Demihuman's DemiWIP

[Gandalf the Grey]

Great AB tips, the thing I struggle with is paint mixture and getting it consistent. Do you have a foolproof way ?
As I understand shouldn't you work at 16-20 pressure ? I can get much paint flow when I do this and it clogs quickly, I'm thinking its a paint thickness issue ?

 

[Zab]

Hell I've worked as low as 12 PSI with thinned inks to do some nice glazes on Big Harley. Everything is relative. There is no magic setting that works across the board. Sometimes I have to add flow aid sometimes a drop of windex some times both, mostly just water, sometimes nothing at all.

 

[Demihuman]

My Dronbots are up here: http://www.coolminiornot.com/385944

I think I finally got my camera focus issue worked out, now just need some new backgrounds...

Great AB tips, the thing I struggle with is paint mixture and getting it consistent. Do you have a foolproof way ?
As I understand shouldn't you work at 16-20 pressure ? I can get much paint flow when I do this and it clogs quickly, I'm thinking its a paint thickness issue ?

Gandalf, it's so hard to tell what's going on without being there.

I thin Vallejo paint about 1 to 1 with water and at 20 psi it should be good for base coating. For finer work I would thin more and lower the pressure. It's also important to note that I have a DOUBLE ACTION airbrush. So I can control how much air is coming out with the trigger. I think most people have double action AB's these days, but just want to be clear.

You might have a partial clog. With just water can you get a nice even even stream to come out? If the stream of just water fluctuates as you spray full blast it means there is some gunk in the works. So you need to do a deep cleaning.

 

[Gandalf the Grey]

Thanks, no chance to test for a few days but will give it a go.
A question though
Do you thin paint in the reservoir or on a palette ? I was told in the AB reservoir.

 

[Demihuman]

I put the Dronbots up on e-bay here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121760023802?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

What do you guys think of the price? My formula is 4 hours x 2 minis at $20 an hour plus cost of minis and shipping. I see well painted singles in the $60-80 range, these are on 40mm bases...

Do you thin paint in the reservoir or on a palette ? I was told in the AB reservoir.

Best practices is to do it on a pallet or in a cup, NOT in the reservoir. The logic is that the crude that doesn't mix will sink to the bottom of your paint and stay on the pallet. This is especially true if you transfer your paint with a brush or eye dropper. That being said, I know lots of people (me) that mix in the reservoir. One thing I do is make sure I put the water in before I put the paint in. That way if it doesn't mix well enough i get too much water instead of too much thick paint.

 

[Zab]

Yep i mix in the reservoir too after adding water/thinner mix. Demi, I have seen worse paint jobs for way more on ebay That said, the customs and shipping they list on top of the price you have listed would put me off because it brings it up to almost 200USD which for me is 265CAD with the exchange That's a lot of coin for 2 minis, beautiful though they may be. I still hope you get it though as you are getting a lot of views!

 

[Demihuman]

Yep i mix in the reservoir too after adding water/thinner mix. Demi, I have seen worse paint jobs for way more on ebay That said, the customs and shipping they list on top of the price you have listed would put me off because it brings it up to almost 200USD which for me is 265CAD with the exchange That's a lot of coin for 2 minis, beautiful though they may be. I still hope you get it though as you are getting a lot of views!

Thanks Zab! I hadn't considered the Canadian market I figure I am in no hurry to sell and i just need one buyer. If they are still up in a month I will lower it by like 10%

 

[MAXXxxx]

What do you guys think of the price? My formula is 4 hours x 2 minis at $20 an hour plus cost of minis and shipping. I see well painted singles in the $60-80 range, these are on 40mm bases...

theoretically could work (altough I find the $/hour a bit high, going from the prices of painting studios (the RK on p23 in my WIP were painted for about $20/figure and they look pretty good irl)), but it's not how ebay goes. The people there want everything at 50% store price or less. No matter how good it is painted.
To be honest on ebay a painted mini mostly goes for less than an unpainted loose one.

 

[Zab]

I think it depends on the range and quantity. Last year i sold all my 40k armies and they were painted nicely TT+ They were in carrying cases and i sold them for retail + 50% and they went so fast I didn't even have time for sellers remorse Now I did wait until each army had a new codex announced which is dirty since it's applying pressure to the market based on how much peoples fear is ramped up over the price of new unpainted minis in the range but hey, it worked.

 

[Demihuman]

Headed to the Banshee workshop... WHAT!

 

[Bailey03]

I'm jealous. Enjoy the class! Looking forward to seeing what you do with the bust.

 

[ArchArad]

Come back to us with pretty pictures and info. Have fun!

 

[Demihuman]

Okay Banshee Class Review:

Wow! What a mind blowing experience. You know how you had that one professor in college that always had you leaving their class felling like "I will never see the world the same way again"? Well that's how the Banshee workshop was, except it was a class on mini painting.

Here's my bust at the end of class:

View attachment 42319

The first thing we covered was color theory. I have done basic color wheel exercises before but never taught by anyone that was so passionate about color and tone. The passion is a big deal because you are talking about your senses and using different colors to convey feelings. Is this mini sad, is it angry or cold? Colors can help you convey any feeling in your painting. I have always had color explained to me in a very mechanical way: Red plus yellow makes orange, blue and yellow: green, but Banshee explained that you need to approach color as an artist, not just as a technician, the same way a chef would approach flavors, or an actor a script.

Alfonso, went on to explain a LOT about tertiary colors. A tertiary color is one that contains a small amount of all 3 primary colors. Tertiary colors are essentially infinite in variation and that is an important clue. By using tertiary colors you can vary shades and tones a lot more than if you just lighter and darker shades of your base color. This allows you to build up contrast (the C-word) without being so reliant on shadows and highlights. [This is the same thing as when we add a complimentary color to a base color to make a color for shading, that is a tertiary color. You can do the same for highlights and everything else too!]

Next he showed us how to "sketch" with colors with a technique he refereed to as "Patching". Alfonso would lay down a color and then adjust the color on his pallet, lighter, darker, more red, more blue whatever, then he would apply the second color. Next he would find the color between the two colors and apply it. At first it seemed like magic, but then as I watched him work his pallet it made a lot of sense. If the new color looked too dark or light he would adjust the color on his pallet and apply a new patch between the two. He kept doing this until he achieved pretty smooth blends.The genius of the technique is that he could sketch out blends in multiple colors with opaque paints and not worry about messing up. The whole technique is about fixing your boo-boos. He did go on to use lots of other techniques to achieve blends like wet blending, glazing, and something that he called scrubbing where he would move wet paint back and forth over between to zones to get some transparency at both edges of the new zone.

The 'patching' technique is really working for me. I have never been super good at glazing, but that is my go-to for finishing blends. it's been pretty fun to get nice blends with darn thick paint. I can't recomend the workshop enough. Even if you don't use any of his ideas it was invigorating to be around someone who is SO excited about mini painting.

 

[Zab]

Nice work on the bust so far Some of his techniques sound very similar to Fernando's, especially the scrubbing and thicker paints for patching and sketches. Very exciting and glad to hear you are more inspired than before!

 

[Bailey03]

Thanks for the recap on the class. Sounds really neat!

Nice looking bust, too. I like the colors, you've got a good dramatic look. And the eyes are really great.

 

[Digganob]

Sounds like a great class demi. Thanks for sharing with us. I really took to what you said about colors and feelings and look forward to applying it. Now only if there was a class down here in the swamp.

 

[Rothskin]

Great looking work Demi!

 

[oistene]

That really sounds like fun. I gotta stop buying minis and save up so that I can travel and hit some cons and do classes.

 

[aniku]

Hi,

I have also been in a course with Banshee and had exactly the same feeling at the end!!!

Many thanks,
Mariano.

 

[ArchArad]

Thanks for the report back Demi. It sounds like an amazing experience that you've taken valuable lessons away from. Bust is looking good!