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My Malifaux starters arrived today, and I want to paint Rasputina as if she was wearing silk. Is there a paint that will let me do this, or would I use a clear varnish on her clothing?

Next question: I'm planning on getting resin cobblestone bases for the Malifaux figures but I've never used them before. Should I pin the figures to the bases, then paint? Or paint each separately, then pin?

Paint then pin. That way you can paint both to their fullest potential!

Silk how? Like transparency? Maybe something like this?




I've been trying to do that effect for a year now and it still eludes me.

Oh my god, that paint job is ridiculous....

(*to the paint gods*) please, lend me the skill....

Anyway, You could always matte finish the mini, then go back and satin/gloss/semi-gloss etc the parts you want shiny, IF that's the route you're looking at.

If you're trying to do as starsdawn posted, I wish you the best of luck and then some Get us a tutorial if your results are at least tabletop quality, please?

it doesn't look to complicated, if you know the required techniques. to me it looks like he painted the layer 'beneath' the silk as if the model were simply naked. then glazed the icy blue over the whole area, then repeating this in areas where the cloth is folded to make it more opaque, then freehanded the designs stitched into the silk over this. tricky and very time consuming, but overall simple. unfortunately i don't think i have even a fraction of the skill required to do that, though i might give it a go

WAAAAGGHH-god wrote:tricky and very time consuming, but overall simple. unfortunately i don't think i have even a fraction of the skill required to do that, though i might give it a go

My thoughts exactly. "Well, I know how the painter did it in theory, but I doubt I'd be able to come close to actually pulling that off."

Ok, was just browsing around Google, and found this post by Eastman @ http://forum-of-doom.com/index.php?topic=12115.0

"If the cloth is a color other than white - paint everything as skin. Using a very thin version of the cloth color, paint in the areas where the cloth pulls away from the skin. You want the cloth color to tint the skin (but not obscure the skin tone) and go to solid cloth color where there is no skin contact. Using the style of painting some of the Euro painters use (dozens of layers of glazes instead of opaque paint) can work very well for this.

For sheer white, I paint the cloth in white first, then add skin color to the areas where there is close contact."

I have no idea, but this sounds like an effective method for painting the above mini.

If you're not after transparent silks, then you can get interesting results by painting it silver and then applying coloured washes. Worked alright on my Vespero's Vendetta unit.

Kirbinator wrote:

WAAAAGGHH-god wrote:tricky and very time consuming, but overall simple. unfortunately i don't think i have even a fraction of the skill required to do that, though i might give it a go

My thoughts exactly. "Well, I know how the painter did it in theory, but I doubt I'd be able to come close to actually pulling that off."

That's what I'm doing for the past year. I know it in theory, so now I'm practicing freehanding laces and blending. Still not there. My proble is that how do you know how to make it transparent but not too transparent on certain parts AND CONTROL THAT with precise accuracy.

you should be using the paint the same way you would use thicker paint, only using very small amounts of very thin paint. it shouldn't move around from where you put the brush, if it does, you have to much 'paint' on the brush

lindsay40k wrote:If you're not after transparent silks, then you can get interesting results by painting it silver and then applying coloured washes. Worked alright on my Vespero's Vendetta unit.

Yes, that's what I meant. The sheen of opaque silk or satin. Your technique sounds effective, I'll give it a try.

@Starsdawn: Wow! That's incredible! Not what I had in mind, but still impressive!

@fenrir1997: Thanks for the link. Guess one should start slow, perhaps a wet t-shirt, then get more elaborate like in Stardawn's picture. Wonder what unpainted female figures I have that would suit?

As to the pinning question, found an tutorial at the Micro Arts Studio forum: http://www.microartstudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=79&start=0 As SlaveToDorkness says, "paint, then pin", but MAS shows how you can cut down the figures tab to use as the pin.

Thanks for the replies!

Adding a very bright final highlight should make your cloth look more like silk. Silk is very shiny and reflects more light so we see more of a highlight.


See how the highlight is very bright here? Much brighter than the green around it. Try and replicate that.