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Vallejo do air brush paints.

I completely and utterly agree with what you said, neil101.

Bold and simple is fantastic for large units and armies. I like to stick to a 3 colour scheme per unit. While painting up each individual model to heavy metal standard would be amazing, the details are almost lost amongst the models in armies, if that makes sense.

Thamor, I really have not been using the airbrush very long so any advice I can give is dodgy at best Mine seems to be very simple compared to yours, I only have 3 needle sizes and only a gravity feed. If you are getting stuck, grab yourself some sprue or some old models and go to town on them. Try out colour fades, try out highlighting from above with different shades of red untill you get a result you think would look great on your Blood Angels, just sit down and have a play around with the airbrush and see what kind of effects you can get.

Highlighting from above is something I tried from all of Les's amazing tutorials. Base a test model in your scar red, then mix up a new lighter red. Go a few shades lighter then what you think the next step from the scar red should be and then thin it to your normal amount. Spray it in a very light mist ( a dual action brush does help ) at an above and slightly to the front angle to the model and it will fall in a realistic way on the armor, leaving shadowy areas shadowed and areas in full light highlighted. Do that on all sides and see what you think, I find the bigger the difference between the two shades, the more powerful the finished look.

What PSI are you powering the brush with too? That can make a huge difference in outcome.

Thanks for the tips. I did try using a lighter shade from above the model but i must be doing something wrong as it came out misty and went over uneven, making it look a little messy actually.

Im not too sure what you mean by PSI?

Pounds per Square Inch (PSI) is the measurement used for pressure =P. The higher it's set at the faster your paint is speeding out of the airbrush. That will definitely affect the outcome, as Iffy said.

Fiarly new to airbrushing so how would i go about getting that figure? haha

What pressure output is your compressor set to?

It's around the 40-50 mark when turned on, i feel like im ruining your thread but im grateful for the help

Ifalna wrote:I did not get a chance to check the exact amounts for the pale shadowy lilac but I will try to tonight for you Work nights are mega hectic for me.

Still interested in the names of the colours and the approx mix ratio. If it is too difficult to find out, just say so.
Ordered Ghost Grey from USA so I could test it.

Thamor wrote:It's around the 40-50 mark when turned on, i feel like im ruining your thread but im grateful for the help

Not at all! Try it out on 30 if you can alter it. Most brushes output at between 20 and 30 when it comes to using hobby paints. To strong and the paint wont mist out properly, and too weak and the same thing happens.

Kroothawk wrote:
Still interested in the names of the colours and the approx mix ratio. If it is too difficult to find out, just say so.
Ordered Ghost Grey from USA so I could test it.

It was just about 2:1 necron to grey for the base coat, then I mixed by eye for each highlight, the final edge highlight was just about 1.1, so the mid tone would be inbetween. Would have to go by eye Im afraid, I do need to start noting my mix ratios when I do a new colour that needs to be used again, I always forget to do it then have a nightmare remixing it :(

The spiders are all done, neon extravaganza!



The edge highlight for the purple was hard, I did a wide highlight with warlock purple then mixed it with white to get a tone that managed to be very light, but not quite pink yet. This unit looks gorgeous on the table, the photos don't do it justice. About 6 hours total, the neon took a fair while but I enjoyed every second of it.

Also did a simple test model for a custom chapter batch of Sms+Sternguard. Sm's are to tabletop, Stern will be to character standard. Mixing up the green was very hard as it is out of production, but I got something similar with 2 vallejo. All thats done on this are the blue and green to see if the owner wants me to go ahead with the rest similarly. Mine on the left, his example on the right -



For everyone that has Pm'd me, really sorry I did not get to reply quickly! Will be replying to you all tomorow at work. Promise I was not ignoring anyone, just had no time this weekend so far.

Very cool SM chapter colors. Very Tron-ish, should look very striking.

I'm getting a lot of Tron work recently! No complaints, I love the striking look.

The warp spiders look beautiful... very otherworldly which is perfect for eldar. New marines are great too! How did you get that clean highlight around the aqua shoulder pad?

Ifalna wrote:It was just about 2:1 necron to grey for the base coat, then I mixed by eye for each highlight, the final edge highlight was just about 1.1, so the mid tone would be inbetween. Would have to go by eye Im afraid, I do need to start noting my mix ratios when I do a new colour that needs to be used again, I always forget to do it then have a nightmare remixing it :(

Thanks, I will test it soon. Has a chance to become my Eldar army painting scheme

Those funky spiders look stunning as a unit, gorgeous job there Iffy

So, just warlock and white for the highlight? Very nice, completely avoided going too pinky.

I really enjoy your space marine test model, it's neat to see the difference from what the other person suggested, you managed to modify the model just slightly and it makes a HUGE difference. I can't wait to see an entire unit of those. Then again, I am partial to black marines with blue trim.

Ifalna wrote:

Thamor wrote:It's around the 40-50 mark when turned on, i feel like im ruining your thread but im grateful for the help

Not at all! Try it out on 30 if you can alter it. Most brushes output at between 20 and 30 when it comes to using hobby paints. To strong and the paint wont mist out properly, and too weak and the same thing happens.

Thanks so much i'll give it a try when i'm home

How did I not realise how awesome Multiquote was before?

Thamor, keep in touch about it. Looking forward to seeing some of the results! I ordered some proper airbrush cleaner for mine as I am having problems with paint in the needles groove not coming out when its cleaned, and cotton buds just can't reach that spot. I figure some proper Vallejo cleaner as opposed to my 50% alcohol cheap nail polish remover should be a good purchase.

Gitsplitta wrote: How did you get that clean highlight around the aqua shoulder pad?

The slight aqua right angle highlight was just a very careful sweep with the same highlight colour that was sprayed from above with the airbrush (can't see it in that shot) and the blue edge highlight was a side brush with a series 7 size 0. If you get the amount of paint in them to just the right amount, you can hold the brushes bristles so that the middle of the brush is just touching the edge of armor and get a perfect thin line. Only works for hard angles like the edge of shoulderpads though.

Kroothawk wrote:
Thanks, I will test it soon. Has a chance to become my Eldar army painting scheme

Awesome! Can't wait to see if it works out, are you going to pair it with another colour or just go with the black and shadowy lilac?

monkeytroll wrote:
So, just warlock and white for the highlight? Very nice, completely avoided going too pinky.

Yep, and some thinner medium. I think even if it was brighter and more pink, the thinner would have made it acceptable by letting some of the base colour shine through. Can't get enough of that stuff.

Next up is another unit of Warp spiders but to a more orangey colour and the 5 tabletop marines Should both be done by the end of next weekend hopefully, and then I have 10 days off work to paint paint paint. Doing a airbrush based speedpaint on an old chaos spawn in my breaks at the moment to get him up for ebay. Doing great selling off the older models so far, dragon, Orc on boar, Gobbo speed paint, and Slaanesh lord are all gone and I have a few euro in the bank to spend on more painting supplies! Endless cycle

Ifalna wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:Thanks, I will test it soon. Has a chance to become my Eldar army painting scheme

Awesome! Can't wait to see if it works out, are you going to pair it with another colour or just go with the black and shadowy lilac?

Plans are to have shadowy lilac the main colour, black the secondary and red plus some metal (gold?) as tertiary colour, for all including aspects and vehicles. But as said, I have to test it and need a lot of time to find the painting scheme I like. STopped playing Tyranids in 2nd edition because of that, restarted them late 4th edition when I finally found the painting scheme

That should look great, depending on how much red you use silver could look really nice too. You definitely have the painting skills to make them look really nice, can't wait to see the tests

First three days of awesome 10 day holiday were spent drinking, eating, and having good fun, but now its back on the painting track!

Tabletop unit about to be finished off, only the accessories to go and base once chosen by the owner -



And another fun speed paint exercise of an old chaos spawn I did mostly with the airbrush and gallons of gloss varnish. Went for a nasty necromorph vibe with this dude, curse that static grass all over the cloth. Going to see if I can flog him off after him sitting in a box in my cuboard for the last god knows how many years -



More Warp spiders on the way tomorow, Coldfire, sorry for not pm'img back sooner, Ill have those numbers for you in the morning. Gits, I think your package may have arrived as there is one at work for me, so Ill try to get over tomorow if possible to grab it. Its safe and sound there anyway

Marines look really cool, they almost glow with the highlights that you used! That spawn is fantastic! I don't think you could have got a better flesh tone any other way, the glossiness makes it look like real muscle.

Great work!

Eh, no worries. I actually JUST posted my thread trying to get ahold of the shadowseer + trying to sell some other stuff too. Only took me a week to get it up. I fail.

That's a very interesting SM scheme going on there, I like it.

The fleshy spawn looks really good. Does it have a face...?

He has a face but its gone all shades of horrible That little pink nub at the very top of the body is an ear, next to that is an eye, and the giant tube the maw comes out of appears to be his stretched out mouth. Poor dude.

Cain, it was great fun, lovely mix of an airbrushed red to brown gradient then slopping a mix of black ink and gloss over it so it ran into the recesses. Was really quick and super fun. I have more pics of it at different angles that show more of the goreyness so I might try to get some up tomorow. Was going to do blood streaks on the flesh under the tears but it would have taken too much longer for it to fit inside the exercise time.

Those marines are looking very nice indeed, lots of fine lines I tried and failed at doing lines that thin and neatly.

The Chaos Spawn looks very disturbing which is exactly as its supposed to be, the gory parts are spot on.

Fine lines are something I was afraid to touch as I had bad experiences with them before, but I made myself work with them untill I felt more comfortable. I had to, or else if someone had requested them on a miniature I would have been practicing on someone elses model and giving bad results, so practicing brush control was one of the first things I did when I got the series 7 brushes

These are all done now : Tabletop standard (level 1) around 2.5 hours each:



Excuse the missed parts of the gradient, Im still learning how to use gimp.

New Warp Spiders are red and yellow but only have the base coats on so not much to show right now, should be far more advanced by tomorow

those marines are looking really cool!

I like them a lot!

Yes - the paint job is very sweet. fine lines look very pro and elevate these above the amount of time spent on them.

Hi Ifalna,

Thankful I stumbled across your thread - fantastic work, I am going through from page 1 now and would like to ask a question please...

As per the pic below, how to you get the grass in nice little clumps?

Many thanks.

Ifalna wrote:

That Chaos Spawn looks great! WHfB does not get much love around here, so it is nice to see that people are still painting the figures.

_Tim?

weetyskemian44 wrote:Yes - the paint job is very sweet. fine lines look very pro and elevate these above the amount of time spent on them.

They really do make a nice difference, and a 00 series 7 makes them a lot easier then I alway worry they will be Feels a little like cheating.

tallmantim wrote:
As per the pic below, how to you get the grass in nice little clumps?

Hey there. The little clumps are nice and easy, dot a speck of superglue onto the finished base and add the grass. Let it dry, then add a tiny dot of more glue on top of the tuft and dip it again. 2 layers is enough for a nice thick looking little clump of grass. I prefer it over a single layer as the grass then never seems to look thick enough.

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:That Chaos Spawn looks great! WHfB does not get much love around here, so it is nice to see that people are still painting the figures.

_Tim?

Fully agree. I enjoy painting fantasy way more than 40k in general, the colour options and lack of everything just being full on armor make them far more fun for me to paint

Next unit of warp spiders are near done. Dark red to bright orange with yellow helms and accessories and neon blue guns, they are loltastic. Also finished the below Dark Angel character, 1 of 3 thats also part of the Eldar commission. He was meant to be to tabletop standard but I got carried away abit so hes nearer character level now, but he was a blast to paint. I botched the photo a little by using a pink background to make it easier to remove in Gimp, only to then make all his golds reflect pink, haha Ill get a shot of the 3 characters together when all done anyway, so Ill get a non pink tinted pic. Weathering on hem was entirely on purpose and in no way a stray splash caused by a dirty airbrush I decided looked cool enough to leave on.



About 3 hours.