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I was thinking earlier about this regarding my own models, deciding that, while there was a huge variety of figures, the same stuff kept appearing in the paintjobs. I've always liked using washes and trying to keep a nice, gritty scheme. I'm not such a fan of NMM, but I do like to use OSL.

So, Dakka, are there any particular painting styles/techniques that you like to use, or like seeing? Is there a style that you think suits a particular army? Do you use different techniques if you have multiple armies, or do you prefer uniformity?

Discuss...

I like to drybrush with my Nids as opposed to feather the colours as this is what I was originally guided to do. It also comes out a lot better and nicer in my opinion.

I like a simple, clean paintjob on my MEQ, even my Khorne Marines. I even went as far as to write fluff about how they're armour is cursed to drink away all the blood from their armour and weapons, which frustrates the hell out of them as they want to bathe in a tide of blood and be immersed in it.

For my GK, I like using blue wash to get the eyes, bluetint armour and the weapons, as this is what I started. I fill the eye lenses with blue wash and add a tiny bit of varnish while wet to solidify it that dark navy colour.

And finally, with my Blood Ravens I like to highlight. That's all. I use gloss on eye lenses and did OSL once on a model, along with WB but only that once.

I started with regularly painting each section the color I wanted, learned how to drybrush and used that over the regular painting and solely did that for a while. After getting washes, it's MUCH faster and looks great. I prefer washes over everything else at this point and my models are done in half the time.

Gravel bases, washed heavily, with large rocks to break up the monotony. I can't get away from it! It looks good, even though I need to branch out a bit. Maybe static grass would be a good idea.

Also, high gloss finish on the Tyranids!

I love wet blending, even if I am not brilliant at it.

I just need practice

Airbrushed camo. Simple to do, and looks amazing on ANY model. You can do soft edge or hard edge if you use a stencil.

Great thread!

Lazzurus - on your camo what kind of stencil are you using?(tape? etc).

My Favorites -
Decals on my tau - gloss coat, decal (with setter and softer) then matte finish at the end. looks great.

My gooey alien nids - I have a very unique color scheme that ends up looking like "chitin" or crab shell (mabye roach shell) that I get from a mix of colors followed by a polyshade dip - I get great results from it -
* awesome color transformation (the base color is almost orange - the final color is a rich orange red)
* goo! (alien goo ...hard to describe)
* glossy!

My other fav technique is my OSL chrome and metal affects on my necrons, its very difficult to pull off however, so I am second guessing it for my entire army.

Interesting replies, everyone, keep them coming.

@Davethepak, that scheme for the nids sounds awesome. Do you have some pics of the process and finished result?

@professionalamateur: I've looked into wet blending, and it does look difficult. I'm personally not a fan of some cases where I've seen it used (I don't really think it suits SM, the contrast is often too much) but I've seen some on Eldar and Tau that looks great.

 Deadshot wrote:
I like to drybrush with my Nids as opposed to feather the colours as this is what I was originally guided to do. It also comes out a lot better and nicer in my opinion.

I think I do this too but more because I'm not very good at feathering.

Also after completely painting a Salamander, I always dry brush some sort of steel-like metallic paint, usually bolt gun metal (I forget the what the new version's called).

I know some people give "dipping" a bad rap, but I have found a lot of success with it and that doing it properly for the correct coverage and color transformation you want is a bit of an art.

I don't actually "dip" the model in the varnish, I brush it on, in different thicknesses to give more control over the affect and the color saturation.

here are a few pics of my nids;

The pics of the malenthrope are a bit blury, but you can see the wip one (I am still working on some details and pre shading) the pre -dip color - and the transformation after.

@Dave: that is awesome, the gradual change in colour gradient is amazing, especially given the far more uniform base. It really does look like cockroach carapace.

I dont have an airbrush but I like to use silly putty to mask models for camouflage. I use testors or tamiya spray cans. You can still get the soft edges if you shape the putty in more of a tube shape rather than pressing it in flat. Ive used it on my dust models to good effect. Infantry would probably still need an airbrush.

I like dry brushing.
I often use it when doing blood and rust..

If the model isn't mostly composed of flat areas (marines, eldar etc.) I love doing the basecoats by heavily drybrushing the figure white and then inking the colors on to get started. Speeds things up immensely and I can get units on the table really quickly.

Having said that I keep starting those largely panelled factions...
Derp.

Well my thing right now is a combination of techniques because I am trying to speed paint over 100 skaven (need to get another 40-60)
I do prime, layers, wash repeat (no highlights because they are clanrats and in blocks of 50 I don't see the need for highlight other than the front ranks)

So basically my favorite technique is washes at the moment. AGRAX EARTHSHADE for the win!

chiefbigredman wrote:


So basically my favorite technique is washes at the moment. AGRAX EARTHSHADE for the win!

Agreed, I am a huge fan of washes, to the point where every painting method I have includes the words: 'apply black wash, liberally'. It's fast, it's efficient, and it can look pretty good. Anything that can get 100+ guardsmen to a good tabletop quality in less that 36 hours is all right by me. I just wish I could find some Devlan Mud (miracle wash, as my gaming group calls it), a local hobby store has hundreds of the older GW paints really cheap, but no Devlan or Badab Black. Agrax is nice, but I tend to just use a mix of pure black /brown and Water.

Oil washes onto a glossed model. It's great for achieving neat panel lines, or simply to make a model look aged and dirty; I especially like using this technique on aircraft models.

Water based inks over base coat. Then layer over the ink, which partially bleeds through the layers. Then seal and highlight. Gives a great aged look to most colour schemes.

Drybrushing up layers on my deathwing, is thoroughly theraputic and gives the effect that they are wearing bone white armour that has been through the ruins of a hive city or space hulk that is full of god only knows what.

My favorite technique ATM is OSL. Not overpowering OSL but subtle and reserved. Whether it's from my airbrush or just a dry brush I have done it on all my necrons and most of my GK.

That and xenithal high lighting although I'm not very good a it quite yet.

Painting the vast majority of a model with only various washes and drybrushing. Most of my daemons and commissioned Tyranids were done that way. It needs almost no attention to do.

Wet blending, area highlights, glaze, wash (not in that order). subtle 4-5 layers of highlighting for very lifelike color transitions is what I do on hq models as well.

I love layering the most. Building up colors and leaving recesses dark. I also like really thin paint with tons of layers to build up an overall effect that looks the same across the model. I just ned more practice to not leave tide marks everywhere!

I am always most cheery when it comes to applying washes and glazes. Basing is a process that I like quite a lot, too.^^

Stylistically, while I don't bother with the whole "realistically desaturated to scale" thing, I tend to shy away from really bold, bright, "cartoony" colors. In terms of technique, this means occasionally letting my highlights go a little pastel (instead of going neon, where some of the brighter colors trend), then restoring proper color saturation with a final glaze, usually of diluted acrylic ink or thin layers of a premixed wash.

I don't do it on every surface ("with every color" works just as well, here), but it's pretty rare that a model ends up without at least one or two surfaces receiving a glaze. Reds almost always receive that treatment, as does the green for my Ork skin, which I want a bit more vivid than, say, the green of a woodland camo paintjob. As an added bonus (or is it the real reason I do it? ), it helps smooth out any transitions between layers that ended up a little rough/stark.

Mine is directional highlighting. It's a bit like NMM but waaay simpler - basically layer lighter colours towards where the light would go. I use it as a general rule not for everything (SM or WoC shields are where I use it most - those big smooth areas)

A lot of people I know would Basecoat, Wash, Clean up, Highlight a few times, and your done. I like to wash last giving my models a dirtier look which I think looks pretty good on space marines. Also instead of washing red with the red wash. I use Agrax Earthshade ( DEVLAN MUD!!!! FTW!).