Priming the Blood way (compressed thread)

[Hammers]

Some time ago I made a promise to make a tutorial in which I show how I've been priming my miniatures lately, as it was taught to me by Cptn Blood. As I am a fairly thorough man once I set my mind on things, the tutorial will be posted one post at a time. This may very well be quite erratically to, time wise, as I am prone to distractions such as seeing a man about a horse or saving fiver, son of Hammers, from falling down the stairs.

Also, I have decided to incorporate a few other flairs and side tracks as I will take this opportunity to document a few other things apart from the priming itself.

Today I will start by showing a light box, or light tent as they are also known, which I clobbered together today from an old moving box and some cheap drawing paper...



The reason I did this is because I've had a bastard of a time getting lighting conditions right since I moved house. With limited time on my hands I can't keep experimenting every time I photograph my miniatures. My thinking is that if I manage to set up a static environment with good, clean white and diffuse light conditions I'll have something where  just can plop the miniature in place, shoot the goddamn picture and be done with it. At least it is a theory. We shall see.

Briefly about the box:
  It measures 340x340x4250mm. Apertures are cut with a 45mm margin from the edges around the sides and at top. The box is clad on the inside with cheap stock paper, about 0.1mm thick. This means the apertures are covered with a white diffusion filter, which is meant to help obscure the light source and create ambiance light conditions within the box. One side is of course left with an opening for the camera.
 The paper filter may very well prove too thin but I am not too worried about that, I'll just add another layer or so if that's the case. Inside the box there is room for back drop paper of standard A3 measurements, which, of course can be concaved to prevent hard lines and shadows.

What else...? Oh, yes: the box can be flattened for storage.

Next time I think I'll be posting something about light sources and bulbs.

[Hammers]

Since I managed to unearth my dented old reflectors I thought I'd make another post. I have arranged them around the tent like so:




I got these three clip on aluminium reflectors in the US several years ago. All practical miniature photography sources seem to pretty much agree on one thing: cheap aluminium reflectors, are all you need and they are the most versatile. For bulbs I put in 11 Watt low energy bulbs, equalling 60 Watt environment hostile ones. (This one is actually shot in the photo tent.)



I picked this simply because they are what I currently had at home. These bulbs, apart from being environmentally friendly, have the bonus of not generating so much heat, thus lessening the risk of warping and browning the paper in the tent. The drawback is the price and that it takes the little electrical daemons in there several minutes to stoke their fires to their maximum radiance.

As they had, alas, it became fairly obvious that they were not giving of sufficient light. It actually says 2700 K warm white light on the other side:



This means that they light provided is slightly yellow. We don't want that. The white paper filter compensates this to some degree but also absorbs some light. Looking through some literature (among them Orctraders tutorial in 'How to...' and 'How to Photograph SCALE MODELS' by Shepard Paine and Lane Stewart) I come to the conclusion that at least one bulb needs to be upgraded to at least 15 Watt l.e.b. (equalling an old 100W bulb). No problem, I'll take care of that tomorrow.

Reading up on the theory I am also reminded that for good effect it can be valuable to have different degrees of brightness in the three spots. It goes like this.

When you arrange your lights towards the subject you should think of them as main, fill and backlight.

The first, the main light, is exactly that and should light the side which has the most interesting detail. The front, if you will. Or the direction to which a miniature is looking. Or an imagined light source in a setting. This lamps should be placed slightly above and to the side of the subject and it should be of medium wattage.

The second, the fill, is used to light the details on the other side of the subject and to reduce but NOT take away the shadow the main light creates. This one should be placed at the same hight as the camera lens and, obviously, on the opposite side of the subject  It should be of low wattage. The impact of this lamp can be adjusted by simply moving it closer to or away from the subject.

The third light, the backfill, is the lightest and serves to separate the subject from the background by illuminating the background more brightly or by illuminating the subject from behind or both. It should always be placed above and behind the subject.

Alright then... Now, *enlightened*, ahaha, by this I think I will sally forth and buy not only one 15W bulb tomorrow but two and also a 7W or similar. Then we shall fiddle anew.

A final image of the whole set up including tripod and camera, taken with my mobile.



By the way, let me stress again that the *ultimate* goal of this thread is to show how to prime the Blood way. I just never promised I would be to the point and quick about it.

 

[Hammers]

So, where was I...

Right, Fiver, son of Hammers, fruit of my loins, broke the camera so I needed to get a new one. Let's talk a little about that. I have since a few years back a Canon EOS digital SLR but found it rather cumbersome to shoot with. There is a lot more fiddling with settings in a system camera so you really need to make that a hobby to  master it. That and investing in expensive macro lenses (or at least one). Since miniature painting is my hobby, not photography, I've came to realize that a compact is the obvious choice. As I am sure most of you agree it is much less hassle and with just a few tricks you can get macro results in par with most SLRs.

So what camera did I replace the wrecked compact with. Well, I was very content with that Fujifilm Finepix F40. The monitor was bust and that would have cost me about 100€ to fix. A Finepix F60 fd costs now what I gave for the F40, which is 180€. It is an upgraded from 7 Mpix to 12 and there are some new or honed features in the later model so I went with buying new.



When I shoot miniatures set the camera on macro, turn down ISO to 100 (which is the lowest on this model) suppress the flash and use the timer. This model has a nifty little AI motive seeker but I won't go into that.

For a more thorough How to.., see, for example, this excellent article over at 'The Screaming Alpha' (curtsey by Curryman)

And I do of course use a tripod. I have three...

The big one...



... is what I use in combination with the light box. It gives rather nice control and offers more versatility when I'm positioning the camera towards the subject. It has two-stage telescope legs, crank elevated 'stem' and a handle with which to twist and turn the camera mount. Cost, c:a 30€ which is less than it's worth.

When I shoot outdoors, on the gaming table, workspace or in similar 'difficult' situations I use a smaller table tripod.

This flexible one...



...beats this telescope leg variant ( my first buy)...



...many times over as the flexible one is much more versatile. You can tilt the camera in a lot of different angles with the bionic tentacle leg or even have them clamped around a supporting branch or what have you.

That's all for today I think. Next I'll be talking about deburring a miniature, I think, so we are slowly getting there...

[Hammers]

Right, deburring miniatures...

I have many tools for this but these are the ones I use more than others:



From left to right: generic handle with Excel No 12 Mini-Curved Carving blade, dental tool; course grade, half round profile file;  square, one sided, half round and round profile needle files. I think the Excel's mini-curved curved blade is superior to the standard X-acto No 11 pointed blade since it is less prone to break and the curved shape is better for sculpted folds. The big file is for removing heavy cast lines. The needle files are obviously for lighter work. The round profile is good for folds, the one-sided for tight spaces like spokes in wheels, the square where corners need to be defined e.t.c. The most multi purpose and most utilized tool in my arsenal is the dental tool...





I got it in a set in a US hobby store but unfortunately have not found one as good as this one again. I'll try to explain why it works so well. As you hopefully can see from the alternative angles the business end has a tear drop shape, flattened at the pull side and rounded at thee push side and set at an angle. This, and it's high quality steel it is made from, makes it perfect for scraping even in the tightest corners. The rounded side can be used for burnishing. Showing little signs of dulling after ten years of 10 years it is one of my most priced tools.




I most often do not bother with smoothing scrape, carve and file marks. Paint tend to cover such things up. If I do bother I find that padded emery boards and steel wool does the trick best. And burnishing with dental tools if  a very smooth finish is needed.



For some things, like rough bottomed bases, soldered brass details etc., I bring out the Dremel. With a Dremel I have found that the only tool suitable for deburring this is the burnishing disk. Are you familiar with this thing? No? Well, it is a silicon disk with embedded steel granulates. I suggest a breathing mask, it is very effective and tears up quite a lot of metal dust. If you don't have one of these, get just the disk (unless you are really into novelty rubber gadgets) I got the other profiles cheap but have had no use for them, really.

[Hammers]

I've been busy today and taken a lots of pics for this thread. I am afraid some of them fall in the duh! category for explaining pretty self evident things to many of you. Well, tough!  I've set my mind on doing this thoroughly so I am willingly accepting whatever ridicule you ll direct my way.

Here goes...

For balance I am using, from my NWF project, Flight Lieutenant Richard Hardalday and the Wazir chieftain Amanoolah Khan as my subjects.


1. I deburr (scrape) the miniatures before I mount them (using tools I've shown in a previous post).



2. I file the bottom of the base to get it even and thinner, using a medium toothed wood file. A metal file will soon get clogged up when used on white metal. A slightly convex bottom on the base is a good thing if you use 2-part epoxy (see below) but I like my miniatures to stand as low on the gaming board as possible.



3. I get 25mm washers for ordinary foot soldiers (35mm for horses), always looking for those with the smallest centre hole and...



4. ...a mill thick or so for miniatures with integral bases to make them stand as low as possible on the gaming board.



5. I use thicker washers for miniatures with taps for slottabases, cutting a slot in them with a emery disc. More of that some other  time. My point is that I *always* mount miniatures on round washers. It looks nicely uniform and it works for most rules. The weight gives the miniatures better balance to.



6. I always use 5 minute 2-part epoxy glue (not superglue nor hot glue). The double barrel syringe kind is practical but expensive so don't mix more than you have time to handle...



7. ...and apply a *generous* amount to the bottom of the miniature, not on the washer. Unlike super glue the bond gets better if the application is a little thicker (that's why a slightly convex base bottom is a good thing).



8. Place the miniature base cover centre hole in the washer. The glue will pour down into the hole slightly. We want that so put the now based miniature on something disposable which is easy to tear off once the epoxy has set. I use a PostIt pad. Also, epoxy glue doesn't shrink much so I take care to remove unsightly build-ips and smears around the base.



9. I very often put texture on bases before I prime and paint them. There are several reasons. One is that that I most often paint the texture (sand, gravel...) rather than keeping them au naturel. I've gravitated towards two types of texture: pumice medium or white glue and sand. The pumice medium (to the left, Renaissance Ink brand, coarse grade in this case) has lasted me a long time. I *should* use it when flock, pebbles and other material is to be added to the base later. Why? Because pumice medium is generally of very even granularity and may come out looking like raked gravel rather than eroded hill side. To the right is a sand container. I don't need to tell you about sand, (do I?) but I very much recommend Aleene's Original Tacky Glue (Americans probably know about this). It is better than your run of the mill white glue because it is stickier and holds the sand better before it dries.



10. The pumice medium is applied with a spatula on Ltn Hardalday...



11. ...and is evened out quite thinly with a flat brush dipped in water.



12. Pebbles can be pushed into the medium for a more natural look.



13. I here apply white glue with a flat brush on the base of Mr. Khan.



14. I find it best to apply rocks, twigs and other "larger" items into the base before...



15. ...I dip the miniature in the sand trough. Excess sand is gently tapped off on the way up...



16. ...but I carefully push the sand in place with a finger.



17. Here's a quite handy thing whot I built myself. It's home made what Americans call a Easy-Bake oven. It is great for speeding up drying and setting time. Just a wooden box with a 60w old fashioned, inefficient light bulb. It really cuts down on your waiting.



18. Ten minutes later Hardalday and Khan compare their snazzy new bases. Pumice medium loses a bit of volume when it dries, which might have to be considered.



19. And finally I always mount the miniatures on the Hammer Industries Corkmeister 2000 System (i.e. plastic wine corks on a bed of tacks.) I recommend using plastic wine corks, they are self healing and will last much longer than old fashioned cork corks. (But, hey, don't drink and paint kids.) Put hot glue on the bottom of the washers and fasten them to the corks (and not the other way around)...



20. ...like so.



21. Since I rarely paint in batches of less than five I have deburred and mounted some of Mr. Khan's friends (on washers, mind)...



22. ...and some of Ltnt Hardalday's. ... The two larger corks are just there to show that there are "stand alone" alternatives to the tack board.



Tomorrow, God willing and the creek don't raise, these will all be cleaned and primed the Cptn Blood way...

[Hammers]

About washing miniatures: is it necessary before painting? Some people claim it isn’t but I definitely want to do what I can to prevent paint from peeling off. There are a number of things which can cause this. Release agents in the casting process, grease from fingers, metal and sanding dust from the deburring process, drill oil, greasy finger prints. Silicon residue from polishing discs is especially devious.

1.   I normally clean at the sink but this time, for the sake of consistency, I’ve rigged things up at my workbench. Here’s what I use:  a tub of hot water with just a tiny drop of detergent; a tub of hot rinse water; a soft tooth brush; a stiff flat paint brush and a couple of dental tools.



2.   I start by brushing off loose sand from the base on miniatures. In this case it’s just Mr. Khan since Ltn Hardalday’s (see previous post) base has been done with pumice medium. Don’t be gentle when you do this. Use a stiff brush; it is much better to get rid of too much sand than having it come loose later and stick in the paint job.



3.   I use dental tools to scrape off any dirt which has stuck on the model. Keep especially an eye out for traces of glue. Epoxy is transparent and hard to see until you have base coated the miniature.  Hot glue is useful but sometimes has a tendency to leave gossamer like snares where they should not be.



4.   Brush the miniature gently in hot, soapy water with a soft tooth brush. You need very little detergent, that’ll save you time rinsing. Try to avoid getting the bases where white glue’s been used very wet, the sand may peel off slightly.



5.   Rinse in hot water…



6.   …and dry with a paper towel. Use good quality paper towels which doesn’t leave annoying fuzz on the miniatures. At this point I often pop the miniature n the  Easy-Bake oven (see previous post) to speed up the drying.



Now they are squeaky clean and ready for Priming the Cptn Blood Way...

[Hammers]

Priming the Captain Blood Way

The issue about which colour primer one should use has been heard over and over. Let's just say for now that it is just a matter of preference. These days I use primarily white spray-on car primer (local brand with a good ‘bite’ and granularity) when I do batches of individual figures of, say, more than five. For smaller batches and for touch-ups I use white acrylic gesso, which is easy to dilute and to apply and it adheres well.  I have a set of black equivalents when that is called for (horses, horror miniatures etc.). For resin miniatures I use Humbrol brush-on enamels, since I find that resin can have a slightly oily surface which doesn’t always go that well with water based paints. I am not stuck on certain brands; I find that Army Builder, GW and local brands seem to do the same trick. In the picture you can see that I use Liqutex; it works and I will probably stick with it for only that reason.



The Blood method which I am about to describe involves a white aerosol. Here I am shaking in it well for about a minute. With kids in the house I want to do this outdoors even though it is a bit windy and chilly. The problem with spray painting  is that it both is and is not an outdoors job. Propellants, solvent and paint can be harmful to inhale so you need good air circulation. On the other hand wind, temperature and humidity and can play merry hell with with the paint spray.



I’ve lined the Hammer Industries Corkmeister 2000 System (see previous post) at the edge of a stool so I am able to get at it from a proper distance with the spray can, which is about 25 cm. I always start spraying before (in this case to the left of), the first miniature, not directly at it, and make a two or three quick passes, ending well past the last miniature. The reason I do this is that I noticed that if I start spraying *directly* at the first miniature the paint tends to build up thicker on the miniatures on either end.



I only want a light covering. If the primer is sprayed on runny and thick details will be lost and the paint will not adhere as well. The primer should look dry when applied. Once done, into the Easy-Bake (see previous posts) they go to speed up drying time. Once dry (to the touch) and set (the medium has hardened), I do another turn. Two, maybe three passes I find is generally what’s needed. Turn the can upside down and spray till no paint come out. This is to prevent the muzzle from clogging.



I did the second pass indoors because to much of the primer blew away outdoors this particular day. Here’s the result, Ltn Hardalday and Mr Khan (see previous posts) in their shiny whites.



At this point there are blind spot on the miniature which the spray-on primer did not reach. You could prevent this by spraying from every conceivable angle but that is impractical.



Instead I use white acrylic gesso diluted with a little water to cover the spots where the metal is shining through. I don’t use my best brushes for this work, mind.



Here are the gentleman and the uncouth brigand again, white priming complete.



Now we come to what I think is the clever part of the Blood way of priming. A back base coat has the disadvantage of making details hard to see. What I do here is instead is to enhance details by adding a very dark wash over the white. I want the wash too run into folds and crevices and thus accentuating the various sculpted elements of the miniature (i.e. fingers, belts, eyes, pockets). For this we need a good wash. Richard (Capt. Blood) tells me he uses a heavily diluted mix of black and earth brown acrylics. I am using only black here and a few other ingredients.



Since I need a decent batch of the wash I am mixing it in a glass jar. First I take a few millilitres of a black ink wash. This one is Citadel Badab Black. It is of good quality but I prefer W&N inks, mainly because I hate GW nomenclature (What the hell is a Badab anyway?)



Next I add some flow release. This goes by other names to, like ‘flow improver’, but their purposes are the same: to kill the surface tension of water. This prevents the paint to pool and makes the wash flow into narrow cracks and folds. You can use dish washer rinse agent and even detergent but I don’t since I am suspicious of the additives in them (perfume, colouring, mind control drugs…). I have both W&N and Vallejo flow release in stock. Since you only need very little I keep some in a handy drop bottle and add just a drop in a shot glass of water…



…and after stirring I pour a few millilitres into the glass jar with the ink.



To boost the pigmentation a bit I add a few drops of quality black acrylic paint, in this case it is Andrea.



I test flow and pigmentation on a white ceramic tile until I am happy with the result. The wash should be quite opaque but runny.



OK, happy with the wash I apply it *generously* on Mr. Khan with a soft #2 brush. There *should* be no surface tension but make sure you work the wash into all folds and corners. I do this on the base to.



When the miniature is fully covered lightly wipe of excess wash with a paper towel of decent quality. We want no fuzz remaining. Before I usher Mr. Khan away to the Easy-Bake again I make sure the wash hasn’t pool where it shouldn’t (i.e. on raised areas) and that no folds and cracks have been missed.



Here are the Pathans luminaries just out of the oven…

(left to right: Mullah Ali Djurza, ‘ The Wicked Faquir of Pip’; Mag'louf the Uzbek; Amanoolah Khan and Shere Khan, Wazir Chieftains; Boltok the Rapist; Berk Pasha, Turkish advisor)



…and here is Lieutenant Richard ‘Dick’ Hardalday and his fellow officers.



I hope you can see in the image how well defined the miniatures become after the wash. I think the whole process really helps me see which paints should go where in a way which is hard to achieve with a purely black or white basecoat. I can get a better lustre in certain colours to because most of the basecoat is still fairly white. I don’t do black-lining much but the wash which has gathered in the folds opens up to that possibility to. Getting the wash opaque but runny enough may be a bit of a trial and error at first. If it is too thin the pigment will stick to the edges of drying medium¸ if to thick it may not flow as you like and also set too fast.

OK, that’s it. Lecture over. Any questions?

[Hammers]

Full thread with comments here.