Use of Inks with Minaitures

[pops]

Though I have inks I have been hesitant to use them - mainly because I am not sure how to.

Are they applied after a figure is painted or before?  What is there purpose to add definition/shading to details?

Thanks,

Frank

[tin shed gamer]

Hi Frank,
You've pritty much covered there use in your question.When and how is related to your style of painting,not to any one golden rule.So post a picture of your work.Then I've no doubt the advice you receive from people on the forum,will help rather than hinder.
Mark.

[Timbor]

It depends on what I am doing.  For simple figures that I want painted more quickly, I will block in inks over a white/light grey primer, then apply a highlight or two and then the colour is finished.

If I want to get more fancy, I will often use the inks more to shade and tone down colours as I work in more highlights and/or washes.  Inks can give you some very nice results, but their pigment count is way higher than your typical wash (such as the GW washes).  You can easily thin inks using water or medium and make your own washes out of them.  They are quite fun and useful, IMO.

[snitcythedog]

Are they applied after a figure is painted or before?  What is there purpose to add definition/shading to details?

Just a few of uses.
1.  You can use thinned inks on a primed model to give definition.  Basically so you can see the individual areas to paint. 
2.  You can use neat inks to outline and block out colors. 
3.  You can use thinned inks to shade a particular color before highlighting. 
4.  You can use thin inks to glaze a color.  Colored inks give a shiny effect much like satin when painted over white almost like a filter.
There are more out there.
Snitchy sends.

[Daeothar]

I am experimenting with painting entire miniatures with inks, after seeing some very impressive results elsewhere.

Right now, I have a batch of Gretchin, which I have painted the skintone of, entirely with inks. I also have some basecoated Imperial Fist marines (the yellow ones those are ), all done with inks over a white undercoat.

I will try and get a picture of them tonight to illustrate the idea, but basically, it's layering thin coats of ink to build up the colour. And because of the nature of the medium, it will pool in recesses and draw away from rises, so a surface painted this way, will be subtly shaded and highlighted instantly.

It's a quick and easy technique that at the same time creates very nice results...

[Andym]

As well as the methods above, as Daeothar says, you can paibt entire models that way! Theres a lot of great examples by a guy by the name of Antimatter Games on here. If you search through his threads there's some really brilliant stuff.

Here's the one tutorial of his I could find.......

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=49814.0