So, I took a long break from painting. I found myself exiled to Wraeclast and just found my way back home. Now I’m back and I have a painting itch to scratch. I will be returning to m OSS force here after a while, but for now I’m going to focus on terrain.
Back in August of last year I bought a table from one of the hottest Infinity terrain manufactures on the market, LosBlock. I picked up the City 3000 Armotek Corporate Unit bundle along with some other bits. The spark to paint it hit me on Monday and I’ve decided to get cranking.
Trying to find a scheme to do this terrain justice was a real bother. Here’s my first attempt:
I stole this scheme from the Warsenal (another badass manufacturer) Cosmica line. I tried the scheme out on an objective piece I got from Wild Land and expanded into one of my Universal Module buildings from the LosBlock set.
My good friend Robert reminded me that I initially purchased this bundle to be my Aleph table and I was going down the damaged weathered look again. I already have a table that looks beat to hell with my Yu Jing compound, and I should go in a different direction. I needed to paint ‘clean’.
Let me tell you something, that “painting clean” concept was/is a real struggle to understand for me. I have this infatuation with applying ‘visual interest’ to everything I paint. This infatuation can get WAY out of hand and I can end up going too far like I did with the Yu Jing Compound. Don’t get it twisted, I love that table, but looking back at my work I can see I went overboard with the colors and weathering. The hunt for ‘Visual Interest’ consumed the whole project. I found myself slipping back into that with this scheme.
Robert reminded me that the LosBlock terrain does not need help to look good. I needed to restrain my desire to pump detail into this project and let the architecture speak for itself. Don’t ‘Gild the Lilly’ if you will. No weathering. No layered highlights. No dark shading. No excessive detail. So, I went back to the drawing board…
And here’s where I ended up:
This scheme is stolen from my favorite game(s) of all time, Mass Effect. Cerberus to be precise. I like this scheme so damn much I’ve decided to turn the corporate plaza look I was envisioning to a paramilitary bio-research facility. APCs parked on the road (Puppets War Brick). Unmanned Atlas (Puppets War Enforcer). Perhaps some specimen tanks. The occasional automated turret. It’s going to be awesome!
I’m in love with this scheme. It’s become my new obsession. The pics are going to be ‘raw’ for a while. The images will get better as I move them to my gaming table.
More to come as I progress.
Shawn G. (SoI)