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I know you paint the white first and get it as clean as you need it and it has something to do with learning to paint straight lines and brush control etc. But can anyone give me other kinds of tips on doing this right? Like what kind of brush and how small. Tips on how to make things a bit easier. Like those super tiny checkers you see and the rust effects you see people do over them. I can never find a good decent rust color on mine.

Also how do you get the control down if your doing them like on lets say...something that curves like the front end of a deff kopter. I tried doing that once and my spacing got way the heck screwed up and it looked terrible...and that was with really large checkers.

First sketch out the checks lightly with a nice sharp pencil. After that it will all fall into place for you.

Zip Napalm wrote:First sketch out the checks lightly with a nice sharp pencil. After that it will all fall into place for you.

Definitely this...I painted a gak ton of various check patterns for my Orks,ranging from plates on vehicles to shoulder pads on boyz,and I always sketched out the checks with a pencil first...it helped..ALOT.

Some people draw the lines with a technical drawing pen (use one with waterproof ink) then fill in the squares with paint.

hmm..well maybe but I have -20% art skills I am not sure I could even sketch those lines the way I wanted them too. lol

I don't paint my checks, at all. Since they're black and white, I simply paint the white background, sketch the grid lightly with a pencil, then draw the checks on with a micron pen. The ink doesn't dry immediately if it can't soak in, so if you work reasonably quickly, you can get instant weathering by tactically smudging still tacky ink.

It's a quick and crappy picture, but this should give you an idea of the scale I can make the checks, with minimal effort and a fat (for a micron) tip. I could quarter the size if I stepped down to a 005 pen. Both gob and shoulder pad were done in about 5 minutes.

Another tip is paint the light colour first, because its easier to tidy up after with the darker one. A Size 000 brush should be handy enough, just make sure it has a good point. Thinning the paint a bit can help too.

Alternatively the ork transfer sheet has strips of checks on it which you could cut in half and avoid any painting or drawing. Finally, remember orks paint the checks so it doesn't need to be as neat as bretonnian heraldry.

If you're trying on a non-textured surface, you can always put down masking tape, then gently cut out the grid with a razor blade and remove the unwanted squares. This takes more effort, but can be used to give really clean looking cheques.