What painting technique is next? (Pic attached)

[Eladimir]

I currently own quite a few old version saurus simply painted and I end up with these new saurus I'm going to paint as temple guards. Tonite I getting some bone white to do the head plates and spines.
What I've been stuck on is what do about the bodies. I base coated them with Army Green Spray for an easy all over green now I'd like to add some depth/highlight. From what I read online would applying a wash slip some colour into the cracks of the scales. or should i just try and pain the top of the scales.

Would a black wash look to dark? Other washes are pretty dim shaded, I could thin the crap out of a brighter colour and try washing with that? Thoughts on what to do next?

 

[Infyra]

I think a wash of Thraka Green if you are using the GW washes would help bring out the detail you'd be looking for.

 

[Eladimir]

Thanks for the idea, went out and bought the auze blue wash from GW and its not exactly what I was looking for. I'll try the green

 

[n810]

If you highlighted/brybrushed with goblin green or another light green and then gave it a wash with the Thraka Green wash, I think you will be plesantly surprised at the results.

and you might want to wash the gold with Griffintone Sepia and Delvin mud, it gives it a nice aged gold look.

 

[Haemoglobin]

You could use a wash of a relatively dark green (Dark Angels Green) or a Snot Green wash with some black added to it. Just make sure to water it all down.

After that just go over it with layers of brighter green to the point where you feel good about the skintone.

 

[Eladimir]

Yeah I think I'll got get a green wash of some type and give that a try.
As for highlighting/drybrush suggested by n810, what does the highlighting mean, paininting every second scale or just part of each scale? Drybrushing I googled and I got a decent idea what that is.

Below are the results of the Auzue Blue wash (left) and unwashed (right) I assume I didn't thin it properly cause it more or less turned the model blue.

 

[n810]

Maybe this will help.
http://www.how-to-paint-miniatures.com/miniature_painting_drybrushing.html
It's a great site for beginer painters.

 

[RogueThirteen]

I actually like how that blue wash turned out, from what I can see. Though, a green might give the model a more consistent look.


I would use the green wash only on the scales and body of the Saurus (you can use Devlan Mud wash on the entire model at the end). Then, you can use a lighter color to drybrush the scales (a light green, yellow, or bone color would work well, depending on what you are looking for). Get some paint on the brush, run it across paper enough so the brush is mostly dry, then apply it to the scales lightly. The paint will unevenly stick to the raised scales and won't apply much to the body of the saurus. Coupled with the darker wash in the cracks between the scales, it will look great. Alternatively, you might even think of using a dark green (ie Dark Angels) to paint the scales and the spaces inbetween and around them. This will make the drybrushing even more pronounced and is the technique I've come to prefer for my skinks.


Once you've painted the whole model and its details, I'd think about washing the entire thing with Devlan Mud. It's darkish gray color gives a nice shadowy effect to the entire model, and will bring out facial details and the like quite nicely.

 

[Eladimir]

N810, thansk alot for that site its fantastic, and I reccommend it for anyone starting.
One last questions - Matte Spray Fixant/Sealer" is that an alternate to painting with varnish to protect the final product?

RougeThirteen, great suggestions thanks. Because i couldn't figure what to do to the model I did all the details first making the prospect of painting the whole body awkward. But the drybrushing I'd like to try since there are some areas that aren't well defined and the wash won't highlight

Final plan:
Wash with the blue abiet more thinned than previous
Drybrushing with a tertiary green, either yellow side or blue. I'll probably try one of each and see what that looks like.
Thanks for the help I'll be sure to post the final product

 

[MI_Tiger]

N810, thansk alot for that site its fantastic, and I reccommend it for anyone starting.
One last questions - Matte Spray Fixant/Sealer" is that an alternate to painting with varnish to protect the final product?

Matte Spray provides some protection on its own, but many people varnish to protect the miniatures then use matte spray to tone down the high-gloss look that varnish leaves. One word of caution with the matte spray - use it lightly or it will give your miniatures a cloudy look and obscure all your hard painting work.

Also, have you considered the dip method from Army Painter (www.armypainter.com). I've never tried it myself, but it looks like it would produce pretty good looking models with fairly minimal work.