317 replies to this topic

[Last Knight]

...no, my cat didn't fall asleep on the keyboard. I'm following up on a suggestion CashWiley made over here, to do a WIP* thread on the Learn To Paint Kits, as I go through them. Unfortunately, I didn't read his suggestion until I was about halfway done with the Anhurian Man-at-Arms already...

*I'm used to "WI" threads meaning "Where I...", so this "Work In Progress" could also be considered "Where I Paint..." Color me amused at the symmetry.

So, here we have our Anhurian:




I'm following instructions pretty slavishly, since the whole point of a Learn To Paint Kit, to my eye, is to learn to paint. Thus, I'm limiting myself to the colors recommended and the brushes that came with the kit. I've hit a couple of speedbumps already, mostly because I'm not particularly good at washes, partly because one of the colors the pamphlet recommended - Dragon Blue - didn't come with my kit, so I used Ashen Blue instead... which may or may not have been the right color, since I didn't keep them segragated after my great big post in the Paint Kits thread earlier. >_<

For obvious reasons, all colours are Reaper MSP.

My paint notebook reads: primed white w/ Reaper brush-on primer.
Face & Hands: Tanned Skin
Washed w/ Intense Brown
Drybrush Tanned Skin
-------The eyes were done with a miniscule slash of Pure White, followed by teeny-tiny dots of Walnut Brown.

Cloth:Sapphire Blue
Walnut Brown/Sapphire Blue wash**
Drybrush Ashen Blue

**I'm pretty sure I borked the wash by using too much paint (4:2:1, walnut brown:sapphire blue: water), so it ended up darkening all the cloth much more than it needed to be. FWIW, I think I used too much paint on the drybrushing Ashen Blue, too.

Armor: True Silver
Black ink wash***

***Current step. Next up, I drybrush True Silver to bring back some highlights... and then, on to the leather!

[klyons99]

Off to a great start! The Ashen Blue there doesn't seem to be problematic at all, works just fine as a highlight.

As YAKL2P (Yet Another Kickstarter Learning To Paint), I'm not overly qualified to make too many judgements, but I will say that it took me a few liberal applications of acetone and a toothbrush to get mine to the point that you're showing here.

As a suggestion, in case you haven't read it elsewhere here in the forums, if you follow the kits, working through 1,2, then skipping to 4 and 5, then coming back to 3 really helps.

[CashWiley]

Sapphire Blue is the one included in the first paint kit. While I didn't photo the sealed boxes, I did make a handy-dandy list of paint bottles included with each kit:

http://www.reapermin...post__p__641785

As far as 'too much of this' or 'wrong ratio of that'; that's what this is all about! Half learning the techniques, and half practicing them. Mistakes will be made, and they will be awesome because we will learn from them.

That said, I think your duder looks great.

[Last Knight]

Well, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that I'm really bad at WIPs... not because I'm bad at painting (I am proudly above mediocre), but because I get so wrapped up in the act of painting that I forget to stop and take pictures. So, you guys go from a half-done Anhurian man-at-arms... to a mostly done Anhurian man-at-arms. My bad.

As I said last post, the next step was to dry brush True Silver over the metally bits. This was done. Then we moved on to the leather. The instructions said to do the straps and belts in Walnut, the boots, sword handle, and inside of the shield in Intense Brown. The scabbard was at no point mentioned in all of this, but I decided it belonged Walnut... so, Walnut it became. After basecoating the boots et al, I did a Walnut wash over them - and then dry brushed them with Intense Brown, to bring the color back out. Then I used Intense Brown on the leathery bits (but not the scabbard), to brighten them up some. Next up was the base; I painted it Grass Green, did a Walnut wash over it, and while waiting for the wash to dry, took these shots:



It was at this point that I realized I had completely forgotten to do the leg-wrappings, so I went back over them with Intense Brown, dry brushed the base with Grass Green, and posted"]http://www.reapermin...at-arms/] posted the completed work up over in Show Off[/url], the end!

And thusly did I finish the first half of the first L2PK. Tune in next time for everybody's favorite, the Barrow Rat!

[ced1106]

Interesting -- I keep reading that you highlight instead of drybrushing, because drybrushing goes all over the place? How were you able to drybrush small areas? Does Reaper have you use the same brush for drybrushing that you did for regular brushing?

So all you did for the sword is start with a white primer then drybrush until you were satisfied?

What problems are you having with washes? That seems to be the only technique I can get right. :P I think the kit doesn't come with a premade wash, so that could be part of it. I'm addicted to Army Painter's Strong Tone Ink. Heck, I'm even practicing blacklining with it now, not just glopping it all over the figure... Anyway, don't sweat washes until you try this stuff (have you tried it already?).

Do the Reaper instructions tell you to thin the paint before basecoating?

*Very* glad you started this thread. Learning a lot here!

EDIT: LTPK2 has you thin out the paint before using.

[Last Knight]

Interesting -- I keep reading that you highlight instead of drybrushing, because drybrushing goes all over the place? How were you able to drybrush small areas? Does Reaper have you use the same brush for drybrushing that you did for regular brushing?

The kit comes with two brushes - a #2 flat, and a 10/0 detail. I used the #2 flat for a lot of stuff, basecoating and drybrushing both.

So all you did for the sword is start with a white primer then drybrush until you were satisfied?

No, misspoke there... I basecoated the sword blade and pommel with True Silver, then a black ink wash, and then drybrushed True Silver over the top until it had the right amount of shine again.

What problems are you having with washes?

Didn't do too badly with the ink wash, but trying to use Walnut as a wash didn't work too well... I think I was doing it too thick, as it stained stuff darker than the picture would indicate it should have been. On the other hand, I may have made the ink wash too runny - things didn't get as dark as the picture. XD

That seems to be the only technique I can get right. :P I think the kit doesn't come with a premade wash, so that could be part of it. I'm addicted to Army Painter's Strong Tone Ink. Heck, I'm even practicing blacklining with it now, not just glopping it all over the figure... Anyway, don't sweat washes until you try this stuff (have you tried it already?).

I've been using Army Painter Quickstain, that's one of the practices I'm trying to get off of with the Learn To Paint Kits - relying on the Quickstain for all my shading/staining needs.

Do the Reaper instructions tell you to thin the paint before basecoating?

Nope, Reaper instructions just said "paint," although they indicated that you should use a wet brush (that is, dip the brush in water, then into the paint on your palette). That said, all the paints worked pretty well without thinning - good consistency, right from the bottle. I could get used to this stuff.

*Very* glad you started this thread. Learning a lot here!

Me too, I really like these kits. Anyway, thanks to CashWiley for giving me the idea for this thread.

[ObsidianCrane]

You say you used 4:2:1, walnut brown:sapphire blue: water for the wash, you wanted 4:2:1, water:walnut brown:sapphire blue at least possibly more water.

With eyes don't use pure white, add at least a touch of blue to just pull it off pure white. In contrast to the walnut surround (or even the pupil) it will look white, but it does look better than pure white. Its one of those subtle things that makes a difference to the finished mini.

The other thing with the eyes is the pupils need to be looking in the same direction and the same size. This is one of the hardest things to get right, but because of how face sensitive we are its one of the most important to get right.

[Last Knight]

-snip good advice-

Well, you know, learning experience. For washes, the instructions say a 1:1 or 1:2 paint to water; for that particular wash, it said you should add in a bit of Sapphire Blue to help it blend. I didn't quite follow the instructions, so big surprise that things went pear shaped. For the eyes, the instructions call for "a strip of Pure White across the eyes." He is a little cross-eyed; I could probably redo that, and might in a bit. I'm still kinda satisfied with him.

So! We're on to the next one...

We start with one Barrow Rat, primed white.

We then do our fur with Intense Brown.

...and then we wash it with Walnut Brown.

...and then dry brush with Intense Brown again.

Now we're on to skin! First, Tanned Skin...

...which then gets washed with Walnut Brown (sensing a theme, here?)

And then, while the wash is drying, we hop onto the forums and post our progress. I think I'm starting to get the hang of the "IP" part of this WIP, at least...

Also, the ears apparently weren't supposed to be Tanned Skin.... reading ahead, they're going to get a coat of Intense Brown, right after this next dry brushing. Here we go...

[Last Knight]

Okay, so here we've redone our boils with Tanned Skin, and we've dry brushed our skin bits with Tanned Skin, too.

Here we've painted over our boils with a Carnage Red wash...

We've dotted the boils with Pure White mixed with Tanned Skin and painted the ears Intense Brown...

...a Walnut Brown wash on the ears...

Pure White, then Walnut Brown wash on the teeth.



...so, I kinda lost track as to what was going on where with these last couple of pictures. The mouth was Carnage Red; the tongue was Tanned Skin, washed with Carnage Red, then drybrushed with Tanned Skin again; the eyes were painted Walnut Brown, a single strip of Pure White overlaid, and then Carnage Red on top of the Pure White. I like the effect.

The base was Grass Green for the grassy bits, then a Black Ink wash for everything (giving the rocks that grayish colour), and then Grass Green was dry brushed back over the grass. The skull's eye sockets were painted Walnut Brown, then Pure White was dry brushed on it very lightly, so that it had a hint of whiteness to the gray. And... that should be about it, bar cleaning up any mistakes I see in the morning sun. **flop** That's L2PK1, tune in next thread for L2PK2... probably Monday, as I have a wedding and an amusement park on my plate for this weekend.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[ObsidianCrane]

On the eyes; I figured the instructions said pure white & for years I did just that, but recently I changed and it does look better.

I gather this will not be following the LtPK instructions but at this stage you could thin the Walnut Brown down (maybe with half a drop of pure black added). Get it so that it has basically the same consistency as water. When you put a dry brush in the paint it should wick up onto the brush like water. (This is essentially a glaze but that isn't how to use it.)
Apply this over the whole model (because its all browns anyway).
Don't get a lot on the brush, just a tip full at a time and brush over the whole mini. This will deepen the shadows of the whole model and give a better consistency to the model.
This sort if really thin wash can be repeated when you have finished drybrushing as well, it will help smooth colour transitions and reduce the powdery look drybrushing can create.

One final thing leave extra time for washes to dry unless you apply them in thin coats.

[Last Knight]

"Well, every adventurer is supposed to get his start killing rats... but this isn't quite what I had in mind..."

[ObsidianCrane]

Oh all the above was aimed at your post that ended with waiting for the wash on the tanned skin. (It was delayed by being Dad for a bit IRL)

[Last Knight]

Oh all the above was aimed at your post that ended with waiting for the wash on the tanned skin. (It was delayed by being Dad for a bit IRL)

I know the feeling, so was some of the painting. XD

[Last Knight]

"Well, every adventurer is supposed to get his start killing rats... but this isn't quite what I had in mind..."

Alternate caption: "I told you I wasn't interested, Loc-Nar!" (Reference here.)

[ced1106]

Thanks for sticking to the script.

I notice that Reaper's telling you to drybrush in the base color, rather than a lighter color, which is what I read in other tutorials. What do you think (and others) think?

Reaper also had you done the rat's teeth in white. Other tutorials suggest off-white, and I preferred off-white when doing orc teeth. Again, what's your (and others) opinion?

Thanks again for the thread. Looking forward to LTPK2, since that's what I ordered! Have a good weekend. And that is one big rat! :)

Random suggestion: Do part of the miniature (front or side) per Reaper, and the other as you would do it! :D