Dark Lord Andrew's Evil Minions

[Swordisdrawn]

Excellent painting. The metals are superb

[Andrew Rae]

Thanks.

oh right - still would have to see you doing that - very neat technique. Anyhow, they look fantastic.

Unfortunately I'm not really set up for videos, but it's pretty straightforward. Just tear of a wee bit of foam (I use blister foam), pinch it in a pair of tweezers so you have a sort of rounded end, dab it in the paint, dab it a few times on some paper towel, a bit more on your hand (it's almost like a drybrush level of paint), then start dabbing on the figure, a bit at a time. Be sure to dab, not swipe. I generally aim at the edges of parts, or the centre of a large area of metal.

If you go too far, or there's a bit you don't like, it's best to knock it back with a layer or two of wash, than to keep dabbing away (I did this with the blades on the nurgle warrior and even on second attempt over did the sponging).

It does help that I always paint metal areas first, before anything else. This is mainly because I've found metallic paints cover much better and more smoothly over a grey primer than an already painted surface, though it's much less of an issue with the Vallejo Metal Color paints.

If anyone does want to try this out, I also strongly recommend using Citadel washes, not their Army Painter equivalents. I was a fan of AP washes for years, but the bottles I bought last year were very different from before and, to be honest, pretty rubbish. Too shiny and they pool in some really nasty ways.

[Bloggard]

thanks very much - excellently explained.

[Elk101]

Lovely painting, particularly that Chaos champion.

[FramFramson]

I can second the recommendation for the Vallejo metallics, by the by. As Andrew has already said the gold is very nice.

[majorsmith]

Fantastic! That nurgle chap looks amazing

[Swaelg]

They are lovely.

[Melnibonean]

Very nice. Looking forward to see more of your work.

[majorsmith]

Is the head a conversion?

[Andrew Rae]

Thanks guys.

Is the head a conversion?

Yeah, I got him cheap on ebay a few years back as he was headless. The helmet comes from the Blightking set. That said, I do prefer my Nurgle champions faceless and helmeted.

[Hobgoblin]

Brilliant stuff!

Disparate models united by colour scheme is a great way to go. Much more interesting than staid 'factions', I reckon.

As just about everyone else has said, those metals are amazing!

[von Lucky]

The skins tones are a very nice earthy green to complement the metals (as others have also lauded).

[Andrew Rae]

Thanks folks. It was a nice surprise that such a simple technique for the metals (and the skin tones for that matter) turned out to look really effective.

I've had a stinking cold all week, so haven't felt much like fine detail painting, but I did get this scenic base made, for inside a glass display dome. Not technically part of my evil minion project (these are my good minions) but it's what I've been up to so might as well post it here. I had considered adding roots and stuff to the sides but what with having a cold and it being January, I didn't fancy digging around in the mud. The sides are in shadow on the shelf anyway so the lack of detail isn't noticeable.

I did get some painting done on a skaven that jumped the queue, though I managed to drop him and bent and chipped the sword so that's taking a bit of time to rectify. He should be finished soon though.

[majorsmith]

Brill! I love the domes too!

[Andrew Rae]

I went a bit overboard and bought ten of those mid-sized ones. Ten was only slightly more than six, which was only slightly more than three so....