Dakka (Unofficial) Painting Challenge Round 39 May 2018: Three Colour Maximum!

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**Power Elephant**

I started work on a Gold smoke knight, another kingdom death: monster model. I decided that I'm gonna strip it down unfortunately, even though it wasn't looking all that bad. I had problems creating smooth blends, neither wet blending nor glazing seemed to be working. I got it all figured out now though, I finally figured out how to get rid of the brush marks when glazing. It's a great feeling, getting rid of a mental blockade. Up until now I've been painting much smaller models, and my techniqes didn't seem to be working on larger surfaces. Turns out all I had to do was feather the brush marks to the side with a damp brush.

**Rybrook**

I’m gonna sit this one out, I had almost finished the last challenge, will keep an eye on this though for inspiration.

Good luck guys

**CREEEEEEEEED**

Before I forget, here's my proof.

**Marine_With_Heart**

I'll try this one out, a nice fleshy troll should make the challenge a lot easier to keep to 3 colours.

My Proof:

**CREEEEEEEEED**

Sorry to keep submitting but I'd like to add a second model to my proof.

**Midget Gems**

Well I was going to make a post with advice not to overthink things but its taken me 8 days to work out what I'm going to do so can't really say that

Since my time is very limited I wanted to do something I knew I could complete.

I didn't think when we voted this topic in that it would cause so much extra work for Para, but at least we are doing a technical as a bit of a change. Good luck everyone

My proof
Ork Deathskulls - Colours - Blue, White and Brown (that's right no green! thought I would make it I challenge for myself)

p.s.s the colours on these models will be painted over.

**CREEEEEEEEED**

Little WIP, they're off their sprues, not glued though. And if anyone steals the whole, dichotomy, white/black imperium/chaos thing I'm flipping some tables.

**craggy**

CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
Little WIP, they're off their sprues, not glued though. And if anyone steals the whole, dichotomy, white/black imperium/chaos thing I'm flipping some tables.

Prowl, is that you?

Tell me you're at least going GI JOE on it and doing the "baddie" in white?

**CREEEEEEEEED**

Subverting the tradition has become so common that the truly subversive thing is to stick to the tradition. Also I can't face painting the chosen marine in white.

**feltmonkey**

I'm having a hard time picking a model to paint this month. I know what I'd like to do, but not how to do it, or what model to do it on. I better pull my finger out soon though or I'm not going to have enough time to pick something, realise that what I'd like to do is way beyond my abilities, and hastily pick something else instead.

I've got quite a lot of stuff I could get away with only doing three colours on - for example I've got the new Star Wars Legion box set, so loads of lovely storm troopers. However I'd rather do something really left-field to fit the spirit of the challenge. Hmm...

**Paradigm**

Do you have any more Sylvaneth lying around? That Treelord you did a few months ago was epic, and with them it'd be easy to keep to the colour limit as there's basically a whole bunch of browns then your spot colour of choice.

**feltmonkey**

I'm planning to do something very stark black and white, in a comic book style. I reckon it will look absolutely terrible.

**Tim 121RVC**

craggy wrote:

Tell me you're at least going GI JOE on it and doing the "baddie" in white?

Haha, yeah you can't go wrong when you go Storm Shadow style!

**ZergSmasher**

Quick WIP photo of my Bloodletters:

This has been an interesting challenge so far. Working with a limited palette like this has been somewhat of a challenge, although thankfully these models don't suffer too much from it. It has also been interesting seeing what everyone else is coming up with.

**Suzuteo**

I will be entering my Cybernetica Datasmith, to be painted various shades of blue, brass, and steel.

**Vejut**

Well, wasn't sure about this guy, but given he's basically done, sans a bit of basing...

Proof pic, with a couple of beasties I was considering as alternates.

Shortly after deciding I didn't like the waviness of the mace, and didn't feel like straightening it.

as he currently is, minus the base I've glued him to. Just need to work out how I'm basing him, and take some better pictures.

Black and Red, I suppose with a little silver, though thats really more for a highlight and separator for the the black metal panels (and on the scales, light glare)

**CREEEEEEEEED**

Corax white. Never again.

**ZoBo**

hmm...that looks pretty thick...but, it might not be as bad as it looks?...I've recently painted that model, and some parts of the sculpt aren't exactly what I'd call "crisp"...like the back half of that shoulderpad with the big horn...you just have to kinda fight the model there...

maybe try giving the whole thing a wash with thinned nuln oil, to help everything stand out easier for painting? (I say "thinned" nuln oil, because unthinned might darken it too much overall, which could be a pain if you want it painted white...cut it like 50-50 with water, or lahmian medium, whatever)

**Marine_With_Heart**

Got an update, figured I would post it here. My chosen colours are going to be blue, brown and a bone/beige colour.

Also Creed that looks thick as hell. Maybe strip and try again in different weather?

**SirOllox**

My entry this month

Black Templar Captain

Colours: Black, Red and Gold

**Midget Gems**

feltmonkey wrote:
I'm having a hard time picking a model to paint this month. I know what I'd like to do, but not how to do it, or what model to do it on. I better pull my finger out soon though or I'm not going to have enough time to pick something, realise that what I'd like to do is way beyond my abilities, and hastily pick something else instead.

Yeah it took me 8 days to work out what to do, but what's the worst that could happen you either end up with a cool model or you learn something

. Really interesting to see what people have picked this month.

Looking forward to seeing that model painted Suzuteo

Cool model Marine_With_Heart, your last entries have been very good so I'm sure this one will be as well

Good colour pick for that model Sir Ollox

The league table for April has been updated now

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/732117.page

**Paradigm**

Apologies for the lack of updates to the OP, I have a week of exams left then I can get it sorted. Don't worry, I've not forgotten!

**ZergSmasher**

And I'm done! Already! Not even halfway through the month. That's gotta be a record for me! Here are the final pics of my Bloodletters of Khorne:

Again, my chosen colors were red, black, and bronze. Hopefully it's okay that the eyes are yellow, as they are tiny compared to the model and the rules said that small squad markings, etc. would be okay to be a different color. Ditto with the bases, I'm pretty sure they were exempted from the 3-color limit. Hopefully I'm right about that...
Anyway, feel free to vote for these images in the Dakka Gallery, and I look forward to seeing what everyone else can do with a limited palette!

**keezus**

I think I will use are Red, Black and Bone. Three colors is pretty hard. Adding one additional color would make it MUCH easier.

**craggy**

Settled on my Vindicare. Was previously painted, but I repainted the whole model black, and started adding greys on top. Some washes to indicate varying textures and red for the eyes and cable on his back. Very quick paint at least, only took a couple of hours and I am mostly happy with him.

Is this ok?

**CREEEEEEEEED**

As many of you are aware, I've pulled out quite a few times because I've misjudged how much free time I would have. For the first (and hopefully last) time, I'm withdrawing an entry because it's so goddamned awful I think it would be an insult to submit it. Hopefully I have some models primed black lying around so I can reenter, but still.
As you can see in some of the pictures, bits of the model are just completely devoid of detail because of how much paint is on there, like the winged skull on the gun. Additionally, getting a flat white is bloody impossible.
I blame two things, really two paints, and myself for going into it knowing what would happen, and doing it anyway.
First, the corax white. Jesus christ that stuff is runny. If I still had any black or green spray left I'd use that, but I ran out. Even taking it slowly, the paint just will not adhere in one go. But after three coats of primer, it's still not coated evenly and now the details are starting to get obscured. Then trying to get even coats of colour over it is very hard, but more on that later.
Second, the ulthuan grey. I now own three pots if the stuff, and each pot gets little clumpy bits in it and it's almost never smooth, even after lots of shaking. I must have layered on 10 layers of near water consistency ulthuan grey, as smooth as I could get, and it still wasn't really flat, which is partly due to the corax white, I've never had this issue with black primer, the ulthuan needs lots of thinning but it sticks. And with the dark grey, it was really thin, but to get a smooth coat over the corax it needed so much that the details disappeared.
I don't even watch to attempt the chaos dude.
So to summarise, if you've never used corax white, don't.

**Chris56**

Holy crap - that really is thick, isn't it?
I will definitely steer clear of Corax White...I have a couple of rattlecans of Skull White that I still use but you should save up for an airbrush, man.
I know they are a lot of money, but after the initial outlay, the undercoats and base coats become easy, smooth and really cheap.

Either way, I hope you still find an entry - I always enjoy seeing your atmospheric minis. They always seem to live really well in the 40K universe and capture the imagination.

Anyhow, I am going to paint a Farseer. The idea is still percolating in my melon but there may be other eldar models added as well. If so, I will add extra proof pics. Sorry about the crummy photo, I used my dodgy phone. The model does have blue painted on the blades but is otherwise just undercoated black. Hope that is fine.

**feltmonkey**

Oddly enough, I bought a can of Corax White last week and have used it to prime my Star Wars Legion Stormtroopers. I don't know if there's a big difference from can to can, but it worked fine for me. Really well, in fact. Much better than the Vallejo light grey primer I bough and used through my airbrush, which was a disaster. That's probably my fault though - I can't airbrush at all, and every time I use it it's a disaster of one kind or another.

Ulthuan Grey is consistently rubbish though - lumpy and always separated. The only way I've found of getting it into a usable state is lots of vigorous stirring with a cocktail stick.

**Modock**

I don't think I'll the time to do anything for this month's challenge I have a big project at work which must be done till the end of next week.
Plus I'm streesed out cause of it, really not in the mood for painting

. If I find some time to do it, I'll make a single small mini.

**feltmonkey**

It'd be a shame to have a Modock-less monthly challenge, but I certainly understand feeling to stressed to paint. Hopefully even if you miss this month you'll be able to power back next month!

Anyway, I've decided on what I'm painting, and have made a start on it. Here's the proof:

I decided that if I was going for a really weird painting style, it would be an interesting idea to paint a pretty familiar style of miniature, so I picked a Space Marine. I've painted a bunch of them recently (including a duplicate of this mini) which helps me know what details and bits and bobs are on the mini, but I also thought it would be cool to see something familiar in an unfamiliar style. An unexpected side benefit is that it might end up reminding me of the animated adaptation of Helsreach on youtube.