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Yo!
So I'm basing up my skitarii, and I've decided to keep them in line with the base theme I have for the rest of my imperium forces, so I'm finishing the base off with a drybrush of tyrant skull.
I've decided to use the agrellan earth texture paint, mostly because I've never used it before and want to try out something new, and to give my lil mechanicus dudes something a little more individual.
However, when I got to drybrushing, my results were, frankly pretty sloppy. Am I barking up the wrong tree entirely drydrushing onto dried crackle paint? Or does my drybrushing just suck? Should I be using washes?
Cheers!

You have to use a really light drybrush on Agrellan earth in my experience. I use an old, large brush with very flexible bristles to reduce the pressure and run it with barely any paint. Also then wash with Agrax after.

Ahh, that could be where I'm going wrong, cheers!

how can a drybrush effect suck? its such a basic technique I cant figure out what you think would be wrong with yours? has it ruined the crackle? or has the colour not gone down like you thought? maybe post some photos so we can visualize what you're referring to?

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
its such a basic technique I cant figure out what you think would be wrong with yours?

you underestimate my power to hamfist things...

ha. but what is it you dont like?

I think my drybrush's bristles are too stiff or something - when I went lightly no paint came off, when I went harder I just kind of smeared it on
currently experimenting, I think I've nearly got it down

tbh, drybrushing has always been something I've been a bit crap at, not sure why


Automatically Appended Next Post:
also wondering if my tyrant skull hasn't had it, that pot must be like 5 years old now...

You could always use the harder approach to wipe off excess paint on a handkerchief/cloth/palette until it no longer smears and then apply that to the base. Repeat until the base is done.

This might seem a little wasteful but it's basically how drybrushing works and if you think your paint isn't going to last much longer, it's not like you have much to lose.

A couple of tips for using crackle base paint: paint the base underneath, probably brown - definitely a darker colour, so if the crackles come off it still looks okay. And use washes on it. You can use a couple of different ones to make it look more interesting.

I recently had to drybrush onto crackle paint (Darth Vader in the November monthly challenge thread if you want to see the results) and I know what you're talking about. It's really difficult to get the drybrush to catch the edges of the cracks, isn't it? The only way I found to sort of do it was to do several light drybrushes. As you say, don't force it and go to heavy.