Snakebite Gorkanaut

[Redtoof]

I’ve been working on a Gorkanaut for my Snakebites. I decided to convert it a bit to give it a steam powered look, since that’s a nice and reliable propulsion system. Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone in the Ad Mech forum, I’m supposed to be working on Armigers...

 

 

 

Blog post here: https://redtoof.blogspot.com/2018/06/steam-powered-gorkanaut-wip.html

[Krakendoomcool]

This is great Redtoof.

 

I like the chimney. Like on the stompa. Also like your rivet method in the green stuff. Thats a great idea.

 

I often come back to the Orks to try something fun when I'm feeling burn out from the other projects.

[Kaldoth]

I like the steam engine idea. I'd also throw some other more primitive things on there to give it that Snakebite feel. Maybe some big tusks for the power klaw instead of the standard klaws? Animal pelts, strung up bones, etc wouldn't go amiss. Looking forward to your progress!

[Aothaine]

Orks! Orks! Orks! Orks! Looking great man! love Orks! ^_^

[Redtoof]

Finally got roundto finishing him off. I’m going to go put some photos in the hall of honour, but here is the blog link for your amusement: https://redtoof.blogspot.com/2018/07/snakebite-gorkanaut-completed.html

[Warhead01]

Looks really good Boss!

[Golf33]

Nice conversion & great painting! I like the weathered look and you've nailed the 'painted by an Ork with a roller' look perfectly, which is really hard to do in scale.

 

Are you up for constructive criticism? There isn't much to offer as it's a superb job overall, but I can see one area for improvement if you're interested.

[Redtoof]

Nice conversion & great painting! I like the weathered look and you've nailed the 'painted by an Ork with a roller' look perfectly, which is really hard to do in scale.

Are you up for constructive criticism? There isn't much to offer as it's a superb job overall, but I can see one area for improvement if you're interested.

Go for it, I’m unlikely to go back and change stuff on this one but it could always help for the future. :)

[Golf33]

OK, so it's about making the lighting effects fully persuasive. The key ideas are explained really well over on Light Miniatures but the ones that really matter here are:

1. The light source has to be brighter than the light it casts on other surfaces
2. Surfaces that are lit have to be brighter than surfaces that are not lit
3. The light on surfaces falls off evenly as you get further from the light source (more so with matte surfaces than shiny ones)

The green light on his right shoulder is pretty well perfect. The green lamp itself is highlighted up almost to white, while the light it's casting only goes up to bright green, so #1 - check! It's just hitting the edges of the head, which are chipped back to the dark metal, so the green highlight on them is brighter than the surrounding metal. #2 - check! The green highlight fades out nicely, so #3 - check!

 

The red light on his left shoulder isn't as convincing. If you take one of the photos and desaturate it to black & white, it's easy to see why.

 

The bulb itself isn't very bright - and it's only about as bright as the red light it's casting on the white faceplate, so it doesn't quite manage #1. If the bulb (especially the bottom half of it) was highlighted up to a light peach or pinkish-white (at least as light as the big red lamp on his right waist) it would stand out a lot better as an active light source.

 

The area of red light on the faceplate is also not light enough - it's actually a little bit darker than the unlit parts of the faceplate (this shows up really well in a greyscale image). It's also slightly darker red close to the lamp and a lighter red further away. Together, these are a problem for #2. This is a lot harder to fix, you'd basically need to make the main faceplate a light grey, paint the lit area a really bright white, than add a very light red tint on top to provide the colour. Also the red area is pretty saturated, but coloured light has to be very very intense to overwhelm full spectrum daylight, which is also shining on the faceplate. I think this is why people often paint lighting effects as if the model is being seen at night, both so it's easy to make the lit areas lighter and to reduce the number of lights they have to think about. In this case, as long as the lit area is lighter than the rest of the faceplate, you probably only need hints (maybe just edge highlights like for the green lamp, or a very light pink/orange/red drybrush so the underlying white is still clearly visible) to pull off the effect you want.

 

The light falloff isn't as smooth as for the green lamp - instead it's more like a region of solid red with a blurry border. This is really hard to pull off without an airbrush, but even though most tutorials recommend glazing for lighting effects, I think drybrushing might work better for your painting style.

 

The yellow lamps are awesome, in particular you've got a dark ring around the base of the bulb glass that really makes them stand out. You could add the same dark ring to the red lamps and it'd boost them nicely, too! The light being cast by the yellow lamps is really good, it's nice and bright on a dark background and falls off pretty nicely. Again, drybrushing might be a good option to create a smoother boundary fade but honestly it's pretty awesome as is.

 

Hope this proves useful!

 

Cheers,

Ard'

[Redtoof]

Thanks, that red light did seem a bit off, but I wasn’t really sure what to do with it. I’ll have a think about it.

[Magos Takatus]

That's a really useful tip. Thanks for sharing Golf.  also agree, I like the more slapdash painting style you have, it is very appropriate for Orks. When I painted mine I pictured the vehicle being assembled on a captured and Orkified factory and being painted as it was assembled. I like the idea that a Snakebite clan Gorkanaut would be painted over quickly after it's construction is finished it adds a lot more character. 

[Redtoof]

Thanks Flame Boy. I’ve always gone for a ‘Orks can’t paint’ look, and they are also a bit lazy - one thing to note is that I focus the paint on the front panels. This is because the enemy should be dead by the time they can see the back.