Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 oni wrote:

Lastly, and I think this is true for most people... Symmetry. I get really hung up on symmetry and can get frustrated when things don't match. This is primarily why I dislike mixing paints.

Do you really mean symmetry or something else like conformity or repeatability? I don't like mixing paints either. I'd rather just buy the right color. If I do have to mix paints, I will mix in a mixing jar and transfer the mixed paint to a dropper bottle.

Deadnight wrote:

oni wrote:I will not spay my models.

Lastly, and I think this is true for most people... Symmetry. I get really hung up on symmetry and can get frustrated when things don't match. This is primarily why I dislike mixing paints.

Didn't know models could be speyed. Does that make them... less competitive? :p

So... symmetry. Matching shoulder pads etc, that kind of thing? Or do all troopers have to be 'clones'?

lol. Yes, cuz it makes them far less aggressive.

For symmetry... Best example is hanging up a project and coming back to it at a much later date and then trying to recreate paint recipes, mixes, etc. that I've since forgotten.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Arschbombe wrote:

 oni wrote:

Lastly, and I think this is true for most people... Symmetry. I get really hung up on symmetry and can get frustrated when things don't match. This is primarily why I dislike mixing paints.

Do you really mean symmetry or something else like conformity or repeatability? I don't like mixing paints either. I'd rather just buy the right color. If I do have to mix paints, I will mix in a mixing jar and transfer the mixed paint to a dropper bottle.

Sure... conformity, repeatability, congruity... whatever word you like best.

Fair! Not so much paint schemes but I prefer using the basic shoulder pads etc and keeping my models consistent. My minotaurs and Raptors don't care for their special snowflake heraldry :p

That said for my kasrkin I made a wash from my p3 inks and replicating that for 100 models was... frustrating haha

What was worse was I ended up with the exact same colour via my mix as gw's athonian camo ;p

I'm colour blind, so I used to have to use painting guides to know what would go with what. One piece of advice i got very early on when i was painting blue was you could just add black for shadow, and white for highlights. It worked out, but then I applied the same reasoning to Red, and ended up with a few squads of pink bloody rose sisters. I learned from that, and keep a colour diary for hundreds of different things that i can refer to when i'm painting. I also have a very understanding wife who helps me out with colour matching and gradients. I paint a lot of test models, and I go through a lot of dettol to paint strip the metal minis I use for testing schemes.

When it comes to the actual business of painting, I always undercoat black with a white Zenithol, even if the mini is going to be very dark so i can see where the shadows fall, and it lets me get a good idea of highlights will be if i'm going to be using OSL as well.

I used to like a clean crisp look to my minis, but lately I try to add as much character to models with scratches, dirt and so forth as i can. I will usually concentrate the most effort on personalities, such as squad leaders since they are the ones that will stand out, and depending on what standard I am painting a squad, the squad leader will be that +1.

All my minis will wear a helmet if there is the option for 2 reasons, firstly you should always wear a helmet, and secondly getting skin tones right is something i struggle with, there is just so much variation in skin tone on a single face that mine usually end up looking weird.

When it comes to modelling, I keep normal squad members simple, no pouches or extra weapons, and concentrate on the heavy weapons and squad leaders, it makes them stand out just that bit more, and makes painting normal squad members much simpler. I like for the personalities to stand out and adding more detail to them, and painting them to a higher standard does just that.
I add squad markings to all my minis if they need them.

I always add mud effects, rust, dents, and so forth to vehicles.

Each army will have a different base theme, and I will scratch build terrain for games to match that theme, or base minis to match terrain, which is essentially the same thing.

I have been hanging round the historical people and picked up a few things -

For this scale pure black and white are 'out of scale' - when things are far enough away to be this small blacks always look greyish and whites off white, so I use corvus black and pallid wych flesh instead. the corvus then gets nuln oil/ AP darkwash and highlights in skavenblight, and the wych flesh a true white drybrush/highlight with a watered down darkwash shade. Only exceptions are heraldic like the black templar symbol which is pure black/white. The models are a little lower contrast but look a little less toy like.

I also generally use their rules for detail - for a single figure, look at a person far enough away to be about the same height and base you detail on what you can see.
e.g. usually at 32mm you wont see eye colour, and not often the whites of the eyes but can see expression and eye makeup. You dont see buttons or fastenings unless metallic or strongly contrasting. Marine helm eye colour would be clear, a commissars eye not really.
I don't follow this religiously, but its a good guide and makes exceptions standout.

I go the opposite to the scale people for vehicles, they tend to look like they need a run through the car wash - worse for AM, less for eldar. I imagine a sergeant shouting to the men to clean it now when they get back to the base but not mud deep enough to grow potatoes on which they love for scale tanks.

*paint names may vary due to GW randomly changing them