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Re: Bolt Thrower's High Elves - Paint Stripping

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:54 pm
by Bolt Thrower
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 :oops:

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

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Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:14 am
by Aethyr
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.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:34 am
by DwarfBoy
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.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:06 am
by Bolt Thrower
Oh, Dwarfboy...no comment. :lol:

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

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:30 am
by Aethyr
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.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:40 am
by Luna Guardian
Way better than my first model. Good, neat paint job

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:45 am
by SpellArcher
Excellent first model.

I think painting the eyes in would improve it too.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:23 pm
by Iceman
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. :shock:

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:25 pm
by Citizen Militia
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

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:29 pm
by Bolt Thrower
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 #-o 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?

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:47 pm
by Iceman
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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Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:23 pm
by Bolt Thrower
Wow. Iceman, you really do all that in the tiny little area that is a spearman's face? Truly mind-boggling!! :shock:

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.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:40 pm
by Iceman
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.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:42 pm
by Bolt Thrower
Iceman wrote:its all about patience, and using very little paint at a time
I think I can remember that. Little paint for little elves. This will be my mantra!

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:01 pm
by Trag Sifarin
Bolt Thrower wrote:So, I'm looking for basic tips starting with thinning the paint. Why do it? How to do it?
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/liqui ... -additive/

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:59 pm
by SpellArcher
A simple way of doing eyes is to paint black and then put a dot of white in each corner.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:02 pm
by Bolt Thrower
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!

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:31 am
by Bolt Thrower
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!

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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 :D

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Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 7:59 am
by Rumor
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.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 1:16 pm
by wamphyri101
Liking the new painted models. Really comming along well. I hate doing faces personally as it can take ages

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 4:29 pm
by Bolt Thrower
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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Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 5:42 pm
by ilmrik II
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)

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 10:24 pm
by Bolt Thrower
ilmrik II wrote: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)
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.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 2:14 am
by Rumor
Rumor wrote:Much better mate, a unit at that quality would look fine on the table....
Told ya :wink:

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 8:07 am
by zuriel45
Bolt Thrower wrote:
ilmrik II wrote: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)
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.
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.

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 2:45 am
by Bolt Thrower
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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Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 9:49 am
by Dragon.Prince63
I really like the contrast between the colours :D

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 10:14 pm
by Bolt Thrower
Finished Spear Banner. Used the archer staff attached to a regular spear shaft, the archer banner with a shield bit.

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Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 11:13 pm
by SpellArcher
Really nice. I love the colours!

Re: First Model Ever Painted

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 6:51 pm
by Bolt Thrower
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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