My first mini ever!

[Witzkatz]

Thanks for the quick answer and the commendation!

I may have more questions concerning these Kasrkin later...my friend wants them in a dark red and black colour scheme and from what I read on the forums and articles, those two colours are not that easy to paint well and highlight well...

*starts removing mould lines with a file*

Witzkatz

 

[Mourner]

on painting them black:

I\'m curerently doing an IG army in black and light brown and found a very fast way of doing a really acceptable black:

1) paint the mini in codex grey
2) prepare a wash of Badab Black and watered down chaos black (my thinning was approx. 3:1 water to paint)
3) apply the wash (i used one strong application)

should take you about 5 mins a model, for a black model with smooth (dark) highlights

the same technique should work for red, although you might need to start out really light (maybe even orange), haven\'t tried red... but i\'m gonna soon.

haven\'t got pics atm, they\'re on my camera, which is with my GF..... and she\'s not here will post a pic asap (if you dont mind ofcourse)

 

[Torn blue sky]

Witz;
First up, i\'m gonna say straight up, i\'m pretty impressed!
For a first mini you pretty much nailed a bunch of stuff. It looks like you\'ve done your homework!
The highlights are in all the right places, your sense of highlighting is more or less spot on. Your blending is also far more advanced than I would expect of a begginer! One thing is, I would say, don\'t worry about starting off with a basecoat light enough to highlight on You\'ll find a lot of guys and gals on here can start off with something pitch black and build on that, which gives some really dynamic lighting effects. It just depends what you want to capture!
You seem to have grasped the importance of water too. Water water water for blending, brilliant start there. People beggining often just see paint to slop on and the job\'s a good\'un. I know I did lol You\'re also aware of the mould line/ gaps deal, which is encouragable since you obviously see this as a serious art!
Another thing that grabbed me on your first peice was how neat it was. A good clean piece which points out to me you brush control is already pretty spot on, something which some of us had to work at; And people will tell you that!

One last thing. Don\'t worry about the freehand, none of us were born naturals. Even the best of them started at the bottom of the pile! Right where you\'re starting now, the only way we learned was practice, practice practice! As a starting attempt goes I really wouldn\'t feel too dissapointed.
A little secret too; even the top artists use transfers as part of a freehand design you can paint over it, just use it as a template/marker.

All that\'s left to say is well done, and keep going!

 

[Witzkatz]

Thanks for the answers!

@Mourner:
Your way of painting black seems like a very good idea to me! I bought some Adeptus Battlegrey today (my friend wants his Kasrkin *real* black, so I though I\'d go with a darker grey to start with) and will follow your three-step plan tomorrow Already applied the grey today...do you think I could try and wash the mini with pure Badab Black or is the additional Chaos Black necessary to make things look good?

And, of course, I\'d be happy to see some pics, show\'em!

@Torn Blue Sky:
Thanks for the nice words! You\'re really boosting my confidence there. On some days nothing seems to work with my painting and seems quite bad to be compared to what I see on CMON...so I can need that

For the practice part, I just bought four little Eldar guardians today on which I plan to practice different colour schemes...I like the Eldar for their colourful appearances, so I can practice on them a bit

Thanks for reading and keeping me painting,
Witzkatz

 

[Mourner]

I\'ve had 2 reasons to add Chaos Black to my mix:

1) I\'ve had some instances where a single, undiluted coat of wash turned out blotchy, adding some CB cleared that up.

2) i wanted a \"real\" black finish on my model, not dark grey, but with instant highlights. simple Badab is\'nt dark enough (i tried, it needs more coats, and more coats ruins the highlights)

a darker grey to start with will mean you might not have to add the CB, but it will probably also mean you won\'t get any (noticable) highlights...

if i were you, i\'d try both basecoats...

 

[Mourner]

okay then, here\'s a couple of pics.
first of all, these are quite a lot lighter than the actual mini\'s, as i had to use a flash to get a good picture.

so, first up is a pic of my commander,
the torso is Codex Grey with two layers of Badab Black, the coat and legs are one layer of Badab and Chaos Black. (the chainsword and the rim on the base are straight CB)

these next two are of my heavy flamer veteran, even though the pictures are really light (the flamer and the rim on the base are painted straight CB), they do show the highlights.

Hope these pictuers show the merit of adding some CB to your BB-wash.
Remember, painting these mini\'s (5 in total) will take me about 30 minutes, with pretty much no effort at all, including the metal (boltgun with a BB-wash), the skin (Dwarf Flesh and Devlan Mud), the off-white (p3\'s rucksack tan i think, no highlight) and pretty much all of the details (just not any freehand stuff)

 

[Torn blue sky]

No worries Witz
Like I said , we all started somewhere! Don\'t focus too much on thinking you need to beat the top artists right away lol

They were just as bad as anyone else, thinking exactly the same thing once

 

[Witzkatz]

Hey guys,
thanks for the posts and thanks for the pictures, Mourner! I like these guys and followed your way on painting blacks on the Kasrkin you see in these pictures...





I\'m basically quite happy with the black fatigues for a first try. However, I have some problems with the red. The armour is just painted in layers of Red Gore, which is a bitch to paint. I mean, even without a drop of water this stuff is so diluted that it\'s like a wash. Has anyone the same problems? ??? I plan to highlight the armour edges with Blood Red or lightened Red Gore and then shade the whole armour with Devlan Mud maybe, to make it look a bit more used.

Another problem is the visor on the helmet. My friend wanted it in a light red...I voted for blue, for some contrast, but hey, they\'re his minis, so...(feeling like working on commission here ^^)
What you see there is just a crappy basecoat of Blood Red because I have no real plan at the moment how to make this visor look good...how to highlight or shade and where to put some reflection points...any ideas?

And, to come to an end, here are some pictures of my second Space Marine, the honorable Brother Tychon He\'s painted like the first guy, while trying to improve a bit. The gold parts are washed with Asurmen Blue, which, interestingly, makes it look weathered in a quite nice way. The eyes are painted in the usual scheme, armour is somehow not that highlighted like I\'d like it to be, but I\'ll try some new techniques (and steal Joek\'s way of painting them from his veterans thread) on the next one.



Post scriptum: I GOT to find ways to take better pictures. Maybe I really need a new camera, should look around in the stores in the coming week...

 

[Mosch]

First of all, let me start by saying screw you. How dare you start the hobby and already be better than me? Didn\'t you read the memo? *grumble*

Yeah, well, good start. Really good start Now let me nitpick a little....
1. Try to get the highlights lighter. If you keep pushing the differences between light and dark the mini will look more dynamic. A common tip is to think of theater makeup. The mini is so small that it needs to be exaggerated.

2. If there\'s one thing that improved the look of my miniatures hundredfold it is blacklining. Most people will tell you to darkline, but I prefer straight black - you should try both and decide what you like best. How do you blackline? It\'s quite simple: There are certain parts on the miniature that are somewhat disconnected from the rest. Maybe they are armour plates bolted onto the underlying suit, maybe it\'s a hand gripping a bolter - either way there\'s a part that needs contours. Just paint them in - use either black or, for a somewhat more natural feel, a dark colour, to paint a very thin black/dark outline around the part. Doing so will make the miniature look cleaner since there is now a visible \"border\".
Here\'s an example from my gallery: http://www.coolminiornot.com/107211
Take a look between the Vampire\'s fingers, the boot or, well, any part actually. I think you\'ll get the idea fast enough.

3. Use a backdrop for your photos - either a sheet of white paper or some kind of fading background. Blue to white seems to be the general consensus. Here\'s an example: http://www.coolminiornot.com/116883
You should also try to diffuse the light, either through some paper or by building a lightbox.

About your questions...

Yes, red is often a bit of a problem. The only solution I have found is using more layers. Just keep at it until you have a deep red the way you want it.

As for the visor... for a good distinction from the rest of the armour just highlight it normally. Then, when varnishing time comes, just matte varnish everything, but gloss varnish the visor. It won\'t look good in pictures, but it looks quite nice in real life.
As for where the highlights go: If you want to go with a look like on the Space Marine\'s eyes, look at the article called painting gemstones. Decide where the light comes from and highlight accordingly, then add a white reflection to the dark part. This takes a little practice, but you are showing great promise so you\'ll do alright

Lastly, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask me in German. Man wird dir nämlich einiges an Zeug empfehlen, was du in Deutschland nicht bekommst, und da reicht es ja, wenn ich auf der Suche nach guten Alternativen Geld ausgegeben habe

 

[Mourner]

on painting red:
one way to paint red is to use mechrite red (foundation) as a basecoat, the foundation paints contain more pigment and give better coverage. then paint the shade of red you want oven the base coat.

another way i\'d recommend, especialle since you use my way to paint black as well, paint the entire mini grey (i plan to prime my mini\'s with a grey spraycan), wash the black areas, clean up the areas you want red, then paint them red. the grey basecoat will make yuor red much more vibrant.

plus, priming your mini grey avoids having to paint the black areas grey.


On the visors:
i personaly prefer dark green visors (as in nightvision). if i were you, i\'d paint a couple of variants, green, blue, black, red and show the to your \"client\", and let him pick his favourite.

whichever colour you pick, the easiest way to paint a nice visor is to paint it just a shade darker and highlight it just a shade darker (leaving out the mid tone), make sure it\'s a really sharp highlight on the lower edge. then paint a couple of diagonal lines in the highlight colour across the visor.

 

[Witzkatz]

Thanks for your posts!
But now some pictures first:






As you can see, I tried to get a little bit more highlighting on this soldier by using Blood Red on the edges. (Helmet needs to be highlighted, left that one out until now) At least in reality I\'m quite pleased with the basic result, although my lines are a bit off at some parts. Guess a real steady hand needs more training
I read about the blacklining technique, however, I\'m not exactly sure how to apply it. It seems quite hard for me to reach the gaps where blacklining would work to separate different parts of the miniature...I\'m not sure I can paint straight enough to pull it off nicely

I also painted the lenses on the helmet and the Hellgun in Dark Angels Green and used some Skull White for reflection points on the gun lense. The sun shining in my room was a good help for that, I could really pinpoint the spots where the white dots were appropiate

As for painting the visor: Green seems like a good idea to me now! Maybe I can convince my \"client\" to get away from this bright red. Would be hard to highlight, anyway - is there even a brighter red than Blood Red?

To come to an end, I\'d be happy to hear some critique about how and where I highlighted the armour...and how I could improve

Germany-related question @ Moscha: Dann hab ich direkt ma ne Frage an dich Haben wir in D etwas wie dieses varnish-Zeugs, mit dem man die Figuren schützen kann? Hab bisher zugegebenermaßen auch noch nicht wirklich hart gesucht, aber bis jetzt nichts gefunden...

Thanks for reading,
Witzkatz

 

[frenchkid]

Hello,

welcome to the wonderful world of mini painting

Looks like you\'re off to a great start !! Better than when I started
Small piece of advice though, try using a uniform background when taking pics of your minis (white works fine). Just stick a piece of paper behind it, it\'ll make the pics much better and \'readable\'.

Cheers.

 

[Witzkatz]

Thanks for the welcome

Aye, I definitely will put some time in trying to build a lightbox or something similar for photographing the next days. I hope that will improve my pictures a little bit! :yes:

(Sidenote: I think the last of the pictures looks like the stuff for an imperial propaganda placart With the advancing pose, the harsh lighting... :beer: Just joking )

 

[Mourner]

first of all, your reds look great now. those highlights help a lot.

you could try and get them straighter by \"dragging\" the side of your brush along the corner of an armor plate, this makes it easier to get really sharp edge-highlights.

the only paint brighter then BR is orange, (blazing i think), which works fine in moderation.

blacklining works best with abrubt colorchanges where the surfaces are on the same \"plane\", yet one is a bit \"below\" the other. in effect, where you can actually paint the line. if you can\'t reach it, just leave it darker than the rest (don\'t push yourself trying to reach it)
(a bit like the top of this wall)

as for photographing, i use a white piece of cloth, draped over anything high enough

about buying varnish in germany (wann ich deine frage gut verstehen hatte) most modelling shops should have a varnish, as well as most DIY stores, i use my local DIY\'s home brand, works fine.

 

[Mosch]

Orginal gepostet von Witzkatz
Germany-related question @ Moscha: Dann hab ich direkt ma ne Frage an dich Haben wir in D etwas wie dieses varnish-Zeugs, mit dem man die Figuren schützen kann? Hab bisher zugegebenermaßen auch noch nicht wirklich hart gesucht, aber bis jetzt nichts gefunden..

Mosch only, please, no \"a\" necessary
Let\'s take the German conversation to PMs. I feel it is somewhat rude towards the other forum goers I will send you some varnish tips right now.

 

[Witzkatz]

@Mourner: I\'m trying the drag-the-side-of-the-brush-technique already, I guess I just haven\'t got the experience to do it well with every line...some parts on the Kasrkin are quite hard to reach with the right angle for a nice line

@Mosch: Sorry for the \"a\", I guess I was thinking of Sluggaboyz at that moment However, I didn\'t get a PM? But you sent it?


Ah, and here are some new photos!





As you can see, I tried and painted the visor green and did some highlights on the helmet. I followed the \"painting gemstons\" article for the basic idea...main visor is Dark Angels Green, the first highlight a 50/50 of DA green and Camo Green and the last line is pure Camo Green.
From this close you can see that I haven\'t mastered the brush yet Although the surface of this metal minis is quite rugged in someplaces, that makes it sometimes hard to paint straight I think...
Any comments? I personally like the effect, much more than I did like the red visor!
(The little white reflection point in the upper visor is hardly visible, maybe it should be bigga?)

Thanks for reading,
Witzkatz

Postscriptum: Ah, what I wanted to ask: Can I use my normal plastic glue to glue the backpack onto this guy or do I need something special?

 

[majestic0110]

Looking great ! I Really like colour scheme. With regards to the backpack, if its metal you need to glue to plastic, I don\'t think plastic glue will work, you will need superglue. I use loctite superglue myself and its great! Don\'t use too much though, as it will leave a white residue whhen its dry if you do. Oh, and, it will glue fingers together lol be careful lol hope this helps !

 

[Joek]

I love this thread - it\'s very rare you can clearly chart someone\'s progress through such a short amount of time. You\'re coming on in leaps and bounds :bouncy: !

Good stuff!

 

[Mosch]

Orginal gepostet von Witzkatz
@Mosch: Sorry for the \"a\", I guess I was thinking of Sluggaboyz at that moment However, I didn\'t get a PM? But you sent it?

I suppose so, and it was quite long, too. Are you sure you did not get it? You can view your messages here: http://www.coolminiornot.com/messages.php

And yes, you can and should use plastic glue for the plastic models.

 

[Mourner]

Originally posted by Mosch
And yes, you can and should use plastic glue for the plastic models.

actualy, these kasrkin are metal models.....

plastic glue works by melting the two plastic surfaces together, as such, it will not work if any of the surfaces is non-plastic. you\'ll have to use superglue.....