Topic: GP's Painting Log

[GamesPoet]

Picked up a 6th Edition boxed set of Empire vs. Orcs about a couple of week's back.  I started out by using the GW spray cans, white for the Empire, black for the Orcs.  This started as a joint project with the Lady Friend’s son, with me painting the Empire and he painting the Orcs.

After the base coats dried, I used the Tallarn Flesh on face and hands for the intial coloring, while the Orcs received the Orc Hide color.  It seems that the flesh color could have used a bit of thinning, while the orc flesh seemed to work a little bit better from a thinness perspective.

Then, focusing on two spearmen first, because I’m not sure what I’ll be doing with the hand gunners, I used the black on the pants and inside the slashes of the shirts, followed by Iyanden yellow for the rest of the shirt.  The black on the pants was disappointing since it seems to shine a bit more then the flatter looking chaos black spray paint.  Also, I probably needed to thin this for a better look as well.  Anyone have ideas for a flatter looking black

The Mechrite Red was used on the pants and shirts of the Orcs (but not the leather armor).  We surprisingly enjoyed both the look of the yellow on the Empire troops, as well of how super the red on top of the black looked.  I did some fine tuning of the Empire’s shirts, while the LF’s son experimented with the Calthan Brown on an axe handle, the Gunmetal/Chainmail (yes, two jars thinking they’d be slightly different yet they seem to be the same, bummer) on an arm brace, and then red for a tongue, white teeth, white eyes, and red eye balls.  He did a very good job considering this was his first time ever.  He waited for me to pick up some bolt metal for the armor, a dark brown for the boots, and then he got creative in mixing some Snakebite Leather with the Scorched Brown, and it worked wonderfully for the leather armor.
 
I experimented with different colors on sprue sides in order to get a feel for what some of the various colors will look like alone and on top of each other with the white base coat underneath on the sprue.  I’m liking how the Iyanden yellow seems to give a kind of earthy look to the shirts, although I might be using the Golden Yellow or the Sunburst Yellow on top because I’m not sure how best to highlight the Iyanden Yellow otherwise.  Hmmm … maybe I’ll experiment with mixing a little white with it and see what happens.  If someone has ideas on this, then could you let me know

[Pistol Pete]

Anyone have ideas for a flatter looking black

Tamiya has a couple of different blacks with different levels of gloss.  Matte black would be what you want.  (Tamiya paints are also cheaper, and the paint pots are better).  Alternatively, you could drybush the black paint on.  I've found that drybrushing gives a flatter appearence to the colors.  A matte coat of varnish will also dull any shine.

[GamesPoet]

Anyone have ideas for a flatter looking black

Tamiya has a couple of different blacks with different levels of gloss.  Matte black would be what you want.  (Tamiya paints are also cheaper, and the paint pots are better).  Alternatively, you could drybush the black paint on.  I've found that drybrushing gives a flatter appearence to the colors.  A matte coat of varnish will also dull any shine.

Ok, need to hunt this up at a hobby store somewhere around here, and I have a few ideas.  Thanks for the info!

[GamesPoet]

Hmmm ... looking back on my initial post I noticed the key thing learned during my first couple of spearmen was ... thin the paint.  I've tried this thinning the black to prep the white base coat for Boltgun Metal on the breast plates and helmets, and this looked much better than the straight black.  Even thinned the Boltgun before painting with it.  Also, finished painting the faces and hands of the spearsmen having thinned the Tallarn Flesh, and things went much better on the rest of them than the first two.

[GamesPoet]

Tested different yellows and combinations of yellows, and tried the following ...

All the basic GW yellows by themselves, Iyanden Darksun, Golden Yellow, Sunburst Yellow, and Bad Moon Yellow, and then even the Vallejo Light Yellow.  The Darksun looks good by itself, but I still need to experiment with adding white for different shades.  And the Iyanden obviously works well under the other colors, and after trying it with the Sunburst and Bad Moon first, by themselves, I wasn't really impressed with either of those combos.  I also tried the Sunburst and Bad Moon on top of Snakebite Leather, and these just didn't do it at all.

Then I got the Golden and was pleasantly surprised with the effects.  When trying the Light Yellow by Vallejo, this color really looked good next to the black.  Need to find more of these paints and see what other yellows Vallejo has available, and maybe even go beyond that into other manufacturers as well.  Does anyone have any ideas on this

Anyway, then I purchased the GW Yellow Ink.  Put this on top of the Iyanden while discovering how good it even looks by itself.  Also put it on top of Iyanden & Golden, Iyanden & Sunburst, and Iyanden & Bad Moon.  It was interesting to see how it shaded them, and yet I'm not sure I have good shading technique at the moment, so eventually I'm just going to pick something and likely try a dry brushing method, and do more experimenting with shades unless I can find someone to teach me or a picture tutorial some where.

I'm probably just going to use the base coat on the spearsmen in time for the weekend WH Warband event, and make a decision about what I will use for additional yellow at a later time, unless I suddenly become inspired and go for it.  Also, I might use different yellows on different units, and just write fluff for it as well.  The current block of spears is intended to be from a unit called the Aver River Regiment, and the original intent was to give them an earthy feel to the yellow, which is certainly the case with just the Darksun.  Although this is likely not to be the last layer.  The next choice will be what I'm going to do with the gunners, and yet some how I'm sensing they will be similar to the spearsmen at this point.

[GamesPoet]

Forgot to mention that all that testing of yellows in the post just above was done without watering any of them down a bit.  Discovered why that is important this weekend!

I was working on getting as much paint as possible on to the soldiers needed for a war band event that started this past Sunday.  I had previously watered down some black to paint inside the slits of the sleeves, and when I saw how nicely this worked, I tried it with the Iyanden Darksun for the rest of the shirts.  With the black I did around 50% paint/50% water and it seemed ok for the task being done.  However this seemed a bit too watery for the Darksun, particulary since this was going onto the puffiness of the sleeves.  Thus I used about 40% water with the Darksun.  However, this seemed to cause a problem with controling where the paint went, sometimes seeping down into the slits.  Not sure how to resolve this yet, but I'm open to ideas

Anyway, the same mixture of Darksun and water was then used on the shirts of 4 crossbowmen and 3 archers (made from 6th edition militia box).  The color seemed to build up a bit in the folds of the shirt, but not as much elsewhere!  And although subtle it was a very nice effect.

[GamesPoet]

Then there was the boots on all these guys.  Mixed some Scorched Brown with about 20% black followed by approx. 40% water, and since I was in a hurry, and hadn't blended the colors completely, this provided a nicely mixed shading on the boots.  Fortunately I had made enough for all 14 of my 16 spearsmen (two had been painted as original test figures using non watered down paint, blah), the crossbows and archers, and 2 musicians and 1 standard bearer.  By the time I got to the last one it was mostly the same color as the original 2 spears, but the rest look much better.

Also, I've been working on thinning the black paint down with about 50% water for the pants and undercoating the armor.  This seemed to work out ok with the white underneath kind of shading down the black a bit.  Looks like a charcoal blackish gray, and actually an interesting effect.  Might use another coat of this on the pants, and will use thinnned down Boltgun on the armor.  Additionally, tried using Black Ink on the armor for my full command and it shows the white underneath rather easily.  Hopefully the boltgun will still look good on top of this.

Did a couple of more things ... Calthan Brown for the bows, 50% watered down black for the helmets and hats, along with Bestial Brown for the padded leather and studded leather on the crossbowmen and the extra musician.  Much more layers and detail work to do.

[GamesPoet]

Oh ... and for the extra musician, I gave him a halberd in his right hand, and then cut up a blunderbuss carving it down into a short horn like instrument.  The fingers from the original gun holding hand worked out nicely to form what could be small valves on top, and placed this in the other free hand.  I might even green stuff some additional tubing for a curled look to the length of the piping.

[Pistol Pete]

I'm not sure if you're doing this, but if you're using a white basecoat, try painting metal areas black first.  The metals seem to paint better over a black coat.  With gold colors in particular, the white undercoat is lousy.

I'm interested in seeing more of this blog.

[GamesPoet]

I'm not sure if you're doing this, but if you're using a white basecoat, try painting metal areas black first.  The metals seem to paint better over a black coat.  With gold colors in particular, the white undercoat is lousy.

I'm interested in seeing more of this blog.

Yes, as mentioned further back, I've painted thinned down boltgun on top of a thinned down black at it looks much better than when I tested the boltgun on just white.  I'll be doing the same for all the metals, although once I have the undercoat of black followed by boltgun, then I'll be using chainmail, and perhaps mithril, while likely drybrushing those last two.

By the way, in thinning down the black, it comes out much flatter as you mentioned previously, and in some cases it even looks charcoal to smoky gray on the base coat of white.  If I can duplicate this then I might not get the matte that you suggested before, although even this likely is worth testing out anyway.

Thanks for your interest.  I've been testing on top of basecoated sprues quite a number of colors on tops of other colors, and sometimes in more than one layer and combos.  I've kept track of the full list on paper and recorded what the combos are on the sprues themselves for future reference.  Forty seven combos so far, and more on my list to test out.

Also, I will eventually get around to purchasing a digital camera, and then I can actually start providing photos of what's going on as well.

[GamesPoet]

8 of my spearmen now have Iyanden Darksun yellow shirts with black slits along with boltgun for the breastplates and helmets, and I'm hoping to provide the same for my other 8 in time for the escaltion of the Warband event I'm particpating in from 150 to 200 points.  Additionally, I've gotten all the spearmen's pants painted with a second coat of thinned black, as are the 4 crossbowmen and the 3 archers.  Nothing new on the full command nor the extra musician.

Today I also broke out the rest of the militia box.  I created a 5th crossbowman, as well as a 4th and 5th archer.  Both units have one figure that could be promoted to a marksman since they look like a leader, if desired.  This left nine more to make (the 10th is the extra musician previously created).

I turned five of them into free company that all have the long cloaks.  These will represent a security type force with more fluff to be generated.  Two of them carry two pistols each, one of them carries a pistol and a bow (that he hasn't given up on since the unit switched to the pistols), another carries a blunder buss for heavy fire, while the fifth is a leader type with sword and pistol.

The last four represent a river barge/boat crew that the Aver River Regiment uses for transporting soldiers and supplies.  Each has a sword, one with a crossbow, two with knives, and the last has a leader look, including a pistol and a halberd.  This crew has been known to work in conjunction with the security crew.  At some point I'm going to model the boat/barge.

Also, the fact that one security guy has a bow and one boat guy has a crossbow gives me the flexibility to have six archers and crossbows, and this might come in handy further down the line with the Warband event.

 

By the way, need to get some paint on these guys before this upcoming Sunday.

[GamesPoet]

Hmmm ... haven't posted here in quite a bit.  However, my army has definitely expanded in the last 6 months.

Here is a list of where things stand ...

1.  The Averland spearsmen unit has grown to 24 plus a warrior priest, having expanded from the 16 original 6th edition from the Empire/Orc set, with a full command, a Mordheim mini with spear, and 4 more spearsmen from a 6th edition "Empire Detachments" box.  13 of the spearsmen are almost complete, along with the command, 3 partially complete along with the Mordheim mini and the warrior priest, and the 4 new ones are only base coated.

2.  5 of the original handgunners are almost complete, being used as a detachment for the spears, while 10 are basecoated with flesh painted and will likely take on a dark blue, red, and buff color scheme to represent some Marienburg merchant marines or whatever other mercenary group I might dream up.

3.  I've since purchased 2 more militia boxes since the first one.  There are now 10 archers, the 5 originals almost done, the 4 new ones only flesh painted on the base, along with one metal mini, mostly serving has huntsmen.  I also created 9 halberdiers and their leader with a greatsword, but all only base coated, and some still needing completion of their convertions.  These guys have served as their own unit in smaller games, but now as a detachment for some greatswords.  The original five crossbows are almost completey painted, and put together 5 more crossbowmen that get added to the original 5 for now, but they have been set up with some extra pistolier heads and eventually the crossbows will be two units of ten, one as Averlanders, and one as Tileans from Tobaro.  I haven't decided on a color scheme for the Tileans, and I'm looking and open for ideas on this

4.  I have 5 metal great swords including the command partially complete (which I did along side Wissenlander's five for him).  Since then I've base coated five more metals, created five more from the militia boxes and other bits, and bought 3 two handed sword, templar looking metals made by Reaper, which in all gives me 18.  The plastic conversion still need a base coat, and the "templar" guys will need some green stuffing to make them look more Empire like.

5.  Warhammerlord_Soth has painted up a Captasus for me as part of the 2008 mini exchange that he organized.  Looks great!  I get quite a few comments on him from others, particularly when they see that he is magnitized for use on or off the pegasus, and comes with lance or sword.

6.  Almost forgot my five pistoliers ... I started out with much enthusiasm for these guys, but I discovered the hard way that they might have been best base coated black instead of white.  Also, I used a Vallejo Light Yellow on their shirts, which looks brighter then I would prefer, and more so then when I tested on a black undercoat previously.  I'm contemplating painting over this in black, and then drybrushing the yellow on to the poofy sleeves, yet haven't finalized this, and so they sit with much more painting to do.  In fact, they may get a complete coat of black so that I can also better paint the armor, too.

7.  I've picked up several Mordhiem minis ... the Reikland captain, a Marienburg captain, a wizard, and the young blood with the basket on his back that came with the spearmen mentioned above.  All are base coated, yet wishing I had done these in black, too.

8.  Purchased 2 boxes of Empire knights.  These are going to provide 5 knights including musician for a unit of Golden Lions, the same for a unit of Black Bears, and 5 knights including full command for the start of my own order of knights called "Knights of the Aver River".  (This later group will get 5, or maybe even 7, added at a later time for a total of 10 or 12.  And maybe even some day, a set of IC knights, too.)  All the riders and five horses have been assembled and base coated black.  The first up on the pallet are the Golden Lions ... painting 4 knights, the musician, and started work on the commander for the Knights of the Aver River.  Oh ... and the 16th horse is being used to create a warrior priest with his mount.  The priest has been posed similarly to Otaku's example for his Stirlanders ... hammer raised (from the knights of the white wolf sprue), head looking up to the sky, shield on his arm (instead of a book in his hand) ... the head is from the militia box, the one with the bandana, tail cutoff, and I'll need to work a bit more on it for an adornment.

9.  My mother was cleaning out an old closet from my younger days and located a small box of older minis, including a few Warhammer ones.  Two of them were Ogres from the mid eighties, a couple of wolves with both goblin bow and spear riders, and a package of three goblin spearmen.  I've base coated all of these black, along with a pair of 25mm Ral Parth giants, one of which might pass as an ogre, not really sure about the other.  Yes, I know, none of these are Empire, but priceless an yway to me, and I'm going to paint them after all these years of sitting in a dark closet.

So ... that's where things stand ... lots of work to do.  Purchased another pistolier box that I plan to turn into Outriders, and use the pistolier heads for expanding the Tilean crossbowmen, but these are a ways off yet.  Plus I have a bunch of other miscellaneous figures I've picked up along the way, including a box of the Kislev winged lancers.  Taking part in the W-E 2009 Painting Challenge thread, and I might copy some of my progress reports over here since they are descriptive in more detail as to how I am painting the 5 Knights of the Golden Lion.  Oh, and my sister is planning on giving me her old digital camera, and then once I pick up a memory card, then I might be able to post some photos on some of these.

[GamesPoet]

Progress on Knights of the Golden Lion ...

I've got 15 soldiers and 5 horses constructed just before Xmas (the long term project is to have 3 units of five each, and then eventually add to one for a larger unit of 12).  I've base coated the soldiers and the horses with black spray paint, and I've started painting by doing a coat of bolt gun for the armor on the 5 horses, while experimenting with painting a tail.

and ...

I had read some painting ideas on a local artists site, and he talked about thinning the paint down with water on a 1 to 1 basis, and using multiple coats of color to create artististic looking figures.  I'm not sure I'm ready to do this yet, particularly not for the rank and file, and maybe just for leader types.  However, I did experiment with increasing the amount of water when painting the knight, and it is clear that more of the black undercoat is showing through then on the horses.  I also experimented with trying to avoid brush strokes from showing, but evidently I got a bit more practice to go on this idea.  With the thinner paint on the knight it seemed easier to avoid seeing brush strokes.

and ...

Last night I watered down the bolt gun 1 for 1 with water, and then used this to slightyly recoat the barding on the knights.  This helped remove some of the impurities in my painting this past weekend and I painted the same color on one more knight.  The armor is looking so good that I'm fearful of using a wash on it before highlighting, and I'm not sure how I'll be proceeding.

[GamesPoet]

Well I've managed to dredge this thread up from the depths of the past.

I read the posts, and it was interesting to compare against how far I've come since this thread's beginning.  No time to update on all of that today, yet we'll see how things go.

The real reason for yanking this thread from the lower elevation that it was sitting at was to bring folks' attention to the following effort that I have embarked upon today, Saturday, August 1st, 2015.

About 2 weeks back, I successfully completed a 90 day goal that I set for myself, and then heard a radio article about a professor somewhere in New York that gives her students that take her class a project where they need to choose something to do for 100 days, and see how it changes their life, or some such.  I immediately thought that were I doing something like that now, it would be to do "100 Days of Painting".  I contemplated this idea for a bit, and just purchased a domain name for an internet log, something I'd always wanted to set up, yet had often delayed in doing such.  I've downloaded WordPress to the site, and its construction has begun, yet it might not be done for a week or two, we'll see.

In the meantime, my GP's "100 Days of Painting" has begun.  My first entry on my site was posted two days ago, and my next entry will be posted today.  The "100 Days of Painting" won't just focus on Warhammer figures, yet instead I'll make choices one day at a time as to what I will paint.  And the idea doesn't mean I'll finish a figure every day, that's a bit too much for me to attempt with everything else I have going on, yet I do intend to paint something for 100 days in a row.  I'll keep folks posted as this develops.

And for the moment, I'll save the details of the effort for my website, which won't be going public until I get it further along than it currently is.

[Darknight]

I approve of this effort. I shall follow with interest.

[GamesPoet]

A brief update ...

It has been 8 days straight of getting in some painting, only 92 more to go!

Day 1 ... 40mm AWI
2 ... GW hobbits
3 ... Ship's cannon carriages
4 ... Got irritated when putting the barrels on to the carriages with some mold lines, so filed them down and repainted
5, 6, 7, 8 ... more paint on 40mm AWI

I've put up three posts on my website, but there's more to do before opening it up for public viewing.

[Booah]

I love this challenge. Be very interesting to see the variety of figures you get in. It's amazing how much you can get done if you keep chipping away at something every day.

[GamesPoet]

Thank you!

Day 9 and 10 featured more paint on 40mm AWI.

It's all been a little bit at a time, but if I hadn't decided to give this a go, wouldn't have painted nearly as much, even though it has only been a small amount each day, and I'm only 10 days into it!

[Gankom]

The important thing is your getting paint on models! Sounds like you've already done tons to me.

[GamesPoet]

After 3 weeks, actually 23 days, haven't missed a day yet.  My sense is that's a good sign, sets the stage for the remainder of the 100 days, and unless there is something unforseen and unusual, I'll stay on target.

Day 11 through 23 has been all small bits on 40mm AWI.  I've increased the number that are being painted from 3 to a batch of 12.  Lots of detail work to go, but aiming to have all these done by end of August.

[GamesPoet]

Dredging this up again.

A long after and late update ... that 100 Days of Painting in 2015 was completed successfully.  It included the last three days being spent at the Fall-In! convention, and still getting painting in on each day of the convention.

My painting since last July has been almost non-existent, my efforts surrounding my business have taken significant priority.  Started in on five Westfalia halfmen over the holidays, and going to see if I can keep that project going.  Also finishing up some Perry Wars of the Roses figures to be used for part of a Lion Rampant army build, which will also include some of my Empire Knights, and the long ago converted from GW plastics mounted crossbows.

[GamesPoet]

Spent time cleaning off the painting table and throwing stuff out.  I hadn't used the spot in 6 or 7 maybe 8 months, and things had started to pile up on it.  Then I dug out some figures.

Have decided to upgrade the painting on 36 Perry WotRs figures, 5 Imperial Knights, and my 6 Imperial mounted crossbows all for immediate use with Lion Rampant.  I've got my eye on my initial 5 Westfalia halfmen, as well as painting shield designs on 24 Greek mercenaries.  Then there are the groupings of 3, 3, and 4 Persian cavalry figures that need some additional green stuff in places, primed, and then painted, too.

[GamesPoet]

This month has seen me painting my first 5 Westfalia halfmen.  I typed up a little fluff regarding these 5 guys somewhere and need to find it and maybe post it here.  I'm going with an aqua blue/green color, and eventually some sort of yellow, as the units colors, plus a badge of some sort.  These figures seem to be more of a late medieval/early renaissance feel, and I'm looking forward to when Westfalia might put out their line of landsknecht halfmen.

I also started in on a single skeletal warrior, a figure I picked up in a sale bin a little ways back, just because I liked it, and now am experimenting with painting him.  I dug out a wizard that I started a ways back as a cross between two Imperial types for a minor character in the W-E campaign called Treachery and Greed, and looking to see if I can finish him, but discovered I may need to use some green stuff to smooth out the crack acros his back where the left arm/left side piece connect to the rest of the figure, before painting him further.  And I also pulled out my original great cannon for upgrading a bit, and another one that was only primed, plus two lighter cannons that need further painting, that I used as Galloper Guns back in the day.

[GamesPoet]

Here's the fluff on the 5 halfmen ...

Hagar Crowchaser ... An orphan, the nuns gave him the last name after watching him in their vegetable fields.

Barnabus "The Bold" Burrberry ... Comes from a long line of valient swordsmen, and grape growers.

Commander Milo "The Giantslayer" Loamsdown ... took down a maurading giant, sneaking up from behind of course.

Oliver Needlepool ... He is the company's tailor, carries their banner, and wears a mustache.

Englehardt Hornblower ... Not only the company musician, but their cook, too!

[Warlord]

Need pictures GP!

I want to see the giantslayers.
And the grape grower!