QWIP - Attempts with painting things

[Quantra]

I thought I'd start a WIP thread here at CMON as I've only recently returned to painting and could do with the advice and community. I started painting way back in '93 and have been somewhat on and off with the hobby so have around 10 years actual paint brush handling time... I've never been a good painter but I've always tried to slowly get better.

Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth is what brought me back this time. The thought of buying a big box of Warhammer and actually painting it all for the first time would not only be rewarding but would leave me with a nice hand painted board game.

So here's where I'm at with it...

These Ultramarines are coming along now but still need a number of details, transfers and bases to do. I wanted to make them a lighter blue like I remember from the 90's but I think this is even brighter than the 90's but I don't mind as I tried to pick the blue to complement the red used on the Word Bearers.

I painted these Word Bearers before the Ultramarines but they aren't quite finished. I'm going to use the transfers to put glyphs and writing on their armour after I've done the dreadnaught. I'm probably also going to re-drybrush the plasma weapons with VGC Livery Green now I've found it as right now they are chalky and dry looking not glowy. It's my first attempt at this sort of OSL plasma weapon. It's also my first go with transfers since the 90's sorry I haven't got any in photos yet... but I like them

Doesn't look like anyone's going to shoot a bullet yet so I'm currently building up the courage to drill all the guns out.

I have other things like Talisman models I'm painting and an airbrush I'm messing with as well as trying to get better photos so lots to improve and I'm sure lots of questions but I'll leave this post for now with a pretty big question...

It takes what feels like an age to get my models to this level due to the way I have 'always' painted. I now have an airbrush and realise how quickly I can base coat a mini. I would like to find a way to airbrush the remaining 10 Word Bearers and make them match the already painted ones above. Is it possible?

This is the method I used above for the red power armour...

Black primer
Mephiston Red over whole model (2 coats) [30min]
Nuln Oil whole model [5min]
Evil Sunz Scarlet (2 coats) [3 hours]
Wild Rider Red edge [1.5 hours]
Fire dragon bright edge [1 hour]
[TOTAL 6 hours 5 mins]

And what I'm dreaming of...

? Primer
Airbrush evil sunz scarlet [? mins/hours]
Nuln oil recesses only [? mins/hours]
Wild Rider Red edge [1.5 hours]
Fire dragon bright edge [1 hour]

If anyone with experience could give me their opinion of what this might come out like and/or fill in the ?'s that would help a lot.

Thanks for reading and looking at the pics I really appreciate any advice and guidance with my painting, modelling, photography and everything!

 

[KruleBear]

Welcome back to the hobby. You are definately a talented painter. These look nice.

 

[Dr. Bob]

Really impressive! I don't know why you would say that you've "never been a good painter" ...

 

[Maenas]

Hello and welcome Quantra!

Your background is pretty similar to mine and also to a lot of people around here. It seems that miniature painting hit one's heart hard and one day or the other a return is almost unavoidable!!

I can see smooth finish on the paint application, so that's a great step that you already own! You may also want to specify to which finish are you aiming to.... I am supposing a nice table top?

Anyway I cannot help you with the timings since I never wanted to pressure myself in that way (I have my job instead LOL), but I am sure someone will come up with an answer since there are a lot of peeps around that are used to do commission works and have more accurate timings...

These pictures are a bit influenced by your general lighting and appear to be a lot more blue than they should. (it benefits your blue squad, but it makes your red squad look a bit worse) Try to look for a white balance option on your camera to fix it. If you don't find you can tweak your images with an image editor, again look there for an option similar to "auto white balance". Yet another option you have is to switch the background to a neutral grey tone one and see if the camera takes better pics with it.
I tried to correct a couple of your pics for you to see what I mean

View attachment 45443

 

[Quantra]

Thank you Krule Bear and Dr. Bob. It's probably fair to say the person who tends to like my painting the least is me but if you like it then thank you, encouragement is always welcome =] I guess I never consider myself to be a good painter because nothing comes naturally and after hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice I still make a lot of mistakes at pretty much every stage xD

Maenas many thanks! Before Betrayal at Calth was released I had been thinking about painting again and once it was released it became such a nuisance not to paint that I had to pick up the brushes. I have to put some of my recent smoothness down to the new Citadel paints. I know not everyone likes them but I'm getting on with them well and any that aren't going on smooth (eg Ulthuan Grey) adding a little Lahmian medium sorts it out.

The timings thing I just can't help... I've painted one squad so automatically I work out a rough average time per model and gawk at it thinking I don't want to spend all that hobby time to basically do the same thing again... Also I have an airbrush and need to use it

I'm always going for a nice table top finish as sadly the golden demons are somewhat out of reach...

Thanks for the help with the photos. You've made those 2 look a lot better, like a blue cloud has been lifted. I think it's due to the white balance setting on the camera. I chose the tungsten setting as some photos were dark and some light and I thought it might be the auto white balance but it's something else. I can get a bright photo with 5 models in frame but a dark one with 1 model in frame. The background is white baking paper and the lights are day light bulbs.

I made some more progress with the Ultramarines and it's almost time to attempt the writing on the banner... Does anyone have a link to a tutorial to do 'double line' lettering? I'm not sure I can do it but I'd like to try =]

I also made a discovery on a test model I airbrushed and recess washed. I could rewet the nuln oil with lahmian medium and remove it with a cotton bud or stiff brush. Not quite like an oil wash I don't think but might be useful.

Anyway I'm probably rambling on again. It's great to be back in the hobby and part of this community. I am reading lots of WIP threads and more on these forums but apologies if I don't reply much, most of the time it would be 'OMG wow I wish I could do that' over and over but I'm trying to catch up so I can be more involved.

 

[Quantra]

Update time =D

I've finished the Ultramarines and whilst waiting for varnishes and micro sol to dry I painted the Talisman thief. They're both 'waiting' in the gallery so here they are...

I changed the white balance setting on my camera to one for fluorescent daylights so no more blue photos =]

I'm struggling a bit with pink cloth but this is a bit better than the Minstrel I submitted a few weeks ago (which I intend on redoing).

Next up in the Betrayal of Calth project is the dreadnought! I'm really looking forward to this and it's going to be my first model with the airbrush.

I think I've worked out how to get a close red to my painted up over black... I have to start with black primer and use something like mephiston red first or red primer. With the primer it's hard to see where I've painted the evil suns scarlet. I tried adding some black to red primer but i think i made it too dark and the evil sunz looks a bit brown. So maybe i will try another mix with the primer but I'm sure only a couple more tests before I go for it.

In any case I find the evil sunz airbrush paint a lot easier to use if i mix it with some vallejo thinner and gloss varnish 2:1:6 T:V

So far I've got all the parts cleaned and ready to paint. I'm also going to paint in sub assemblies, something I don't normally do.

If anyone has any advice for my first go airbrushing I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Maenas]

Much much much better pics

On the GW paints, there is nothing wrong with them, a lot of people use them even high level painters so you should stick to what works for you and eventually go and try other brands to compare its very different qualities by yourself.

On the airbrush I am not very far from you in experience so all I can say is that you better have everything you need at hand when working with it. and I was going to write you a summary of things that you would need but I think the guys at Coloured dust had explained it before much better than I could... check this for further help

 

[Quantra]

Hey Maenas! Thanks again =] that's a really useful article. I'm lucky that a friend of mine recently 'threw out' his old set of 40K which he never got into. So I have a number of models to sacrifice infront of the airbrush. The problem I'm having with matching the red to those already painted is that I built it up over black with a brush but try and follow some tutorials and spray the red straight over grey primer and the tone is quite different. So if I'm to match it I guess I got to start with black and build it up in a similar way.

Do you want to talk about paint!? =D I like citadel paint I still have some 2nd edition pots, including metallic purple, blue and green. Not very useful but quite cool These new citadel paints have great coverage and I love some of the colours like evil sunz scarlet. Some of the paints like to split even without thinning (Ulthuan Grey) which makes them awkward to use TBH my ulthuan grey will likely go in the bin and I will use VGC ghost grey (now I've found it). I also have a 'complete' set of VGC but every time I try and find a colour I remember; it's missing =[ I love these paints and they are more transparent than citadel so great for layering and I love the colours as they match the Citadel set when I started.

Airbrush paint is more new to me. The VGA I can go straight from the bottle into the airbrush and they work great. The citadel evil sunz scarlet however straight from the bottle was drying in the air or something and giving a dry terracota finish. Even spraying close and the finish is really matte, so hence I chucked some thinner and varnish in... The vallejo stuff was at hand so that's what I tried and made the finish much more pleasing and the paint easier to use IMO.

I'm still learning a lot about paint. I only recently learnt you can use medium to thin if the paint is splitting and that I can make flow aid in the kitchen... Home made washes levelled up =D I also used to think airbrush paint was just normal paint with airbrush thinner already added but I read it uses a finer pigment too, so want to try airbrush paint with a paint brush. Same with VGC and VMC, I always thought VGC was the same just different choice of colours. I'd love to try some VMC paints but it's such a big range and no idea where to start.


EDIT:

Just seen these are both live in the gallery now and I know early days with 10 votes but 7.5 on the marines is my best score ever =D
http://www.coolminiornot.com/393087

Thief is at 5.5 which is more like what I expect to get
http://www.coolminiornot.com/393085

 

[KruleBear]

I actually give the thief a 7. And I think the marines are top work. Fancy up the base and they would get a 10 from me.

 

[Maenas]

It seems that the difference between VMC and VGC is their finish. Beign VMC more matt and VGC more satin. Also VGC was intended for painting tabletop/fantasy miniatures and it's colours are more bright and "touch" resistant. VMC was initially designed by and for historic militar modellers and thus it's long range in uniform colours, which in time are supposed to be historical perfectly matching to the real that were used by the different armies. (I learnt this reading their catalogues, I am not in any way an expert nor haven't tried their full range LOL)

I also voted on the marines and the little pinky thief

 

[Quantra]

Thanks Krule Bear that's very kind! I think the bases do look a bit plain but my imagination is falling short as to what I can add to them as they are meant to be in underground tunnels. Maybe I should look at the game board for inspiration but if you (or anyone) has any suggestions that would be great!

I've recently discovered I'm a fan of the Satin finish as when I have completely matted models I then try and get a little shine back somehow. So perhaps I'll take it easy when I get to buying some VMC. From what I've heard (could be rumour only) the VGC set is a very very close match to the Citadel set circa 1993 right down to the names being ultra similar because GW had asked Vallejo to produce their paint but then pulled out so Vallejo had already developed this range of colours and put them on sale.

I've ordered some Badger primer for the dread after reading the recent discussion on primers... it almost sounds too good to be true!

Thanks for the votes!

 

[KruleBear]

I've ran into problems VGC getting thick and plugging the bottle and/or leaving chunks in the paint. May be an old batch that was at the hobby shop, but have not had the same issue with VMA or their air range. Btw, I love the few air paints I have and I have only used a brush with them.

For the bases maybe an occasional larger stone, some bullet casings, cracks, dropped weapun, skull, etc... (I am just trying to increase your work load lol )

 

[Quantra]

It's been a while since I've done any real painting as work is just mad right now but I had a go with the airbrush on my dreadnought. I think I dusted on the primer too delicately though so it's a bit fragile but varnish should help that.

I've tried to do a bit of a subtle fade on parts. Next up will be some gloss varnish and panel line washing. I'm looking forward to that now I have mig black night panel line wash, it's really easy to use and very satisfying to do.

I took some quick snaps...