Ulthuan

Hello. This is the first mini I have ever attempted to touch a brush to (have to touch up some slop spots) and if anything gives a basic color scheme for my army--white/red/silver/gold--the more elite the more red/gold. I am not artistic in this way and so I am not expecting to have a knock your socks off army. Just something to look like I put some effort into it.

When I sat back to look at my work someone asked me why I didn't thin the paints. My only response was that I didn't know I was supposed to

So, I'm looking for basic tips starting with thinning the paint. Why do it? How to do it?

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Bolt Thrower's High Elves

Thinning your paint gives u a smoother finish - but you need to put multiple coats. This is especially true with white. While it can be a pain to wait for the paint to dry, using a hair dryer helps the process, but dont make it fan too much as you will blow the wet paint to the side where it will clot in a big lump. While time consuming the difference is well worth it. It also helps you work the paint more smoothly.

Paint from a palet, not from the pot, so normally i might put down 2 brushes of paint, then rinse off my brush and get a drop of water, mix that in and test it.

It shouldnt be be watered down to the point of transperancy(unless your trying to bring up many coats, like on a white surface where 5-6 coats isnt uncommon, at least on a characters, wouldnt recomend it for rank and file), it should be more fluid, but still behave like paint, test this by gettin a small amount on your brush, and run a small stroke down a smooth surface. If it goes into droplets like water would, its too wet.

Good luck. And btw, your link didnt work.

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The Dwarf begged the Dice Gods for Insane Courage on his re-rollable Break Test, failed to achieve it, and the Dice Gods mocked him horribly by giving him Double 1s for his flee distance immediately after. My White Lions promptly ran the Warriors down.
Lord Tethlis' account of slaying fowl Dawi.

It looks like you crapped on the table and took a picture? My only advice would be to not eat things with such sharp corners in the future. This can cause internal bleeding among other unpleasantries....

Only kidding, looks great! Keep it up.

Oh, Dwarfboy...no comment.

Aethyr, thanks for the tip and I updated the link. Hopefully it works now.

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

Great job for a first model, the armor and shield look nice. With the robes, initially do greys/blues and work up to the white on the highest points to represent shadow, with the face, I find dark flesh and then elf flesh highlights works great. Alternately elf flesh and then use ogryn flesh wash for a quicker job.

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The Dwarf begged the Dice Gods for Insane Courage on his re-rollable Break Test, failed to achieve it, and the Dice Gods mocked him horribly by giving him Double 1s for his flee distance immediately after. My White Lions promptly ran the Warriors down.
Lord Tethlis' account of slaying fowl Dawi.

Way better than my first model. Good, neat paint job

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Prince Deral Lionbane, head of the House of Lionbane, Lord of Lionstone and Warden of Tor Charta

Luna, try not to beat them too hard. They are proud about their pseudo-glorious past and their present nothingness, you know.
-Elmoth, about Caledorians

Excellent first model.

I think painting the eyes in would improve it too.

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A New Blog (Orcs and Goblins)
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Cavalry Prince Reloaded
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after you have finshed painting your model you should have a good look at it then go over all the bits where you have by accident put a bit of one colur in the wrong place, usually from it being on the paintbrusg and just catching the model. you can see some red that has got away from you and gone on the spear and onto the chainmail, and a little bit of white thats gone on the red trim. if you clear that up it'll look that bit better. great for a first model though, you should see some of the first ones that i did.

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If your interested in some commission work Take a look at my Painting blog.
If your interested in learning some techniques Take a look at my Tutorials blog.

it looks quite a bit better than my first model did and mine was waaaaaaaaaaaay better than my brothers, who was the only person I could compare with lol so at least consider yourself more of a natural than alot of people. Everything above is things you should aim to learn as you progress maybe on your next unit you could try highlighting for example? Thats where you paint over a darker colour using a lighter colour on the raised edges where the light will catch it more. It gives a more natural look

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since returning to the game after a 5 year break I have had 1 massacre loss, 3 minor losses, 2 draws, 3 minor wins, 3 solid wins, 2 massacres

Thanks for the encouraging feedback, everyone! As I started the remainder of this rank of spears in the unit I have tried to use a more layered technique for the robes especially starting with codex gray --> fortress gray --> skull white (color tip from the GW website). It definitely gives it more definition but I didn't know about thinning the paint yet so those can be improved upon even more for the second rank! I will post those once they are done. About halfway.

Right now I am most worried about faces so the dark flesh with elf flesh highlights will be attempted in the next rank. And eyes! I poked a little paint in there and he looked like the fly! Will have to come back to that one...maybe a paper clip end or something will give me a nice little dot?

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

for doing the skin areas ive found a technique that works perfectly for me. i start with a base coat of snakebite leather, then i do a 1:1 mix of the snakebite with dwarf flesh and add that to all but the deepest recesses. then i do a coat of dwarf flesh, this is on the areas that are more open to light, then i do a 1:1 mix of dwarf flesh to elf flesh. this act as an even lighter highlight, always leaving some of the previous layer behind. then i do an elf flesh cost on the most raised areas, and then a very final highlight which is skull white with a dash of elf flesh, around 4:1 white to flesh. this goes on cheekbones knuckles etc. by layering and blending in this fashion you get a really good tone to the skin, that doesnt look solid.


I dont rally have any good pictures of my high elves which shows the skin but here is one i did of a vampire which shows what your aiming for with the above technique, though this has had some grey added to make it look a bit more pale.

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If your interested in some commission work Take a look at my Painting blog.
If your interested in learning some techniques Take a look at my Tutorials blog.

Wow. Iceman, you really do all that in the tiny little area that is a spearman's face? Truly mind-boggling!!

I LOVE your work and may have to give it a try as I am starting to feel more and more courageous. Seems like advanced technique for me but would love to use similar mixing/layering effects when I am doing my dragon especially.

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

its all about patience, and using very little paint at a time, which has taken quite a lot of practice. but once youve put the time in and done it that one time, then you no you can give it another go, and usually it gets quicker and easier.

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If your interested in some commission work Take a look at my Painting blog.
If your interested in learning some techniques Take a look at my Tutorials blog.

I think I can remember that. Little paint for little elves. This will be my mantra!

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

Liquitex Flow Aid is great for thinning down paint. Just make sure to follow the bottle because you have to thin it down 20-1 before adding it to paint. I pretty much add it to all my paints to get the right constancy. It tends to not leave bubbles like water can. Plus one bottle will last you for pretty much your painting career As to why to do it, because it makes your colors and layers look less chalky.

Also I wish my first model looked anywhere near that good.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/liquitex-flow-aid-fluid-additive/

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Check out my painting blog http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29042

A simple way of doing eyes is to paint black and then put a dot of white in each corner.

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A New Blog (Orcs and Goblins)
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Great tips all! I should get some more painting in this weekend and I will post some more pics from using the advice you've given. Very excited to put it into action!

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

Almost finished with my spearmen. Need to do the shield backs and gems on the shield fronts. Think I'll go with blue gems, but am considering a shiny black to maybe represent jet or something. Have to experiment. I am much happier with how these are turning out than the first one (which has since been redone to match). Criticism and tips always welcome!





Also started working on a bolt thrower. Overall happy with the progress except for the bolts themselves. I think the red fletching is too much and will probably change it to a "goose feather" gray. And the shafts are wretched--did those after painting too long. Also thinking the wood parts need a wash for some depth, and then I'm considering giving it a shine as if they polish it regularly with love

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

Much better mate, a unit at that quality would look fine on the table and is generally known as "tabletop quality" that most people who are gamers more than painters will paint too. It will only get easier from here, keep it up bro.

Liking the new painted models. Really comming along well. I hate doing faces personally as it can take ages

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Twitter: @chumphammer
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Here's my spears ranked up followed by my first completed archer. Happy with the way things are turning out especially on the red of the archer's robes. When I start basing I will be revisiting all the boots with black so please ignore the paint slips on those. I am looking for suggestions on "blonde" archer hair. Color mix suggestions more than welcome as well as the usual quality comments and criticisms. Thanks!

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

they look great,
one quick and easy tip to give the faces some definition is a drop of a wash (devlan mud I think would work)

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Thanks. I wonder if the faces may be getting washed out from the flash of the camera a bit because I do hit them with devlan mud wash and then highlight with elf flesh. I'll have to reinspect them.

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

Told ya

Generally speaking (from my experience and everything i've read) you don't want to use a flash when photographing miniatures. In terms of the physics the different distances from the camera results in the flash returning at different times, resulting in weird lighting.

In laymens turns it makes farther images much darker than the nearer ones. The best way i've found to take good photographs of my miniatures is to have an overhead source light and use the macro setting on your camera. The best way i know of to take pictures of miniatures is to put them on a white surface with white background (large sheet of paper will work) and use 3 source lights, one from each side and one from above. Though two at upper angles should work. Having two light sources will avoid bad shadowing effects and allow for the best pictures. The easiest way to do this is to get an open window inside a room with overhead lighting, just make sure the sun isn't in the shot and that no shade is crossing into the miniatures.

Definitely a good paint job though. Wish i had that kind of skill.

Archers done. Same story on the boots. When I go forward with basing, I'll touch those up with some black. Will probably move onto my archmage next.

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

I really like the contrast between the colours

Finished Spear Banner. Used the archer staff attached to a regular spear shaft, the archer banner with a shield bit.

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves

Really nice. I love the colours!

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A New Blog (Orcs and Goblins)
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Cavalry Prince Reloaded
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First Mage. Pretty happy with how my first character has turned out. Need to finish the gems and ball on staff but you get the picture. Comments and criticism, tips, etc. always welcome!

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Battle Standard Bearer. Don't leave home without it.
Bolt Thrower's High Elves