Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (undead warband for Mordheim)

[Jagannath]

That's interesting - I absolutely swear by leaving gesso 24 hours (I've had some disasters with washes 'wrinkling' the undercoat), whereas I'll paint over a sprayed on primer pretty much immediately.

All depends on process doesn't it I guess - My desert bases are finished with a gloss 'glaze' (acts a bit like army painter dip) so that's pne reason I love super flat matte. Having said that, I do use two coats of vallejo polyurethene gloss first... that coupled with always using dullcote makes the finish on my minis nigh on indestructible. I've experimented with actually trying to chip the finish, and it's almost impossible. Horse for courses I guess - I absolutely love your minis, and in many ways they're the polar opposite of my approach.

[fred]

Following the recommendations above, I ordered gesso and varnish, as due to the weather I've been looking for alternatives to spraying.

500ml of Gesso is a surprisingly large pot!! And as the lid was damaged, I'll have a second pot tomorrow too.

[Hobgoblin]

That's interesting - I absolutely swear by leaving gesso 24 hours (I've had some disasters with washes 'wrinkling' the undercoat), whereas I'll paint over a sprayed on primer pretty much immediately.

I haven't encountered that yet - but I shall be on the look-out! Thinking back, I probably didn't apply any washes that soon after: just layers of drybrushing (or even wetbrushing), which is probably fairly safe.

All depends on process doesn't it I guess - My desert bases are finished with a gloss 'glaze' (acts a bit like army painter dip) so that's pne reason I love super flat matte. Having said that, I do use two coats of vallejo polyurethene gloss first... that coupled with always using dullcote makes the finish on my minis nigh on indestructible. I've experimented with actually trying to chip the finish, and it's almost impossible. Horse for courses I guess - I absolutely love your minis, and in many ways they're the polar opposite of my approach.

Cheers, and likewise! And yes, indeed: also, I've seen the theory advanced that black undercoats are best served with matt, while gloss went hand in hand with white undercoats and lots of inks.

On which note, here are some rapidly done skaven. The two metal ones were done with white spray undercoat and thin washes; the plastics were done with black gesso and layering/drybrushing. I think they converge adequately. I have loads of these second-generation metal skaven (very few left of the first generation, alas!) and lots of the Advanced Heroquest and Isle of Blood plastics. As I want lots of ratmen in the megadungeon I'm planning, I want to zoom through them as quickly as I can, and I'm planning some outlandish colour schemes to deal with the duplicates.

I found this fat idol I'd made as a kid; it's crude enough to be the work of 28mm goblins, so will end up painted in the dungeon, I think.

Fred, good luck with the gesso! I've certainly found it a revelation. And yes, 500ml looks enough to undercoat hordes, and lots of scenery besides. Gesso, rather than spray, also means that I can look to the kids to do some undercoating for themselves (and for me ...).

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

Bloody show-offs whose speed-painting is better than my usual painting.......

Once again, lovely work.  I particularly like the zombies, the speed painting adds to the overall putrid look.

[beefcake]

Great work. Really impressed with the idol as well.

[jambo1]

The Skaven are super! Your speed painting is way better than my best too!!

[Jagannath]

Talking of wrinkling, on reflection this seems to be worst with my grey gesso - the black is thicker (in a good way - grey is translucently thin) so maybe a bit more robust. It does seem 'drier' than the grey more quickly. By the way, if you ever need to strip gesso, the best thing I've found is this:

http://www.wilko.com/white-spirit+brush-cleaners/bartoline-clean-spirit-750ml/invt/0315920

Ignore the one star reviews on there, it's absolute magic (I've found gesso nigh on unmoveable with other, more reliable paint strippers).

Ah that's interesting about gloss and white, I must play about more with white primer.

Love the skaven - Island of Blood was really great value box, I've got one squirelled away for a skaven project (one day!)... skaven seem about the most perfect minis for your painting style? I hate fur - comes from never drybrushing, another thing I should do more.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, all!

As far as speed painting goes, I should note that the two metal ones were much fast to do than the black-undercoated plastic ones. I looked at some of the tutorials on Nord's excellent blog and refined my white/wash/drybrush technique somewhat. I noticed that Nord often preshades with rather light colours, so, rather than use Agrax Earthshade for the initial wash, I used some "brown glaze" (maybe from Army Painter?) and thinned it down with matt medium. This left a more subtle effect, with nicely gradated shading. Putting a single wash of watery paint over each area did most of the work after that, with a wash of Agrax or GW sepia over the top. For the skin, I washed with a "flesh" colour, washed again with thinned-down GW blood-effect stuff, then quickly highlighted with the initial colour and Wych Elf flesh. And that was that, eyes and teeth aside.

The clothing on the black ones was even quicker, though: after three steps of drybrushing the whole figures in brown, I just sloshed some GW wash over each item of clothing. The skin process was the same, though with thicker paint, but the initial three-step drybrushing meant that they took a bit more time overall.

I think I'll do most of the metals with white undercoat and the plastics in black, though: the plastics, old and new, have more areas that are best left blocked in in black.

Love the skaven - Island of Blood was really great value box, I've got one squirelled away for a skaven project (one day!)... skaven seem about the most perfect minis for your painting style? I hate fur - comes from never drybrushing, another thing I should do more.

Well, they are very messy!  Yes, the metal ones are perfect for drybrush and wash. The new plastics are OK for that too, although the fur is stylised differently: rather than scaled-up tufts or locks, it's in almost geometric spikes.

I didn't buy the box, but got hold of loads of the miniatures on the sprues very cheaply indeed. They're very nicely designed rats. It's odd, though - most of the non-rank-and-file GW plastic skaven are far less good: either OTT or just a bit clumsy-looking. But the ordinary grunts (squeaks?) are great.

[Severian]

Great work on these - the skaven are top-notch.

All this talk of gesso is intriguing; though I think I should finish up a few mostly-finished things, and photograph and post some finished things, before I explore any new techniques just yet.

Good luck with accumulating dungeon nasties. You can never have too many!

And the idol is great fun. Chu-bu or Sheemish, perhaps?

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

And the idol is great fun. Chu-bu or Sheemish, perhaps?

YES!

(For me, one of the most gratifying discoveries of the last few years is how perfect certain Dunsany tales are as bedtime stories. We started with The Hoard of the Gibbelins and How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles - many times over for each - but have got through a good few others since).

[Hobgoblin]

And one more swift skaven:

[Hobgoblin]

Here's another experiment in speed painting: a Ral Partha troll.

For this one, I undercoated in black gesso, daubed on the base colours fairly thick, then drybrushed in Wych Elf Flesh or Vallejo Silver Grey (which ever one was closest - they're the same colour). Then I just sloshed a bit of appropriate wash over each area. Nothing fancy, but even quicker than some of the layered drybrushing techniques I've been using lately.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I have only used gesso on Reaper Bones miniatures.  When I tried using this on metal it seemed to have probelms with sticking/cover.  Are there different grades of gesso?

Nice looking troll, by the way.

[Hobgoblin]

I have only used gesso on Reaper Bones miniatures.  When I tried using this on metal it seemed to have probelms with sticking/cover.  Are there different grades of gesso?

Nice looking troll, by the way.

Thanks!

There are. I bought some Daler-Rowney white gesso yesterday, and it doesn't seem anything like as good as the black Pebeo (mispelled as Sebeo further up the page!) stuff. It was a bit streakier and rougher. That said, it's working OK, and I'm not really judging it fairly, as I botched the matt-medium/brown-glaze mix on the batch of figures concerned. I'll probably get some of the Pebeo white and see how it compares; if it's the same, I've got lots; if the Pebeo's better, I'll pass on the DR stuff to one of the artists in the family for use on canvas. But the DR stuff has worked OK: a bit like undercoating with GW's Ceramite white paint, only with greater grip on the models.

The black Pebeo stuff is the best black undercoat I've used. It works perfectly on metal - as on tonight's troll - and has a nice, smooth, even finish.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I am on holiday, so I can lurk here as often as I want!
Looked up Pabeo Gesso.  I found they have Artist Acrylic Gesso, Studio Gesso and One Coat Gesso.  Which one are you using?