Hi Guys,
Talked to wife, and should be getting some GZG ships for Christmas. I just
need some tips as to how to paint them. My last attempt didn't work out that
well.
I want to stick with a base color for each main power (ESU, NAC, NSL, FSE)
which went well enough. But tried to apply a black ink wash which didn't work
out as well.
I'll end up reapplying a base coat to the older ones, and apply primer and a
base coat to the newer ones. I still plan on trying to do a wash on them to
add some shadow. But other than that, I'm looking for ideas. Something simple
that I can apply uniformly across a main power. Nothing too elaborate, but
something that will look nice on a tabletop that won't take hours per ship to
paint. (Hours being relative... I know some of you can work minor miracles on
figures in 15 minutes. I don't have that level of skill......)
So I'm looking for ideas, hints and tips. Pictures of other craft
and/or painting guides would be appreciated. Even if it's just how to
better apply a wash. (I have the recipe for 'magic wash' from the list, but I
think I went bad by adding too much ink to it.)
I know this is a vague request. I'm not even sure myself what I'm looking for.
So for now, I'm just looking....
Thanks a bunch. Hope all your holidays are happy. Hope to see a bunch of you
at ECC.
PoorPainting-R-I, as I was very satisfied with the simple dark green,
EE(tm), base coat with simple hand painted insignia for my ESU. Went for the
WWII CCCP tank look...
However, a friend had fair luck with basing black, heavy drybrushing dark
gray, and light drybrushing light gray, though I thought it looked a BIT
chalky after the last, for his NSL. He had some waterslide iron crosses that
worked well.
My one pride-of-ship-painting goes back to old Superior Terran ships.
Simple diagonal stripes mid-ship worked VERY well with the flying
wedges. Prolly work, as well, for FSE. I liked a very light color for a base
coat,
and then same side of cool/warm color divide. I had almost sky blue
base,
then dark blue and purple/maroon for the stripes.
Wish I'd known about washes, back then...
Something to think about until a real painter replies. ;->=
I do think you may need to thin any wash you may do; my limited observation is
that, for something like spaceships, it should be almost invisible until dry,
and then, very subtle. Unless, of course, you are going for the gothic space
look.
The_Beast
Mike Hudak wrote on 12/04/2007 09:16:28 AM:
> Hi Guys,
I can't advise from personal experience because I've never been a good painter
myself ("acceptable wargame standard", that's me!), but from the ones that
I've seen done by other folks I'd say the best technique is basecoat, then a
wash, then pick out as many individual
panels and details as you have the time/patience for, some with the
base colour and some with a lighter shade of it. The wash gives darker areas
between the highlighted panels, bringing them into sharp relief, but doesn't
give the ship too much of an overall "grimy" look like an overall topcoat wash
can do. If you want to drybrush, do it VERY sparingly just to bring up the
edges of panels.
Best,
Jon (GZG)
> PoorPainting-R-I, as I was very satisfied with the simple dark green,
I
> just need some tips as to how to paint them. My last attempt didn't
I
> know some of you can work minor miracles on figures in 15 minutes.
I
> don't have that level of skill......)
I'd agree with Jon's suggested painting techniques.
Most painters put the wash on way too thick. It looks cool when wet but dries
all over the model and makes it look dirty.
I recoomend making a wash out of inks, thin then about 4-1 with water
and maybe use a mizture of black and brown ink. So maybe 4 parts water to 1
part brown ink and 1 part black ink. You might also put a drop of detergent
in. This breaks the surface tension and helps the wash stay in the cracks.
When applying the wash apply it in the deepest recesses.
There are also articles on making up a dip often making use of arcane
ingredients like floor polishes. This allows you to dunk the model in and
shake off the excessl and voila it's done.
Here's a link to our club's forum article on dipping
http://www.warlords.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=82
I'd look on star ranger for iedeas about painted minatures.
Hi Mike,
> I want to stick with a base color for each main power (ESU, NAC, NSL,
<snip>
> So I'm looking for ideas, hints and tips. Pictures of other craft
I'm no expert painter, but I've put up some photos of ships I've painted
here:
http://billinghurst.spalding.gen.nz/Webstuff/frontframe.html
Check out the Starship Combat: Full Thrust link, and then look in New Full
Thrust Ships, Stellar Conquest campaign (though only the 4th Battle of Cephei
has photos), or Gallery pages. Also off the main page is a link to Model
Making and from there to my Modelling log which has comments on what colours
I'm using on my ships.
Like you, I've gone for a simple base colour for each fleet and then detailed
to suit. I don't use washes or other frippery:)
Hope this helps.
> Hudak, Michael wrote:
<snip>
> So I'm looking for ideas, hints and tips. Pictures of other craft
<snip>
Hi Mike,
Pictures of my GZG ships are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/scotherns/FullThrust
Most of them took hours each (I'm very slow at painting), so I can't give you
many tips for getting a fleet painted quickly. The exception is
the Kra'Vak - I specifically decided to do these fairly fast, with a
very different look. I was aiming for a dark, menacing, glowing-green
effect. They were done as follows:
1) Prime black 2) Drybrush white all over 3) Apply (undiluted) green ink all
over 4) Apply very dilute black ink all over 5) Paint a few of the panels
brass
You have to let each stage dry before doing the next of course.
Cheers,
Steve
________________________________________________________________________
____________________________
This email (and any attachments) is private and confidential, and is intended
solely for the addressee. If you have received this communication in error
please remove it and inform us via telephone or email. Although we take all
possible steps to ensure mail and attachments are free from malicious content,
malware and viruses, we cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any
changes to content outwith our administrative bounds. The views represented
within this mail are solely the view of the author and do not reflect the
views of the organisation as a whole.
> -----Original Message-----
Why on earth why you paint a starship this way ? Oh, wait... :-)
My painting technique, especially for ships, is to start with black primer,
and drybrush layers of successively lighter shades until the overall effect is
what I'm looking for. The drybrush dries faster, so you can mass produce
miniatures, and you never end up with a muddy wash. A couple of shades of grey
with a few areas picked out in color works very well and paints up very
quickly.
A good drybrush technique involves a small amount of paint on the brush, with
the bulk of it promptly wiped off on something dry and with some texture
(paper towel, palette with layers of dried paint, etc). Done with a wide brush
you can get a layer onto a ship of any size in relatively few strokes. The
first layer or two will look awful, just streaky dark grey over black, but
once the middle layer goes on and the highlights start popping out it looks
great. Pick out some details and you have a good paint job in minutes per
miniature.
You'll have a hard time producing the quality and quantity you get with
drybrushing with a wash-based technique. I'll get some pictures online
in a week or so when I get around to finishing a batch of BSG ships.
I'll use a wash in certain circumstances, like any large smooth colored area,
but when I do I prefer acrylic inks to anything else (thanks Citadel!).
Thinning paint produces terrible washes.
> Thinning paint produces terrible washes.
If you put a drop of detergent in the water you thin with, it really helps. My
oldest figures are all dirty, with just thinned paint that looked good while
wet. A drop of dish detergent in the jar of water that I'll use to thin (so
the actual wash gets a very tiny amount of detergent in it) helps a lot.
But I think the drybrush is more important for spaceships.
I actually prefer the dirty oily look of my ships. Makes them look like
they've seen a lot of action.
--Greg
> From: john tailby [mailto:John_Tailby@xtra.co.nz]
> So I'm looking for ideas, hints and tips. Pictures of other craft
A quick and dirty way, which definitely won't win any prizes but I think
gets an acceptible job for play, is to use staining gels from a craft store.
The gels are in the same 2oz bottle as the Folk Art/Delta/Americana
paints. I've painted a color light base coat, coat with gel and wipe off. It
fills the grooves, you can do artsy things like vary how you wipe it of to get
the effects like having passed through atmosphere, then pick out details in
different color paints. The gel gets thinner as it dries, so it doesn't look
like you puttied up the engraved lines. I find the gels more controllable than
washes. This method gets a fleet done in a couple hours to what I feel is an
acceptible table top level.
If your looking to lavish love, then you've gotten plenty of good advice
already.
I tend to have "show piece" fleets and "table top" fleets, depending on who
your playing with, how many, and where.
> From: Stephen Scothern wrote:
Oh My God
That's it, I'm not painting anymore - where's the turps?
:)
> davebill wrote:
Glad you like them :-) If you hadn't added the smiley, I would have
felt quite bad about your reply!
It does take me a long time to do each ship, and I have had more than 25
years practice.
Sadly, they have only ever been used in one actual game :-( I would
happily give up some of my painting time for game time if I could.
Cheers,
Steve
________________________________________________________________________
____________________________
This email (and any attachments) is private and confidential, and is intended
solely for the addressee. If you have received this communication in error
please remove it and inform us via telephone or email. Although we take all
possible steps to ensure mail and attachments are free from malicious content,
malware and viruses, we cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any
changes to content outwith our administrative bounds. The views represented
within this mail are solely the view of the author and do not reflect the
views of the organisation as a whole.
Ok buddy, here in Oz we have a Cabbots wood stain and varnish in one, now i
use the very dark walnut stain for my space ship's, mixed with some
thinners, I was put onto this by a plastic 1/72nd painting blog in New
Zealand, but in very neatly details the ship and cut's painting time for me in
half. They did mention what they use in the States but i cant remember.
My FSE ships are yellow- cowards
My NSL ships are german field grey. a proper colour My NAC ships are standard
grey with orange and blue and red high lightened panels and engines. My ESU
are done the same green as the New version of the klingon ships from startrek.
james
[quoted original message omitted]
Here's a tip if you want them really dirty then paint a love bite/ hicky
on the side of your ships.lol
It was lame I know sorry.
james
> I actually prefer the dirty oily look of my ships. Makes them