very different It's it's a great imperial force that really shows that it's got a lot of different characters from across the imperium coming together joining You know going on crusade with the sisters So I think this is really really great work. Um, I love it. It's it completely sells for me. Um, yeah I dig it, man It's great You know, certainly there are elements we could push like we could draw some tones together a little more We could push some contrast up a little higher of course But overall I think this is a smashing success great looking army All right, finally rich some pictures of blood ravens There's a couple pre-painted gladiator because I'm really happy with the conversion stuff first army all the models I've painted during this army Wow, well, that's super cool. Well again, welcome. Um for your first force I think this is nice looking. Um, I think it you're very dirty very weathered Which is I think a lot of people's instinct when they first start out because it's kind of easier to paint weathered But at the same time, I think for the most part you've done a good job of separating the elements Now where I saw opportunity is in stuff like your squad here So if we go back and look at these pictures of this character, I've got a lot of the individual elements picked out Yes, they're rusty crusty, but that's okay. I can just see what's going on When I look over here, you know, again with the tank, I've got all the different elements picked out Same with the dread when I get into this unit I've got things like belts and packs and stuff like that They're little buttons and stuff on their armor. They're gun That really feels way too dark and and like it doesn't have enough detail And that's really what jumped out at me I understand the sort of grim dark nature of the force and that's cool I have no problem with that You still want to make sure that there's some more variation in the elements The biggest things that jumped out at me here that could use more contrast Are really the skin and picking out the individual elements of the models So they feel like there's a little more separation when everything gets too grim and dark It kind of all just looks muddy. So I'd work on popping out those individual things Now I did want to spend one quick moment on this don't do this Okay So I get what you're going for it's cool to have the tall grasses that the snipers are peering through But grass doesn't grow with two massive shoots just sitting up in the ground And then everything around it is up to his knees If you're going to use these they have to have color you have to paint them So you actually need to do the base separately and either use an airbrush or some very gentle glazes to put color into them And then sort of dry brush across them to drag and create light Because otherwise they just look so fake And then you also have to make sure that they basically take up the whole area He needs to be in tall grasses like he's walking through something that is universally that tall You don't walk through a field and then suddenly have just like two shoots of grass that are eight feet tall Right, which is how tall those are given. He's a huge space brain and then everything else is like a foot tall It's just not how how nature works, right? And between the sort of texture of them and then the nature of their placement It just it just immediately jumps out of fake But I get the instinct because it's so cool to have a sniper like peering out from the grasses like that's super cool Right, you can get there. You just have to take those extra steps So there you go. Hope that helps Okay, well that brings us to the end very cool as I mentioned before If you want to join us on your journey, the link is down below. Don't forget you have to answer all three questions Otherwise you do not get approved. No exceptions So, uh, thank you very much. Remember, it's all of you who are providing feedback every month when people ask questions Be positive help people out offer advice offer constructive criticism when asked I really pride myself. This is such a positive community It's very rare that I have to step in in any kind of administrative way And that's because all of you are so awesome. I love everybody who has The the guts to submit it takes a lot of guts to submit and and expose yourself to feedback And I love that I get to do this every month. So thank you all so much um Look at next months, of course will already be up and uh, I look forward to seeing everybody's submissions for next month So thank you all so much. Everybody. Have a great great summertime. And as always We'll see you next time