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Made in fi
Fresh-Faced New User






Hello! I'm quite new to painting miniatures, I like converting them and painting them the best I can, working on blending and nmm atm So I was wondering the following: I see all these beautifully painted miniatures, done by the 'eavy metal team and other people, and they always seem to have a very smooth surface. When I paint my figures I always see the brsuh strokes on the surface quite well, specially when painting white. Could any1 tip me off how to get a nice smooth surface for figures? Not a problem with small spots, but atm I'm working on a sternguard veteran, (converted and worked with GS) and the large surfaces tend to get all full of clumps and brush strokes. I water my paints down to abouts condency of milk and do several layers.. Is there a trick of some kind or anything I could do better? Thanks for reading and hopefully answers!
   
Made in ph
Long-Range Land Speeder Pilot





How big are the brushes you use, and what sort of surface? I can't see what seems to be the problem if you do water down your paints and apply them in several layers.

Also, a solid basecoat helps. Are you painting white on black? Having a gray basecoat (or better yet, a white primer) will make your white look less patch and more solid. With the basecoat, you water it down veeeeery little, just so it would go flat over the surface and not cause its own texture.

Watered-down paint will also pool down on the recesses, so you may have a problem of having the paint dwelling more on the deeper parts of the model. Try using less water, perhaps?

Violence is not the answer, but it's always a good guess. 
   
Made in fi
Fresh-Faced New User






I use >Warpainter (i think that's the name) detail brush, and plastic GW mini surface. The larger surfaces are the problem. I'm using Fenris grey basecoat, and Astronomician grey as next coat, so the foundation paint covers it well, at least after 2 layers (; and white on top of that. Thou I do have black undercoat. Okay so I should do a little watered down basecoat (Astronomician grey) and then several layers of milk condecy skull white on that? Yeah i've gotten the hang of using the watered down paints, am getting it exactly where I want it Thanks for help m8 ^^ I'll try the a little thicker basecoat!
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut






HATE Club, East London

Are you applying a spray-on undercoat? If not, you should be.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/03/19 21:34:22


Though guards may sleep and ships may lay at anchor, our foes know full well that big guns never tire.

Posting as Fifty_Painting on Instagram.

My blog - almost 40 pages of Badab War, Eldar, undead and other assorted projects 
   
Made in gb
Utilizing Careful Highlighting





cornwall

Also on large areas try to do each coat slightly thinner than you would normaly and just do extra coats also if possible vary the directions of your brush strokes and use a size bigger brush than normal , the bigger the brush the more skill you will develop while using it .
   
Made in us
Gargantuan Gargant





Binghamton, NY

Properly thinned paints shouldn't show brush strokes. Varying the direction of your strokes between layers can help keep streaks from "stacking" and becoming more prominent, but that's not going to root out the problem.

Are you thinning all of your paints? If not, it may simply be a matter of texture in your basecoat showing through the thinned topcoats. Light colors tend to show the underlying texture much more distinctly than darker ones and white is as light as it gets, so make sure your coats are smooth at all stages and you shouldn't have problems.

The Dreadnote wrote:But the Emperor already has a shrine, in the form of your local Games Workshop. You honour him by sacrificing your money to the plastic effigies of his warriors. In time, your devotion will be rewarded with the gift of having even more effigies to worship.
 
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut






Could be application. Are you teasing the paint around the surface, or actually stroking it? Sometimes, excessive force on a drying medium can leave strokes as the paint is halfway set. Also, how are you loading your brush? Too little and the paint begins the drying process on the brush, which means that it goes on thicker, which means, you guessed it, brush marks. Are you using metallics?. Are you washing the brush in the same pot as your regular paint? You may have metal flakes gunking your brushes up, leading to tiny globules on the surface of the paint. How long are your pots open? The longer a paint is open, the longer it's exposed to air. GW paints dry out. With a drier paint, even the right conistency doesn't guarantee a good finish, as the paint has already begun to dry in the pot. Do you mix on a pallette? Wet or dry? Dry pallettes can (you guessed it) lead to dried paint, the consistency may be right, but without the medium (which will have evaporated) to help it flow over the surface properly, it's going to leave marks.

Taking all this into account.

1) Gentle strokes, try not to brush it on. Let the paint flow from the tip and push the paint around.

2) Brush load. Too little and it dries on the brush. But don't overload either.

3) Liquitex/vallejo flow aids/mediums. Increase the drying time, and allow smoother applications. I love Matte Mediums, but they also come in gloss, metallic (Doesn't work like the others!) and glaze.

4) Pots. Try to limit GW paints to air exposure. The pots are. well, they suck. Consider transfering them to Vallejo style dropper bottles, or using vallejo. There's a paint comparison chart on here to help you colour match. It works.

5) Palette. Using a regular pallette? A bit of medium helps slow down the drying process and improves flow. Blending? Get a drying retarder to keep the paint wet for longer. Don't use too much though. Consider using a wet pallette. It doesn;t cure the issue of medium ( the vehicle for you pigment and binders) from evaporating, but it drasticly extends that period. With a cover, your paints can stay wet on the pallette for days, even weeks!

6) Bristles. Synthetic or Natural? There's erits to both, but a nice soft sable, with a good point will do wonders. Sometimes a split point on a brush (a fishtail) can leave marks.

Anything doesn't make sense, just ask. But these can all contribute to surface finish issues.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/03/20 10:55:17


   
Made in fi
Fresh-Faced New User






Firstable, whoa nice, helping replies, thanks for that! @Fifty I give all my minis a smooth spray undercoat @Curnow Thanks, I shall try different direction strokes and see if it helps @Oadie I do all my colours in thinned down paint layers, I'll make sure each layer is smooth ^^
@Phayse Thank you for going through writing all that down, incredibly helpful! I didn't know it matters how you spread the paint, gave it a try today, doing only nice gentle strokes, works like hell! And the "Let the paint flow from the tip" was well said. I had the paint drying problem but got over it earlier I shall try the vallejo paints, I've been looking through all kinds of NMM walkthrough guides, and getting arsed with having like 3 GW paints and then 2 vallejos and then I don't know which colour that is and bang there goes a good guide down the drain! I've never even considered the palette cause I thought the paint just dries out there and so on.. The medium advice is very good, hadn't popped to my mind at all that you could keep them wet somehow for longer.
Could you tell me what kind of palette you are using yourself? because the GW one looks kinda.. cheap.. with mark "G-W" which costs you somewhat 10€.. And what's the cover you use for it?
Thank you every1 you guys really made my day, can't wait to get working on my "Commander Samuel Dorne" (my conversion sternguard veteran) and see what I can do Might put it in a miniature competition so that's why this is quite important for me!
   
Made in gb
Lieutenant Colonel







Get a wet pallette, or better yet make one out of a Sponge, a Tupperware tub and some acrylic paper. It made the biggest change to my painting ability, combined with upping a brush size (yup i said upping e.g. Bigger brushes).
The more you experiment with techniques, and truly study other painters composition, e.g where and how they have applied highlights, the quicker you will develop. Good luck

Collecting Forge World 30k????? If you prefix any Thread Subject line on 30k or Pre-heresy or Horus Heresy with [30K] we can convince LEGO and the Admin team to create a 30K mini board if we can show there is enough interest! 
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut






Duck wrote:Firstable, whoa nice, helping replies, thanks for that! @Fifty I give all my minis a smooth spray undercoat @Curnow Thanks, I shall try different direction strokes and see if it helps @Oadie I do all my colours in thinned down paint layers, I'll make sure each layer is smooth ^^
@Phayse Thank you for going through writing all that down, incredibly helpful! I didn't know it matters how you spread the paint, gave it a try today, doing only nice gentle strokes, works like hell! And the "Let the paint flow from the tip" was well said. I had the paint drying problem but got over it earlier I shall try the vallejo paints, I've been looking through all kinds of NMM walkthrough guides, and getting arsed with having like 3 GW paints and then 2 vallejos and then I don't know which colour that is and bang there goes a good guide down the drain! I've never even considered the palette cause I thought the paint just dries out there and so on.. The medium advice is very good, hadn't popped to my mind at all that you could keep them wet somehow for longer.
Could you tell me what kind of palette you are using yourself? because the GW one looks kinda.. cheap.. with mark "G-W" which costs you somewhat 10€.. And what's the cover you use for it?
Thank you every1 you guys really made my day, can't wait to get working on my "Commander Samuel Dorne" (my conversion sternguard veteran) and see what I can do Might put it in a miniature competition so that's why this is quite important for me!


Palettes - I use a few. I've got a regular ten a penny pallete with concave compartments, I use that most. I do all my mixing there, and it's great for keeping a set of graduating colours in order. If I'm doing a lot of the same thing, or I'm using premixed colours (ones I've mixed myself) or simple basecoating then it goes on the wet pallette with a drop of matte medium, as it doesn't need to be mixed, it doesn't need to be laid out in any order and It'll keep the paint slick for as long as I need it.

A wet pallette is easy. Get a blister pack, or other shallow container - a saucer from a plant pot is excellent - but no holes! Get a thin sponge, or one of those blue disposable dishcloths (the ones that come in packs) Cut it to size leaving a small gap around the edge of the cloth. Pop it in the saucer and wet it under a tap. Let the excess drip away, so you're left with a damp cloth is a saucer. Get some baking parchment (dirt cheap, comes in a long 20 metre roll). Lay a piece on top and mix your paint on it. The paper is permeable by water and keeps the paint wet by osmosis. You will lose medium to evaporation, but generally the osmosis curbs that reaction.

Les B from awsomepaintjob does a great tutorial of an imperial fist sternguard. You should definitely check it out via google, even if his colour scheme doesn't match yours, the techniques are still relevant. Winterdyne also hosts an excellent PDF tutorial for paining ultramarine sternguard - again, the scheme may not apply, but insight is worth its weight in gold.

EDIT.

Also - pop over and have a look at my random musings. I took a 10 or so year break from the hobby, and was back up to speed within a month or so with regard to painting thanks to the stuff I discuss here.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/350020.page

I cannot rate decent explanations and tutorials highly enough

Awesomepintjob
Winterdyne
SMConsortium

Those are your go to guys. as is anything they recommend. People seriously underjudge the value in educating yourself about things like this. Case in point. At the start of the year, I was working from the ground up, relearning everything, 3 months later with the help of a few good people, and I've got my first few commission paint jobs and am looking to roll that out part time.

Knowledge is power!


This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/03/20 18:05:07


   
 
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