How to paint straps well?

[ErikB]

Does anyone have a good technique for this?

So many minis have little straps to them: puttees, wrist straps, belts, bandoliers, etc.

I have a miserable time painting them, for some reason.

I can give them a medium color base coat, use an Army Painter wash (goes in the recesses better than GW's), and try to drybrush crosswise, and that's about it.  Never mind getting two or three colors in there to get a proper layered effect.  I just don't have the brush skill to pick out details and make it look even.  That's the hardest part.

It never turns out and the drybrushing goes on to the area around the straps, necessitating a re-paint of that area.

Does anyone have better ideas?  I have heard of using a gloss varnish before using the Army Painter wash.  Any other techniques?  How do you guys do this?

Thanks!

[gary42]

I just do the basic colour, then the wash, the basic colour again (Except for the cracks the wash goes in), then a small high light at the top.  The pic below show's it.  The guy on the far right is the clearest.  Other guys and gals do it better than me but this works and looks nice on the table.

[ErikB]

Nice job.

Does anyone else have any examples, too?

And what techniques are people using? Are people painting the straps with a small brush, running along the length of the strap? Or dry brushing crosswise? Who has a really good technique that they're willing to share?

[Hammers]

Blacklining. You can get some detail to really pop if you first paint them black and then lay the basecolor on to *almost* cover the black. I only use this method on small deatils which would otherwise get lost in the overall paint-jobb. If you blackline everything, the miniature will turn out looking cartoonish, imo.

[Malebolgia]

I'm often washing and wetbrushing straps. So with a brush loaded with paint I simply flick its side by the straps to get the paint on the edges. Works well for me.

1. Paint the basecoat
2. Wetbrush the edges
3. Wash the straps (sometimes with several layers)
4. Sometimes rehighlight the straps to make them pop more.

Examples:
http://paintoholic.nl/images/xbow.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/kossack.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/frostgrave_captain.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/roon.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/dieter.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/kossite1.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/ash2.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/krueger.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/wrastler2.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/ryle.jpg

[Hammers]

I'm often washing and wetbrushing straps. So with a brush loaded with paint I simply flick its side by the straps to get the paint on the edges. Works well for me.

1. Paint the basecoat
2. Wetbrush the edges
3. Wash the straps (sometimes with several layers)
4. Sometimes rehighlight the straps to make them pop more.

Examples:
http://paintoholic.nl/images/xbow.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/kossack.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/frostgrave_captain.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/roon.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/dieter.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/kossite1.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/ash2.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/krueger.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/wrastler2.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/ryle.jpg

Seeing the result teh method seems better than I thought from your description and my experience. I shall try this some time.

[Malebolgia]

Thanks. The effect can be enhanced with a bit of blending (so going beyond the edges). With some experience you can do this in no-time. And you can use the wetbrush-edging to simulate damaged leather too. Then you can stipple or carefully drybrush the edges to get ragged highlights. With some washes you can tie the colours more together. Examples:

http://paintoholic.nl/images/ray_duke.jpg
http://paintoholic.nl/images/captainwolf.jpg
(on jackets though, but it shows the ragged effect well)

[Major_Gilbear]

I feel your pain - straps (and worse - buckles!) are a very time-consuming part of paintjobs on many models I find.

What I do is similar to Hammers.:

1) Paint the area in a dark colour first, making sure that you cover the "thickness" of the strap as well.

2) Paint along the strap carefully with a colour that's between a mid-tone and a highlight.

3) Give the area a careful wash with a suitable colour. This lets the dark colour show through in the recesses, darkens the colour you painted on in step 2, and provides a nice graduation for you.

4) Pick out a few highlights here and there, concentrating on just the upper edge of the strap (if horizontal), or along the centre (if vertical).

You can stop at the end of step 3 (I often do!), and for anything very small you can even stop at the end of step 2. Really, step 4 is a finishing touch if the straps happen to be a prominent part of the model, or something that's easy to reach like a belt or shoulder strap.

I would also make another observation too - painting straps is rather like painting freehand designs in that you need a decently-sized brush with a very good point. The size of the brush ensures that your paints wet as you apply it, and it's the sharp point that lets you get a precise and neat finish.

Even if it's just for occasional use, I would recommend getting yourself to art art shop to have a look at buying a good sable brush for this. I am lazy and use W&N Series 7 Size 1 because they are fairly easy for me to buy. However, there are lots of other brands that are just as good or better (and probably cheaper prices too!).


Edit: basically I do the exact same thing as Malebolgia  it seems!

[westwaller]

I recommend you seek out some painting tutorials online. Some of Artmaster studios stuff has some nice strap painting bits ECW tutorials.

I think they are on YouTube as Artmaster vision. I find it really useful to see other actually using the brush, rather than just reading about colours.

The technique I use is basically taken from these tutorials, where you have a dark basecoat, a medium colour highlight of two wide bands either side of the strap, followed by a lighter colour along the edges, similar to edge highlighting... But yes straps are boring to paint, and I only do this for wider straps like belts and baldrics.

[ErikB]

Great ideas, folks!  Thanks!

And those examples are wonderful.  I especially liked the rope on that one guy.  Brilliant!

Has anyone figured out how to make a wash really go in the recesses?  A guy at my local game store does a glossy wash and then inks, somehow.  I have tried making Army Painter washes thinner with art-store flow improver.  That helped some.  Still discolored the surface, though.

I'll try the glossy varnish.  I am concerned it would fill in the cracks that I want to get shade into.

Has anyone tried this technique?  How did it turn out?

[Hammers]

Has anyone figured out how to make a wash really go in the recesses? 

Yes. Artists flow improver. There are many brands. It is basically a strong detergent which breaks the surfacw tension of the fluid. Like wadh detergent but less oily. A tiny drop is enough.