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Evening all!

I had a midlife crisis a few weeks ago, and decided to start painting little men again for the first time in 15 years.

I bought a fistful of marines and paints, washes, tools... all the paraphernalia. It was all going swimmingly. I was thinking to myself "He hasn't lost it!" (not that I ever really had 'it'...). I followed some online tutorials; the primer and basecoats went down surprisingly well. Thin your paints! Check. Be patient! Check. Listen to bands like Metallica that you never really liked, but seem to fit the mood! Check. Then, to my surprise, even some of the detailing didn't appear to be significantly affected by the decade of alcohol abuse that was my 20s. It was all going so well. Too well.

I'd been avoiding the cape for a week or so. I didn't like the look of it. Not one bit. It had been eyeballing me like a wild dog. I perused tutorials online for days; blending techniques, the subtleties of highlighting. Yesterday I finally plucked up the courage to have a stab: "What's the worst that could happen?".

As it turns out, the worst that could happen, happened. It looks atrocious. My model is ruined. RUINED!

Has anyone got any pearls of wisdom which might help? Considering nothing on the internet has helped so far. I need a hero, I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night. Can I paint over this monstrosity with primer (just the cape!) and start from scratch? Why does the rest of the model look reasonably good, and yet the cape looks like it's been finger-painted by a three year old?

Thanks in advance

HSoM

Is it blotchy? You may not have done near enough coats to cover a large flat area like that. A picture would really help us, help you.

inquisitorlewis wrote:A picture would really help us, help you.

Seconded - only with a picture we might get an idea, how you could salvage the cape.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

Thanks chaps. I'll see what I can rustle up...

+1 to above. Need pics to help out.

oh, and welcome back to the frustrating yet very rewarding hobby.

Right. Here you go. Bear in mind it's far from finished; no pointing and laughing...

Its not that bad at all!! all you need is a bit more blending. the edges of your highlighted areas just need to be smoothed out and it'll look great

Hmm, really? It genuinely looks shocking in the flesh. How would I got about smoothing them out?

How has this guy/girl achieved a finish like this?



Questions questions questions. Apologies.

Lots of very thin layers I would think. For red cloaks I personally follow the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass guide for painting Sicarius. Start with a good base of Scab Red and then wash the recesses with thinned Chaos Black and then layer with Red Gore. Lots and lots of thin layers. Lots.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But I forgot to say that your Captain looks pretty damn good for someone who has been away from a brush in a while!

Cheers Elnibbus!

How thin are we talking scab red-wise? And how many is 'lots'? Ballpark? 5? 10? 15?

Will Badab Black wash suffice as 'thinned Chaos Black'?

Yeah seriously dude, I was expecting some absolute monstrosity and I was like "What the hell? That's better than most my models!". Actually it's better than any of my models.

It looks great to me. But then i'm never going to win any painting competitions. But you really need to give yourself some more credit!

Yup. I did a Sicarus when he first came out. I don't have any pics of him anymore but to get a nice look it took many many thin layers.

The picture you showed is exactly what I thought you would show. It really doesnt look bad, it just needs more paint. You are in much better shape this way then you would be with lumpy paint.

Really looks good, considering your pause from painting.

A good ratio of thumb for thinning is to start with a 1:1 mix of color to water and adjust from there. Red is a notorious difficult color to work with, so you might need to thin it less for a good coat.

Also you might consider glazing. For this you thin your color much more (20:1 water to color, or even more), or use a glazing medium. If your happy with the consistency, just paint the whole cloak with this mix, making sure it doesn't pool anywhere. This acts as a filter and ties the colors together, so the transitions will look smoother.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

Another suggestion would be to get away from black primer. I almost always use grey, but am thinking of switching over to white so I get nice vivid colors.

The darker your undercoat, the more layers you have to apply. Painting red over black is frustrating at times.

Another thing that may help you out is to use the red foundation paint gw has on the market. This covers much more solid that any other GW red, and it's supposed to. You will probably still have to do 2 coats, but it should end there.

I am currently working on an armorcast Steam Dragon (among many other projects) The entire thing is red. For my basecoat I actually mixed 2 parts blood red, to 1 part mech red. This kept my basecoat nice and bright like blood red should be, but dulled it down enough that I can use straight blood red as my first highlight. It also increased the pigment count and I am getting a good coat after my 2nd layer.

Thats not bad at all, from your first post i was preparing for something truly hideous!

I'd suggest glazing as a quick fix. Like IK-Painter says, applying a very dilute coat of red over the entire surface, you can soften the visible transitions, as well as ramp up the intensity of the red, a bit.

I use the same trick on my Ork skin using GW washes like pre-thinned paint - a final coat of Thrakka Green painted on thinly (instead of slapped on and allowed to pool, like one would normally use a wash) helps intensify the green and soften the rather crude layer transitions. Baal Red wash applied in that manner or a red ink filter would work a treat, I imagine.

The primary way to get that effect from the beginning is to increase the number of layers used while decreasing the opacity of each. You could sort of cheat that, in this case, by attempting to wet-blend locally at the already established layer transitions.

Some diamond advice boys, thank you. This is quite literally the first time I've painted since I was around 12, and I'm 31 now!

I've grabbed the bull by the horns and given it a heavy Badab Black wash which has brought it right back down to Scab Red again, with deep shadows in the recesses. Looks a lot better.

So, now... shall I highlight back up with several (thin!) layers of Scab Red, then wash again? Bearing in mind the finish I want to achieve is the third pic I posted.

Your marine captain looks great. I would lay down a thin layer of Baal red and a little Devlan mud in the low points. I would be proud to face an army painted that well. Hell, I would be happy to face a fully painted army more often. I also returned to painting after a lengthy hiatus. The one thing that made it easier was that the paints, washes and other accessories are so much better now. Seriously. You young folks take for granted the stuff we have now. When I used the GW washes for the first time I was skeptical until it dried. I was shocked at how easy it was and how good my marine looked. Same with the foundation paints. I eagerly await the next advances. I have even bought and used an air brush. Will wonders never cease?

LBursley's youtube vids on wet blending are pretty helpful, there's a section in his 'how to paint dark angels' though it's a hessian coloured loincloth, the same principles apply

Afternoon all.

A wee update, in case anyone is still interested.

Wrestled with the cape for a few hours yesterday evening, and managed to tame it to some extent. Put down a few layers of Scab Red to begin, then a heavy Badab Black wash. Then highlighted back up with Scab Red through about 3:1 Red Gore to Blood Red. Finally two heavy washes with Baal Red; et voila!

Probably not the conventional route, but hey. I'm reasonably pleased with it now. Thoughts?

Much better, has a nice dark look to it.

Much better, no flame effect on the bottom now

Lovely, genuinely impressive. Immeasurably better than the first attempt. Good work!

For those not Keen on Scrolling, a Before/After comparison


The after definately looks better. It also looks 'worn'. This isn't a fresh out of the academy guy, he's been campaigning for a while.

Very nice recovery.

For anyone who's been tossing and turning on how this fella turned out...