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Here's the first set of Boyz.


Prepping them for priming.


I actually messed up the first 25 (ouch). I didn't know what primer was supposed to look like when properly applied, so I failed to notice I was doing it wrong. In the next picture, my naked Big Mek is on the left, on the right is a bad angle on 4 of the boyz that were primed poorly, then stripped.


Here's a look at the first 17 or so Boyz that were primed properly.


Here's about 2/3rds of my boyz, primed and waiting.


Once I finished priming the rest of them tonight, I wanted to do a test run of the painting techniques, colors, etc that I'll be using on the rest. I've never painted a mini before, so I was a bit nervous.

Personally, I think it came out rather well. The leather didn't pick up as much color as I'd have liked, I'll do another test mini and base coat it brown this time. I think the blue looks good, though it took longer to paint than I'd like. Overall, though, I'm thrilled with how it turned out.








I still need to get flocking material for the base, so not quite done yet, though I'll likely save that until I've got more of them finished.

Last night I tried another test. I basecoated the leather to give it some extra color.


I like the look of the finished model better, but with 60 boyz to paint, every minute added to any individual is another hour to the group. With this new test slugga, basecoating brown on all the leather added about 20-30 minutes. With repetition, it'd probably go down closer to 10 minutes. Oh, I also pulled out one of my good brushes and managed to paint the eyes satisfactorily.

I made the decision that I won't be basecoating for a number of reasons:
1) An extra 10-30 hours is quite a bit.
2) The original model doesn't look unusably bad, and the goal here is to get an army on the table, after all.
3) I can always go back after I'm "finished" and drybrush the leather. Even add another layer of wash if necessary.


After that test was finished and I made my decision about basecoating, I did the first stage (brown wash) for 30 more of the boyz. When I was about 20 boyz in I pulled out my good fan brush. With luck and focus, I can wash a model in 4-5 minutes with this brush. Four minutes held up for the first 3 boyz, after that I settled in at about 6-7 minutes each.


Much firefly was watched. Also 1.5 episodes of Planet Earth when the ladyfriend wanted to change the background.

The battery for my good camera is currently dead and I'm having trouble finding the charger, so no pics this time, unfortunately. I'll make a better effort to find the charger tonight or tomorrow.

This past weekend was rather productive.

I'm up to 20 that only need a silver drybrush on metal and a final brown wash.
A further 15 that need blue/white detailing work along with the above two steps.
A further 5 who need a black wash on all cloth, along with the above mentioned steps (blue/white details, silver drybrush, brown wash). (This set of 5 was painted up to the point they've been painted to test the Nuln Oil I picked up on Sunday. It works decently for the metal, but it's waaaay too thin to give good color to the cloth items. I'll stick with my current system of brown wash with a bit of added black paint.)

Still remaining are 20 boyz sitting nekkid in their primer. Along with two Nobz and the Big Mek.

TV tally:
Entire Firefly series
Serenity movie
4 episodes of Planet Earth
3/4ths of first season of Battlestar Galactica (reimagined series)
Also Elf.

Still can't find the damned camera charger. I think tonight you'll get camera-phone pictures. (=c\

Anyway, last night I did the blue/white details on the 15 that needed it, along with the black cloth wash AND blue/white details on the 5 who were my Nuln Oil testers.

So I'm up to 40 who need silver drybrush then final brown wash; 20 with just primer.

I'll probably be starting to actually play relatively soon, so I need to look into basing material. I'm thinking bird sand mixed with some larger/more uniform basing sand/rocks/gravel (close to GirlPainting's basing sand.)

Does anyone else have simple recommendations for basing?

I'm also looking for good tips for painting my Big Mek or the two Nobz that will be leading my troops. I'm currently thinking the Nobz will be painted the same way as the Boyz, but probably basecoated on any important bits to give them a bit stronger color. The Big Mek... I haven't the foggiest idea how I'm going to end up painting him.



Total TV Tally:
All of Firefly
Serenity movie
4 episodes of Planet Earth
1.25 seasons Battlestar Galactica (reimagined series)
Elf
The Bells of St. Mary's

Keep it going, your models are looking grand

Today I got the 20 with only primer up to the level of the others, so now I just need to lightly drybrush silver onto metal bits, then wash everyone in brown. (Then basing.)

More Battlestar Galactica today. Almost done with season 2.

I grabbed a bunch of pictures throughout the day, need to get them off my cellphone. Next post.

What wash are you using cause the results look great, a lot of depth and tonal variation to the colours which "dipped" armies usually lack.

20-model group of Boyz today.
First comes the brown wash:



Then the green wash for the skin:




Next is a drybrush of boltgun metal:


(It's starting to get late by this point.)

After that comes a black wash of the cloth and metal (I'm using a brown wash with a goodly amount of black paint in it. Works for me, though it's a bit thicker than a normal wash):

Flash to make out certain details



I forgot to take pictures while doing the details, but here's a shot from when I was putting them back into their box:


Finally, here's the box of Boyz:

The Big Mek is unpainted. There are two finished Boyz in there (out of the picture, actually, I think), along with 58 that are fairly close.

Looking great Keep up the great work!

Can't wait to see how the army develops

 Sheep wrote:
What wash are you using cause the results look great, a lot of depth and tonal variation to the colours which "dipped" armies usually lack.

I didn't see this reply before posting those pictures, but the post right after yours shows 2/3rds of the process.

I'm using the general technique from Painting Tutorial - Orks with (mostly) washes.

Everything but the blue is Vallejo paints. Umber Shade Wash, Green Shade Wash, Gunmetal drybrush, ... The next part is supposed to be black wash, but the store I bought from didn't have any, so I use Umber wash with black paint mixed in, then detail work with random blues and also Dead White (Vallejo). Next step (uncompleted on the unfinished Boyz) is a drybrush of the metal with Silver/Mithril Silver, then probably tongues (red or purple or something, I don't have what I'd like, so I'll probably mix brown wash with red paint), then final Umber Shade Wash, then eyes, if I feel like it... They look better with eyes, but they don't look terrible without them.

I didn't grab pictures from during the painting process for the rest, but last night I finished the 60 Slugga Boyz! (excepting bases... Really need to get on that.)

That would be silver drybrush on all the metal, a brown wash with red paint added for the tongues (only on the 12 models with their mouths open), the final brown wash, and then red eyes for all the Boyz.




This morning I cut out, cleaned and glued my Nobz. w00t


Edit: Oh yeah, telly tally:
Firefly
Serenity
The Bells of St. Mary's
Elf
The Polar Express
Sleepwalk with Me
2 seasons of Battlestar Galactica

hi mate- i do love the deff skulls, your paintings not bad either, i was going to do some blue faces on my army too-have you thought about usig white to do a skull face. good luck with the priject and am sure you will have fun when you get to the armor for the army

I can't believe these are your first models. They look fantastic. Great stuff and keep it up.

Thanks, none! I'm fairly proud of them. Not knowing what I was doing made me read a boatload of tutorials before starting.

I've seen the wash only technique before and it always comes out fantastic looking. It ends up looking very gritty and realistic with minimal effort. I've never seen it applied to Orks before. I really like it. Question: Did you prime them in white or grey? I've seen both and I'd just like to know what you did for those results. And by the way, the blue woad markings are excellent. The blue is very rich and eye catching. I wanted to say all that last night, but I was falling asleep at the keyboard.

You're a real beast man!!! They look sooooo cool!!!
I wish I could paint half good and I'm into the hobby since like 1998 (My first minis were so terrible...)
Can't wait to see how you'll develop your army. Keep up the splendid work

Work still looks great, following this thread has not disappointed

Any hints on what shiny toys you're going to add to the army?

noneoftheabove0: I primed them in white.

Launets: The Penny Arcade dude said it best, " there is painting, but there is also applying paint to things, and the second one is something anybody can do." With the right type of models (it works especially well with Orkz), the technique I linked to earlier looks great and is super-easy. I don't have a steady hand and I'm about the least artistic person I know. If you think you're bad at it, try a new technique. =c)

As for shiny toys, I've a load of other Boyz, but I'm leaving them out for the timebeing. I've got the Lootaz box, which may be the next thing to add. I've a Dakkajet that cries out to be built. First off, though, I need to paint my Nobz and my Big Mek HQ. I primed them on Sunday, but got very sick yesterday and didn't manage to start any painting.