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Well here's my story so far, I'm deployed to Afghanistan and had limited time/resources to paint my models.

So when I get home (Hopefully next month *crosses fingers*) I plan on giving my models a nice Simple Green bath and doing them right.

I wanna attempt to airbrush, but I have never done that before and especially never on something as tiny as GW stuff. So I might just end up painting them.

Any good advice on what base color to use and what effect that has? or a simple good way to highlight wash or ink?

I'm no artist so all those were just new terms to me when I started doing this.

Thanks!

If you have a lot to paint, an airbrush is a good way to get started. You get a nice even base coat, can easily come back for some highlighting, and then just switch back to brushes for the detail work.

For color choices though, nobody could answer that without knowing what you are going to be painting.

When you're going for base colour, it depends on whether your minis are going to be predominantly one colour, or a mix. If it's a mix, use white if you want an overall bright look to your guys, black if you want an overall dark look. It won't make a huge difference either way. If you're going for mainly one colour, like most Space Marines, it's a lot easier to spray them that colour. I find Army Painter and Montana Gold spray paints give a nice covering without obscuring detail, but others prefer the versatility of having an airgun. Hope you get home soon, safe and sound.

Thanks htj me too

I'm going for a Flesh Tearer BA army so I already have the colors picked, I was going to get a black base coat, but I think I need advice on the washing/hightlighting/inking stuff because I want to make my models look legit without giving them another simple green bath


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See I've read the books on how to do that stuff, and the wife is actually a damn good painter when it comes to like canvas work, so what's a good hightlight color for red? and I have never managed to pull off a nice wash

Because the main theme is red/black, I would stick to Badab Black for washing.

Dry brush the black sections with (imo) fortress grey, and the red areas (depending on what shade you choose) would (imo) be Blood Red.

Edit: Red Gore base, Badab Black wash, Red Gore drybrush, highlight with Blood Red. Spotted it on a post 2 above yours The red is dark, but still has contrast. I was thinking the Blood Red might be too much to drybrush with (too bright, ya know?) so... Thank you Emperors_Champion.

SW player's 2¢.

Mike, we meet again. I literally just posted in your other thread . I'll post some in progress pics if you like, I base in dark flesh. It's a terra-cotta color that looks good under deeper reds like Rafe's blood angels or FT. Mechrite red also works but has more blue in it. The darker red let's you get away with doing airbrushed zenithal highlights without it looking sloppy. Then I spray red gore from above. A liberal wash of Devlan mud or a dark umber wash ties the rather pinkish gore with the base. Paint your blacks and details, final highlight and done. I do paint the shoulder pads, and on plastic models heads separately from the reds.

my only advice is this. paint in stages, and take your time. someone said it earlier, but red is a tough color to make sing, so take your time and build them up. starting with scab or gore red and building up into blood red as a highlight/drybrush color is going to be a great way to start.

washing in BADAB black is also a great way to hit details and should give you the layer of detail your after. depending on the colors you are going to use, i also recommend primoring your models differently. keep the heads and bolt guns seperate, as they made need to be different colors.

red is a tough color, its not easy like ultramarine blue, and to be fair my knowledge beyond painting blood anges is rather limited, i havent played with a darker color tone like hte flesh tearers use, but would image it would be similar, and those that have posted before me are all saying the same thing i am echoing now.

just take your time and dont get in a hurry.

my last peice of advice i can give is if you are going to do the white "buzz saw" looking chapter symbol, you might want to primor those shoulder pads a different color and painting down the brighter colors, rather than painting up white.

white is just tough to get to work right on red, or at least it has been in my case, so its entirely an option and something to consider.

just take your time and have fun.

emperor protects!

I like that about basing the shoulder pads in white and just fill in the other colors.

and auston lol like i said i'm not the painter the wifey is but i wanna paint my own stuff. I think airbrushing is a little beyond my capabilities lol

i've tried washing before and i've used the "wash" brush and idk to me it doesn't look any better or worse. i might just be doing it wrong

http://www.thewaaaghstudios.com/tutorials/bapaint.html

You might find the above link useful as it is a Blood Angels painting tutorial. However, while I tried a similar brown wash/drybrush on my own BA tactical troopers, it didn't look right to me so I went with a darkened chestnut wash. Lower contrast than in the tutorial, but the extreme contrast bothered me too much.

Also, thank you for your service. Safe journey!

Thanks Hamster. as the days dwindle down they seem to get longer in the end. But ya I need to re-read everything i can find on drybrushing washing inking and highlights. I'll check that link when I'm not on the work computer haha

The last month is always the worst. But not the last week.

Firstly, respect to you and all that are serving or have served. Wish I could be there but the medics said no thanks. Anyway, my tip is a white base coat with a gryphonne sepia wash. I swear by it, much easier to pick out details than with a black base coat

ya i agree that the white pops the detail especially since the Flesh Tearer's shoulder pad is a white saw blade lol

so high lighting is pretty much dry brushing right?

what's a good technique for washing?

Washing is the most simple. Slather the mini with the wash you're using, rinse/dry your brush, then go back and dab your brush in the excessive pools to take some away.

Or just put enough on the mini to suite your needs with a standard or large brush. Either way

The wash automatically puts the paint pigments into the crevices.

mikewars85 wrote:so high lighting is pretty much dry brushing right?

what's a good technique for washing?

not necessarily...

dry-brushing a model can do both. it really depends on how you want your models to look. i think most, myself included, normally use dry-brush coats to draw out raised areas and their immediate surrounding areas to effectively paint a brighter color without creating a solid line of color. That way the painter can achieve a more natural transition between a darker shade of red into a brighter one. think of this for a second.

undercoating a model with red gore, you wash it in badab black. that creates a nice undercoat of paint and uses the black wash to fill in all of the smaller lines that are too small or too troublesome to hit with a paintbrush, like the greaves between the knee pad and the thigh and lower leg armor on a suit of power armor. with that done, you then dry-brush a lighter color, like scab red, to brighten the model and cover the larger raised areas. this way, the models looks like it has a more natural gradient between the red gore and the scab red.

some painters will stop here, as these techniques can produce a brighter and good looking model. others don't. if you want, and to add definition to the model, then we should go back and look at the final stage of painting, the highlights. applying a mix of scab red and blood red, or even just blood red, you can mix the color down with water, and use a fine detail brush to lightly paint on lines over only the highest points on the armor, like the top of the shoulder pads, or the cuffs where their hands meet the power armor, giving the impression that these areas are where the light would naturally hit them.

the result can take some time but can also produce some amazing looking models that have great color blending with highlights. often, the most skilled of painters (sadly, this ISN'T me) will combine multiple layers of dry-brush and highlights to achieve extremely gradient color effects, some of which can be seen by looking at the eavy metal teams work, most notably their orks (paying particular attention to their skin tones and the multiple layers of washes and drybrushing, as well as highlights will give you a great example)

dry-brushing can give a great color gradient and can easily provide detail to a model, but if not done properly can leave a model washed out with stray paint brushed all over the model. solid color highlights can really brighten a model or provide detail and make some great stand out details, but if not done properly, can look like solid color lines randomly thrown on a model.

both have their advantages and disadvantages. dry-brushing, in its defense is a VERY quick method of detailing a model, and highlighting can really make a basic model look much more complex and robust.

i can post a few updates to my Cato Sicarious if you would like the examples, but beware, i am NOT a great painter. (with that being said, my painting advice is mostly technique from Games Workshop, not my own)

I more or less made this for you. I dont drybrush very much any more. It just fell out of vogue with me. I edge highlight...apparently sometimes to subtly based on a comment...
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/391074.page

Sc0 and Auston Thanks!!!!! Now I just have to bite the bullet and wait until I can do this lol

And auston that model came out really nicely

Hey Mike,

I don't know if you've ever seen any of the AwesomePaintjob tutorial videos but here's a Flesh Tearers one using airbrush and standard techniques. Might be just what your looking for...

http://www.youtube.com/user/awesomepaintjob#p/u/14/Pk6YiHytunE

thanks.

Well heavy, i would love to watch youtube but by the time that video fully plays out here, i would have enough time to travel back to the states meet up with you, pay you to paint my models, drive back home, play a few 2000 point games, .... well you see how this is going, although i plan on looking at that once I get back to Va lol

I'm sure the video's not going anywhere, should be ready for you by the time you circle back to the land of the big PX. Actually after looking at AustonT's guide, its pretty close to the same guide as the video, adding a few more details and highlights. Good stuff....

I'd be lying if I said I haven't watched that video. I love all the APJ stuff. I actually restarted my BAs after watching the Dark Angels tut, weird right?
The Space Wolves tut is great for power weapons.
The only real difference is Les uses scab red washed down and highlighted in blood red. I prefer the terra-cotta look, I almost stopped at dark flesh...I may still try it.
@ mike it turned out ok, if it was a one off it would be fine but the frost killed the red, it's floating in the USC until I come home.

Hahah the land of the big PX psht i'm in the Navy and somehow am stuck out here. So I shop at the Exchange

and yea airbrushing is interesting, but i'm old school and cheap

paint and brushes for me. The whole washing and inking is still foreign to me.


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I'm sadly painting inclined:(

Register on Hobby Lobby's website for thier newsletter and wait for the 50% off any one item coupon.
I am a total cheapo too.
You can use that same methods with brushes, basecoat use a number 2 flat or filbert to do the major gradient, wash, highlight, details.
I bought my airbrush to do vehicles mostly, I still can't keep from getting brush strokes on em.

so my guru auston, as it turns out to be, number 2 flat i'm assuming is the base coat? of which color? and you can wash highlight and detail with an airbrush?

and i will register on hobby lobby's website for your information

So what's the steps. I got the basics..

Prime
Basecoat

Then does it go:

wash
drybrush
highlight?

so it would be like a black primer
then red gore basecoat wash in a badab black drybrush with red gore then highlight in blood red?

I will be airbrushing so shouldn't I do something like this?

Prime
basecoat say scab red
then hit it with another coat of red gore from a certain angle to give it some highlights
then wash with badab black
drybrush with red gore
highlight with a lighter shade of blood red

just realized i had the gee dub color wheel pulled up

any opinions?


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Also everyone does the blue on blue power weapons. I was thinking a blue to purple

possibly warlock purple to ice blue

I have no airbrushing experience at all, so can't help there, though I have found this that may be of interest to you:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/388670.page

My structure:

1) Spray a basecoat (skull white, I swear by it, specifically for...
2) A gryphonne sepia wash. This picks out all the detail for you really nicely. Also as it's brown you should notice any small areas that you may have missed when you get further along the process
3) Colour with whatever foundations your using. Some people say start with the larger areas and work down to the smaller, I'm finding that I prefer to work in reverse here but each to their own - experiment and find what's best for you. Largest -> smallest is probably most popular / common though

Personally, I'd say then:

4) drybrush
5) Wash

Chances are that you'll want to 'dull down' some of the dry brushed colours, especially if they're metallics, washes will help here.

6) high light

optional 7) varnish. Incidentally, great for picking out shiny detail on visors, gems, etc

That's how I roll. I'm not saying it's right or the best technique, but it's something I suppose!


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Also - power weapons in alternate colours are a winner in my books. I painted up the BA's Captain Leonatos' sword years ago with an emerald green base and bright yellow 'energy' - looked great imho.

Good luck with the airbrushing, there'll be some tutorials on dakka somewhere, just have a search in the p&m section, you'll find something