Switch Theme:

Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit  [RSS] 

DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/24 03:37:44


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Friends, hello...A few of us guys have been kicking around the idea of forming up a little bit of a common interest club here on dakka, much like the league of extraordinary riveters, but with a focus on fine miniature painting. A place where painters and those interested can talk about their projects in a highly detailed fashion, trading painting tips and techniques, all in the spirit of bettering their craft and gaining more understanding of actual fine painting skills as applied to the hobby of mini painting. The idea came about because, unlike cmon, which is more of a painting focused site, there doesnt seem as much of a place here for peeps who paint for the sake of painting, daring to get better and pushing the envelope for advanced techniques. (not necessarily to field a squad for a game). If you think that this is something that youd like to be a part of, post your thoughts here. Already there seems to be a bunch of guys who are super into it, and i know weve got a slew of painters here, each with different styles, with alot to share. All levels are absolutely welcome, only a mature and respectful view of the art of mini painting is all thats required. PS the title is somewhat of a joke, i imagine an ork with his pipe and slippers, painting minis....something like that. The idea is that we have another blog, where we can share our work with each other and have a bit more of an open discussion about how we do what we do. Anyways, thoughts guys?
Thanks

Bebop


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/24 05:27:41


Post by: jah-joshua


i'm down

as a start, i use my Blogspot page as a repository of my paint recipies for others to use as a resource:

http://jahminis.blogspot.com/

it is definitely due for an update, but there are a good amount of paint breakdowns to page through already...

one interesting thing to start off this thread could be a show of "before and after" to show how much a painter has improved already...
for instance:

2001:



2016:



even better, two of the same scheme...

2001:



2010:



it is clear to see that a dedicated effort to improve does pay off...
i didn't start with any kind of natural talent...
i have some real stinkers from back in the day, but pushing for a smooth transition from shadow, to mid-tone, to highlight really helps a mini look good, even with the standard 'Eavy Metal style of line highlighting...

how about you painters???
where was your painting at when you were painting just to "get it done and on the table", and how have you improved since you decided to "paint for the sake of painting", and really push your skills???

cheers
jah



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/24 06:48:19


Post by: FabricatorGeneralMike




As always Jah, your figgy painting skill is just amazing. I can't wait to see where this goes and hopefully I can steal some good techniques in the process. Seems like a win-win to me


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/24 10:58:05


Post by: Paradigm


Wouldn't mind getting in on this action, while I'm not a painter of the calibre of Jah or Bebob, but I do like to do my bit in pushing my technique and trying to figure out new ways of getting certain looks or effects. Hopefully as someone who definitely paints more for the love of it than to get something on the table, I qualify!

To follow Jah's example, a few shots of when I first started taking painting seriously enough to post here and where I'm at now! There's undoubtedly a big improvement due almost entirely to the feedback and inspiration I've gained from these forums since then.

Alpha Legion, June 2014:
Spoiler:




Alpha Legion, December 2015
Spoiler:




While I've improved again since that, the thing I think it shows best is an evolution and development of my own style; heavy use of metallics and weathering, better understanding of colour theory and just a generally better application of techniques. As an example, the model is mostly washes over a silver basecoat, something I'd never have even thought about back a few years.

Another one, Space Wolves in mid-2014:
Spoiler:




and just last month:
Spoiler:




Another example of the development of my own style, I think, and also much more thought in terms of composition both colour-wise and in the model itself. Also there's the obvious change in photography, something I'm definitely still working on.

And finally, just a couple of examples of what I think is the best I can do at present, which I'll leave here as a benchmark that I can hopefully come back and improve on over the next weeks and months!
Spoiler:




I look forward to ogling the work of the fine painters this thread is sure to attract! Bring on the inspiration and discussion!




DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/24 21:40:02


Post by: Gitsplitta


Clear!


Now that I'm here the party can only get better.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/24 22:01:55


Post by: Camkierhi


Well though I am no painter, I am down for this. Just take me as the "before" and what you guys do for me (you already inspire me) will show the after.

Going to be a pleasure to be around you giants.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/25 15:39:39


Post by: Dr H


Learning new things and improving skills and techniques is always a good thing in my eyes.

And while I'm at it, let me get the soapbox out; It's very easy to look at other people's work and say to yourself that "it's no good, I'm never going to be as good as (insert name of an artist), why bother".
It's important to realise that we are all our own worst critics. You know where the errors are and it's easy to focus on them and not take in the whole picture. Everyone does this, nobody's perfect and there are always little errors that nag at the artist, even the competition / Golden Daemon / Crystal brush winners. There is always room for improvement.

Don't focus on someone being "better" than you, focus on what you can learn from them.
The reason that there are people out there that can produce seemingly unobtainable works of art, is that they have put in the work to improve. For every "flawless" work of art, there are thousands of errors that have come before. Your little smudge, slip, slightly imperfect blend, etc. is just one of those errors to improve upon on the journey towards the "perfect" result.

Keep this in mind, study tutorials, ask questions, try new things and learn from past mistakes, and when you look back at what you produce today compared to what you will produce, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that Jah had a good idea to get this thread going.

I have a couple of good examples of my own after re-painting some of my early work.
These space marines were the first miniatures I had painted, coming from a background of Airfix-alike model making.
Without any experience of anything more than painting within the lines back in 2012, I found DDakka and learnt many of the techniques that produced the difference below (in 2014):

I've also improved my photography...






But they are not the best examples of what I can do now. Let's see, that would be...
...These probably show the best range of effects (rocks, stone, wood, metal, rust, dirt, freehand, blending, etc. even some OSL):



More:
Spoiler:


Now the problem is...
How do I fit the link for this thread into my sig'.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/25 16:33:42


Post by: Paradigm


Very well said, Dr H! Particularly this bit:

Don't focus on someone being "better" than you, focus on what you can learn from them.

can't be stressed enough. One of the best ways to learn and improve is to find the folks painting the way you eventually want to be, and just look at their work. Rather than taking a quick look and being amazed, study the methods, the composition, the techniques. See if you can work out how the end results were achieved, and if you can't, ask! I've not found a painter on Dakka unwilling to answer questions about their methods, the vast, vast majority are more than willing to share tips, tricks and tutorials! Often, it's simpler than you think! 'Basic' techniques applied with care and precision can produce something as nice to look at as a model exhibiting all the fancy tricks in the book.



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/25 17:48:43


Post by: WarbossDakka


Amazing models all in one place? Count me in.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/25 17:59:15


Post by: bebopdrums2424


So far our confirmed "members" are:
Jah Joshua
Paradigm
Camkierhi
Gitsplitta
Dr H
Bebop

and I assume as we continue the thread the group will continue to grow!! I've created a banner for the group, nothing too crazy so if someone is actually skilled at this and wants to do a better job, by all means....flying this banner in your sig is not required of course, but it does set us apart from just another random blog or even the showcase and gives us a bit more cohesion. Again totally not necessary but if you're feeling it....the banner is here


Also a few more notes regarding this blog before jumping in to some fun stuff. Members please feel free to upload your all your WIPs and your final pics here as well. This is a community blog and we welcome you to have another place to show off your work! My only request is that we cater to the topic of the forum, so maybe not every project you are working on fits this description...or maybe they do! If you do post WIPs, please give us some background on what's happening technically. The point of the blog after all is to discuss painting technique along with the pictures.

Now on to the fun stuff!!

@ Jah. Welcome sir!!! I've loved that Sally mini you did since the moment I saw it. Fantastic painting all around and I love the idea of posting your before/after shots as an introduction to the group! I will post my own below Mind going into some detail about your process for the metals on the Hammer? I've been painting mostly NMM but want to get back into using metallics...

@Paradigm. Happy to have you mate. Youre a gifted painter, and I love your style, it's is very unique and I'm more than fascinated by your approach of using silver as base coat! Sounds very grim dark, which is something Im not too familiar with when it comes to the painting of it. Could you share some WIP pics coming up on your next projects where We can really see how you're applying these techniques?

- ALSO - I agree 100% with paradigm about "staring" at work you love so you can copy it. I'm totally self taught and thats been through literally staring at models and dissecting them in my mind. Sometimes it's trickier with certain techniques but it's been so so so helpful. There are some great PM blogs on CMON worth following just to be inspired.

Dr H. Welcome!! Those terrain pieces are fantastic works!!! Especially the weathering! As a painter looking to expand my abilities with basing, I'm particularly interested in the base with the sand bags and how it was made. I can also safely say I am my own worst critic. I have not put photos up because one tiny niggle bothered me so much!!

And now my turn :

My name is Bebop and I'm a paintaholic Been painting figs since I was 7 years old, the first one, I knew it was something I loved. I've been hooked since, taking breaks when life demands it. As a professional drummer, sometimes the act of painting takes a toll on my hands and arms and back and I need to take time off to heal. I guess that's the price of constantly working with your hands. :( Anyways, a before and after pic.. My first uploads to dakka were in 2011, I had some confidence in painting by then but I'll have to photo some of my FIRST minis to really show my roots I still have almost all of them...


NOW



In between then and now I learned a few things that were significant in my developing a stronger "bebop" concept.
1.) Use a wet pallete and thin my paint to the consistency of "water". I feel like I paint with thinner And thinner paint by the mini and then thinner i go the more pleased I am with it
2. Zenithal Priming is my best friend. But take pics of the primed mini with no paint so I can keep referring to it for light source.
3. Real Sable brushes. This is something I JUST discovered. I'm kinda an insane painter so I ruin brushes rather quickly. It's not something I'm proud of, but alas, I just splurged and paid 80$ for about 4 brushes...Windsor Newtons,....real sable. And I am blown away at the difference. The paint flows, stays wet, the precision is MUCH stronger, I can see better...the money is absolutely well spent. And you can bet I'm taking it nice and slow with them

Alright so that wraps up and introductory getting the ball moving post....Lets see where this goes. Happy Painting everybody!!!



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/25 19:26:32


Post by: Paradigm


Ironically, nothing I have on my desk right now is actually using that metallic base technique I mentioned, it's all NMM stuff at the moment. I'll grab some WIPs next time it comes up, though. In the mean time, the best examples I have to hand are below.

Spoiler:





All the metalwork on those models is done over a black prime then a heavy silver drybrush, similar in application and effect to a zenithal pre-highlight; you get the same accentuated raised/upwards facing areas and darker shadows, then the colour is applied through washes. On some, like the Iron Man, the final colour is just applied in several coats, on stuff like the Ad Mech I add 'splotches' of other colours to add depth to the final look. In the case of these particular models, it was primarily green and purple, before a wash of Vallejo smoke ink over the whole thing to give that nice worn brassy/bronzey look.

It's a surprisingly quick method to actually apply too, all the highlighting and shading is done in the initial silver drybrush. the rest is just 'colouring in'. I mean to experiment with the same method over a white/off-white drybrush instead of metal, I just need to find a model with the right sort of textures for that to work...


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/25 21:40:47


Post by: Dr H


Paradigm wrote:... 'Basic' techniques applied with care and precision can produce something as nice to look at as a model exhibiting all the fancy tricks in the book.
I'm very much in favour of this; just because you have learnt to wet blend, doesn't mean you need to forget dry-brushing. They both have a place when used well.

bebopdrums2424 wrote:Dr H. Welcome!! Those terrain pieces are fantastic works!!! Especially the weathering! As a painter looking to expand my abilities with basing, I'm particularly interested in the base with the sand bags and how it was made. I can also safely say I am my own worst critic. I have not put photos up because one tiny niggle bothered me so much!!

Thanks BB. Not to derail the painting theme before we get to the end of page 1, you can follow the build of both of those terrain pieces from this point in my Money-making blog here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/840/549077.page#8020654
However, if there's something about the weathering you want to know about, that would fit in here nicely. I'm quite happy with my techniques for wood and rust in particular.

Also, I should point out to those of you that may have missed it in my blogs, I paint almost exclusively in Enamel paint. So if anyone has questions about these I should be able to answer them.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/25 22:50:58


Post by: jah-joshua


The Tao of Sable:
steal from the best!!!

this was going to be my first talking point, but you guys got to it first, showing that it really is an important part of developing your skills...
before anyone finds their "way", or develops their own style, there is inspiration...
inspiration is the seed that everything grows from, and it is the work of others that inspires the long hours at the painting table trying to achieve the skills to manipulate acrylic in the manner you envision...

i steal from everywhere, be it mini painters, tattoo artists, comic book artist, car painters, computer animators, graffiti artists, illustrators, everyone!!!
if something inspires you, even if it is outside the realm of mini painting, use it...


@Paradigm: you have come a long way in such a short time...
always good to see hard work pay off

@Dr. H: that dugout is a work of beauty
one day i will get the time to build a base like that...

@bebop: your painting was good in 2011, but your current stuff is really good...
it shows that you have stepped up to the next plateau with your skills...

the metals on the Sallie were done in the time when i first started to work with pushing the contrast of my metal...
using matte paints to shade really dulls down the shine of the metal in the shadows in comparison to the highlights...
my shade for steel is blue, my shade for gold is purple, and my shade for bronze is green...
shading with color really adds something visually interesting, and gives life to the metals, whether you are doing TMM or NMM...

here is a little step-by-step i shared in my WIP blog:

steel base coat: P3 Pig Iron
gold base coat: P3 Battlefield Brown



steel wash: one drop P3 Coal Black, two drops P3 Armor Wash, three drops water



steel clean-up: Pig Iron
gold base: P3 Rhulic Gold



steel midtone: P3 Cold Steel
gold wash: one drop P3 Sanguine Base, two drops P3 Flesh Wash, three drops water



Grey Knights blue steel: one drop P3 Blue Ink, ten drops water
gold base: Rhulic Gold



1st steel highlight: three drops Cold Steel, one drop Vallejo Air Aluminium

1st gold highlight: three drops Rhulic Gold, one drop Vallejo Air Gold



final steel highlight: VA Aluminium

final gold highlight: one drop VA Gold, one drop VA Aluminium



i hope that those stages show the process well enough to be helpful..

cheers
jah


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/25 23:24:41


Post by: Gitsplitta


Hi, I'm Gitsplitta. Been painting since I was a kid. I don't have any photos, but imagine an old RalPartha hydra that looked like it had been dipped in brown enamel paint... even though it hadn't... and you've pretty much got the idea. I'm a professional biologist with no art training save what I could pick up off dakka and the internets. The earliest models I can show you are my original space marines, the Mantis Warriors. I did these soon after they were released as the first plastic marines GW had ever made.



I suppose a decent example of my recent work is this Emperor's Children centurion I did for last Adepticon. I got a lot of help from MajorTom11 getting the colors of the purple right. It's not a very complicated paint job... but it turned out OK.



Sooo... I've made progress but still have a very long way to go.





DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 01:58:53


Post by: gohkm


I'm gohkm, and I've been painting for the past 20 years. Only took it seriously in the last 3 or so, though.

In the late 80s/early 90s, paint dilution was optional. Gloss was in. My miniatures stunk.

My latest piece is entered into the latest Dakka Heroes & Villains contest.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 03:12:25


Post by: Heretic Tom


 jah-joshua wrote:
one interesting thing to start off this thread could be a show of "before and after" to show how much a painter has improved already...

Those b&a's give me hope for the future

I'm Tom. I just started painting a few months ago. I love the idea of this blog, as a beginner who is primarily interested in painting for display, I'm looking forward to soaking up as much as I can from you guys.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 05:11:22


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@ Gokhr / Tom: welcome!! Glad to have you with us !!

@ Gits: awesome models man. There's definitely clear progress there and if the illustrious major Tom is giving you pointers, hard to go wrong. That purple is super vibrant. And those old mantis warriors are a fine beginning to that massive force of yours.

@ Dr H: Enamels??? Now I'm really fascinated. Why enamels?

@ jah : thanks for sharing. I'm definitely going to be doing something with RMM, but I'm painting mostly infinity right now and I'm really focused on nmm so I'm not ready to move my focus just yet. Will be referring back to this when I do. P3 paint too...I definitely like some of their colors. They have a pink that has so much pigment itd turn black...pink...lol..


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 06:02:33


Post by: ZoBo


oh this looks like a nice place! ...I'm always looking to improve my painting, and always love seeing other people's work, everyone's got their own style/methods/intricacies...no two painters do everything in the exact same way...it's fascinating.

I discovered 40k around the start of 2014, then bought my first minis and started painting in may 2014 - one of those starter 4-packs of snap-fit ork boyz - I had no idea if I'd be able to paint them, since I basically hadn't touched a brush since highschool art class, a decade ago...so I bought myself some cheap "dollar-store" acrylics, along with a pot of "ironbreaker", and the new shiny "agrellan earth" and "blood for the blood" god technical paints, and had a go...I was bloody terrified of the tiny models, progress was very slow, and I don't think I'd tried harder to do anything in my life ...I think it took me about a solid week to paint those 4 basic jobber ork boyz - but, I was pretty darn happy with them when I was done....and then I was hooked
here they are (I think they actually look a little better in the pic than in real life ) :


...and now 2 years later, after ~1500 points of painted nurgle CSM's, ~1500 points of painted nurgle daemons, and ~2000-2500 points of painted orks, and a few other painted bits and pieces...though still with a good 10000 points in second-hand and new-in-box stuff I've since acquired that I need to work through ....I'm starting to feel like I can "hold my own" with painting, but I know there's still a lot of stuff I could really improve on...I'm still pretty lousy with fine-detail edge highlighting, and stuff like fancy space marine eye lens-effects still baffle me, and that painted-on highlighted tiny paint-chips/scratches effect - making something look worn and dirty, but still a really clean smooth paintjob...but painting primarily orks and nurgle stuff doesn't really give me much opportunity to practice stuff like that...
anyway, from those 4 ork boyz 2 years ago, to my Zhadsnark "Da Rippa" I painted a couple of weeks ago, which most of you might've already seen in the painting challenge thread, but here it is again anyway


I'm happy with my personal progress so far, but there's still a lot I have yet to learn, and improve on


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 07:35:56


Post by: Camkierhi


Pretty amazing start round here already, thanks for the metallic tut already, I have never really tried too hard at the NMM, always stuck to RMM but have messed with colours and layers, never as good as that though.

Well I will join in the B & A crowd I guess....

I am primarily a modeller I guess, been painting since the early 90's actually got quite good standard for a short time at the turn of the Millennium, but that was a different era and painting in general has come a very long way since then. I am my own worst critic most of the time, though the Dakka gallery can kick you in the teeth once in a while! In the gallery I average somewhere in the 7-8 region, but have some stinkers at 5's.

Here is an early warboss of mine, think the "new" orks had just come out in the AoBR and I tried pretty hard at the time on this, so this is a best of what I was doing....


Now Dakka rates this as my best....

Which is part of a bigger piece....


Personally I like what I managed to achieve on these...



As you can see I don't really build armies, though I do have many and collect them, and do want to one day have an actual really nice painted army. Instead I paint whatever takes my fancy at the time, most of it ends up on a shelf gathering dust.

I have an awful lot to learn and am really looking forward to what I hope this thread will become. Thank you all for being here.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 07:50:46


Post by: Heretic Tom


I am curious how to achieve that seemingly wet, vibrant looking blood and gore. I was hoping paradigm or anyone else who excels at this might give us some tips. Thanks!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 08:47:30


Post by: lipsdapips


What a fantastic accumulation of ideas and painters - a pleasure to see a medium through which painters of all levels can share questions and techniques.

I am Lipsdapips, a 19 year old lad who's been painting since he was 5, or thereabouts. I have 3 images for comparison, as well as a wee history lesson for anybody interested.
I used to live on Guernsey, an island on the English Channel - when I was very young, my brother and I stumbled upon Carousel - the only hobby shop on the island. They sold Warhammer and a bunch of other things. We bought the 3rd ed CSM codex because its brilliant and we loved the pictures - and I was hooked ever since. This Black Legion Chaos Marine is the first miniature I ever painted - and you can see that my ridiculously young age DEFINITELY is reflected in the paint job



My family and I moved to New Zealand when I was 8, and my interest in the hobby persisted until I settled into ultramarines with the releases of battle for macragge and AOBR later. I found jawaballs' tutorial for painting Ultramarines and it served as the basis of my technique, and continues to do so to this day. The second image of a tactical sergeant was one that I entered into a Golden Deamon competition when I was 13. No successes of course but I was very motivated (I ended up recieving a finalist pin for being top 5 under 14s in Australasia the next year with, would you believe it, a captain ).



In 2011 I joined this site and all hobby developments have occurred before your eyes one of my latest paint jobs being the final image. I've come far but have so much further to go - i'm going to have so much fun and learn so much from this blog and the passing of knowledge from some of my painting idols such a bebop, jah and gits - and hope to help others in any way I can - will definitely post in future sharing techniques and all the business.



Thanks guys

LDP


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 08:55:25


Post by: ZoBo


oh man, Cam! I love those dioramas!...I think I just spent about half an hour admiring all the little details on them...just oozing character...love 'em!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 10:45:26


Post by: Paradigm


 Heretic Tom wrote:
I am curious how to achieve that seemingly wet, vibrant looking blood and gore. I was hoping paradigm or anyone else who excels at this might give us some tips. Thanks!


And once again,, we go back to the 'simple is best' mantra! This right here is all you need:
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Citadel-Technical?s=99189956005

The trick is in how you apply it, though. This model probably shows it best:
Spoiler:



On the left hand, the power fist that has just pulled a guy's head off, I went all out with the gore, literally covering the whole thing in nice, gloopy Blood for the Blood God paint, it gives a proper 'blood soaked' impression great for blunt force weapons or anything with a Khornate side to it.

On the right, you can see the opposite, plenty of gore on the axe blade itself but comparatively little on the rest of the arm. This is achieved by thinning down the paint, getting an old, stiff-bristled brush and flicking it towards the mini. Hold the tip of the brush in the place you want the spray to originate from, then just give it a good flick a few times until you have the desired size/range of blood spatter. This works great with edged weapons, and can give a great sense of motion and direction to a model

It you want really bright, fresh-looking blood, paint the area red first, this will show through and make it really vibrant.



Great to see some more interest pick up in here, welcome aboard to the new folks! Great to have you!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 14:10:21


Post by: Gitsplitta


Another trick I've seen from an excellent painter... as blood pools and coagulates, it turns more black than red. What he did was to paint the areas he wanted to represent in this way (say, pools on the ground) black. Then went over them with the red, extending the red beyond the black so there was an area of transition. Looked pretty darn good.

I found a crude attempt of mine to duplication the effect. The ramp didn't turn out so well, the black is too dark... should have used a dark red... but if you look into the body of the ork ambulance, you'll see it worked much better in there.



That brilliant vehicle was built by Cam by-the-way. Here's a spoiler of the final product.
Spoiler:


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 14:11:52


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@cam so glad to have you here my friend! Just lovely stuff with such creative passion. You embody the true joy we all have in the hobby!

@ LDP right on brother good to see you here. That marine is just clean as a baby's bottom. An fantastic example of fundamentals and clean execution.

Guys let me point you in the direction of two pm blogs on cmon that visit often.
David Powells
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?51026-Bailey03-s-WIP
And David Soper (this years slayer winner)
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?54571-Sproket-s-WIP

I study both of these blogs often...


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 14:29:01


Post by: weetyskemian44


Amazing work from everyone here.

I've been a painter of canvases for a lot longer than miniatures, here is were I was at ten years ago



Some things from 4 years ago




Proudest pictures of this year





Hope you like them.



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 14:53:03


Post by: Nodri


@Bebopdrums - Great idea for a thread and your timing is perfect. Count me in!


A little about my artistic career: I learned woodworking as a kid which inspired me to obtain an arts degree in technical theatre (scenic design/construction & stage management). After uni, I worked as a carpenter building decks, fences, and finishing basements until the housing bubble burst at which point I moved into the corporate world. To keep the creative juices flowing, I then decided I wanted to learn how to work on cars and bought a 1974 Jeep CJ5 which caught fire one day when I turned on the ignition. I've never been so happy to be in a car without a roof or doors in my life! I then went to work the next day and informed everyone that I needed a new hobby. A friend brought in his FoW Americans with some paint and tools and we painted at work (grave shifts are awesome). I was hooked. The rest, they say, is history.

I started painting in 2010 with a DKoK army for 40k. It quickly became apparent that while I love the 40k aesthetic, GW changes their rules too frequently for my glacially-slow painting style to keep up with. I needed something slower and more stable, so I moved over to a Blazing Sun fleet for Dystopian Wars. It was while working on the DW fleet that DzC came on the market and I've been apologetically hooked ever since. It wasn't my plan for this to happen, but the first time I saw their models I was hit by a bolt of inspiration so strong that it's powered four years worth of work.

The reason I say that your timing for this thread is perfect is because I've spent an enormous amount of time over the last few weeks posting new pics and tutorials in my painting log over on the Hawk Wargames forums (Hawk is the company behind Dropzone / Dropfleet Commander). I've been debating mirroring that post here on Dakka and adding in the work that's been done for 40k & DW (I also have a KG Peiper starter for FoW that's NIB and needs to get started at some point). Scaling 10mm tutorials up to 28mm probably shouldn't be too challenging for most people so it's probably worth the effort. It'll also be an excuse to take photos of all non-DzC models I've painted, which is probably way overdue (4-6yrs. Oops.). Your post here has given me the motivation I need to get my online house in order before moving on to the next project. Thank you!


Here are some samples of the work I've done over the last 4 years with the exception of the DKoK soldier. He was one of the first models I painted. The other older stuff will get posted and shared in the near future. The remaining models are all for the Post-Human Republic (PHR) for DzC.

Spoiler:














This is an amazing group of artists and I very much look forward to what will be shared & learned as result of bringing everyone together. It's exciting





DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 15:07:19


Post by: Guildenstern


Weeeee I'm in! love painting! I'd love to get better. It's always nice to see someone's opinion of what you could do better, and better yet, HOW you could do it better. Plus I find it interesting the things that stick out like a sore thumb to me aren't even noticed by other people. You get a little fixated on projects I find and only see certain aspects of it, having someone else mention what they like/don't like about it helps break you out of that.

As for before and after, well mind you I've only been painting again for about the last two years now, so honestly not a ton of improvement. Most of it has been learning my tools I think, and simple blending and using highlighting which I didn't "know" about when I did my first minis. (not showing my very first minis those are like 30 years old and sensibly hidden lol)




Old ^^




Latest Clanrats ^^


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 19:24:23


Post by: Buttery Commissar


Well, I think I have to actually finish a project to be considered a painter, but I'll toss my fancy hat in.
I can't do photos currently, but I'll return with my shame for all to see.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 21:18:15


Post by: Knightley


I'd like to join in, if I may.

I'm Knightley, middle aged 34 year old who just loves painting, My comparison stems back to 1990's which shows an eager young painter who got bitten by the bug very quickly
Spoiler:


This moved on to my real first army being the Dark Angels
Spoiler:


In the early 2000's I was deployed overseas with the military and started a small Ultramarines force
Spoiler:


Mid 2000's Tau were released and I tried my hand at some eldar
Spoiler:



Fell off the painting train for a while as gaming took over, kicked it back into gear around 2011
Spoiler:


The latest model painted
Spoiler:


I feel I have come a very long way, and I also feel I have some info to offer.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 21:45:16


Post by: TrenchCoatCreep


Hey guys, I'm Alex a 14 year old who got into this hobby about a year and a bit ago. I've always been an avid painter and for the last few months been really trying to up my game in this field. With this said I would love to join this little club with some of you painting giants. As I've seen everyone else do it I'll post screenshots of a before and after of my progress.

Before
Spoiler:


After
Spoiler:


Sorry guys for the bad image quality(my computer's camera isn't very good) but I hope I can contribute to this.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 22:00:31


Post by: Gitsplitta


@Knightley: That's an impressive tale of the tape. You certainly have come a long way... and it's been a joy watching you do it!

@TCC: Your images didn't come through... might want to give it another go.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 22:38:24


Post by: GiraffeX


Well if you will have me I'll join in as well

I painted miniatures as a hobby way back when I was a kid but don't have any of them anymore to show thank goodness I came back into the hobby back in March 2011 when I wanted a break from computer games and fancied doing something a bit more creative.

This is one of my first minis from that period



And then we fast forward to yesterday with Batwoman



I enjoy painting anything and everything



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 22:56:34


Post by: Paradigm


Since we're talking styles and approaches to painting, thought I'd stick these guys in here, they pretty much embody all the elements I talked about on the last page.
Spoiler:




More individual shots in my blog and showcase thread. Particularly relevant to this thread and discussion of technique is the guy in bone armour carrying the knife, he was painted over a light sand/ivory drybrush using entirely washes, much in the same way I approached the metals on the others but applied to a whole mini. It's as close as I get to painting over a white basecoat, I will play with the technique some more though as it gives a very desaturated look that suits this kind of sneaky, grimy model.

The other thing about these is their origin; these are actually Infinity minis repurposed for 40k use, Quite a nice example, I think, of how a few small conversions and the right paintjob can totally transform a mini. The idea was inspired somewhat by Bebop's Mantis Warrior over the page that I thought was distinctly Infinity-esque style, I thought I'd have a go at reversing that and grimdarking up some Infinity models.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 22:58:41


Post by: Littletower


I'm Littletower, and I'd say I'm more a builder than a painter, but I do - glacially - put a brush onto a model every once in a while. Having more to learn than to offer, I'll join in anyway if I may

Old vs new:

Guardsman Challenge (eve 2014):



2016 so far:





I have progressed, and I'm happy to see my photographing has improved since, too!

Still a lot to go, and this seems to be the right place to learn from!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/26 23:15:03


Post by: Dr H


Jah, I'm going to have to give shading metals with colours a go. I've only ever used black and brown.

 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
@ Dr H: Enamels??? Now I'm really fascinated. Why enamels?
I've always used them, I know how to handle them, I have a large collection of them, and didn't / don't fancy changing to Acrylics and learning a new paint system.

They have their advantages and disadvantages when compared to Acrylics. Some things are more difficult, but there are some things that can be done with them that can't be done with Acrylics.

Not an informed decision, just that they are what I'm used to (as I said, I've be building Airfix for 25+ years).

Good to see lots of interest. Welcome and well done everyone.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 00:01:13


Post by: bebopdrums2424


WOw. I'm shocked to see so much interest!! Right ON! Welcome to the new guys ::waves:: loving all the new stuff and fantastic pics.

@ Nodri Epic pics man, can't put up a post like that and not tell us about it. Airbrushing on the power shields?

@Dr H. What can enamels do that acrylics can't? If you can be more specific.

@Paradigm: Lovely models. Reminds of weetys approach as well? Also if you guys haven't seen this guys blog, I think it's some of the coolest stuff around
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/612907.page

And finally...here's a little snap of what I'm currently working on. The rest of the wips are in my pm and blog and I'll be giving more concise talk about what I actually have done when I post a final shot.



Happy painting guys! Feel free to post your current projects too!





DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 00:12:43


Post by: Januine


Fantastic idea Bebop - defintely in As we're doing mini-intros and seeing the thens and nows......

Most of my stuff from when I used to paint is sadly lost due to moves between countries, leaving hobby for about 12 years and so on. I just got back in about a year and a half ago when I found a single store over here in Korea that carries GW stuff. Much happier albeit poorer since

Last tine I was home in Ireland I did find a box which had some of what I then considered my best paintjobs. Painted these about (rough guess) 15 years ago I think....2000/1 I reckon...

Spoiler:










Fast forward to Autumn/winter 2014 and the first stuff I did after getting back in to painting....

Spoiler:








And finally where I am now......

Spoiler:










I paint just for fun not really for gaming....that's probably why I take an absolute age to finish anything ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Youtube is a gem for finding loads tuts on different techniques and so on but Dakka (and obv the folks therein) have been the biggest help and source of inspiration and advice. I have yet to find someone here (on the P&M side of things) who WONT share their experience, tips, methods etc for the benefit of others. It's excellent and something for all to be really proud of. Great stuff folks and thanks



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 01:21:08


Post by: Gitsplitta


Your work never ceases to amaze me Jan... just lovely.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 01:25:45


Post by: Januine


Too kind Gits Still have a lot of stuff I need to learn. Skin......defintely need to work more on skin!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 05:58:38


Post by: evildrcheese


You inspirational swines...

EDC


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 07:37:08


Post by: nerdfest09


Well, count me in guys! I'll get pics up to compare as soon as I get the internet on at home :-) I'm imagining this to be as if we're all just having a drink together somewhere chatting about paint!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 09:55:52


Post by: Heretic Tom


Januine, I have to say your mad larkin is one of the biggest inspirations for me lately, along with the work of some of the other luminaries gathered here. I recommend everyone check out jan's p&m to see how he did that stained glass. Super cool idea and awesome execution.

Paradigm, thanks for sharing your knowledge on the topic of blood, I'm eager to try it out for myself. I also appreciate your last photo post, I had wondered on several occasions how you achieved that wonderfully muted tone.



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 10:19:11


Post by: Minus


May I ?


As you'll see, I'm naturally talented at painting. My first army was an Ultramarines force. I had like 4000 points painted.
See the attention to details. Note the fine color transitions. Appreciate shadings and highlights. Witness how delicate the freehands are...





Ok... when I see where I started, I guess everyone can do a decent paintjob if he wants.



I learned a lot from the forums. I think that what makes my paint noticeable (Gits, Bebop, Januine etc correct me if I'm wrong ^^ ) is the colors I use, and the work on textures. Painting mainly characters or skirmish miniatures also helps.
As a comparison, this is one of my latest models.



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 10:57:19


Post by: Mymearan


I'm Mym, 31-year old Swede with way too little time and way too itchy wallet... Started in 2013. Paint at a glacial pace and will probably never finish an army ever. I feel like i can paint a decent tabletop but I really want to progress beyond basic layering to do some blending and glazing. I never feel like I have time to work on a model for a long time though with my queue... Although my new airbrush will probably help me a lot with speed on certain types of models. Some of the first models I painted three years ago:





And here are some (actually almost all) I've painted this year, the dark elf sorceress conversion is a WIP still:





DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 11:06:08


Post by: Heretic Tom


So, most of you probably already know what a wet palette is and why they are awesome. In case anyone doesn't, I thought I would post a quick "how to".

Spoiler:
It's very simple. All you need is a sandwich container, a paper towel, and some parchment paper.


This is a sandwich container. Or, if you'd rather, a sandwich sized Tupperware container. It's about $1 (usd) at most.


Fold a paper towel twice, making it the exact size of the sandwich container. Convenient!


Get yourself some parchment paper. You will find it in the baking section at your local grocery store.


Cut a piece of the parchment paper to fit into the sandwich container. Now simply add some water to the container, tilting it so that the water runs to the edges and wets the paper towel.


This will keep your paint usable for SO much longer.


Also, here is an insanely in-depth video about how/why to make a wet palette...
Spoiler:




DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 11:27:08


Post by: Matthew


I'm following this. I'd love to upload some of my stuff but I've realised I haven't really improved at all, even though I've been painting for 2 years. Any advice?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 12:08:45


Post by: Paradigm


 Matthew wrote:
I'm following this. I'd love to upload some of my stuff but I've realised I haven't really improved at all, even though I've been painting for 2 years. Any advice?


First off, having seen the stuff you've regularly entered into the challenges, there is a definite improvement, though as was mentioned on the last page, it's very easy to put down your own work even though to everyone else it looks fine, it's a side-effect of the fact you're staring at these things for hours while you paint them, and can't really unsee anything that you notice while doing that.

That said, the best way to get better is pick a 'thing', and keep practising that thing until you're good at it. This could be faces, metallics, smooth cloth or weathered armour, just find an area you're not happy with and work on it until you are. Part of this will come with practice, but you should also be looking up tutorials and examples and really breaking them down, tweaking the methods on show.... I appreciate this is probably a little vague, but there's no substitute for practice, study and aspiration!

Is there anything particular you want tips on? If you have a specific request, I'm sure someone in here can offer more relevant advice.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 15:05:25


Post by: Buttery Commissar


I'd love tips on how to get past the "meh" on sticking point model.
You know you want to do it, but you've blocked it all in, and done a few details, and now the whole thing is a snoozefest mentally.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 15:15:54


Post by: Dr H


Yeah, Para' took the words right out of my mouth.
Once you have "painting within the lines" down, try something new (I try and do this with each new miniature I work on).
Working on a mini' which has a lot of exposed skin? Use that as an excuse to work on skin tones.
Building a piece of terrain that calls out for a small hut? Make that wood as "pretty" as you can. (there just so happens to be a tutorial for a wooden hut in my sig' )

As said, look up tutorials etc. and if you find someone doing something with their models that you wished you could on your's, ask them how it was done.

Then practice, practice, practice, and don't be discouraged by your first attempts; no one gets it right first time.

jah-joshua wrote:@Dr. H: that dugout is a work of beauty
one day i will get the time to build a base like that...
Forgot to comment on this last time. Thanks Jah.

bebopdrums2424 wrote:@Dr H. What can enamels do that acrylics can't? If you can be more specific.
I'll try, but not having a great deal of experience with Acrylics means I can't be too specific.
The differences come from the different bases: The majority of Acrylics are water based, and Enamels are petroleum/oil based.
First, this means that Enamels don't have as strong a surface tension as water does. They will spread out easier, making the covering of a large area quicker and easier.

They also seem to have better coverage in terms of the pigment. I often see complaints about trying to get one colour over another, and I don't seem to have quite as hard a time about it.
However, this can work the other way, with Acrylics working well with Zenthial (sp?) highlighting. I've not got this to work all that well with Enamels.

I've been told that painting fine details is much harder with Enamels than Acrylics. Maybe I have been making things hard for myself, but it's not impossible to do fine detail. This may be related to the above surface tension comment as that would hold water-based paint together better.

Enamels tend to have longer drying times. This means a few things are different:
Paint drying on your pallet? Not for a long time with Enamels, and a drop of White Spirit brings it right back again.

Made a slip of one colour onto another?
If you notice it quickly with Acrylics, you can remove it with a damp brush.
How about an hour later? Two? You can still "erase" Enamels with white spirit hours later, even though it's touch dry.

However, I do have to wait longer to do a second coat, and if I get too vigorous I could remove the lower layer by accident.

Blending is also supposed to be easier with Enamels as they stay "wetter" on the model for longer.

And washes / glazes are good with Enamels due to the long drying times and lower surface tension (without the need for detergent or flow-aids or drying retarder).

But, they do smell. Quite strongly. As does white spirit (mineral spirits I believe it's also called), but odourless varieties are available.
However, I keep my white spirit in a jar, with a lid, so the smell (and spillages) are not really a problem.
I also keep a window open.

Interestingly, and I don't know why I started doing this, but I dilute my paints using the white spirit from my brush-washing jar. All the pigment tends to quickly sink to the bottom and causes me no problems (metallics and all). Try doing that with your dirty water.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Not better, just different.

Edit:
And harder wearing. Enamels get stronger the longer they are left. This is why old Enamel coated models are so hard to strip.

And cheaper, on the whole.
GW: £2.55 for 12ml (worst case, I know others are cheaper)
Humbrol Enamel: £1.70 for 14ml


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I'd love tips on how to get past the "meh" on sticking point model.
You know you want to do it, but you've blocked it all in, and done a few details, and now the whole thing is a snoozefest mentally.
I don't tend to get this, but maybe it's a matter of attitude to why you are painting the model:
If you are just trying to get the model done to fit the rest of an army and on to the table, I can see that getting boring.
However, if you are trying to make this model the best model you have ever painted, then you are more motivated to get it done. (see: trying new things above)

This is how I try to work on my models: The last one was great an' all, but the next / current one will be better.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 18:16:28


Post by: Matthew


One thing I've realised is that even though I'm doing edge highlights, I've never had a proper brush for it. I bought a really tiny brush a few weeks ago and wow does it make a difference. Everything looks so much better, and I'm sad I didn't buy it earlier, since I'm sure I lost a painting competition because of how thick my highlights were.

I'll try to finish a marine and post it, I'd love to hear some constructive criticism.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 18:34:48


Post by: Heretic Tom


Bebop's comment earlier about liking to paint with "thinner and thinner paint" led me to wondering about thinning preferences. What do you use to thin your paints? Preferred additives? Ratios? Do you ever paint "out of the pot"? How thin do you like your paint for different situations?

I use flow aid and water (1:10) and an equal amount of matte medium for most applications, thinning the paint to near water consistency. I tend to use matte medium and distilled water (1:1) for highlights, and thin to a much lesser degree. For washes, all of which I mix myself, I use my standard flow aid/water & matte medium with a very small amount of paint or a couple of drops of black ink.

I have had terrible results painting with unthinned paints, with the exception of citadel shades, of which I only have one. It's the only citadel paint I have in fact. Other than that I have a pot of p3 (skin color) and all of the rest of my paint is cheap apple barrel craft paint. Having started painting only a few months ago, I was starting from scratch with minimal knowledge, on a relatively tight budget and these limitations obviously effect my available color choices and wash/glaze options. Also, because of this, I'm not sure that my current dilution practices will translate to other, higher quality paints.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 18:42:19


Post by: Ustrello


Well I have felt that I have gotten much better myself. Though I still consider myself a middle of the road painter

my first mini was a raven guard th/ss terminator

Spoiler:


and my most recently completed model(s) were my mor deythan once again raven guard anyone see a trend?

Spoiler:


But for actually colorful miniatures it was my chaos knight which I feel is one of my best

Spoiler:


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 18:54:22


Post by: weetyskemian44


Hey minus! love that glittery skin effect on the swordswoman. Very sci-fi alien looking.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 18:58:57


Post by: Heretic Tom


Well, as I said, I only started painting miniatures about 4 months ago, but I thought I'd go ahead and show you guys where I'm at currently. Then you'll all understand why I'm so eager to learn from the rest of you

These are the very first things I painted, they're actually lined up in the order I painted them, from left to right.
Spoiler:


And here is what I've done since.
Spoiler:



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 19:51:04


Post by: weetyskemian44


Steep learning curve there Tom!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 21:02:51


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Very nice improvement Tom! As per your comment regarding thinning paint. I only use water. I have found that retarding mediums create a somewhat waxy feel in terms of brush to model and also sometimes spread the pigments out more than I want or have the control of. I use clean water and lots of it, and generally I use clear water from a separate recipticle. Also note, that while I don't really use metallics, if I do, my mixing and washing and cleaning is done with a separate cup for metallics water because the flakes end up mixing in to other mixes if you aren't careful. Im going to do a brief tut coming up on using many thin coats to gain super bright colors.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
ALso lovely work Ustrello And Mym. It's fantastic to see everyone's progress. Mym I love that eldar punk model with the sword. Great color choices there!
Little Tower: Fantastic efforts as well ! I remember when you painted that guardsmen for the painting comp!! Great job guys!!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 21:09:32


Post by: Camkierhi


I can ditto Bebop, (woot) I only use water, got about 4 or 5 pots on the go at once. Keep a clear one with a pipette for adding water to thin paint. Been keeping metalics seperate for years, and been told to not use good brushes on metallics as it clogs up the bristles and ruins the tip.

See I kinda know something, not very good at it, but I know something! (double woot)

And yes I just wooted.......sad muppet.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/27 22:31:40


Post by: TrenchCoatCreep


Wait sorry guys didn't know my images didn't come through until now. I've already contacted an admin to hopefully solve it ,man this isn't exactly the best start though eh?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 01:08:50


Post by: Januine


Here's a cracking wee app that I totally rec/mnd

http://products.scriblab.de/paintmyminis/

It's for iOS so can put it on ipad or iPhone. I use it on the iPad as it's easier to see. Use it to save your paint methods, recipes and so on. Also can use as a shopping list for paints running low on. All the major brands' paint lines are available to download into your database for free. I've found it to be so handy. No more lost forgotten paint recipes


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 01:12:06


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@ Januine: Thankyou!!!! This is awesome! Downloading immediately!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 02:11:34


Post by: Heretic Tom


Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words.

I have actually noticed some of the brush issues you mentioned bebop, my primary issues have been that paint doesn't always want to flow freely from my brush to the model and the tips are getting "hooked". I was tempted to blame it on inferior brushes but I may have to reconsider that. (I'm using "the army painter brushes")


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 02:18:42


Post by: Januine


 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
@ Januine: Thankyou!!!! This is awesome! Downloading immediately!


No worries bebop - 2 things to note; first, it does take a bit of getting used to on how to put in the paints, mixes, materials etc etc. stick with it though. I think there's a tutorial either in the app or on the website. Secondly - the paint database is not preloaded into it. You have to go and pick which paint brands you want to download. They're free but it freaked me out at first as I was all 'do I have to type in every single damn paint I own myself???' you don't!!! I've been emailing with the creator/developer and told him that all the new GW paints from the past 6 months or so are missing from it - he's on it and the GW database will be updated in the next few days to be fully complete.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 02:28:15


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@ Tom: I think the army painter brushes are subpar. I used to buy a bunch of brushes in bulk at like a BLick art store, and generally if you are really adamant about keeping em clean then they do ok. however i am not adamant and in the throws of creative passion i ruin the hell out of a brush. But if it hooks, no matter how well you keep it, the brush is crap and has become a liability. On the other hand, as i mentioned in a post above, true sable brushes, while rare expensive and not necessarily easy to get, are *SIGNIFICANTLY* better and are much stronger and vibrant.

@ Jan: yeah im totally lost right now lol ... i did download the paint lists but now im trying to add them to project. <_< confuzzled...:p


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 02:28:25


Post by: Priest Foxley


man, this looks like a great idea. I've been hanging out older guys trying to pick up stuff.

speaking of pickups, do any of you use tamiya paint?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 02:30:04


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Not anymore. But i know some guys around here like the "clear" paints, like smoke and clear red apparently gets a good blood effect? I used to like tamiya paints when i painted model airplanes as a kid, but its been that long..


Automatically Appended Next Post:
PS...A welc0me to GiraffeX and knightly. Lovely uploads fellows and super glad to Have you veterans in the group!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 03:48:30


Post by: Priest Foxley


I was a bit shocked when I bought the forgeworld masterclass modelling books, and they all referenced tamiya stuff.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 07:27:07


Post by: nerdfest09


Found some pics, first up is my first attempts at painting about 9 years ago not great that's for sure, but it built my base for what i wanted to achieve, which was finding easy fast ways to paint at a decent level. I read some black tutorials and thought it would be the easiest way to go with a top down zenithal spray can hit and a lot of badab black

you can also see my first reds here too! the Exorcists are still an awesome chapter I'd love to re visit one day but you kind of move on with painting from chapter to chapter, so next reds I did was my Flesh eaters

well, anyway here's a few models from the beginning.
Spoiler:






and here's a little sample of where I am today, I'm sure there's some models i've done better work on but I can't find the pics
Spoiler:










DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 10:18:07


Post by: TrenchCoatCreep


Hey guys Trench here again managed to fix my images, would love for some of you guys to look at them (they're at the top of page 2). Been really considering some of the tips I'm hearing here and think I'm going to take them to heart when painting my blood angels today. Hoping to do some advanced NMM and shading, any tips for that?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 10:56:41


Post by: Januine





Nice job on the conversion - works really well. Based on a cairn wrath fig, aye?

Paintjob looks grand though a little hard to tell due to the rough photo.

As for shading and nmm. Everyone really has their own go-to-way. I generally start with mid tones and then then add shadows and then highlights - usually with really thin layers and glazes. I'm not a fan of nmm so not much help there I'm afraid - I'm tmm all the way! Check out youtube though - there are so many excellent tutorials there - for nmm, check out painting buddha's videos; Ben Komets does a great gold nmm tutorial on a stormcast eternal which may be of help

Good luck and welcome to hobby

Jan


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 12:56:31


Post by: Guildenstern


re: just a note about enamels

I switched from enamels to acrylics when I picked miniatures back up again (still use enamels for scale models, like my planes).

The thing I really like about enamels, which I've found is completely unlike acrylics: they never seem to go bad. Of course the pots are 'better' imo, testors little glass pots, and humbrols little tiny paint cans, they all keep very air tight. But while you might need to mix them for what feels like forever, all my enamels that I've had for years and years are just as good as they were when I bought them.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 14:01:12


Post by: Heretic Tom


Nerdfest, those reds...seriously, those reds!! You should do a walkthrough for us. Awesome stuff.

I used enamels exclusively as a kid, painting cars and planes with my dad and older brother. Given what I remember about them, I would be hesitant to ever return to them due to the fact that I have three kids, two of whom seem to have made it their life's mission to infiltrate my desk


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 19:47:30


Post by: Red Harvest


This looks like fun. Maybe I should crash this party

Testors as a kid until I raided my mother's supply of ceramic paints... Duncan I think was the brand. Bisq-Stains? Ah yes, that was the name. Had a strange odor, but they did work on the pewter miniatures. And apparently they are still around, Hmmm....


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/28 22:55:27


Post by: Dr H


bebopdrums2424 wrote:... On the other hand, as i mentioned in a post above, true sable brushes, while rare expensive and not necessarily easy to get, are *SIGNIFICANTLY* better ...
There is a range of sable qualities. All are better than synthetic, and some are not as expensive as others.
I have a couple of Rosemary&co brushes for special occasions (fine details etc.) and then a load of Humbrol Palpo brushes in a range of sizes for general use (much cheaper so I don't feel bad about abusing them, but they are still sable bristles).

and yes, sable is the go-to for Enamels as well.

TrenchCoatCreep wrote:... Hoping to do some advanced NMM and shading, any tips for that?
Can't help with NMM, I'm of the crowd that thinks "if I want something metallic, why not use metallic paint". I just like how metallic paint looks.

Shading. Well that depends on what you want to know; shading is quite a broad subject. Is it the act of doing it (blending etc), or where to shade, or something else?

Guildenstern wrote:re: just a note about enamels

I switched from enamels to acrylics when I picked miniatures back up again (still use enamels for scale models, like my planes).

The thing I really like about enamels, which I've found is completely unlike acrylics: they never seem to go bad. Of course the pots are 'better' imo, testors little glass pots, and humbrols little tiny paint cans, they all keep very air tight. But while you might need to mix them for what feels like forever, all my enamels that I've had for years and years are just as good as they were when I bought them.
Although I will add that they are not immune to drying out; if you don't seal them properly you will still find a solid lump (but if you are lucky, there will be some good paint underneath).


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 02:34:37


Post by: Heretic Tom


I finished this Red Corsair aspiring champion today. Feedback, opinions and criticism welcome. Thanks fellas!

Spoiler:


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 03:18:52


Post by: Januine


Very nice Tom. I love the brass tone but a wonder if a hint of druchii violet shade to the brass in the recesses/shadows wouldn't make it a little richer and pop more.
Lovely looking fig though. That demon face on the power pack is cracking


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 03:38:34


Post by: Heretic Tom


 Januine wrote:
Very nice Tom. I love the brass tone but a wonder if a hint of druchii violet shade to the brass in the recesses/shadows wouldn't make it a little richer and pop more.
Lovely looking fig though. That demon face on the power pack is cracking

Thanks Jan, I may have to try and mix up some kind of rough equivalent and give it a try. Unfortunately I don't have any paint but a bunch of dirt cheap "apple barrel" craft paint, with the exception of a citadel reikland fleshshade and a p3 khardic flesh. If I had realized how rarely I'd be painting skin I'd have gotten something else

Getting better quality paint and brushes is at the top of my hobby wishlist, but it may be a while before I can work it into the budget.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 03:58:38


Post by: Januine


Not to worry - you could try doing a purple glaze instead. Just mix up a nice purple - then thin it right down with medium if you have it, water if not. Apply to the dark brass areas and then feather it out (I lick the brush for this but that's not to everyone's ......taste ) purple is a complimentary colour to gold/brass so gives s nice touch to the metal.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 04:53:47


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Oh i certainly lick my fair share of paint during a painting session too...im probably too liberal with it honestly...LOL...

nice work tom the horns look really nice, like a brushed bronze look....soft a muted, i really like it. paint looks a little thick in some places...the feet...but a very solid job all around. thanks for sharing! keep it up


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 05:24:53


Post by: Heretic Tom


Januine wrote:Not to worry - you could try doing a purple glaze instead. Just mix up a nice purple - then thin it right down with medium if you have it, water if not. Apply to the dark brass areas and then feather it out (I lick the brush for this but that's not to everyone's ......taste ) purple is a complimentary colour to gold/brass so gives s nice touch to the metal.

Thanks, I will give it a go! I appreciate the tip, I wouldn't have thought to use purple...somewhere in the back of my head I can hear my high school art teacher saying "Did everyone remember their color wheel?"

bebopdrums2424 wrote:nice work tom the horns look really nice, like a brushed bronze look....soft a muted, i really like it. paint looks a little thick in some places...the feet...but a very solid job all around. thanks for sharing! keep it up

Thanks Bebop, much appreciated. I've started to realize that it's well worth the extra time to do lots of thin layers rather than going for "immediate coverage, glob glob glob"...I get a little over zealous Chiefly when considering the F- quality of paint I'm using, I'm going to start going really thin with it as you had mentioned you prefer to do.


I tried two new techniques on this, my ninth mini, glowing eyes and the electrified power weapon wet blending thing I see so many people make look really cool. All in all, I am relatively pleased with the end results, for a first go and what have you. I watched a "feathering" tutorial just now that I wish i has watched before I did the power fist, but it'll serve me well in future efforts.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 06:22:45


Post by: Metsuri


Hi I'm Metsuri and have been painting about 30 years now.

I have been on bit of break of hobby from hobby couple of year due to small kids and other things past couple of year. But now it seems that things are settling again and I'm finding time to paint again.

I have been passionate about improving my painting and getting the best results for a decade and below are couple of my "showcase" figs before the break.
Hope to have something new to show you guys soon.

Spoiler:







 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
Not anymore. But i know some guys around here like the "clear" paints, like smoke and clear red apparently gets a good blood effect?


Tamiya Clear Red is great as blood, you get nice shiny, dark look, straight out of bottle. Stink is bad though.
The swords on the Punk Zombie below are painted with Clear Red.

Spoiler:




DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 06:27:05


Post by: nerdfest09


Hell yeah i'm a massive brush licker! I find it takes less time between model and mouth to feather or blend colours nothing wrong with that I suppose, it's not like i'm having a pash session with them or anything............ that's only on weekends and cold nights

Heretic Tom, it's funny you should ask about my reds, already in this thread many have said to find one 'thing' and learn how to do it to a level you're happy with, it was red for me! that was the first colour I wanted to learn how to paint and I actually used an Anja Wettergren article from a White Dwarf article which I adapted to my own tastes which led me to my other 'thing' I do I always tell myself to highlight 'one highlight more' so if I think it's enough I always add a brighter one to my models and if that's too bright it all gets bought back by adding a wash over the whole model.

So, my reds are simply: Red, wash agrax, red/orange. orange. orange/vomit brown. vomit brown, carroburg crimson wash. Done. I can do a tutorial for anyone interested if you want? i've got one in my blog somewhere but I'd be better off doing a fresh one I think


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 06:40:47


Post by: weetyskemian44


Sable is made out of wolverine, so we have all been licking wolverines!

I spent a year painting nothing but nmm and I still dont think I quite got it. Heres my best shot.





It helps have lots of pastel shades available, you have to go really crazy with highlights, building it up to almost white - I used vallejo light skin tone for the brass and pale bluegrey for the steel.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 07:08:50


Post by: Red__Thirst


I'd like to offer my input, meager as it may be, to the discussion here if I may.

I'm 32 years young, and have been playing/painting 40k for about 14 or 15 years now, since about age 16 or 17. Prior to that, I routinely painted scale models, mostly WW2 vehicles & aircraft as a young child and into to early teenage years.

I do not have any pictures of my early, original/first minis at present, as Photobucket is currently offline & down for maintenance as I'm typing this. That said, I will try and post some 'before' pictures later once it's back up & running.

My most current projects have centered around the grand re-visioning of my Blood Angels 5th Battle Company, of which I am making steady, if not inexorably slow progress on. My goal is to really push myself to paint this army to the highest degree possible. To go all out on the modeling and painting and have an army that I can be proud of.

Here are a few models/group shots,

Spoiler:












Spoiler:












Spoiler:
























Spoiler:










Spoiler:




Spoiler:










Those are my meager offerings for the moment. I'm very proud of how far I've come, and look forward to trying new effects, such as my attempt at Object Source Lighting on my Deathwatch Terminator Librarian

Spoiler:










For a first attempt I'm not at all unhappy, though there's always room to improve.

Looking forward to sharing what little I can and learning a whole lot from those gathered here. So many amazing painters have already joined in here already. If anyone has any questions, or comments/critiques regarding my minis, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks, and take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 07:46:23


Post by: Januine


Very nice work fella. Am loving that terminator. His head with the OSL and the skin tones are lush. Really nice work there. He looks bloody fierce!!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 08:02:54


Post by: ZoBo


digging the blue highlighting on that terminator...I like the OSL too

...that head would look great for a nurgle chaos terminator though!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 10:09:13


Post by: Paradigm


Heretic Tom wrote:I finished this Red Corsair aspiring champion today. Feedback, opinions and criticism welcome. Thanks fellas!
Spoiler:




That's a fine model, mate! My only suggestion would be to paint the vents in his chest the same bronze as the other metal areas, otherwise the chest and head form a fairly large 'blank space' between the chainmail and the horns and the eye gets a bit lost. Alternatively, painting the lower half of the helmet (ie. the grill over the face) bronze would achieve the same.

Definitely a great bit of progress!


weetyskemian44 wrote:
I spent a year painting nothing but nmm and I still dont think I quite got it. Heres my best shot.
Spoiler:





It helps have lots of pastel shades available, you have to go really crazy with highlights, building it up to almost white - I used vallejo light skin tone for the brass and pale bluegrey for the steel.



To be honest, I think that looks fine, as I am in the camp that doesn't believe NMM needs to be pushed to ultra-shiny to look good; I wouldn't paint regular metallics that way, so I don't with NMM either. Instead, it's all about the contrast and the texture to me, which is something that I find can get a bit lost with some metallic methods. That lower pic in particular does that just fine, you'd be hard pressed to get that kind of worn, battered look so precisely with traditional metallics (or at least, I would! )

An extreme example of this in practice is this Skaven I did a while back, there's practically no 'shine' to it, instead the NMM methods are used to give the armour plates a real patina of grime and rust and filth which wouldn't work nearly as well with conventional metallics; you'd be using so many washes and such over the top of a metallic paint that you'd lose the metallic effect anyway.

Spoiler:




Damn, just realised those pics definitely need retaking at some point! Still, it does demonstrate the technique.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 11:03:23


Post by: weetyskemian44


Yes it works really well for the corroded look!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 14:33:42


Post by: keezus


I've only been painting since 1994.

Here's some pics of my work circa early 2000s.

Spoiler:


Spoiler:


I actually lost quite a bit of ability through not painting... this is my work late 2000's...

Spoiler:


Spoiler:


Got a tiny bit better by the early 2010's...

Spoiler:


Best effort try at 2015 P3 Grandmaster:

Spoiler:


Spoiler:


After that abysmal effort, I decided to train extensively for maximum improvement in one calendar year. Thanks to great feedback from fellow Dakkaites: Jah, Odinsgrandson and other great painters I've met IRL over the course of the last year...

Here we are in 2016...

Spoiler:


Basically, for anyone interested: My "Training" gallery chronicles my painting "practice" from Aug 2015 to now. I hope its informative. http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-1795-48162_Training.html



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/29 16:21:10


Post by: Heretic Tom


 Paradigm wrote:

That's a fine model, mate! My only suggestion would be to paint the vents in his chest the same bronze as the other metal areas, otherwise the chest and head form a fairly large 'blank space' between the chainmail and the horns and the eye gets a bit lost. Alternatively, painting the lower half of the helmet (ie. the grill over the face) bronze would achieve the same.

Definitely a great bit of progress!
Thanks! you were right, I painted the grill in his chest, breaks it up quite well. Thanks for the advice, I should have done that from the start...I'm going to chalk it up to laziness, which feels a bit shameful
Spoiler:



Automatically Appended Next Post:
 keezus wrote:

Basically, for anyone interested: My "Training" gallery chronicles my painting "practice" from Aug 2015 to now. I hope its informative. http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-1795-48162_Training.html

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Great stuff, it's interesting to see someone's progression like that, makes it really easy to see how you've improved certain skills, like your highlighting for example.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/30 01:35:21


Post by: tatt2014


I would love to join DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters. I have read all your post, and found my self extremely impress with all your work. I feel I could be an asset to your group. I am self taught and been painting mines sins 1984.I am a retired US soldier and try to put some off my experiences out in my mines. I don't have any pics of my old stuff, but here are a fue pics of my more involved peace's. I have tried to go on the blog page but its still under construction. Thanks Tatt .



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/30 02:39:08


Post by: Heretic Tom


Tatt, I was just admiring that large scale marine recently. Glad to have you among us.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/30 05:02:22


Post by: tatt2014


Thanks Heretic Tom, dose this mean I'm in and how do I get the Fine Painters Society bar?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/30 05:45:13


Post by: Januine


Welcome fella and love that LGS marine conversion



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/30 08:22:56


Post by: Icarium


Great idea for a forum. I'm currently living in Vietnam so I get very little access to other painters to discuss techniques and gain inspiration/steal their ideas. I have been a painter/modeller since I was 14 with a couple of breaks in between. Living in a hot humid climate, painting can be a real struggle at times. Paint dries out very quickly. The major breakthrough in my painting was when I started to use a wet pallet and focus on thinning my paint. If you don't do it then that is the first place to start for instantly improving your models. Working with the thinned paint does take some practice so start with some rank and file models first.

I do have a bad habit of choosing colours which are hard to work with such as white and yellow. I'd say my other major flaw is rushing models. Usually for the first few models of a project I pour all my focus into them but by the end I am rushing and my standards tend to slip.

I don't have any examples of my early work as I gave it all to my cousin when I left England (arghhhh what and idiot!), I can assure you they were pretty shocking. I remember a particularly horrific example when I tried to paint a space marine army in full army camo. But here is some of my latest work.









One major problem I have is with my brushes. Bent tips and split hairs are the bane of my life. I am heading back to England in two weeks and I have ordered a set of Windsor Series 7 brushes so I am looking forward to seeing what impact they have on my painting. If anyone has any advice on maintaining the condition of bushes (especially in humid climates) it would be much appreciated.

I really want to push my painting to the next level over the next year and hopefully you guys can help me achieve that.



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/30 11:35:29


Post by: ckig


Some Fine Painters in here indeed! Count me in (please )!

Started painting a couple years ago, and I believe I have improved (or at least would like to think so).

Some of favourite work:

Magneto (which I just posted over on my blog, heh)
Spoiler:


Guija.
Spoiler:


Tarik (the angry guy in my avatar)
Spoiler:


Looking forward to painting with you guys


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/30 12:02:15


Post by: Nevelon


Lots of nice work here.

<pulls out a notepad and some popcorn>

Don’t mind me, just lurking and stealing ideas.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/06/30 20:12:50


Post by: Heretic Tom


 tatt2014 wrote:
Thanks Heretic Tom, dose this mean I'm in and how do I get the Fine Painters Society bar?
I believe bebop posted it on page 1

 Icarium wrote:
Living in a hot humid climate, painting can be a real struggle at times.

Any tips for those of us who also have to fight high humidity?

Love your marines by the way, i don't remember the last time I had so much fun going through a gallery. What are those figures you have them heroically hacking into chum?


 ckig wrote:
Some Fine Painters in here indeed! Count me in (please )!
Welcome, great looking models!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/01 01:08:57


Post by: Buttery Commissar


Well I'm finally off a tiny iphone touchscreen.

I'm Benny, I came into the hobby as a cartoonist and painter, so I found it a bit confusing to paint 3D things with shades and highlights. In my early work you'll probably see that I put them in fairly random places, based on what I was guessing might be right.
I'm also colourblind, so you'll find a lot of my work is done in shades other people think are heinous.

I started painting about nine years ago, and this was my first figure:
Spoiler:


Since then, outside of army painting, which I don't really count... I've probably only completed two dozen figures, if that. I always think "oh this person must paint constantly and we only see their highlights online." well, until the last month, nope. I barely did anything except practise and practise on bitz and the very occasional complete mini.

These guys I did about five years later.
Spoiler:


And that was pretty much it for another six years, until I joined Dakka. Partly to talk kitbashing, and partly to spur myself back into painting.
Wherupon I did Judge Minty, and realised I quite like doing faces and still cannot see green.
Spoiler:


And then I picked up my airbrush that had previously only seen paper and t-shirts, and did this:
Spoiler:


I really like doing faces:

(Belongs to)
Spoiler:


Mostly I'm a concept person more than a painter. I like creating ideas, strange builds, and meddling. It means my painting suffers.
Spoiler:


Lately I've been doing some more "straight" works to try and improve my focus on the painting, and not the conversion.

Spoiler:









DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/01 05:02:51


Post by: Guildenstern


 Heretic Tom wrote:
 tatt2014 wrote:
Thanks Heretic Tom, dose this mean I'm in and how do I get the Fine Painters Society bar?
I believe bebop posted it on page 1

 Icarium wrote:
Living in a hot humid climate, painting can be a real struggle at times.

Any tips for those of us who also have to fight high humidity?

Love your marines by the way, i don't remember the last time I had so much fun going through a gallery. What are those figures you have them heroically hacking into chum?


 ckig wrote:
Some Fine Painters in here indeed! Count me in (please )!
Welcome, great looking models!


re: humidity, AC - seriously. In your paint room if no where else. Maybe a portable dehumidifier? honestly I dunno. it's humid as stuffings here, I don't dare spray paint outside just about year round (rarely get a good day to do it). If not for AC I really don't know how I'd get anything painted =/

Made the mistake of leaving MDF outside in my shed - yeah that didn't work. Not only did it fall apart, being essentially just particle board anyway, but it molded as well. Sigh.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/01 05:19:00


Post by: Icarium


Love your marines by the way, i don't remember the last time I had so much fun going through a gallery. What are those figures you have them heroically hacking into chum?


Thanks Heretic Tom. Thee civilians are just zombies from the basic vampire counts kits with green stuff clothes added. My entire collectors army is pretty much based on the Space Marine Battle force, the zombie kit and green stuff. I lost half of the models in a box when moving, so that army is on hold as it really destroyed my motivation. I have a half finished Dreadknight conversion which is literally tearing a civilian in half that I can't face finishing.

As for the humidity, Guildenstern is correct. It's all about air con. Without it the paint doesn't even go onto the model correctly. If you accidentally don't close your paints properly they dry out really quickly, especially the white. I just avoid spray painting in the rainy season, for the rest of the year it is fine.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/01 05:39:47


Post by: weetyskemian44


The Collectors are really gore nasty! And great looking.

I love your work buttery! That painting commissar is the balls.

I have been trying to ace the deathwatch overkill marines. I try to improve my painting skills and I find it helps, when you think your done, to take a photo and subject it to your inner critic:







DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/01 05:58:42


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Welcome to all the new people!!! Wow!! This group is really taking off!!

@ Icarium: I think I've pintrested some of those marines because I just love the action stances and the modelling gone into them. ALso, yellow and black look great on marines! Welcome man!

@ Tatt: welcome dude. Definitely keep us updated on that giant marine project. And ya the banner is on the front page, but Herectic Tom mentioned to me that he redid the banner?? Tom do you wanna show it off?

@ckig: Simply gorgeous stuff, you know I love your work. Great colors on that magneto,

@weety: I literally just did this with my current project. In fact I often times think I'm done and in the final pics I notice things I missed and have to go back after I post a final pic, LOL...but it's super helpful to do that I agree. These marines look great, by the way, it's neat to see you paint them, it's some what of a departure from your usual projects right?

@ Buttery: Awesome update dude and welcom!! I love that blue horse, it's a gorgeous paint job!. Great post!

@Keezus: I love that infinity model you painted last month, and in fact I voted for it for the comp. It's a great example of neutral colors with one spot color that really sticks out. Great work and also your current entry in this months is also something I'll be voting for Welcome

Well fellows, I'm going to post my final pics here of my finished project, and because it's late, I'll post a more comprehensive thought about it tomrrow, in the spirit of keeping conversattion going, and this not just becoming a show case plot but something more

I too and having some trouble with hot humid weather but I'm moving back to Cali in a month so I won't be stressing about this for much longer can not wait to get back to Cali. Anywho....here's my latest, and sorry if you saw this in my pm blog, there are wips there and actually a bigger pic that zooms further in and what not...ill post more on this guys process later cheers all:!


heres the full size pic too, i just redited it, can zoom further in




DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/01 06:14:37


Post by: weetyskemian44


Nice infinity soldier dude! The detail on those things is so tiny. I'm impressed by the tiny hexagons.

I am having a complete departure yes. I used to only paint Rogue trader figures a few years back, and for a year I only did Oldhammer in NMM. A learning experience! Now I will be doing modern boxed sets for a year or two, just because I really like whats come out recently and the quality of the models shows off my painting better. After years of working with lumpy old sculpts its nice to start with a smooth surface!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/01 07:43:57


Post by: Heretic Tom


 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
And ya the banner is on the front page, but Herectic Tom mentioned to me that he redid the banner?? Tom do you wanna show it off?

Sure. Also, if you guys want something specific just ask




 weetyskemian44 wrote:
I try to improve my painting skills and I find it helps, when you think your done, to take a photo and subject it to your inner critic

This has happened to me, literally, every time I have photographed a mini so far. I always notice something, go back and fix it, and then rephotograph my figure. Invariably, I still miss something and don't notice it until it's uploaded.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/01 20:27:50


Post by: Solar_lion



The two Infantry figures are from my start, though by no means my first painted minis. The Powerfist Marine won me a best painted in the very first tournament I entered. late 90's?? Can''t remember that far back.
I don't paint more than table top.. but this one I'm proud that I took extra time on doing..

My most recent project.. again tabletop.



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/01 23:31:38


Post by: Guildenstern


 weetyskemian44 wrote:
I try to improve my painting skills and I find it helps, when you think your done, to take a photo and subject it to your inner critic:


lol'ing so much at your notes, they sound so much like the voice in my head when I look at my stuff... I swear, all I see is all the mistakes I make


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/02 19:18:51


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@ weety: yeah these little dudes are tiny as eff, but really super detailed and I just LOVE the asthetic which I think less people on dakka like. I'd love to see you and Damo paint some these guys because I think you'd both do a stellar job with them.

@ Solar lion: welcome sir! Glad to have you in the group and great looking models man! That red is really vibrant on the necron lord as well as the flyer!! Fantastic!!

@ Guildenstern: me too I'm the same way, extremely critical of my own work, and those little mistakes can sometimes be so frustrating, but in the end I usually let it go because it's easy to get obsessed and that's when the real mistakes start to appear!

So, guys!, again in the spirit of this thread, and to avoid this degenerating into a showcase thread, I wanted to expose a little bit more of the processes that I've personally been working with, and I made a short and somewhat crude "tut" about painting thin and using washes to build up to colors, and using zenithal to help this. And all you guys are encouraged to post your own processes and the like, the more information and viewpoints compiled here, the better for us all!!

So, basically I'm always spouting off about the thinner the better, so, using a space marine shoulder pad, i decided to do a quick paint up of a pinkish - purple transition kind of slannesh vibe (I did this quick so no judgment ) Before going into it, the concept is basically this: the foundation color is the mid/highlight and then I'm basically shading down from there, while adding further highlights as I go up: On paper it would look like this:
/

The green numbers is the order in which I apply it...notice I don't start with the ACTUAL color I want it ending up to be.
Now, let's see what stage one looks like (this is one "coat" of paint):

Pretty much nothing there...so as we continue I reinforce the highlight tone but I'm also aware of the zenithal so I am careful to not paint the areas I want to be a point highlight.

Next I begin to feather down into the mid tones and set my true colors. Same consistency of paint, and focusing away from the highlight:

So as I continue to do this...going deeper into my mid town and shades, which the zenithal has made obvious to me, and smoothing out highlights with, in this case, red glaze...


Getting closer to final stages, I solidify my point highlights that at this point are pretty obvious. Though one thing to mention, which has been a personal struggle in the past, is picking a light direction and sticking to it, because the natural urge is to move the model around and paint areas that need it. Be vigilant and stick to one angle. I generally have 4 sides to model and make sure to hold them as I paint in each of the exact same 4 ways.....

And the final result (somewhat crudely done, sorry but did this quick) is such:


So a couple of notes: If you want your colors stronger, simply use more layers of your colors. The mantis warrior was done this way and so was the red nomads I've done, and they are quite bright in color. However This technique works less successfully if your colors do not have white in it. It tends to look a little washed out. I tried as an experiment this process on skin, and it didn't look right. And I don't always use this order either, it's just that I've found when I'm painted basically NMM colored surfaces, where sometimes the light reflections are more present than the mid tones, it saves me some effort in blending in more highlights later on. A lot of it also comes down to improvising a technique to get the effect that I want, in the moment that it's needed. I'll do another one of these, where I go straight hard midtone and then go down and up, for warmer materials, cloth skin, etc etc, but I've been painting hard armor for the last month basically so this is where my head is at.

Guys I encourage you to post your own techniques if you feel that you think we can get some valuable information from it! Please

Cheers guys happy painting
Bebop...



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/02 20:27:51


Post by: Dr H


I always blow up photos of my models on my computer (sometimes I even share those photos on DDakka) to look for mistakes. Even if I can't see it in the hand, if I can see it in an enlarged photo, I'll attempt to correct it.
Those of you familiar with my feedback for contests such as the LoER's, know how close I can look over a model and pick out the tiniest of slips etc. You can be sure I am 10 times harsher with my own models.

But there always comes a point where, even though there is something on the model that jumps out at you and stabs you in the eye, you have to put it down and call it done... for now.
I will eventually come back to past models and improve them, when I have time, or fancy a change.

You can't force yourself to perfect every model, every time. You will always make it worse, become frustrated, and not "finish" anything.
It's ok to say "this model is done... and I may come back later and perfect it".

That is, unless you are planning on selling it. Then I always add the final "tidy up" step, where I go in and fix absolutely everything that I can to the best of my abilities.
Most of you won't have to worry about this.

BB: It's interesting to see that technique. I hear people talk about starting with the mid-tone and then shading down and highlighting up, and I just see it as making life difficult for yourself. Not that I'm saying it's the wrong way to do it; everyone has to find their own method and what works for one person may not for someone else.

2 questions:
Do you make your "first" layer solid (that is it covers the grey underneath) before moving on to the next layer?
Obviously most of the area will be covered with subsequent layers where it is shaded or highlighted, but there must be a point between the two where it "should" be the colour that you have started with. Do you ensure that this part has the coverage, or are you relying on the blending of the following layers to produce the coverage?

and

How do you cope with tricky areas, undercuts, and hard to reach parts that get the darkest shades, and not get a dark streak across the middle of your lighter shaded area that you have just painted?

This second point is what drives my method of painting; I start dark, all over, and then highlight all the way up to the brightest shade.
I do tend to paint fully constructed models, as I like to get the build complete before starting painting. As I rarely build a model without modifying it in some way, I can't really leave an arm off (as it may have wires or something else extending from the body) and I want all gaps properly filled (not something to do after painting).

When I come to paint something as a good example, I'll (hopefully) remember to take photos of every stage and post them up, but this is quick run through:
Prime grey,
Check the build for any errors (gaps, rough areas, places where something "more" needs adding),
Paint everything black, ensuring to get into every crack and crevice. From this point on anything hard to reach is left in shadow (hence the above question).
Choose the paint that will eventually be the mid-tone colour, add black, paint it over everything except the deepest darkest crevices.
Then add layer after layer, using more mid-tone and less black, until reaching pure mid-tone, covering less and less area moving away from the shadows. (probably about 5 layers)
Then start adding the highlight colour (not always, but often white) little by little to the mid-tone and continue covering less area to create the highlights. (probably another 4 or 5 layers)
Reserve the pure highlight colour for sharp highlights (edges etc.).
Weathering etc...



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/02 20:29:49


Post by: Red Harvest


Learn to paint with thick paint too. It is a valuable skill as well. A decent painter should be able to do both, paint thin or thick. IMHO.

Brush sizes. I've been experimenting with larger, #3 and #4 rounds and liking them for pretty much everything but really fine detail. What are the preferred brush sizes you guys use? I'll use #0 for pretty much every finer detail, but for crazy small I drop down to a 3/0.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/02 20:35:46


Post by: Mymearan


 Red Harvest wrote:
Learn to paint with thick paint too. It is a valuable skill as well. A decent painter should be able to do both, paint thin or thick. IMHO.

Brush sizes. I've been experimenting with larger, #3 and #4 rounds and liking them for pretty much everything but really fine detail. What are the preferred brush sizes you guys use? I'll use #0 for pretty much every finer detail, but for crazy small I drop down to a 3/0.


I use a #2 for almost everything, with a #1 Series 7 for detail work. That's really it. Sometimes I'll use a bigger brush for quickly filling in large areas.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/02 20:46:30


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@Dr H: good questions. The initial color put down varies in coverage depending on what it is im painting. It could be very trasparent to very opaque. The mid tone again varies, in the case of the Nomad, the red is very opaque in contrast to the highlights because they are pinkish, so if I don't support the red, the over all effect will be pink armor, not red armor with reflection. AS for tricky bits, I totally hear you. What I do is essentially ignore any detail and paint the piece or quadrant entirely before adding stark highlights and black lines and try not to get caught up with the details but look at the overall light source, where its highlights are, where the Midtone generally should be, and where the shade should be. The last steps Of edge highlights and shade lines tie it all together. This by no means is the fastest way, it's not, it's slow as hell. But I enjoy the process and I feel like it's getting me results I'm happy with and the more I practice it the faster I get and I feel stronger as a painter for it. But yeah, it's not efficient, it's not fast, and not really meant as an army painting strategy. AS far as the streaking, if your paint is super thin, this is a non issue as long as you are careful to feather each stage.

@ Red, could you give some examples where using thick paint is useful in your endeavors? I'd love your input here! The only time I use thick paint, and I use the word thick pretty liberally, is when I need something incredibly small and it has to be stark in contrast and can't run, like perhaps an edge highlight, and even then the danger is that it dries on the brush before you apply it. The other times are of course, drybrushing, or other technical applications.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/02 21:43:01


Post by: Heretic Tom


Bebop, thanks for posting the quick tutorial, I'm going to give this a try with my next csm.

I posted this In my P&M but I thought I'd put it here as well. I tried my hand at a "burnt muzzle" effect on what I thought was a much too pristine looking melta. It didn't come out quite as I'd hoped, but I wouldn't call it terrible either. Thoughts? Suggestions? I think I probably need to throw a sepia toned wash over it.

It was not a very complex/thorough process (which may explain my mixed feelings about the end result) but basically I just took some very thin brownish paint (I tried to go for the color of a roasted marshmallow ) and brought it from the tip of the melta barrel down, leaving a bit of untouched metal near the other end, I then did the same thing a few more times not going quite as far with each subsequent layer in an attempt to feather the color. I then painted the tip of the barrel solid black, bringing it down the barrel just the slightest bit. After this, I then stippled the black further down the barrel with my dry brush, I had considered using sponge for this last step but I feared I may not be able to cover as small of an area with the sponge. And that's it, as I said above, I considered/am still considering putting a light brownish wash over the entire "charred" area.

Heretic Tom



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 01:15:40


Post by: Zogg


I just stumbled across this thread and I am definitely subscribing.

My earliest attempts were on HO scale model railroad people and buildings when I was about ten, and then D&D figures in high school. Those are long gone, but I do have some 2nd edition orks I painted back sometime around university...
Spoiler:

And some Necromunda figures from during their heyday...
Spoiler:



Then there was a long stretch where I didn't do anything hobby related, until a few years ago I picked up an ork trukk and converted it. That was it, I was back in the hobby big time. Here are some shots of some recent work...
Spoiler:



I think I've improved a fair amount, but there are clearly a heckuva lot of things I can learn from this group. Right now I'm focusing mainly on experimenting with rust effects...
Spoiler:


Although I am particularly happy with how the large headlight came out on my buggy.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 01:22:13


Post by: tatt2014


 tatt2014 wrote:
I would love to join DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters. I have read all your post, and found my self extremely impress with all your work. I feel I could be an asset to your group. I am self taught and been painting mines sins 1984.I am a retired US soldier and try to put some off my experiences out in my mines. I don't have any pics of my old stuff, but here are a fue pics of mhttp://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2016/7/1/809893_sm-banner.jpgy more involved peace's. I have tried to go on the blog page but its still under construction. Thanks Tatt .


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 01:47:10


Post by: CragHack


Wow, Bebob, that's some really cool layering/glazing there! I myself never have the patience for that :>


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 06:17:46


Post by: Januine


Quick little cheap and nasty technique I'll throw out for folk that might find it useful

I love my metals and metallics - TMMs all the way. Bright, shiny and new metals are nice but I prefer the dirty, stained and old metals for the most parts. This works nicely as an esy way to get a good old and worn metal base to then further work on.

Base whatever it is with a black spray first (I've alwys used GWs Chaos Black spray and always found it to be top notch)
Once dry, get out your drybrushes - its fun messy time.
We're going to put down a succession of three different metallics to give a nice tarnished patina'd effect.
First up - roughly drybrush with warplock bronze - this gives a nice dark depth to the metal finish



nice and light. get in there! Wash out the drybrush thoroughly and let it dry
Next drybrushing time again, this time with ghenna's gold. This will give patches of stain, tarnish, oxydation etc etc. Dont be as thorough with this layer as before - let some of the bronze show through in places



washy washy, dry dry......drybrush the final layer with runefang steel. This will seem really too bright and shiny but it needs to be as the washes later will bring it right down.
Be quite thorough with this layer but again heavy in some places, lighter in others



Leave to totally dry and then some. Finally wash the whole thing with ye olde faithful Nuln Oil - don't be scroogey with this wash but try to avoid pooling. Even if you do get a few coffee stains here - it doesnt really matter as it just fits right in with the overall intended effect.



Once this is dry you have your base aged metal done. From here, you can add other targeted shades/washes to add further stains, grime etc - agrax and coelia are great for this.
Later some dabs of typhus corrosion into corners and lower recesses complete the fithly metal effect

Hope all of that makes sense and helps some folk out

Cheers
Jan


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 06:44:36


Post by: ZoBo


nice!

although, I actually kinda like that gold over bronze pic...seems kind of a shame to cover it with the silver


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 06:48:17


Post by: Januine


ㅏyou could just wash over the gold with agrax and leave it at that for an old brass look. Add a few days of coelia for the start of patina and verdigris I guess.
I'll add to the above post as I get more work done on the tank. Next up is painting some of the panels in its army livary and then onto chipping, weathering and so on


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 07:52:32


Post by: Heretic Tom


Awesome! Jan, as usual, you make it all look so easy


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 10:46:08


Post by: Paradigm


Cheers for that tutorial, Jan, I'm always aiming to get my metallics somewhere between yours and Nerdy's, so having that for reference is a great help!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 21:19:04


Post by: Dr H


bebopdrums2424 wrote:... This by no means is the fastest way, it's not, it's slow as hell. But I enjoy the process and I feel like it's getting me results I'm happy with and the more I practice it the faster I get and I feel stronger as a painter for it. But yeah, it's not efficient, it's not fast, and not really meant as an army painting strategy. AS far as the streaking, if your paint is super thin, this is a non issue as long as you are careful to feather each stage.
I can't say that my way is any faster. Adding multiple layers will take time whatever order you do them in.

@ Red, could you give some examples where using thick paint is useful in your endeavors? I'd love your input here! The only time I use thick paint, and I use the word thick pretty liberally, is when I need something incredibly small and it has to be stark in contrast and can't run, like perhaps an edge highlight, and even then the danger is that it dries on the brush before you apply it. The other times are of course, drybrushing, or other technical applications.
I've just come up with one; painting about masking tape. A thicker paint will be less likely to bleed under the tape. But don't go too thick or you'll end up with a noticeable step between the paints.

Red Harvest wrote:... What are the preferred brush sizes you guys use? I'll use #0 for pretty much every finer detail, but for crazy small I drop down to a 3/0.
I use a range of sizes from #4 down to 3/0 depending on the size of the area I'm painting: Large flat areas get the large brush (they are also good for all-over washes) usually only priming...
...really large areas get the airbrush,
Small or tricky areas get the smallest brush.
But for details I have a pair of Rosemary&Co brushes at #1 (as the quality of brush and it's point is important for details).
I also have a set of cheap hog-bristle (if I remember right, stiffer than sable) brushes for dry-brushing and similar techniques.

tatt2014 wrote:
 tatt2014 wrote:
I would love to join DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters. I have read all your post, and found my self extremely impress with all your work. I feel I could be an asset to your group. I am self taught and been painting mines sins 1984.I am a retired US soldier and try to put some off my experiences out in my mines. I don't have any pics of my old stuff, but here are a fue pics of mhttp://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2016/7/1/809893_sm-banner.jpgy more involved peace's. I have tried to go on the blog page but its still under construction. Thanks Tatt .
We're not ignoring you, tatt'. This thread has really moved fast and it's tricky to keep up with every post. Join in the conversations and once it all settles down and everyone's introduced themselves we'll all get to know each other better (in a friendly and not creepy way ).


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/03 22:36:49


Post by: Guildenstern


 Red Harvest wrote:
Learn to paint with thick paint too. It is a valuable skill as well. A decent painter should be able to do both, paint thin or thick. IMHO.

Brush sizes. I've been experimenting with larger, #3 and #4 rounds and liking them for pretty much everything but really fine detail. What are the preferred brush sizes you guys use? I'll use #0 for pretty much every finer detail, but for crazy small I drop down to a 3/0.


I use a 6 for vehicles, round and filbert (not an airbrush), for the overall base coats for instance, then switch to smaller to do the rest. Also use them a lot for my terrain as coverage is easier.

For most miniatures I use a 2 for basecoating, a 1 for most all the details except eyes, which I break out my tiny-I-dunno-the-insane-number brush.

@Jaunuine - I love your metals, and TMM is really my favorite. I appreciate a lot of people who can do NMM but honestly I don't see the point when the real metals are right there and they look so shiny

@Bebop - that's a great tutorial, simply holding the model the same way to keep the light source the same, such a simple great idea!

one of the things I struggle with a lot is light source, where would it hit, where would the highlight be? I try to use the light at my desk to see where it actually hits the model and then I try to remember. This does not always work. Especially the remembering part. And especially when thinking of small items, or weapons etc.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/04 05:03:29


Post by: Camkierhi


So much good!

Take a picture Guildenstern doesn't have to go public but take pics and use them on screen for reference. And though I am not good at it, I just use a stiff brush and brush away from the light, kinda dry brushing. Only hit the surfaces that need hit. Hopefully no bendy light.

I personally use lots of brushes, but have been heading towards bigger no. 2 etc. for a lot of the work. Alsop using flat brushes , used to have loads for oil painting. I do have a cheap and nasty airbrush.

Hi Tatt, sorry did not reply sooner. Indeed hi to you all. Wow do we have some amazing people here.

And lastly thanks to those posting tuts. I have some I would share, but amongst such giants I am embarrassed to suggest it.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/04 05:15:30


Post by: Guildenstern


you should make a dakka dakka society of eminent converters, Cam ^_^

give us all loads o tips and tricks!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/04 06:08:19


Post by: nerdfest09


Thanks Bebop, seeing the way you do it is very helpful! especially so because I can see it's similar to how I do my Imperial Fists except I use the coloured primer and wash as a mid/dark tone and I use light coverings of the yellow to build it up, I tend to add a pretty strong final highlight though at the end whereas you leave the beautiful subtle blends. I would like to paint an Infinity mini one day too i'll keep my eyes peeled for a cheap one ;-)


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/04 06:20:02


Post by: Heretic Tom


 Camkierhi wrote:
And lastly thanks to those posting tuts. I have some I would share, but amongst such giants I am embarrassed to suggest it.

Post them anyway! As a beginner, I don't have much to offer but I still posted my burnt muzzle attempt. I didn't win any accolades, but they haven't laughed me off the forum either

Seeing your techniques may inspire a conversation we can all learn something from.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/04 14:24:13


Post by: bebopdrums2424


You're welcom guys for the tut. I'll post more as well, and I hope you guys do too, there's always something to learn!

@Dr. H: You are so right, and actually, the more I was thinking, your way might be even longer. Starting from the darkest, which I have done a lot in the past, I think I stopped doing as much when I started using thinner paint as it wasn't viable with certain colors to do that. Too many coats needed to get a good red for example if I'm painting up from a shade tone. I'm sure you've got it figured to where it works for you though

@ Jan: great tut. Clear and easy to use with great results. I was thinking the same thing about step two, looks great!, gotta find some minis to use that on

@Tom: Also a good tut, thank you for sharing it! Please continue to do so. If I might suggest, that muzzle burn is a perfect place to try thinning paint. If you were to do it again but just use much thinner coats, and each time you add a coat it's closer to the muzzle, you'll get a much softer and smoother transition into the muzzle burn. You can even start with brown or blue or whatever then move into black the closer you get to the nozzle...try it out and let us know how it goes!

@Cam stop being silly and show us the dang tuts, but this is the painting blog remember, no rivets hehehe!!!!

@Guildenstern: man, I had, have, the same problem. It's lessened because I'm vigilant about the angles now. If I'm painting NMM I have to do that or the effect is wrong, lost, and failed. (More on that in a sec)

@Tatt: you're in bro, no worries. Just go to the first entry on the plot and scroll a bit you'll find the link to the banner so you can put it in your sig. Welcome dude!

@ Damo: Yeah I figured we'd be close in terms of that, I guess I sometimes do a stark highlight?, I'm not really sure actually lol, but I have started to get away from GW styles, and actually, black lining, instead of edge highlighting everything, has been a thing that I've been focusing on too, that I didn't use to, black lining....frustrating though because it's fiddly. Oh and respond to my darn pm, or was it something I said? EDIT: in fact, i know its time consuming, but could you post a little pic tut as well of how you are doing those bikers? Id like to see it, an dsure everyone in here feels the same about that

now...::grabs soapbox:: ... Guys, and girls...a note about NMM, because I'm seeing a lot of comments about why, and nah, and no point etc etc. I get that dakka dakka has a general asthetic that it leans towards in terms of painting styles and what not, but the fact is, there's a lot of minis out there and a lot of different styles. Both NMM and TMM can be done in absolutely breathtaking ways, and to discount one over the other is really silly to me. Lately I've been painting NMM on my minis because I'm painting Infinity, and while it could of course be done, TMM seems to not fit the style. But for me there is a deeper reason why I personally am painting NMM right now. Because it's hard. It's a challenge. It forces me to understand light, how it reflects against different angles and surfaces, and its requires me to have a strong understanding of how to literally apply that to make it look convincingly like metal. That simple fact is making me a better painter because Im not in my comfort zone so my brain and hands have to work overtime, and, those concepts work all over the miniature, not just on metal bits. And honestly, I'm not anywhere close to where I wanna be with that skill, so until I am, I'm gonna keep doing it. As for TMM, I love it equally, and gladly use it when the asthetic asks for it, but ultimately i think there are things that you cannot do with TMM, and really vice versa with NMM too. This may be the jazz musician in me, but the slowest way to progress at your art is to practice things you're already good at. All this to say, in the end paint the way you want, but both styles are extremely viable and it's worth, i think, to strive for new things, the worst case is that you'll find a way to make it fit into your own style and you'll just have more tools at the end of the day.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/04 20:18:57


Post by: Heretic Tom


Thanks Bebop, I'm getting ready to do a marine with a flamer, I'll definitely be trying to implement your advice.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/04 21:00:33


Post by: Dr H


 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
@Dr. H: You are so right, and actually, the more I was thinking, your way might be even longer. Starting from the darkest, which I have done a lot in the past, I think I stopped doing as much when I started using thinner paint as it wasn't viable with certain colors to do that. Too many coats needed to get a good red for example if I'm painting up from a shade tone. I'm sure you've got it figured to where it works for you though
Yarp. As I mentioned, with Enamels I get good coverage of one paint over another, so it's no harder to get up to white (with appropriate layers of shading) over a black basecoat, without the paint needing to be so thick that it obscures any detail.
I still "water" down my paint to probably the same consistency (although different surface tension properties) as you do for most applications.
Some colours are better for this than others. Some of them (metallics in particular) don't like being diluted. Some work really well when applied in transparent layers, others are perfectly good as a "one coat" paint (although not actually/usually in one coat, but you get the idea).

...a note about NMM...
Absolutely. Each to their own. And it's definitely good to push yourself to improve.
I just like the way metallic paint looks and I hope I didn't come across as dismissive of nmm.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/04 21:23:29


Post by: Knightley


I've had some comments that I seem to do faces to a decent standard.

I figured I'd share my little how to guide on how I paint faces.

First Stage, base face with Tallarn Flesh and give the face a good bath of Ogryn Flesh wash. The aim here is to have the wash pool in the sunken sections


Second Stage: this is just a strait dwarf flesh layer (plenty of water) focusing on leaving recess with the Ogryn wash showing, areas such as around the eyes, around the forehead area, bits beside the mouth and little bits on the nose.


Third Stage: this is a 50/50 mix of Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh, this stage is aimed at raising the lightness of areas where the sun would hit, so cheek bones, top of the head, bridge of the nose, eye brow region , lips, chin, the aim here is to have the first layer not totally covered up by the new mix.


Fourth Stage: This stage is just pure elf flesh, The aim here is to paint raised edges where the sun would hit it the most. This includes areas such as top of the head, bridge of the nose, eye brows and cheeks.


Fifth Stage: Eyes were done at this point, using a 000 brush I did the white of the eyes. Then with the same 000 brush for the pupil of the eye. Here you can also do scars, stubble hair etc


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/05 01:31:48


Post by: Heretic Tom


Excellent! Thanks for the tutorial knightley.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/05 02:48:02


Post by: Red Harvest


 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
@ Red, could you give some examples where using thick paint is useful in your endeavors? I'd love your input here! The only time I use thick paint, and I use the word thick pretty liberally, is when I need something incredibly small and it has to be stark in contrast and can't run, like perhaps an edge highlight, and even then the danger is that it dries on the brush before you apply it. The other times are of course, drybrushing, or other technical applications.

It's just another technique. I made my comment just to say that there is no One True Way™ when it comes to paint viscosity. I use thick pretty much for everything except really shallow details on things like faces. I have no problems with paint drying on my brush; I keep the brush fairly wet. I use thick paint ( well, more or less straight from the bottle thick) quite a bit. There is a difference between using thick paint and thickly applied paint. Thick paint is a nice way to get really good 'flow' control of the paint in small areas.

What I've noticed is that many people apply way too much primer to their minis. If you use a white primer, it should actually look very light gray on the mini ( assuming a metal mini) and not solid white. Take a thick primer coat and thickly applied paint and you get a mess. A proper primer coat and a base coat of thick paint and you get a very nice looking mini ready for the final stages.

I did a lot of oil painting back in the day. I suspect that that is part of my willingness to use thicker paints, and my habit of blocking in colors/base coating, then going back to finish things off sometime later. With oils, the paint stays 'wet' enough to do that. With acrylics, it gives an usual effect, essentially a 2nd canvas for the highlights and shading, and if you mess up you can 'erase' it (carefully) without harming the underlying base coat. Might be why my painted minis look a bit unusual.

I also prime with Gesso-- another oil painting habit (works great for metal, not so great for HIPS) and Gesso will suck up thin paints like a sponge.

RE: TMM or NMM. Paint with what you like. I dislike using the metallic paints, so I paint something like NMM. ( but true NMM is not even possible in a 3D work. Ah, here is a nice discussion of it... or not. THe blog has now gone private. Ah well.)

Thanks for the answers about brush sizes everyone. I think I'll get a nice sable #2 for now. Maybe I'll be able to paint faster... Good luck with that, eh?

Oh, side by side of a goblin ( grenadier miniatures) I *painted* when I was a little kid, and a goblin I painted more or less recently. Now, I will note that the paints used on the first goblin were the aforementioned Duncan Bisq-stain ceramic paints. Well, at least the paint didn't chip. I think I've improved a smidge or so. Not much for elaborate bases though.

Spoiler:



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/05 07:15:05


Post by: weetyskemian44


I think learning to paint NMM has improved my TMM technique. I sort of combine the two now, so start with metallic but then highlights and washes with nmm paints.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/05 10:13:46


Post by: Paradigm


Just come across this, thanks to the Dakka banner ads, and figured most of the folks in this thread might find it handy. Tons of inspiration to stare at for hours, a handful of tutorials and loads of high-end WIPs, and a nicely down-to-earth approach to top notch painting and high-end techniques.
https://www.althaipaints.net/


Regarding the TMM vs NMM thing, I always make that choice on a case by case basis, but a bit part of it is the type/range of mini. I'll default to TMM for 40k, moderns/historicals, LotR, anything that I want to look nice and 'realistic', as I find weathering techniques and such look far better on metallic work than NMM. On the other hand, for things that I want to look a little more fantastical or different, NMM all the way. This goes for Infinity and AoS in equal part, and also for Batman where I'm aiming to evoke a comic booky look. There is some crossover, like NMM banners for 40k, but those are the lines I tend to stick to. Neither is more useful than the other, I reckon, but I can understand a preference for one or the other; when I only painted 40k, NMM never crossed my mind, although that's in part because I couldn't even contemplate doing it with my skills (or lack thereof) at that time.



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/05 10:51:17


Post by: ZoBo


I don't really have any strong opinions either way regarding TMM/NMM...both can look great if done well, both can look rubbish if done poorly...I haven't had any real desire to attempt NMM yet, just doesn't really fit the look of the stuff I've been painting so far...might have a go at it one day though, nothing at all wrong with trying new things every now and then

what blows my mind though, is SENMM...essentially NMM taken to the extreme, painting something to look like super-shiny reflective chrome/mirror finish...granted I don't see much practical application for it, but for a display piece, wow...

in case you don't know what I'm on about, here's some examples courtesy of google image search
Spoiler:




any of you guys tried that before?...kinda curious about how difficult it is...I can get a vague idea of what's required, by looking at pics, but I don't feel up to actually trying it myself yet


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/05 10:53:35


Post by: Januine


Saw a SM done in SENMM a while back......WOW didnt even come close. The thing look like it was made of pure chrome. Absolutely incredible work


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/05 14:38:04


Post by: bebopdrums2424


 weetyskemian44 wrote:
I think learning to paint NMM has improved my TMM technique. I sort of combine the two now, so start with metallic but then highlights and washes with nmm paints.


totally, thats the same way i do my TMM too when im painting something small and detailed like an equila...i love that look, almost a brushed metal look can happen...

@ Paradigm: awesome tut thanks for the share i bookmarked that one.

@ Knightly: thanks mate! another good tut, this is really becoming a good place for great informatioN!




DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/05 14:39:07


Post by: ckig


Never heard of SENMM before but that looks amazing. Would like to try that sometime.

Also great link there Para, some good hints and tips there.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/06 15:21:03


Post by: keezus


 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
@Dr. H: You are so right, and actually, the more I was thinking, your way might be even longer. Starting from the darkest, which I have done a lot in the past, I think I stopped doing as much when I started using thinner paint as it wasn't viable with certain colors to do that. Too many coats needed to get a good red for example if I'm painting up from a shade tone. I'm sure you've got it figured to where it works for you though

For certain bright colors with poor coverage, I paint the entire thing with neutral paints that cover better and then tint it to what I want.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/08 01:42:37


Post by: jah-joshua


The Tao of Sable:
mold lines are the enemy!!!

nothing kills a nice paint job like a stray mold line...
once i see it, my eye keeps coming back to it...
taking the time to properly scrape and file mold lines can really save a lot of disappointment...


looks like i have a lot of catching up to do here...
nice to see so many people joining in

@Gits: i like that you used the Iron Warriors mini for your EC Centurion...
the weight on the front foot really changes him up to "action pose"...

@ZoBo: you are a natural...
your first Boyz were already really good!!!

@Camkierhi: wow, what an improvement!!!
your dioramas are awesome

@LDP: i can't believe how far you've come along...
i love your painting style

@weetys: it is so awesome that you have found such a personal painting style...
your minis are instantly recognizable, for sure...

@Nodri: seriously, i thought you came from nowhere as an instant amazing painter...
your PHR were the first minis i saw from you, and couldn't find any previous work...
being blown away by them, i thought, "Where the hell did this guy come from, and how is he so good!?!"

@Guildenstern: keep on pushing those skills...
you are doing great...

@Knightley: your clean style is definitely on the right track...

@Minus: love your intro!!!
clearly, you were a prodigious talent from day one...
i am a huge fan of your current style...
you really make the minis stand out from the crowd

@Mym: nice progress in 3 short years...
i like the color selection you've got going on these days...
the Blue Horrors are coming along nicely...

@nerdfest: love ya, Damo!!!
Tazzy is so full of amazingly talented people

@keezus: always a pleasure to see your progress, mate...
you Lord Carver turned out awesome last month!!!

@Buttery: it is amazing that you can paint with such vivid colors, and be color blind...
keep up the good work...

sorry to anyone i missed, but this has gotten way too long...
it is great to see everyone's progress...
kudos for not giving up once you discovered how hard it is to paint minis well...


since i hate to post without pics, here is a little thought about progress...
i don't think anything is ever really perfected in painting...
just when you think you've got something perfected, an idea pops up to add a new twist into the mix...

for example, i got a lot of compliments on my first Grey Knights Grand Master...
honestly, all i saw was how turquoise, rather than blue, the armor tint turned out...
i was also sad that i didn't change the original Calgar mini enough with the conversion:



thankfully, i got a second chance at the conversion a couple of years later...
this time i swapped the turquoise ink for blue ink on the armor, and was much happier...
i also did a lot more sculpting to make the base mini look more like a proper Grey Knights Terminator:



my next commission allowed me to try my hand at weathering the GK metal scheme:



after that, i made a custom Mordrak, and tried to bring together my first three experiments with the metalics into a pleasing whole:



sadly, he was too "busy" to actually show off the progress i had made with my metals, so i was stoked to get a chance at painting the new plastic Libby in a GK's scheme...
i think i hit the right note for blue-steel, finally:



now i want to push contrast and weathering even further, like i did with my Iron Warriors Marine a couple of months ago...
like i said, nothing is ever perfected, but each experiment just leads to more experimentation...
that's the motivation, to keep pushing your successes further, and learning from your failures...

cheers
jah


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/08 01:49:49


Post by: Heretic Tom


Inspired (and inspiring) work jah!

I tried a blood spatter effect on the CSM I'm working on, though I don't have any BFBG I think I still got a pretty nice effect by utilizing Paradigm's suggested splatter technique.
Spoiler:


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/08 02:48:10


Post by: Munga


This is all very inspiring! I'm too ashamed of my terrible freehand work on small models (my hands only stop shaking if I take drugs to prevent it), but I've got a project involving some rhinos. Maybe I'll get the guts up to post if they come out like I plan. Also, Heretic Tom, if you have a bit of a brush on gloss varnish, you can make that blood look a little better, less dry.Might also want to try a bit of a darker red in the center of the splat to look more gory. Back when I started, we didn't have special effects paints


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/08 03:01:41


Post by: Heretic Tom


Munga wrote:
if you have a bit of a brush on gloss varnish, you can make that blood look a little better, less dry.Might also want to try a bit of a darker red in the center of the splat to look more gory. Back when I started, we didn't have special effects paints
Thanks for the tips and good luck with your rhinos! I will add gloss varnish to my supply wish list, in the mean time I'll see about mixing up a darker red, anything that makes it more gory is worth a try


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/08 22:58:24


Post by: Gitsplitta


@jah: Excellent work. Thanks for posting your progression of minis with comments. It's really helpful to see someone's painting progress as well as reading your thoughts on each as you go along. You have a really interesting way of shading colors with different colors that gives an excellent and unique effect. Lots to learn from. Thank you!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/09 23:25:53


Post by: Dr H


What Gits' just said ^

On blood effects:
I have a nice example in my Sprue Hut. I wanted a bloodstain on the wooden table to give it a little backstory.

One thing to note is that (like many painting effects) there is no "one right way" for all examples: A different material will "react" differently to a covering of blood, for example.

Wood and other absorbent materials (such as cloth) will absorb some of the blood and cause the surrounding area to darken. The blood will also be slightly less glossy (even when fresh) than on non-absorbent surfaces (such as metal or plastic).

For this I painted the wood as normal (see my hut tutorial for more information, although I could cut-and-paste my wood painting section from that in here if people want), and then I darkened the area with a black wash.
After that, I used a clear gloss red paint (Humbrol equivalent to the Tamiya one) to cover the central part of that area, leaving some black around the edge.
I then darkened the centre of the red area with more black wash (this is a matt black which knocks back the glossiness of the red paint).
And done:


For SENMM:
I've actually been doing a similar thing on a my current model, but much simpler due to a flatter surface and much smaller scale:
This is supposed to represent a glass skyscraper reflecting the surrounding buildings, distant land and the sky above.


It probably worth practising with simpler circumstances, like this, to get your eye in for reflections before trying it on complex shapes.
You have to think of it as painting the reflected environment, rather than painting a shiny surface.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/10 04:16:16


Post by: nerdfest09


Hey guys I've started a rundown of my yellow here's part #1

Prime with Army Painter desert brown

wash with sepia.

when dry use very diluted yellow to start highlights.

then vallejo lemon yellow to strengthen the highlights



and a basic of my greens with a candy effect. lol writing was smaller than I expected

green wash over white zenithal style spray

watered gold over pad

green wash over gold

deepen the effect by gold over the pad again







DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/10 05:54:21


Post by: Camkierhi


Agree with DrH, alot of these effects are best practiced on simple pieces/flat surfaces, gets a bit mind bending after that.(looks amazing Dr)

I wondered if that was the method on the candy, really effective.Thanks Nerdy.

Blood spatter....on this I used swamp brown watered down then blood red. Tooth brush applicator! (held at distance and run finger along it.Mask where you do not want blood.)

Spoiler:




On this I used again Swamp brown very thin wash, but then discovered BFTBG liberally applied....
Spoiler:



Hope that helps.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/10 16:35:22


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@ Jah: Superb minis dude as usual. Yeah that one fellow is rather busy but the metal effects are still well done, and I blame the mini more than the paint And those damn mold lines, i always miss at least one. You can count on it....

@Dr H: Great pics and tuts...love SENMM tower, reminds me of home! And yes please do post your wood painting tut here, it would be massively appreciated and at this point I think this thread has enough visibility that it's worth it to rehash some tuts that's are posted in the tut forums.

@Damo: awesome tuts. Actually, that candy green is extremely close to how I painted the mother of pearl effect. Except i used silver over a menagerie of pink turq and blue wash stippling. But besides that, exactly the same. Great minds....me thinks

@Cam: fantastic blood effects. Has everyone basically gone towards using BFTBG as opposed to any other method these days? Or is that the quick and easy? I'm wondering about more cartoonish blood and gore as well...just literally painting it all on. Hmmm....and the toothbrush, I love that idea, tiny splatters and blood spray! I'll be using that whenever I start painting bloody things

Cheers all. Keep up the momentum and great posts! This is so great! <3

Bebop


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/11 00:10:54


Post by: Camkierhi


Going to try an experiment, since we have the creme dela creme here, please pick this to bits...

Zoom in in the Gallery to see it properly.



I am close to calling it done, though I have spotted a couple niggles I will sort out, however, all advice and suggestions accepted.

I figure public dismemberment will help many others as well as me.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/11 04:41:27


Post by: nerdfest09


so here's part #2 of the yellow

Vallejo yellow green final highlight

then wash with GW Cassandora Yellow



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/11 07:34:54


Post by: Hojin


I think this thread is really awesome and as someone who really wants to improve my painting I would like to join. I started when I was around ten, and have some miniatures in a box that are a little thick with paint. But then I left miniatures behind for around 14 years until now when I have just gotten back into it.

Here is what I am working on at the moment. My Stormcast Orcternals. Still heavily WIP

Spoiler:








DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/11 19:25:54


Post by: Guildenstern


that's a really cool idea Hojin!! making me lol at Orcternals honestly that's a hoot your painting looks really good you've got a lot of expression on that orc face! and the eyes, just really like them. My only quibble might be the right (viewer's side) looks maybe a tad off. I have a terrible time with eyes so please don't take this as more than just a friendly note!

I appreciate all the kind words too guys!

I've been painting again now for maybe a total of two years I think? And I am looking for ways to improve. I feel like I've hit a bit of a plateau and I'm not sure how to push through it. One of my weaknesses is colours. I have a few colours I really really like and I tend to like dark colours overall, in terms of the whole painted shebang so to speak. I see a lot of very inspirational work you all and others have done and I just can't quite grasp how you got the colours to go together. Maybe it's simply experience, having used a lot of colours etc and knowing how to apply them together.

I just think I've gotten stuck in a rut a bit, and I need to break out of it. One of the reasons, since I started an ork army to play with my son's Necrons, that I decided to incorporate a colour I've really never used: orange. Not in so much a huge major way, but in a way that'd give me enough variety in the army itself and also let me work with a new colour.

Example so far:





(in hindsight a piece of sandpaper as a backing may not have been the best choice but it did keep the models in place! lol)

Re: techniques etc - I think all the techniques have a place in our arsenal, yes, drybrushing I'm looking at you While I don't care for say, most OSL, I certainly see really good examples of it! And frankly anything can be overdone of course. Everyone has their own style, or things they like as well. In regard to NMM vs. TMM I don't see the point of debating the merits of one over the other, because as I said, they all have their place. I personally may not care for NMM for my own models, for instance, I have seen absolutely awesome examples of it, in very fitting ways as well.

Example on this thread: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/69632-irish-kern-warrior/ Just a gorgeous sword on that model, absolutely jaw dropping.

If you all get a chance as well you might take a gander at Wyrd forums Iron Painter entries - so much beauty in one place. Even if you don't like the models necessarily, you can enjoy and appreciate the techniques used (well just ignore mine though )

wanted to add a little note, I've been listening to a lot of malifaux podcasts whilst painting of late, and I came across one I quite liked, with a painting section. One of the things he said kind of struck a chord with me, and while I'm not sure he's 100% correct, it makes an interesting way to think of it. He was talking about priming. The bit that stuck out to me was as he explained, essentially you only get so many layers on your mini to work with (yes I'm paraphrasing in case it's not obvious.) It was a bit about not overpriming and how, at least he thought, if you over did the layers on your mini, you end up not only obscuring your previous layers but also with a matte (or 'natty?') finish. I should probably listen to it again, I do have issues with accents at times, and keep in mind, this is based on my audio memory!

I think it definitely gives me something to think about, especially since, I know a lot of people talk about, do this layer, then this on top and it changes based on what your base was, or about the translucency of paints and how they're thinning to get a certain effect etc. Basically high end stuff I don't really get (obviously). I've always been a more paint by numbers kind of girl. And even then I had trouble staying in the lines lol


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/12 04:48:45


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Fantastic stuff you guys!! Cam, I'll comment on your stuff in a sec I gotta be fast right now... This is a quick post, a copy n paste from my own pm blog but here's the finished morlock. The wips are in my blog and I'll comment more later, but getting in trouble with the gf right now lol....the pic is huge, click n zoom....





DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/12 04:58:35


Post by: Camkierhi


Fantastic bebop. Stunning work. So much to love.

@Guildy when ever I paint orange, I don't paint orange, I paint a lighter shade of red. What I mean is, I paint it red and bring it up with orange then yellow. Not really getting this across very well. Help.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/12 05:54:41


Post by: Guildenstern


Is that because of the colours GW has available? the way you paint it I mean? I found ratskin flesh, one I got originally to use for my Skaven, is honestly quite orange, maybe a bit of a dark orangey. Was kind of surprised, I'd not liked it after I found Bugman's instead.

wondering what wash to use, I'm thinking to go with agrax as I want it to be worn looking, but not as dark as nuln will do.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/12 19:07:23


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@ Cam: Re: the skaven...Super nice work there my friend. Your progress is inspiring and I'm sure everyone agrees!! There are three things that I think when I look at the mini, in terms of positive feedback and areas to improve. I don't necessarily feel comfortable critiquing like this, as art is art. But you did ask One, I think you could Improve a little a on clean application of a base coat. It's easy to practice, experiment with viscosities on a mini you don't care for...try getting a perfect smooth opaque coat with no brush strokes visible. This is something I cared deeply for in my own work growing up, it's not important to everyones style but it is to me, and I think is a great foundation to build upon. Secondly, I think you could sometimes strip down the amount of colors that you use on one mini, or rather find tones that compliment each other a little more. A color palette builder is a good way to see what works, and they are usually free. (I go for some obscure schemes too that don't always work lol, like the aqua gun on my MB which I aborted for black Which brings me to #3, is the photos are sometimes hard to tell or focus on the clarity of the mini. The green background in this case is pretty dominating and close to the mini in tones so it's kinda overbearing, try experimenting with upping your camera game, your minis deserve it. There's a good tut that ifalna posted many moons ago using gimp, which is free. Beyond that, keep pushing. Paint things that are hard, fail, get better, tiny victories

@Guildenstern: how appropriate that I posted a mini painted in orange. I used Reaper Phoenix Red (which is a bright orange not red) and Ochre Brown mixed to make the base coat, added Fair Skin highlight to lighten up for the highlight mix, maybe a *tiny* dab of white for final mix, and shaded with glazes of medium brown (scorched brown equivalent i forget the new name) I then went around and glazed red in various mid spots for a bright tone. I very very very rarely actually use washes, or even apply them anymore, (besides RMM, and other specific circumstances). For my own tastes, I don't use red as a base coat or shade per say, for orange because it reminds me of ketchup and mustard mixed together lol, but that's a personal thing and cam makes it work for his style really well. Personally I think you're on a good track with the agrax wash. Don't forget to show us your progress!!...anyways, cheers everyone!!!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/12 19:38:33


Post by: Matthew


Well, it's time for me to contribute I guess:

Painted this last year, I considered that to be my best model yet:

Spoiler:


And this is what I'm painting right now. Arms are almost finished, just need to do some blending on the pads, body and legs need some highlights. Any advice?

Spoiler:








Also, any ideas on how I take a decent photo without having to crank up the exposure?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/13 00:52:21


Post by: Dr H


A few to comment on:

Nerdy, for your candy effect: The "watered gold" is that a "wash" consistency, just using gold paint rather than more traditional wash colours? How does it compare to the green wash you add there?

bebopdrums2424 wrote:@Dr H: Great pics and tuts...love SENMM tower, reminds me of home! And yes please do post your wood painting tut here, it would be massively appreciated and at this point I think this thread has enough visibility that it's worth it to rehash some tuts that's are posted in the tut forums.
Thanks BB, nice to see it does conjure memories of the real thing (means I've done a passable job).

Right-y Oh! Painting wood, of various flavours, ctrl-c ctrl-p into here (If you have read through my full hut tutorial, I thank you, but you don't need to read through it again), with translations from my paints to Citadel.
Spoiler:
Before starting the painting I spent a lot of time looking for pictures of various types of wood and studying them very closely to pick out all the colours that make up the overall colour you see as "wood". I will encourage you to do the same, really look closely at the wood you want to replicate; you will be amazed at the number of different colours and shades present in that wood and that is what you need to replicate to make your "wood" look as real as possible. Having done this, I then spent quite a while trying different colour combinations on a scrap bit of hut that I wasn't using to perfect the technique required and the final colour result. Do this as well, it will help you.

On another note, the paints that I use are very rare in this corner of the miniature war-gaming community. I will attempt to supply you with correct or near-as-possible translations from my Humbrol Enamel paints to GW/Citadel Acrylic paints. I have a range of paint conversion charts that I usually use to convert what others do here into the paints that I use, but there is more Humbrol paints than GW paints so there is not always a direct conversion and sometimes there isn't one, even if I go via Vallejo paints. However I will do my best and I will be showing pictures of my paints so you can judge for yourself as well (or even suggest better matches). Also, apologies if these are the older, out-of-date paint names or a mixture of the old and new, I'm working with what I've got and really don't know which is which.

After all the testing of wood colours I decided to give the planks of the hut a sort of old, driftwood colour that would only be visible on the inside because the outside would be painted to be a grey, sun-bleached colour. The beams I wanted to look like a stronger, more substantial wood and so would be painted a brown, healthier colour than the planks. The table-top ended up being similar to the planks for the walls, but the bench I decided would be made from nice, hand-picked pieces of wood (because if you're going to sit on it, you're going to take more care about it's quality), and that is where I started painting...

But before that I gave everything a thin coat of very dark brown (Fig. 32), this was 33 (Black = Chaos Black) with a little 186 (Brown = Bestial Brown) mixed in. This was watered down to get into all the details and give the deep shadows, but was largely covered up in the end.

Fig. 32. Base coat of very dark brown.

The bench (Fig. 33) was painted to be a slightly red coloured wood (using mahogany as a reference).
Over the base colour the following were dry-brushed;
186(Brown = Bestial Brown) + a small amount of 60(Scarlet ~ Blood Red),
71(Satin Oak ~ Bleached Bone) not as heavily as the previous coat,
34(White = Skull White) lightly and in patches to give variation to the colour,
and then a wash with 33(Black = Chaos Black) Also patchy for variation and in dots to represent the nails.

The legs were done the same but without the added red and the black wash was concentrated more towards the ground to show the dampness seeping into the legs.

Fig. 33. Wooden bench.

For the table (Fig. 34), I painted the legs and frame first with the same paints that were used for the legs of the bench;
Over the base colour the following were dry-brushed;
186(Brown = Bestial Brown)
71(Satin Oak ~ Bleached Bone)
34(White = Skull White) lightly and in patches to give variation to the colour,
and then a wash with 33(Black = Chaos Black) Also patchy for variation and again concentrated towards the ground.

The frame and legs were masked off and the planks were then painted as follows;
Over the base colour the following were dry-brushed;
83(Ochre = Camo Green)
71(Satin Oak ~ Bleached Bone),
34(White = Skull White) lightly and in patches to give variation to the colour,
and then a wash with 33(Black = Chaos Black) in patches and streaks, but more heavily on the underside of the table and in two concentrated patches under the bottles and in the position of the bloodstain.

Once that paint had dried I painted the bottles with 21 (Gloss Black = Chaos black + gloss) with a little 20 (Gloss Crimson = Scab Red + gloss) for the wine bottle, and a little 10 (Gloss Service Brown ~ Scorched Brown + gloss) for the "Nuka"cola bottle. The "Guinness" bottle was left with just the black, but the difference between these bottles is actually a bit too subtle and could have done with more of the red and brown added. The labels were added later.

The bloodstain was painted with 1321 (Clear Red = ? ), keeping within the black wash area (where the "blood" has soaked into the wood) from earlier and then more black wash was added to the middle of the red patch to darken that further. Dots of black wash were also used for the nails on the planks.

Fig. 34. Wooden table.

I then moved on to the hut, starting with the inside. This was because while painting the planks some paint is likely to spill through the (many) gaps to the other side and it would be better for the bleached colour to spill through to the inside rather than the inside darkening the outside.

As before, the wood was base coated with very dark brown, and then the beams were dry-brushed with 186(Brown = Bestial Brown). The planks and beams (only partially) were dry-brushed with 83(Ochre = Camo Green), and then everything was dry-brushed with 71(Oak ~ Bleached Bone) (Fig. 35).

Fig. 35. Inside after dry-brushing with 186, 83 and 71.

The beams and planks were then given a wash with 33(Black = Chaos Black) in patches and streaks to give uneven shades and definition to the texture Fig. 36).

Fig. 36. Inside after the irregular black wash.

The beams were then given a wash with 186(Brown = Bestial Brown). Once that had dried everything was given a patchy dry-brush with 63(Sand ~ Iyanden Darksun) (Fig. 37).

Fig. 37. Inside after a wash of 186 on the beams and a dry-brush of 63 on all surfaces.

Finally the wood was completed by an irregular dry-brush of 34(White = Skull White) (Fig. 38). Weathering, dust/dirt, mould and rust were left until later.

Fig. 38. Inside complete after an irregular/patchy dry-brush of 34 over everything.

The outside was started with a dry-brush of 27(Sea Grey = Codex grey) and this was followed by a dry-brush of 64(Light Grey ~ fortress Grey) and then a dry-brush of 34(White = Skull White) (Fig. 39).

Fig. 39. The outside with (top) a dry-brush of 27, (middle) a dry-brush of 64 and (bottom) a dry-brush of 34.

The outside was then given an irregular/patchy wash of 33(Black = Chaos Black) focussing on area near the ground, roof, overlapping planks the ladder hook and plants (Fig. 40).

Fig. 40. The outside after an uneven wash of 33.

Then it was time to do what shall be known as anti-weathering. This is a process of adding the wood colour back to the bleached wood where it would actually be in the shade and therefore not be bleached by sunlight.

The first thing to do is plan where you will be adding this effect by looking for area of the wood where things like the roof and other planks overhang and would therefore shade the wood, these are likely areas that you have darkened with the black wash in the previous step. Paint these parts with 186(Brown = Bestial Brown) only lightly or use a wash but be careful so it doesn't go where you don't want it to.

There wasn't much on my hut in the end, a little along the roofline and a couple of loose planks. I also used the technique in areas that will acquire moisture, such as the plant growing under the roof and the ladder hook (Fig. 41), but these will have more paint added at a later date to further represent their influence (green for the plant and "rust" for the hook).

Fig. 41. Anti-weathering 186 wash.

After the brown has dried you then want to dry-brush some 83(Ochre = Camo Green) without completely covering the previous brown in the darkest areas and starting to think about blending the brown towards the grey without extending the non-bleached area too far (Fig. 42).

Fig. 42. Anti-weathering blended in.

The final stage of the anti-weathering is a dry-brush of 71(Oak ~ Bleached Bone) to complete the blend between the brown and the grey (think of it that as the wood has been bleached it went from the brown, through ochre, through oak/bone to dark and then light grey). This is followed by a black wash over the whole area to darken the grey and complete the blend/effect (Fig. 43).

The outside wood is then finished off with a patchy dry-brush of white and nails are added for the planks with black wash. You can even add a name plate if you like (Fig. 43).

Fig. 43. Final details to the outside.


And as a bonus, the rust painting section from my tutorial:
Spoiler:
Then came time to paint the rusty roof. Again, I encourage you to search for and study many pictures of rusty things and look at the many colours that make up the whole.

This is also where the colours of paint become complicated as I wasn't using paints straight from the pot and I tend to mix colours by eye without keeping track of how much I added of a particular paint. So you will have to just match the colours as best you can, however, as with painting wood you can't really do rust wrong. There is such a wide variety of colours of rust (and wood) that almost anything will work, within reason.

With that in mind the first colour to be added was a red-ish brown (that also included some black to darken it) that was used to cover everything that was to be rusty metal (Fig. 44). Also note that the underside of the roof was painted at the same time as the top and isn't greatly different.

...and remember the fine dried paint dust that was used for the mud on the base... a small sprinkle of this in your paint can add that rough texture/flakes that you get on rust. Who needs weathering powder?!

Fig. 44. Red-brown base layer.

The next colour added to the rust was a colour I noticed from a few images of very old rust; purple, applied as a wash and kept as non-uniform as possible (Fig. 45).

Fig. 45. Purple wash.

After that, I wanted to make the plates look individual (as if they had been added at different times and were made from differing grades of metal), so I started to add different colours in different quantities to different plates. Such as a red-ish wash (Fig. 46) that used the same paints as the base coat, but a larger quantity of red, and an orange wash (Fig. 47) that included both orange and yellow paint.

Fig. 46. Red-ish wash for some plates.


Fig. 47. Yellow/orange wash for other plates.

However, after these I decided that I quite liked the red wash effect and the orange wash was a little too light. So I used a black wash to darken some of the lighter patches and added some more red wash to some areas.

It's also worth noting that when I was applying the washes I would slap on a little of the wash and then spread it, direct it and remove it from areas by applying (quite large) quantities of white spirit and moving it about with my brush. You will want to use water for this with your water-based Acrylic paints, although you will want to reduce the surface tension as much as possible to achieve the same effect as an oil-based paint such as I'm using. Also, due to the large pools of solvent that resulted, I often got many "high water" marks on the roof. I reduced but didn't necessarily remove most of these marks with more evenly spread layers of solvent. The final result (Fig. 48) was quite pleasing even if I'm not entirely sure how it was achieved (I just kept going until it looked right).

Fig. 48. Finished roof.


Camkierhi wrote:Going to try an experiment, since we have the creme dela creme here, please pick this to bits...

bebopdrums2424 wrote:... I don't necessarily feel comfortable critiquing like this, as art is art. But you did ask
I, on the other hand, have no qualms about critiquing things. Not that I'm a mean person, But "do unto others what you will have them do unto you". I'm very happy to get honest, comprehensive and constructive feedback on my work, so that I may improve, and so I give out as much as possible in the hope of helping someone else improve.

Right, Cam', Hat-of-judgement on, Zoom-in on 32" monitor... away...
As BB said, the green background (while matching the theme of the model nicely) is not a great choice as there is little contrast between that and the green bits, and gold bits, and some of the brown bits... of the model. Makes it difficult to really focus on colour choices on the model.

The tassels are a bit too similar in colour to the wood bits, and they look more like shaped bits of wood than hair/fur/whatever it was they made the tassels out of. They could do with some more layers of highlights of "bone"/cream up to white to make them appear shiny (See the "halo" effect that BB pulled off on his blue-haired girly recently), and/or some dark washes on the wood to help create a contrast between the tassels and the wood.
Also the string that's been used to tie them on with (which you probably haven't touched yet, like the wrappings about the wood etc.) could be done with a strongly contrasting colour to the brown on the wood and tassels; maybe not white if you are highlighting the tassels up to white, and not green as you have enough green elsewhere, but red would be nice to match the robes, or blue to contrast nicely with the red.

The skulls have a nice tone, but could do with slightly stronger highlights on the pointiest of places.

The netting on his back also could do with some stronger highlighting.

The gold looks nice (although slightly green due to the background) and shiny.
Some of the deepest recesses could be darker; pin-washes of your preferred gold wash.

And I like the furry stuff you've used for the smoky things (I'm full of technical terms).

The face is good, but if you want to push it further you'll need to use more layers and thinner paint to get smoother transitions.

The red also needs more depth. With all those deep folds of the cloth it really helps to be bold with the shading (this is something I'm guilty of too).

There isn't really a good shot of the weapon and it's blade to judge. Get a top-down photo for it on it's own.

The big rock(s) on the base look pretty good, but are slightly out of focus in most of the photos to judge fully (a couple of photos specifically of the base is good), but the rest of the base needs few more things picked out (the occasional leaf or stone etc.) to break up the mass of reddish-brown.

And I think that's all for now.


Guildenstern wrote:I've been painting again now for maybe a total of two years I think? And I am looking for ways to improve. I feel like I've hit a bit of a plateau and I'm not sure how to push through it.
I do, and I think many other's do too, get this feeling.
I find that focusing on one new technique can help.
Or have a really critical look over your latest model and pick one thing that isn't "perfect" and set an aim to improve it on the next. (which as we see below is what you are trying)
Also, make something completely different. Not just a different race for the same game; that's still a little person. Switching between figures and terrain is good, but I've gone even further (if you have a look at my commission/making money thread) and have been making items of jewellery, shelf-top display models, scale 2D paintings and models in drastically different scales.
All these force you to change how you paint and therefore break bad habits of painting something the same way you have painted it many times before.

One of my weaknesses is colours. I have a few colours I really really like and I tend to like dark colours overall, in terms of the whole painted shebang so to speak. I see a lot of very inspirational work you all and others have done and I just can't quite grasp how you got the colours to go together. Maybe it's simply experience, having used a lot of colours etc and knowing how to apply them together.
This is a tricky thing to answer for me in any specific way. I do, and have always, had a good eye for colours (not to blow one's own paintbrush). But I do generally "just know" what colours would work and what don't.

That's not to say that I always get it right. I have painted things, and was sure it'll work out in the end (as all models look "off" during painting and come together at the end), but to stand back and look at it to see it's not right. I think the latest was the Tau Ethereal I painted:

The first attempt of the red and orange (oh look, orange...) didn't look right, and unfortunately I didn't upload any photos of it to show.
The red was too far to the purple end to really match the orange that I wanted to keep.
Thankfully, all that was required was a wash of scarlet to bring it away from blue, and it kept all the shading.

... I decided to incorporate a colour I've really never used: orange.
How to paint orange (like many colours) depends on what flavour of orange you want to achieve.
Starting from a red base will give you a deep, reddish (for lack of a better word) orange, that won't jump out at you, and is pretty much a lighter red.

For an orange like the above, I started from a dark brown (for crevices) and up to a tan colour before mixing in orange and finally highlighting with a mixture of "bone" and yellow.

For a really bright orange, I'll direct you to Finnan's thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/269370.page#1178428
It's worth a good look throughout, and there is much more orange than seems apparent on the first page.

...He was talking about priming. ...
I'm very thin on priming my models. I don't go so far as to cover all the varying shades of plastic / putty / etc. but just enough to have a thin coat over everything. I see it just as a layer to allow subsequent paints to adhere properly.
e.g. My tank, primed with brush strokes an' all:
Spoiler:

and complete:

As much as the primer is not a perfect coverage layer, and my following "black" layer doesn't always cover everything either (as it's aim is to get into crevices), I do make sure that the base coat of each colour (the dark brown for the orange) is a good smooth even layer.


Matthew wrote:...Also, any ideas on how I take a decent photo without having to crank up the exposure?
As there has been a couple of posts mentioning photos:
What you want is more light and lower exposures.

Also, choose a background appropriate for each model, don't just use the same background for all models: A dark model will appear almost completely black if photographed in front of a bright background, and equally, a light model will appear almost white in front of a dark background.
This is due to your camera automatically adjusting the "average" lighting of the whole photo. If most of what the camera "sees" is "cor' blimey WHITE" it's going to turn down the brightness and your dark model will become darker, and we won't be able to see any detail.

If you have a good camera, and can adjust the exposure manually, then you won't have the darkening of the model, but the background will appear to glow and "wash out" the model (as you have there Matthew).

Really good cameras, with knowledgeable owners, can get the above to work, I believe. I don't know how, I have neither a good camera, nor the knowledge of how it is done: I have a phone and choose the background for each model (I will take many test photos in front of a range of backgrounds to find the one that works best for the model in question).

Also, don't use strongly coloured and fussy/busy backgrounds. This will confuse the eye and make it difficult to pick out the model's details. If you want to use something more than a plain background then use a faded version (see my photos above).

And don't place a background, whatever it is, close to the model. It helps to have the model in focus and the background out of focus, as this will separate them and allow us to see the model more clearly.

And you want to avoid shadows. Get lighting all around the model, as best you can. Shadows hide details.

And all that took a lot of time and Zebedee is trying to tell me something...


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/13 03:54:32


Post by: Camkierhi


Thank you both, very much appreciated. I will to brush, and push a bit harder.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/13 05:15:39


Post by: Guildenstern


Thanks Dr H! appreciate the advice and link will be definitely checking it out. I've not gotten too much further atm with my Orks, we actually stopped to play a WHFB game today (which was exciting in that my youngest also wanted to play!) didn't finish but very cool.

@Mathew - not saying I'm good at photography! but just wanted to say, try a neutral background. I use a grey because it was suggested on the Reaper forums by people more knowledgeable than me. Not that there aren't others. I just happen to have a foam sheet in it lol

one of the best things I did so far for my photography, even with my phone camera, when I use it, is to get the better lighting as Dr H suggests. Even if you have to grab a couple desk lamps temporarily up on the desk, it will help enormously. Also, use the same kind of lighting (lightbulbs), as it helps the camera get a better picture (how I'm not 100% up on, I'm just taking a professionals word for it). Ideally you want at least a lamp on either side of the camera. Not into the camera obviously but at the mini(s).

if you don't have a tripod and can't get one, you can make a cheap temporary one out of say a two step stool and a few books or something. It does help a lot. Some of my pictures aren't very good because I've gotten too impatient and not set up the tripod or even a steady surface, so inevitably my hands shake and the picture's slightly blurry. When it's WIP pics tbh I'm not that careful, I try to be much more careful on final pics.

Anyway hope that helps some!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/13 06:22:58


Post by: weetyskemian44


Tracing paper between the lightsource and model helps diffuse the light. Make a little tent out of the paper, wire and stickytape. Push the lights right up close to it and viola you have a light tent. Get a program like piccasar on it to adjust the light levels if it ends up too dark or too light.

Thats my two cents anyway


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/13 07:18:34


Post by: nerdfest09


Hey DrH yep the gold is more a wash and when you sandwich it between a couple layers of green wash it gives the flakes some depth through the colour.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/13 09:21:11


Post by: Paradigm


The best advice I can give for pics is to download and learn to use this piece of software (it's free!)
http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php

It's very intuitive, I got the hang of it quickly and I'm normally crap with computers, and it will do wonders for your presentation. Whether you're just cropping in and adding a nice border, or playing around with colour balancing and more advanced stuff, it's worth doing.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/13 10:23:44


Post by: Matthew


Does anyone have links to the guy who made grey, blue red and green backgrounds? They looked like smoke but were white in the middle. They were great for photos.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/14 03:37:48


Post by: jah-joshua


The Tao of Sable:

mind the gap!!!

as bad as a stray mold line looks, gaps between the parts of your models are just as unsightly...
to see someone put hours of paint work into a model, but skimp on prep is a shame...
the main thing that makes a mini cooler than an action figure, is a lack of gaps between the pieces...

if you are like me, and paint your minis in pieces, be sure to test-fit your parts before you start...
finishing a paint job, and going to assemble your mini, only to find that the parts don't fit, really sucks...
if you find gaps during the test-fit, you can put vasoline on one part, and let the Green Stuff stick to the other part...
a little work beforehand goes a long way toward a nice finish later...


@Nerdfest: nice step-by-steps...
Lemon Yellow sounds tasty

@Dr.H: nice reflections on the building...
i have always wanted to try it out on a Sci-Fi visor in orange and black...
i have the perfect girl for it, when i finally get the chance to bust her out

@HereticTom: if you are looking or a use for your P3 Khardic Flesh, you can always use it as a highlight color on your red Chaos Marines...


speaking of reds, and highlight colors, i have had a definite progression of my style with that color, mostly because i am a huge Blood Angels fan...

when i first started, my red was pretty basic, without much in the way of shading or highlighting...
this was what i painted in 2001:



the next time i got a chance to paint red power armor in 2007, i went for a very basic orange/yellow line highlight:



in 2009, i was still using the same highlighting technique, but tried playing around with red tones to separate the different elements of the mini:



the next year, in 2010, i put together everything that i had learned from the things i was not happy with on the previous minis, i took the crisp line highlighting as far as i could:



that same year, i got a chance to switch up my style, and start working with deeper shading on the red (using Exile Blue), and mixing a salmon color (Khador Red Base and Menoth White Highlight) for the highlights rather than using orange/yellow:



on my most recent Blood Angels mini, i pushed the shadows even further (using Coal Black), and made my highlights even brighter with a lilac color (using a touch of Khador Red Base mixed into Underbelly Blue) for more contrast:



every new mini is a chance to progress, and push your limits...

cheers
jah


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/14 16:43:16


Post by: Heretic Tom


Thanks for the idea(s) jah! I'm actually working on my second red model now and I'm trying to differentiate between him (blades of rage) and my red corsair. Your post will be a great resource in this endeavor. With my red corsair, my highlights were pretty flat, kinda pink and were definitely not the best part of the paint job. With my current figure, I have been doing my best to emulate the technique Bebop demonstrated on shoulder pads (posted on page 4), along with this I'm hopeful I'll achieve a better range/depth of color.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/16 00:17:11


Post by: Januine


Humidity over here is awful during the summer which means the ever infamous purity seal is totally out unless you fancy the ultimate in stay frosty figs!! The only real use I have for seal anyways is for fixing weather powders as I like the way PS melts them into the areas giving a really ground in grime, dirt and worn look. Lot of folk rave about testors but can't get that over here so I've been trying just about every other Matt spray varnish I could find (white spirits can also be used but it gives a different effect and result and not what I'm looking for in this case)
Finally have found a brand/product that seems to laugh in the face of Korean humidity, fixes and seals the powers and not a glimmer of mr. Frosty to be seen. Montana is the brand!!!

Did a quick test on some of the bases I use for the SH termies yesterday evening and then on the base for Setorax after that and we seem to have a winner. Here's the stuff.

As to availability - I have not idea but if you're suffering from the humid spray blues and you see this stuff - I can heartily recommend it


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/16 04:18:44


Post by: weetyskemian44


Yeah I just picked up some montana spray. Its highly recommended by lots of good dakkites and comes in many many colours. Didn't know they did varnish!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/16 04:20:38


Post by: Januine


The local arts n crafts store just got the entire range in. There's a lot!!!!! Well chuffed to finally have something to replace purity seal with


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/16 04:23:42


Post by: nerdfest09


Thanks Jah! I love the progression of your reds, i'd say my favorite is somewhere between your 2nd version and 3rd probably because I feel that's where my own level sort of sits (more towards your 2nd) I haven't pushed my reds much further than what you've seen me do to date but I will in the future projects :-)


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/16 13:49:09


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Not at all familiar with Montana sprays. Ive used testors dull coat exclusively for many years and have not ONCE had even the slightest issue. I dunno if im lucky but thats alot of cans of spray. Ive seen some complaints to my surprise here.

Sidenote....are citadel paints available in dropper bottles here in the US?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/16 20:57:38


Post by: Guildenstern


@bebop - no you basically just transfer it yourself (not that hard to do)

@Jan - ooooh very cool, we have a lot of humidity here as well, I will have to see if that brand is available.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 01:35:15


Post by: jah-joshua


The Tao of Sable:

choose your weapons wisely...

knowing what you want to achieve helps you determine which tools, especially primer, that you should use...

if you are going to juice (painting with glazes), you definitely want to use white primer...
even a zenithal priming technique needs a heavy spray of white over the black for glazing...
you can glaze over black, if black is the color that you are going for, to give it an interesting tone, but for other colors, you are better off using a white primer to really make your colors pop...

for layering, any primer will work, but i prefer black...
some people don't like to layer up from darkest to light, but rather start with the mid-tone, and then shade and highlight from there...
for that approach, grey, white, or colored primer is your friend, like Nerd's Imperial Fist tutorial with the yellow spray...

knowing what you want to achieve is a good way to start a mini

for a bit of context, now that i have covered most of the basics, i guess it would be helpful to explain where i will be coming from with The Tao of Sable...
i will be sharing my thoughts and experiences as a competitive painter...

ever since i picked up miniatures, and my first copy of White Dwarf magazine in the mid-80's, i knew that i wanted to paint as well as the 'Eavy Metal team...
then the first Golden Demon showcase book came out in '89-ish, and the pursuit of a Slayer Sword became my focus...
at that point, i had only been painting for a couple of years, and wasn't very good, but i was on a mission

by 2000, i thought i had become a pretty good painter, so i made the pilgrimage to Birmingham for my first Golden Demon competition, and got my butt kicked...
that was all the motivation i needed to really focus on becoming one of the top painters in the world...
16 years later, and i am still chasing that goal, and still have a fair way to go...
travel, and constant commissions, have made it a slow process, as competition painting is its own beast, and in my opinion, it is the hardest level of painting to stand-out in, because there are a lot of really good painters out there...

anyway, with Crystal Brush, Gencon PP Masters, and now the return of the Golden Demons, the old fire is hotter than ever, and i pretty much only see painting in terms of how to be as good as the top competitors...
hopefully the things i have learned will be of interest to everyone, but especially to those who really want to push their painting to the top level...

@Guildenstern: you shouldn't have any problem finding Montana sprays here in the states...
it is the spray of choice for most serious graffiti artists i know

@Heretic Tom: i don't know if you have tried it out yet, but this is what P3 Khardic Flesh looks like as a highlight color for red:




hope that helps

cheers
jah


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 13:15:14


Post by: Matthew


I just realised that grey is probably a paint I shouldn't be painting with. It's so dull and hard to highlight... any idea on how I can switch colour schemes?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 15:09:51


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@ Jah: great insight dude. Thanks for your always enlightening, informative and pic heavy posts! Tons of eye candy <3 and great visual representations!

Allow me to do tthe same:p My own personal experiences are somewhat similar. Started super young and basically wanted to be an 'EM painter for white dwarf. My first choice, i had to settle on professional touring jazzdrummer instead. Damn it all. But yup, as i get older, the games appeal to me less, and the craft, becomes all consuming. Ive always painted for the love of it, and actually played my first miniatures battle game with painted minis, at the age of 27 but started painting around the age of 8 with several 5-7 year hiatius' through out.
As for your remarks about priming, spot on. My first big jump in ability, i was definitely painting with Black undercoats. I liked that i didnt have to blackline anything and i was always worried about each item on the mini being a clearly defined object. With a black undercoat that became a non issue because as long as i didnt paint all the way to the edge of said section, a little darkness showed through. I was also experimenting alot with painting from darkest to lightest. The Tundra Cadian below was done that way over a black base coat and i think bordered on Madness at how long it took to do that. Hours upon hours....Both the standard bearer and the Cadian Tundra Trooper below were painted with solid black base coats. The actual soldier holding the flag was painted to match the other 140 catachan soldiers so it was painted speed/tabletop, but that flag,while not being my "best' work, for some reason is probably my favorite single thing ive ever painted.




beyond that, my first execution of zenithal also proved to be a huge learning experience for me. I was using relatively opaque paints on this mini, but used a stippling technique to give the robe a worn canvas feel 9you can really zoom in on that pic and see it close up) Where i really was blown away with how different i could paint on this mini was the parchments, which almost seemed to paint themselves after an initial coat of thinned whatever tan i used i forgot. I just stopped and said, woah! look at that. It was shaded and highlighted in one thin coat! (obviously thats a basic summary but not far off the effect):


Finally with Infinity models, i needed to find a way to paint incredibly small details, but with the roots of GW style painting. Edge highlighting etc etc without going batsh*t crazy because of its insane scale. Ultimately, and after throughly investigating Angel Giraldez' book,( http://studiogiraldez.blogspot.com/ ) i see that, while he uses an airbrush for certain things, the main difference is that he is using incredibly thin paints, and blacklining instead of edge highlighting on alot of the tricky bits, giving them clear definition. An extremely effective tactic that i find pretty fiddly at such a small scale so thats where my practice is at these days: Black lining to effect.

@ Mattew: Why do you say grey is a hard color to paint? whats giving you trouble with it? I say if its a color you orginally wanted than you should figure out how to paint it instead of giving it up for a scheme youre more familiar with. Of course if its a matter of getting it done fast, some colors are more conducive to quick painting and i understand you may want to just batch paint em up and get em on the battlefield. However that way of thought is anathema to the point of this thread Grey, black, and white (or even just black and white) is a good place to start with practicing grey. Obviously theres alot more there as you progress with any color than just a base, highlight and shade, when we get into color theory. But those three colors mixed appropriately outta give you a good place to feel to good about the results.

As per building color schemes, i pay attention to things like architecture, clothing styles through history (camo patterns and appropiate colors per theatre, *definitely* interior design; these are good templates for color palettes and to remember these you can download free color palette apps for your phone or a website, to catalog palettes you like. A good place to start as well is the tried and true 3 color approach. Two colors that compliment and tertiary color that is generally opposite the color wheel or just eyeballs well with the other two youve picked. I dont ALWAYS think the color wheel is the answer, sometimes im certainly wrong about that, but experimenting with color is a big part of finding your voice as a painter.


Hope this is helpful!.
Happy painting everyone, looking forward to seeing all your works and progress! Share as much as you like!

Bebop


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 15:20:11


Post by: Matthew


Yes, grey is the colour I want. It's just that it doesn't feel like I can achieve the same results wih grey than with say red. I'm painting grey with Eshin Grey as basecoat and Dawnstone as highlight.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 16:53:33


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Hmmm...well, i did a squad of Space Sharks a few years ago as an experiment to see how fast i could paint up a unit of marines and still be somewhat pleased with the outcome. I used those exact colors except i used Eshin Grey as a Shade (with black and brown in it) and Dawn Stone was the base. The highlight was Admin grey plus more and more white and the heavy lifting was done with weathering sponge and i airbrushed the base, shade 1, and high light one. I used a crappy airbrush at the time hence the speckle effect but ended up kinda digging it. I managed to get these done under 4 hrs per model which i think is a good middle ground for painting up a squad fast and could do one squad a week. Which i actually plan on doing. is this something that youre going for here? (in terms of dull, i used the bright light blue to give something interesting to the model color wise, also the green base rim, which got alot of flak, was done that way for the same reason. a brown or black base rim would have generally been rather boring to me.)




Anyways, hope that helps. To recap, thats Eshin grey base, dawnstone, admin grey, white. and i (washed (read glazed) a bunch of glazes of a dirty mix of brown and black into shadowy areas and heavily around the feet.

Cheers Matthew! Please show us your progress when you get some painting on!

bebop


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 17:06:26


Post by: Matthew


I really like that theme...

Do you reckon zenithal highlights would look good? Heavily shaded Eshin Grey as base, pure Eshin Grey followed by 50:50 Eshin Grey/white?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 17:52:51


Post by: Guildenstern


 Matthew wrote:
Yes, grey is the colour I want. It's just that it doesn't feel like I can achieve the same results wih grey than with say red. I'm painting grey with Eshin Grey as basecoat and Dawnstone as highlight.


Matthew, this is grey (one of my luna wolves from my gallery of em):



My intention was to use a very light grey to go up to a fake white, instead of painting white.

I used a lot of layers of greys to get there (reaper colours) but the last step I picked ghost white which is really more of a blue grey white colour. I just really liked how it ended up looking over all the other greys.

Not saying I did an awesome job there are a lot of things I'm not totally happy with with these models but I do really like how the colour worked out, and the cloak on the above I'm quite pleased with tbh.

Anyway, just one way to do it!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 18:08:54


Post by: bebopdrums2424


@ Guildenstern: Nice model there! I have recently started using reaper paints as opposed to Gw and theyve got such great greys! Ive been using Snow Shadow as a base for my NMM aluminums and i love it!

@ Matthew: Honestly, im not sure id want to do a whole army in grey by brush...that scheme works, for me, because its fast. In terms of zenithal highlights, do you mean zenithal priming? Most highlights in general are "zenithal", but in terms of the above scheme, because its done by airbrush, what i did was after solid black prime, i coated the whole mini in dawnstone, sprayed from the bottom upwrds, Eshin Grey, then zentithal from above with admin grey. So in effect, yes it is zenithal highlighted.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 21:28:22


Post by: Dr H


nerdfest09 wrote:Hey DrH yep the gold is more a wash and when you sandwich it between a couple layers of green wash it gives the flakes some depth through the colour.
Cool. I shall give it a try when I get a chance.

jah-joshua wrote:@Dr.H: nice reflections on the building...
i have always wanted to try it out on a Sci-Fi visor in orange and black...
i have the perfect girl for it, when i finally get the chance to bust her out
Thanks Jah'. I await in antisi...pation for that.

Interesting use of lilac to highlight red. I've only ever used orange or pink. Works well.

I very much enjoy reading your thoughts (as with anyone's really).
While I'm not really one for competitiveness, I do like to do anything to the best of my abilities.

I only started on miniatures as my scale model collection was getting too large to find somewhere to display them, and miniatures (with a smaller, individual footprint ) would be easier to place on shelves.
It was only after someone suggested I try selling my work, and it selling quite well, that I considered really pushing my limits in all the corners of modelling.
Still looking for my own little niche, but soon I'll be a millionaire.

Matthew, what problems are you having with grey? What can you do with red that you can't with grey?
I find painting with grey to be really nice. Highlighting up to white, shading with black.
I do have a standard range of 4 grey paints, plus black and white, and I'll blend between each of them (so about 10-11 steps/layers, at most) to get a smooth finish.

The way to get the best out of grey is to find good spot colours, and use the lack of colour in grey to make those stand out.
e.g. bright glowing red eyes, a green computer screen, a charging blue plasma weapon.

Also, just because you want the main colour to be "grey" on the model, doesn't mean you can't shade it with other colours: These will give a different feel to the model (depending on the colour) but still keep it as grey. Shading or highlighting with blue will give a "cold" feel to the model, green with give it an eerie feel. etc.
You can then use the complimentary colour (from a colour wheel) as the spot colour and it'll really stand out.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/17 22:23:53


Post by: Januine


 Matthew wrote:
I really like that theme...

Do you reckon zenithal highlights would look good? Heavily shaded Eshin Grey as base, pure Eshin Grey followed by 50:50 Eshin Grey/white?


I do a lot of grey painting these days as its the primary shade for my admech. I base with mech standard grey, then a thin coat of eshin grey, light wash if nuln and then then layer up from eshin > dawnstone > administratum grey. mixing a bit more of the next shade in each time for each highlight. Final all over glaze of really really thinned down eshin grey with a spot of rhinox hide in brings all the layers and transitiions together. Grey is one of my favourites to paint now as I find it quite forgiving. Good luck


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/18 10:05:49


Post by: nerdfest09


You know what guys, Grey is actually a colour I feel is my weakest to paint! I love the look of grey marines like Imperial Harbingers/Space Wolves etc and would love to do a grey force one day but I can't get the effect I want. I did someSpace sharks for Whaley and they were what I'd call o.k tabletop but I wasn't pleased as I've been with other work, and the only way to give them a 'pop' was with chipping and tribal markings in white.

So any brush methods i'd drink up :-)


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/19 15:46:39


Post by: Matthew


Hey everyone, currently on vacation, thought I'd share an update on my marine. I got some great lighting outdoors.

Sorry I can't upload it here, on my phone: https://imgur.com/a/4h89n

I'm trying tonblend both shoulderpads, not sure if the red is too dark or not.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/19 15:53:37


Post by: swampyturtle


Mind if i join in gentlemen?

http://behindthelinesgaming.blogspot.com/


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/23 16:17:16


Post by: Dr H


Anyone can join in Swampyturtle

Right, so, I wasn't happy with my answer to Guildenstern, and I've had a chance to run though my thought process when choosing some colours...
One of my weaknesses is colours. I have a few colours I really really like and I tend to like dark colours overall, in terms of the whole painted shebang so to speak. I see a lot of very inspirational work you all and others have done and I just can't quite grasp how you got the colours to go together. Maybe it's simply experience, having used a lot of colours etc and knowing how to apply them together.
This is a tricky thing to answer for me in any specific way. I do, and have always, had a good eye for colours (not to blow one's own paintbrush). But I do generally "just know" what colours would work and what don't.


For my current project I'm building a city, building by building. Painting each one before gluing it on.
Each building needs a unique paint scheme to match their unique shapes.

This is one of those projects that I'm making up as I go along; there is a general plan to the build, but I'm letting it dictate how it turns out far more than normal.
I've added quite a few buildings so far and this brings us to the latest building...

In the bottom photo (the skyline shot) of this picture you will see a transparent, cylindrical shape; tapered at the top to a smaller cylinder and with a circular "wall" around it's base...
...The one of the very right of that photo...
Behind the play and stop buttons.


This had part of GW flight stand added to the top and now it has been painted.

This shows what the city looked like before adding it:

and it was destined to fit in that blank hole next to the red and blue one; front right.

My first impulse was to break the shape down to 4 sections:
The clear ball on top - to be left clear.
The cylinder supporting that ball,
The main bulk of the building,
and the surrounding "wall".

Each would get a different colour/shade.

To get contrast, so that the different sections stood out, one or two of the parts would be light and the other a dark tone.

My first impulse was that I wanted the middle part to be brick-red.
Why? Just because it wasn't grey.

The upper cylinder, I wanted metallic, possibly dark, so that was basecoated black.
Why? So that it contrasted with the clear ball on top, allowing that to stand out.

The wall around the base was then going to be a stone colour.
Why? Again, not to be grey, but be light enough to contrast with the brick-red.

On the left here you will see the base colours at the point that I decided it was wrong (and would then write this post):

The red is stronger than it was going to be eventually, but...

Looking at the whole city with it at this stage flagged some problems (and you can see one in the above photo):
The red, even toned down, would unbalance the city being with that next to the other (quite bright) red building.
And the black, red and not-yellow-but-yellow-based colour, reminded me of the German flag, and I try to avoid recognisable colour patterns on models unless I want to draw attention to it.
Also, in toning down the red it would become darker and therefore have less contrast with the dark metal above it.

So that scheme was thrown out and I had to plan a new scheme.
This time looking at the whole city.

First thing in these cases I look at what I know:
I know that the back of the model will have a lot of green, as there will be trees etc on the hills behind the city.
I know that there will be quite a bit of blue at the front of the model, as that is where the sea is.
I know that the red in the city is currently balanced between the red-blue building and the red-sail building on the other side.
I know that I want the yellow cradle (on the skyscraper in the middle) to stand out in the finished city.
I know that most of the city is surrounded by grey roads and paths.

This means that I can't use green or blue as the main colours, because this building would merge/clash with either the trees or sea, and will be adding even more of those colours that already (when painted) have large areas on the model.

Red is also out as a main colour, as already proven.

Thinking of the colour wheel now, I try to look for what is missing on the model so far.
As this model is not a limited pallet model I run through the main colours and their mixtures and tick them off:
Red - yes
Green - yes
Blue - yes
Purple - no, but too close to both red and blue
Orange - no, but on one side too close to red and on the other side...
...Yellow - The only colour left, but...

I wanted the yellow cradle to stand out, remember. So I can't use a bright yellow (and who would paint a huge building bright yellow anyway...), so a yellow-based colour then: sand / stone = winner.

A light sand colour will then be used for the main body of the building, this can then contrast with the dark metal I wanted for the top part... and then what can I use for the "wall" around the bottom, without using any other colour (as they have all been ruled out)...

Back to grey.
Luckily the grey roads and paths are at each end of the spectrum (light paths and dark roads), so I can go somewhere in the middle and still contrast with both.
But that is a large flat area, and it needs breaking up... welcome freehand.

And that results in what you see on the right of the above picture, and in the whole city here:


Hopefully that helps, or at least gives clues to how to think when planning a scheme.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/23 21:47:31


Post by: Wehrkind


Loving this thread! I don't have time to contribute just now, but in about a week I will be all over it! Great idea for a thread.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/24 13:11:34


Post by: Camkierhi


OK here we go, did a little tut on how I am doing my gore lately, please be gentle, and you may notice I have stolen Nerdy's metallic green technique, works a treat. (of course I am not as good as Nerdy, thats a given) just shows though that this blog is helping.

Anyways, like I said be gentle...


Hope it helps someone.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/24 13:13:37


Post by: Paradigm


Great idea wetting the surface so the paint runs, I can see that being quite useful for oil streaks, rust, verdigris ect as well actually.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/24 14:15:43


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Hey guys! Loving everything thats being added! i apologize for my own lack of updates but my big move back to los angeles is in one week so my painting has been sidelined for a short time. I have been painting but mostly just throwing paint around and putzing around with techniques i cant do well. Needless to say its all junk.

@ swampy: you are absolutely welcome to join us!

@ Dr H: its interesting to see the relationship you have with the color wheel. Almost everything i do is decided before i paint. Usually. My infinity stuff has been a little trickier because i dont paint as much of that stuff so it isnt in my mind yet.

@ Cam: Great tut dude thank you! And just as Paradigm nailed it, it is a tactic modellers use for streaks and rust called an oil wash. Where you use a mineral spirit over the area you want rusted or streaked, then use oil paints and the spirit breaks the tension and oils can be manipulated easily. I see it alot in those gorgeous forge world masterclass books. Makes me wanna paint a tank. Bebop painting tanks?? Nahhhhh....<_<


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/25 04:15:45


Post by: nerdfest09


Nice work Cam, I can imagine your technique under some water effects would look great too!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/26 13:23:37


Post by: Solar_lion


Thanks for the Tut Cam. I'll have to see about using it on some World Eaters I'm looking to do .


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/27 12:22:01


Post by: bebopdrums2424


http://www.coolminiornot.com/392744

Dudes....this just popped up on cmon. Insane. The wine sifters/glassware especially are blowing me away!!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/27 13:02:24


Post by: Januine


Wow. Could and will look at that for hours..........


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/27 13:11:56


Post by: bebopdrums2424


I know right? It says in the intro that he's been painting for 3 years. That discourages me a Little bit, but I have to assume the peeps that get to this point so quickly have experience in graphic arts in other areas? It's what I tell myself so I can go to bed at night.. Either that or they literally paint minis all day every 24/7/365. Lol...


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/27 16:49:42


Post by: Camkierhi


Looking at it, it is not a 28mm mini, much bigger scale.

Though it is still an amazing paint job. Incredible work like you say after just 3 years in the field,and it sounds like his first go at NMM as well!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/30 08:21:47


Post by: tatt2014


I looked his work over he has the eye for color and a talent for detail. But don't let beautiful work like this discourage you instead make it drive you to a higher stander for your own mines


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/30 16:09:29


Post by: Dr H


Indeed. Use things like this for inspiration and do not despair that you don't think that you are as good as that. You don't know how much the painter has failed before producing that.

While (s)he said that they have only been painting miniatures for 3 years, there is clearly a long background of art behind it.

Also, that may be the only thing that (s)he has painting in the last year, how many models have you painted in that time...

And it's clearly cheating, using a larger scale model.

It's a great job, and must have been very hard work. This sort of thing is never easy for anyone.

And lastly, remember that there are people out there that may think the same things about your work (that it is unobtainable), but you got there after much hard work.

You do the time, and you don't know how far you can go.
Practice practice practice.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/30 18:33:02


Post by: Guildenstern


I love your cities Dr H they're very inspiring! and the tutorial is awesome!

So is yours, Cam - I never thought of using Tamiya clear red over BftBG. I have them semi-equated as the same thing in my head, I think.

RE: CMON

I'll be honest. I often avoid that site. It gets old, looking at so many really beautiful models. Instead of seeing something I may eventually be able to achieve, I only see what I will never obtain. So, yeah, don't like it much.

And I do realize everyone (can/does) get better... but when you look at stuff actual artists can do, versus us hobbiest.. well, it's just not a fair comparison.

Anyway, I find groups like this much more encouraging. There are techniques that are at least possible for me to obtain and learn. Plus I can bug you guys about how you did it


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/31 00:39:40


Post by: STG


Hello fine painters!
I would like to know how you all take pictures so damn well? My photos are awful and I don't know how to improve???
Any tips?
Cheers
STG


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/31 09:39:10


Post by: Paradigm


Photos are something I struggled with a lot early on, and to be honest is still probably my weak spot so I am always trying to improve. Here's a few things I've picked up along the way:

- Learn your camera. Set some time aside to play around with the settings, lighting arrangements, distance from the minis until you find something you're happy with. Personally, I find you want macro on, ISO as low as it'll go and exposure middle to low depending on the light you're using (brighter lighting=lower exposure

- Use a tripod if you can, or if not, at least rig something up to keep your hand and camera steady while you take pics. Setting a delay on the camera between pressing the button and taking the pic can help too, as it gives the camera time to settle from the movement caused by you pressing the button (sounds silly, but it makes a big difference). Following on the equipment note, try and set up a light box of some sort. This doesn't need to be complex, mine is a cardboard box with two sides cut off, a piece of tracing paper taped over the top (to diffuse the light/remove glare) and a piece of black foam as a background. Makes all the difference in the world!

- Download this:
http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php
It's free, and very easy to get your head around even if, like me, you've never really done image editing before. You can use it to clean up and sharpen pics, adjust the light levels or colour balance so the image better reflects your actual paintjob, and it's also very easy to stick a bunch of pics together in the 'page' section, which helps things look a bit neater and more professional.

Hope that's of some help!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/31 10:52:18


Post by: Oguhmek


Also, remember that good lighting accounts for at least 50% of the result. You can take great photos even with a potato camera with good lighting. The vast majority of "bad" photos I have seen here on dakka are due to too little, or misdirected light (for example taking photos of dark minis against a light background).

Try going outside (on a preferrably cloudy day), hold the mini against a darkish background - not too close, ideally you want the background to be a bit blurred, and snap away. Don't just take one shot, because it is often difficult to tell on a tiny screen if it is sharp or not, but if you take several, chances are that at list one of them is crisp. The more light you have, the less you need to keep the camera perfectly still, but avoid direct sunlight because that would mostly be too much contrast.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/31 11:10:29


Post by: STG


Thanks a lot you guys!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/07/31 22:43:39


Post by: Wehrkind


Ok, dug out my box of mid 90's models, and snapped some pictures. When I say mid 90's, I mean it; I was collecting for the Battlesystem Skirmishes game, which was printed in 1991. Also, I was 10, so be kind

Spoilered for too many pictures.
Spoiler:




Some tiny 25mm guys. Those are all 20x20 mm bases. Also note that I had discovered black washes as a technique at some point, and, well, moderation is not my strong point.




Mighty monsters! Gnolls and bugbears! So big they require a 25x25mm base! That red haired bugbear was one of the last things I painted before I stopped for about 10 years, and the other bugbear is one of the first things I painted.

Also, note Billidum the mighty hill giant there! Rocking a 50x50 base, he towers over everything. For all you young guys who wonder why the hell every game puts monsters on a 50x50 base in the rules despite no model actually fitting on it, well, blame scale creep and unwillingness to change the standard expectations of rule sets older than you are.



I actually remember his name: Brilliante. (Actually I remember every named character's name, except for that Gnoll back there.) I am not sure about the scaling of the horse, but it was really cool at the time to have a model in both mounted and dismounted form.



So that's the old stuff, here's some new, and a mix.
Spoiler:



Tanith there was painted the other week, the barbarians over the past year or so. Looks like I still like really dark schemes, but in my defense, Tanith was lighter before I sealed her. Not sure what happened there. Note that the RBG barbarian and Bones girl there are a lot closer to the old 25mm scale than Tanith.



Billidum also skips leg day. Skipping leg day has apparently been a tradition since... ever.
I am really tempted to repaint Billidum there and use him as a counts as Mulg.



Anyway, a little closer look at the newer stuff.



I hope you guys enjoyed that blast from the past! I have around 40-50 other models from that era bouncing around here, including about 15 kobolds, 15 ogres, and probably 20 gnolls. I think I will strip/paint some up for comparison later, and maybe cram them into a KoW army!



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/07 13:53:35


Post by: Camkierhi


Very cool everyone.

Latest effort, lets see if you lot have had a positive affect, used lots of the advice you guys are giving here.





Lots more...Spoilered.
Spoiler:












So thoughts please.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/07 14:04:37


Post by: Paradigm


That's an awesome little scene there Cam, wonderfully atmospheric!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/07 16:31:16


Post by: AUGmaniac


I figured I would pollute this thread with my meager offerings.
I started painting around the summer of 2014, when the 6th edition Tau Codex dropped, and as such my first army was those space commie fishfaces.

After a few months, I branched out into my own Raven Guard successor chapter as well.

In addition, I started experimenting with new things like OSL and washes. Then I also hit a bit of a necromunda/INQ28 craze, and I think it was a bit of a turning point for me.

This guy was one of my favorite models I have ever done, but I digress. Finally, I started taking commissions for various people around my area


So there is everything! I hope they aren't too bad!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/15 17:20:26


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Yo what's up all!!! Crazy busy few weeks for me, I drove across country with all my stuff in a uhaul and then had two days before going back on tour for 8 days. Needless to say I've my missed some stuff eh?

Cam: I'm so stoked on the incredible progress you've made with your painting skills!! You're really putting in the effort it seems to push yourself and it's really paying off. Trying new techniques and such, they are all looking great and I like that you've tightened up your color schemes. Keep at as I know you will!!

AUG: welcome, and no way is it polluting! We love models and we love people who love painting em! Your work is always welcome here so thanks for sharing it!!

Well, I know me personally, I'm looking forward to finally getting to sit down and start painting I think my next project is to either, now that I'm in LA, seriously begin to build a 40K army again because I can actually play now, or...go at another Mobile brigada, this time probably the female in pink armor, since that MB unit will be inspired by bubblegum crisis. And finally, guys don't be shy about posting ANYTHING related to high quality mini paining and the pursuit of it, links, articles...whatever's in your head. If this threads lifespan is hinged on my support, ehhhhhhhhh lol......I'm not the most reliable of folks IJS

Cheers guys!!!
Bebop


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/16 22:32:03


Post by: Dr H


Not done any new or innovative painting recently. Still working on this CD City of mine.

But, the next job is the water for the river and sea. I'm going to do a fair amount of tests for this and may be able to report back in here in a day or two.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/17 06:27:16


Post by: nerdfest09


Guess what nerdy bought? I bought a digital Camcorder and a stand so I can learn to do video tutorials when they arrive I'll see if I can work out how to film and edit etc then pop them in here for perusal! i'm happy to receive any help or hints regarding making these videos too, don't be shy!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/17 14:25:14


Post by: Solar_lion


Nerd.. that would be great.. now we will be able to get Nerd Wisdom directly from the source.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/17 19:16:19


Post by: Guildenstern


Ooh awesome saucesness nerdy!



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/18 05:17:13


Post by: nerdfest09


dunno about Nerdwisdom! but i'll do my best, should be a much better way to show how I do faces and reds and yellows! and metals.......and skin........and gross Nurgle guys.........


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/18 09:40:54


Post by: Paradigm


Definitely looking forward to that! I've been meaning to put together some tutorials myself, but it'll probably have to wait until I'm back at uni in September where I'm not reliant on natural light (my lamp here is fine for painting, but crap for pics).


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/24 14:11:43


Post by: Dr H


OK then, slightly more than a day or two later, and only slightly painting related... Water, at small scale.
I did say I was going to post something to keep this going.
Copied over from my blog.

The scale you are working at is important for the colour of the water.
At very small scales, such as this*, the water will appear quite blue.
At smaller and smaller scales (that is 1:a smaller number, e.g. 1:56, 1:48, 1:12...), the water will be more and more colourless.

*I've not yet worked out the scale of this model, but when a car is only just over a millimetre you know it's small.

1. The base area, modelled with tissue/PVA, was painted with a dark blue then highlighted with a light blue.
This is just a base coat which lends it's colour to the finished water (as it will be transparent), and the highlighting is just to give a little variation in tone.


2. This is all that I used to create the water:
A glaze medium, this is the bulk of what will become the water. A gloss finish would be ideal, but I only had a matt variety to hand. Therefore the finished water needed a gloss varnish.
You want something that will cure with very little shrinkage (unlike paint) and will be transparent. Look for mediums rather than varnishes.

Acrylic paint, as the medium was acrylic these needed to match so that they could be mixed. Both green and blue (see later).

Something to mix in, and my universal poking device (a blunt scalpel).

These last photos show the relative quantities of medium to paint (see the tiny dot on the tip of the blade), and the final colour of the mixture; a very slight tint to an otherwise white medium.

3. The mixture was spread over the water area.
The first pass was with a green mixture to give the final water a slight greenness; adding to the variety in tone.

You will also notice that it’s applied unevenly, this helps to give swirls in the finished water.

Once dry you have a slightly green, transparent coat over the blue base.


It’s important to make each layer reasonably thin as they will dry quicker.
And it’s important to let each layer fully cure before adding the next, or you may end up with a cloudy lower layer.

4. Three progressively smoother coats of blue-tinted medium were then spread over the water area.
Each time I made sure to keep the edges where the “water” met the land, neat.
Removing excess “water” after it has cured leads to unsightly differences in the surface of the water.

I continued to tidy the edges as the medium cured, as it was often too “wet” at first.
A wet brush did help initially to smooth out the parts that didn't behave when poked with my poking device.

Areas that were further out to “sea” were modelled with waves, while inside the harbour it was kept relatively smooth.


5. The final touches was to add patches of larger waves outside the harbour and at the beach.
The ripples and waves stand out much more once coated with a gloss varnish (as seen here).


6. The last thing to do was add some white highlights, via dry-brushing, to the peaks of the largest waves, and one last gloss varnish.

Getting the translucency to show up in photos is tricky, and I've not found a particularly good way to do this yet.

Hope that proves interesting and/or useful to someone.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/25 10:20:44


Post by: nerdfest09


That is something special! I can't believe how good it looks all finished!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/25 15:50:11


Post by: Dr H


Thanks Nerdy. It was actually more forgiving than I expected.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/25 18:52:26


Post by: Heretic Tom


While I was looking into methods on how to do a burnt muzzle effect on weapons I stumbled upon this, it's a heat stain effect that I haven't actually tried but I think certainly looks superior to just a bit of soot on the tip of heat weapons. Check it out and share your thoughts as well as your own methods for adding a used look to your guns.

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-to-paint-heat-stained-gun-barrels.html?m=1


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/25 19:19:21


Post by: ZoBo


that does seem to work quite well, might have to try that...

I've done heat-stressed metal a few times, for ork big shootas, dakkajet jet engine/exhausts/big shootas, etc...but never tried using washes though...I mess about with blending and colour-mixes, mixing metallic silver with a little gold, silver/dark blue, silver/blue/black, silver/black...and then just straight black at the end.

my method turned out a fair bit more subdued than on the assault cannon in that tutorial, I think I needed the purple layer between the blue and gold.

...unfortunately I haven't got any pics of anything I've done that on at the moment, I didn't have a camera when I painted them...I'll try to remember to take a couple in the morning...


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/25 19:25:13


Post by: Gitsplitta


I remember using that technique when I used to play WWII ships. I think it looks really fine.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/25 21:40:10


Post by: Dr H


Yeah, that's the method I generally use (still need more practice on is though), as seen here:


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/30 17:50:21


Post by: Guildenstern


@Dr H - that little water city is awesome! I will definitely be stealing some of your ideas for my Discworld thing.

@Januine et al - I'm looking into doing a different metal colour, but more in the way you do your admech stuff. That is, I'd like to come up with a better recipe for old steel. Not necessarily corroded, but more like maybe a weathered aluminium. I'm trying to figure out how to replicate the pitting and such, since it's more of a white(?) than silver colour. Sponging on a white paint (like you'd do for a rust kind of idea) just doesn't really seem to achieve the same effect.

Anyway wondered if anyone here had any thoughts about how to go about this?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/30 18:23:58


Post by: Januine


sponging could work very well. I'd do up a bright silver base first - stormhost silver. then do some patches of corrosion with thinned skrag brown in the recesses. stippling for that. I wouldnt use pure white mind. Make a mix of white ans silver so you'll still get some metallic flakes in it adn then a very light sponging. use plenty of reference photos though


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/08/30 22:38:14


Post by: Guildenstern


Ahh cool! that sounds like a plan - I was likely going to quickly into the end colour without really building it up. I'd post a trail pic but I already stripped it to paint again.

Will update on new attempt!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/02 06:33:18


Post by: tatt2014


First off let me apologies for not chiming in for so long, I have an up date on my 1/6th scale Death Angel Space Marine. I had to clean all the resin parts sand, sculpted and primed it.

[Thumb - s-l1600.jpg]
[Thumb - greenstuff.jpg]
[Thumb - primed.jpg]
[Thumb - primer 2.jpg]


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/02 06:54:08


Post by: Heretic Tom


Awesome tatt! The details on the armor are incredible, please don't hesitate to post some wip shots and share techniques.

This also brings to mind something I've wondered about, as I've only ever painted plastic models, how do you guys feel about working with resin models? Any special techniques or tips for those of us new to resin? Preferences in terms of metal, plastic, or resin minis?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/02 11:49:29


Post by: Januine


How awesome is that?!!!!! Supreme work there tatt.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/02 22:20:57


Post by: Camkierhi


Advice required, but first, excellent work tatt,

Now, I need to make this face pop, where am I going wrong!


Shameless stealing of the truly great Nerdy ideas...got me to this.....
Spoiler:





If I can do it anyone can. Thank you Nerdy.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/03 02:32:04


Post by: tatt2014


Thanks guys, I have some wip I will post. As for Heretic Tom clean reins repeat then dry fit and shape. Hot water fixes bent or warped parts I nuke water for a minute. Auto primer for stronger paint adhesion. Camkierhi , well the colors work but try going with maybe lighter highlights or I would stick with the purple and make the face more lavender tone. Hope that helps. More Pics soon


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/03 04:50:35


Post by: Heretic Tom


Camkierhi, looks good. I think tatt's right about the highlights as a little more contrast is the only way I could think to improve on your already great work. Maybe some highlights in the eyes?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/03 06:41:22


Post by: tatt2014


Here some WIPs. Some green stuff work as well as painting. Please ask me about these pics and I will try to answer any questions



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/03 10:31:55


Post by: nerdfest09


Looking good cam! A really great way to use that technique and it fits perfectly with the tyrants bugs! If you want the face to pop I'd use the tongue and teeth as a focus to draw the eye, maybe a different bright color


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/03 14:51:29


Post by: Dr H


'Tom: I don't treat plastic, resin, or even metal any different when it comes to painting.
They still get a layer of primer (although metals can require more coats), and once that's on they're all the same.
The main reason I prefer working with plastic is for gluing rather than painting.

Cam': I'm with Nerdy on the 'Nid's face.

Good sculpting Tatt'.
We need more painting in this thread though.

Speaking of painting, I had to learn a new technique recently; reverse painting.
This is a technique for painting something on a transparent surface that will be viewed from the other side.

To achieve this you have to paint the things that you would normally paint last, first. e.g. highlights and/or shading.
And then finish with the basecoat.

When I first had to think about this it took a while for me to wrap my head around it as, how do you know where to put the details before you've painted the basic shape?!

Still, I was only painting clouds, and they are very forgiving in their painting; they're only a collection of blobs anyway...

As I was painting on something that would be viewed from both sides I had to reverse paint the clouds so they could be viewed from the far side, and then paint them "normally" over the same basecoat, so they could be viewed from the near side.

Starting with the darkest parts for the lowest parts of the clouds,
Then a lighter grey for the shading of the clouds,
and then the bulk of the white...

Then more light grey to shade them,
and lastly the dark grey.

To end up with this:


Not to mention the perspective painting on the opaque part of the lid either... that was also tricky (not least because I had to paint most of it upside-down).


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/03 19:25:27


Post by: tatt2014


Dr. H your right will do. I have been fallowing your mini city looks fantastic I love the clouds and the shore work is beautiful


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/04 15:10:06


Post by: TP^DC Deputy Manager


Hi there everyone, I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to post any "how to" tutorials because I am learning as I go and have little to teach as of yet (the Padawan is not yet a Master ).

Very briefly. I started painting airfix planes with my Dad when I was about 7. I progressed on to tanks, spaceships (Star Trek) and Tamiya remote control cars. 40K was a natural progression as I further developed my interest in science fiction. Life happened and I took a huge break from A-Levels onwards but had a resurgence when I was in university for a year or so, but had to let it go again as coursework and exams took over. Life continued to be crazy and then I happened to be in Nottingham last March on a course and realised where I was and what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I had so blew off the last hour of the course and practically ran across town to GW headquarters and bought the Dark Angels booster for Dark Vengeance.

My painting was stagnant for years and I have only improved since last March. Prior to then I would say that the biggest revelation for me was inks/washes. When I first used GW's Green Ink on my Dark Angels it was like a revelation. I had no friends who painted so had no way of learning new skills. It was DakkaDakka.com that taught me what I now know. This thread (and even more so if there were a way to link directly to advice posts) will be an invaluable resource for those wanting to develop.

I don't think my stuff is that worthy of showing, but have included some photos to give an idea of how I have developed:
Spoiler:

Circa 1997(ish):

2001:

2002 (Proudest model at that time and first conversion):

August 2016 (Finally finished the model that spurred me to buy the expansion set 17 months earlier):


I learnt all I know now from a few key members of Dakka and quite a bit of Google searching. Biggest things that made a difference are thinning paints, layering and highlighting, basing properly (clear resin is NOT scary, I promise) and letting the stories you think of for your models permeate through in the planning phase. Oh and GW technical paints will skyrocket your results.

Thanks for listening to me babble, and in an effort to keep learning.....
 Heretic Tom wrote:
While I was looking into methods on how to do a burnt muzzle effect on weapons I stumbled upon this, it's a heat stain effect that I haven't actually tried but I think certainly looks superior to just a bit of soot on the tip of heat weapons. Check it out and share your thoughts as well as your own methods for adding a used look to your guns.

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-to-paint-heat-stained-gun-barrels.html?m=1

I was about to try this on flamer/melta/plasma weapons. Would the consensus suggest this should be used on projectile weapons? I didn't perceive that it would make sense on those weapons. Happy to be corrected.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/04 23:27:40


Post by: Camkierhi


Heres me trying a little heat technique today...




I am relatively happy, could be better.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/06 13:25:29


Post by: Gitsplitta


Gork (or Mork) would love it!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/06 18:44:13


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Lovely to see a healthy blog in my absence. Sorry guys, cross country move and all has slowed my painting load.
Dr H : it came out fantastic!! Wonderful work.
Tatt: Awesome stuff man. And thanks to Dr H, this is a painting blog so we prefer painting pics to modelling ones Thank you!!
TPDC: Welcome and wonderful showcasings Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more.
Cam: The tyranid looks like a lot of progression!! The orc piece, however, ive some critiques. Again, it comes down to palette. I really think your works would benefit from narrowing down your color choices. in the above youve got red yellow orange green etc etc....) Also, really try to think outside of the box when choosing your tones. Orange and green...what kind of orange and green...The content is good as always but i think one of the main things you could focus on is the in your mind seeing the finished product before you finish it and stick to a more specific palette. Onward!!!

As for myself sadly, ive nothing new to show. Soon


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/06 20:19:57


Post by: inmygravenimage


So various folk have been pushing me to raise my game, particularly gitsplitta. Lurking for now, but stuff to come


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/06 21:00:30


Post by: Gitsplitta


Just so you don't feel like I'm picking on you graven... I've been dogging my absolute favorite YouTube battle report guy to do the same thing. You both are already really good... but you both also have so much untapped potential... want to do what I can to encourage you to tap into it!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/06 22:04:57


Post by: Dr H


tatt2014 wrote:Dr. H your right will do. I have been fallowing your mini city looks fantastic I love the clouds and the shore work is beautiful
Thanks Tatt'.
Your painting looks good, so show more of that in here, and I'm sure if you start a p&m blog, we'll all pop in to see more of that sculpting too.

Cam': The heat effect is pretty good. I will only tell you to make use of research to make sure you get it "right". I don't know off the top of my head what brass looks like when heated...
Ooo, well there's a thing:

I'd say job's a good'un.

Thanks BB.
Further to what you said to Cam' about the colours:
Looking at the plants in particular. Starting with differing colours is not necessarily a bad thing, maybe adding some painting steps to bring them closer together in colour...
I'm assuming that's how those bushes come from the pack, maybe experiment with painting them as if they needed painting. Paint them both the same, but make use of the different base colours to give them a natural variety.
This may "remove" the harsh difference in colour that BB is talking about.

TP' and Graven'; Everyone has something to learn and something they can teach others.
If you find a technique that helps in your painting, don't assume that everyone else already knows about it. Share it and someone may learn something new.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/07 00:38:24


Post by: tatt2014


Bebop My Apologies to our society. I was asked to post some Wips. I was Hopping to get some feed back on the paint work and maybe start a Q&A conversation about the work in progress. Again My bad Guys, nothing but love, Tatt


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/07 09:00:06


Post by: inmygravenimage


So as promised/threatened:
Stuff from when I first got back into 40k, and painting/building after a decade long absence:



Then where I got to before hand problems:


And then starting recovery:


To now:






DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/07 14:31:31


Post by: Gitsplitta


I've been wanting to contribute to this thread in some way, but I'm not half the painter that most of you are so finding something useful to say or show has been difficult. I think however, I might have found something that might be useful.


I'm pretty passionate about basing. I've been asked about it several times over the years & recently wrote up a little thing for my AdMech blog. It's not really a tutorial... more like musings and theory interspersed with some supporting pics. I thought it might be of interest to the readers of this thread.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, as to the basing... I'll give you a bit of my theory using some old models, then include a pic of my most recent effort & you can make your own decisions.

Generally, I'm a big fan of basing... not just the basics (grit)... but multi-layered, multi-texture basing. Some people believe that complicated bases distract from the figure. I respect that opinion but personally disagree with it. A good base can make a mediocre figure look good, or make a good figure look great. With a few, simple techniques you can really ramp-up the visual impact of your work (no matter what caliber your paint job is)... that's time well spent in my book.

Here's are a couple of good example of my "standard" basing style. Brown grit of several sizes, washed with sepia which gives me some variation in color. Grey rocks (these are cork, but I've used other substances), mainly to provide some contrast to the ground, with some scattered bits of grass and/or foliage of various colors. These provide a more realistic setting for the figure and more importantly, give me a chance to either add more color variation to the piece, or reinforce minor colors already in the piece.



In the case of the EC centurion, the green grass really sets the purple off, for the headless horseman below... the base conveys a very fall feel... appropriate for a Halloween army, as well as echoing the colors in the cloak.




The AdMech army provided an interesting challenge. I wanted to base to be somewhat Mars-like. Now of course, Mars in 40k probably doesn't have any exposed soil anymore... the entire surface being covered by a thick layer of Mechanicus construction... plasteel and concrete. Still, I wanted to origins of the army to be reflected in the bases. So, some kind of red soil. GW makes a very interesting Mars soil technical paint... but it wasn't really the direction I wanted to go. I adjusted my grit mix to be much finer than usual so it more closely approximated sand (actually most of it IS sand from a local beach), then experimented with a variety of washing techniques to try and get the look I wanted.

Problem is that the resulting red base, with a red figure on top of it just became a largely indistinguishable red mass. Making matters worse, I'd opted for red rocks, figuring that in many places the color of the soil tends to reflect the color of the rocks in the area... being the result of erosion of those rocks and the same chemical processes that led to the color of said exposed rocks (iron, etc). So, I needed to break up the red on the base. I dawned on me that it would be a very nice touch to use living plants (i.e. healthy green ones) to do so, and in much higher percentage than I normally would. Green and red go beautifully together, and the contrast of natural organisms vs. the mechanicum's metallic nature would be a neat thing as well.

Here's what I came up with...



Lot's of green, tall grass, even flowers. I loved the effect this had on the bases. However... I still wasn't quite happy with it. The ground was just too screamingly red... While it did compliment the figure, it also competed with it. Add to this the fact that my rocks, painted to match the ground did so a little too well and completely disappeared into the base. So... not bad... but not what I was going for. Also, I couldn't remember my wash formula which was very frustrating as it was rather complicated.


This brings us to our current experiment. I like the basing grit I'd concocted, so I didn't change that. I had to change the rocks... but wanted them to stand out from the ground. Turns out that where I live, we have a native quartzite that is pink in hue, locally called "pink lady". My driveway is filled with it so I went out and scooped up a couple of handfuls, washed them and decided to try them for the rocks instead. I won't paint them, just leave them their natural color. As far as washing the basing... I came up with a simple scheme that I think works better than the last and is certainly more repeatable. I'll show you the pic first, then talk about it afterwards.



So here you can see the new rocks. Different from the basing color but clearly within the same theme. My new approach to washing the bases is to do the shadows (say, around anything touching the ground and the deepest parts under machines) in carbourg (?) crimson, then quickly wash the whole base in flesh wash... kind of a slightly reddish brown. Lastly, while the flesh wash is still wet... I hit random areas with the red glaze. So rather than the whole base being screaming red... it now has multiple shades, some rather muted, playing across the surface.

Once I added ample greenery, flowers, etc. to the base, the final effect is rather eye-catching and compliments the figures nicely. I also got my hands on some Woodland Scenics bits of wood, typically you'd see this in model railroading. I *really* like the element it brings to the bases.






DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/07 15:14:19


Post by: Matthew


Any tips for painting red capes? I have 2 that I both want to be incredibly fancy.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/07 15:39:11


Post by: Gitsplitta


Capes are interesting because they're one of those things that you can shade up through pastels (white) and have it look amazingly good. I'll leave that for a better painter to answer through.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/07 21:59:12


Post by: Camkierhi


Capes are easy, take a 2" brush, dark colour bottom to top, dry brush with same brush with lighter colour left to right, done. Whats the problem......oh wait, maybe thats where I am going wrong!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/07 22:21:47


Post by: Dr H


You can do cloaks with dry-brushing. You just have to be really gentle and build up the highlights gradually, catching less and less of the peaks of the folds.

I go for wet blending though. Many many layers. The trick is to get the blend as smooth as possible. Layering (as opposed to blending) doesn't tend to work as well for the smooth curves of a cloak.

But the more layers you use for layering, the closer you are getting to blending. Work on that and then it's just a small step to wet blending.

Contrast is pretty important for cloaks. They are actually more difficult when the cloak is less creased as you can't use large contrasts to show the shape, and layering becomes more obvious.

I often don't push my contrast as far as I should to really pop but I did for this chap and I'm pretty pleased with how he turned out:

If you look closely enough you may actually see the layers on him (he was painted back in 2013).


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/07 23:44:09


Post by: Barzam




This is awesome! Looks like there's some Macross inspiration going on here as this looks a lot like a City Class colony ship.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/10 21:55:02


Post by: Dr H


Thanks Barzam. Not directly inspired by Macross, but I do like things like that and cyberpunk type things.
I just went for a "futuristic" city and let the various items I picked out dictate the shape.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/11 10:05:44


Post by: nerdfest09


O.k, not really a big quandary but since the new Deathwatch codex has been released i've been wanting to make and paint a few to have some fun with now, I 'can' paint black, in a fashion but it's so different from my regular style I'd like to see what others do to paint black and then have a few test models made up to practice on

I was thinking of trying these out (when I say 'zenithal' I just mean from above with a spray can)

* prime black, edge highlight with grey up to a light grey
* prime black, edge highlight with grey up to a light grey wash with nuln oil or blue then grey highlight
* prime black, chip edges with boltgun and wash chips with agrax/sepia then re chip with silver
* prime black, zenithal highlight with white then wash with nuln oil multiple times while adding light grey highlights until it blends (how I currently do it)
* prime black, zenithal highlight with silver then wash with nuln oil and finish with silver edging

So thoughts to try?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/11 10:45:09


Post by: Camkierhi


I am really not joking here, try prime white and shade it back to black. That's how I did these cloaks recently. Put a bit of blue to it myself.

Spoiler:




Though I am sure you will do it much better. That was literally 2-3 washes over a white primer.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/11 20:04:59


Post by: weetyskemian44


Cam this is how I do black - mainly because I have white primer cheaply available, but also because it works fairly well. At first it wasn't working well on large flat areas like armour plates but then I tried adding thicker black paint to my black wash and carefully wet blending it.

This is all very useful stuff - for example I used the heat technique recently -

[Thumb - spanky.jpg]


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/11 20:44:51


Post by: Paradigm


 nerdfest09 wrote:

* prime black, zenithal highlight with silver then wash with nuln oil and finish with silver edging

So thoughts to try?


That's pretty much my method, the only difference is that I apply splotches of brown/green/purple/blue before the Nuln, to add some depth and colour to the black (my early Iron Hands were just silver then black, adding in the colour stage on the later ones definitely makes a difference). I'd suggest drybrusing the silver rather than spraying or painting solid, though, it's just as quick as there's little need to be neat at that stage and gives a much more natural and less artificial finish.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/17 22:28:31


Post by: Rogue Wolves


Here's some of my current favorites...

[Thumb - 1.jpg]
[Thumb - 3.jpg]
[Thumb - 4.jpg]
[Thumb - 2.jpg]
[Thumb - 5.jpg]
[Thumb - 9928c4a91c3c26a4ac1d242b385ab4bd_32169.jpg]


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/18 10:16:03


Post by: Camkierhi


Going to try the metallic undercoat business, your work Para is outstanding and love the results you are getting.

@Rogue Wolves, nice work, scary, but really brilliant paintwork.

OK peeps had a go at NMM lets see what the best of the best think.....



It's my first real go, tried little bits here and there before, never really pulled it off, whats your thoughts..


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/18 10:25:58


Post by: Paradigm


Looks great for a first attempt, way better than mine! The gauntlet in particular is superb. A few pointers though:

- The first thing I noticed that does detract from the overall look a little is how close in colour the hair/beard are to the gold NMM, the actual gold areas get a little lost. If those were to be, say, a grey-white or a slayer-esque orange the whole thing would pop a bit more.

- The gold could maybe use one more highlight just on the edges that would really catch the light, and likewise maybe a bit more shadow in the recesses. I'm not one for ultra-shiny NMM, but the odd extreme highlight or shade can definitely help nail the metallic look.

- Looks like you used a blue wash of some kind on the gauntlet, I'd do the same on the hammer with very, very thin purple. Think I mentioned this before in the thread, but purple over gold really does help the contrast and tone.


All in all, though, a very solid first attempt! Looking forward to your take on working from actual metallics as well



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/18 20:37:46


Post by: weetyskemian44


What you need there is a really really solid white-yellow highlight just at the top of that hammer, is what I'd do. Make it pop as they say. Paradigm already sad that but I wrote this before I read...


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/19 20:41:32


Post by: Dr H


nerdfest09 wrote:... I'd like to see what others do to paint black ...
I've... not actually painted much black recently.

Looking back over past models that have black on them I appear to start from black and then dry-brush dark and then medium grey over it, with a final edge highlight of lighter grey.
Best example of this is what I used in your "Sin City" competition.
Judging from the votes she has received in the gallery, it's not the best method:

I'll have to try out a black model some time soon as see if I can find a better method.

Welcome RW. Nice selection of things there. Good work.

Cam': I've already commented over in your thread.

I have a series of photos in progress showing every layer of my painting technique. So that'll be incoming soon.

In the meanwhile, I was commenting in the last LoER contest round and came out with something that'll be a good topic to cover in this thread:
It's all well and good knowing the techniques and reading all the tutorials of how the experts perform those perfectly...

...But what do you do when it goes wrong?

I think that a large part of painting to a high level is knowing ways to "save" a project when something hasn't worked out.
Yes, you can strip the model and start again, but what if it's only part of that model that's wrong and you don't want to remove/damage the 100's of hours of work you've put in to the rest of the model?

It can be as simple as a moist brush to erase a slip, or a complicated methodology to cover or disguise a dodgy paint effect.

I think it'll be very useful for all involved if we share out methods for saving those "little" errors that might cause someone to throw a model back in the box.
Let's hear them.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/19 21:54:47


Post by: Solar_lion


The ' series ' will be good to review. often we can gain alot from the step by step.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/19 23:38:46


Post by: Wehrkind


RE: Painting it Black

When I do black, the main thing I do is avoid using black paint as much as possible. The reason is that it is hard to get darker than black, and it tends to look sort of dead.
I usually start with a middle grey primer, and then mix a dark grey + some reasonable color I want the reflecting light to be. That is, most materials don't really reflect black or grey (no color) but rather a really dark version of a color. So my wife's hair is not black but a really dark brown, while crow feathers often seem sort of bluish.
Once you have your dark base color, you can add the contrasting color to it to darken it while keeping the intensity. So instead of looking flat and dead from adding black it looks rich but still darker.
After that, just use less of the dark grey and contrast color as you get lighter, and Bob's your uncle.

You can get a similar effect going with a dark grey wash over a mid grey coat, then highlighting with white + desired color, then washing with desired colors. This can be less work depending on the model.

Lanyssa's cloak here on the left uses mostly the wash method, while the (really hard to see) boots of the guy shooting her in the temple use more of the first method to get a black with brown tones. On Lanyssa I also added some purple wash as a partial contrast to the blue, giving it a slightly darker look (and somewhat iridescent, which doesn't show in the picture).


Ghettorix here on the left is sort of an example of how NOT to do this. I didn't use enough color on his fur, and it sort of blends into his cast iron armor plates, for a disappointing effect. Live and learn.



Wow.... looking back through my gallery for examples of this, I really haven't painted anything black other than armor bits in a long, long time. That's kind of shocking.



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/21 13:26:05


Post by: Dr H


Here we go, every layer of paint from primer to tidy armour (no additional details) for an Imperial Fist marine.
Notice that it looks horrible and patchy for almost half the process, and rough and messy until almost the end where it's tidied.
This is just how I work, and why I do details at the end.


While the majority of the black gets covered anyway and I have to go back and "tidy" the edges and crevices, I like to start from black to get a good dark basecoat (the brown in this case) that I can build up to the highlights and leave the shading that forms naturally from this process.
Any areas that are too hard to reach after this point get left black/dark and are considered shadows.







That's a lot of layers on some areas... But very few layers over fine details that have shading around them; one advantage I can think of for starting from dark.
The thin coats mean that, even at 12 - 15 coats of paint, it doesn't leave that "thick paint" look and distort the shape/lines of the model.

Hope that proves informative.

Oh, and once all the details are done:


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/21 17:40:14


Post by: Solar_lion


Awesome tutorial strps..

My weakness is faces. I know a lot of you are masters at it. Can you post your recipe?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/22 03:03:07


Post by: nerdfest09


Faces eh, I love painting them, and mostly I feel I get them right but I still have a long way to go with them still. I can give you the basic run down until I can get a good tute done (i've done about 3 so far but i'm not happy with the pics etc)

base with Tallarn flesh, wash with ogryn flesh, then add a little grey and bleached bone and go over the face again, add more bleached bone and water down more then paint the highest areas, add more bleached bone and highlight the highest points, add red to the mix for the bottom lip and water down to add a blush to the cheeks/nose/ears wherever you want. if you get too bright then wash sparingly with ogryn flesh again.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/22 04:57:11


Post by: Wehrkind


The exact recipe differs a little whether I am doing female or male skin, but usually something like this:

Step 1 is a tan/brown sort of tone, either Tallarn or now that I airbrush first layers, a mix of Vallejo Cavalry Brown (a very red brown) and Pale Flesh or Ivory. That gives a somewhat pinkish tan base; a more masculine base would have a drop of English Uniform (sort of a brownish olive drab thing) in there. I honestly don't know why the pink color matters, but it really seems to.

Step 2 is the Step 1 mix with more Pale Flesh or Ivory mixed in. (Usually still airbrush, but brushed on is ok too.)

Step 3a : If I want it darker, apply a wash of Ogryn Flesh or Devlan Mud.
3b: If I want lighter skin, another pass of the mix, but almost all Pale Flesh or Ivory, then apply the wash.

Step 4: With thinner than normal paint, do some highlights with the Pale Flesh. (Ivory is sometimes too pale here, but depends on the look you are going for.) Repeat until you get it light enough, which is for me usually a bit lighter than the rest of the skin.

For details, I generally use Ivory for whites of the eyes, just touching them up after the wash. Sometimes I add a tiny bit of black wash to really draw out the eye detail.
Lips are usually a tad more Cavalry Brown mixed with Ivory for a subtle pink on the bottom lip, depending on how lippy you want it. Often the wash covers that fairly well for male models.

Then I usually get crazy with tattoos or woad paint, but that's just me

A little while ago... or like 7 years ago... wow... I did a short little write up of some practice I did to get better at skin tones before starting an army project. It is NSFW as it mostly uses a lot of succubus models I had lying around because, hey, lots of skin. Nothing really fancy, but between that and my sort of normal blog here there is a lot of face/skin work you might find handy.



DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/22 13:09:34


Post by: Solar_lion


Thanks.. That helps.. I can see by how you apply your layers it's as much technique as it is color. This is where I may be going astray.

Nerd.. looking forward to your tutorial. That would be super helpful.

Wer..wow for 7 years old that was pretty good. I actually like the 2nd to last picture. Perhaps I'm drawn to the much lighter creamy skin look for my demonic women!

Time to experiment.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/24 02:58:57


Post by: Wehrkind


oooh some pale sky blue or purple is good for that! Now that you mention it, that makes me want to paint up some more Wrath of Kings stuff...


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/24 03:26:47


Post by: dsteingass


I should belong to the Mediocre could be better, but gets distracted easily painters society


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/24 12:09:06


Post by: nerdfest09


Just a little heads up (no pun intended) but the October WD has a new tutorial for painting detailed faces! :-) I'm guessing this will really help those that have been asking lately, I used a WD faces tutorial to learn and I now love painting them so this should be great and could re invigorate my own face painting with new tricks! :-)


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/24 12:41:10


Post by: Camkierhi


I must look out the tutorials I have seen here on Dakka, sure there have been a couple you guys have done. Unfortunately I am not a good advert.

Dwarf finished....took your advice,


Thoughts?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/24 13:06:02


Post by: Aryllon


I am so glad I found this page!

Loving a lot of the work going on here. Currently I'm trying to master the use of powders, painting rust and I just bought an airbrush so let's see how that goes...

As for 'then and now', I don't have many picures from when I returned to the hobby in 2008 but suffice to say that it was 'tabletop standard' - flat colours, basic highlights, too thick paints.

The best comparison I can give you is a Warlock from circa 2012, versus more warlocks from 2015. There are some advnaced things I actually find quite fun and easy (like NMM), versus some simpler things I struggle with (painting cloth and regular metallics).





I also struggle with freehand but am getting better. Compare the runes on the same warlocks' robes, with the cultist painted maybe six months' later:





Any tips on painting cloth in particular, I would love!

Also, I recommend everybody reads this Dakka post by Major Tom, I love it:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/683829.page


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/24 16:51:58


Post by: weetyskemian44


That is excellent Camkierhi, you have masterclassed that old dwarf.

Also these eldar are pretty damn good^^^ Might have to appropriate that paint scheme.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/28 03:25:25


Post by: tatt2014


I took a look your work is very good but I cant say am a little reluctant to put an opinion to help you out with your endeavors for last time I got no response to my work or my apologies


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/28 04:25:57


Post by: Wehrkind


@Aryllon : Best thing I can think of for cloth as opposed to other surfaces is a little more dry-brushing than normal. For me that pretty much means "any amount of dry brushing", but I find that the sort of powdery/grainy pattern dry brushing lays down looks nice on cloth.
Other than that... no real tricks that I can think of. Maybe mixing a flax or ivory in as a highlighting color instead of white, to sort of get that "natural fiber" look?

It seems weird to me that I can't think of how I paint cloth differently than anything else other than metals. Is that weird?

@tatt2014 : I wouldn't take it so personally. There's a mess of people posting in here, seemingly all in the same few hours every day. Lots of posts are going to get missed or not many responses. Most people don't respond in a busy thread unless they have something valuable to say, so it is entirely possible they just don't have a great insight to share.

If you are interested in getting more commentary on your work, you might consider consolidating your various P&M threads into one blog. That's a lot easier for people to follow. Starting a new thread for every project generally means people will lose track of you between projects, and not many new eyes will hit your projects after they fall off the first page (which happens REALLY fast.)


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/09/29 00:49:21


Post by: dsteingass


Yeah man. We live in the P&M blog section. We all usually start one or more main threads, and then keep it updated. All the rest of us then subscribe, and then work off of the subscribed threads list for updates. At least that's how I do it. The ones with new posts, show up at the top of the list. It's a thing. And Welcome.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/04 17:59:20


Post by: Heretic Tom


Welcome to all our new society members!

Here's my latest effort, he was a bit rushed because I have had limited time to paint lately and have been anxious to start the Terminator Lord I recently picked up.
Spoiler:


@Paradigm : when you say to paint (or dry brush) silver on a black mini, do you mean a metallic silver? I'm getting ready to do a predominantly "black" terminator lord, and I'm trying to wrap my head around your method. When you add the colors (before nuln oil), do you dry brush them as well?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/04 18:21:38


Post by: Paradigm


Yep, metallic silver, I tend to go for something quite bright (vallejo just call it silver, but in GW terms think Runefang Steel or Stormhost Silver rather than Ironbreaker or Leadbelcher.). As you're covering the whole thing, you want to have something pretty shiny in the first place so you don't lose the metallic quality after a few washes. The colours are more 'washes' in the sense that you want to be thinning them down a lot and tinting the area, but unlike normal there's no need to worry about patchy coverage as that just adds depth here.

Here's a quick mock-up from a failed attempt at the full Deathwatch tutorial I promised ages ago (that will still happen, this particular mini just wasn't working with the light well but I'll be doing more Deathwatch soon so I'll make one of them more photogenic), I've whacked up the saturation a load to show the colour placement, so they're not normally that strong, but it does cover the armour process.

[Thumb - DW tut quickie.jpg]


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/04 18:39:49


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Hi all!!!!! I know you probably think I've fallen off the map but really my tour schedule has been busy this last month so I don't start any projects until I know I can devote some time. But I will say, seeing all your guys' current works is so inspiring!!

@Cam. All I can say is WOW. That is the best thing I've seen from you in all the years of watching your painting You've paired down your palette and it really works. The mini has flow and is concise and I really think it's yours strongest work yet. ONward Cam!!!

@Tatt: my man, I do believe all of your posts have been responded to and i encourage you to continue to post! They are always viewed and welcomed There is never any need to apologize for anything here.

@Aryllon: Welcome! Gorgeous painting there on the Eldar. I agree with Weety, it's an extremely attractive color scheme. I've a question. We're the blue blades airbrushed or brush painted? I ask because the smoothness in transition is far cleaner than the rest of the model, which by no means is a critique. In fact I like that the blades are so clean vs the more rugged texture of the cloth because it really seperates it and gives it a different feel. However, if you are concerned with your ability to paint cloth, which you mentioned in the post, I suppose some efforts could be made to smooth your transitions a little bit on the other parts of the model. Either way, by accident or not, the finished result is really lovely and striking! The nurgle model I like less,...the colors are a bit too similar for me across the model and nothing really pulls my eye. I guess it's nurgle so that's part of it but I think creative steps can be made to make a bit bolder of a statement, like your eldar, and still keep it in the realm of gross mucusy, nurgle! Anyways, a big welcome and definitely looking forward to more of your efforts!!

@ Steingass!!!!! Where the hell have you been!!! You're doppelgänger has been kicking some major butt in my Catachan Kill teams!!
I'll never forget painting him for you!! Classic Bebop, circa 2010-11??


@ Heretic Tom: I Love this mini! The blue is clean and bright and the metals are nice and contrasting to the overall scheme. Also I think that it's a scheme that should paint up real nice!! I'm very excited to see more of these guys and I'll have to check your PM blog to see some progress

Finally, I'm going to just quickly repost my stubble tutorial because I've...got...nothing....else....to post......:(:(

OK SO HERES THE TUTORIAL ON STUBBLE (this is an excerpt from my PM blog that can be found here http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/395565.page)
Now i know there are lots of ways this is done, this is how i do it. It may or may not be the easiest or best, just illuminating a bit of what ive always thought was a bit of a mysterious technique. Hope it helps
Step 1. Finish the Head including all details and highlighting etc etc
Step 2. Make four dots on your palette. Your flesh base (tallarn in this case) Black grey and brown

Step 3. Mix them and add water. Youll get this color...ish...

You Consistancy should be this...

Step 4. Now, Slowly glaze on the wash to areas that naturally have hair. Be careful at this stage because you dont want him looking like the wolfman. If this isnt accurate the effect can be lost.
With just one or two glazes youll still have very sublte tint. Like So


Notice the already painted tat. And also notice that my paints are always very wet and thin...in this case even more so as its a glaze
Now, heres something to expect. This glaze will act slightly different than an ink. Its milkier. The trick can be to find the right mix so its visible and doesnt look liight grey. Black is your helping hand here. I will generally pull the glaze to pull it into deep crevices where the stubble will be closer together, but because it isnt an ink sometimes things will dry a little bit hard edged like so:

Notice the hair line? Not terrible but we can go a step further.
Step 6. Now Add your flesh base to your stubble glaze:

Step 7. Then we clean up the edges using the proper color in that mix. Also, that same color can be used to rehighlight areas that are now covered with stubble, like the chin and jawbones..Use your eye for color to determine this...the final effect is

See its subtle but blends the hair to your skin tone.
AND THATS IT!!!!

Hope You guys found this useful Thoughts are appreciated as usual
Bebop





DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/05 02:24:43


Post by: dsteingass


Oh man! Life got at me, I'm so glad you're still at it, and jesus...total pro-level painter now! We've got so much to talk about dude. So glad to be here bruh!
It is still, an Honor to see that miniature! Glad the ol' Sarge is still full of Whiskey and hate!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/05 06:12:06


Post by: shasolenzabi


I love the works by you guys.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/06 10:17:01


Post by: Paradigm


Here's a more coherent version of the black metal tutorial, with much clearer pics:
Spoiler:





Hope that's useful to someone!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/06 20:19:39


Post by: Big H


Some pure gold tips on here!

Paradigm, thats a really interesting way to do black, i think i might experiment with something like that !


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/06 20:26:56


Post by: Heretic Tom


@paradigm : I'm going to try this with my terminator lord, unfortunately I primed him grey (because that's the only primer I have, thanks "not as knowledgeable as you led me to believe" lgs owner) so I'll have to paint him black first.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/08 03:16:53


Post by: Heretic Tom


This is not the most intricate or detailed, certainly not the smoothest, way of doing a cloak using glazes but I thought i'd put it here anyway and let our resident pros give us some tips pertaining to this and other methods.

Spoiler:

Base coat and first nuln oil wash


First glaze of highlight color


Several more glazes of highlight color


Even more glazes of highlight color, final nuln oil wash and painted brighter highlights under rips in the cloak



And this is it finished.


Note: the "glaze" I used is (approximately) 3 parts matte medium to 1 part paint.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/08 06:28:47


Post by: finnan


Hello Dakka chums

Once again I've returned from a long break from painting. If any of you have ever looked at my blog before, you'll know that I have always been about the painting rather than having enough miniatures to field an army in fact I've never played a game of 40k), so this seems like the right thread to join.
For me it's always been about colour, and trying to get those rich, bright jewel tones. Elder were the perfect vehicle for this, and although I love blues, I eventually found another colour scheme that worked for me.
In terms of painting and technique, what I want to achieve is smooth, seamless blends; what I want to work on are my metallics (maybe even give non-metallic metals a go at some point) and to improve my results when working with my arch-nemesis: greens (as I'm painting goblins at the moment, I'll have to face up to that sooner rather than later.

Here's a few pictures of my journey, from a Farceur I did when I re-entered the hobby as an adult after a LONG absence from painting, to more elder, and heavily converted Dark Eldar. The Wraithseer was an entry into Golden Demon a few years ago and got into the finalists, but not the final three in the category.

[Thumb - 1a3bb18fbbfd6f38cfcd3718cd0da38b_23173.jpg]
[Thumb - 45802d6b0cc4a4aaf4c41e21b4dcd27e_23173.jpg]
[Thumb - 3e47b1d238619105aefb339e856e8d96_23173.jpg]
[Thumb - 64dea57c1e374c091efdc89bb47aea0a_23173.jpg]
[Thumb - bf92c412d76fd539f2dac7faff889799_23173.jpg]
[Thumb - d69c41cf45d1ee276117901560d4a726_23173.jpg]


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/08 23:12:19


Post by: Wehrkind


 Heretic Tom wrote:
This is not the most intricate or detailed, certainly not the smoothest, way of doing a cloak using glazes but I thought i'd put it here anyway and let our resident pros give us some tips pertaining to this and other methods.
Spoiler:


Base coat and first nuln oil wash


First glaze of highlight color


Several more glazes of highlight color


Even more glazes of highlight color, final nuln oil wash and painted brighter highlights under rips in the cloak



And this is it finished.

Note: the "glaze" I used is (approximately) 3 parts matte medium to 1 part paint.


That cloak looks really nice, even for a heretic
You might find the process faster though if you move in the opposite direction: highlight with paint, then wash down, instead of glazing up. Especially for cloth I find that works pretty well. Basically, paint a 3-4 layer step highlight with a little blending, but make it a few shades brighter than your end target. Then use a wash or two to bring the whole thing down a bit and smooth the steps further. Then maybe put some highlighting glaze where needed. Here's some examples:


Her hair and cloth bits:


WoC on left's cloak:



Pretty much every part of these guys:


Cassius' cloak (green with brown and some blue):


The non-Privateer Press models in the middle were part of a big army project that saw a lot of washing after basic highlights. It is a LOT faster than glazes because you can push around the wash better and it doesn't matter that it gets onto highlights. You just plan to make things brighter than they will be after the wash. Here's a link to the part of the blog where I did that on the ogres, who go from nearly pale skin color to a dark nut brown, but with smooth highlights. It was 3 paint colors + brown wash only if I recall; I am about 90% sure I didn't do after highlights.

Anyway, that can be a really good way to go if you have a lot to do because it is very fast. It also looks good when combined with some glazing for faster results (although dry time can be a while).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And wow, pretty Eldar appear! Very nice!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/12 03:06:06


Post by: Heretic Tom


Hey guys, I'd love to hear some tips (or see some tutorials) on leather. I know a lot of you are really good at this and would love some advice. Thanks!!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/12 03:28:48


Post by: Januine


Working on a leather trenchcoat at the mo. Let you know how it turns out. So far doing it wholly with rhinox hide and skragg brown.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/12 05:38:40


Post by: Heretic Tom


 Januine wrote:
Working on a leather trenchcoat at the mo. Let you know how it turns out. So far doing it wholly with rhinox hide and skragg brown.

That's what made me think to ask


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/12 19:03:48


Post by: Wehrkind


Probably the best thing to do first is get some pictures of various types of leather. Full grain, or other leather cuts that include the skin, have that tough, hard sheen you see in shiny leather things, while suede is the middle cuts that have the fuzzy, soft feel.
Past that, there are different treatment methods to get it from skin to leather that change it a bit.

Then there is the question of how it is dyed and lacquered. I am not entirely sure how they get that super shiny, black with white highlight color. More basic (or primitive) dying tends to be more like tinting, so the tan or beige of the leather tints the color a bit, and highlights and folds tend to show that more. You can dye the bejesus out of it to cut down on that, but in my experience it is pretty impossible to remove entirely, especially as the leather wears.

Waxed leather (hardened) is shinier on the outside and harder. Boiled (hardened) is a little less shiny, and has a wood-like texture. Oiled leather (soft) has a darker, richer look from the oil. Waxed and Oiled can be stained by sweat and moisture (I don't know about boiled) but generally not a ton.

So... there's a bit to think about!

(Citation: I have been making leather armor and accouterments for about 12 years now, on and off, and so have given leather a lot more thought than is sensible )


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/13 02:54:00


Post by: Heretic Tom


@wehrkind : thanks for the tip on the cloak, I'll give it a try next time.


Here is my attempt at Paradigm's black armor technique. Definetly need a bit more practice, but I'm not bothered by the result as I knew painting like paradigm wouldn't suddenly grant me the ability to paint like paradigm
Spoiler:


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/13 04:36:46


Post by: Wehrkind


That looks nice! The only thing that jumps out as something to add would be a highlight of yellow on the eye lenses. There is a lot of dark and grey on the front (which is probably partly camera), and cool green color, so a nice warm orangey yellow, or just straight yellow, would really pull the eyes nicely to the face.


On other notes, do any of you lads have a good use for "Metallic medium"? I have a bottle from Vallejo just sort of sitting around because I don't know what to do with it. It looks like just metal shiny bits floating in matte medium, so I assume I should put some colored paint or ink into it to make a colored metallic, but that's all I can imagine... Is there some cool trick to it?


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/13 06:08:20


Post by: Matthew


I need some C&C for my wolf lords cape! How do I make it brighter without making it orange/pink?

[Thumb - image.jpeg]
[Thumb - image.jpeg]


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/13 06:17:16


Post by: Heretic Tom


@wehrkind : Thanks for the tip, I just picked up a "psycho" brush from army painter tonight, super small brush compared to the relatively huge "precise detail" brush I'd been using for things like eyes so I'm certainly more inclined to try some tiny highlights in the eyes now. It's a cheap ($5) brush, but definitely the best one I have at the moment. The new job is allowing me to finally start acquiring some decent paint too, so that's likely to be a huge help with future projects.

I considered buying a mettalic blue for the Violators chaos marine I finished recently, so my first thought was to use it to make colored mettalics for specific purposes. But maybe someone else has a more creative idea…


 Matthew wrote:
I need some C&C for my wolf lords cape! How do I make it brighter without making it orange/pink?


If you hadn't added that caveat, I would have said highlight with orange or pink You could always apply washes to the recessed areas to darken them until you have a good bit of contrast.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/21 04:33:32


Post by: Heretic Tom


Here is my second attempt at using Paradigm's black armor technique.

Spoiler:


This model reminded me of the importance of removing mold lines


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/21 05:10:33


Post by: Camkierhi


Doing great Tom.

@ Matthew like mentioned, purple in the recesses, and some times when I want something really red, I have a great pot of old humbrol gloss red, keeps it red but brings on the impression of brighter. Though I will get shouted at round here for suggesting gloss paint. You probably don't want a shiny cloak either.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/21 06:05:27


Post by: Heretic Tom


I used a little gloss green on the highlights of the book's page details in the image above

Everything has a use…somewhere, eventually.


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/29 01:09:37


Post by: Heretic Tom


Does anyone know if you can tint nurgle's rot? I thought I might me able to make a mud puddle with it. Thanks for the help!


DakkaDakka Society of Fine Painters @ 2016/10/29 12:27:55


Post by: Matthew


Is drybrushing dawnstone over eshin grey a good way to get a basecoat? I want light grey armour.