nab that needs some help and tips.

[RichardSimons]

YAY! my first post.

first off, i would just liek to say sorry if this is the wrong place to post such a topic.

anyways.... i\'d jus like to introduce myself and about my background info on my painting experience and so on. currently, i am into warhammer 40k darkangel space marines. practically been into them since i was 6 (my bro started and i sorta got sucked in) and now im 15. despite the largest amount of time i have been around minis, i never was able to learn any good techniques or any good info and so on in painting minis partially cuz my bro wasnt really good himself.


back to topic,firstly, for my dark angels, i use a black gw spray can, and i dont know if its just this can, or all black primers, but for some reason, the spray that comes out is really blotchy and unfine and most of all, thick. however, on the other hand, my white gw spray is really thin and fine and is great. so are all black primer gw spray cans like this?? (btw, when i use it on metal minis, i can peel it off like latex. LOL)

i know what a palette is. but whats a wet palette? X.x (yes i know. stupid question)
edit: wat paper is used for a wet palette

i have noticed lately that alot of really good mini painters thin down there paints and it makes it look alot better. recently i have tried it to sorta attempt some edging, but the trouble is getting the paint to the right consistency. any tips?? is there a special way to get the paint onto the palette? or just simply using the brush. X.x and also when applying water.
edit: also when mixing paints, how muhc paint do i grab usually?
ummmmm...... thats all i can think of off the top of my head. thers definately more that i have to ask.

thank you

edit additional questions. muahaha

what combination or wat (preferably gw. if not specify wat brand) should i use to edge black or dark angels green. for the black, im undicided on grey or the blue w/ bone white mixed in(thats wat the gw dude told me)

also, about gs, do u think water or vaseline is better. and about vaseline, do u jus wash it off afterwards or dos it evaporate over time or is absorbed?

 

[Rastl]

I\'m not a GW player or painter so I won\'t be able to address anything specific to those models.

I haven\'t heard good things about some GW black primers. You can use any kind of spray primer on your minis. I\'ve heard good things about automotive primers.

A wet palette is a layer of special paper over a sponge. It keeps the paint from drying out. I don\'t use one.

If you\'re using a ceramic palette there\'s a good way I learned to check your paint consistency. Thin it a little then drag it up the side of the palette. See how it looks because that\'s how it is going to look on your mini. Too thick? Add more water. Too thin? Add more paint. You should have decent coverage. Thinned paint will take more layers to cover.

Some people use an old brush to transfer paint and mix in the thinner. I\'ve heard of people using the other end of their brush to grab some.

Water is generally better for greenstuff than vaseline in my opinion. Vaseline will prevent layers from adhering. I know one very well-known sculptor who just rubs his fingers on his nose and uses the oil to lube his tools. He\'s kinda ethnic. :bouncy:

Welcome!

 

[RichardSimons]

ooooooo!! that such a good idea. my nose is semi oily. especially cuz im still in my teens, i get a bit extra. XD tee hee hee. jk.

and bout wet palettes, do u think that any paper would work? like stadard blank paper u shove into printers?? or will that just sog up and eventually crumble? lol. i should jus try it out right now. XD

edit. it works untill the paper itself dries i believe and the sponge probably will be able to transfer any moistness to it because of the thickness of the paper. hmmm. ill try tracing paper perhaps. XD if i can find some lying around.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Hey Richard welcome.
About wet pallettes, I understand that it\'s Baking paper (Parchement) that\'s used as the surface for paints.

As regarding thinning paints well the best means of thinning IMO is water. Some people recommend distilled, some use straight from the tap. But whatever you use the basic description that tends to get used it to thin to the consitancy of Skimmed milk. That should be a good compromise between coverage and drying time.

Your primer issue could be one of a few things, Not agitated enough, clogged spray nozzle, low ambient temperature/humidity or just a bad batch of primer.

 

[airhead]

Welcome to the forums. I\"m not sure what a \"nab\" is, but I am very familiar with Noob\'s. Hang around here and we\'ll cure that in a hurry.

1. What part of the world are you in. There are some very good painters on this site, but they (not we) are scattered around the world. One of the best ways I\'ve found of improving is to spend time painting with someone better than you.

2. Dragonsreach is too kind. Throw out that can of GW Black Gunk and get some better primer at significant less cost. Note: Flat black paint is not primer. Do a quick search and find several threads on primers here.

3. spend some time in the \"articles\" section here. Ask later and we\'ll send you to even more sites with even more articles.

4. Don\'t try to do it all at once. Learn to thin your paints and apply them in layers. Learn to shade & highlight. Learn metals need to be shaded and highlighted too.

5. patience and practice are the keys to advancement.

 

[the catman]

Iv found that blacks fine for me. maybe you should just shake it???

anyway-what would also help is pics. you can just use photobucket and stuff and its free.then everyone can help you.

for the palette I just use a tile. they use them in my local gw.

water IS better for gs.

for the highlights use about a 50:50 of paint/water.

for normal paint and to shade what I do is start with shade colour and just highlight up till your done

also I wouldnt try hard stuff at the moment like nmm. but just get yourself good at highlighting/shading/metalics/primers/basecoats/maybe even a bit of colour theory.

also try something new like some special charachter or something.
if you want some good easy articles then either stay on here or the articles on http://www.jrn-works.dk/ are nice and easy to do but make some really cool minis.
also try something very new like sculpting a figure or somthing. also use the wip sections on this forum.

the thing about the primars as well is that if you use white the colours will come out bright and pure.
but with black they are darker.
each have there own advantages and diasadvanteges.(sp?)
also do you go to gd???
if you do I would say maybe enter in golden deamon. you will spend lots of time on the one mini. if you do I would recomend a squad or regiment because they are \"weaker\" because there is more to paint well. or the veichle and large scale minis are an imbetween as they are big minis but only one of them.
if you do enter golden deamon then I would put on wips on this site, and do one aspect at a time-like the armour etc etc.

just my opinion.

the catman

 

[DaN]

Welcome - seems you\'ve had most of your questions answered

 

[RichardSimons]

yes yes yes! thank you eveyrone. but i haf a bit more. muahaahha!!!:twisted:

when applying a base coat, would it be suggested that i thin down the paint for it? like my dark angels green. its current condition is a bit thinner than chocolate pudding. mmmmmm havnt had any pudding in a while. X.x now i want some!! noooooo!!!

anywayz..... i live in BC, Canada. greater vancouver area. 2010 winter olympics!!!!! ayaaaaa!!! no i dunt go to GDs. i hear of them in places like atlanta, uk, france, (guessing there is one in toronto) but im not sure if theres one around where i live (vancouver, burnaby, richmond area (not the richmond on the east coast))

but is there an official GD website about locations and such? must go look for it.


oh oh! and for automotive primers, is there anything special bout them that makes them a bit different? fumes? in different cans?? sorry if that sounded a bit dumb.

and oh yea! nab means noob. what tha. *looks up nab*
dictionary.com
1. to arrest or capture.
2. to catch or seize, esp. suddenly.
3. to snatch or steal.

ummmmm... X.x



editto avoid double posting) the previous game forum i use to hang, people really hated double posting. so yea. edit button!

when highlighting black power armor, what paints woudl be suggested. citadel grey? or that blue(not sure which one)+bleach bone?

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by RichardSimons
when applying a base coat, would it be suggested that i thin down the paint for it? like my dark angels green. its current condition is a bit thinner than chocolate pudding.

Yes, thin it way down. It should be about like milk.

As one of my teachers said, if you can cover it in one coat, your paint is too thick.
I\'ve found it takes 3+ coats to get good even coverage on most colors.

 

[RichardSimons]

im either thinking of tamiya black primer(i think they haf it X.x) or black automotive primer. which one do u think would be better?

also, what is the difference regular gw paint and the citadel foundation paints?

 

[lizcam]

Welcome! I have something that might help you;

Tutorial Videos

That is a link to a new series of video painting tutorials by Tracy of TABStudios. She\'s pretty good but she uses a paint on white primer. Tha main reason I\'ve posted this is that in the videos she actually shows you, in video form, what properly thinned paint looks like. I think it will help a lot.

She\'s doing a mini from start to finish and was releasing a video every 2 weeks but some family issues have come up that have prevented her from keeping that schedual. But she\'s still working on them and will post as she can so check them from time to time.

Hope that helps. If you\'re like me, it\'s easier to see it than to read about it.

 

[Roger Bunting]

Welcome, Richard.

Ok, when it comes to highlighting black, there are lots of ways to do it. You can use the straightforward greys like codex grey and then fortress grey as a second highlight on the extreme edges, or you can give a blue tint using shadow grey and space wolves grey. The bleached bone thing can make the black look old and worn and mixed with the blu-greys will take some of the blue out. Take a look around you at various differnt black things, on different surfaces and look what colours you can see.

A few names of painters here on CMoN that you could look at for inspiration on painting blacks are Brokenblade, Alexi Z, Jakob Nielson (who has a tute on his website here).

 

[RichardSimons]

unfortunately for the past week or so, its been raining and i cant prime my guys and therefore shouldnt paint em.

but thank you for your input and advice and will be very useful

thank you.

 

[the catman]

you can!!! do it in the cellar (if you have one). thats what I do.
and HOW can it rain for more than a week non stop.ahh well.
so what guys are you painting now.

the catman

 

[meanmuttley]

Hello Richard! I used to use spray primers but where I like the weather, no matter what it is, caused the \"fuzzes\" on my mini\'s mainly on the plastic ones. Now I brush on chaos black. It takes about 3-4 thin coats to do it, but to me it seems like you get more of the detail than using sprays.

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by the catman
you can!!! do it in the cellar (if you have one). thats what I do.
and HOW can it rain for more than a week non stop.ahh well.

Catman, you are not very world traveled? Upper west coast of the US, it seems to rain continuously. Sub tropical FL, it can rain every day (usually at 3:00) and keep the humidity in excess of 90%.

 

[Roger Bunting]

Let\'s not forget July here in the UK. There wasn\'t much time in that month when it wasn\'t raining. Mind you, I think Catman was possibly inferring it raining 24/7.

 

[the catman]

yes roger that is what I mean.

and no im not very world traveld, never even been out of europe.
I know it CAn rain 24/7 for a week or more, but that is the monsoons in india.

the catman

 

[airhead]

Catman, I wasn\'t picking on you, just pointing out that there are places in the world that have vastly different temperatures. Ask Steelcult \'bout the weather in Iraq sometime. No problem with spray primer there (except the can exploding from the heat.)

 

[Baz]

Yep different weather can have severe results on the application or finish of sprays and primers.
Having worked to a lot of mini painting deadlines I\'ve managed to find some workarounds.

1. If it\'s raining put our models in a box on it\'s side with a bin liner over the top and bring them inside to dry. If any parts of the mini get wet leave it to dry out completely before spraying any more.

2. If painting in extremely cold conditions make sure that the spray is at room temperature before starting. If you keep spray cans in a garage or shed (or a GW staff room lol) they can get too cold to work right. Make sure that you don\'t keep either the mini\'s or the spray can outside for too long or you may get an orange peel effect on the mini itself. If you need to do a lot of minis, bus them inside to dry between batches and wrap a warm towel around the can.

3. If you have to paint in hot weather you may have the problem of the spray drying out too fast and leaving a textured effect on the mini. This can be stopped by placing the mini on a damp cool towel inside a damp box on it\'s side. Also wrap the can in a wet towel. You could also try cooling the minis in the fridge for a while first. This will allow the paint to spread and adhere to the mini properly before drying. Once a smooth coat has been achieved they can be removed from the box and left to dry. Don\'t leave them in too hot a place though as this can lead to the paint surface contracting too fast and cracking.

Another thing I would advise is changing the nozzle on the spray can for a finer spray like the ones you get on hair spray.