(Picture not done by forum users)
A lot of tabletop games involve the use of miniatures or other play aids (hand-made dungeons, illustrations, paintings, etc), and this is the thread for them. Herein we talk shop about the full gauntlet of tabletop hobby activities: modelling, painting, sculpting, converting, and many more I am certain I have forgotten. Do not be afraid to ask questions! We all started horribly, and we have no problem letting you know our secret painting methods(in turn, making them not so secret).
There are some great sites out there for painters, converters, etc. While I am not personally big on using them, I know a lot of people do. Feel free to let me know any other sites you know, I'll throw them into this post!
http://www.brushthralls.com/ - A long time favorite of many of the users on these forums, filled with good tutorials
www.dakkadakka.com - While its more community than anything else, the modeling and painting forums are a great place to get advice on things.
In this thread, a number of questions come up often about certain aspects of painting, so this is a small F.A.Q. for questions you have. If any of our regular viewers would like to add to this, just let me know!
Q: I see these beautiful models people post, so why do my models come out so much worse?
A: This is a hard question to answer, although part of it may just be you being critical of your own models. However, there are a few things that mini painters tend to all do, that highly increase the looks of their miniatures. First, you should always use primer on your models, whether plastic or metal. There are black and white primers, as well as coloured ones, such as red and green. I prefer white, but many people swear by the others. Experiment!
From there, it generally goes to base coating, which is what most people think at "painting". This is getting the main colours on parts. For example, you would be putting blue paint mainly on an ultramarine, with gold on certain parts, etcetera. This is also a good place to mention that you should generally water down your paints, especially if you use the main citadel line of paints. Just a few drops of water will really help getting the basecoats done.
The next two steps can be done interchangably, though I prefer to highlight before washing. So highlighting. This is just the practice of painting lighter colours on the raised parts and hard edges of a miniature. For example, lets take an imperial double eagle(the one with the two wings and two heads). Lets say this was painted with boltgun silver. You might, then, use mithril silver with a small brush to paint the edges of the feathers. This helps the model really pop, and look more striking.
Washing is the other step here. A wash is a heavily watered down paint, meant to pool in the recesses of a model to create shading and depth. The citadel washes are amazing, quite simply. They just work. Badab black will work in 90% of cases, though devlan mud has its place, and the other colors as well.
Q: Ohh no, I hate how this model came out. Should I just repaint over it?
A: No, that would really kill a lot of the detail. Models are not very hard to strip! Simple green is the commonly used solution to strip a model of paint. Just leave your models submerged in simple green for at least an hour(overnight works better), and take a toothbrush to them to get off the paint afterwards(You probably dont want to use the toothbrush on your teeth later). Acetone can work for metal models, but be careful to make sure they don't have plastic parts; Acetone will eat plastic.
Q: Do I have to use GW's paints?
A: No, although you probably want to use miniature paints of some sort. These include Citadel, Vallejo, Reaper, P3, and other paints. Make sure its a paint meant for miniatures, and that its acrylic, water based paint.
We've been blessed with some incredible work shown off in the thread. Here is but a taste of some of the pieces of art we saw in the last thread:
-SPI-'s Marines
Dareth's Space Wolves
Timspork's Imperial Guard. I'm totally not biased by showing this aircraft. Honest.
We always gotta give CMDante props with his conversions
Asher's Tyranids
Sharp's orks.
Matrius Space Wolves
Unarmed Oracle's IG
Ein's orks
Ein gets two. Because holy crap look at this kan.
Weeshuggy's elves.
Some of my own guardsmen. I don't think its horrible
I cant url good so add me on steam anyways
steamcommunity.com/id/Raslin
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Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
(need my dot)
I think the first thing I ever painted was a skeleton from Hero Quest. The plastic was an off-white colour anyway, so I just put silver on the scythe and splotches of red for the blood.
I used enamel paint, of course.
I do too, but big picture is big :P
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You should do it
But if you fail I will log in to my characters on Sargeras and harass you to no end
I'll start posting my in progress Iyanden wraithlord and stuff, before I strip it since I'm not so sure about the colourscheme anymore
They were high elves.
oh no wait, enamel paint was awful
1. I went through all hundred pages of the old thread, looking for pictures. I skimmed heavily. If I didn't get you, chances are I just missed it in my skimming. I also tried to keep it small, so if it didn't catch my eye quickly, I skipped it(especially if it was in a spoiler, or the image was dead). I'm not saying you're bad painters :P
2. My thread title is trying to encourage discussion... and a way to blue-dot without blue-dotting
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The original prototype of the new thread did, and they were excellent additions! However, I remembered that I only posted stuff which was new in the last thread(As I want to encourage painting, and not showing off old masterpieces), so sadly I had to take them out. As well as a small piece of my heart
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I actually started painting with acrylics... but normal acrylics, not miniature acrylic. Needless to say, my models looked like they were painted with melted crayons.
Anyways, lets kick off the thread with some art! My counts-as guardsmen Marbo. Originally meant to be a veteran with demo charge, I decided vets with demolitions weren't very good, so... Marbo.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
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Bad news: I wound up taking a disliking to that paint scheme and the lot (with the exception of the Commissar and Psyker, who I imagine are getting to be old hats wrt all these guardsmen coming and going) went into Simple Green.
Good news: now that school has eased into a rhythm I should be able to start painting again soon. I have an infantry platoon assembled, mostly based and ready for primer. Hopefully I'll be able to maek poast soon.
I keep hitting spots I dont want to hit.
This!
I was wondering why you hadn't been around :P
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
As I mentioned in another thread. I'm shooting for a legion of the damned army ever since I heard the LoTD were going to be elite choices in the new Marine Dex.
I have now since realized that it probably was a horrible mistake to pick a color scheme as painful to paint as individual flames on legplates and shoulderpads (shudder)
Nevertheless, I'm soldiering on and desperately trying to get better. Here are some pics of my first couple of tac Marines and some "zombiefied" scouts.
Also, segway....I'm looking into buying an airbrush/compressor kit, are the ones on ebay worth the coin or should I just not bother?
T3H PICS!
Overview (It has since gotten bigger than this...oh gods, I need to stay away from freaking ebay...)
My First Sergeant
Shots of the Tac Squad
[
And my Zombiefied Scouts
And there we go!
I definitely need to work on my highlighting among other things, my colors keep getting muddied up and I always am hesitant with proceeding with new layers and whatnot. But mainly the flames and the glowing red eyes for the marines are my biggest enemies. I can't seem to replicate pulsing, flaming eyes and flames reliably and quick enough for my troops.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
this!
Anyway, here's what I'm working on at the moment.
Work in progress shot of some Noise Marines
Despite a fondness for vehicles, I'm still pretty intimidated by painting them. The purple on my marines comes from washes, which really wouldn't translate well to the large flat surfaces of tanks, which doesn't help.
I've decided to try my hand at some blending though. What do you think?
This weekend I plan on finishing off my first three longbeards. I don't hate them, but I think they'll likely be the ugliest of the bunch. I'll probably do a dwarf Runesmith before I do another batch of three longbeards. Since my wife's new digital camera is awesome, expect some pictures.
Creepy/stylised is basically exactly what I was going for, so it's good to hear that's what it invokes.
It's Hormagaunt purple blended up to Space Wolves grey, with pure hormagaunt purple swirls painted on once it's dry.
I like them day! The only thing I can comment on is, the black really doesn't pop at all. Even just some slight highlighting on the most extreme parts would do wonders.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
@Raslin yup! The black is just undercoated right now, it'll be getting some highlights sooner or later
Damn Raslin. That is some egg on your face right there.
I'm sure a GW Case would survive as checked baggage...
We need to have a Nurgle VS Slaanesh Throwdown!
Maybe i'll have a go and see if how many guys would fit in the bottom of my hand luggage.
I can bring you up to my Local GW and we can duke it out