Reinforcements: Logan Grimnar

Continuing to get myself back into the hobby, I've been working on some commission jobs for a few friends.  To start things off I got cracking on a Logan Grimnar.  

Reinforcements: Falcon Guard Dante

Falcon Guard Count-As Dante

As a birthday gift to a good friend of mine, I started this model a while back.  Things of course didn't work to plan and I got side tracked for a good 9 months or so with school.  Well, classes are out now (only one more course to go!) and I am trying to get my legs back in the hobby.  It's been a while and most of this model was already finished it just needed some touch up and additional detailing.  Thankfully it wasn't a huge project to finish this guy up and it helped me gain a little of that fine brush control that I let go when I work on canvas paintings.  

It's just nice to be back :)

Friday Quick Tip: Sponge Weathering (Video)

Today I'm bringing you what I hope will become the first in many of the tips we've run here on The Painting Corps in video format.  There is a lot that might be getting lost in the translation from my table top, to text, to your table top.  So in an effort to help those who might be skittish about trying out some of the more fun techniques we've covered on TPC, I'll be going back and showing things as I do them.  The end result will hopefully be a more robust tip catalog and a more useful one!




It's not much to look at, no flashy intros and outros, but for now it'll do! I might go back in and add some things to the video to help with the breakdowns, but it gets the information out there, shows you how to do it, and gets you painting faster!

If you are newer to TPC and looking for some additional write up info on this method and a bunch of other weathering techniques that might help, be sure to check out the weathering tag.  If it's more videos you're in the market for, you can check out TPC's youtube page for a few more offerings we've posted in the past.  There isn't a lot up yet, but here's to the future!

Thanks for watching, and if you have something you would love to see covered here on TPC, leave us a comment, or shoot us an email at ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com!

Open Discussion: The Army Painting Wall

Anyone who has painted, is in the process of painting, or just has painting an army on their mind knows just how hard it can be to get one finished.  It's hard to pin down just what it is that soaks up your motivation, but it always seems to happen.  The latest and hottest army release might have sparked all sorts of inspiration, research and planning, but once you're knee deep in the muck of it, your painting table starts to feel stagnant, the army in front of you in various stages of completion are no longer that super cool awesome force you saw months before on the internet.  How you get over that hump is always different from project to project and getting over it when it's your very first army is one of the most important things you'll ever accomplish in your hobby career! 

So how do you get through it?  It's not something that everyone can agree on how to go about, and it's going to haunt you every time you go forward, but 'the wall' has to be climbed if you're ever going to have a finished force to field.  Do you dig through the internet for some added pointers?  Go back through the army book a few more times to build your interest again?  Let them simmer on the back burner for a while as you paint something entirely different?  Play some games?  Get set up for a tournament? 

Your methods will vary and it's from those that everyone else can learn about a new way to slog through and get things done.  So, how do you get over the wall?

Friday Quick Tip: Iyaden Yellow

While working on my Angels Sanguine, I decided to take a stab at using Iyaden Darksun to lay down my yellows for the helmets.  I didn't want the deep dark yellow that comes out of the pot but also wanted the depth that working up to a highlight gives me.  Yellow in almost every other fashion of paint is nothing but a pain to work with.  I found myself enjoying working with Iyaden Darksun unlike anything previous and managed to get a nice bright looking yellow that has plenty of shade left after the final highlight! 

Friday Quick Tip: Wet Palette Improvement

From the Yup, Still Friday Department...

Many moons ago, I shared the cheap wet palette that Mathieu Fontaine used in his classes.  I have been using this wet palette since we hosted Mathieu for a Masterclass in Austin (mostly because I had plenty of plates left over).  Some of the comments asked about the long-term cost effectiveness of this palette because some of the elements are disposable.  It turns out that the plastic plates are quite durable, but I am often replacing the paper towel base as the paper stiffens and reduces its ability to hold water.  I'm always on the lookout to make it better, while still keeping it cheap.

How To: Painting Dark Eldar Mandrakes

In Part 1 I went through preparation of Dark Eldar Mandrakes and here's the companion to that article that covers a little of my painting thought process and actually getting them painted.

Field Report: Painting Mantis Warriors

With this coming Tuesday being the due date for my transfer application, to say that my hobby time has been lacking is a slight understatement.  Luckily, my network of hobby friends runs nice and deep with a ton of great stuff coming out all the time! 

Today I'm bringing another faction from the Badab War to your attention, The Mantis Warriors.  My friend daKing has been a renegade commander for a few years now when Bell of Lost Souls Badab War campaign book was just starting to come together.  In one of his latest posts on his blog daKINGsays he breaks down his method for painting his force. 

Head over, check it out, and leave him some comment love!  If you've got a good link for the Badab War, shoot it to us at ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com so we can feature and share it with everyone here! 

Friday Quick Tip: Space Wolves Armor

Having always wanted a Space Wolves army of my own for over a decade now, the past three weeks I've been hard at work creating a quick and clean old school force that satisfies that need once and for all!  Over that short span, I've been able to create a simple recipe that isn't going to steal your precious hobby time!

I've been using Rustoleum Grey sand-able auto primer as my undercoat.  I've also premixed two of the ratio steps in old empty paint pots.  If you're going to be painting an army of these guys, there's no reason to not have these colors premixed and ready to go to help save time! 

To start off I did a base color of Shadow Grey.  This lays down a good deep color to build from and work around to create the shadows.  But to add an extra touch of shade, I used Devlin Mud to deepen the shadows a touch more.  Don't go overboard with the Devlin Mud, just enough to fill in joints and deep areas.  It also helps make transitions look smoother between areas of the model that might otherwise have the primer showing through! 

The actual base armor color is a 50/50 mix of Shadow Grey/Space Wolves Grey.  The mix goes on very easily and covers on nearly a single pass.  The trick is to take your time around joins and detail allowing a little of the shade colors to show through.  This part is likely the most time consuming of all the steps as your hand needs to be steady and your model stable so you don't ruin the work you laid down prior.  Should you muddy up something, don't fret too much, just grab the Devlin Mud and do a little touch up until it's defined again.

To start the highlights I used a 25/75 mix of Shadow Grey/Space Wolves Grey.  This step came from necessity as I originally tried to jump straight to Space Wolves Grey but found the change too harsh from one color to the next.  Having this thicker line highlight helps to soften the transition and create an extra level of polish. 

To finish the armor off I used pure Space Wolves Grey to line the edges of the armor.  Keep the lines very think and don't go too heavy with it as it can easily overpower all of the subtleties worked in from the previous step.  Another small tip would be not to line every single edge but to pick and choose a few major features to help create the depth and drive focus.  

I have a really big soft spot in my hobby heart for this old school clean and bright looking armor.  It's nostalgic, but also very striking on the battlefield.  Here's to seeing more Wolves around the net in the future!

Field Report: Dante's Painting Tips

Our good friend CMDante has put together a post full of painting tips on his blog Dante's Inferno.  Things like brush care, holding sub-assemblies, wet palettes and brush selection are covered with some quick ideas on each. 

My favorite tips from the bunch are the use of larger brushes and the brush stroke directions.  These are two things you really don't think of as major factors when you're painting a model, but they are important to saving time and creating smooth looking blends and surfaces. 

It's back to the painting table for me.  Anyone have any other good quick general painting tips?  Ideas that might not have been covered in Dante's post?  Seen a good tutorial on blends lately?  A video to share?  Leave a comment with a link!  Share share share!

Video: Painting Death Guard

Les comes back this week with another great video with yet more cool ideas for painting your models quickly and efficiently.  Those of you looking to do Death Guard would be well served checking this video out, though be forewarned that much of the paint work is done via an airbrush.




The big kicker for this video is the gloss varnish/alcohol clean up trick.  I really really really like that idea for tabletop model completion speed.  I've seen similar done with scale model tanks and oil washes before but never a 25mm infantry type model. I really feel like this could work on a variety of models with some practice. 

If you're not wise to the ways of the airbrush just yet, you really should consider picking one up if you've got a little extra hobby funding.  The time saved on something as simple as base color alone is worth a cheap rig.  If you're uncertain what you should be looking for in an airbrush, be sure to check out our series of airbrushing articles. 

The techniques used in this video could be used on a variety of different models, especially other Chaos Marines Legions, it just comes down to picking out a color recipe!  Any ideas for other models you might make good use of some of the things picked up from watching the video?

Video: Dark Eldar Last Hatred

Les brings another scheme from Codex Dark Eldar to video for those looking for inspiration for your new army. Many of the same techniques as from the last with updated colors for the Last Hatred Kabal. I really want to give his blood splattering a try!

Full view, HD it! Watch, learn, enjoy!  Be sure you head over to Les' youtube site and check out all the other great videos he's put together!

Breakdown: Sons of Medusa Desert Support

 
I've been meaning to do some "How To"'s on the Sons of Medusa for a long time now, but unfortunately, I just haven't gotten around to it.  I've had a lot of folks ask how I paint them over the last year or so and I thought I would take some time to at least put the colors down in one place for them.

Video: Painting Dark Eldar

Getting back into the swing of things, I thought it would be a good time to feature a great looking painting video from LBursley!  I think the results on this one are pretty great looking.  Very slick, very dangerous looking.  I'm also a big fan of the basing method, pigments are a great way to go for a quick and great looking base.

Give the video a watch, and don't forget to watch it in full HD!

Anyone have a Dark Eldar force coming up at the moment? Any insights into modeling or painting the army? It's one of the most intriguing looking forces of the last few years and I look forward to the first time I get to play a fully painted force!

Friday Quick Tip: Black Battle Damage

 I don't know how many times I've been asked "What would you use for black armor?" whenever I've shared any info on chipping or weathering tanks and other armored models.  It's always been hard for me to give a straight answer for people since, well, I don't have an army of predominantly black armor!  To that end, I've decided that I would share a few swatch examples of black with different colors of battle damage I've comped together in Photoshop. 

These swatches all share the same basic elements.  They're all black with bone highlights.  The highlight color is really up to you and what you would normally use for your armor, in my case, I use bone for my Sons of Medusa and have used that on the Battle Damage I've done in the past! 

Orange-Brown

Orange

Camo Green

 Dark Grey

Metallic

You should take the ones that look most promising to you and do some test pieces for your models before getting too hot and heavy with weathering your models!  I hope this helps those of your who've been struggling to come up with a good battle damage color and possibly inspires others to give the technique a go yourself!  

Anyone have any great new weathering ideas or links?  I've been out of the hobby a while and am looking for a lot of inspiration to get my brush going again! 

Friday Quick Tip: Crimson Fists Video

 Les has put out another great Space Marine video, this time painting Crimson Fists!  I've always loved the deep blue of the chapter, and here Les is doing them some serious justice.  HD, Full Screen!

Watch, learn, try something new! Good to see some more painting videos coming from our buddy Les! Hope the video finds you all well today, and in time for that new project we were just talking about earlier this week!

Open Discussion: NMM vs TM

You might have heard of a little term 'Non-Metallic Metals' or maybe if you've been in the right circles as of late 'True Metallics'.  Every few years a new term is coined for a new style of painting metals it seems.  For me, it's a wonderful progression of techniques that mixes and melds elements together to create a new idea for modeler/painters to mull over for the aesthetic of their models. 

So which is best?  Most people tend to favor what they can get better results with from their own brush.  Others tend to love that which they can't emulate on their own.  This personal bias can come into play heavily when you're viewing models for a painting contest, especially when you're judging one! 

I present this question to the community:  What do you find more pleasing to your aesthetic sensibilities?  Have any amazing examples to link to?  Why do you enjoy one over the other?  Or if you like them both, what do you enjoy seeing each technique being used on? 

Leave your comments, have a discussion, and don't be afraid to reply to each others thoughts.  Opinions are best when fully realized through thorough thought provoking discussion after all!

Friday Quick Tip: Ork Skin Video

I have really taken to filming my painting sessions.  It's given me a nice new outlet to share tips and tricks with.  It's also a great way to learn how to edit video!  Today I bring a tip from my latest footage, painting Ork skin.

To preface, I never approach a models skin the same way twice.  I've made mention of my love of variety with skin tones before, and have made more headway in that effort with my Orks.  With each boy, nob and warboss, I've played around with the colors on a whim, never really bothering to remember or write down just how I got to a finished skin tone.  But with that in mind, I thought it would be a good way to show the process by filming as I painted my latest Ork model. 

They're set at double speed, with queues for colors used, so it shouldn't be too hard to follow!  With that in mind, give the videos a watch! 









You might notice that at one point I go to using a watered down Bleached Bone, though I found it to be a little too strong for where I was at with the model.  I ended up using a 50/50 mix of Bleached Bone/Goblin Green instead and did a final highlight of pure bleached bone.  It worked out better, and faster, than it would have had I not used the mix. 

The matt varnish is used to knock out some of the shine.  I still think he could go for another hit of it, but will wait until the model is finished and do a complete spray of the model with the airbrush instead of painting it on.  Using washes will leave you with a lot of shine, so be prepared to kill it off.

I really dig some of the music I'm finding on youtube!  I hope you enjoyed the videos and here's to it helping a few of you out there!  I'd love some feedback as well, let me know what you think!

Video: Painting Fur

Took some video while I tested out some different fur colors the other day on my beastman. Gave it a quick edit to try my hand at some video editing. I'm still getting my legs with the program, but I suspect I'll have the hang of things soon enough and the videos will look all the better for it!

It's double speed with queues so it should be easy enough to follow. I went without sound for now, still working out how to edit music and voice in. So throw on some music and give it a watch!



Materials used:
Size 4 round watercolor synthetic brush
Vallejo Model Color and Games Workshop paints
Wet palette
Liquitex Flow Aid

There was a focus issue early on in the video, but I kept it because it shows the use of the palette well. Plus it's just washing!

Be sure to watch it at 480p! Let me know what works for you and what doesn't. I want to make these better with each video!

Saturday Video: Paints

Yesterday found me too busy/occupied to get anything worked up for a quick tip, so today we check out a video by LBursley about different paint types.  If you've only ever used Citadel paints, this might be a great video for you to check out and learn about the alternatives available to you!




Use what works best for you, but keep in mind the techniques you are using and the projects most appropriate for each!

I'm finding ways to make video a more prominent part of TPC, but it's going to take time to get it right!