Grenadier Box "Gold Line" group "painting" Therapy?

[Spooktalker]

I can solve your priming woes with one word: Dupli-color.

If you live in the states that is. Dupli-color is genius and completely unlike anything else I've seen. Not only is it beautifully smooth and super thin--pretty much impossible to obscure detail with it, but it never runs and has an amazing fan tip that is way easier on your fingers and can be swiveled for up-down passes or side-side passes. Comes in black, white, red, and dark gray, maybe other colors. The only caveat is that in cold weather it comes out as a runny liquid. It's car primer and IIRC $5-6.

I lie the figures face down on paper on a piece of cardboard inside a spray box, spray, turn 90 degrees and repeat. Then wait 20 min to dry, turn them over on their backs and repeat.

Then I do a pass with black paint to get paint in any deep crevices, and unless they are mostly armored or all dark colors I stand them up and give them a dusting with white - what is called "zenithal" underpainting for some reason.

[Revfan]

Hey Spooktalker

I googled Dupli-Color... and there is tons of stuff.... can you take a look at one of your cans and comment on which one are you referring to?


Maybe this is it?

[Gailbraithe]

This is the one I think they're talking about:



It's the Dupli-Color Sandable Primer (Black).  I know for a fact that the catalog painters for Privateer Press (i.e. full-time professional miniature painters) used Dupli-Color Sandable Primer (Black) as the base for all their models, and I strongly suspect (based on  the identical can size, nozzle type and having used both) that the black primer Privateer Press sells as P3 Black Primer is just repackahed Dupli-Color Sandable Primer (Black).

[otherworld]

I have now finished all the colours which are common to all 10 models.  So, metal armour & weapons, flesh, hair/beards, leather belts, etc. all just about finished.  I'm now going to move on to working on individual models until each is finished, except for the bases which will be done together as a batch at the end.  Once I've finished my first one, I'll post some photos.  It will be good to get into some colours and detail work, I have to say it's been a bit of a chore so far.

[otherworld]

So, Revfan, how are your Fighting Men going?

I know I'm a long way from completing my set, but my mind keeps drifting to the next box set in the challenge.  Have you got the 2006 - Specialists set?  That was my first ever set, bought from Games Workshop in Dalling Road, Hammersmith, back when it was the only Games Workshop store!  It would be great to take a trip down Memory Lane with this one.

[Revfan]

Hey
I think I am about as far as my skill level will take me on the Fighting Men...  So I am moving to the basing stage with those.  I am embarrassed to put my stuff up here because its so amateurish, but there is so much outstanding constructive criticism that I'd be foolish not to post em.

I have found that some days are better painting days than others.... specifically, my hands are "steadier" on some days more than on others...  

I was watching some tutorials about painting eyes/faces over the weekend and had some success when trying the techniques out.  Last night I went to paint more eyes (on some loose hobbits I had laying around) and it was abysmal.  

Seems like I take one step forward, two steps back.

I was trying to paint the pupils with a 00 brush.. and my fingers felt like sausages and I couldn't get anything that looked right.  So I tried a 5/0 brush instead.

The brush was so small that the paint almost "dried" on the brush by the time I got the tip anywhere near the figures face.  I got a magnifying glass and bright lights (hot)... which were not helping.  So I thinned the paint out some, and as soon as I touched the eyes, it would run all over into a gigantic black eye...

Ughhh.

Specialist up next!  I have the set so its cool with me!  Then maybe Denizens of the Swamp?

[otherworld]

Don't sweat the details, just try to enjoy the process and relax.  It will be interesting to look back on this set when you've done a few more, and see how you are improving.  

Painting figures is one of those hobbies which can be so frustrating at times that you just want to throw all your paints in the bin, but then you'll paint a great face, or a great sword-blade, or a fold on a cloak that looks just perfect, and it will all be worth while.  

Eyes are tough though, difficult to get just right, easy to screw up completely.  Sometimes you just have to accept that OK is good enough, and push those bad boys around your gaming table!

Cool, Specialists next, then Denizens of the Swamp after that, then.

[otherworld]

Sorry, double post.

[Revfan]

Thanks for the encouragement!

It helps that my target audience (besides the posting for critique here) is a 10 year old boy and anybody we can trick into playing an RPG with us (we are leaning towards castles and crusades).
Despite how bad they are, my 10yo thinks "they are really cool".  If one is particularly horrendous, I just tell him that, "I wanted it to look like your grandfather...on your mother's side".

[maxxon]

I was trying to paint the pupils with a 00 brush.. and my fingers felt like sausages and I couldn't get anything that looked right.  So I tried a 5/0 brush instead.

I use a 005 technical pen to do the pupils and eyebrows. It's also useful for panel lining and adding patterns to cloth (use different colors). Here's a couple examples of patterns I did a while back:



Though if you use one with water soluble ink, you MUST use spray varnish. Brush-on varnish will make the ink run. Still, I think water soluble is better than permanent because you can fix mistakes with a wet q-tip.

If you're uncomfortable doing eyes, you can just put a darkish brown shadow there.

I know your problem, though. The key to fine detail work is not getting a teeny-tiny brush. The key is getting a good quality brush that comes to a fine point -- and controlling the flow. Finding the right level paint consistency is something you'll just have to learn. I typically test the brush by drawing a line on the palette before touching the model if I'm doing fine lines.

[Revfan]

The key to fine detail work is not getting a teeny-tiny brush. The key is getting a good quality brush that comes to a fine point

This has been a hard lesson (that I am still learning).  I spent some money on some brushes thinking that would solve my problem, but there is still a technique to learn... practice makes perfect I guess.

Might try your pen idea though, sounds intriguing!

[jon_1066]

I also used to use a technical pen but nowadays I simply don't bother painting the eyes.  I find they almost always come out far too bulging or boss eyed.  At the sort of ranges you will be using the figures it is entirely pointless.  Crazy bulging eyes show up badly but just normal skin tones with shading you don't even notice the eyes aren't painted.

Also re spray paints I now use Tamiya model primer  - it gives a perfect flat finish.

[Major_Gilbear]

@ Revfan:

Please don't stress out with your painting efforts - this is supposed to be fun after all! 

I found that getting a nice sharp-pointed brush of a decent size what what most improved my painting. So much so, that I use the same brush for doing the eyes as for the rest of the miniature, and the smaller brush I also bought at the same time (thinking I might need it for eyes) never even got used!

For painting eyes, there's a few helpful tricks that may assist you:

1) Paint the eyes first. You don't even have to finish the rest of the face at the same time, but putting a base coat down, doing the eyes, and then tidying up around them is much easier than putting eyes on a finished model. Much easier to get them the same size too.

2) Most people are not ambidextrous, so if you paint the eye closes to your main hand, and then turn the model upside-down, it's easier to reach both eyes comfortably. If the shapes are not identical, don't worry - you can tidy up the shape afterwards before you do the pupils.

3) I start with a black oval, overpaint with a white oval (leaving a little back around the edge), and then a stripe through with the black again.
I do the first black oval a bit big so that the second white oval is easier to paint on, and then reduce the the black oval back towards the eye using a little bit of flesh colour - this makes getting the black line around the eye easier too.

This YouTube tutorial may be better for explaining the above.

It's good enough to see that the eye is painted, and is not too bug-eyed either. Some people suggest using a dark brown and an ivory rather then black and white, but I find that the eyes are so small on most models that the harder contrast of black and white is preferred.

Alternatively, you can just use a little dark wash in the eye sockets - doing two passes with the wash to get a nice deep colour. For small eyes/faces, this is often enough if they are not display-level models.

[Revfan]

Major_Gilbear
Ha! That is the exact tutorial I watched over the weekend to get me started in that direction!  I am still working on using the tips provided in it.

Don't get me wrong, I AM having fun with it though, and its more fun when my skill improve!

Thanks! 

[otherworld]

Well, it's been another couple of weeks, but I'm finally making some good progress.  But you'll just have to take my word for that, because I left my camera at work again.  Anyway, I'm close to finishing 5 of them, and about half-way done on the other 5.

I'm enjoying using these Vallejo paints, which are new to me, although they need a hell of a lot of shaking to get the good stuff out.  I'm assuming that the bottles are best stored on their sides, or even upside down?  Anyone else with experience of such matters?

So, despite having started my miniature painting career 35 years ago, I feel a bit like I'm learning again.  I don't think I've painted more than 15 - 20 miniatures in the last 10 years.  This could be down to family commitments keeping me away from the painting desk, but more likely that, since miniatures become my job a few years back, they also stopped being my hobby.  I think this is a good way to get my hobby time back!