Project Update 05/07/2014: Drawing Closer

Hello once again, readers.  I'm here once again with an update on what I've gotten done today.  Progress continues on the competition piece, and I've managed to finish up the base that I've been working on.  I think everyone will agree that it looks a lot better finished than it did last night.

So, let's start off with the work in progress - this time with multiple angles so you can see some of the new tricks I've been trying to work in with it:

We'll start with a side view, where you can see some of the rust I've added to the halberd, as well as the glowing runes on the helmet:

The front, where you can see the chainmail and the first layer of the black backing:

And the back, which is almost entirely black (with a few exceptions):

 And, finally, the base that I've spent rather more time on that normal:

It is coming together quite well for these two projects, and I should definitely be finished by the end of the weekend - something I very much look forward to!

An that will do it from me tonight.  Tomorrow's a gaming night, so I'll spend some time talking a little about color selection, and how much of a difference that it can make.

Project Update 05/06/14 - Getting Washed

Greetings, my readers.  It's time, once more, to take a look at what I've accomplished today.

First off, the base that I've been working on - I'm making progress on it, only having to ink the trim and apply the static grass before it's ready to go:

And here you can see a little preview of what it will be a part of - a Skaven Warplightning Cannon.  It should be a rather impressive setup once everything's said and done:

And, finally, we have the latest on my next contest piece.  Armor, Skin, and Fur are finished, and I've started on the wooden haft of the halberd, but I still have a very long way to go before the figure's finished.  But I am very happy with where it's going, and am very much looking forward to seeing the finished product!

And finally, I promised that I'd talk with you a bit about washes today, and so I shall.  A wash is a very watery layer of paint or ink that you paint over a figure in order to provide quick and easy shading to the figure, adding definition and detail without much work.  It can be a crucial aid in painting a figure, particularly if you are trying to work quickly or working from a non-black base.  However, washes are not without their issues - the wash can pool in unusual ways, breaking the illusion of the figure, and they tend to darken the overall figure.

In my experience, Washes are best used as an intermediary step - to add or tinge your paint scheme in a certain way before adding in additional highlights and details on your own.  And in this role, they can be an absolute godsend.

Choosing the correct color is a huge part of this, of course.  Generally, you'll either want to go with a dark brown wash to dirty up the figure, a black or dark blue wash to simulate shadows (Dark Blue is a lot more realistic, but isn't as dramatic as a black wash can be), or a darker shade of your base color to make things blend together more readily.

As with everything else painting, you'll just need to experiment and find out what works best for you.

Until next time, readers - paint on!

Project Update - 05/04/2014: A New Hope

Good evening my readers.  Time once again to show off what I have accomplished today.  With no project on my immediate plate, I have gotten started on a number of them - and don't worry, Nethyrmaul is coming.  But first things first, I have a deadline to complete my next competition piece, so most of what I've done today has centered around that  - buy why waste time priming up just one figure, when an couple dozen don't take any longer:

After an early afternoon break for some Attack Wing - including getting an opponent into a rather awkward spot:

I returned and washed most of the figures that I had primed (no pics of them today - I'm not going to bombard you with pictures where you can hardly tell what you are looking at).  I did get some work done on the figure:

And have also started working on the base for another figure (slung low to the ground, so it would be difficult to do everything with it glued on):

I'm going to paint the flat areas with the Citadel Agareth Earth technical paint (which, when slopped on gives a very nice cracked earth effect) and scatter the grass around where the wheels on the figure that will sit upon it will not be.  This should give a nice variety of colors and textures to the base, and make the piece come even more alive.

Finally, as promised, I'm going to talk to you about painting techniques.  We'll start with the first one that I learned, and one that is a mainstay of my painting technique, even today (as you could see from my Mousling yesterday):  Drybrushing.

Drybrushing is a very handy technique to know and to start out with, as it, quite literally, lets the miniature paint itself.  You'll need three similar colors that become lighter (another staple of my painting techniques), a largish miniatures brush that you don't mind wearing out, and a paper towel to wipe off the excess paint.

The technique is rather straightforward - you'll start with a base coat using the darkest color, making certain to fill in the area you're working in.  Once you have that area filled in evenly, you'll dip your brush in the second paint color, the wipe the brush quickly on the paper towel 5 or 6 times, followed by lightly swiping the tip of the brush over the area you're drybrushing several dozen times.  The third layer will use a similar process, but you'll use about a dozen swipes across the paper towel to start, though you'll still brush along the painting area several dozen times.

The more times that you swipe the brush across the surface, the better the effect will look, and the more smoothly the colors will blend together.  This technique is particularly useful for Fur, Ground, Wrinkled Cloth, or other low-surface area and high-detail areas.  This technique is particularly bad for large, flat areas that don't have much detail to them (as they will still look large and flat, and horribly painted).

That will wrap up the update today.  I won't have much time to work on figures tomorrow, so I'll give you all a discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the different primer colors, when you'll want to use each, and the technique that I personally use for priming my figures (it's a tad bit complicated and much more expensive, but you've all seen the results it gets!).

Until then, paint on!