Oiled horses

[Hammers]

I wonder if anyone arround here has tried and mastered Kevin Dallimore's technique for painting horses with oils as laid out in "FOUNDRY MINIATURES PAINTING AND MODELLING GUIDE". I am currently inthe process of, but I am so for not very impressed with the result.

[Captain Blood]

Tried it. Didn't work. Didn't like it. Went back to the regular method.

Think Lt Hazel had a pretty good stab at it a while back though... Sure the thread's around here somewhere...

 

[Hammers]

Tried it. Didn't work. Didn't like it. Went back to the regular method.

Think Lt Hazel had a pretty good stab at it a while back though... Sure the thread's around here somewhere...

*nodnods* The outcome is pretty crude. I don't think it is any better than a acrylic wash and more impractical since you need to wait a couple of days for the oils to set.

EDIT: here's the link to Hazel's 'stab':
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=9392.msg107829#msg107829

[JollyBob]

On recieving this supposed holy bible of painting a few months ago, I was most interested to read about the oily horse technique, as its something I've always been curious about. I hate painting horses for some reason, so if it made it any easier I was willing to try.

So I read through the method. Then read it again because I was sure it couldn't be right.

Then I thought "what a lot of faffing about" and went back to using the highlight and wash method.

In the hands of someone like Kevin Dallimore or Steve Dean, I think it works really well. And it looks absolutely stunning on larger figures (having seen a lot of Historex type figs done with oils over the years).

Can I be bothered waiting two days for the paint to reach just the correct consistency before I waste most of it by wiping it off?

No.

Do I need an extra bath of chemicals to clean my brushes in that will fall of my desk into my lap and make my knackers smell like turpentine for a fortnight?

No.

Well, maybe in a marginal way that may not appeal to anybody else.

So in summary, probably worth doing if you're already very talented and painting for displays and magazine photos. For everybody else who just wants to get the bastard nag off the desk so you can start on something else, I really wouldn't bother. 

[Admiral Benbow]

I'm using this method of oil painting with horses for years, and it's not Kevin's method, by the way. I don't know who invented this, but painters like Max Longhurst used it in the seventies already for their 54 mm Historex miniatures, and I learned it from Max on a show in London. Have a look at my Bengal Lancer's horses, they were painted using this method:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=11178.0

There are two approaches, but both require to first paint the horse in the appropriate colour with acrylics (e.g. for a bay - a light brown or ochre).

Method 1: take some undiluted burnt umber oil paint and cover the horse evenly with a larger brush, and don't mind about streaks. Don't let the paint build up too thick in the crevices. For the next steps I won't recommend using paper towels, kitchen paper or fabrics of any kind, but those foam pads from our miniatures blister packs. The other stuff tends to leave too much unwanted tiny bits and particles in the paint. So take a small piece of foam, about 1x1 cm, and wipe away most of the dark paint from the higher parts of the horse, wiping right-angled to the depressions. Then wipe away the surplus paint from the foam pad onto some kitchen paper, and repeat the wiping if required. Now that looks like a heavy mess, doesn't it? So wipe that foam clean again and now dab the miniature lightly with the pad. You will notice that the paint evens out and will produce a nice structure, with some very smooth blendings from highlights to the dark crevices. Dab as long as needed to get a smooth coat. You could stop here, but if colour transition is not strong enough for your taste, you could go even further: mix up some highlight oil paint, for our bay-example a light yellowish ocre. Take a fresh piece of foam, get some paint on it, but before dabbing the horse again, wipe away most of the paint on kitchen paper. Then dab the highlight colour only onto the highest parts of the horse's body, and dab even lighter than before. With some practice you will get smoothest colour transitions, hardly possible with acrylics. Let the paint dry thorougly for some days (or speed up the process in a low temperature oven ...), re-undercoat all reins, saddle etc. with enamels, and then you're able to paint with acrylics over all remaining details.

Method 2 is a slight variation of the above: undercoat as above, put the shadow colour on top with oils, but don't wipe away any paint. Instead, take a piece of foam, and just dab the miniature all over to get a smooth finish. Now let dry for a day. When using undiluted oil paint, you have quite some time before it hardens, depending on brands from one to several days. So next day, get you a smaller flat brush, size 2 or even 3, moist it in white spirit or turpentine, remove most of the fluid on a paper, and then wipe over the highlight parts of your horse slightly, removing oil paint until the base colour will be visible again. This is a very controlled process, and depending on the choosen base colour, this will also led to very nice colour transitions.

I know that it all sounds quite complicated, but it all depends just on experience. If you'd have to paint units of cavalry, there is no faster method if you're going for nice and smooth transitions between shadow and highlight colours.

[Hammers]

Interesting. Thanks Orctrader, I will follow through with the remaining horses in this batch and see how they turn out.

[Orctrader]

Interesting. Thanks Orctrader Adm. BENBOW (so sorry,a bit distracted today), I will follow through with the remaining horses in this batch and see how they turn out.

And thank you.  But I never said anything.   

I have Kevin's book but have never tried the method.  I don't paint that many horses.  Does produce very impressive results.

[Bugsda]

Try the Bill Brewer method, burnt umber oil paint wiped off've white enamel undercoat, leave it to dry and repeat with a second coat of the oil paint.

Burnt Sienna with a second coat of ivory black also works well.

You can also vary the tone by putting a coat of cream or orange enamel over the white undercoat, then the oil.

I love this technique, it's fun to get 30 or so undercoated horses and play around with colour combinations to see what you come up with.

[Hammers]

This is how my horses ended up.



White. The receipt was a basecoat white with a Paynes Grey wipe-off coat. It came out to dark so I applied one acrylic white hilite. I am satisfied.



Chestnut. Dark Umber over Raw Sienna. No further hilites. Worked alright.


Bay. Burnt Umber over Burnt Sienna. Needed a hilite of acrylic burnt sienna (comes out lighter than oil).



Dark Brown: Ivory Black over Van Dyke brown. Needed a acrylic Burnt Umber hilite.



Black. Ivory Black over Paynes Grey. No further hilite. The subtle hilite doesn't come across in the photo but it looks better than you might thing.


I tried this oil method to see if I could speed up horse painting which, as I know some of you agree, is something one would often get done with rather more quickly.
Over all I'd say that the method works. Best for light colours but as you can  tell I feel most of them need further hiliting. The slow drying time is a impractical and doesn't sit well with an impatient guy like me. But the lustre is very nice. The oil method seems to work better with lighter colours. White strips, stars, faces, socks, leggings and mealy noses makes a lot to enhance an otherwise plain paint job.

[former user]

I'd say that oil colours do work very well for the very experienced painter
I've worked with oil colurs for some time many years ago (but on canvas and not miniatures!), and do have some experience

the main advantage of oil colours is the very fine pigmentation combined with the translucence,
as masterfully demonstrated by the admiral (and captain blood, after I seen the link below)

so said, the underground colour is crucial for the effect and the combination with the oil colour.
in addition, you can fiddle with the translucence by adding special "lasurgrund"  (don't ask me about the english name) made for oil colours, as the flemish masters of 16C century used for their many layered technique
if you really want to go to town with this, visit a museum and see on the original how Rembrandt worked out light from darkness with this technique - no photograph can reproduce the effect

definitely nothing for wargaming miniatures, more for the showcase IMHO

[Gluteus Maximus]

No offence intended to anyone else's work, but I think you'd have to be very good indeed at using oils to beat Cap'n Blood's acrylic-painted gee-gees in this thread:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=11785.0

That's the result I always aim for. And fail to get