Thanks! Doing it that way is a LOT of work though. I think there are more than 15 hours of work in the paint of the howdah alone. At times I felt as if I wasn't progressing at all. If I ever build another Stegadon I will not make it that variable/complex I think. Oh and btw: Magnet count on the model if you count all variants: 56 at the moment. Might be 60 or so in the end.
This is your FIRST model ever painted ?? This is really beautiful ! Oh man, you should have seen mine ! *will post a pic at some point that I ll create my personal paint blog !*
This is amazing ! May I ask how hard did you find to magnetize it as an inexperienced person with magnetizing? I have NEVER tried it myself but I wanna do it in order to have more options. Any tips ? Is there a place you 'd propose me to study for it?
The color scheme is awesome. You even used shades instead of simple paints and besides the awesome result it took you less time. I feel bad about myself right now
I'll write a short report about my experiences with that soon. IMO it isn't that hard once you know a few things. I had great luck, a few guys in my local GW shop told me a few of those things and I found out a fee myself before I caused major damage.
Brilliant ! May I ask how do your colors become so bright ?? Or is it just the quality of Army Painter that I 've never tried so far??
I think there are two main factors to that. One is light. Under normal light those don't look quite as bright, the light box does a good job there. The other is the colors. For the stuff I want really bright I do the following: - prime white, and if it was already primed, then add a white coat. It should be thick enough to cover so that you cannot tell the color below it anymore. If necessary do two coats. The Army Painter white is pretty good, but I think GW's Praxon White would do the job just as fine. - paint your light color, like light green or yellow. - be careful with your shades. Thin them if necessary. - optionally do some drybrushing in a similar light color I mostly use white primer now. For dark colors black is as fine, but I find it easier to work from bright to dark than vice versa.
I always prime black; I find it more forgiving. I once primed white and it was a disaster! I don't think I have the adequate level of skill required to pull off white priming. However, many of the best painters I've spoken to use almost exclusively white primer.
I bought a can of Corax White (GW White Primer), shook it for a couple minutes, wasn't humid or hot weather, treated it just like my black primers -- ended up going on chalky and with a texture. I know there are other primer brands and options, but that one experience made me "ruin" a Ghostkeel -- I painted over it, but it still kept that grainy/sandy/chalky texture. Won't be going back to white primer anytime soon unfortunately. I've been using black primer (either GW's or rustoleum) and been happy, but thought about trying a Grey primer but haven't gotten around to it yet.
That really sucks; it must have been extremely frustrating. I've been lucky in that regard, never really suffered from that issue as of yet (knock on wood). I've switched over to Army Painter black primer and I've been tremendously pleased with it. I've been thinking of using some sort of combination of primers (black, grey, white) via my airbrush (which I have yet to use).
I'm legit so jealous of the progress you've made in such a short time. Im sure in another year your models will look ten times as good as any of mine judging from how fast youre learning and improving. Seems like you've found a style for yourself as well, sortve leaning towards bold, deep colours with massive contrast. I can't wait to see the steg all done and magnetized too, still can't get over how many damn magnets went into the one kit tho lol Colours/10
Many thanks! The things I found out about painting: In the early days I did something wrong (well, wrong for me, it might be fine for others). I just took the brush and paint and started to do something. A talented person can do a lot that way I think. My problem with that is that I am not very artistically talented. My results in arts were always quite bad. Bad or at best mediocre grades in school when something had to be painted. I even remember this one incident when I brought another painting home from school which, yeah, sucked I guess. I don't remember the painting but I remember my mother shrugging and saying "well, you've never been good at painting". Then I developed a tremor in my hands (actually my hands are fine, it is my thumbs that quiver. No problem with that, the only thing it affects is when I must precisely handle small things - or draw/paint something) and I guess that sealed it. At some point I just accepted it and didn't draw or paint something again (except technical stuff using rulers and so on). It wasn't a major problem either, because my strengths are with logic, handling computers and all that stuff. Years went by. I went studying and discovered stuff like vector graphics on the PC. I was intrigued because it didn't matter that I lacked precision, I could just zoom in further and the PC smoothened the lines, it also allowed me to just erase or correct single lines or colors many times to make them look good. I made some interesting stuff that way, like Logos and T-shirts and website stuff. There was still something missing though. I noticed I can draw something using a PC if I had a decent picture of it right in front of me or a place to start from, like an existing picture to manipulate. But I am still not a person that you tell to draw a bird and then they create something from their mind. Even on a PC I can only draw XKCD style stuff without at least a template. But I noticed one important thing during that time: there are aspects of painting (and arts in general) that are just knowledge that can be learned. Techniques (for example how to hold a goddamn brush) and theory of how human perception works (color contrasts with a color wheel for example) and quite some more stuff. I had no need to paint anything so I kinda forgot about it, but when I started this hobby and wondered if I could paint those models without being too ashamed of them, I remembered that knowledge can make up for a lot of lack of skill. So the first thing I did, while still contemplating if I wanted to start wargaming and which army I would pick, was starting to gather knowledge. I watched YT videos and read blog posts, and learned some very valuable lessons that way. I knew that of cause that practise was also going to be a huge factor to become a decent painter, but I figured that I could avoid a lot of mistakes by learning the parts that depend on knowledge, not talent, before starting, to compensate. I learned some very valuable lessons there, like - thin your paints properly - using a wet palette can help - let the model help you with the lines by using the correct brush and holding it at a correct angle. - don't actually paint some details that are too small for you, use inks/washes/shades that will fill the crevices automatically for you, drybrushing takes care of raised surfaces - analyze the model. It tells you things about the materials, giving hints for possible colors. - look at contrasts and how you want to use them: brightness contrast, color contrast (use that wheel!), detail contrast (you know, detailed areas vs. less detailed areas) Those and others are not dependent on talent, you can just learn them. Up to a certain level talent can make up for lack of knowledge and - more important for me - vice versa. So a big shout out to guys And gals like Atom Smasher, Joey Berry, the Terrain Tutor, Warchef Ändi, Mini Creative Art Painting, Doctor Faust's Painting Clinic, Next Level Painting, Spikey Bits, and Warhammer TV. And also thanks to y'all here at the forums! There are SO many inspiring projects here, helpful posts how to do stuff, lessons to learn from successful and failed experiments, and a whole lot of pics of good models to use as templates for my own work. So that's how I do stuff. And yeah, I already improved a lot. I am sure I will never belong to the group of really good painters, those need considerable knowledge AND talent. But I already surpassed all my expectations and that makes me happy. With a little bit (or a a lot) of additional practice I will improve a bit more, and that's a level I can more than just live with. Ok, now back to painting, I have some projects to finish.
I completely agree with the above. When I learned to thin properly and how to make an easy reusable wet palette (thanks to TT Minions) my efficiency went up 10 fold. It also helped painting too, but mostly efficiency. I can support Atom, Doctor Faust, Next Level/Long War/Spikey (although I can only tolerate so much of them at one time), and of course Warhammer TV. It's amazing the amount of resources we have available these days for our hobby, something even 5 years ago, definitely 10, was mainly word of mouth or figuring it out yourself. It's one of the best times to be apart of this hobby.
I guess you meant "a part of this hobby" And yes you´re totally right, I started in 2010 (7 years already!) and I have to say that my knowlegde and therefore quality has improved gradually , something like a parabola ( ). And I´m sure one of the causes for this change is the time I´ve spent watching Youtube videos, they really help a lot
I had the same issue with my can of GW white primer. Used it on skeletons and they came out like shit. Never using it again... I only prime using airbrush now.
I've yet built up the courage and confidence, and researched enough, to get an airbrush. It's on my list, still lots to learn with my brush for now.
It's not as scary as you think, I bought a Iwata setup but I also have 2 £15 airbrushes I use for primer and base coat, they are fine for that, I 've not used mine a lot but when you do it is so fast compared to a brush.
I love GW's Chaos Black, but its so expensive. I haven't found a decent substitute. I think I'm too afraid to screw up my models more than saving money. Which is.. highly irrational. Oh well ;___;