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Author Topic: Painting issues for a new Stirland army  (Read 5294 times)

Offline Eltarach

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Painting issues for a new Stirland army
« on: April 15, 2010, 07:57:00 PM »
Hi guys!

I'm restarting the hobby with a Empire army from Stirland. See this thread. And I have a few questions regarding paints.

I'm intending to use a black undercoat to achieve easier shading on the models, and a darker theme. I'm also intending to paint the green parts of the uniforms with a mix of Goblin Green and Chaos Black, and then mix it to Snotling Green ish, before highlighting it with straight goblin green.
My intention for the white parts of the uniforms with Bleached Bone, then giving it a wash of watered down Snakebite Leather, before finishing off with a highlight/drybrush of skull white.

First off, any tips on how to achieve a dark and gothic look on the models would be welcome. And so is comments and critique of my "battle-plan"  :smile2:

Second off, how good an effect is achieved by mixing paints, and how do I achieve the same mix again? Just practise?

Third off, is creating inks by watering down other paints a method that yield proper results?

I'm looking forward to your comments :)

/Eltarach

Offline anvalous

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Re: Painting issues for a new Stirland army
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2010, 08:13:33 PM »
It sounds like your plan is really solid.  Your color progressions should work well over your army.  I dig it.  I'll try to speak to your points in order.

1.  Dark and gothic.  This one is actually not too bad to try work with.  I tend to think of heavy shadows when I think gothic.  Your black basecoat will help, as will your washing with darker paints.  Something to consider for your color composition is that the white will really contrast a darker paint set.  This is a good thing, but keep your white focused on the model - too much and you'll lose some of that brooding quality.

Another thing to consider might be to take some dark green, water it down about 4:1 and wash your greens with that for extra shading.  If it is too dark, you can always bring back your top highlight for effect.  That should help soften some of your transitions and keep the brightness of snotling green under control.

Keeping your metals dark will also go a long ways.  If you're drybrushing, try to use tin bitz first, then boltgun, wash with watered down black, and highlight the bright spots with pure boltgun or chainmail.  That'll help make your colors and flesh tones pop, too.

2.  Mixing paints.  I mix all the time.  Try to get your hands on a little dropper bottle and buy some distilled water from your grocery store.  For me, being able to consistently add water in measured amounts is great.  Helps with the ratios.  If you're using a dropper bottle for your paints, even better.  If not, try to be consistent with your brush-loads (or whatever transfer method you're using).

I like to use a toothpick for the actual mixing and would warn about using your brushes to mix.  It can work well, but if you're not careful in your brush-care, the mixing process with deposit a lot of paint in the top of the brush (the forte, if memory serves) and can wear-down your brush's ability to hold a point.

Keeping paint mixes similar is good, but perfection isn't required.  I know some guys that'll make a new pot of a mix if they're using it on an entire army.  I know others who swear that the variation in their paint mixing adds character to the army.  I'm in the latter camp.  I do, however, keep a piece of paper at my painting station to record my paint mixes if I think I'll need 'em again.

3.  Watering Paint/Inking.  This is a great technique and works delightfully well for smoothing out colors.  I would start with at least a 5:1 water to paint ratio.  10:1 is a bit better.  It takes some practice, but the softening of highlight transitions and the deepening of shadows goes a long ways.

GW's new ink set is actually really good.  I dilute those ~1:3 (ink:water) with great effect.  They've also lasted through almost 2 armies, so you don't burn through them particularly fast, which is nice.

Hope that helps!

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Painting issues for a new Stirland army
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2010, 09:01:09 PM »
Keeping your metals dark will also go a long ways.  If you're drybrushing, try to use tin bitz first, then boltgun, wash with watered down black, and highlight the bright spots with pure boltgun or chainmail.  That'll help make your colors and flesh tones pop, too.


I like the look of straight Badab Black wash over the top of Chainmail, or even Mithril Silver.



Keeping paint mixes similar is good, but perfection isn't required.  I know some guys that'll make a new pot of a mix if they're using it on an entire army.  I know others who swear that the variation in their paint mixing adds character to the army.  I'm in the latter camp.


I agree with all of this. Even if you want to ensure a certain degree of uniformity, as long as you're starting with the same base color, and ending with (more or less) the same highlight color, the rest should visually blend together, even if the exact (mid-) highlight mix isn't exactly the same proposrtions on each figure.



Offline Sand

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Re: Painting issues for a new Stirland army
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2010, 10:10:38 AM »
Hope this is not too much of a thread-jack  :blush:
The thing is; I am actually starting an Empire army too and am at the moment 80% sure that it's gonna be a Stirland army as well. On top of that I'd also really like to undercoat black and get a somewhat grimy look.
So I figured it was better to just post in this thread too, instead of starting a new one with the same topic  :smile2:

Now my question is this; one of the Stirland colors is yellow (except for the Stir River Patrol which is white instead, as I understand it). The problem is, I find yellow somewhat difficult even on a white background. Do you think black undercoat and the yellowish-brown foundation paint would work? I'd probably need to put a final color on top, but I'm not quite sure which. I don't mind if it's a somewhat pale or brownish yellow, but I think the Foundation (Tausept Ochre, I think it is) will be a tad too brown on it's own.

Any suggestions?

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Painting issues for a new Stirland army
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2010, 11:37:00 AM »
Do you think black undercoat and the yellowish-brown foundation paint would work? I'd probably need to put a final color on top, but I'm not quite sure which. I don't mind if it's a somewhat pale or brownish yellow, but I think the Foundation (Tausept Ochre, I think it is) will be a tad too brown on it's own.


I don't know about those specific paints, but that's something similar to the way I do yellow on a black primer.

I use a yellow/tan craft store paint ("straw" I think) that has excelleny coverage, then I start highlighting this up with some Vallejo yellow. Vallejo has excellent coverage with many of their yellows & reds. I've never been thrilled with GW yellows & reds.

Offline White Knight

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Re: Painting issues for a new Stirland army
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2010, 11:57:33 AM »
For painting yellow I use a basecoat of coat d'arms "bilious brown" (they are the same as the old GW paints back when they came in the bottles with the fliptop lids, I think the GW name was vomit brown) then GW golden yellow over that, leaving just a bit of the brown in the deeper folds. Add white to the yellow for highlights. I found that the basecoat with the bilious brown allows me to paint yellow without any other colours bleeding through, including black (it actually seems to make the yellow richer).


Offline Sand

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Re: Painting issues for a new Stirland army
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2010, 12:04:53 PM »
I don't know about those specific paints, but that's something similar to the way I do yellow on a black primer.

I use a yellow/tan craft store paint ("straw" I think) that has excelleny coverage, then I start highlighting this up with some Vallejo yellow. Vallejo has excellent coverage with many of their yellows & reds. I've never been thrilled with GW yellows & reds.
Cool. I guess I'll go looking for a Vallejo yellow then! Thanks a bunch  :happy:

Offline Sand

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Re: Painting issues for a new Stirland army
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2010, 12:07:36 PM »
For painting yellow I use a basecoat of coat d'arms "bilious brown" (they are the same as the old GW paints back when they came in the bottles with the fliptop lids, I think the GW name was vomit brown) then GW golden yellow over that, leaving just a bit of the brown in the deeper folds. Add white to the yellow for highlights. I found that the basecoat with the bilious brown allows me to paint yellow without any other colours bleeding through, including black (it actually seems to make the yellow richer).
I think the new foundation thing is not too far from Vomit Brown, actually. I've got a bucket of that somewhere (I've used it to drybrush over Scorched Brown on bases with some success). The yellow on your ogres is pretty much the sort of thing I'll be going for, actually. So thanks for the advice  :smile2: