A new guy with some questions

[Khorga]

Hi there! since this is my first post on this Forum i\'ll shortly introduce myself:

My name is Chris, am 22 years old and i live in Bavaria, Germany. I recently started the miniature painting and collecting hobby because my psychologist told me to do so I started collecting a World Eaters army for WH40k, since this is the main game played at our local gaming store and i was truly inspired someone else\'s World Eaters.

On the painting and collecting side i admittedly have zero expierience...

When i assembled and painted my first models i looked for a quick and easy method to paint my minis for gaming. i used the dipping method - which produces ok looking minis IMO, but fastly grew tired of it. So now i\'m on my way to improve my painting skills, and thought i\'d join this forum, since i can see that there are MANY expierienced painters around here.

(GEEZ.... a long introduction... i guess i should get to the point now)

So now that i\'ve read all kinds of online tutorials and bought painting guides, i do have a few questions:

1. the wet palette: I have not tried this yet, but will soon. until now i always thinned my paint on a tile, using dropper bottles for paint and water to be exact measuring, and when i look at the palette, i ask: how can you control the consistency of the paint that you put on there? and mixing the paints, if you try to paint a whole army, it seems a bit difficult to me to get the same mixtures of paints for shading/highlighting?

2. tweaking colours. Is this a method of shading? the guide i bought uses a brown colour combined with green, and i find the result pretty good. what colour would work with red?

Thank you for taking your time to read it this far, and your help will be greatly appreciated!

cheers,

Chris

 

[freakinacage]

first of all, welcome dude. post wips etc and you shall improve! also maybe post a pic to show us the level of your painting atm

as for your questions, i dont really use a wet palette so i cant give you much advice. for the colours and keeping them the same throughout the army, just remember the rough ratios. it shouldn\'t be too hard to get them similar

not really sure about tweaking either so i shall leave that one to someone more experienced!

welcome to the fold - you\'ll never leave!

 

[nels0nmac]

Hi there. Welcome to the fold. Sorry to say I can\'t really help on the wet palette either. For me it is experience that lets me know whether the paint needs more thinning or not. So not much use to you

Tweaking colours, sorry don\'t know about that either....keep reading though I do have some useful info.

The unified army look. Essentially for each colour you paint; black, red etc, you pick two colours that come straight from a pot/tube of paint. One will be your base colour and the other will be your final highlight colour. Even if the shading inbetween those two varies from model to model the overall effect should be pretty close to give that unified look.

An example would be say you\'re painting something black. Start with a base of Chaos black and then highlight by adding white to it, building up the layers and then finish with Codex grey. Alternatively just use Chaos black and highlight by adding Codex grey until the final highlight is pure Codex grey.

By sticking to the same 2 base/highlight colours you can consistently paint to give the same look.. even if you come to paint something new months down the line...as long as you can remember which 2 colours you used

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[silverdragonn]

I\'ve been using a wet pallette for a little while, and I think it\'s great.

Essentially, the wet pallette just keeps moisture going through the paint so that it doesn\'t dry. Very very little extra water gets added to the paint mix. I had that concern too, but when you assemble a cheap one (parchment paper over a wet paper towel is mine), you\'ll see that the consistency of the paint changes very very little.

I find it is an extremely helpful tool if you want to sit down for a long period of time and paint your items, especially if you\'re using a layering technique.

 

[Monkfish44]

welcome! my psych. suggested a hobby too! lol can\'t give any advice but hello

 

[Bignastyshark]

Welcome to the forums dude,

i have used a wet palette in the past and thought it ok but i to prefer the use of a tile and thinning down on that,

with regards to advice you have come to the right place,

As was previously mentioned try to get some wips posted and some finished miniature so that the \'pros\' can offer advise,

Cheers

Iain.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Khorga
1. the wet palette: I have not tried this yet, but will soon. until now i always thinned my paint on a tile, using dropper bottles for paint and water to be exact measuring, and when i look at the palette, i ask: how can you control the consistency of the paint that you put on there?

if you mix the paint on a tile and transfer onto the wet palette during a single painting session the paint should stay pretty much the consistency it was when you first mixed it (during storage, even overnight, small puddles of paint can tend to get more fluid unfortunately).

Originally posted by Khorga
...and mixing the paints, if you try to paint a whole army, it seems a bit difficult to me to get the same mixtures of paints for shading/highlighting?

Write down the proportions of a mix if you have to. It\'s best not to rely on memory as even if you have a good memory for the paints used for a mixed colour over a short time if you had to come back weeks or months later you\'re sure to have forgotten.

But many people use out-of-the bottle colours (lots to choose from with hobby paints) to simplify the process of repeatedly painting the same colour scheme.

Originally posted by Khorga
2. tweaking colours. Is this a method of shading? the guide i bought uses a brown colour combined with green, and i find the result pretty good. what colour would work with red?

Tweaking generally just means a minor adjustment, not a particular kind of adjustment. So you add a little more yellow to a scarlet to make it more orangey, more blue to lavender to make it more violet, that sort of thing.

Any colour can be added to any colour in this way.

For red the obvious thoughts are yellow or orange, magenta or violet to push in either direction (clockwise or anticlockwise on a colour wheel). You might also want to mix in brown to make it duller, black to make it darker, white to make it lighter and/or pinker.

Einion

 

[Khorga]

Thanks for the Help! I feel like at home already . I\'ll have to wait with pictures until friday, because my girlfriend has the camera. nothing seriously painted yet either, just simply dipped. but hopefully tomorrow i can get started with paint practice and provide pictures for c&c on friday.

about mixing the paints i just read Matt Sterbenz\' article about speed painting when it comes to mixing colours, so that basically took my worry out of mixing the same paint time and time again. i should just premix a whole pot of paint!

cheers,

Chris

 

[Khorga]

i just snagged my friends cam and took some pictures:

Berzerker no. 1:

Berzerker no. 2:

They both were primed white. The red armour was painted with 3 coats of GW Blood Red, thinned with water 1:1. The golden parts are GW Burnished Gold thinned 2:1 and applied in 2-3 layers. Piping and ribbing was painted using GW Mithril Silver, same as the Gold parts. After the painting i dipped the whole figure in Fanatic Army Painter Quickshade \"Softtone\". They look glossy at the moment, due to me not finding a proper matte dullcoat around here. i tried the GW one, the first try turned out blotchy, and my second try turned white after 3 weeks :cussing: .... so i\'ll leave my hands off that can.

so this is basically where i\'m at. I appreciate any C&C!

cheers,

Chris

P.S.: I know i need to learn more about photography, i\'m working at it :yes:

 

[freakinacage]

a damned good start there. you seem pretty neat which is a big start (i am very messy)

you are watering your paints and they layers appear quite smooth, although it is hard to tell with the blurry photos! (get a tripod!)

only thing i can suggest is up your contrast. add more shading and highligting, maybe a littel darklining. open up a wip thread when you start your next mini, i\'m sure plenty of people will help

 

[arogers907]

It\'s a nice start. You obviously have good brush control. I think you could head a couple different directions with your painting.

Sounds like you\'re mostly into gaming and will be painting for armies. I would suggest your try out using some color washes and/or inks for your rank\'n\'file troopers. With that for shading and a judicious highlight or two, you are going to have a sharp looking army.

For character models, you may want to try layering to build shadows and highlights. Sounds like you\'ve read the tuts and know the drill... just thin, thin thin and then layer, layer, layer. You can get much more subtle control over your contrast that way. Which will give your leet guys a little more oomph when people check them out up close.

Just a thought...

-Andy

 

[Einion]

Neat, tidy, clean; great start

Einion