MGibster
Legend
That's the second angriest tree I've seen this week. Nice job.
Fighting the Gray Tide (Miniature Painting)
- Thread starter MGibster
- Start date
MGibster
Legend
Ok, it’s been a while since I’ve said anything about technique. This is a wolf (dire?) from WizKids. I painted this a few years back, but it was so bad I stripped it and just repainted it. I generally don't like WizKids miniatures, but this one is textured well enough that it makes for a good practice piece for fur. Both fur and hair are particularly vexing at times. Sometimes I paint a head of hair and it looks fine, but other times it just looks bad and I don't know why. I painted a bear so bad he looked like a patient in burn ward rather than a furry best. And I painted that bear just a few short years ago.
For this guy, I started with a white primer and laid down a base coat of Smoke (a very dark brown) from Vallejo paints. A reminder to you all, most acrylic paints are translucent, so I had to put down three thin coats of Smoke to get a good, solid base color. Normally I'd tell you it's important to have a good, solid base color, but in the case of a furry beast, it's actually okay to have some tonal variations because a lot of animals aren't perfectly uniform in color.
The next steps consists mainly of dry brushing and applying a diluted wash, more of a tint really. I tried dry brushing with Vallejo Wood Grain and Chocolate Brown first, but they were so close in color to Smoke that you could hardly tell the difference. I bumped it up to Flat Earth, a lighter brown, and that helped establish a nice contrast. I used to Army Painter Speed Paint, Sand Golem, a kind of brown, as a tint. Just make sure the Speed Paint doesn't pool up. Once it thoroughly dried, I used Dark Sand from Vallejo as a highlight. I applied more of this highlight in the lower areas because most animals are lighter on the underside than up top.
I finished off the details by painting the mouth a flesh color, applying diluted Speed Paints of Blood Red and Hive Dweller Purple in the mouth, letting that dry, then highlighting the teeth with some Dark Sand. The claws I painted with Dark Warm Grey from Pro Acryl, used Hive Dweller Purple as a wash, and then highlighted with the same grey once dry.
I'm going to have to sit down and some point and just take a few hours working on one furry miniature to get a more realistic effect. For now, I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. I'll have to find a miniature I care about, because I just don't like most of these WizKids miniatures for some reason. Maybe they remind me of someone who used to steal my lunch money?
For this guy, I started with a white primer and laid down a base coat of Smoke (a very dark brown) from Vallejo paints. A reminder to you all, most acrylic paints are translucent, so I had to put down three thin coats of Smoke to get a good, solid base color. Normally I'd tell you it's important to have a good, solid base color, but in the case of a furry beast, it's actually okay to have some tonal variations because a lot of animals aren't perfectly uniform in color.
The next steps consists mainly of dry brushing and applying a diluted wash, more of a tint really. I tried dry brushing with Vallejo Wood Grain and Chocolate Brown first, but they were so close in color to Smoke that you could hardly tell the difference. I bumped it up to Flat Earth, a lighter brown, and that helped establish a nice contrast. I used to Army Painter Speed Paint, Sand Golem, a kind of brown, as a tint. Just make sure the Speed Paint doesn't pool up. Once it thoroughly dried, I used Dark Sand from Vallejo as a highlight. I applied more of this highlight in the lower areas because most animals are lighter on the underside than up top.
I finished off the details by painting the mouth a flesh color, applying diluted Speed Paints of Blood Red and Hive Dweller Purple in the mouth, letting that dry, then highlighting the teeth with some Dark Sand. The claws I painted with Dark Warm Grey from Pro Acryl, used Hive Dweller Purple as a wash, and then highlighted with the same grey once dry.
I'm going to have to sit down and some point and just take a few hours working on one furry miniature to get a more realistic effect. For now, I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. I'll have to find a miniature I care about, because I just don't like most of these WizKids miniatures for some reason. Maybe they remind me of someone who used to steal my lunch money?
MGibster
Legend
I don’t think I’ve ever really reviewed a product, at least not with any formality.
While at a local hobby shop, I spied a set of Wood & Leather colors from Vallejo. I'm not very good at painting leather, I just keep falling flat, so for about $35 for a set of 8, or $4.40 for each color, I thought maybe I could get some practice. All the colors you see on the hat, save for the goggles, were painted using the colors from the Wood & Leather set.
Why buy a set of colors? Why not just buy the individual paints you need? That's a great question, hypothetical reader. When it comes to painting leather, I never would have thought to buy colors like Smoke, Dark Sand, Japanese Uniform WWII, or Orange Brown...okay, maybe Orange Brown. Getting a pallet of colors you wouldn't normally use is a great way to practice. So there's that. The paint set comes with a nice set of instructions on how to paint various woods and leathers (dark leather, light leather, and reddish leather).
Hat: Dark Leather
Hat Corset (?): Light Leather
Goggle Bad: Reddish Leather
I pretty much just followed the instructions provided. Here's the thing, this is about four hours of work. Just on the hat. Some of that involved waiting for paint, especially the wash to dry, and I didn't find it tedious in the bit. In fact, I'll try it again on some other miniatures and spend more time on the leather. The trick is to lay down your base color, stipple or use short strokes with your highlight making sure some of the base still shows, then you use a wash, then you highlight with a brighter color, apply a wash, apply a different wash and you're done. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. You might go back and forth between the various steps until you decide your done.
If I were to do anything different, I don't think I would have stippled any black on at all. It works in this case because the hat is supposed to look old and ratty. I'd also take greater care making smooth highlights if I wanted the hat to look new. Vallejo also makes a set for flesh colors, and I might end up purchasing that before tariffs kick in. These paints are made in Spain.
While at a local hobby shop, I spied a set of Wood & Leather colors from Vallejo. I'm not very good at painting leather, I just keep falling flat, so for about $35 for a set of 8, or $4.40 for each color, I thought maybe I could get some practice. All the colors you see on the hat, save for the goggles, were painted using the colors from the Wood & Leather set.
Why buy a set of colors? Why not just buy the individual paints you need? That's a great question, hypothetical reader. When it comes to painting leather, I never would have thought to buy colors like Smoke, Dark Sand, Japanese Uniform WWII, or Orange Brown...okay, maybe Orange Brown. Getting a pallet of colors you wouldn't normally use is a great way to practice. So there's that. The paint set comes with a nice set of instructions on how to paint various woods and leathers (dark leather, light leather, and reddish leather).
Hat: Dark Leather
Hat Corset (?): Light Leather
Goggle Bad: Reddish Leather
I pretty much just followed the instructions provided. Here's the thing, this is about four hours of work. Just on the hat. Some of that involved waiting for paint, especially the wash to dry, and I didn't find it tedious in the bit. In fact, I'll try it again on some other miniatures and spend more time on the leather. The trick is to lay down your base color, stipple or use short strokes with your highlight making sure some of the base still shows, then you use a wash, then you highlight with a brighter color, apply a wash, apply a different wash and you're done. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. You might go back and forth between the various steps until you decide your done.
If I were to do anything different, I don't think I would have stippled any black on at all. It works in this case because the hat is supposed to look old and ratty. I'd also take greater care making smooth highlights if I wanted the hat to look new. Vallejo also makes a set for flesh colors, and I might end up purchasing that before tariffs kick in. These paints are made in Spain.
MGibster
Legend
I'm a big fan of their metallics for airbrush. I don't think I've used any of their other metallics.
MGibster
Legend
A little more progress. Since these chibi figures have giant heads, I thought I could work on my skin game a bit. That last sentenced didn't sound so creepy in my head. With women, I have a hard time doing makeup. "Well women don't need makeup, you sexist jerk, you!" I know, I know. They don't need it, but a lot of women wear makeup, so it's a nice thing to be able to reflect that in my painting.
First off, the miniature looks much better when you're looking at it from two feet away compared to closeup like in this photo. I also expect the shine to be dulled quite a bit once I hit it with a matte varnish. I started with a base of Army Painter Tanned Flesh and moved on to a few layers of Citadel Cadian Flesh. For the makeup on the eyes, lips, and cheeks, I just used Cadian Flesh and added red or purple as needed. For the mouth I ended up using some Tamiya panel lining, black, to fill the flesh colored base coat. It's...okay. For eye liner, I used some purple Army Painter Speed Paint.
I'm probably going to paint her bustier in a reddish leather color. Not sure about the boots or her little coat yet. First I need to do the hair though. I might try something new.
First off, the miniature looks much better when you're looking at it from two feet away compared to closeup like in this photo. I also expect the shine to be dulled quite a bit once I hit it with a matte varnish. I started with a base of Army Painter Tanned Flesh and moved on to a few layers of Citadel Cadian Flesh. For the makeup on the eyes, lips, and cheeks, I just used Cadian Flesh and added red or purple as needed. For the mouth I ended up using some Tamiya panel lining, black, to fill the flesh colored base coat. It's...okay. For eye liner, I used some purple Army Painter Speed Paint.
I'm probably going to paint her bustier in a reddish leather color. Not sure about the boots or her little coat yet. First I need to do the hair though. I might try something new.
MGibster
Legend
It’s been a while since I’ve done any batch painting. This is half a box of skeletons from Games Workshop. Batch painting is kind of a two edged sword. On one hand it can get rather tedious painting so many miniatures to look like they belong to a cohesive unit. But on the other hand it can go fairly quickly because you're painting everything the same way with the same colors. Plus they look awesome as a cohesive group once they're all completed. It's like a force multiplier for making your painting look more awesome.
Since this is a unit of 20 in total, I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on each miniature, and undead are about perfect for batch painting. Let's talk about base coats.
For the bronze armor, I applied two washes of watered down Nihilakh Oxide from Games Workshop paints to give it some verdigris. You can go as heavy or light on the verdigris as you want, I chose something a little more subtle for this project. Once the second wash was dry, I applied a wash of watered down Pallid Bone Speed Paint from Army Painter. Once that dried, I went back in and applied another wash of Nihilakh Oxide.
Rust looks daunting but it's one of the easiest effects. You could just use something like the Dirty Down Rust Effect, but it's expensive and I don't want to us it for batch painting. So I found some other ways that are quick and easy.
For the shield, I thought I'd try a different way to apply some rust. I mixed some Fire Giant Orange and Hardened Leather Speed Paints from Army Painter, diluted it with some airbrush flow improver, and applied it directly to the shield very generously. Then I dipped my brush in water, applied it to the still wet paint, dried the brush, and took some of the excess water paint off the shield.
For the weapons I went with an old standby. Once the brown dried, I used a sponge to stipple Army Painter Gun Metal onto the weapon making sure I left some of the brown showing. I then switched over to Troll Slayer Orange from GW using a sponge to stipple it on the weapons making sure to leave some brown and gun metal showing. Once done, I applied a wash made up of all the washes I used previously. I'm pretty happy with how it looks.
One thing I've learned about miniatures is you paint the bulk of it in a short period of time and end up spending the most time on the details. I've still got cloth, bones, and straps to go and then the base to handle. That's going to take more time.
Since this is a unit of 20 in total, I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on each miniature, and undead are about perfect for batch painting. Let's talk about base coats.
- Plate armor is Weapon Bronze from Army Painter
- Scale/Chain armor is Gun Metal from Army Painter
- Shield was Gun Mental from Army Painter
- Weapon blades were Chocolate Brown from Vallejo
For the bronze armor, I applied two washes of watered down Nihilakh Oxide from Games Workshop paints to give it some verdigris. You can go as heavy or light on the verdigris as you want, I chose something a little more subtle for this project. Once the second wash was dry, I applied a wash of watered down Pallid Bone Speed Paint from Army Painter. Once that dried, I went back in and applied another wash of Nihilakh Oxide.
Rust looks daunting but it's one of the easiest effects. You could just use something like the Dirty Down Rust Effect, but it's expensive and I don't want to us it for batch painting. So I found some other ways that are quick and easy.
For the shield, I thought I'd try a different way to apply some rust. I mixed some Fire Giant Orange and Hardened Leather Speed Paints from Army Painter, diluted it with some airbrush flow improver, and applied it directly to the shield very generously. Then I dipped my brush in water, applied it to the still wet paint, dried the brush, and took some of the excess water paint off the shield.
For the weapons I went with an old standby. Once the brown dried, I used a sponge to stipple Army Painter Gun Metal onto the weapon making sure I left some of the brown showing. I then switched over to Troll Slayer Orange from GW using a sponge to stipple it on the weapons making sure to leave some brown and gun metal showing. Once done, I applied a wash made up of all the washes I used previously. I'm pretty happy with how it looks.
One thing I've learned about miniatures is you paint the bulk of it in a short period of time and end up spending the most time on the details. I've still got cloth, bones, and straps to go and then the base to handle. That's going to take more time.
