Death Korps of Krieg Baby Project: directional lighting on the finished diorama!


It was one of the hardest things to do...imagine having worked a couple of weeks on a single model, thinking about fine tuning your vision, looking at old warpictures for inspiration and then painting the model up in a dark and grimy way. And then my wife pushed me to paint the light, coming from a little bulb, making it shine on the ground and against one of the guys.
After all the weathering and drybrushing to get it just right, I started putting bright yellow blobs of paint on. At first it looked like a chemical spill, but with many (lighter) highlights and a bit of belief I finished it off as good as I can at this point. Let me rephrase: if you want to believe it, it looks like light!
You can give me me tips if you have any; here's the finished mode (you can click on the images for a better view):
You can see, I tried to have light come through his legs and also create shadows, created by his legs. That whole side of the base I darkened with watered down black paint. Next is the reflection on the legs from behind. It looks a little warm and if I had known about doing this stuff before I painted the model, I probably should have painted the whole model a lot darker, to make the light stand out more. That is a serious challenge.
Frontal
On the weathering: I added mud to the elbows of the guys as well, making it look like they had been laying down a bit and then getting up again.
on the layout: at first I envisioned having them shoot into the bunker, but there just wasn't enough room.
On the models: painting Krieg models is a great experience: the models are so detailed and fine, its really a joy to work on them.



Here are the previous parts in this series

Hope you enjoyed this little side tour.

Mike

Comments

  1. I think the lighting looks great! Good for you trying something new. You're braver than I, and have been rewarded accordingly!

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  2. Your hard work paid off, this looks awesome and the lighting is just right.

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  3. Oh man,
    I think you just got chocolate in my peanut-butter! This was already such a sweet model... you really kicked-it-up a few notches here, sir.

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  4. When shooting OSL pictures, the effect is easier to see against a dark background. using the white background hurts the pictures. The OSL looks good for a first real attempt. Of course, the screen should have a really limited OSL effect as well, even if it's just showing up on the keyboard (probably wouldn't be noticeable too much further out). If you're going to paint for one light source, it looks off if the other light sources aren't painted as well.

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  5. This looks great!

    After reading AoM's comment I'd have to agree: lighting the keyboard from the screen would bring together the entire piece.

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  6. All: thanks for the constructive and kind remarks.
    AoM: wow, never even thought of painting the glow of the laptop. I will do an update on this model and shoot it against a dark background.
    hceers
    Mike
    SCWH

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  7. Absolutely gorgeous work. Thank you for posting these pics.

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  8. Hi. There's a good two-part tutorial on Object Source Lighting (i.e. painting glows) by Rob Strohmeyer:

    http://archive.brushthralls.com/painting-techniques/object-source-lighting-the-basics.html

    And an excellent example of lighting effect on Vesa Makela's Empire Fire Wizard:

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/ImperialDwarf/muuta/wizard.jpg

    or via his blog:

    http://nomadpainter.blogspot.com/search/label/Citadel

    Victoria Lamb's Fiery Angel diaroma is a fine example as well:

    http://www.coolminiornot.com/37085

    And Two by Jennifer Haley. Her Elf Queen:

    http://www.coolminiornot.com/249254

    And a small diorama:

    http://www.coolminiornot.com/169998

    I think careful study is the key to refining technique.

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