Things you just can\'t get right

[Otter]

Just a little poll to get community views on those aspects of painting that REFUSE to come together no matter how hard you try, no matter how often you try, and no matter how many pennies you throw in the wishing well.

For myself, it\'s gems. I\'ve memorized the tutorials and they look like disgusting blobs of paint no matter what I try. My figures are going to be wearing gold or silver coins if something doesn\'t change soon.

- Otter
\"Never send a ferret to do a weasel\'s work\"

 

[Flashman14]

Doing white may be one of the easist of those mentioned:

In most colors you have a very deep shadow compared to the lightest highlight with several gradations in between when blended properly.

When doing white however, your deepest shade color should be near white itself with only a transition or two at most until you get to pure white highlights.

Use a super light gray. GW doesn\'t make one so mix white in with whatever gray or blue you decide.
In Vallejo I wouldn\'t go any darker than Sky Gray and sometimes I even mix white into that for my deepest shade color on white items.

The same is true, in reverse, for doing black effectively: your lightest highlight shouldn\'t be too far from black itself.

For Blue-Black I like Vallejo Luftwaffe Blue mixed in with black about 50:50 at the lightest.

For Gray-Black I use Vallejo Black Gray mixed with black and never brighter than Vallejo Black Gray by itself.

It\'s actually easier to paint up black and white very quickly as there are not all those middle shades to mix up.

 

[Chrispy]

This seems to be akin to my bad juju mini thread...

Anyways, I had problems with black (always looked like dark grey) but now I use less of a highlight and try not to use white.

Bones are also weird for me, but I find adding a bit of olive green helps for some reason...

Also, I have these fiannas (older ones) that do not like to be painted! I always come out with a really crappy job on them and I\'ve had to strip them 5-6 times.... What, like I\'m the only one that stripped a fianna?

 

[Otter]

Originally posted by Chrispy

This seems to be akin to my bad juju mini thread...

Can you post a link to that thread? I remember reading on the Fiannas (and probably posted something myself) but can\'t find it.

I DID find the most recent comic, tho... Boy howdy she\'s got some legs on her!

- Otter
\"Never send a ferret to do a weasel\'s work\"

 

[Chrispy]

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=712 I\'m surpised.. Juju is not a word used too much unless it pertains to me...

I also posted the newest toon on Confederation du Dragon Rouge.. the French seemed to like it, too...

 

[Otter]

Heh, predates my time by about a month. You must have mentioned those Fiannas more recently... Do they still haunt you?

I have a Confrontation wolf that has bad \"juju\". Primed him once, left him to dry. Roommate somehow thought that gray primer was unprimed surface. Primed again. Painting went pretty bad so instead of stipping he was primed a third time (?). He was forgotten overnight and collected a lot of dew, which a well-meaning person who forgot to bring him in for the night decided to \"hide\" by priming again. While drying, it poured. So now I have a soggy ball of paint that might be holding an axe, waiting for a stripping party.

- Otter
\"Never send a ferret to do a weasel\'s work\"

 

[Chrispy]

Yeah, they\'re unprimed for the moment, but I may use them for a reference for sculpting or convert them.. I didn\'t get a card with them, which may have started all this bad luck...

Sheeh, I didn\'t think it was possible to prime something like that.. Course, my old Heroquest figs have an inch of paint on them.. When starting out, I thought priming meant making it snow white, so I gave it several coats.. miht explain why I couldn\'t see the Elf\'s ears..

 

[SaxonAngel]

Hey! you forgot METALLICS.

Yes I suck at these. I don\'t understand why, but somehow I just can\'t get anything beyond Boltgun Metal looking right. All my metallics are either sloppy-looking or flat.:flame:

:flip:Thank the gods for NMM!:flip:


Peace!
-Angela:innocent:

 

[tabithatan]

....

now fur me it would be fleshtones... I truly suck at it..... the faces never reallty come out the way I want it to... sigh

 

[paleotaur]

Personally, it\'s broad expanses of cloth, like... cloaks, for instance. I seem to have to go over them three or four times to get the shading right.

 

[wyrmling_x]

NO!!!! I can\'t paint human faces!!! I can paint the rest of their bodies, heck, I can even paint orc and lizzie faces, but I can\'t paint human/elf faces for the life of me...just shoot me now...

 

[mouse]

What!??! Can only choose one...

I can\'t paint properly NMM or the sky-earth technique, I can\'t paint white properly, I can\'t paint gems correctly (sometimes they come up to look like a muffin), I can\'t get the light source properly (well, maybe there are multiple light source, that\'s how i comfort myself), ...I can\'t seem to get red properly, .....

 

[airhead]

Only one selection

Originally posted by mouse
I can\'t paint properly NMM or the sky-earth technique, I can\'t paint white properly, I can\'t paint gems correctly (sometimes they come up to look like a muffin), I can\'t get the light source properly (well, maybe there are multiple light source, that\'s how i comfort myself), ...I can\'t seem to get red properly, .....

Ditto

 

[vincegamer]

Haven\'t tried NMM yet so dunno (see option 10 )

If I have to pick one I\'ll go with picking a color scheme. I have so many gray primed minis it\'s ridiculous, yet sometimes I will just stair at a mini for what seems forever and give up because I can\'t figure out what to do with it.

Oh, maybe you should have added \"take the photo\" to that list?:innocent:

 

[the.super.hamster]

Have to agree with Vince. The most time consuming part for me is to decide what colours to go for. Have problems with all the other points as well but at least I make the mistakes faster.

 

[Errex]

Reds...

Been working them, and can eventually come up with passable results, but they are just a pain to do.

If using orange/yellow for the highlights, the result is always to orangy, and if using white, too pinkish.

Been opting for leaving them as reddish brown instead.

 

[barkel]

eyes?

Did anyone say eyes? If the mini is sculpted well and the cast comes out ok, I do fine. But if the eye is off in any way I have yet another variation on the Elephant Man.

On the list my biggest problem would be NMM. I\'ve tried it a couple of times, but I can\'t get it to look how I want it to.

barkel

 

[No Such Agency]

Originally posted by wyrmling_x
NO!!!! I can\'t paint human faces!!! I can paint the rest of their bodies, heck, I can even paint orc and lizzie faces, but I can\'t paint human/elf faces for the life of me...just shoot me now...

One of the difficulties with painting human faces is that we are psychologically hypersensitive to subtle deviations from the human norm. Hence, errors on the face will stand out.

Personally, I\'d have answered \"all of the above\" to the poll, if it was an option. I find that I can\'t get *anything* right. If the face looks good on a mini, the cloth blending\'s probably botched. On the next one, the face will be off. It\'s very frustrating. I haven\'t tried NMM or gems/lenses, largely because I want to work on improving other mroe basic techniques before I expand my repertoire.

 

[frenchkid]

I have a real problem painting human flesh and especially faces I also have a horrible probleme in trying to choose nice original colors for my minis so most of the time I\'ll just inspire myself from other works (thanks god for CMON )
I haven\'t tried NMM yet so duno how hard it is, but I do have difficulty painting metalique paints especially gold. And for gems I found a neat trick: Just base with metallique paint and then put ink of the colour you want on top of it, it makes nice gems .

 

[freakinacage]

the idea of nmm scares the hell out of me, but i will try it sometime i\'ll post it so you guys can laugh!! not very good with colour schemes cause i\'m colour blind. have to keep asking my mum. once painted a kal jericho model with a brown coat. i asked one of my housemates what she thought. she compared it with the picture and was like - why\'s the coat brown? aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhh!!

anyway, am gonna try some light sourcing real soon (got 4 assignments to do for uni first) on a space hulk coridoor scene