I suppose that Jon would be the best person to ask this of, but someone else
might know the answer as well: How was the ship on the cover of More Thrust
painted? The panels are far too smooth, and the lines seem far too regular, to
be the result of drybrushing. My guess is that the panel lines
were individually picked out, either with a brush or a fine-point pen,
but I am hoping otherwise. I could manage that on a *few* ships, but doing
that to an entire fleet would drive me mad--and I really like the way
that it looks.
> On 2/26/99 7:35 PM John Crimmins wrote:
> I suppose that Jon would be the best person to ask this of, but someone
I'm not Jon but some of my recent paint jobs on FT minis comes out looking
about that smooth. I start with a base color, use a watered down ink in the
panel lines and then slowly dry apply dry brushing (about three to four
levels) starting with the base color and progressively getting lighter. The
secret is to go over the same area with multiple strokes of the same color.
Each stroke is so light (in touch as well as
amount of paint) that it takes a number of them to deliver any noticeable
color to the area in question. With this gradual build up everything seems to
gradually blend and look a bit more nature in effect.
I realize that I've just described the basics of dry brushing (sorry to
those who got bored) ;-). I found my most common mistake was trying to
rush the dry brushing processes. Once I slowed down things seemed to
fall into place - that and the brush manufactures love me as I'm going
through brushes faster than ever now.
> At 11:48 PM -0800 2/26/99, Kevin Walker wrote:
I am neither Jon nor Kevin. However I must agree with Kevin as to the
importance or drybrushing as a technique, particularly for the
well-textured figure such as the average starship.
Don't rush. Use plenty of layers of very fine drybrushing. Don't spare the
brush. If you plan to apply a wash, go lighter in shades as the process
procedes.
Enjoy.
> I suppose that Jon would be the best person to ask this of, but someone
The FT108 on the MT cover was painted by Dave Garnham (who now works for us at
GZG), many years ago. As far as I can remember, it was painted overall blue
and then each raised panel individually painted in white (with a
brush), which is the way Dave likes to do ships - yes, it's a slow
method but one that gives very good results. Much neater than the reverse
method you mention above. If anyone wants more tips I can ask Dave about it on
Monday!
> At 05:42 PM 2/27/99 +0000, you wrote:
Thanks, and that was what I had expected to hear. Any furhter details
would be great, though. I currently use the ever-popular "Spraypaint
the base color, and then drybrush" method, which works but could be better. On
the other hand, it's resulted in a lot of painted ships, so I have no real
room for complaint. I've ended up with a lot of really spectacular looking
merchant and commercial ships, because I can spend a lot of time making them
look good without having to do it over and over again. I'll have to try Kevin
Walker's technique, though, and spend some more time doing multiple coats when
I drybrush.
On a semi-related note, has anyone come up with a Sa'Vasku paint scheme
that they'd like to share? I've got a whole bunch of them now, and I'm not
sure how to approach them. I'm going to grab some books about insects and
crustaceans from work tomorrow, and see if I can find any inspiration there,
but it's always good to hear suggestions from others.
> John Crimmins wrote:
...Snip...JTL
> On a semi-related note, has anyone come up with a Sa'Vasku paint
John, From bottom to top. 1) Very dark brown. 2) Dark brown. (chocolate) 3)
Medium brown. 4) Yellow brown. 5) Yellow. 6) Pale yellow. All of the above are
flat colors, for the 'knob' on the carrier and 'exhaust'
areas use a semi-gloss medium brown.
For the last 1/4 inch of less of the spines.
7) Very dark red. 8) Red. 9) Bright red.
All the steps, except the base coat (#1), are dry brushed in progressively
lighter applications.
Note: I normally bend the tips of the spines down about 1/16
of an inch to get a 'grasping hand' look.
Bye for now,
G'day John,
Jon (GZG) in answer to John:
> The FT108 on the MT cover was painted by Dave Garnham (who now works
I did something similar with my FSE. Base coat black, hevay dry/wet
brush of royal blue then indiviually paint the panels in one of three
different shades of blue (patch-work like). Then pick out all the
arrows/
triangles/holes/engine interiors/some of those straight ridges in red,
and all lights and remaining straight ridges were white. Very time
consuming, but quite nice - even if I do say so myself ;)
John in answer to Jon (GZG):
> On a semi-related note, has anyone come up with a Sa'Vasku paint scheme
So far we've painted up to Sa'Vasku "fleets". First one (painted by Derek):
1. Undercoat/base coat with matt black
2. Dry brush entire body with orange 3 Dry brush outer edges of body and all
of the legs a lighter orange 4 Dry brush very edges of body plus legs
yellowy-orange
5. Starting about 3/4 way up leg for first
coat and then successively further down the leg for each coat after that dry
brush on dark yellow, yellow, ivory and white.
6. Pick out the bulgy-pustule-eye bits with
a solid colour (he used cream or red)
This looks pretty nitfty and doesn't take forever!
Second one (I painted it for a friend).
1. Undercoast/base coat with matt black.
2. Paint the entire body with deep blue
(navy blue - particularly Ral Patha's darkest
blues).
3. Paint the legs + small areas between the
legs (like webbing in webbed feet) + any
big spheres on the main body - like on the
"mothership" - + inside
of "u" bits on the tail end of the critters (well
I thought they were the tail end) + any deep
crevasses - like the ones which run across
the middle of the smaller ones - a very deep
purple. 4. With progressively lighter shades of purple
(I used 2 shades - 2 citadel purples) paint
along the ridges of the legs (sort of like concentric half ellipses) and
inside the "u" bits.
5. Using a purply-pink paint 1 set of veins on the
legs and body spheres., using a very bright (fluro or light pink) paint finer
veins on the legs and body spheres. 6. Pick out any of the knobbles on the
legs with a very light pink. 7. Paint the main body of the beast (except for
any
gills/deep holes etc.) a slightly lighter deep blue
(like citadels deep blue)
8. Paint (could dry-brush) the ridges/detail on the
body with bluey-grey (space wolf grey from citadel
I think it was) and then pick out the odd feature (like the rim around the big
sphere and a couple of the holes) with a very light bluey grey (another
citadel "grey").
9. Ink the legs purple - can add a little water to the
ink, but not much.
10. Ink the legs blue - once again not much water.
This looks good (very organic), but takes a while.
I wouldn't mind getting some Sa'vasku myself and use a scheme which is
essentially black with that irridescence effect you get
on beetle shells - yet to figure how to do that
with paint. Either that or you could always go for a "shadows" inspired
appearance (I must have
a thing for painting very fine lines with 20/0 brushes!!)
Anyway there's some ideas for you John. Have fun.
Cheers
Beth
> On a semi-related note, has anyone come up with a Sa'Vasku paint
[...]
> This looks good (very organic), but takes a while.
Aye yi yi, you guys are incredible. Me, I took the simplistic approach: base
coat grey, then painted over with metallic black. Very simple and
easy,. :-}
Mk
[snip]>
> On a semi-related note, has anyone come up with a Sa'Vasku paint scheme
> On a semi-related note, has anyone come up with a Sa'Vasku
Of all the *really* good ideas, has anyone got any pictures of their
creations...
G'day Tim,
> Of all the *really* good ideas, has anyone got any pictures
I don't know if ours rated as a *really* good idea or not, but we don't have
any picks anyway, sorry. Well no picks were you can tell what was being
photographed - I think Derek's hoping that given
I bought him a good camera last anniversary I'll get him a tripod this time
round...;)
Cheers
Beth