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I am only recently getting back into painting miniatures and I'd like some input on my progress. I used to paint minis when I was a teenager, but I wasn't really great at it and didn't know fancy techniques like "dry-brushing" and "washing" and so on. I bought one of Reaper's learn-to-paint kits and almost immediately hosed up by priming the Bones minis with spray primer, which apparently doesn't work on the Bones material. I managed to salvage the minis but the faces are kind of hosed up and lost some detail. I'm using Reaper paints which claim not to need thinning, but some stuff is still going on kind of chunky. Here are the three guys I painted so far.  I just finished this Bones Bugbear tonight. He came out pretty good, but I'm really unhappy with the teeth. I'm not sure what I could do to fix them or do them better, though. A recurring problem I'm having is getting my washes to come out highlighting detail and not just looking muddy.  This orc was the first mini I painted. Either the primer hosed up all his facial detail, or there wasn't much to begin with. Either way I had to basically draw it on. The paint on his belt looks too thick, mostly from the tacky primer I think. He's one of the learn-to-paint minis and I basically followed the book's instructions.  This guy is a Wizkids "Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures" D&D figure. I bought him because he has a lot of detail, and he was part of a two pack of wizards for four dollars. He came pre-primed, and so was not subject to my spray-can torture. The gold paint somehow went on both too thin and too thick at the same time, I'm not sure how. I did a black wash on his cape that came out really blotchy, I'm not sure what went wrong there. It doesn't show up in the picture and I mostly brushed over it anyway. The fireball is translucent plastic, so I got some p3 ink because a couple of youtube videos suggested that would work for painting clear things. It did not. I'm honestly not sure what to even do with the ink now. The fireball is removable and I'll probably just toss it if I can't make it look a lot better than that. So what tips can this thread provide a beginner? I'm reasonably happy with these three, but I'd like to do better. How can I make my next minis look better than these guys?
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Aug 14, 2017 01:35
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 06:08 |
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dmnz posted:What do they do with all the other bones in the 41st millennium? That's how they make bread.
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Aug 14, 2017 01:40
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dmnz posted:What do they do with all the other bones in the 41st millennium? Tibias for the Tibia throne.
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Aug 14, 2017 01:50
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Avenging Dentist posted:For plants, I personally prefer etched brass, but that's partly because you can get a much wider variety of plants, and they don't look quite as silly as the GW ones. The skulls are definitely a good deal though, unless you only need a handful (in which case Secret Weapon is probably the better buy since they're $15 for 50). Etched brass stuff is really cool, but it's often made on a much more realistic scale/design that doesn't always work right for some GW stuff (which is usually oversized and kind of bombastic). Like if I want to have my ork cutting through the foliage, it seems kind of weird for him to have a machete the size of a car door to deal with a bunch of skinny little vines. I want something that has the same sort of style and weight to it.
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Aug 14, 2017 01:51
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Yeast posted:Tibias for the Tibia throne. I like to think there are millions of teams of street cleaners all across the imperium with very specific instructions.
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Aug 14, 2017 01:58
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dmnz posted:What do they do with all the other bones in the 41st millennium? Gelatin. Even demons have room for Jello.
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Aug 14, 2017 02:28
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Ashcans posted:Etched brass stuff is really cool, but it's often made on a much more realistic scale/design that doesn't always work right for some GW stuff (which is usually oversized and kind of bombastic). Like if I want to have my ork cutting through the foliage, it seems kind of weird for him to have a machete the size of a car door to deal with a bunch of skinny little vines. I want something that has the same sort of style and weight to it. Luckily, O scale is 1:48 and 28mm-scale wargaming figures are about 1:65-ish (it varies a lot obviously), so O scale etched brass is great for big-rear end jungle plants and stuff.
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Aug 14, 2017 02:42
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 I need a photo setup. That's one Deathwatch assault troop done.
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Aug 14, 2017 03:20
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I've been on a big kick painting my Yu Jing Imperial Service for a local Infinity league, and finished up the promo version of the Crane Rank a few days ago. Really happy with how this guy turned out, I'm getting a lot better at non-metallic gold.   Sorry about the crap pictures, there's only so much you can do with fluorescent lighting, a cell phone, and a sheet of paper. Once I finish more of the army I'll take the time to reshoot it with my good setup.
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Aug 14, 2017 09:07
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I need some recommendations for Yellow spray paint/primer. I am going to do Yellow Nurgle marines and want to make them look like fallen Imperial Fists. Lots of dirt and grime on top of a yellow colour scheme. Alternatively I guess good suggestions for airbrushing Yellow - I've never tried doing it with such a bright colour before.
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Aug 14, 2017 14:16
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Has anyone else had trouble pushing Army Painter paints through an airbrush? I was trying to spray some skeletons with their bone color and had to thin it down to the point where it was barely tinted medium coming out of the brush. I had to disassemble and unclog the brush multiple times, and, in the end, had to paint everything by hand anyway. I never have this issue with VGC or GW paints. I'm guessing AP is just using some crappy, coarse pigments? This worries me, because I've bought AP for my Blood Angels, and now I might not be able to use it...
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Aug 14, 2017 14:21
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ineptmule posted:I need some recommendations for Yellow spray paint/primer. I am going to do Yellow Nurgle marines and want to make them look like fallen Imperial Fists. Lots of dirt and grime on top of a yellow colour scheme. I've been using VMA Yellow Ochre for some dwarves and it's a good semi-dirty yellow. It's pretty much a match for Averland Sunset, if just a touch lighter.
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Aug 14, 2017 14:22
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ineptmule posted:I need some recommendations for Yellow spray paint/primer. I am going to do Yellow Nurgle marines and want to make them look like fallen Imperial Fists. Lots of dirt and grime on top of a yellow colour scheme. Another option besides spray primer/airbrush for a quick yellow would be primer white and wash/glaze with a heavy yellow. Give's you base coat and shade in same step,. Or wash with yellow+brown's for more nurglesque discoloration and build up from there. Alternatively there's an Averland Sunset spray from GW.
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Aug 14, 2017 14:25
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That Badger airbrush primer is loving AMAZING. What airbrush clearcoat do you guys recommend? Need a gloss and matte. Airbrush is love. Airbrush is life.
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Aug 14, 2017 15:07
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I got an airbrush!!!!
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Aug 14, 2017 15:08
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:That Badger airbrush primer is loving AMAZING. I use liquitex gloss and matte varnish because it's cheap.
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Aug 14, 2017 15:13
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I've been using a brush from Rosemary and Co. for the last few weeks and it's replaced my trusty old series 7 as my go to brush now. It's got longer bristles and a different size (bigger than I used to use) but I'm finding myself more confident attempting things I wouldn't normally touch without a 000 brush. It's not an airbrush but I have a compressor so I'm half in the cool club right?
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Aug 14, 2017 15:21
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richyp posted:I've been using a brush from Rosemary and Co. for the last few weeks and it's replaced my trusty old series 7 as my go to brush now. It's got longer bristles and a different size (bigger than I used to use) but I'm finding myself more confident attempting things I wouldn't normally touch without a 000 brush. The compressor is the expensive half really. Just get a patriot 105 and a hose, silly.
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Aug 14, 2017 15:29
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Felime posted:The compressor is the expensive half really. Just get a patriot 105 and a hose, silly. I think bringing it into the house may end my marriage. I'll have to stick to brushing or get a divorce, or pony up for a silent one.
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Aug 14, 2017 15:36
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Slimnoid posted:I don't think I've seen a deal from any other company that sells as many or more skulls for less. I just bought a set of 30 human skulls for $15, so this is a steal.
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Aug 14, 2017 15:40
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:What airbrush clearcoat do you guys recommend? Need a gloss and matte. I usually just slop Future on with a brush for a clearcoat, though you can airbrush with it as well. I'll second the Liquitex matte varnish. I picked up a big bottle for about $8 with Hobby Lobby's 40% off coupon. On the topic of airbrush chat: I seem to be having a hard time dialing in the flow on my Patriot. I have a cheapy Masters that sprays pretty manageably and even, but running the same (Badger primer @20 psi, say) through the Patriot it just really dumps the paint on. Lowering pressure (~14psi) helps some but gets splattery. Any thoughts?
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Aug 14, 2017 15:41
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Man, Duplicolor throws me off sometimes. It's super thin and ends up looking like it isn't touching the model at all when sprayed from 12" away - which means I get closer to get some white down but I have to be even more careful to not overspray. Also it sometimes ends up looks grainy/speckled but feels smooth so I keep thinking there is a bad texture when there isn't. How thin can you go without paint slipping off? I heard that even if there isn't any color down on the figure but it was at least in the path of the spray it's still enough for paint to stick, is that true? Am I fine if I can still see some of the grey plastic through the white primer? I'm used to getting a thicker solid coat with stuff way back in the day. Fake James fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Aug 14, 2017 |
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Aug 14, 2017 15:54
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richyp posted:I think bringing it into the house may end my marriage. I'll have to stick to brushing or get a divorce, or pony up for a silent one. I don't know much about silent ones. Mine has a tank so it only runs for a little bit to build up pressure and occasionally after every few minutes of airbrushing. Not super loud but no way I'd run it while someone is asleep nearby. I wouldn't consider it super obtrusive otherwise though, especially through a wall.
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Aug 14, 2017 16:24
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darnon posted:I usually just slop Future on with a brush for a clearcoat, though you can airbrush with it as well. I'll second the Liquitex matte varnish. I picked up a big bottle for about $8 with Hobby Lobby's 40% off coupon. I was running Badger primer at 10 psi and it was flowing smooth as butter out of my Renegade Krome. Maybe it's a cleanliness issue and you have some bits of paint stuck in a really awkward spot?
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Aug 14, 2017 16:40
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:I was running Badger primer at 10 psi and it was flowing smooth as butter out of my Renegade Krome. Maybe it's a cleanliness issue and you have some bits of paint stuck in a really awkward spot? I steadily learn new bits of my airbrush that need cleaning. I also probably need to get some distilled water as well.
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Aug 14, 2017 16:46
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I am going to guess that your nozzle has a clog in it. (Or enough gunk to impede the smooth flow of paint.) Pull it apart, and soak it in degreaser or (strangely enough) gunpowder solvent Hoppes #9. This fixed the exact problem you are talking about for me. The finer the nozzle you use, the more sensitive it will be to clogging.
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Aug 14, 2017 17:07
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I've run into the issue with both needles I have and across multiple cleanings (with an ultrasonic cleaner no less), but I may just have to set down and really go at debugging it. By comparison the Masters has been pretty foolproof. Worst case I may just have to ship it in and give Badger's lifetime service a try.
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Aug 14, 2017 17:14
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:That Badger airbrush primer is loving AMAZING. Wololo. Another finds the light that is stynlerez.
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Aug 14, 2017 17:27
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Felime posted:I steadily learn new bits of my airbrush that need cleaning. I also probably need to get some distilled water as well. Supposedly ultrasonic cleaners are cheap and amazing. I will likely get one. There's a good YouTube guide on just using hot water and dish soap. Protip; don't soak the fucker in Iwata airbrush cleaner. I think it stripped some of the chrome from the interior of my airbrush. TTerrible posted:Wololo. Another finds the light that is stynlerez. It's basically cheating. Now that I have my own office with a place to paint and airbrush I'm never going back.
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Aug 14, 2017 17:51
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Supposedly ultrasonic cleaners are cheap and amazing. I will likely get one. There's a good YouTube guide on just using hot water and dish soap. The downside with most is they usually only have <10min timer cycles. If you're nominally electrically inclined though it's pretty easy to just hotwire around. I just have mine locked on and plug it into a countdown timer so I can run it for 1 or 2 hours (I don't run it longer than that as the water gets pretty drat hot by that point). Works quite the trick for stripping minis and breaking down superglue. Also worth it to get at least a 0.5 liter capacity one. Mine's 0.3l and frequently I find it just a bit shallower than I'd like.
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Aug 14, 2017 18:24
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Have anybody tried changing the fan in one of these: I have a relatively expensive, really quiet compressor for my airbrush, but when this thing sounds like a small plane taking off it's kind of wasted :-/
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Aug 14, 2017 19:57
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Enola Gay-For-Pay posted:So what tips can this thread provide a beginner? I'm reasonably happy with these three, but I'd like to do better. How can I make my next minis look better than these guys? Fair warning I'm not a good painter, but I've been learning myself recently but I didn't see anyone else give advice so here is what I've been doing: Always thin your paints. The way I "test" to see if it is thinned enough is that when you put it on the model it should look like a shell. The image that came to mind was a beetle shell when I took the brush away. Essentially, you want the paint to be thin enough that when you take your brush away the paint flows back together and you can't see the brush strokes. When the water/medium dries, the pigment left behind will just settle. If you see your paint getting chunky/you start seeing the texture of your brush stroke in the paint, get a bit of water/medium onto the brush and add it to the paint on the model while it is still wet, and try to bring it back to the correct consistency. You seem to be doing that ok, but as a fellow beginner I thought I'd share what made the paint thinning "click" in my head. Then use less and less water as you paint finer and finer things. I've found that brush strokes are most obvious on big flat surfaces, so I use more thinning there. Then when I'm painting highlights on fingers, for example, I'm using almost no thinning at all because it isn't likely you'll notice the brush stroke on a small, thin area but paint control becomes more important. As brush control becomes better you can use thin paints on small areas but I'm not there yet. For washes there are several things that I've found. First, pick the correct color for what you're wanting to do. A black wash (Nuln Oil, for example) is good for general shading, particularly of dark colors. It's good for generating shadows, but it isn't necessarily always the best option. For example, using a blue wash to shade grey can make oranges/reds stand out more. Matching washes to your colors can also be helpful. I use Seraphim Sepia to shade oranges, Carroburg Crimson for reds, and so on. Black washes are good for general shadows though. It is important that your underlying color can stand up to the wash you're using though. For example, the teeth you have there. I would make sure that when you're doing whites, bring them up to a very strong/even color before trying to wash. Then figure out the effect you are going to go for. A red wash could be good if the rest of the mouth is also red, maybe a bit of a bloody mouth look. If you are selective, a brown or dark yellow wash could be good for the teeth as well if you want to have yellowing/rotting teeth. Start at the tip of the tooth and drag a tiny amount of the wash down to the base, let it dry and then see how it comes out. Here is my protip for whites in general though - always paint your whites as a very light grey, then highlight/hit the tips in a full white. Ulthuan Grey is the citadel paint I use for all of my whites, then White Scars to go along the high points. For some applications that can be enough to where you don't necessarily need a wash. If you do want a wash as well, but the one you're using turns out to be too heavy you can pour some of the wash out in a separate thing and thin it even more. The thinner the wash is, the less pigment will setting in a given place and the softer the shadow will be. The cape thing is a good example of this. Capes are big with lots of surface, and the pigments of a wash don't necessarily do good when there isn't obvious details to settle in. I watered down some nuln oil, and selectively applied it to shade a big, flowing white cape once and it seems to have worked out. You can also use a detail brush to very selectively apply washes to the precise areas you want shadows, that can be helpful too. You really don't need a lot of shading to work on something flowing like a cape though. Just a bit can bring out the natural shadows cast by the models. It can be helpful paint out a cape to the color you want, then put it under a light and see where the shadows are and very lightly darken those areas. Fire is tricky. The fireball thing looks pretty good though. If you wanted it to look more like fire though you'd probably need more colors. An orange, or at least a yellow. Add in the other fire colors where it seems appropriate, but I've never painted a transparent thing. I like your wizard though. The only thing I'd say is the wrapping on the staff would be better if it was a different color from the hand. Again I'm not very good, but that's what I've been working on and (assuming my older/better painting buddy/mentor isn't just bullshitting me) I can get something to a pretty clean tabletop quality doing this.
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Aug 14, 2017 20:53
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Photo dump. The decals didn't come out great on the repulsor since I didn't get a clean enough gloss coat under, but whatever, my desire to repaint is about 0 and they've been sealed. Probably not going to field it on the table a ton, so it's not a big deal.                
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Aug 14, 2017 23:46
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Those look stunning.
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Aug 14, 2017 23:49
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HardCoil posted:Have anybody tried changing the fan in one of these: Most of the noise comes from the air rushing through, so making it quieter would also defeat the purpose of using it.
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Aug 14, 2017 23:54
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Booley posted:Photo dump. The decals didn't come out great on the repulsor since I didn't get a clean enough gloss coat under, but whatever, my desire to repaint is about 0 and they've been sealed. Probably not going to field it on the table a ton, so it's not a big deal. They look amazing. Having spent several hours this evening brushing Mephiston Red in the nooks and crannies of my Khorne bros and trying to avoid getting it on their gold trim I'm jealous of how smooth the red is on those marines.
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Aug 15, 2017 00:02
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richyp posted:They look amazing. Having spent several hours this evening brushing Mephiston Red in the nooks and crannies of my Khorne bros and trying to avoid getting it on their gold trim I'm jealous of how smooth the red is on those marines. Thanks man. I'm really glad to see you back painting, your use of color theory and contrast has always been inspiring.
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Aug 15, 2017 00:26
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What is everyone's favorite way to do power swords?
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Aug 15, 2017 00:27
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:What is everyone's favorite way to do power swords? On my 40k marines I did a basic fade, with the darkest shade at the hilt. Choose a colour that looks good against your power armour but isn't the same as your plasma coils. My green marines had red power weapons, silver had blue. Once the fade is on, edge highlight in white. I don't have any pics but its a very simple, striking way to do it if you have an airbrush.
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Aug 15, 2017 00:30
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 06:08 |
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berzerkmonkey posted:Has anyone else had trouble pushing Army Painter paints through an airbrush? I was trying to spray some skeletons with their bone color and had to thin it down to the point where it was barely tinted medium coming out of the brush. I had to disassemble and unclog the brush multiple times, and, in the end, had to paint everything by hand anyway. I never have this issue with VGC or GW paints. I'm guessing AP is just using some crappy, coarse pigments? This worries me, because I've bought AP for my Blood Angels, and now I might not be able to use it... I've been using more Army Painter than not lately since getting my airbrush, but I admit I haven't tried spraying Skeleton Bone (I think?) through it. So far I've done mostly the normal reds, greens, blues, which have all worked fine with Vallejo Airbrush Thinner.
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Aug 15, 2017 01:19
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