Steam Tank Invictus

Description	:	This is my interpretation of an Empire Steam Tank. I call it INVICTUS and it has a story on its own, but thats not the right place to tell you :P. The piece is thoroughly converted using almost the complete model of Rakcham's Goblin cannon for the extra boiler as well as other bits. I will upload an article in my website soon on how I did it. The base is from scratch using putty, gravel and various bits. For the painting part, this is my first try in NMM which I achieved using layers of blue-gray for the silver parts and Vermin-vomit brown for the golden parts finishing off the edges with pure white. I ve uploaded a picture with more views of the model in my painter's album. Have a look. Hope you like it as much as I do!

Poll results:
Number 3 overall.
First Choice: one vote
Third Choice: 3 votes

From:	Jeff Lybbert (LunchBox)	(Sat 15 Mar 2008 10:30:20 PM EST)
It's a very nice model, and as I posted before, the engineer/commander is ripe with character. The biggest crit I have is the NMM. It's a bit hard to explain, but the highlights are actually backwards. Metals straight up and down will generally reflect toward the bottom, thus the brighter highlights are near the base. When a (real) piece of metal is bent outward at the bottom, it exaggerates this effect even more. It's very difficult to see, especially when you first start NMM.

From:	Jeff Lybbert (LunchBox)	(Sat 15 Mar 2008 10:31:06 PM EST)
Copy a smaller picture of the iron plates on the front, then rotate it 180 degrees so it's upside down. Don't look at the pic for a few minutes, then come back to it, and look at the upside down pic. It looks like the plates curve outward on the top, not the bottom, and throws off the whole illusion. Looking at a mini upside down will force your eyes to see what's ACTUALLY there, not just what you intended to be there. The eyes have a way of "averaging" things out, so you see what your eyes think you should.

From:	Mihalis (CadaveR)	(Sun 16 Mar 2008 04:16:09 AM EST)
yes, you are totally right! The fact is that the metal plates are really bent so the effect would be as you described it. Still learning as I said with the NMM and I must admit that painting this model and getting all the feedback from people like you really helped me understand and learn. My next try will definately be better! Thank you!

From:	Jeff Lybbert (LunchBox)	(Sun 16 Mar 2008 07:49:49 PM EST)
You're off to a better start than I was! NMM is kinda tough to master, until one day, it will just 'click'. Learning is what miniature painting is all about. You show me one painter that claims nothing more to learn, and I'll show you a liar. Also, I forgot to mention, the NMM on the extra boiler is perfect. The NMM effect is accurate there because boilers are rather dull, and non-reflective. The brass looking tubes are great as well, because the heaviest reflections would be on the bends, right where you put them.