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Hello everyone, I had a post last week that was well answered, but I am a brand new painter and have a few more questions.

Ok as the post title says I am painting the ships for cosmic encounter, I was going to have them sent off and painted professionally but it was going to be $1200 and 2 months at the earliest, so I decided to buy the citadel 160 paint bundle and a set of games workshop brushes for less that half the price instead and do it myself. First of all, I am sorry I didn't get into this hobby earlier, because it is a blast! Ok, so here goes:

1) On the basecoat I had quite a bit of trouble getting the right consistency on my paint. I did some research on the internet and I found most people said you want to water your paint down to a milky consistency, and I have pretty much tried that and everything in between, and I can't get my paint to go on unless I pretty much just paint straight from the pot. I am using the primer that I had seen quite a few people on forums recommend, but if I water down the paint at all it just kind of pools up on the ships, not like runny like the paint is too thin, it just won't spread and separates into little drops. So I guess my question is on basecoat paints do you want to just paint straight without thinning them or am I doing something wrong?

2) For the second layer highlight, my paint is going on, I guess I would call it bumpy and rough looking, and I can't figure out why. I also played around with the thickness, and I have it pretty close to milky, and I am using nice smooth paint strokes, but it still isn't going on smooth and even it looks like to me.

3) On the third highlight I am using a GW fine detail brush, and I am having quite a bit of trouble with it. For the small details on the ships, I have to hit it with just the tip of the brush to stay within the lines I want to paint, but it seems like the tip of my brush dries up almost immediately after I get paint on it. It is hard to describe but I can get just a tiny bit of paint, I mean a spec and then I have to use kind of the sides of the brush to get anymore. From what I have read the paint is supposed to run down the bristles to the end of the brush so you can just paint from the tip correct? I also try for a milky consistency on this, and I have read/seen videos about brush care, so I am not overloading with paint or anyting. I have brand new brushes, never had paint in the ferrule, I clean the bristles out in cool water every few times I go to the pallet, etc.

4) On the underneath of the ship there are many small closely spaced lines, the smallest lines on the ship, that you can see on 2 different areas of the ship, on my last post someone suggested using a wash to paint these sections, which I tried, but it just isn't coming out well. I started just painting the whole section with the brightest highlight, then washing it to let the dark settle between the cracks, but it just isn't coming out well. It is dulling the color on top of the lines, and in between it is just darkening the color of the brightest highlight so it isn't matching the rest of the ship. I started with a very thin layer of wash, and gradually added 4 more and it still isn't coming out. So my question here is, what is another method for painting these lines? The only thing I can think of is to paint with the side of my fine detail brush maybe, and if that is the best way what consistency do I want my paint? Would it need to be thicker so it doesn't run down into the grooves? Actually this part of the ship is the part that is the only part that is giving me any real trouble.

5) Ok last thing I promise. I am sitting my ships down on a games workshop painting station, they are sitting on the cutting board material. I sit them down completely dry, but since the ships don't have a base whenever I sit them down for the tops or bottoms to dry, the paint on the other side is taken off when I lift them back up after drying. As I said the side that is sitting on the station is completely dry when I sit them down. So is there a better material that I should sit the ships on when I let them dry? Also I hold the ships on the edge of the sides when I paint, and I notice that it is rubbing the basecoat off where my fingers are holding the ships. I wash my hands with soap before painting so there is no grease/oil besides what my hands produce I guess, is this just something you have to touch up afterwards or is there a way to prevent this?

I have included pics of the ships I am copying of off, and also pics of a ship that I am painting and the primer I am using. Thanks again for taking the time to read/answer any my questions guys.

OK, I'm no expert but I will try to answer some of your questions.
1) A milky consistency is good for airbrushing but may be too thin for painting with a brush.
2) I'm not sure, bumpy and rough sounds like the paint is too thick but if you say you have thinned it..
3) Try not to use the very tip unless you have to. Load the brush and run the edge (close to the tip) across the edge of protruding surfaces sideways to get a neat edge highlight. I'm not sure if i explained that well, i hope you understand what i mean. Also use a little retarder if your paint is drying before you can get it on the model.
4) When using a wash, reapply your base colour to all but the recessed areas and continue to work up to your highlight from there. So, base colour>wash>base colour>highlight1>highlight2> etc
5) My suggestion would be drill a small hole in the bottom center with a pin vice. Push a paperclip into hole ( a tiny touch of superglue can help) temporarily secure it. Tape the bottom side of the paperclip to something you have handy. Maybe a lid from deodorant, polish, whatever . When your finished painting put some filler in the hole if required (such as vallejo plastic putty) and touch up paint (it will only be a pinprick). This means you will also not need to handle the model directly. Might i also suggest expanding the pin viced hole and mount them on small clear flying bases? I'm not sure how this would work game-wise ( I don't know the game), but if you are picking them up and putting them down on a painted portion they will get damaged eventually regardless . Good luck.

Hey thanks for the reply man, I would love to mount them like you suggested, but as you said one of the mechanics in the game is to stack the ships.

The "bumpy" paint could be that there's simply too much applied in one go, if you thinned it enough. Maybe try doing 2-3 super thin layers, rather than trying to cover it with one coat (aplogies if you've already tried this).

The above response, I think, is spot-on. And yeah, since you have to stack them, individual flying bases wouldn't work, but if you just paint the sides and top of a ship, then set it on its bottom to dry, you could come back to it in a few minute's time and do the bottoms (maybe batch-paint a group of 10 at a time).

One other thing: that ship looks really nice apart from the couple of quibbles you've got. Definately better than I did when I first started out! And, as will all skills, practice is one of the best instructors.

And remember what I said about the Filch.

LUCRE FOR THE LUCRE GOD!

@Beta- Thanks man, and ya some of the people I game with won't play with the original Filch.

As for the paint drying, I actually painted the top and the sides first for all 20 ships, and then painted the bottoms at night when I got back from work so I know that it had to have dried by then, it must just be the cutting board material, I think I am going to lay a paper towel over it or something.

That's really wierd. I never heard of that happening.

Hope you get it figured out!

Also, I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but I would hit them with a matte varnish of some sort when you're done with them (Testor's Dullkote is what I use). Some folks use a gloss one and then a matte/satin one for extra protection, but I haven't had much issue with chipping (and I'm fairly rough with my rank-n-file clanrats when they die).

Browse around the youtube or tutorial articles; there's a bunch of good stuff out there, but sliding them around when playing could definatley cause some wear after a while.

Ya thanks for the tip, I had already looked into it and I think I am going to try the gloss then matte and see how it comes out. I don't like the gloss look but they said matte after gets rid of it and you get the toughness, which is what I want because some of the people I game with aren't as careful/anal with board game components as me lol.