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Right, I have finally got a few of my tanks bascoated and I want some advice.

My painting skills are probably below average (I perosnally think I am garbage!) so I want some simple suggestions as to how to improve how this looks;




And no, its not black, its the basecoat dark purple (Naggaroth Night), the guns are Warplock Bronze with Runelord Brass banding.

I am not sure if I keep it plain purple (my favourite colour) or if I go for a dark grey camo patterning on it.

Basically, I need some advice from some of you guys who know how to paint. And I dont own an airbrush, so it will need to be something simple that can be done by brush.

From the quality of the pictures, you actually seem to have a pretty solid grip on painting As for suggestions, if you're planning to put a grey Camo scheme on it, I'd recommend some highlights on the purple. Apply the grey streaks, in a darker grey, then highlight both the purple and grey to heighten contrast. On the table, from a distance, strong contrast can look good if done well.

At the moment the tank looks clean, but unfinished since it looks like its only been basecoated to me. Are the tracks and exhaust even painted at all? At least give them a coat of leadbelcher.

But the main thing is you need to add is shading and highlights. Drybrushing is the technique of choice for we mere mortals who don't own airbrushes. I'm sure you can find plenty of tutorials on the net. Check out this blog for good examples:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/316909.page

I would firstly wash your entire tank with agrax earthshade to shade the recesses, and then drybrush over again heavily with the base colour. Then drybrush more lightly with successively lighter purples- ideally just lighter shades of the base colour (you could just mix it with some bone colour, or white). That'll make your tank look great from a distance. The metalic parts and tracks could use the same technique.

Other things that make tanks look great are details such as squadron markings, numbers, army badges etc. Try adding some transfers- there are also many guides that will tell you how to do this well, without them being shiny and glossy.

And finally, weathering. You can go a long way by just drybrushing mud colours on the tracks, but weathering powders give the best effects.

Have fun with it!

I havent tired a wash on it yet, but as its a dark colour (almost black to be fair) I dont know how well a dark wash would go over it. Having said that, I have the Druchii, Nuln oil and Agrax washes at home.

But, I have got the entire series of purples (all the way up to the hideous almost-pink dry shade) so would it be better to just highlight the edges of the purple with the darkest "layer" purple or wash it?

I just dont want to mess it up and make it look hideous. I really would loose it if I end up having to try and strip it back to bare plastic again!

I may get scolded for this, but your next step may be learning to drybrush -- it's super easy, and you can get some pretty nice highlights from it.

And like Vortrey said: CONTRAST.

uhm, nope, not by me. I'm not very confident with stuff because I dont really know HOW to drybrush - it tends to be either so light you can barely see it or so heavy it looks like I am trying to repaint bits of the whole tank.

 Ross74H wrote:
I havent tired a wash on it yet, but as its a dark colour (almost black to be fair) I dont know how well a dark wash would go over it. Having said that, I have the Druchii, Nuln oil and Agrax washes at home.

But, I have got the entire series of purples (all the way up to the hideous almost-pink dry shade) so would it be better to just highlight the edges of the purple with the darkest "layer" purple or wash it?

I just dont want to mess it up and make it look hideous. I really would loose it if I end up having to try and strip it back to bare plastic again!

If you're terrified of messing up, practice of something else first. I use an old dozer blade accessory to try stuff out on. You'll only get it the way you like by experimenting.

Like I said, I'd try a wash for starters but then heavily drybrush the base colour all over- you want the wash to show only around the recesses really, retaining the base colour as the overall shade. Then you can add highlights using a lighter colour than the base with a light drybrush, concentrating on the edges. That way your edges are light, the main colour is that of your base colour, and the recesses are dark. Contrast acheived!

Hum, I will do that, thanks for the advice.

Just confused by the drybrushing it again in the basecoat colour - wont that basically just wipe out the wash I have put on it???

I am assuming it would also be best to go with the purple wash as well rather than a black or browny wash?

Posting this at work as well - I'm actually in the UK not Germany, just noticed its given my profile a little German flag!

 Ross74H wrote:
Hum, I will do that, thanks for the advice.

Just confused by the drybrushing it again in the basecoat colour - wont that basically just wipe out the wash I have put on it???

I am assuming it would also be best to go with the purple wash as well rather than a black or browny wash?

Posting this at work as well - I'm actually in the UK not Germany, just noticed its given my profile a little German flag!

Even a heavy drybrush should not get in the recesses of the vehicle- seams, around raised edges, etc. The aim is to "wipe out" the wash, like you say (but make sure its dry, don't literally wipe it out!), from the panels but to leave the recesses darkened.

I like having the darker tones as well, but you could skip the step entirely and just drybrush on highlights. It's up to you. Whatever you do, try it out on something else first.

I'd use a brown wash on a vehicle. Black will be too dark and may look cartoony, whilst a purple wash will leave you tank looking kinda... rich. Brown is pretty ubiquitous.

Note: just checked out your IG gallery. You really seem to be an excellent painter, and I love the purple color scheme on the vehicles, but they will be vastly improved by some highlighting/dry rising and the introduction of some decals or free handed insignia.

 Vortrey wrote:
Note: just checked out your IG gallery. You really seem to be an excellent painter, and I love the purple color scheme on the vehicles, but they will be vastly improved by some highlighting/dry rising and the introduction of some decals or free handed insignia.

uhm, thanks!

Will do some highlighting on the Destroyer and give it a wash tonight as has already been suggested, and post that up to see what else I would need to improve on it.

Not really sure what to do insignia and decal wise though!

For drybrushing, too light is annoying but usable.

I came up through the ceramics world, so I prefer dedicated drybrushes with stiff bristles (GW's medium drybrush is my current favorite), and instead of wiping the paint out in a paper towel, I use a sheet of cardboard and somewhat aggressively rub the paint out in circular and figure 8 motions. Whether that's correct or not is debatable, but it works for me.

As for the drybrush / wash order, I prefer to wash after. I also prefer oil washes, but that is a technique for another day.

So, as was suggested I gave the Destroyer a wash (Druchii Violet) and then drybrushed it but I used the darkest layer purple. I hit the tracks, exhaust bodies, bolter bodies and the engine air vent with a drybrush of Leadbelcher too but they seemed to work much better than the body drybrush.




I think I might have not taken enough paint off the brush though as I have got a few blotches on the hull. I'm still not sure i have done it right!!!!

Really not sure what to do now or if I have messed it up.

No, that looks really good! It's hard to screw up. You've made the colors pop, making the focus of the model the chassis, rather than the guns, which is good! Now, I'd recommend breaking up the large area of purple. Decals, insignia, chips and weathering, or even stowage can work.

Edit: or, as you mentioned earlier, camo.

Normally you would drybrush with the highlight color (unless you mean the darkest purple in the GW layer line, and that happens to be lighter than your basecoat... if so, I totally misunderstood). The vents and exhaust look good, though.

Yeah, I meant the darkest purple in the layer line, its quite a few shades lighter than the basecoat purple.

I have stuck a load of stowage on it - theres the box that comes with the Russ, plus jerry cans from the Rhino, and a storage box, laspistol, bed roll and shovel on the back of the tank. Maybe I just need to paint them other colours to show up a bit more?

Not sure where to put insignia though - its meant to be the command tank of the 2nd Squadron so maybe use that if I culd figure out the colouring "norms" that most people seem to use. It has got a name so maybe I could put that on it somwehere, just not sure where!

Ross74H wrote:So, as was suggested I gave the Destroyer a wash (Druchii Violet) and then drybrushed it but I used the darkest layer purple. I hit the tracks, exhaust bodies, bolter bodies and the engine air vent with a drybrush of Leadbelcher too but they seemed to work much better than the body drybrush.




I think I might have not taken enough paint off the brush though as I have got a few blotches on the hull. I'm still not sure i have done it right!!!!

Really not sure what to do now or if I have messed it up.

Looks much better! You've achieved some nice shading.

Matney X wrote:Normally you would drybrush with the highlight color (unless you mean the darkest purple in the GW layer line, and that happens to be lighter than your basecoat... if so, I totally misunderstood). The vents and exhaust look good, though.

I agree with Matney, now try some lighter highlights- drybrush much a lighter purple and with less paint, concentrating on raised edges! Go for less, rather than more, and build it up how you like it- you can always drybrush on more, but reverting the effect is pretty impossible.

Good luck with the stowage and stuff, it's going to look awesome when it's done!

T echo others. It is still very dark and could use some brightening. It doesn't look BAD by any means, it just doesn't sing quite yet

There's a painting post somewhere that has a side-by-side of two Eldar, one with normal edge lining, another with bright edge lining. The point was sometimes something looks great in your hand, but unexceptional on the tabletop, due to smaller details being less obvious from a distance. I'm on my phone, or I would find a link for it.

What I'm saying, I guess, is to look at your model from 3 feet and see if it's still as impressive as it was from ten inches.

Right, done a bit more - I painted all the top surfaces a lighter purple as if the light was shining straight down onto the tank



And this is the Destroyer with my Niad in progress.



Not sure if I also need to give them another wash and some edge highlighting?

Another wash wouldn't hurt, but edge highlighting would go a long way.

I vote edge highlighting. Weathering them will help alot too. mud on tracks, bone colored dust all over (heavier torward bottom of vehicle), rust (if you think their gak would rust a bit), oil stains.. etc.. Break up that purple some like others are saying by adding a bit of camo, some nekkid/scantily clad women wrapped in imperial flags or something (like people do on fighter planes).. could do some checkers, or hazard stripes... I personally think black and yellow hazard stripes would look good on the 3 sections above each track...

So use the next lightest shade of purple to edge highlight around all the areas where I have the lighter shade already?

Might try hazard stripes on the edges of each track guard (front and back) as well.

yeap.

read this guide

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/08/basics-line-highlighting-made-simple.html

Thanks that's a helpful guide!

Does make me think I might have got it a bit wrong now though. Next time I might try NOT using the dark basecoat purple and going straight for the darkest layer purple over the black undercoat them giving that a wash.