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The Art of War: Dick Painting: A new kind of brush head
Raslin
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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).
Penny Arcade Art of War Challenge.
(Information contained in this here spoiler, ran by Anon the Felon)
This is a free-form "contest". Where members may join for single or multiple events if they wish, while persistent participants will be able to "Prove their metal" against each other in the final weeks. The event will also provide a way for participants to get more parts of their armies painted, while keeping motivated by the over arching challenge, and each other.
Rules are fairly simple. Starting at the first of March, we will work our way through the 40k Force Organization Chart. Each event will last 2 weeks, and will have 2 options to pick and paint from. Players of Warhammer Fantasy and Warmachine are also welcome to participate! The more the merrier!
We base the system off the "Honor Code" meaning, try not to cheat. We're all here to have fun and get some painting done!
You see, as the challenge is going on, we'll be able to help each other. Giving tips on better highlighting, explaining how we got that perfect yellow pigment. Its about learning, getting better, and getting some painting done!
Once we have done a full run through the force org chart, we will have a 2 week painting contest, where the folks who participated in at least 75% of the challenge can post their best work (same timestamp process, you can't post the GD winner you bought on ebay) they can do in 2 weeks, we'll vote and he'll be crowned "King of the Art of War"...until some one dethrones him the next challenge!
List of Events:
I have tried to include a varied composition, since not all armies are the same. If you just can't fill the slot for that week, but wish to participate anyway, you can always include a Troop/Core/Warjack choice instead. But trying to stick to the order or progression is a great way to expand and paint a varied army.
Rules are fairly simple. Starting at the first of March, we will work our way through the 40k Force Organization Chart. Each event will last 2 weeks, and will have 2 options to pick and paint from. Players of Warhammer Fantasy and Warmachine are also welcome to participate! The more the merrier!
We base the system off the "Honor Code" meaning, try not to cheat. We're all here to have fun and get some painting done!
This is a short example of how each event will happen: At the first of March it is announced we will be painting either an HQ or Troop choice (Hero or Core for Fantasy, Warcaster or Troop for Warmachine). From the first, you will have until the 15th of March to make a post on this thread, that has:
A TIMESTAMPED picture of your models in either bare plastic or base primer. This must be timestamped from the camera itself. I realize this can be manipulated, but that kind of ruins the spirit. This time stamp must be from the first to the 15th of March. When ever you get around to assembling is priming is your buisness, but the closer to the close date, the more rushed you will be!
The post will also contain a TIMESTAMPED picture of your models fully painted to the best of your ability. Same rules apply, if your post is done on the 16th, and you have the 15th on all your pictures? Great! We all know how busy life can be. But the closer you can get to posting on or before the final date, the better off you will be.
A TIMESTAMPED picture of your models in either bare plastic or base primer. This must be timestamped from the camera itself. I realize this can be manipulated, but that kind of ruins the spirit. This time stamp must be from the first to the 15th of March. When ever you get around to assembling is priming is your buisness, but the closer to the close date, the more rushed you will be!
The post will also contain a TIMESTAMPED picture of your models fully painted to the best of your ability. Same rules apply, if your post is done on the 16th, and you have the 15th on all your pictures? Great! We all know how busy life can be. But the closer you can get to posting on or before the final date, the better off you will be.
You see, as the challenge is going on, we'll be able to help each other. Giving tips on better highlighting, explaining how we got that perfect yellow pigment. Its about learning, getting better, and getting some painting done!
Once we have done a full run through the force org chart, we will have a 2 week painting contest, where the folks who participated in at least 75% of the challenge can post their best work (same timestamp process, you can't post the GD winner you bought on ebay) they can do in 2 weeks, we'll vote and he'll be crowned "King of the Art of War"...until some one dethrones him the next challenge!
List of Events:
2 Weeks per, with 1 to 2 days in between for rest/purchase/whatever. I will post when the challenge is starting, from that post, you will have 2 weeks to complete:
Purchase, Assembly, Priming, Painting, Posting.
If you've already done parts of this, there is no problem, just remember, you must be starting with models that are at most in the primed state. And document your progress.
Events in order of progression:
HQ or Troop/Lord or Core/Warcaster or Infantry
Elite or Fast Attack/Hero or Special/Warjack or Solo
Troop or Heavy Support/Special or Core/Solo or Infantry
Fast Attack or Troop/Hero or Rare/Warjack or Infantry
Heavy Support or Elite or HQ/Core or Rare or Hero or Lord/Warcaster or Warjack or Solo
The final painting competition will be any 1 modal of your choosing. Troop selections can include the dedicated transport if you want, but is not required. You can also fill any spot with a dedicated transport if you wish.
Purchase, Assembly, Priming, Painting, Posting.
If you've already done parts of this, there is no problem, just remember, you must be starting with models that are at most in the primed state. And document your progress.
Events in order of progression:
HQ or Troop/Lord or Core/Warcaster or Infantry
Elite or Fast Attack/Hero or Special/Warjack or Solo
Troop or Heavy Support/Special or Core/Solo or Infantry
Fast Attack or Troop/Hero or Rare/Warjack or Infantry
Heavy Support or Elite or HQ/Core or Rare or Hero or Lord/Warcaster or Warjack or Solo
The final painting competition will be any 1 modal of your choosing. Troop selections can include the dedicated transport if you want, but is not required. You can also fill any spot with a dedicated transport if you wish.
I have tried to include a varied composition, since not all armies are the same. If you just can't fill the slot for that week, but wish to participate anyway, you can always include a Troop/Core/Warjack choice instead. But trying to stick to the order or progression is a great way to expand and paint a varied army.
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.
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.
As it always comes up in these threads, here's Ashers method of painting his tyranids
Asher wrote:Recipe is dead easy:
White undercoat (Skull white Spray)
Paint carapace Bestial Brown in a couple of watered down layers to get even coverage.
Now this is where it varies. For baby bugs, you can skip the next for steps and go to the straight Bleached Bone Layer. For bigger things do the following:
Streak inwards with a large brush using a 60/40 Bestial Brown/Bleached bone mix. Maybe go 1/2 to 2/3 of the length of the plate with this layer.
Then do the same using 40/60 Brown to Bone instead. Obviously you don't streak in as far.
Then you streak in using straight Bleached Bone. Use a small brush and have a lot of patience to get a good result. You can see in that picture about how far to go in.
Now, once again it depends on whether you're painting a baby bug or big bug. For Big Bugs, I carefully wash any recessed areas with Devlan mud, then go back with Skull White to tidy up any accidental splashes. Baby Bugs don't need this step.
Then, go ahead and wash the whole thing with Badab Black. You can water it down to keep the look a bit brighter if you want.
Then go back and re-streak with straight Bleached Bone again. This will give the edges of the carapace some nice depth.
Final step, Big Bugs only, mix 50/50 Skull White and Bleached Bone and do some selective streaking on the carapace to add a bit of highlighting. I haven't done that in that picture.
Hope that helps!
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:
-Gabriel likes aircraft
-Zatar's terminators
-Sevorak too!
Saluksic's tau
-Grimdog's cool looking... warmachine... dude
-I would hump -SPI-'s scouts
--SPI- gets two pictures, because c'mon, look at these dudes
-We are blessed with fantastic space wolves painters, like Altmann
And Matrias
-Darkseer sold these guys. I have a bridge he may be interested in.
-Mago makes red look amazing
-I paint too
-I've been called a paint whore
I cant url good so add me on steam anyways steamcommunity.com/id/Raslin
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
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Mainly because of the thread title.
THUNDERWOLF CAV INCOMING (prob by end of weekend they'll be done)
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
I also noticed that the torso looks rusted where I applied the orange drybrush when you look at the figure in whiter light. I may drybrush the rest of the first guy in orange to see if the effect looks good all over the figure.
I like your Necrons. The red is effective, and not overdone. Good job. A highlight on the tubing of the weapon would do some good.
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
What would be the best way to do the highlight? I suppose I'd need to go grab a lighter green to put on the tube?
Or maybe I just like red marines...
Awesome work everyone! It's especially cool to see new painters posting here.
I am excited for Monday, when I will join in the painting competition.
I need to paint something for this thread...
First up is getting "whatever" on the inside of my lip. Possibly w/e to shorten it.
Next an' more importantly, iz I'm gonna be gettin' da Weird Boy symbol tatted behind me roight ear. Thinkin all black an wot 'ave you, ta show meself as finally findin' me place with tha' boyz.
I'm still trying to think of a way to incorporate ork checkers into something.
edit: and excuse me do my world eaters not deserve to be in the op? I mean I'm as much a fixture as the others on here :'<
If it were true I'd be offended. But it's not, so I'm not.
Gonna try my darndest to get some miniatures painted so I can post pics in this one...
I also have nothing to contribute at this point.
My Tervigon is almost done, just gotta do the blue slimy bitz and clean up the rest so I should be done before sunday...
Wait, when does the first phase close again?
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
@saluksic: I'll try to get some more pictures of my BAs up, but I don't have that much painted. :P
LIGHTNING
Seriously though, how many models have you painted now? It would be nice to get a picture of the entire army.
@Asher: Nemo looks rad, I assume you use just some metal wire to do the lightning? What's the diametre?
New thread, looks great. Seems roomy.
Yeah it's just wire. I honestly can't remember the diameter. I *think* it's 1/2 or 1/4 mm. I lost the drill bit I used ages ago, and the wire came from a pile of old electronics stuff. The thick wire on the base is either 1 or 1.5 mm for reference.
For some reason it's just easier for me and it fits the diameter of my micro-drills perfectly.
Hence why my marines are held together by glue and paperclips.
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
Lock the thread and stop the competition. Asher's won already.
(I forgot to say it was awesome in the last thread :P)
Anyway, here they are:
Also, due to popular demand: More Blood Angels.
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
I should get painting!
Thinking I may buy a Warjack for the next round of competition, I've been meaning to get into Warmachine or Hordes anyway. God help me.
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
Thank you for your... slightly disturbing words. :?
I'm no longer allowed to give people it's phone number after that one incident with the two Daemon princes of Nurgle...
I really like the darkening you've done around the edges on that.
oh, that is a really cool chainfist conversion.
Thanks, I wish I could say I came up with the idea, but it works out very nicely. It also looks hella more dynamic than the GW chainfists.
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
I may touch him up a bit, but I think this will do.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118