12 replies to this topic

[fieldarchy]

Some terms that I think might be good to include, to illustrate what I'm thinking:

Blend
Blackline
Drybrush
Glaze
Ink
NMM
OSL
Wash

etc.

The glossary would contain a sentence or two for each term to indicate what it is, not detailed instructions on how to do it.

Does anybody else think this would be helpful?

Blend--layering different shades of a color/colors to create a natural looking gradation between shadow and highlight.

Blackline--taking a dark color such as pure black, blackened brown, brown liner, grey liner, or any other liner and using it to outline different sections on a mini. By doing this you create more depth and an artificial break between two surfaces. This helps your eye read the mini properly.

Drybrush--Taking a dry or almost dry brush, dipping in paint, running the bristles across a papertowel leaving a little pigment on the brush. Take the brush and rub the pigment on rough surfaces on the mini. This is the quick and dirty way of adding highlights.

Glaze--A wash that is thinned out a little more. You use a glaze by painting it on rather than slathering (like you do with a wash) to help blend areas with harsh highlights.

Ink--a type of pigmented liquid used for washes and adding shadows to recessed areas. This is the quick and dirty way to get shadows.

NMM--Non-metal metallics. Using non-metallic paints to create the illusion of metallic reflectiveness.

OSL--source lighting, used to create glowing effects on a mini.

Wash--diluting regular flat paints to a consistency that will allow the pigment to run into cracks and crevices of minis.

Others that were requested . . .

SENMM-Sky Earth Non Metallic Metals, painting non-metallic metals but including a horizon line showing different types of reflections achieved if the metal was really "outside".

Demi-Metallics--using metallic paint mixed with flat paints, inks, liners, etc to tint the metallics darker or lighter. Use the same techniques as if painting non-metallics but demis will retain some of their shininess.

Complementary colors--primary colors are red, blue, yellow. secondary colors are purple, orange and green. Red + Green, Blue + Orange, Yellow + Purple = complementary colors.

[tbrehaut]

gunk: paint additive created from some combination of paint thinner (often water), drying retarder, and/or flow improver; this combination tends to vary between painters and even different paint brands. [took me a quite a while to figure out what this meant]

shelf of shame: [still not entirely sure what this refers to, although I'm assuming it means minis started but not finished]

[fieldarchy]

shelf of shame: [still not entirely sure what this refers to, although I'm assuming it means minis started but not finished]

Shelf of Shame: Shelf, Table, room, etc (whatever is big enough ) housing all minis that are partially completed but you lost your motivation to finish and are awaiting your muse to return to finish those minis.

[fieldarchy]

Paint Journal: A notebook/notepad that you can record paint recipes, hours logged into a mini, brushes used, etc. Anything that helps you remember what you did on one mini that you may want to replicate in the future or share with others.

[dargrin]

Brush licking - Although not recommended, the act of putting the brush in your mouth and pulling it out with your lips closed. This makes the a sharp brush tip.

[Lord Wehrmacht]

If we are going to do the pinning thing the we should also describe some important materials used in the assembly phase. This is stuff Ive used... can't address stuff Ive not used.


"Green Stuff" Also known as Kneaditite is a two part epoxy sold be pretty much everyone. It comes in a two toned strip with a blue side and a yellow side. If you combine them you begin the hardening process which takes approximately 1-2 hours. Once hardened it can be sculpted but not sanded... its malleable when dried and can bend. Its used in sculpting and some folks use it as a sticky join between parts in assembly *not too recommended*.

"Brown Stuff" Another two part epoxy, which sets in 1-2 hours. Brown stuff will set a bit harder and can be sanded (need confirmation on that one). Its used in sculpting as well.. though its less common.

It should be noted that the parts of Green and Brown epoxies can be mixed producing, depending on the mix, a harder... or softer material, faster drying times etc. YMMV

"Apoxie Sculpt" This is my favorite for basing and such. Its a two part synthetic clay with some interesting properties. Working time is about 2 hours or so, in this time you can make it into any shape ya want. After this the material begins to set in earnest and you can cut it, drill it, and such. It adheres to damn near everything EXCEPT WAX PAPER, which is useful when modeling it initially. After it is set it is almost as strong as dental cement. I have heard of people using it in replacement of Super Glue. (in other words you can assemble minis with this stuff and not use glue at all. The advantage of this is that is solves super glues greatest problem which is its sheering strength. It doest NOT hold enough detail for fine sculpture work.

"Super Glue" This is Cyanoacrylate. The standard glue that most folks use in assembly. Its damn close to instantly adherence is its strength as is the fact that its very good at preventing material from being PULLED apart. The big downside? It sucks at preventing joined material from breaking from a force applied perpendicular to the joined plane. Which is why you need to PIN alot of items in miniature assembly. My biggest tip... and it works so so, is thus. If you get superglue on your fingers... have a teabag nearby, as far as I know its the one thing that can take superglue away from the skin quickly.

.. that is all for now..

LW

[Versutus Vulpes]

Greystuff - ProCreate brand epoxy putty - grey in colour when mixed. Similar properties to Greenstuff - somewhat easier to work with - but different people have different opinions of course.

Epoxy Glue - two part glue that begins to dry once combined. Different types of glue have different drying times (5 minutes to an hour). Thicker than superglue - it has some gap filling abilities. Less likely to fail do to shearing strains (like dropping). Long drying time can make it difficult to use. Drys mostly clear - can be used for water effects.

Futzing - The last 5% of painting a mini that takes 95% of the time (or so it seems). The tedious and never ending task of highlighting buttons, belts, bottles, beads and anyhting else the sculptor threw onto the mini to mess with our minds.

Dullcoat - A satin or dull varnish used to protect minis - handy to act as a save point while painting - as it allows paint applied after to be wiped away without effecting the under coats. Not as hard as a glosscoat.*

Glosscoat - Gloss varnish - strong but shiny. Shine hides details and subtle shading of painting. Often - people will apply a few coats of gloss and then use a dullcoat to knock down the shine.*

*Both types of varnish can tone down highlights and tend to even out hues - so keep this in mind when painting - High contrast will not be as noticible once sealed.

[Cerridwyn1st]

"Gap Filling" is a property of some glues which means it does not need a lack of air to cure. It will help to glue pieces together even if they don't fit tightly together, hence the "gap filling" property.

"Sealing between layers" refers to giving a mini a thin coat of sealant to protect what has already been done. Necessary for some brands of paint that rub off easily. EX: Vallejo Model Color. This process is also used to seal work that has been done before applying a step that my need to be removed to correct an error, such as freehand. By sealing the mini, it is possible to gently remove or correct something that isn't working quite right without destroying the layers underneath.

"Pins" are the material inserted into a joint to make it stronger. Examples of pinning material are dressmaker's pins or sewing needless, brass rod, floral wire, and paperclips.

Dressmaker's pins and sewing needles are both made of spring steel and can bear a lot of weight. Use these materials for joints that need to bear a lot of stress, such as large limbs, dragon wings, etc. Brass rod and floral wire can both be bought in a wide range of sizes, called a "guage". As they have some flexibility, they work best for joints where you may need a little wiggle room to get the pieces to hold together. Because of the wide range of sizes, they can be used for even the smallest bits, such as a hand or fairy's wing.

While many adherents swear by paperclips, there are better materials available.

As mentioned before, Cyanoacrylate glues or "superglue" is the most common glue used for assembly by painters. This product comes in a wide variety of thicknesses, from super thin to gel-like. In general, the thinner the glue the faster it will cure and the weaker the bond. Super thin glues are excellent for "dry fitting" models and for sticking a model with in integral base to a painting gig. It is easy to break apart pieces with this glue. Thicker glues take longer to cure but may give better hold and gap filling.

Of all glues used, Zap-a-gap with a green label is by far the most popular. It is of medium thickness so it will cure fairly quickly with good hold and gap filling properties. It is the most popular brand/formulation sold in Gaming Stores.

"Blotting" is the act of stroking a loaded brush on an absorbent surfact to remove excess paint and return it to a point. Materials for blotters can be paper towels, spounges, or my favorite, cut-up old t-shirts. The blotter may be wet or dry when used.

"Wet Pallet" is any container that has a layer of sponge-like material with a semi-impervious paper on it. The sponge can be thin sponge, paper towel or cloth. The paper may be special "Wet Pallet" paper or baker's parchment. A flat containter that can be sealed air-tight is best. The containers can range from a plastic sandwich box to a large, expensive specially-made wet pallet such as the "Painter's Friend".

"Welled Pallet" refers to a plastic or ceramic plate with depressions called "wells". Many painters prefer a ceramic welled pallet over plastic, as it is easier to clean and keeps the paint liquid longer.

Edited by Cerridwyn1st, 02 October 2007 - 11:45 PM.

[Cerridwyn1st]

Additional notes on two-part epoxies:

Brown stuff, Green Stuff and White Stuff are all made by the same company, Polymetic Systems. The correct name for the products is Kneadatite. Brown Stuff is an aluminium mix that cure very hard. Green stuff is not as stiff but can be easily carved once it is cured. White Stuff is flexible when cured, which makes it inadiquate for most modeling uses.

Procreate is a fairly new product; it has been on the market about two years now. When you see "Greens" that are actually grey, the've been sculpted with Procreate.

Apoxysculpt comes in a wide variety of colors, though the most common are white and grey. It is water soluble, so the curing time can be extended by kneading in a little water. It also comes in a paste form.

In all cases, sculpting materials are usually too soft when first mixed to be easily sculpted. It is best to allow the products to cure about 30 minutes before sculpting.

Often sculptors will different products, achieving something with properties of both. It can also be done to "stretch" an expensive material with a less expensive one. An example would be mixing Apoxysculpt and Kneadatite, then using this to "bulk up" the sculpt. Finer details would be added later with Kneadatite.

[eastman]

Procrastipainting - the acting of painting a new or different model while ignoring the models already in progress with rapidly approaching deadlines. This is usually done right before a competition.

Rhetorical Painting - Setting out all of the necessary supplies (minis, paints, brushes, etc) to work on a piece (again, usually right before the deadline) and then going and doing something completely different (such as watching Resident Evil - Extinction instead of working on a GenCon cempetition piece that was due in 2 weeks)

[morganm]

Painting Chemical Clarification Compendium
As a confused novice painter I posted the thread linked above and now have compiled the most pertinent information from that thread to be archived here for future reference by all who wish to know. I would encourage people to read the whole thread and not just these quotes. However we'll cut right to the meat of it here. Quotes are word for word and only edited to utilize space more effectively; for example removing redundant carriage returns.

There's basically 3 major areas of acrylic products:

Additives - actual chemicals which alter the behavior of the acrylics.

• Improve surface adhesion - Do you want your acrylics to glide smoothly and stick cleanly? Then use a flow enhancer/improver/release. All these terms mean a water-thin medium which breaks down surface tension. This prevents the acrylic (essentially plastic) from dragging on the surface, causing streaks or blotchiness...
  
  Generally does not affect matte or gloss of paint, unless too much is added.
  

  Examples:
  Liquitex Flow-Aid
  W&N Acrylic Flow Improver
  Golden Acrylic Flow Release
  Reaper Flow Improver
  Decoart Floating Medium
  

• Slow drying time - Do you want your paints to take longer to dry? ("Sure, we all do!") Adding these mediums means the "open" time of the acrylics is greater, giving you between a few minutes to 10-15 extra minutes to blend them, depending on the amount of medium added and thickness of the paint. These range from thick, goopy versions suitable for tube paints to water-thin versions better for our paints. Also sometimes called "blending medium" or "retarder".
  
  Generally does not affect matte or gloss of paint, unless too much is added.
  

  Examples:
  Liquitex Slow-Dri (thin)
  Liquitex Slow-Dri (thick)
  Golden Retarder
  W&N Acrylic Retarder
  Decoart Brush n' Blend
  Delta Ceramcoat Gel Blending medium
  

Mediums - Acrylic binder of similar consistency and behavior to actual paints.

• Increase paint "volume" without adhesion loss - Do you want to spend less money on paint? (aka make your paint go further.) By adding these mediums you can use less paint to cover roughly the same area. Some transparency results, depending on how much medium you add, but because of the binder the paint usually retains the same working qualities as straight out of the tube or bottle. Usually this is for fine artists trying to stretch their tube paints.
  
  Does affect sheen of paint: you determine whether the dried paint is matte, satin or glossy, depending on the medium you use.
  

  Examples:
  Liquitex Matte Medium
  Liquitex Gloss Medium
  

• Increase thickness/texture - Basically all the gel, structural, tar, sand, etc. mediums fall in this category too. They all let you stretch your paint out, though these mediums use heavier thickeners and/or texture agents to create interesting effects.
  
  Does affect sheen of paint: you determine whether the dried paint is matte, satin or glossy, depending on the medium you use. Primarily, canvas painters use thwse to create oil paint-like effects for acrylics or wacky, structural painting works.
  

  Examples:
  W&N Gel medium
  Decoart Thickening medium
  

Varnishes - Protect a finished piece.

• Seal your paint - Are you done and ready to protect your hard work? Basically a permanent, hard acrylic coating to seal and protect a finished piece. May or may not contain UV protectants, acrylic resins, polyurethanes, etc. depending on formulation. Usually intended to be permanent and not reworkable, though depending on the type (matte vs. glossy) it can be used like a clear primer. (I.e. Dullcoate has a "tooth" so you can paint over it, because paint sticks to it.)
  
  Does affect sheen of paint: you determine whether the varnish used is matte, satin or glossy. End result can be to kill sheen or add shine.
  

  Examples:
  Testor's Dullcoate
  Reaper Brush-on Sealer
  Krylon Crystal Clear
  Krylon Matte Varnish
  GW 'ard coat
  Decoart varnish
  

Where the problem lies is naming conventions, like I said, and blurring the lines... Paint companies often try to mix different effects into their mediums, or at the very least advertise those effects... For example, yes, adding Matte Medium to a paint makes paint dry longer, because it's just thicker stuff and takes longer to dry. So the company says it slows drying time. Well yes, it does, but not the same reason as a pure "extender" does. The extender slows the chemical reaction that changes acrylic from a liquid state to solid plastic as it dries, whereas the medium just adds more stuff to the paint, so it takes longer for the stuff to dry.

Don't even get me started on the GAC polymer mediums: http://www.goldenpai...ymers/index.php

"Confused? Tune in next week for another episode of 'Soap'...." - Laszlo

I had the same questions as you a few years ago and asked around, did some research, and came to some understanding about additives. I learned a lot from Laszlo (Hot Lead, above) too, because as you can tell, he has a lot of experience in using fine art paints.
Anyway, here is another way to answer your questions, or rather, another way to organize the information:

What do you want to do with your paint?

• I want to thin my paint
  Most of the high-end painters that I have talked to thin their paint with water. I have never heard one of them talk about using acrylic thinner. In fact, a lot of high end painters don't use any chemicals at all, and just use water for all their different applications. Others use lots of chemicals. Your call.
  
• I want to keep my paint from drying too quickly
  See Hot Lead's explanation of extender/retarder here. This is especially good if you are doing wet-blending. If you are doing layering, then you want your paints to dry quickly on your model, so stay away from extender, and get yourself a hair dryer.
  
• I want to make a wash
  A wash is used to shade the nooks and crannies of a mini. Some painters just use water, some use flow-aid. I like a little flow aid in my washes. I also use flow aid for lining. I am able to control the thinness of the line more easily with a little flow-aid in there. Some painters also use flow aid for free hand designs, for the same reason.
  
• I want to make a glaze
  A glaze is a super thinned, translucent mix. It can vary from having a lot of pigment to having almost none, so that it's almost clear. Again, some painters use just water. Some painters use a medium, as some paints separate when they are thinned too much. Some painters use brush on sealer (especially Reaper, though I've heard of other painters using 'ard cote by GW for this). These are good for glazes, in my opinion, because they add to a thinned paint's viscosity without adding more pigment. It's easier to control where your paint is going if it is a little more viscous. I've been using Reaper brush on sealer lately instead of medium and I have to say I like it better.
  
• I want to protect my paintjob from damage
  See "sealers" above.

So, you can see that using chemicals is really your call. Some great painters (like Laszlo, Anne, Jen Haley) use a variety of chemicals, and some great painters (Jeremie Bonamont Teboul, EricJ of Wyrd) just use water. Personally, I was hoping that by using chemicals like Laszlo, Anne and Jen, my painting would become world class just like that *snaps fingers.* I was sadly mistaken.

Another fine resource pointed out in another thread by psyberwolfe1 which explains a lot about Reaper specific products but still great information!

Casket Works 22 on page 85 (warning: 20.40mb PDF)
http://www.reapermin...m/misc/CW22.pdf

[cutebutpsycho]

I removed all posts which were asking for definitions, asking for the topic to be pinned, or saying 'yeah, that's a good idea' and made them into their own topic

[Orionjp]

shelf of shame: [still not entirely sure what this refers to, although I'm assuming it means minis started but not finished]

Shelf of Shame: Shelf, Table, room, etc (whatever is big enough ) housing all minis that are partially completed but you lost your motivation to finish and are awaiting your muse to return to finish those minis.

This is the story of my wargaming career.