Friday 7 January 2011

New Years Resolution No:1 ; Elysian Sentinels WIP

New Years Resolution No:1 - Take Better Pictures!

While i was taking pictures for my last post, i saw that the quality of my pictures was slipping, despite using an SLR. Recently I'd  noticed a few articles on the blogs about building light boxes and the associated benefits of them, so last night i decided to give it a go!

Here it is in all its glory! I went for a big box so, if necessary, i could snap whole army's in it! Two lamps at the sides and one on the top.


So for this little experiment i enlisted Mrs GunGrave's help, as shes an avid photographer! We took a few snaps of some models that i chose randomly out of the display cabinets and here are the results:

Elysian Sentinel:


Death Korps of Krieg Squad:



Space Marine Terminator Chaplin:


Tyranid Hive Tyrant:


WOW is all i can say! I cant believe the improvement that this makes to the pics (well i can believe it but never thought that i could achieve it!) I believe that these pics were taken using something called a Macro Setting (or lens) for detailed picture taking, and also using a tripod. Storage for this thing in my study/Forge/Warhammer Room may be a problem though! I'm currently trying to persuade Mrs GunGrave to let me buy some new office furniture, so if this is successful and i manage to find £300 from somewhere, it should create the space for me to have this set up permanently. SWEET!

Onto other things; i cracked on with the remaining two Elysian Sentinels which are nearly ready for painting. The first one here is prowling through a breached perimeter fence. I'm gonna try and paint the edges of the fence to look like they've just been blasted by the Multi Melta!


The second one is not nearly as interesting, because i simply ran out of ideas for the base! So i coped out and chucked a bit of barbed wire and a sign on it and left it at that. I'm gonna try and squeeze one of the Death Korps sector marking transfers onto the sign, but aside from that this Sentinel doesn't get much more interesting!


So the Elysians are nearly complete! They've been an awesome army to collect and even more fun to play! With nearly everything outflanking, not even i know whats gonna happen in the game! Once the Sentinels are done, I'll get some group shots organised!


7 comments:

  1. The basework on those sentinels really tells a story: that blasted fence in particular is just fantastic.

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  2. Cheers dude. If you look back through the Elysian posts you can see all the Valkyrie and Vulture bases that i went ot town on to!

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  3. Wow, you really have a knack for basing. Some great stuff there.

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  4. Just a quick question: I've built one of these light boxes myself, and I just can't find the room to store it anywhere! Where do you hide it?

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  5. I can't speak for GunGrave, but I bought my lightbox off ebay, and it collapses for easy storage. Sure, I could've made one for free, but the alternative was relatively cheap and stores quite nicely.

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  6. have u got a picture of that mr Warhammer39999?.. its alright for those who have a room dedicated to warhammer ;)

    another cheaky tip is if u dont have a really plush camera, get some of those daylight bulbs. you get a better spectrum of light and it really helps the colours come out.

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  7. Not to hijack this post, but there are many available on ebay. The one I have seems pretty similar to this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/12-Photo-Studio-Light-Tent-Soft-Box-Cube-GG57-/250771127363?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a631fbc43

    If you're going to go that route, definitely shop around.

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