8 replies to this topic

[morganm]

This weekend I actually got some seriouse painting done! First time in months what with the basement being tore up and spending most of my free time working on that on top of "normal life" How did I find the time? Easy! Just sacrificed about 10 hours of sleep between FRI and SAT nights. Also found about 2 hours on SUN afternoon.

I guess these would fall under speed painting. There's only 3 layers of paint on them plus the metal details. Started with a base coat of light brown, thinned that down plus darkened it for the second layer, then whipped up a dark brown wash to finish. Finally I mixed a metallic silver with a medium gray, tinned to taste, and tried my best to put that on all of the metal bands, locks, and keg taps. It was good practice thinning paint and brush control which I badly need :) I've been relegated to my work bench in the garage and I actually like it. It's quite tall so when I sit in a regular chair it's about chest high; keeps me from hunching over what I'm working on.

After 8 hours here's a WIP shot:






Here's a sample of each prop finished: (disclaimer: I did not paint the farmer mini, that's a DDM)







Closer shot. As you can see my brush control on the metal bands needs improvement. Also you can see the brown underneath showing through on some of the metal bands.






These guys I did a much darker second layer and then a dark wash. I like it; almost a walnut or some other dark wood. Once again brush control sucked with metal bits =) Look at the one on the right, the metal bands, see that raised edge I didn't get any paint on? How do you get in there with out getting it all over the perpendicular surface?






Overall I'm quite happy with how they turned out; despite some splotchy areas (mostly due to me just handling the minis with my dirty, paint filled, sticky, fingers) and a few miss placed metal spots. They are going to get man-handled on the battle grid anyway :) I'm also surprised how well the photos turned out; it was a super cheesy setup but plenty of light and my new found Macro mode on the camera helped a lot. It's basically the top shelf of my work bench which is about 12-14 inches below a big double ballast 24" fluorescent light, a large sheet of white paper under that rolls up the wall, tape to the wall, and then just shot some photos. I'm amazed how raw the camera is; it hides NOTHING. Even with my magnifying glasses on I didn't see how bad I was with the metal bits until I looked at the photos! So much more respect now for those who's minis look stellar when photographed close up.

Comments are welcome; always willing to hear how I may improve.

Thx!

[Rastl]

Very nice. But you only have about 200 props? Heck, I measure mine by weight now! I do like how you've made tables out of the dock sections.

To answer a couple of questions. The only way to paint the metal strips and get the edges is .. brush control. Paint them first then use the brown to clean up any overage. But again, you'll need to be careful with the brown to make sure you don't splotch.

You might want to make your wash a bit stickier by adding matte varnish to the mix. You can get a bottle of it by the craft paints. It will let you make your paint like magic wash and you'll have more control. Due to the water content of both you won't need to add much water. Paint, varnish, a little water as needed. Paint it on and you'll get a darker effect and some lining.

The camera is pure evil when it comes to showing what you did and didn't do. EVIL! However you're using the photographs correctly in that you're using them to find what you missed and where you can do better next time.

The only real critique I have about the overall project is how all the wood items are the same color. Once you start filling a scene with them they're going to blur together. If you get the chance on the next batch have a couple of colors for the wood and switch between them. Treat them like grunts in an army - base coat, wash, highlight, done. The good part about that order is you can use the original color as a highlight since you've darkened it with the wash.

Wow. Wordy.

[morganm]

Thx Rastl :D

Each layer of paint, including the wash, had W&N Matte Medium in it. I don't have the exact recipe in front of me but the base coat was something like:

3 drops Beastial Brown
1 drop Bleached Bone
1 drop White
4 drops Flow Improver
2 drops Matte Medium
4 drops Water

I do agree though; it was behaving how I would have liked it.

Then the next layer I would take that mix above and add:

.25 drop of Black (read: very little, not even a drop because that stuff has some potent pigment!)
4 drops Flow Improver
1 or 2 drops of Matte Medium
2 or 3 drops of Water

For the final wash I started a new mix:

3 or 4 drops of Brown Ink
3 or 4 drops of Flow Improver
1 or 2 drops Matte Medium

I loved how my final wash behaved. Still a little splotchy but better than previous washes I've mixed up.

To detail the metal I used this:

3 drops Mithril Silver
1 or 2 drops Codex Grey
2 drops Flow Improver
1 drop Matte Medium
No water because it seems when I add water to metallics they separate badly and behave terribly.

Please, anyone, critique or give suggestions on those recipes. Is matte varnish different than matte medium? Perhaps that's an issue right there? Seems every time I try to make a "magic wash" it just has no magic. I paint it on and it looks nothing like the photos I've seen of how it should turn out when put on a mini.

Thx!


Oh, colors. I totally agree; variety! I did 3 of the chests a darker "walnut" color. I figured since I'm only doing batches of a dozen or so that each batch will have slightly different colors and give me variety that way.

[Rastl]

Mind you, I'm not saying these aren't uber-fun and something I'd love to have painted up in my stuff. Mine are all kind of plaster colored right now.

I'm talking matte varnish, not matte medium. The varnish adds a very different 'feel' to the paint and I use it a lot on terrain pieces like this. I've got an Egyptian Fountain posted here that uses the mix I'm talking about. But I'm stuck using IE6 where I am and I hate opening multiple windows.

You do far more complex paint mixes than I do. I use craft paints on almost all of my terrain since it doesn't generally need the fine paint. And mostly it's the color in the bottle. I'm quite lazy that way. And cheap.

Overall I think you're making more work for yourself when painting general terrain pieces. For a display piece I take far more care.

They're still uber-cool.

[morganm]

Yeah, I was fiddling around with the paint more than I really needed to. I consider these things practice for better minis =) That's why I tend to fuss more than necessary with painting simple props and terrain.

Thank you for clarifying that Matte Medium and Matte Varnish are separate things.

[Olaf the Stout]

When you paint the metal, are you painting those areas black first? If you aren't then consider doing so in the future. It makes the metal look better in the end.

I think you have done a pretty good job so far. I'd love to have them in my game.

Olaf the Stout

[morganm]

Ah, thanks for the tip! I should have put down a layer of black or maybe even tin bitz before the silvery metal. Then instead of my wood brown showing through it would be black or rusty metallic.

[Olaf the Stout]

Ah, thanks for the tip! I should have put down a layer of black or maybe even tin bitz before the silvery metal. Then instead of my wood brown showing through it would be black or rusty metallic.

Even if you decide to paint them tin bitz before one of the silver metallics, still paint the metal areas black first. It just makes them stand out more for some reason. It also creates a nice shadow or blackline on the edges where the metal meets another colour.

Olaf the Stout

[Madog Barfog]

Yes, how do you quickly take care of the edges of the raised areas? Blackline them. You can run the brush right down the guide made by the angle.

You can even go back and touch up these, you'll like what a difference it will make.