Alex Castro....Painting Miniatures book

mickc22

mickc22

Granddad!
anyone read this

AlexCastro_book.jpg


there\'s loads in it, in particular a technique for priming/preparing using an enamel \'silver\' spray prior to priming with an Acrylic white primer
I\'m unsure what to use for the silver here in the UK, Alex uses Krylon \'Chrome Aluminum\'. I was thinking of Plasticote as it\'s enamel, but it aint cheap, about £8 a can. Not that I mind spending the money, if it works.
Any suggestions?
 
Orb

Orb

procrastinator
I\'ve never seen Alex\'s work in the flesh, but he caused a stink in the military modelling world by telling everyone they were doing it wrong and he was revolutionizing the field. Just check Planet Figure for some interesting discussions about him (he has his own vbench there).
He also has a very very high opinion of himself, as does his cousin.

I saw this book in Boston at the world expo, and frankly, IMHO, it\'s pants. Some may like it, but the book was poor; some bad images, pixelated and the flesh tones painfully orange. And the smaller the scale, the poorer the results.

I will accept that it can look ok on very large garage kits, but 120mm and less - it\'s poor.

This is a book you\'re more likely to find in a bargain shop.

Needless to say, there\'s been no revolution.

That\'s just my opinion of course. You\'re better off spending your £££s on something else.
 
K

Klute

New member
Orb said it.
Ive got the book and while theres some good tips in it they take some finding.
It seemed to me its aimed more at large scale airbrushing.
 
Avelorn

Avelorn

Sven Jonsson
I\'m not very impressed by the pictures actually. Some smooth blending but kind of uninspiring and the work on the faces and skintone are pretty average for the size.
 
Orb

Orb

procrastinator
Alex freely admits that it\'s a more minimalist style to, say, the 54mm style of painting. And to the mini communities eyes, it\'s even more so, use being so beloved of high contrast because we paint such small figures. And I quite agree with Klute, there is some interesting pieces and ideas in there, just not much.

Then again, if you find a copy in one of those bargain book shops, you may want to buy it. Just not for me.

The other thing, is that you will rarely find this book on established and respected modelling retailers sites. Which may something.
 
mickc22

mickc22

Granddad!
not a god

too late Rob, got it already...
oh no don\'t get me wrong I don\'t think the guy is a painting god, a legend in his own mind maybe ;) just read the book, and I definately don\'t agree with everything in this book.

It just seemed to me this preparing with silver first imparted an extra smoothness to the mini that plain undercoating doesn\'t do

to tell the truth I can\'t even remember where i got it from
 
R

Ritual

New member
I think I\'d much rather use some fine sandpaper and watered down putty if necessary to achieve smoothness than to apply two primers. I don\'t think it\'s even recommendable unless you\'re working on large scale stuff.
 
Avelorn

Avelorn

Sven Jonsson
yeah.. try it out and post the results! :) Sandpapering and milliput is the only way I can do it.. but it\'s quite timeconsuming, and I generally want to get into business as soon as possible. But as people have mentioned, perhaps this technique is less suitable for 28-54mm ranges.
 
mickc22

mickc22

Granddad!
sounds like a plan then guys...
doing some work for my brother, so when he pays me I think I\'ll get a can of plasticote and give it a try

I\'ll post results so you can see how it goes
 
QuietiManes

QuietiManes

New member
It just seemed to me this preparing with silver first imparted an extra smoothness to the mini that plain undercoating doesn\'t do
Click to expand...

Do alot of mini\'s have rough surfaces? I havent noticed many, mostly on older metal models. Then again, I\'m not taking high res close up detailed pics of my figures either. Wouldnt any glossy paint/primer be smooth? Varnish, glossy craft primer, etc. Might be cheaper.
 
Orb

Orb

procrastinator
Originally posted by Einion
What Orb said!

Einion
Click to expand...

was gonna say Einion will back me up on this.................but thought I wouldn\'t be sp presumptuous!
 
Einion

Einion

New member
Originally posted by Orb
was gonna say Einion will back me up on this.................but thought I wouldn\'t be sp presumptuous!
Click to expand...
Oh we are so on the same page about this :D

Einion
 
mickc22

mickc22

Granddad!
shit!!

...well the first attemp was anyway
the silver(chrome enamel) went lovely, super smooth, I left it a few hours to dry completely, then aplied the White primer (acrylic) as intructed, initially looked great, went off to let it dry, came back a while later and the primer had crackled, no pics as camera battery was flat

I might give it another go as there was primer already on the mini before the silver, just in case that had some effect, I\'ve now completely stripped the mini back to metal, re-sculpted his nose, after knocking it off and losing it
 
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