New member painting progress

[DChan]

Hi All,

I'm a new member who has been lurking for a while, hoping to share my progress and get some tips. I've had some experience with similar hobbies before (Gundam models, customizing action figures) but not too much practice with brush painting with minis. I started painting these cheap Marvel figures, with not too much of an idea on what sorts of brushes or paints to use.

Next I tried doing reflective surfaces for the first time... with what I'd consider mixed results. I used a set of paints from Scale 75 that had a grainy texture I really didn't like. Maybe I was using it wrong, but it felt pretty hard to control properly.

My more recent one was the Mistweaver Saih from GW. I've found I like Vallejo paints and a couple brushes that work decently, but I think I can do a better job with the larger flat areas (like on the skirt highlights).

Feel free to give comments or suggestions, and thanks for looking!

(ps. I tried starting a similar thread a few days ago but it said I would need approval first? I hadn't seen anything yet so I thought I'd try again. Sorry if I've misunderstood the rules or procedures here)

 

[ekipage]

Welcome to the forums and nice work. Colosus looks a little too much on the pinkish side (unless that is what you were going for) but otherwise nice work so far. As for the Scale75 paints, yeah they can be a bit harder to work with, but one tip is to shake the living heck out of them and then shake some more. They do take a little more elbow grease to get properly mixed compared to other paints.

 

[gorb]

Welcome! Nice work on those Marvel figures. And the Mistweaver Saih looks great! Especially with her hair, I think you've got highlights in all the right places there.

 

[Graishak]

Welcome to this place
You‘re doing a very clean painting, so starting already in advanced level.
What you might wanna try out is to give a used-look to clothes, equipments
and weapons. And for sure you need to take care of the basing.

 

[Dexter0015]

Welcome to the hobby!


Nice start so far, I personnaly really like the helmet on the Mistweaver Saih.


As @ekipage already told you, scale75 is not really the most easy to start with paint brand, Vallejo are way easier to works with (imo).
Scale75 have to be diluted quite a bit, and I like to add some retarder to it. It feel more easy that way to me


Looking forward to see more.

 

[DChan]

Thank you all for the warm welcome!
@ekipage I was trying to have a different color scheme but you're right, he just looks pinkish. I think I'd need to handle the skin areas differently for it to work as I was hoping.

@Graishak good suggestions for sure. Basing is definitely an area I don't have a lot of confidence in. I guess I'll start trying out basic dirt/rocks with small plants bases and see where that takes me.

@Dexter0015 Thank you! I will try the Scale75 stuff again with your suggestions, but man it just seems easier to use a different brand entirely.

Here's a new thing I've been working on, some Dark Elf Predators from Gamezone. As a newbie one of the coolest things to see is NMM effects, so I wanted to give it a try with these. This first one I'm considering done, or at least almost done except for the base. I'm not a big fan of gore, so I cut off three of the severed heads and replaced it with a random mass of hair, since I didn't want to totally shave it down to the dinosaur area and have to do a ton of reconstruction.
Kind of pleased with the results so far, but I'm finding it a lot easier to choose believable areas for the highlights on the arm armor than the head and neck area. I think that's because the arms are mostly spheres or cylinders so it's more obvious to me where highlights and shadows can go.

 

[ekipage]

Dino's are looking really nice. I really like that armor plating you have on them!

 

[Dexter0015]

I like them, nice NMM for a first attempt (I will have to try it at some point too).

As for the paint, don't rush, its a hobby, just enjoy some brands you're more confortable with then try them again later one.

 

[gorb]

That armor looks great! You've got nice contrast between the dark and lit areas!

 

[DChan]

Thanks for the feedback all. I'd finished the first dino, its rider, and a simple base even, but now have gotten a little stuck and could use some suggestions. I read that to really protect a paint job, it's not a bad idea to use a gloss varnish followed by a matte one. So I did that, but my matte coat has not been taking the shine off. I've tried hand-brushing Dullcote, another Testors water-based matte coat, and finally Citadel's Stormshield, all of which haven't really done much to remove the gloss. Was the gloss a bad idea? Or does anyone have any thoughts why I'm having this trouble? I'm pretty sure I'm following directions properly, using multiple thinned down layers of the matte varnishes so nothing gets too goopy. Thanks in advance!
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[ekipage]

What did you use for the gloss varnish (brand or name)? Are you playing games with these figures? If not, then I would say you don't really need the gloss coat and can just do a couple matte coats.

 

[DChan]

It was Testors Gloss Clear (Model Masters Acrylic). I'm going to do a couple tests to see if anything works better.

 

[Graishak]

Even if you’re playing with them, if you have safe transportation
boxes and you handle them with care, they should survive without
gloss.

Most opportunity for damage is the transport.
I bought the box of GW for smaller units, built some custom boxes
for terrain and big Monsters to avoid damage.

 

[ekipage]

I would say do one coat of either dullcote (or your Model Masters...same brand actually) and several coats of matte varnish over top of that. Right now I actually would recommend AK Interactive's Ultramatte varnish (it is the one I currently like best) or maybe some army painter matte varnish (or what ever is easiest for you to get your hands on). I asked about the gaming with the figures because handling them excessively could lead to damage as the matte varnish is not as thick as the gloss, but yeah, Graishak is correct in that transport, or possibly small children are where you run into the most trouble. My figures aren't for playing any games, so I just hit them with two or three layers of matte varnish.

 

[DChan]

@Graishak- thanks for the suggestions, good to know! I will keep that in mind if I need to transport. I don't expect they'll be near small children much either.
@ekipage, thanks for the recommendations too-- that's what I ended up using, as the person at my local game store suggested the AK Interactive too. Here's what I found:

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So I tried the Citadel Stormshield again on Hulk's upper body... it seems to do the opposite of what I'm expecting? Maybe I'm missing something important, but I'm under the impression it is supposed to be matte. Cyclops on the other hand I used the AK spray can varnish which worked great. So I tried it on my dino rider and was pretty happy with the results! Also been messing around with trying to take nicer photos too.

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[ekipage]

Glad it worked out for you. The dino's do look better with the matte varnish working properly on them

 

[Graishak]

You achieved a very nice look of the red armor, looking great.
The dino skin looks partly a bit too white to me. Maybe you can add some darker ink to provide more contrast and
finalize it with some edge highlighting (I know this is easy said... I'm struggling with edge highlighting all the time ^^)

 

[Lobolito]

I’m also relatively new, been painting since Christmas of 2018 when I got an Army Painter massive paint set, and I’ve posted a couple of pictures. I’d love to get some insight and comments, and I’ll hopefully be posting more pictures soon.

 

[bullfrog]

The predators are looking top notch. All that texture sculpted into them would be a treat to paint. The red armour plating is my favourite part. They do look better with a matte finish. I’ve never had trouble with applying a matte varnish over a gloss one before but I have had issues with matte paint going shiny overnight with one particular brand of plastic miniatures. It’s almost like something is leaching through the paint....even with a tough as nails primer.

 

[BloodASmedium]

Excellent work mate- I’ll be killing a close eye on this.