East Cothique Trading Company - a painting blog

Want tips? Have tips? Have pictures even? Well, post them here!

Moderators: The Heralds, The Loremasters

Post Reply
Message
Author
Lynve
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 7:16 am
Location: A land of concrete towers

East Cothique Trading Company - a painting blog

#1 Post by Lynve »

Since I first began to paint back in 2002 I wanted to post my stuff online for others to see/criticize, but back then my skill would only get me ridiculed. I admit, it would be justified because I painted my first spearelves not with a brush but with a toothpick. Much has changed since those days (yes, I'm using brushes now), and I though it would compel me to improve my skill (be less lazy with models and actually add proper detail to them) if I was to post my work online. I actually have 80% of my army painted, but only 10 % od those models are "recent" and wear the colors of Cothique so I won't be posting all of the previous work. Much of the army remains badly painted and awaits a strip show so.... Without further ado:

My archmage/mage from IoB. I actually roleplayed as this fellow back in the days of 2nd edition of WFRP as a Cothiqui/Cothican wizard, Volenaro Duskblood also dubbed Dryfoot for despite serving in the navy, he was a huge hydrophobe and was constantly haunted by a perspective of drowning or just being in a deep water.
Image
Image

Next, the light cavalry. I gave them red/orange details instead of traditional yellow accents because, as we all know, DA RED WUNZ GO FASTA. But honestly, I think that it works better than yellow here. What are your thoughts on the matter?
Image
Image


And the yellow alternative:
Image
Image


I actually started painting my archers two weeks ago and already managed to get all of them basecoated so expect fresh uploads soon ;)
That's all for now. Tips and criticism are very welcome.
Cheers!

P.S. If anyone has a good method for stripping paint, which does not require buying a UK-exclusive glass cleaner or other colonial goods, do let me know.
Last edited by Lynve on Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Olthannon
Posts: 304
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 3:26 am
Location: UK

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#2 Post by Olthannon »

I am really liking the teal, it's a nice vibrant colour. Keep up the good work! You are well ahead of me in terms of painting up new stuff although I've not even begun trying to strip my old stuff either. I think Dettol is the best bet? Maybe you'll have an alternative?
One foot in the hobby
User avatar
Prince of Spires
Auctor Aeternitatum
Posts: 8249
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:07 pm
Location: The city of Spires

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#3 Post by Prince of Spires »

We all start somewhere ;)

These are looking great. You are of course correct that the red ones go faster. And of course, (well) painted models get favored by the dice gods. So you get better results with a painted army ;)

I prefer the red/orange look to the yellow. The red has a bit more contrast to the blue and helps the model shine a bit more.

As for stripping paint, these are methods I've come across (though I haven't tried them):
- Dettol: leave models to soak in there and brush them clean (I did actually try this and it worked, but not very well)
- break fluid: be very careful, it's highly toxic and it will melt any plastic and resin model left in there for longer then maybe half an hour
- simple green: this is what most people who can get their hands on it advise. It's a non-toxic natural soap kind of cleaner. soak models in there (for as long as you want basically) and the paint supposedly just comes off easily.
- Nail polish remover (the "contains aceton" variety): I think this only works on metal models, since the aceton will melt plastic. Slightly toxic though, so use in moderation.

Some thoughts: Since simple green is said to work so well, I always wonder if other simple, natural green soap will work as well. I have a feeling it will, but I haven't tried it yet.

Rod
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
Shannar, Sealord
Very Helpful Elf
Posts: 4031
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2004 2:10 am
Location: Patroling the Sea Lanes

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#4 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

I'd just add that brake fluid won't damage the plastic. I left some plastics in a jar of it while I was gone for 3 months (and had up them in awhile before leaving), no damage. They stripped easy though.

Pine Sol (or off brand pine cleaner) also works well on plastics or metals, and smells better than most of the other choices. It doesn't do much on enamal paints though.

I like your colour choices. I'm no expert. But red is always better than yellow.
User avatar
Prince of Spires
Auctor Aeternitatum
Posts: 8249
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:07 pm
Location: The city of Spires

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#5 Post by Prince of Spires »

Shannar, Sealord wrote:I'd just add that brake fluid won't damage the plastic. I left some plastics in a jar of it while I was gone for 3 months (and had up them in awhile before leaving), no damage. They stripped easy though.
Thanks for clearing that up. It might be resin then that doesn't like the brake fluid.
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
Shannar, Sealord
Very Helpful Elf
Posts: 4031
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2004 2:10 am
Location: Patroling the Sea Lanes

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#6 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

I'm sure it wouldn't be good on most resins. I know it's not good on finecast. I don't know if anything is good on finecast...
User avatar
Olthannon
Posts: 304
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 3:26 am
Location: UK

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#7 Post by Olthannon »

Shannar, Sealord wrote:I'm sure it wouldn't be good on most resins. I know it's not good on finecast. I don't know if anything is good on finecast...
A hammer?
One foot in the hobby
User avatar
Prince of Spires
Auctor Aeternitatum
Posts: 8249
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:07 pm
Location: The city of Spires

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#8 Post by Prince of Spires »

Olthannon wrote:
Shannar, Sealord wrote:I'm sure it wouldn't be good on most resins. I know it's not good on finecast. I don't know if anything is good on finecast...
A hammer?
:lol:

It's interesting how fast GW moved away from finecast again...

I never actually had the pleasure of purchasing a finecast model. Everything is either still metal or plastic.

Rod
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
Shannar, Sealord
Very Helpful Elf
Posts: 4031
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2004 2:10 am
Location: Patroling the Sea Lanes

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#9 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

Prince of Spires wrote: I never actually had the pleasure of purchasing a finecast model. Everything is either still metal or plastic.

Rod
You are making me feel all newhammer. I have two. I've even painted one of them.
Lynve
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 7:16 am
Location: A land of concrete towers

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#10 Post by Lynve »

Thanks for kind words guys ;)
I recogn my detailing skills are somewhat gobboish but I'm working on improving them, without losing sanity over the amount of corrections I'm forced to make due to having shaky hands.
Olthannon wrote:You are well ahead of me in terms of painting up new stuff although I've not even begun trying to strip my old stuff either
I'm sure you will suspass me soon enough ;) I'm a very slow painter + got a lot of career-related burdens to deal with this year. Never encourage your kids to become lawyers. Sucks out your time harder than World of Warcraft.
Prince of Spires wrote: simple green: this is what most people who can get their hands on it advise. It's a non-toxic natural soap kind of cleaner. soak models in there (for as long as you want basically) and the paint supposedly just comes off easily.
Thanks very much Rod. I checked all of the suggested methods but after some more research decided that "green iz best". A barrel of the liquid in question is already being delievered to me so there will be a striptease party going on soon enough.
Shannar, Sealord wrote:I like your colour choices. I'm no expert. But red is always better than yellow.
I have to agree on that. Red breaks the monotony better than yellow in pretty much every case. However I've decided to go for yellow/orange tones, because red+greenish blue combination could suggest my elves come from Caledor and I don't want that ever happening to them :P

As for the update:
I had a few days off-work and while struggling with a particulary nasty cold I managed to finish off my archers. Basing is not yet done. I'll sit to it during the next sickness maybe :D They already had been undercoated yellow so I decided to go with that color. They don't do much running around anyway so a speed buff in a form of red/orange is not exactly a necessity ;)
Image
Image
Image

With having so much bonus spare time I also managed to have a go at my IoB Seaguards. I attempted a true-wood look on the wooden parts of spears but after a bitter failure decided that a clean look will look just fine. They're core troops after all.
Image
Image
Image

While metal bits don't look as bad as on Reavers I'm still not quite happy about the way they turned out. Can you guys perhaps direct me to a good tutorial on painting TMM without that griddy look? Or give guidance on the matter? I'm using vallejo sivler/P3 Pig Iron/P3 cold steel and so far I utterly despise myself for achieving such dissatisfying results. I tried it all: wet palette, diluting them with a thinner, retarder, glaze, water, but it still looks iffy.
User avatar
Prince of Spires
Auctor Aeternitatum
Posts: 8249
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:07 pm
Location: The city of Spires

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#11 Post by Prince of Spires »

Lynve wrote:With having so much bonus spare time I also managed to have a go at my IoB Seaguards. I attempted a true-wood look on the wooden parts of spears but after a bitter failure decided that a clean look will look just fine. They're core troops after all.
:D :lol: I went through the exact same thing with most of my core models. Tried various things on the spears but it all just looked horrible. And in the end decided that a simple, uniform color would look fine and be a lot less work then anything elaborate. Which is fine for core troops. I wouldn't want to spend 1+ hours per spear to make it look decent, not when there's at least 40+ of them to paint and doing it in 5 minutes gives better results.

The archer unit looks great. Some nice variations in there with swapping the blue and white around on different bits. It makes the unit look more interesting I think.
Lynve wrote:While metal bits don't look as bad as on Reavers I'm still not quite happy about the way they turned out. Can you guys perhaps direct me to a good tutorial on painting TMM without that griddy look? Or give guidance on the matter? I'm using vallejo sivler/P3 Pig Iron/P3 cold steel and so far I utterly despise myself for achieving such dissatisfying results. I tried it all: wet palette, diluting them with a thinner, retarder, glaze, water, but it still looks iffy.
I don't have any tutorials I've tried myself. But googling "Painting TMM" gives some pretty good results from what I can see. Both in blog posts and tutorial videos. This one Painting True-Metallic Metals (TMM) seems very comprehensive.

I'm not sure what you could do better at this point. Could it be that your paints are a bit old? That sometimes gives a bit a gritty effect for me. Also, shaking more before starting helps get a smoother result (if that is the issue). For some paints I have added a little something to the bottle to help with the shaking (a small piece of metal cut-off for instance).

Rod
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
User avatar
elendor_f
Posts: 236
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 3:08 pm

Re: [EC/TC] The East Cothique Trading Company - a painting b

#12 Post by elendor_f »

I just took a lot at the thread and I like the models! The colour scheme works well and is fitting for your concept :D

I also struggle with "wood look", so for now I also use a simple brown layer :roll: And a bit similar for metal. I tend to use Citadel metal paints while usually I use Vallejo for non-metal parts. In any case, I will just refer to Rod's tutorial.

The griddy look you mention only happens for metals right? Because In the clothes, bows and so on I see the look as being normal.

Good luck! :)
"The general has this to say about ensuring against defeat when outnumbered, out–weaponed and outpositioned. It is... Don't Have a Battle."
"Sounds like a clever man," said Jenkins.
Terry Pratchett, Jingo!

Avatar: https://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/
Post Reply