Miniatures Painting and Michael Lonsdale Appreciation Thread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Miniatures Painting and Michael Lonsdale Appreciation Thread

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Cease to Hope posted:

Likewise, you should generally paint sets that are some kind of brand collaboration, like WizKids, D&D, Cyberpunk Red, or Zombicide. While sometimes they're okay, most of the time these sets are overpriced, have cost-cutting measures like smaller bottles, have oddball color names you have to look up in a chart to match to the manufacturer's regular paints, or have hues you can only get in that set.

Small typo here in an otherwise great developing OP!!

# ¿ Feb 29, 2024 09:41

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 01:52

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Gloss varnish also important if you ever plan to use decals!

# ¿ Mar 6, 2024 16:26

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

If you brush them on a matte surface and then vigorously brush and blow on them the remainder will never fall off!

# ¿ Mar 6, 2024 17:36

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

It's also why Games Workshop started painting their Orks more yellowy, it's easier to transition to a little more red from yellow than dark green to give skin more of a living glow.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2024 18:20

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

How spendy do you want to be

# ¿ Mar 13, 2024 17:15

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

I've also heard that for acrylics you can stick an AC filter at the end of the hose if you don't have a window but I've never tried that myself.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2024 22:47

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

You need to both mix your paints and also thin them out (see: artis opus drybrusy videos) so you can make the transition more gradual

# ¿ Mar 14, 2024 05:37

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Lucinice posted:

People talking about airbrush ventilation has me worried. When I use my lovely built in compressor airbrush to do base coats I wear a mask, should I be using an airbrush booth instead?

If you're just spraying it without even like a cardboard box to catch overspray then you're shooting acrylic particles everywhere into your room. Eventually everything in that room will be covered in a fine layer of dust.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2024 21:26

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Cannibal Smiley posted:

I'm stumped as to how the original artist painted these. There's obviously layers of red and purple in there, possibly contrast paint washes, but I'm stumped as to how he got the texture the way that he did. I thought initially that it was drybrushing, but I wasn't able to replicate it by using a makeup brush and very little paint. Anybody else have an idea of how these were painted?

Reminds me of my Tyranids except you know, they're better

Which was done with Artis Opus stippling.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2024 22:28

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Painted up a Jump Pack Chaplain for my Blood Angels.

Older sculpts are pretty sick but there's some really funny details that I can only explain via technological limitations. There's a little skull on the chestplate that looks fine from the front but from the top it's actually a long tube with a skull shape at the end.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2024 09:06

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Cardboard Fox posted:

Wow, those look unreal. How do you even get paint to be so smooth.

Also like 90% of the metals are NMM. I guess I should add that skill all the way down on my list of things to learn...

You don't need to learn NMM if you're not painting display models. NMM can often look funky in real life when you're not looking at it from the intended angle (esp if you're painting gaming miniatures).

# ¿ Mar 25, 2024 21:27

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

That owns. I watch a ton of his videos and have a pile of random different kinds of oils and inks cause of him.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2024 23:39

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

fwiw I've never gotten Golden Crackle to look like the stuff that GW sells. But it's good enough!

# ¿ Mar 26, 2024 01:54

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Beffer posted:

I don�t follow it closely, but there has been quite a bit of debate about the judging approach to golden demons in the past few years.

They don�t judge on flaws, because as you say, anything with an obvious flaw wouldn�t get that far. But there has been criticism that the judges are overly concerned with technical perfection at the expense of concept and design. (For a while there was apparently a critique that you had to paint in the eavy metal style to win, but that was probably never true and certainly isn�t now.)

The slayer winner this year is a triumph of realising a unique concept by creating an illusion of a reflection in a pond. I would love to see it in person as I struggle to believe that the illusion holds all the way around the model. But people are saying it does.

The artist on his instagram said he took the time to make sure the reflection looked correct even from angles you don't normally look at so it makes sense.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2024 23:33

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Grey Hunter posted:

While technically, all these painters are so out of my league their playing another sport, (a fancy one where you need to own a horse), I personally find them most of them to busy, I cant really focus on what I'm looking at in the picture.

The pool 100% deserves to win though.

Well here's an easy example:

This one won based on (imo) the clarity of movement in the piece. The ice bridge is rougher in front and flows out into smooth lines at the back which intuitively gives you an idea of where the model is moving. The fur in the front is painted with diagonally downwards lines, to evoke the feeling of the elk pushing powerfully with its front legs and the fur further to the back is more horizontal, to indicate the movement of the body itself. The cloak too has highlight lines starting sharper to the front and diffusing out towards the back. It's also highlighted in warmer colours towards the front and ends up in a cold blue towards the back, kind of like a comet trail (the bright is where it's going, the darker is where it's leaving). Everything is done to indicate to you that Thranduil on his elk is charging forward.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2024 11:50

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Bark! A Vagrant posted:

Thanks, this really helps. Taking another look I think I see what you mean. Taking the silver and bronze from the Aos Large Miniature for examples, here's what I see now and people can tell me if I'm totally missing the mark:

Overall impression of the scenes is that the bone reaper is standing guard at a pass, and the flesh eater is rallying troops for a charge or delivering a Shakespearean monologue.

Both models are elevated relatively high off of the base. The bone reaper is off-center with the stairs circling up to them in the upper-right which creates a nice impression, while the flesh eater is centered which has a neutral effect.

The shield resting on the rock, the chipping on the shield, and the destroyed banister give an eternal guardian vibe. These details, the spread body language of the mini, its sight line, and the stairs/framing all complement and reinforce each other.

The flesh eater's pose calls to mind fantasy movies where the general strikes a dramatic pose before leading the charge. But they're standing on the ruins of a building, on a rocky outcrop, which is a bit at odds with the story of the pose because that doesn't meld with where most armies would do battle. Centering the mini also gives it a more static impression as if it were urging the troops forward, but if that were the case the sight line wouldn't match because then it should be looking forward. The raised arm and sword are telling one story and implying motion while the rest of the composition creates a more static impression instead of accentuating the impression of motion (or imminent motion). I could be reading too much into this arm and head pose as saying "let's charge", but the only other reference I have for that body language is dramatic theater productions.

Not an art student here so I can't be as clinical in my analysis but I agree with most of yours. One thing is that the setting of the flesh eater's diorama is fine, standing on top of a ruined building to give a little bit more height to rally your weird vampire beasts to battle is perfectly in setting. You're right that it's too "centered", when you look at it you just see the flesh eater as is, mid action in a scene. The bone reaper's base makes you want your eyes to walk around and up the stairs to arrive at the bone reaper itself which gives the piece more movement than the flesh eater.

Also another thing to note, the bone reaper is cold and saturated while the base is warm and desaturated. It's this cold metal thing standing in the middle of a hot desert. The flesh eater is roughly the same as the rest of the scene, so it's more like a still from an action scene than a painted piece.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2024 00:22

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Marco Frisoni applies a lot of his fine art experience into his models and he talks a lot about model painting from that point of view. I can't tell you exactly where he talks about what so I guess you should just watch his entire channel!

Less jokingly he does talk a lot about playing with contrast and saturation as well as texture. He'll use rougher brush strokes on cloth or leather so they look like they feel different to the touch from metal or space marine ceramite. It's very much not "base, shade and highlight" but that's because those people are teaching basic painting to get a good result for tabletop gaming. Even if someone isn't explicitly using fine art techniques on their model to produce a display piece a skilled "model painter" is still operating under the same principles of light and colour as anyone else.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2024 05:40

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Bohemian Nights posted:

I have gotten to the point we all eventually get to, perhaps

sitting with a power drill in one hand, and a bottle of paint in the other, trying to figure out how to macgyver a vortex mixer

Don't do it man... it's only $40 for a vortex mixer: https://www.amazon.com/LABFISH-Vortex-Function-Stainless-Acrylic/dp/B0BWDH285V

and like $10 for a pack of hematite beads

# ¿ Apr 2, 2024 00:11

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

I got the beads for Scale 75 paints cause they're basically goop in there. Don't need em for anything else that I've seen.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2024 14:09

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

great big cardboard tube posted:

Super long and not informative post, tl;dr is if you want to help me out look at my list and tell me if I'm stupid or could make better choices.

I'm not "new" to the hobby I did a lot of gluing plastic and metal and my fingers and splattering paint as a kid and then bought assembled and painted a squad I was actually really happy with and enjoyed the process in my 20s but I have not painted a mini in... 8 years?

I really enjoyed getting back to it when I did, just painting for fun. Stuff happened I lost those models tools and paints and fast forward to now I have the itch again and I want to jump back in with literally nothing other than a desk to work on and porch to spray from. And plastic cups and paper plates for paint and endless cardboard to prime on.

Here's my planned shopping list ready to fire on amazon to get a big bunch of minis I could potentially use in a local game and the tools and paints to get me going, is anything a standout mistake or am I missing anything obvious? I already know I'm not going to feel good using 3 colors with no primer or similar situations with "starter" sets with 2 minis and a brush.

AoS dominion: $104 on Amazon tons of minis will last me up to months of painting if I stick at it and I know there's a local scene for AoS and I'm interested in both platemail boys and orc nonsense.

Vallejo "acrylic 16 colors for fantasy figures": $33 seems to have the majority of colors I'd want, heard good things about the brand. I was a citadel paint slave before I've never tried a Vallejo paint.

Citadel nuln oil + agrax Earth shade: $20 total for a pot of each? 24ml each, still expensive but I see people gush about these washes and idk what else I'd pick.

Golden maple miniatures brushes 10pc: $17 I know they're lovely synthetic brushes but have high Amazon reviews and include a couple drybrushes so I don't have to ruin one first or intentionally ruin one.

Rust-Oleum 2x ultra cover spray primer, flat black and flat white: $17 for both. I've heard good and bad things about almost every primer this just seems the most economical.

IGAN-330 flush cutters: $8 clippers with tons of buys and good reviews I assume I'm safe here.

Excel k18 hobby knife: $9 and the op shouted it out sounds good enough for me.

Anezus "self healing sewing mat": $9 12x18 one of those green and white cross hatch mats the op told me to buy to protect my desk.

Loctite fun-tak mounting putty: $4 2ozs of blue tac so I can affix bases to cardboard to spray or test fit or stick bases to a makeshift handle to paint.

Total cost: $247 after tax shipped for everything. That's kinda a lot for a "getting back in" buy but dominion is sneaking 60 GW models into that, I'd love any advice before I just do it cause I want to build and paint again.

Splurge for a Tamiya 74001 or 74123 side cutter. You're going to be doing a lot of precision cutting of tiny plastic parts and better cutters cut cleaner so cleanup takes a lot less time. Thickly cut gates means you need to use your exacto knife to cut thicker bits of plastic which means more force which means drastically higher chances of cutting yourself. Safety and time savings for only like $30 more!

# ¿ Apr 4, 2024 10:57

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

50% off Dominion which itself is already a big value set is probably the best deal you can get for any AoS minis in terms of Dollar:Plastic ratio

# ¿ Apr 5, 2024 05:08

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Microsol is 5 bucks and turns decals into floppy things that will bend around a space marine shoulder perfectly

# ¿ Apr 10, 2024 23:17

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

grassy gnoll posted:

A decal setting solution of some type is not utterly necessary, but it's kind of like a decent sable brush versus whatever synthetic you can grab at the local big box store. It's a huge quality of life increase.

Though if you get Microsol/set over one of the JP solutions that come in a fat, heavy glass bottle, maybe tape them down or find a holder for them or something. I've never used an entire Micro-etc bottle because I've always knocked most of it over, repeatedly.

It's not but again... it's five bucks. Why make things more complicated when it's so cheap to get the easy solution?

# ¿ Apr 11, 2024 00:27

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

For the love of god goons please tidy up your workspaces

# ¿ Apr 12, 2024 01:48

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

My first bloodletter! He's not unique but he's mine

e: the lack of definition around the eyes bugs me, I'm not sure what kind of wash I can stick in there without killing the magma colour, maybe a dark brown?

Eej fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Apr 13, 2024

# ¿ Apr 13, 2024 00:16

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

People use acrylics and oil paints together to take advantage of each of their strengths. Starting with acrylics first lets you lay down some colours first to act as an underpainting for the oil paint layer. For example, spraying a gradient of green acrylic first and then applying small amounts of yellow oil paint then feathering it out to create a very smooth highlight gradient. Or covering an acrylic base layer with oil paints and then using a sponge/q tip to remove most of it to get a filtering effect and smoothen out the airbrush dotting pattern.

Pure oil paints is doable but the main reason people don't do it is they don't want to wait days for each layer to dry.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2024 00:48

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Washes are used in acrylic and watercolours. Contrast paints are easier to use oil glazes. Every technique is valid.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2024 21:50

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

They look very cool sprayed onto the canopy glass of a Votann or Eldar vehicle but I agree that as a base layer they really limit your ability to do more with it.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 23:58

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Also topknots (and dark hair)

# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 22:21

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

In the end the most important rule of 40k is "they're your dudes". If you want your White Scars successors to be all gingers named Bjorn Bjornson then that's all that matters.

But yeah cool lightning bolts, jagged slashes and stripes in white would help sell the White Scars connection.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 23:10

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Geometrical designs on a curved surface are rough. You can also make a custom decal and print it on transfer paper (or I think there might be websites that do this for you?)

# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:33

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

The black primer and the paint overspray makes it look like he's an orc mafia hitman

# ¿ Apr 30, 2024 04:38

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

DeSerres owns they've got all the fine art stuff you need with a bigger selection of stuff like acrylic paints and mediund and oil paints than Michaels.

# ¿ May 1, 2024 02:24

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Scale75 is known for having thicker paint so that's one thing. Turbodork is meant to be airbrushed so that's why it's so thin. You can brush it on but the effect won't be as pronounced.

# ¿ May 6, 2024 00:55

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

Mixing white has been recommended a few times before in this thread and ol Marco Frisoni even has a video on it from last year I think. I think it's mostly because hobby lines generally don't offer a plain zinc white bottle.

# ¿ May 8, 2024 07:23

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 01:52

Eej: Jun 17, 2007; HEAVYARMS

The evergreen answer to any "how do I stick to a base" question is pinning

# ¿ May 10, 2024 20:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Miniatures Painting and Michael Lonsdale Appreciation Thread