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Questions; Basics
Topic Started: 13th July 2005 - 10:39 PM (210 Views)
Stinkhair
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Dabbling GM. Clanrat loon. 6th Edition Aficionado. Bitter.

Here's some questions for the painters around here, these are the things that have kept me back from doing anything other than plain old painting...

1- Mixing/watering paints - where

Where do you folks put the paint you want to water down? on a saucer? an old eggcup? where?

2- Mixing/watering paints - moving: how

How do you transfer paint from pot to above chosen recepticle? pouring straight from the pot? a really small spoon? what with?

3- Black [cloth mainly] - how?

how do you paint black? i read somewhere here that midnight blue works, i guess it's watered down though as it's too blue otherwise.....

4- drybrushing - how

how does one drybrush? how do you ensure that you don't take too much paint off the brush?

5- time

any tips for getting lots of troops done quick? a guard infantry regiment and a pure horde skaven army leaves me with lots of troopes to paint, i need tips, other than assembly line and dipping. I don't paint on the sprue but paint before assembly to save on fiddly bits.... at present a moderately detailed squad of 10 guard takes around 3.5 hours..... with more detail it rises to 4.5 or a little over....

gratz in advance, i need to know these things before i go mess up my expensive little models......

-Stink Out- :huh:
Posted ImageI've flown with pirates twixt the stars of New Eden,
Fought across Lordran, slain dragon and daemon,
Wandered the Wastelands - the East and the West,
But U E dot net's what I like the best.
Posted Image
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Tilara
Grey Seer
1) I usually use the clear plastic bit from blister packs as a place to mix paint, works pretty well and by the time its all messy I can just throw it away because i'm sure to have more before that.

2) Nearly all of my paint is in the older paint pots. I just shake up the paint, take the cap off, and drip the paint from the cap into the mix tray (blister cover).

3) For black, I'll usually just use black and use some form of mixed gray to highlight edges. Midnight Blue in the deeper parts could probably give a good effect too. Sometimes I'll use a really watered down, light coat of a dark blue over the black to give a little extra life to the area.

4) First load the brush with whatever color you're going to drybrush and wipe off most of the excess paint back into your paint tray. Then, lightly brush over a paper towel until you don't see anymore color being left behind. Finally, lightly brush over whatever it is you wanted to drybrush. Start with areas that might end up hidden or that are somewhat insignificant just in case your paint/brush was too wet and it smears... don't start in the biggest, most obvious areas first. Perhaps even brush over the base a little bit just to make sure the color is comming off the brush how you want.
There's lots of other articals about drybrushing all over the place, it never hurts to read everything you can. I always try to read as many painting articals as I can find both as a refresher of things I forget from lazyness, new tricks for the technique, and of course, learning totally new things.

5) Assembly line is really the way to go. Work in groups of 10-20 and do one color at a time. I usually take a short break after doing a 'phase' of colors to let the models dry a little more and to rest my eyes.

Sometimes it helps to write out a plan on how you intend to paint the models too. For example, if you're painting your IG you might write something like;
- Primer black
- Paint dark skin color on faces and hands (beastal brown)
- Drybrush a lighter skintone (beastal brown + bleached bone + touch of red)
- Highlight skin with lighter verson of above
- Paint uniforms, helmets, and guns green (dark angel)
- Drybrush a muddy green (dark angel + beastal brown + touch of white)
...and so on.

Planning it out ahead of time lets to think through the color scheme and helps you not forget little things like, 'oh wait, what color am I going to paint the canteens?!?" when you're almost done.
Most of the time I don't bother to write anything down, but sometimes I do if I'm starting some type of figures that were new to me. After i'd painted a particular scheme already, I just get to work.

When doing my 40 nightrunners I found primering on the sprue and doing the rough base colors helped becuase I could be more careless about painting without worrying messing something up. For example, none of the nightrunner arms have clothing on them so I just painted them brown. Later when I cut them off the sprue I painted the weapons with boltgun metal, then finally when they were attached I painting the wristbands, touched up where they were cut from sprue, etc.

There are some drawbacks to that, however. First, glue likes to stick plastic to plastic or metal to metal... not primer/paint to primer/paint. Unless I cleaned off the joints (which I didn't) I'd sometimes find the arm or whatever fall off because the primer pulled free from the plastic... something to keep in mind.
Also, you need to go back over and touchup where you cut them from the sprue which can sometimes mean a different color. I ended up using a highlight color to cover the sprue marks then being rather liberal with other areas I put it on so it wouldn't look too out of place.
A big drawback is the mould lines... you pretty much can't clean them off while on sprue so either need to accept that your figures would have little lines or forgo that whole thing for cutting them out, cleaning them, then setting them up on something else to primer and paint.

Even still... it gets figures painted to an acceptable standard for play faster than normal. Its just a bit of a tradeoff between quality and speed. The advantage of speed is you're less likely to get bored and put the figures aside and never get around to them again. (which can be a big problem for me!)

Lastly, find ways to 'cheat'. If you're shooting for 'table top' quality, you can sometimes slack off on some of the details and just ignore them. If anyone asks, just tell them it was an artistic choice to deemphasis the area so as not to draw attention away from the other parts of the figure!
Another way I 'cheat' is (only) using black primer. I used to primer models white because it took color a lot better, but it would mean I needed to be a lot more careful to paint everything so as not to leave white spots poking though everywhere. Black gives you the freedom to be lazy, and if you want a color to really pop, just paint a thin layer of white over the black first... best of both worlds.

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scrivener
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*toot*

Tilara gave most of the info you'd need, so just my twopence here:

1) I usually mix in blister packs too, or if in small amounts I just work straight from the palette.

2) I use a large brush to transfer paint over, as pouring with the new pots are jsut too messy. Sometimes I use a flatheaded screwdriver. :unsure:

3) A black/midnight blue mix works for highlighting the not-so-high points on cloth. Midnight blue works for the highlights, as normal dark grey can a little flat.
hannanibal
 
*Angry mob assembles*

"WHAT DO WE WANT!!??"
"A THINNISH, WATERY PAINT WITH A GREENER TINGE THAN AGRAX EARTHSHADE!!"
"WHEN DO WE WANT IT!?"
"QUITE SOON PLEASE AS MY LAST POT IS RUNNING OUT!"
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Stinkhair
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Dabbling GM. Clanrat loon. 6th Edition Aficionado. Bitter.

thanks guys, i'll give most of that a try this week, see how it works...

anyone else have any different answers to these questions? I thirst for knowledge....
Posted ImageI've flown with pirates twixt the stars of New Eden,
Fought across Lordran, slain dragon and daemon,
Wandered the Wastelands - the East and the West,
But U E dot net's what I like the best.
Posted Image
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hakoMike
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More grey every day.
I use multi-section styrofoam trays from the dollar store for thinning/mixing. I never keep a color mix beyong the current session. I tend to transfer paint and water on the same brush I am painting with, but I use extremely small quantities of paint at a time.

As far as drybrushing, you can never really wipe too much paint off the brush. Too much can be a disaster, and you can always add a little more. Just "tickle" the model a little until some color shows up. Make sure you thin the paint out a little before drybrushing too. It's easy to get a chunky texture otherwise. Also, be aware that drybrushing with light colors can give a dusty look. Any brush you use should be cleaned aggresively after drybrushing, immediately with soap and cold water if possible.

For black cloth, a dark blue highlight makes it look more like shiny back, while gray highlights look more matte (to me anyway.)
So old. So so old.
My CMON Gallery
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Swingu
Chieftain

1- Mixing/watering paints - where
Wet palette. Easy to do, very efficient. I posted the way to do it in various threads - for exapmle Chaos BSB one contains it.

2- Mixing/watering paints - moving: how
Old paintbrush. As easy as that :)

3- Black [cloth mainly] - how?
Mix Chaos Black and Kommando Khaki. Perfect grey for highlighting black.

4- drybrushing - how
Easy :) I just wipe the brush with the inside of my hand. When te paint doesn't get into recesses, it's time to move to the mini :)

5- time
Assemble the mini before painting. If you can't get somewhere with your brush, it's usually hard to spot. Leave this area black.
Paint in batches - 3 to 5 minis, as it saves you the boredom of using jus one colour for 20+ minis. Don't use too many layers of paint - 4 is usually sufficient for a perfect mini.
Glue the sand to the base prior to spraying - you get your sand undercoated as well :)

Hope it helps :)
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