Painting Jam 28 - FAQ

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



Time again ... it's been a while.
Painting Jam time - check this link for more FAQs.
Let's get it on ...

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James asks via mail:

"Often I have difficulties removing mold lines which run across the grain of finely sculpted hair.  What methods and tools do you use to address this common problem?  Thanks for any feedback you can provide!"

My answer:

I hate mold lines too and even more those placed in totally wrong places, where you might think: "C'mon the sculptor and caster could have planned this better... gnnaaaa!!" ...

I typically use 4 tools for cleaning up my models. You can find some articles about it in the Jungle's article section for plastic models, resin models and white metal models. Ok, but I think you already know them. Let's have a look on that typical problem you described - these are the 4 tools I use the most when cleaning today:

The calliper is for very rough work. With the scalpel I am cleaning most of the mould lines, usually I jump right over to the ultrafine sanding paper by Tamyia to clean the areas. The white thing is a sandpaper pen I got from a store here in my hometown. It is very cool but it was not available in a very fine version but it helps to reach areas that make you mad. For your problem I would suggest mainly patience. I would use a sharp scalpel and maybe some magnifying glasses first to get most of it done. Afterwards I would try my luck with the sandpaper pen and its tip to get those evil ones. Afterwards I would use the sandpaper, folding it to have a very small surface to work with and then kill the rest. Honestly, it is mainly about patience.

Hope my answer helped you!

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Angel asked me via mail:

"HI JAR¡
i love your work¡ now i work on a mini.... but please can you help me with the base?
i need to know where i can buy the columns of this base:

http://www.abload.de/img/princeofautumnfin024j0k.jpg
and...how i can do the branches? are real what type of plant?"

My answer:

The branches are modelkit ones in scale 1:35. For example, they can look like this.
The columns can be found at PK-Pro.

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Nico asks me via mail:

"Hi!

I’ve been following your blog for a few years now and I still haven’t lost interest in anything you guys do.

Every time I don’t know how to paint or make something, I take a look in the tutorial section and by doing this I improved my skills in such a way that I made gold & bronze on this years Lowlands Painting Competition.

Thanks for that!

That said, I have a question for you guys.

I want to paint up a unit of Tomb Guard in ancient Greek style as Michael Perry did in White Dwarf (I included a picture of it) but I have no clue about where to start...

I hope one of you can help me out?

Any advice on how to do the greenish armour would be nice!

Greets and thanks in advance!

Nico"

My answer:

For this look on the armour I would start with some basic colour of rotting flesh with a small drop of yellow and grey in it. I would paint highlights with pure bleached bone. When this is done I would use several glazes of a hawk tourquise/ice blue mix to achieve the result you are looking for. During the work with the glazes you can try to resist to make it all clean. Don't take too much care to glaze a perfect blending range, just glaze it and your mistakes will turn out as the texture on the basic work.

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 Mike asks me via email:

"Hi,
I found this image online and fell in love with the paint job.  

Author unknown

I want to paint my pre-heresy marines likes this now but I have no idea how to properly do that awesome streaking/wood grain effect. I've made some attempts that have failed miserably and was hoping you could give me some advice.
Thanks,"

My answer:

First of all I feel uncomfortable linking up the photo you have found without paying credits to the owner of it. Please next time add the name of the painter and in the best case a link where you got that photo from.

To achieve this effect I would bring up a basecoat on the armour/tank of bestial brown. Then use a bigger drybrush (even an old one could work) and take some pure and dry rotting flesh. Pull the brush with the colour over a tissue to lose most of it and then brush the bright colour to the armour/tank, but take care to do it in one fixed direction everytime you do it to achieve the effect of the thin lines. The basic colour below should work fine with the bright colour and in the end it should look like this. Maybe you could apply some washes on the models to blend it all together.

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Jun asks me via mail:

"Hi Roman,

I desperately need painting advice.

I am currently painting a Dark Angel Apothecary for a friend and I am really struggling with dark green. I am using Reaper Master Series and the color I am using dries much lighter than how it appears in the bottle. Now, this is only part of the problem. I really like the smooth transition that wet blending produces or the layering of thin applications of paint or even feathering. I can't make any of these techniques to work mainly because everything looks the same when wet.

I thought I was already confident with my blending techniques to the point that I can usually correct harsh transitions. But when I apply that to the dark green it usually ends up looking worse.

Help!
Jun"

My answer:

First thing: try it with another green from another company. Some colours just suck. If this won't work I recommand to test what you will do on a piece of plastic. Use your experience you've made so far. If it looks all the same when dry put in more bright and dark colours to recieve more contrast. 

What helps for me is very often not using the pure tone from the bottle. I love to add a drop of grey to my basic tone to desaturate the basic colour itself. Then I use this tone to work in shadows and highlights. In the end if you think your result is not deep green enough use some glazes to intensify the areas.

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Skillofkill asked me via CMON:

"Hello Roman, (if I may) I have a question about one of your work ( http://www.coolminiornot.com/306141?browseid=4617761 ). Can u give me some advices working this style? I have project of daemons army made in noir/sin city way and I don't have a lot experience with this technique. Cheers and looking forward for your msg "

My answer:

As far as I have learned it is pretty though to paint only black and white. It is important that you plan your figures area first. Don't paint everything grey. Use different hues of grey. For example there can be a very dark grey with small highlights, there can be a very bright grey with strong highlights, etc. Try not to put a bright area beside a bright area or a dark area beside another dark area - for the eye it will all blend together to one. Make the difference by seperating your different hues of grey and structuring the figure for the eye. Then it will work. What helps for me is often to look at black and white photos to understand that - link!

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SwistakCZC asks me via CMON:

"How did you achieve to paint so fine metal texture on King Epicles? I'm impressed, looks so reallistic!"


My answer:


I used mainly this technique described in this article. It is important to study metal in real life or on photos to understand how the different areas work together. What happens on metals with light and shadow? When you see that you can paint it. To make it even more realistic I have added real tiny dots of pure metal to the dark areas to make them more interesting, you can see that very well on his belly armour.

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 Support if you enjoy the help!

So far, I hope my thoughts might help the one or the other
- keep on happy painting!

Roman