I am resurecting this thread as I just found a description of how I painted the scenery, so thought I would add it for finality:
OK, Im really rough and lazy. The ethos behind my the way I paint is one I picked up through art school and abstract painting. There are several ways tp make a painting look good. The most popular is to spend an age controlling every brush stroke and rendering a perfectly realistic effect.
Another popular technique, and the one I use, is to build up interest and texture through using many layers of interesting application. Paint is a very beautiful medium in its own right. Splatter, runs, brush strokes , stipple and other surface textures are great to look at. OK, so enough "theory", its a bit unorkadox isnt it?
Ok, so I use the following techinque for all the models.
1. Dry brush the whole models white, using a 3" house brush. No undercoat. THis preserves some of the colour differences of construction. White emulsion is good for this but mix with a bit of PVA to make sure it dries water proof.
2. Wash with brown/black mix. I have a big bottle of this misxed up. I usually use cheap acryllics for this, mixed with water.
3. I repeat the dry brush of white. Its worth noting that the white often dries slightly translucent, which is great as it lets you build up many subtle layers.
4. Another wash, then another dry brush of white. Build up the layers. When you put the white on, try to be a little bit more subtle and careful each time.
5. Paint the rust colour in. This is a teracotta/earth brown with red mix, made myself in a big pot. If there are any other colours you can do them now.
6. Another black brown wash, going over the whole model but especially for the rusty bits.
7. To do the rust, I get a tooth brush and some orange paint. Using some water and orange paint, spray the rusty bits ling of randomly with the orange. I used macharite solar orange, the old GW foundation oaint.
8. Wash the rusty bits in the brown black agian, then do another rust splatter with the tooth brush.
9. I now do a dry brush on the rusty metal bits, on just the edges, using silver. This is not strictly realistic, the silver would be where the piece is worn or bashed, chipping off the rust and showing metal underneath. However, I think it looks great and is fun to do.
10. You will have some rust splatter on your wood and rock, certainly some silver mistakes. Cover it with another white dry brush and wash to cover it.
11. Now your model will be the rusty bits basically finished, and the rest will be black and white/monochrome lovely textured finish. THis is where to leave the rock parts. For the wood, I usually want to introduce a bit of colour, so I mix up a wash of corn/wheat golden brown. This will be used as a glaze over the wood. Make it thin, to preserve the lovely tonal gradients. It may flatten out the shade a bit, do some more dark wash can be added to shade, and a light drybrush of white to highlight the outmost parts.
12. This is basically finished now. Just the finishing touches:
Rust streaks put in with a brush. Let them flow and have fun! Use orange and the rust brown, let it run down the stone and wood.
Final dark washes in the recesses that are too light/messy.
Final highligts with white.
Other stains. Concrete and stone tend to leach white minerals, so paint some in!
I often add a green wash on organic material, like the ropes and a bit on the wood. This simulates mould.
13. Add water effects. I used polyester resin. Its normal fibreglass stuff and is available from good DIY shops. It dries all cloudy and yellowish, so looks like really horrible polluted water. It shrinks, so build it up in layers. I usually put a wash of green at the bottom of and water areas before I add the resin.
14. Flock. I do this in layers. I start with the most brown/ dead looking scatter and put it in big clumps. If when you put on the flock you get a brush and brush the edges of the clump it will spread it out and make it look more realistic. The worst thing is haveing a hard edge on your clump, looks really unnatural. I then repeat this, adding more healthy looking flock in smaller clumps over the previous layer. I finish with static grass.
15. DONE!
01 August 2006, 08:20:13 PM