WH40000 - what's your opinion?

Started by Beorning, August 09, 2014, 03:58:53 PM

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Oniya

Washes are really just watered down paint.  Get yourself a small container, put a little paint in it, and add water a little at a time, stirring well, until it's the same consistency as your other wash.  (I'd go with a brown/tan wash for a blonde, myself.)
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Beorning

I did some reading on washes and I learned that washes need something else than water, something to stop the water from forming puddles. I read that dish soap could be of use..?

Coming back to water and paints - could you guys tell me exactly how you paint? How often (if at all) you dip the brush in the water etc.? Thorne mentioned balance, but what is "too much water", exactly?

Thorne

'Too much water' is entirely subjective, unfortunately. I keep a 'pad' (folded up piece of paper towel, really), that I not only clean brushes with but also use to dab out the excess water (and paint/wash). But sometimes, I want a little more water in the mix, and sometimes I want a lot less - it all depends. Time and practice - experiment! If you hate it, you can scrub it off and do it again.

If your wash 'puddles', you have too much water, and you need to add a little paint back in. I've had that happen, and .. yah, basically, add a little more paint in, and it'll be fine. 1/10 ratio of paint/water is a good place to start with making a wash, iirc.

Keeping a mini from looking 'dirty' when using a wash.. I use a fine brush, and a light hand, just dabbing the colour in where I want it. It will fill the cracks with almost no help at all. You might need to dry the brush and pick up some of the excess (just dab it off on your paper towel, or whatever, then dab the excess, let the brush soak it up).
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Beorning

Quote from: Thorne on September 29, 2014, 04:17:12 PM
'Too much water' is entirely subjective, unfortunately. I keep a 'pad' (folded up piece of paper towel, really), that I not only clean brushes with but also use to dab out the excess water (and paint/wash). But sometimes, I want a little more water in the mix, and sometimes I want a lot less - it all depends. Time and practice - experiment! If you hate it, you can scrub it off and do it again.

Okay, I'll try using a bit more the next time and I'll see how that works...

Quote
If your wash 'puddles', you have too much water, and you need to add a little paint back in. I've had that happen, and .. yah, basically, add a little more paint in, and it'll be fine. 1/10 ratio of paint/water is a good place to start with making a wash, iirc.

1/10. Noted :)

Quote
Keeping a mini from looking 'dirty' when using a wash.. I use a fine brush, and a light hand, just dabbing the colour in where I want it. It will fill the cracks with almost no help at all. You might need to dry the brush and pick up some of the excess (just dab it off on your paper towel, or whatever, then dab the excess, let the brush soak it up).

So, you put the wash directly into the cracks and crevices? I put the wash onto the general area next to them and tried pushing the wash into them. It worked, but some of the wash stayed on the surface and "dirtied" the colours...

Hemingway

Wash is supposed to settle into corners and cracks, but sometimes you're going to get it on areas where you don't want it. You'll have to decide if you want to keep the 'dirty' look ( which can look good on certain models ) or clean it up by painting over it. Just don't get your base color in the cracks you were trying to cover in wash when you do it, or you're back to square one!

Beorning

So, I was painting the backpack for my second mini today... I painted it all silver and I wanted to add some shading. So, I tried the wash again... and again, I ended up with the "dirty" look...

I tried the drybrushing, as well as simply painting some of the unnecessary dirty places over... but I ended up cancelling the shading again...

Shading is hard  >:(

Hemingway

How much paint was on your brush when you tried drybrushing? There should be almost nothing.

Beorning

Heh. I just looked at a drybrushing tutorial on Youtube and I realized that the answer to your question is: way too much.  ;D

Oh well. I'll try doing better next time...

Hemingway

Yeah, even I do that from time to time. Because even when you think you can't possibly get less paint and still have paint on the brush - you can.

HairyHeretic

When I drybrush I'll put a small dot of paint on the brush, then brush that on a piece of paper repeatedly til I almost can't see any results. That's about the point I drybrush.

Ok, possibly a slight exaggeration, but you really do need next to no paint on the brush.
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Hemingway

When I drybrush, I just hold my brush next to an unopened jar of paint for a few seconds, then wipe off the excess on a piece of paper.  XD

Sorry, had to. I don't mean to ... no, no horrible puns.

HairyHeretic

When I were a lad we didn't have these fancy washes and shades and drybrushing. We used to bang our minis with rocks till we got the colours we wanted. :P
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Skyguy

Ya'll are using paint for your washes? I use ink. Watered down, but ink. I find it flows into all the cracks and crevices very well, doesn't puddle, or result in a grimy looking mini.

Beorning

Interesting. Tell me more about ink washes. What's the ink / water ratio?

Regarding drybrushing: guys, do you use normal brushes for that? In the YT tutorial I've watched, the author was using old, wide, bushy brushes...

Thorne

I've dry-brushed with a regular brush. It works. The key is to get pretty nearly all the paint out of it. But it is easier, and probably you get better coverage if you use a fluffy 'mop' type brush.

Micromark carries these, and right now, they're what I am using. They're as good an example of a good dry brush as I have ever seen.

All I know about ink washes is that most of the specific washes I have seen were made with ink. How they make them, what the ratio is, I don't know. Sorry. :/
It may be you can use garden variety Higgins india ink (BLACK ... and holy shit is it black), but I'd be very cautious.
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Beorning

I'm wondering about the home-made washes, as I think I'll be giving the next miniature blonde or red hair colour, so I'll need some brownish / reddish wash to give the hair some shades. And I don't have it...

And that drybrushing technique may indeed be helpful with dealing with excess shading. We'll see... I hope to paint the new mini this weekend.

Beorning

Okay, I tried shading and drybrushing the much-maligned backpack again... You know, it actually works!

Thanks for the advice, guys!  :-)

BTW. Any progress on the minis you were painting? Show some pictures, if so!

HairyHeretic

I haven't painted anything more, but I now have 39 models converted and assembled, including the first of my Wild Hunt biker claw.

I also raided the bitz bin from my FLGS last weekend, and picked up some nice bits to use for more, including a set of kneeling legs and a couple of Mark V/VI shoulder pads, which will look really good :)
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Hemingway

I've been too lazy to do any more painting so far. ;D

Beorning

Just thought I'd ask... I'm very eager to see other people's projects!

When it comes to me, I've painted the second mini today... I plan on posting the results tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's something I've been wondering: are there non-Caucasian people in the WH40K universe? I haven't seen any in the art...

Thorne

I've got a photo - haven't got it uploaded yet. Thinking to either do a new mini (I have a character who's been making use of a spell that gives her wings), or mangle one - the ones that come with wings are .... well, they're wearing the wrong kind of armor. What little they wear. *snicker*
So, that could be fun.
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HairyHeretic

Quote from: Beorning on October 04, 2014, 08:28:50 PM
In the meantime, here's something I've been wondering: are there non-Caucasian people in the WH40K universe? I haven't seen any in the art...

Yes, but not that many references to them.

The Salamanders are black skinned, the White Scars come from a planet based on the Mongols, and are generally described in similar terms, and IIRC the Mantis Warriors referenced as Japanese looking.
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Beorning

Quote from: HairyHeretic on October 05, 2014, 05:54:39 AM
Yes, but not that many references to them.

The Salamanders are black skinned, the White Scars come from a planet based on the Mongols, and are generally described in similar terms, and IIRC the Mantis Warriors referenced as Japanese looking.

Du-du-dum! Is WH40K racist?

Anyway, here's the mini I painted yesterday:




It still looks weird, but I think it looks better than the previous one... Face is once again a nightmare, though. I can't get how people are able to paint those smooth, multi-shade faces - with perfect eyes, too...

I tried shading the figure with a wash again. It sort of worked... the wash entered the crevices nicely, but a lot of the effect was destroyed, when I tried drybrushing the figure. There are places where the final result looks good, but in other places the shading got completely covered. Drat.

Here are the two Sisters together:



Powpowpow! Purge the unclean!!!  ;D

HairyHeretic

Quote from: Beorning on October 05, 2014, 01:27:11 PM
Du-du-dum! Is WH40K racist?

Sure. The Imperium hates anyone that isn't of the human race :)

Quote from: Beorning on October 05, 2014, 01:27:11 PM
It still looks weird, but I think it looks better than the previous one... Face is once again a nightmare, though. I can't get how people are able to paint those smooth, multi-shade faces - with perfect eyes, too...

Practice. Lots and lots and lots of practice.
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Beorning

Practice? I'd say that doing that requires some extreme manual dexterity... which I just don't possess.  >:(