Painting Jam 07 - Mixed FAQ

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Here we go again...


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Matt asks via Email:

"First off thanks for taking the time to read my message. I just want to say that you and the rest of those 'apes' are quite awe inspiring! I check Massive Voodoo at least twice a day! I can't believe what an amazing source of info and inspiration you all put out.

In a nut shell I have been heavily converting a Warhammer Fantasy army, Araby themed. I have been having quite a hard time figuring out color schemes. Attached is a picture of an ogre 'palace/ vizier' guard-unit filler. Basically more elite troops in better armor wielding 2handed scimitars.   Layered up he's got the poofy pants, longer coat, then chain mail, scale mail, and he has a shield gut plate.   Now cloth wise I thought of black with a red sash. The metals on the other hand I am not quite sure...

The second pic is a carpet rider duel wielding scimitars swooping in for the attack (does the base look familiar?). Hes got the typical parachute pants with pointy shoes, a vest, a plate helmet with turban wrap and face mask.   While there will be more of these guys I am really not sure what color scheme I should give them.

I have looked all over the internet looking up indo-persian and plenty of middle eastern references and nothing really resonated. Any advice you or any of the others might have would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a bunch!
Matt"

Pictures:

My answer:

First of all i really do like your army theme. There is a lot of heart needed to achieve such nice results in a complete army. Love the carpenter guy due the dynamic and also the ogre looks well doen even his right arm doesn't feel like there is clothing on it. It looks a bit strange as there is no work with wrinkles in the sculpt of the cloth. Whatever i may say about sculpting, i am not really good at it so don't listen. Great concept and an army full of such characters will be awesome.

I am not sure if i can help you a lot with finding your colour scheme. I would go at this quest with two ideas in mind which are depending on the skin colour - if you want to do dark/black/brown skin the clothes should be bright. If you want to do a casual bright skintone the clothes could be very dark. I would choose one main colour that runs through the whole army. Basic units get less of it, important Elite troops get it big to make them look more important. I would think this is the colour of the King and only those worthy can have it much. Others could be done more casual, as people who are drafted to have to fight.It seems to me that these guys are going to have some darker skin... mmh, not an easy brainstorm... I somehow had to think about Tuareqs in the first thought and liked the blue a lot on this photo. The white works good too and maybe some important garnishment could be orange. If you take the blue for example they willl look great in contrast to sandish bases, when you choose red they might look cool too, but the effect of making them pop out is lost as warm to warm colours won't get it. I would only switch to other warm colours in the skin and maybe some details. I personally would focus on such blues, neutral white and some warm tones at tiny spots and the skin. For sure you can switch the colours of a belt or some cloth that is not that important like on the photo white and black on the heads. Don't forget to do the shadow light thing on the main blues very intensive as this might look really awesome having them standing on a desert base. A dark tourquise might look cool too - or maybe a tourquise with ice blue...

For the skin colour i would mix a tone like here on the photo - just saw the colourwork in the face myself - really nice! Some elite troops could get really dark blue clothes to show their elite status. Darker Colours, richer and more intense have been far more expensive in the past. I would mix in a gentle drop of some sandy colour into the metalls so they don't get the focus and do still harmonize with the complete colour  sheme.

Sure you could go with a casual historical more correct attemp at your army, like here, but i guess this will not look like the army you want in the end. Hope this helps you somehow. My mind says to me that i would concentrate on this photo (colours, colours, colours) to get my colour scheme out of it. My taste, maybe not yours and for sure no need to do that only because Kong said this - just for your inspiration. Bases in a sandish tone, darker skin, elite troops more elite by showing more gold for example...

Hope my brainstorm helped you a bit further :) - keep up this wonderful army theme!

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'oschi da Moscha asked via PM:

"How did you do those fine arrows on Son of Ogmios?"

My answer:

I did use an acupuncture needle for the shafts, painted them black and brown and glued some fine cigarette roll paper to its end and painted it with a dirty glaze of some brown whatever. Carefully using super glue with a toothpick for it. You can get acupuncture needle very cheap on ebay, just search for it. Hope that helps - i will soon have to do some more - will do an article about it to make this clearer.

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David asks via mail:

"So, I really like the zenithal priming technique you recommend: priming black first, then white from above. But one problem I've been having with it is that somehow because I'm trying for a light coat with the white, so that the black still shows through, I have a big problem with the primer dusting up. I was wondering if you have any tips to avoid the problem of dusty primer. Also, if I do get the dusty primer problem, is there anything I can do to fix it, or should I just strip and start over?

Thanks,
David

P.S. I'd love it if you'd post an "open thread" on the blog every so often for people to share their latest minis--it would be fun to see what other visitors to the jungle are painting, and I wouldn't mind the chance to share my own works."

My answer:

Shake it baby! Shake it like a salt shaker! Shake it! When you think you've shaken it enough, shake it even more ... i mean your priming can, not what you were up to. Shaking the can is really important. If it still gets dusty it seems you are a bit too far away, as the priming dries in the air and makes those dusty coat. Try to find the right distance (about 20~25 cm away). It sometimes also happens to me too when i am not concentrated or didn't shake it enough - i simply paint over it. Colour layers make the dust go away - in my eyes there is not really often the need to strip miniatures, for sure not in the start when i am corious about a priming accident. Layers of colour will flatten this and if it is really bad, yepp, you got a strip it, when you think you can't paint on it. But first try to paint on it, to get to some experience on which grade you still can paint on it - that doesn't happen by only looking at it. Guess it is about your distance while priming the white.

An open thread would be a good idea but i have no idea how to bring this to life due the blogger html thing. I can only provide posting rights in here and if i would grant "open posting" rights to everyone the jungle would get too busy i guess. It seems a forum would be best, but i am honest, there are so many out there and this would mean more work to those (the apes) who start the forum - i guess this is not really an option... or maybe anyone can tell me more about html as i don't really have a clue of it...

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So far to this weeks Painting Jam - if you got some questions about your stuff too and want me to answer them in the upcoming Jam, don't hesitate to write to jarhead---at---massivevoodoo---dot---com, please write Painting Jam Question in the title...

Keep on happy painting!
Regards
Roman

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