Question Corner

On this blog there's a new page; question corner.

There, you may leave a comment(s) asking anything hobby (well - not airbrush stuff)
And wI ill give a reply on the page, hopefully giving all the information you need.

As some of you may have noticed, my previous post was in response to a question on inks in the comments; if I feel there's a lot to say about the topic, it may make it to being a full blog post.

Remember, the only stupid question is the one that's never asked :p

Runny Paints

Inks

Inks, washes, shades and glazes?  Their differences are subtle, but using them in the right place can give great looking effects on your miniatures; this post is in response to a request regarding to alternatives to inks due to their tendency to rub off.

An Ink from the old GW paint range:

Inks are now available from most art stores and some miniatures paint companies, this Daler Rowley ink I used for my very fast painted 20 minute plaguebearers, not a bad result for just a wash over a white undercoat:

Inks tend to be thicker than the washes / shades that GW now produces,  inks tint the surface as well as collect in recesses. Inks are used to shade a model, or change the hue of an area on the model; here are some alternative ways to achieve these effects:


Glazes

Well, they're slow - painting larger areas with them can takes ages! (Unless you take some good blending shortcuts - possibly a future post?)

However, done right they can give those shifts in colour even better and smoother than inks!

How to Glaze:
The Medium Way:  Paint + mix in equal amounts of water and GW lahmian medium - for getting the right consistency, see the hand test for glazes here: (http://equinoxpainting.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/handy-painting.html)
- Then just go ahead and apply the thinned paint in layers on the part of the model you want tinted that colour - eventually the colour builds up softly without any complex technique - just time consuming.

Slightly Less Smooth But Much Faster Glaze Method:
The Water Way:  Paint + water - for getting the right consistency, see the hand test for glazes here: (http://equinoxpainting.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/handy-painting.html)

And for water glazes i apply in a slightly different way - more feathering as shown in this video: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=484340208336878


Make Your Own Shading Liquids

Essentially the same as for a medium glaze, with the exception that instead of medium using this stuff:

From there, add more or less water, more water will make a thinner mix - a wash to mostly just affect the recesses, whilst less will make an ink which will tint the surface of the model more as well as shade the recesses.

Model's flesh has been washed purple twice:

Lines

Alternatively, if the whole runny paint thing just isnt for you, theres always suing lines to paint in the darkest lines of your model, for these fire warrior legs i used a dark blue with black pain to give the less smooth crisper highlights between armour plates.

This can be a tricky technique requiring more brush control than inks or shades - but still doable with a bit of patience.

Warzone Weathering Part 2

Whilst my last post showed a lot of different types of weathering, this post will be a more of a "how to" article, for some of the most effective techniques I didn't address in my previous post.


Tears:

After the base coat of very dark grey, I applied a lighter faded grey to the edges and scuffed areas and then highlighted these areas by adding a tiny amount of white into the grey mix.
The small rips in the fabric are painted on, firstly with a darker line (pure black in this case), and then bellow and above apply a thin lighter line.

In this case i used abaddon black, eshin grey and some white to mix in,  but the same principle can be done with any other starting colour.



Armour Chips / Scratches

The method is very similar as for scratches, except the thin highlight goes just underneath the dark line.  Also, applying small dots of pure white sparingly at points some points under chips, can give a metal surface a more reflective appearance.

For both tears and scratches, a brush with a good sharp point is important to get the lines thin,
the rest is brush control, something which will improve with the more time spent painting.



Rust - Quick And Easy Without Powders

The Plague Hulk legs used a textured rust technique which can be done very messily to still give good results, I used either a Large brush (LB) or Tank Dry Brush (TDB) for all stages.

Basecoat  Rhinox hide (LB)
Rough Application Of Blackfire Earth Texture Paint all over (TDB)
Generous wash of Agrax Earthshade (TDB)
Drybrush of Squig Orange (TDB)
(optional) Light Drybrush of Troll Slayer Orange (TDB)

Using a hairdryer for the base coat and wash can make this a very rapid technique, particularly for applying to larger models.

Warzone Weathering

Whilst I'm visiting here in Australian winter, 12 degrees and rain, i figured i'd do a post about weathering (the painting kind).

Weathering can really make otherwise clean soldiers seem a part of the rough trials and tribulations in the fray of battle.

Grime

Firstly, warriors and machines may get coated in the grime of battle, here's how I weathered a soul grinder leg for a base.

I used a Agrax Earthshade wash applied where i wanted a streak of grime, then applied the effects paint typhus corrosion, it's very quick and quite effective.

Textiles

Whilst metals will often be darkened when worn out, cloth can often become lightened were its become frayed, or where dust / dried mud deposits, the bottom of capes / elbows / knees can often be made a lighter brown compared with the rest of the fabric (as in this photo of Jayden Howell's model)

For blending these close colours, see - "Handy Painting" my previous post.

Rust

Powders

Weathering powders are often a good easy way to go for rust, they capture the dry texture of rust.

If you plan to game with the model, you'll need to seal in the powder with a matte varnish, although it can dull the effect a bit.

The base coat for the powders to go will effect the brightness / how fresh the rust looks. 

What appearance works for you is a matter of preference, hopefully these photos will give an idea what different combinations can achieve:

Cannon done with Forgeworld Rust Powder over warlock bronze base coat, sealed with purity seal.

Rust powder over silver base coat, not sealed with any varnish.

Blue!

Whilst iron rusts orange, copper and some other metals will develop verdigris, green-ish blue, whilst no metals i know of tarnish blue AND orange, sometimes with nurgle models i use both just for the contrast.

In general, i'd say add medium to a bluish green if its on a flat surface. If you're planning to add verdigris to recesses, Nihilakh Oxide is great.

(this model not painted by me)

Well, that concludes this post, there could be a weathering techniques part 2, if anyone's interested?

Handy Painting

After a painting session my hand will very often end up looking like this;

I hope to explain in this post, why this isn't quite as insane as it may seem, and also how a hand can be invaluable tool in any miniature painter's arsenal.





Sometimes, when you're blending two similar colours (e.g. red to purple), a cheat shortcut can be taken.
The internet will almost always suggest glazing, wet blending, or two brush blending to get a smooth gradient, whilst i too mostly use them, the sneaky thumb smudge can save ages sometimes!

The OSL on this riptide's gun on the purple, was done by applying orange paint, thumb smudging, and repeating that a couple of times to get the gradient, then just painting in solid orange, the edge closest the light source.





*Slight warning with this technique: It will only work with certain close colours and often only on small flat areas, however I use it occasionally when I can since its just so good at time saving!





Secondly, the hand is a good test for consistency, if I'm making a glaze to colour a part of a model, building up a good blend needs each paint layer to be translucent and thin enough to apply.  My surefire test I use, is to apply the thinned paint to the side of my thumb; it should flow into the lines of your hand and only lightly tint raised areas between the lines.  If it all flows into the recesses, it needs to be thicker, whilst if it produces a too solid line, i know to add more medium.
To me, tissue paper or a pallet is no comparison, they won't demonstrate the effect the glaze strength will have on raises and recesses in the same way.
Plus, this quick check will allow me to easily remove excess fluid from the bristles before applying to the model.

Some recent glazing I was quite pleased with:

I always find painting the blood effects on a miniature, can be the most satisfying part of the process. Im sure many warriors in the 41st millennium often dismember an enemy to find a spray of blood explode in all directions. Awesome gore, so how to do it on your models?  I use red and gloss varnish mix (although the GW Blood for the Blood God effects paint works too)
Chop the bristles short on an old brush, apply paint, pull back on the bristles and letting loose
splatters of gore onto the surface you aim at.

Another experiment i tried was to use my finger's texture to lightly apply an uneven soft patch of blue, to make a nebulae pattern on parts of this razor wing jet fighter:

What hand uses have you found for your own painting?
Has anyone been convinced by this post to try out any of these techniques?

Blogging, Bases and Bilbo!

Before as just an information site for my commission painting, this site is now going to finally becoming a fully fledged blog.  Hopefully this post will give an idea of the sort of content.

So, bases.  Last year I made this:

It took a while getting the river of slime, using gloss varnish, liquid green stuff and a few green paints.  Now, in half the time i can get a very similar result with Nurgle's Rot, that newer GW effects paint for slime.  Here's some I did yesterday in preparation for a commission; 

I alternated layers of Nurgles Rot with layers of Moot Green mixed with 'Ard Coat, and churned out 20 in little over an hour and a half.  The runny gloop can take ages to dry, so best to do it on a sunny day when you can leave them outside.

Moral of the story, if you want to try slime or are a nurgle inclined heretic such as myself, get yourself a pot of Nurgles Rot.

Plus, let me know which bases you prefer.

Another basing experiment i've tried recently has been with cork, most tutorials I've found use cork board, which means buying and waiting for it to arrive;

So, from some experimenting, i found using a bread knife to cut uneven slices from a bottle cork, then hand peeling off the edges of each disk gives realistic slate rocks which you can then drybrush, i'll let the pictures explain:

Some painting; a hobbit; and my Lord of The Ring's fangirl girlfriend later, a bilbo appears: