Chalky Paint - what did I do wrong ?

[RobF]

Hi Guys

I\'m all a bit new to this and this is my first dumb question - sorry

I am half way through painting my 2nd figure and a highlight called for a mix of vomit brown and dwarf flesh (citadels) - I thinned it about 50/50 with distilled water but the paint seems quite \'chalky\'

All the other colours I have used have been fine - I \'think\' the problem is the dwarf flesh. Is this a common problem with this colour of do I have a duff one - or , did I just do something wrong ?

TIA

 

[Legacy Account]

Quite often happens with lighter colours. Glaze/acrylic medium and a touch less water can help.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by RobF
I am half way through painting my 2nd figure and a highlight called for a mix of vomit brown and dwarf flesh (citadels) - I thinned it about 50/50 with distilled water but the paint seems quite \'chalky\'

Photos please.

Einion

 

[RobF]

Photos of how I am getting on in general or photos of the problem ?

 

[RobF]

I did the best I could blending the problem away some I am not sure how well this shows the problem ...

 

[Sauce Devil]

I often get the same problem so I\'ll be watching this thread for replies.

When I shrink that photo down it looks like a pretty good paint-job except for the chalkiness you mentioned.

 

[squig hunter]

Hmm, to me it doesen\'t look like chalkiness, but that you have too much thinned paint on your brush Try getting rid of excess paint on a paper towel or something

Squig

 

[Sauce Devil]

Brush overloaded with thinned paint? Is thicker paint better? My minis sometimes (TBH more like usually) come out looking muddy even though I apply the paint in thin layers.

 

[squig hunter]

Nah, thinned paint is good, but too much of it on the brush at once usually causes pooling which can cause the paint to appear chalky

Squig

 

[Sauce Devil]

Thinned paint is still a bit of a mystery to me, sometimes when I\'m applying a shade or a highlight I can\'t see the difference between the shade/highlight I\'m putting on and the base color unless I take the miniature outside and scrutinize it under broad daylight.

I\'ve got a Confrontation Wolfen mini in front of me (too tired to post a pic right now) that I bought painted from a games shop for £15 (damn good buy) that technically is painted to a lower standard than I paint to (the weapon was painted in chainmail with no inking or washes and the blood on the weapon was a crude Blood Red - both easily fixed) yet it looks so much brighter and cleaner than my usual stuff!

What the hell did the guy do to make the colors look so solid? It\'s maddening!!!
:cussing:

I just know I\'m still doing something wrong and I just can\'t figure out what it is. I use clean water, thin my paints, clean my brushes.. one of these days I\'ll crack it if I don\'t crack first that is.

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by Sauce Devil
Thinned paint is still a bit of a mystery to me, sometimes when I\'m applying a shade or a highlight I can\'t see the difference between the shade/highlight I\'m putting on and the base color unless I take the miniature outside and scrutinize it under broad daylight.

Put on more layers! Plenty more layers! Just make sure the previous one is fully dry first, or you may break it up when applying the next one and cause graininess, or even chalkiness.

 

[Sauce Devil]

You\'re probably right, I wait for about 5-10 minutes for a layer to dry and I thought that was long enough but now I\'m not sure. How long do you wait between layers, Ritual?

Here\'s a photo of that Wolfen I bought - *disclaimer: I can\'t take a good photo to save my life and it was late at night..

It looks a bit pale in the photo but I think it is painted in Shadow Grey. why do I get the feeling the guy only had to give it about two coats and it was done? My minis seem to take forever to finish.

 

[Necroghast]

Ive found that if you mix in some of the citadel washes it really helps with that.

 

[Sauce Devil]

Thanks Necro.

BTW, sorry Rob, I seem to have hijacked your thread!

 

[Ritual]

10 minutes should be enough, at least if you only use water to thin with.

The wolfen doesn\'t seem to be that well blended, but it\'s got pretty good contrast between light and dark. That\'s probably what makes it look crisper and more striking than your own minis. But, if you want good contrast AND good blending you\'ll need to put in a lot more work and it will take time to do. You\'ll get faster the more you paint, but high level results will always take a fair amount of time.

 

[Sauce Devil]

I typically give a mini 4 layers of highlights and 5 layers of shading, I don\'t blend the shading very much but I take my time blending the highlights (I\'ll put up a couple of photos when I finally get around to properly finishing a mini.. so many to do).

I\'m glad I bought that Wolfen, it\'s got very little blending (more drybrushing than anything) but it proves to me that I should be able to get better results with much less effort. The Wolfen has maybe 2 layers of shading and 2 layers of highlights but it\'s respectable quality.

I\'d probably have spent twice as long and taken 3 times as much messing around to get the same standard.

I\'m going to try Necro\'s technique tomorrow (reminds me, I need to buy a pot of Devlan Mud wash).

 

[airhead]

It looks like you need to thin your paints a bit more. The layers should be tranlucent so that you do not see the definate boundries between layers.

But this could be because it is so blown up as to make it obvious.

 

[3dken]

Chalkiness

Well, one way to fix this is to use Ogryn flesh wash or similar on the areas of the brown hide. This will help tone down the bright (chalky) highlights and give it a more richer color, then you can go back and add another highlight if you want (just a subtle one). Do the same for the black leather areas. Use either the Badab Black or if you like the bluish tint, use the Asurman Blue wash. Thin it down a little if you just want the colors to be a slight tint.

 

[Aliengod3]

Chalkiness happens with some colors more than others. Not all light colors go chalky when highlighted. I find that I have the most trouble with chalkiness when using light bluish colors and yellow browns. Like Ritual said just apply a couple more layers. You do not have to wait 5 minutes for a previous layer to dry, more like 30 seconds and you can even blow on the wet paint to speed up the drying.

I must say that I am not seeing the chalkiness in the photo. In fact it looks really good. But again if you say it is getting chalky then your best bet is to give a couple more layers so that more pigment will stop the highlights from like chalky and more solid.

 

[gohkm]

I think the lad is referring to the brighty brown bits on the cloak edges. If that\'s the case, perhaps a little blending would help, as opposed to seeing it purely as a \'chalky\' highlight. I\'d suggest blending the highlight a bit more, followed by, perhaps, a wash of the original base colour.