Koyote's SAGA Britons, Irish,Late Romans, and Saxons

[Michi]

That is a serously great mini, shield design or not.  Wonderful colour on that horse and very crisp painting.

I second every single word!

[von Lucky]

Thirded.

Maybe blood splatters on the shield to a) show they're not to be messed with and b) that'll give you black and red (i.e. giving you two colours) on the shield?

[ErikB]

How do you do the crevacess?  Do you leave some black primer showing?  Do you use a wash or ink and then paint up to it?

The definition is excellent, especially the leather "skirt" and the scales.

I struggle with making definition like that.

[Koyote]

How do you do the crevacess?  Do you leave some black primer showing?  Do you use a wash or ink and then paint up to it?

The definition is excellent, especially the leather "skirt" and the scales.

I typically use white primer for minis and black primer for terrain.

My recipe is very simple: primer > base coat > wash > highlight.

When washing, I use GW's Nuln Oil on anything iron/steel, GW's Reikland Flesh on skin, and GW's Agrax Earthshade on everything else.  If want a lighter brown wash, I use diluted Agrax or Army Painters Soft Tone Quickshade (from the dropper bottle, not the can). 

While highlighting, I make sure to keep the paint out of the recesses.  If accidentally get some paint in a recess or if I decide that I want to better define a certain recess I use a fine detail brush to apply the wash/ink directly to the recess.  This may require two or more coats to get the desired effect. 

To give iron/steel a more realistic, tarnished look, after the Nuln dries I apply spots of Agrax here and there and directly into some of the recesses (as described above).

I think it's helpful to think of painting a miniature as a dialogue rather than a monologue.  Yes, I have a recipe that I follow (base coat>wash>highlight), but in practice, the process isn't that liner.  In practice, I apply paint or a wash and once that dries, I stop and look at what I've done.  If it doesn't look quite right, I may apply more base coat color, more highlight color, or a wash to all or part of what I've done.  The wash may be straight from the bottle or diluted.  It's a constant back and forth. I apply paint or wash and by looking at the mini it tells me if what I've done is correct or not, and if it's not quite right, I apply more paint or wash.  Once dry I take another look and based upon what I see, I may apply more paint or wash.  And so on.

Because any particular part of a mini may be covered in multiple layers or paint and wash, it's important to thin your paint before applying it.  Multiple thin coats will produce a smoother surface and a more consistent color than a single thick coat.  Also, a thick layer of paint (or multiple thick layers) can diminish or entirely obscure a sculpt's fine details, like the tassels at the ends of a pteruges.  As such, I rarely paint straight out of the pot.  Instead, whether I'm applying a base coat or a highlight, I use small squares of plastic (cut from blister packs) as a paint palette for mixing and thinning the paint.  It takes longer than painting straight out of the pot, but the results tend to be better.


 

[ErikB]

I do all the things you describe but... my stuff doesn't look as cool as yours.  ;-)

I tend to use soft and strong tone, thinned with lahmian (?) medium and sometimes some liquitex flow improver.  Water tends to create these mucus-colored spots.  What do you use to thin those washes?

When I thin my paint it looks nice on flat surfaces but tends to pool in the crevacess, causing the loss of detail that thinning paint is meant to avoid.  Any advice on that?

Good idea with finely brushing in the washes.  I tend to put a thin coat all over and then lament that it has affected the flat surfaces when all I wanted was the crevacess.

When you go back over your washed surfaces, how precise are you with repainting the flats and edges (like on those scales)?  I am never really satisfied when I do this.  Maybe the detail is too small for me (as I get older) or maybe the light drybrushing I tend to use doesn't get the surfaces so much as the detail.

I would LOVE to watch how you do your painting, especially on the same group of minis that I am working on.

[Koyote]

If your thinned painting is running down the side of the model, it's too thin.  Your paint should be thin enough that it flows off your brush smoothly and leaves little or no brush marks on the model, but it shouldn't be so thin that it floods off your brush like wash/ink does.  

In 90s GW painting parlance, using a line dark color (typically black) to separate colors and equipment is called "black-lining".  I do essentially the same thing, but rather than using black or brown paint, I use washes.  

I tend to reserve my dry brushing for terrain the texture on bases.  Sometimes I will use a light dry brush on fur or hair to pick out he raised areas, followed by a 'wet brush', and then finished off by using the tip of the brush to pick out the highest areas.  I tend to 'wet brush' chainmail.

When I painted the Companion's scalemail, I started by painting the entire area Leadbelcher, followed by a wash of Nuln Oil.  I then went back and individually painted each scale with Leadbelcher and then went back again and painted the tip of each scale with brighter steel color.  Once dry, I used a fine detail brush loaded with a small amount of Nuln Oil to further darken the areas between the scales.  Because I wanted the armor to look well used, I lightly loaded another brush with Agrax and poked at the armor here and there, creating a few areas of tarnished metal.  

[ErikB]

Thanks for the description.

Sounds like we do the same things with similar ingredients but you take more time to precisely paint each scale.  I tend to just drybrush with two shades over the wash.  I guess I should be in less of a hurry to get results like yours (if I ever can).

I use a wet pallet and keep the paint from getting dry.  When people say wet, I envision more water than paint.  I guess I already am using "wet" paint without calling it that.

DWArtist got me into using glazes (with lahmian medium) and multiple layers of super-thin paint (thinned with water).  This is nice on flat surfaces. 

I am still trying to get the fine detailing done efficiently.  The hardest for me is painting puttees.  If I paint a solid area and then wash it all, I get most of the crevacess shaded but it discolors the main surface.  Going back to drybrush gets edges but not the whole surface.  Trying to paint the straps always results in spillover into the crevices.  Maybe fresher brushes would help. 

Your posts are really inspiring me. 

[Munindk]

A tiny tiny bit of dishwashing soap in your wash will break the surface tension of the liquid and most of the wash should go into the recesses leaving the raised parts more of less free of wash.

Another way to go is to only wash small parts of an area, but this can get very time consuming.

[Hu Rhu]

Trying to paint the straps always results in spillover into the crevices.  Maybe fresher brushes would help.   

There are two techniques whicj might help. Use a very fine brush but only use the very tip.  It is slower but more precise. 

The second is to paint the strap first and then go over any areas of adjacent colour that have spilt, with the base colour.

[ErikB]

Good ideas, thanks.

I have been doing the latter - not intentionally - and it's worked okay for me.  Not as nicely as the minis in this thread (then again, how many are that nice?) but it's how things seem to work out.

Still have a hard time keeping the edge of the strap on its edge and not in the middle of the strap, though.  I guess that's just dexterity.

[Koyote]

Eight down, one to go. 

Companion number two. 






To strengthen the visual tie between my warlord and companions, my warlord's shield will display a symbol that matches the companion's pennant.  It's not something that I had planned ahead of time.  After adding the pennant to the companion, I remembered that another one of my LBM sheets includes a shield transfer with a similar device.  Sometimes things just work out.

Oh, and speaking of my warlord.  I added texture, small logs, and rocks to Mordred's display base. Warlord and display base are now ready for primer.

[von Lucky]

That looks suitably dynamic!

[Hu Rhu]

Oh the Warlord looks brilliant. Can't wait to see him painted up. 

[Too Bo Coo]

Oh the Warlord looks brilliant. Can't wait to see him painted up. 

Ditto! Where are the dogs from?

[Koyote]

Ditto! Where are the dogs from?

They are Guild Hounds made by Wyrd Miniatures.  I realize that the breed and armor isn't from the correct period, but in this instance I've elected to take some artistic license.