Painting an NMM Belt Buckle With Scale 75 Grays

Back at It for the Belt Buckle

Continuing from yesterday’s leather belt work, now tackling the buckle. I’m using pretty much the whole palette of Kimera artist shades of gray: art white, art black, buff, pearl gray, violet gray, and green gray.

The Missing Wet Palette Mystery

I still haven’t found my wet palette, which is so typical. I was painting with the kids and I think I put it in with their art supplies. Just realized that this second.

Adjusting the Leather

Looking at the leather from yesterday—it’s still pretty bright. I honestly thought it would dry darker. I’ll probably go back in and do some glazing over it, but I’m waiting until I get more of the model painted before going too crazy there. I’m very happy with the texture we built up.

Creating Black Lining Effect

For the buckle, I’m leaving the black primer showing in the recessed areas—almost like a black lining effect to make those areas pop more. I hate to say “make it pop”—gives me flashbacks to graphic designer days.

Brush Control Technique

You can see my hand is on the table in a weird posture because of the camera, but I have my wrist on the table and I’m cupping. That’s what gives me the control. The brush control isn’t 100% in my fingers—the fingers do the quick motions, but the stability comes through my whole arm.

Following Light Sources

I’m painting where an edge highlight would be and just a little bit beyond, using brush strokes to create the reflection. I’m using the box art to tell me where the reflection should be.

My potential problem with this figure is consistency with light sources. But if I follow the box art’s light sources, even with different colors, it’ll at least be consistent.

Thinking Like a Painter

In a traditional Games Workshop system, if something is green, you paint it green—dark green, midtone green, bright green. If something’s metal, you paint it metal.

With volumetric painting and non-metallic metal, you have to think differently. Even the leather belt didn’t have much brown in it—except for the first coat. It has purples, pinks, and a warm white.

When you’re thinking like a painter, even though you see leather as brown, it’s not actually brown. You’re seeing a ton of different colors there.

Short and Sweet

This will either be a very short video or one with all the steps. Wish me luck.

Transcript

I don’t know what happened. I think I I’m hoping I just recorded a 20-minute video on how to do this. But uh I looked up and my phone was off. It’s not dead. It was just off.

But hopefully uh hopefully I just recorded it. All right. Back at it again for the belt buckle. Going to be using pretty much I think the whole palette of skeleol artist shades of gray. Uh so there is art white, art black, buff, pearl gray, violet gray, and gray or green gray.

Um this time since I I still have not found my wet palette, which is just so typical. I’m I was painting with the kids and they were doing their thing and I was doing my thing and I think I put my wet palette in with the kids art supplies and I just realized that uh right now, this second. So, now I’m going to have to go check. Uh, it was also a little crazy. And I think I’ll probably I’ll probably have to go back and like darken it up a little bit cuz I honestly thought that once it dried it would dry darker, but it’s still pretty bright.

So, I think I’ll probably go back in and do some glazing over it. But, I’m I’m very happy with the texture we built up. So, I I really think I just probably need to go back in and glaze in some of those purple shadows. But again, I’m going to wait until I get more of the model painted before I go too crazy there. Water.

Uh, I’m going to take some of this dash of this. This is that gray green gray. and let’s headbutt our camera. Okay. So, going to just come in first with our base coat here.

And I’m going to leave some black in those recessed areas. Oh, can I? If I can back this up and you can still see it. I can actually get in here. And I need to uh I’m still like I’m at my airbrushing booth, but I’m still in like goblin mode painting style if you caught that video.

So, for this I definitely need to go and get uh the the real desk cleaned back up. Okay. So, I’m leaving trying to explain what I’m doing as I’m doing it. So, so you can see almost like a like a black lighting effect. I’m going to leave that black just to make those areas pop more.

And I absolutely hate to say make it pop. It gives me flashbacks to graphic designer days and I’m really I have my heater going because it’s cold with balls down here and I had a dehumidifier because I’m technically underground. And I’m wondering if that is also something I need to stop doing when I’m painting just because of how fast like the paint is drying on the brush tip. And again, I’m really just focusing. I have my So, I have my light and my air compressor on a remote switch.

I really got to I got to get a second switch for that compressor cuz there’s no reason for that compressor to be on right now. And I wonder I should probably maybe even have this here. Does this solve all of our problems? The the issue is the light source is from a different angle now. But I have I took a reference photo.

But hopefully now you can see a lot of paint. Can I zoom out? Uh, so I have All right. Let me go back a little bit further. All right.

So, you see my feet out of here. Surprise feet. Uh, you can see I have this hand is on the table and I’m in a weird posture just because of how the camera is, but I have this wrist on the table and I’m coming in and I’m cupping. And that’s what gives me the control that even though like I really want to be much closer to the to the piece, it allows me to get up in there uh relatively easily, right? So the the brush control is not 100% in my fingers.

The fingers are doing those quick motions, but really the work is coming through or the stability is coming through my whole arm now. I don’t know if I can get this. All right. Oh, maybe that’s perfect. Okay.

So, it’s I’m painting where an edge highlight would be and just like a little bit beyond where the edge highlight would be. And I am using my brush strokes to create that reflection. And I’m using the box art to tell me where the reflection should be. And I I talked about this like last night. I I think the the if I have a problem with this figure specifically, the problem is going to be that I was not consistent with my light sources.

So, I was thinking like the belt is not a huge deal. The belt’s actually pretty close to the light sources anyway, just because of how I was vibing on it on it. But, if I just follow the light sources of the box art, even if I’m not really painting in that style or with those same colors just following how they have their highlights. It’ll at least be consistent. Hopefully, it’s not jerking you guys around everywhere.

We’ll hit this bottom one. And I think the other thing like my I know something that I struggle with when I try to when I’ve tried to paint this way in the past is when you’re painting and I don’t really know what to call this like a competition level painting. It seems like to me trying to make sense of it. The way I think of it in my head is it’s volutric, right? They’re painting in volumes.

So when in a traditional Games Workshop system, if something is green, you’re typically thinking in, okay, it’s green. I have a dark green, I have a midtone green, and then I have a bright green, and I start at the darkest point. I layer in or maybe I glaze in brighter things. Maybe I’ll do some washes. But if something is if something’s green, you paint it green.

If something’s metal, you paint it metal. Right? So now with volutric painting and even like this is non-metal metallic so it’s a you can’t you can’t use metals right so you have to simulate the metal with paint but like even the belt I actually didn’t except for the first brown that I used the belt didn’t actually have any brown paint in it has purples pinks and uh a gray I think or a whitish a white like a very warm warm white. And when you’re thinking and you’re paint thinking like a painter, then like even though you see leather as brown, it’s not actually brown. You’re seeing a ton of different colors there.

Thanks for watching it. I’ll see you tomorrow. This will either be a very short video or a video that has all the steps in it. I don’t know. Wish me luck.