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After an aborted attempt about 5 years ago, I'm looking to get back into painting. I spent quite a bit of cash getting all the various odds and ends needed for a hobby like this back then, but I lacked one pretty important thing - space to set up a proper 'painting station'. I was using a dining table with a roof-mounted light that made it pretty tough to paint with any real accuracy, to the point where I got so frustrated that I gave it up.

After moving into a new place I got the itch again, and had the space to setup a painting station that can double as an office space when needed, too.

This thread is intended to chronicle my journey...

Good luck dude. Any info on what you will be painting? You doing a full army of some sort or just models you deem cool enough to paint?

Thankfully I still have everything I bought before - brushes, tools, a 36 colour Army Painter starter set, 32 'Old Citadel' colours and washes, a collection of historical miniatures (SAGA and Assault Group samurai and Mongols), some WH40K (boxed game from a few years back - Ultramarines and Orcs, and some misc forgeworld stuff) - which means that all I really need to invest in this time was a desk, and a proper light.

I hit up my local Ikea, never a fun experience, and grabbed this table and this LED lamp.

My Army Painter paints and tools fit nicely in the draws as an added bonus. Being able to quickly setup and pack stuff away is important because my wife and I both need the space to work from home on occasion as well. Everything else (mainly sprays, Citadel paints, sanding blocks, etc.) is in a toolbox I keep under the table:




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Mail Lite wrote:
Good luck dude. Any info on what you will be painting? You doing a full army of some sort or just models you deem cool enough to paint?

I'm starting out on some SAGA anglo-saxon models that I partially started way back when. They were relatively cheap, so I'm using them to try and get my techniques back to where they were before - which was still very much a noob!


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Rummaging through my 'bits bucket' here's a sample of some random models I painted years ago.

The marine was, I think, out of the Space Marine paint set starter pack, and I was testing out the Astral Claws colour scheme. Very rough, and was maybe the second model I painted after an Ultramarine from the same box. The ork from AoBR was my first attempt to paint ork skin, use washes, and base using the new (at the time) Citadel texture paints:



These orks were some of the last models I painted. I was trying to get a good Bad Moon yellow, and also try some basic highlighting and improved basing. In hindsight, bases look terrible and I missed some mould lines (I really struggle with cleaning mould lines, something I was trying to work on this past weekend), but I was pretty happy with these two guys at the time. There was a span of maybe a month between the first two models and these guys.

Session #3 on my SAGA Anglo-Saxons, still laying down the base colours and trying to re-learn what I've lost over the last couple of years - ie. a lot of damage control & corrections, and learning how frustrating it can be trying to paint thin yellow coats over bright red painted mistakes!

Hey Buddy,

Your Orks could do with a bit more extreme highlighting, especially the faces.

Your Astral Claw looks pretty good, I would go with a slightly duller metal base, with a black ink wash, then the brighter metal as a highlight layer.

The bottom civilian models need a lot of shadings and highlights, looking very 'base' atm.

Keep going! Getting back into the hobby is hard but it will be worth it!

Mail

Mail Lite wrote:
Hey Buddy,

Your Orks could do with a bit more extreme highlighting, especially the faces.

Your Astral Claw looks pretty good, I would go with a slightly duller metal base, with a black ink wash, then the brighter metal as a highlight layer.

The bottom civilian models need a lot of shadings and highlights, looking very 'base' atm.

Keep going! Getting back into the hobby is hard but it will be worth it!

Mail

Thanks for the response!

Re: the SAGA minis, they are definitely 'base' at the moment by definition - I think I have about another hour's worth of cleanup to do before I start applying washes and looking at highlights, etc. My focus here was just trying to lay down a smooth, thinned, and clean basecoat over my Tamiya grey primer.

Awesome hobby space.looking forward to seeing what you get up to.

EDC

No time to paint tonight, so I started work on some Astral Claw terminators. I was planning on saving my Forge World AC shoulder pads until I was a little more comfortable with my painting, but I'll be damned if I can find what I did why my AoBR terminator shoulder pads. As I mentioned above, I need to improve cleaning mould lines, so this is good practice for me, even if I don't get to paint these for another week or so.

I ran out of time while starting on the bases, but I'm "happy" with these guys, given the goal of just trying to get back in the swing of things painting wise. A bit messy, but good practice as far as getting my brushes wet again.

Hey, I like your Astral Claws Marine,

That is the color Scheme I use for all my marines. Hope to see some more of the Astral Claws.

Thanks for the comment, ask and you shall receive!

Spent the week (maybe an hour to and hour and a half a night) just laying down the base colours on my Astral Claws Terminator, and was excited to finally get to lay down some washes.

Here's a WIP of the FW Astral Claws shoulder pads. I was trying to get the pale gold the FW painter used on these, by painting a light silver and laying a coat of Army Painter Soft Tone Ink (Gryphonne Sepia match). This is just the first coat of washes, still a long way to go, and a fair bit of cleaning up...

Welcome back to the brushes Groundh0g! you are new workstation looks great. looking forward to seeing the terminators...cause who doesnt love terminators?

Nice gold on the rim of the pad there, Groundhog. Sounds like you're using a similar technique to the one I use for gold, except with AP Inks rather than GW washes. I do prefer the effect compared to just using a gold paint.

After 3 rounds of washes and some touching up of the metals. I made a ton of mistakes at this point that need fixing - usually when I've highlighted back into the shaded recesses, generally because I've had my paints mixed a little too thin and didn't remove enough paint. Lessons learnt... Painting while nursing a hangover is also not entirely recommended...

I also stuck him together at this stage and realised I missed a few spots that I didn't expect to be visible, and I should've left the thunderhammer arm lowered because of the way the FW flap with the Astral Claws logo hangs on the shoulder pad.



I'm really struggling with the Army Painter skeleton bone paint - either it's too chalky, or too runny, and I'm finding it frustrating finding the right mix. I tried to go back over the washed bone sections and it looks horrible, as you can see above, so that will be the first thing I fix. I think I'm going to switch to the citadel version of this colour. I have no issues with any of the other Army Painter paints at this point, but some of them are a lot runnier than I'm used to, having used mainly Citadel back in the days when I last painted.

A few more hours of fixing mistakes (and then fixing the new mistakes I made fixing those ones...) and then it's time to attempt some highlights......... If I don't get distracted by my shiny new Malifaux minis first, that is...........

He's looking good mate. nice to get some feedback on army painter too; I've only used GW so it's good to know

Thanks! Overall I'm real happy with Army Painter, and it's probably my own inexperience that is the issue rather than the line itself.

I think their inks are really nice replacements for the old Citadel washes.

Good work on the Astral Claws Ternie. Any thoughts on how you'll base them?

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
Good work on the Astral Claws Ternie. Any thoughts on how you'll base them?

Thanks EDC! Still a bit rough, but feel like I'm improving each time I pick up the brush. I picked up a Secret Weapon base for him on the weekend that I've just started working on as well.

For something a bit different tonight, I started on a couple of Malifaux bases, just to test my colour schemes. This is just the base coats and a quick wash (still deciding on the colour of the other chalk on the carpet), once it dries I might lay another wash on the wood and then start the drybrushing. I can see I missed some blue wash on the ghost face on the purple carpet... wasn't planning on a 2nd coat there, and I think that spot will be hit by the dry brush anyhow:

Looking good mate. I've got some malifaux to base myself , so will be watching

 San76 wrote:
Looking good mate. I've got some malifaux to base myself , so will be watching

I love the base insets Wyrd games make for Malifaux - actually, I love pretty much the entire aesthetic of Malifaux.

I haven't played any tabletop games since Bloodbowl maybe 15+ years ago, but I have a buddy who is into Malifaux, and I binge purchased the Master of Puppets set because I love the models and may even - shock - play a game or two as well.

I have to say though, assembly of these little guys is tough for me and my big, clumsy hands. I probably picked the smallest and most delicate of the Malifaux plastics, and managed to snap part of one of the models super thin canes (thankfully it still looks mostly fine), and also the top of one of the tiny pin heads going through the little voodoo guys flew out of my tweesers and landed god knows where. Spent 20 minutes on my hands and knees looking for a bit of plastic about 3mm long, before deciding I'll just make my own replacement part with a toothpick!]

Oh I totally understand. I just assembled Ophelia and must have dropped bits a dozen times! Beautiful model though

Nice work on that carpet. Very creepy looking.

EDC

Played a game of Malifaux last week. My Neverborn weren't ready, so I borrowed some Resurrectionists from another player, and battled my buddy's Arcanists. Well, battle might not be the correct term - I was completely annihilated. Fun though, and good to see the game mechanics in action, but there's so many rules and actions to memorize that it is a bit overwhelming at first.

Definitely looking forward to another game, though. Just need to get these guys painted!

About an hour into Teddy from Malifaux, going for the bear villain from Toy Story 3 look. Still base colours at this stage, with another layer or two on the blues and creams/whites to go, and then some more tidying up to do. Tomorrow, hopefully!

Horrible weather at the moment, so a good opportunity to get some painting done!

Malifaux has been a real lesson in hobbying - the painting part, yes, but also the assembly..... I made a ton of mistakes with all these guys. Plastic glue will be the way I go next time, and I'll be a lot more careful cutting models out from the sprue. I mutilated a couple of my models and also tried (unsuccesfully) to use putty for the first time to fill some gaps.



These guys are just about done, I just need to do some more work on the bases. I was pondering adding blood, but might put some sort of a green poison slime on their nails to match their abilities in-game.

They were fun and pretty easy to paint, too, outside of the stitching.



Teddy still has some highlights to go, and then a generous serving of blood to be added.

Tonight was mostly spent trying to get Teddy done - some highlights, cleaning a few things up, and splattering blood all over him. I think I need one more thick coat of Blood for the Blood God over the bloody parts as they dry a lot thinner and more translucent than they go on.



I also went a bit overboard with Teddy's base. Originally I just wanted to cover up my atrocious free-hand attempt, but figured if I was going to over-do it, might as well do it with Teddy. Plus I really wanted to blow the paint from my brush like I'd seen on YouTube.

Been awhile since I posted, but been working on something a little different lately... a gaming table! I've never attempted anything like this before and I'm not exactly handy, so this was a bit of an adventure, and I found myself in hardware store looking for things I never knew existed....

Picked up a 4x4 piece of 9mm MDF, and got a hand from the wife in cleaning it up a little...



I put down a coat of primer sealer. I didn't bother with a 2nd coat because of what came next:



I then stippled on spackle/filler with a brush to get some texture on the board. In hindsight I should've done more at this step, because painting dulls the texture a little:



And then a coat of interior house paint. I was aiming for an arid/wild west type of look:



Next step is some drybrushing. Still working out what colours to use - probably a pale brown and then some grey. It's a real bitch finding cheap craft paints in any interesting shades outside of 'generic dark brown' and 'white' around these parts though.

Nice minis, and love the terrain!

Might try that on some of my future stuff.