Arena Rex Forums

A couple suggestions:
1. Maybe try drybrushing with colors other than white. I find that when I drybrush I get better effects if I either layout or mix a sequence of dark/medium/light colors, then apply them one after the other (even adding more and more white to the final color if need be). That way things aren't quite as stark as doing white on its own.

2. Wipe off almost all of the paint from the brush (more than you think necessary), then do multiple drybrush passes. the first couple times it'll look like nothing is changing, but if you keep at it you can gradually build up a nice, light highlight.

3. You might try changing your brush. I'm no expert, but I find I can get drastically different results by changing the shape, size, or density of the brush I use. For something mostly flat, maybe a brush with wide, loose bristles plus lots of light passes would be best.

Take all that for what it's worth, and I hope it gives you a couple ideas to try. Cheers!

Thanks for the tips. I have been drybrushing for years, but I still think it's a fickle art that requires fine-tuning the balance between how to load the exact best amount of paint into the brush and the technique of how you apply it.

Even though my brush seemed fine, I do think maybe I can get better results with a different one. I will look for another brush this afternoon.

I also think I have to apply a proper layer of painted highlights to the sprayed stones. That's the only way they will pop.

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Praise Jupiter! The new brush is the ticket. Now it's actually working properly with the drybrushing, and the paint is sticking properly. At last.

So now I feel like we are getting somewhere and it is actually starting to look nice. At least from far away in pictures. It looks a little messier close up. But the effect I was going for is getting there. It also helps that these are nighttime photos, the bulbs makes the surface look much warmer. The super grey picture I took earlier was a certain angle of daylight. Funny how the light effects photographs.




I don't have any more AR models to paint at the moment, but Captain America ninja shopped the Hellenics for me at Gencon, and they should be on their way soon. Woo. But the arena here can still keep me busy for a little while.

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That looks awesome! Nicely done. I really am envious of how easy it seems for you to get an idea and then make it reality - both with paint and terrain.

The only thing I might suggest here is overlapping the sand color over the edge of the bricks - it's hard to see exactly from these photos, but it looks like that line might be a little abrupt. I think it might look a little more natural if you just sort of feathered the white sand over the tan bricks a bit more.

That looks amazing! man it looks so much better!

Thank you so much! I'm going to keep working on it this evening and see how I can polish it some more.



That was actually my intention... but I can't actually figure out how to do an in-between stage between the sand and the bricks. I feel like when I try, it doesn't work. But I might keep at it.

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Polish polish. I think I can dare to say this is done soon, but I am still working on the pit covers and some more terrain type stuff. But soon, I will take it to my friends' house and play my first game on it. Some day...

I think it is fun to look at how the light changes how it looks. Here we have a shot from the night before last, in the dark with electric light.



Then, in the morning - daylight, but without direct sunlight. Now everything is grey - but still some warmth now from the sand spray.



And finally, late afternoon, with direct sunlight making Micon cast his powerful shadow. Like morning, but brighter, lighter, and also a tad warmer again.

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I think I am about at the stage where I want to call this done. Huzzah! All I need is to do up the outside, which isn't that interesting and doesn't seem worth taking pictures of.

In addition to the base arena, I also made a platform hazard in the middle, and I finished the detachable optional gate tower. Pretty happy with the whole thing now.

You guys replying to this thread helped a lot, so thank you for that. You rule.

Fingers crossed my Greeks will get here soon.

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Looks great - love the tower, and (not sure how I never noticed them before) the stairs. Those both add some real character to the arena. FYI I'm totally stealing the layered base so the pits in my next arena can seem genuinely deadly like yours.

My only critique would be for you to consider painting the rivets on the tower - they seem like they should be metallic rather than the same color as the wood.

Hmm, I suppose that makes sense. Because I used toothpicks, I just naturally assumed they would be wood, because that's what they are in real life. But I agree it should look much nicer if I paint them metallic. Thanks!

And yeah, I am hooked on the 3D pits now. I am already planning a new arena with even deeper pits, like the one that originally inspired me (posted here in the forum as the modular arena or somesuch).

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