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Ok, so I fell in love with layering. I find lately that I want to use it on all my troopers. Problem is...that would take forever!

Anyways, after about 1.5 hours of work and only getting the kneepads and bottoms of my one, single space marine done...I am developing more realistic expectations. Please observe my results and let me know if it's even worth doing this on all my models. Each space marine, at this rate, would take about 6 hours, at least!

My process is...

(All mixes are diluted from 6:1 to 9:1, or so)

Base coat of black
Near full coverage with airbrush, Ultramarine Blue
2 - Ultramarine Blue : 1 - Space Wolves Blue first highlight
Tone first highlight down with Asurmen Blue
1 - Ultramarine Blue : 2 - Space Wolves Blue second highlight
Tone that down and smooth transitions with Asurmen Blue : Badab Black wash
Space Wolves Blue : Skull White final highlight
Tone this down and smooth the transition with Ultramarine Blue : Space Wolves Grey
Maaaaybe do a fine line of white to finish it off



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After looking at the marine again, I must say that in warm, room light it looks very pleasant, and is a nice and gradual gradient. Still though, the time investment per model is daunting. It's just too nice-looking to go back to solely hard-line highlighting like I used to do.

Me personally, if I managed to do this I would end up dong every marine like this, otherwise it would bother me that I didn't reach the potential I knew I could actually achieved.
I collect ork's though and am still a very novice painter so I'm glad I don't have some uber time consuming painting technique or will be painting them forever!!
Because you appear to be using alot of washes, maybe alot of the time was waiting for them to dry? If that's the case then batch painting may make the process quicker also, the more you do it the faster it may get anyway.
For what it's worth, I think your painting looks pretty darn good.

Thanks man!

I actually dilute so much that the stroke is drying about a second after I lay it down. I just need to refine my process to the point where I don't have to go back as often to touch up mistakes or bad-looking blending points...

But ya, in person it really looks good, and especially in darker light. The camera flash really exposes a lot that the human eye would forgive. That, and looking at the mini in nearly 6x magnification. But, the point is to get better, soooo....ya!

Here's a better look, after some more work, in warm light with no flash.

Used an airbrush to do this work...

Based with Ultramarine Blue
Dusted a little White at the bottom/middle of the leg armor
Used Asurmen Blue wash, diluted, and then Asurmen Blue with Badab Black, diluted, to smooth the transition

Not counting airbrush setup and takedown time, it took about 10 minutes to accomplish this work. It helps having an airbrush in your off-hand to help dry the diluted wash.

This gradient is just as nice, if not nicer, than anything I've achieved before, and this was (honest) my absolute first try. I'd only ever used and airbrush for basing.


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*Edit*

Obviously the only armor pad I did was the left one. I was too heavy with the white on the right leg, need to go back and touch up.

Here I have a Vanguard Vet. Maybe my favorite sculpt out of all the space marines... anyways...

I based with UM Blue and then did a little Zenithal action with white. Not overpowering, just a little dusting. Then I washed with blue and black using same process as previous post.

The pic is ok, but in person it looks pretty great if you take into consideration that it took about 20 minutes to do all the blue on the back of the model. Say 20-25 more minutes to do the front, then all the other details and emblems might take another 30 min, at a shade over an hour I'm pretty happy with the outcome if current results are an indicator of the finished model. I have a thing about finishing models, though...I NEVER DO IT!


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*Edit* Skipped the middle of the back for obvious reasons, i.e. Jump Pack.

I think you are better off with Dry Brushing

Not to be a jerk or sound arrogant, but the blending I've been doing, which I really just started doing about 2 weeks ago when I got back into mini's, looks 30x better than my absolute best dry-brushing effort ever could have looked.

Again, I don't mean to sound arrogant, I'm just comparing my skill at drybrushing with my skill at blending/layering, and there is no way I'm going back to drybrushing.


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Must remember, too, that on these mini's I have only been working on the armor, and usually focusing on one armor panel. The rest will be done with brush, and I may employ dry-brushing here or there. I mean, it has its place.