Ask the Corps: Large Flat Surfaces

A Man and His Warjack

Simon writes: I think I'm a pretty solid painter for infantry sized models, but when I started painting my Khador 'jacks I realized that I was pretty clueless about how to highlight huge, open surfaces. So far nothing that I've done looks very good or convincing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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realgenius

Simon, I've had the exact same experience working on my Protectorate of Menoth warjacks. They have such large armor plates and shoulders, they just scream out for... something.

I like the look of your warjack and he's very neatly painted as is, although he could probably use a little more edge highlight for my taste. But since you are looking for something extra, here are a few suggestions for those huge, open surfaces.

1. Detail

Once you have a nice edge highlight of one or two shades, you really can add a lot to the appearance of large flat areas by adding some army specific details. Either free-handing a logo, squadron marking or name in those large areas really adds a lot of character to larger models.

If free-hand details make you uncomfortable you can easily make your own decals. My printing your own decals you can easily add script or logos to just about any model. For a free-hand "look" just use the decal as a guide and paint right over it.

2. Damage

Grey_Death recently posted a tutorial on battle damage that would be perfect for those armored plates of a Khador warjack. Just a little paint "damage will add a lot of depth to the huge, open surfaces. If you want to break out the modeling tools and damage that nice paint job you have already, you can go for a more exagerated battle damage.

3. Advance your skill

My guess is that you've come to this same place on a few different models; you've painted it, it looks good, but it needs something more. Now is a perfect time to start working on your wet blending skills and try and create a nice gradient effect across the large open spaces. Of course it is never going to work out the first time (or first few times) you try it, but you have to start somewhere. Check coolminiornot.com for a good wet blending article and give it a try on the green shoulders of your warjack.

You can see in the photo you sent where the light falls across the rounded part and that's right where I'd start the lighter color of the blend. Blend to a darker color on the front and back of the shoulder pad so that you can practice two blends in one area. Space Marine dreadnoughts also suffer from large, flat areas and you can see below what a nice effect the subtle color gradient can have on the overall look of the model.

It will take time and practice, but once you master the technique and paint consistency required for wet blending, everything else you add on (additional details or battle damage) will look that much better.

Good luck and don't forget to send us a picture of the final product of your work!
-Jim (realgenius)

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grey_death

Simon, I think Jim has hit a LOT of the high points when it comes to painting large flat spaces. Which makes my job much much easier!

A lot of folks come to large areas of armor plating and really draw a blank. Many just hit the edge highlighting and call it a day. But some see opportunities abound. And much of the opportunity I see in models like the Warjack are directly related to my love for weathering. I've posted about armor weathering on a few occassions in the past, and I think there is STILL much to be gleaned from those posts for many many people around the net.

Jim did hit one of my favorite new techniques by linking my Sponge Battle Damage tutorial above. I think this could work out VERY nicely for a model like this, and using some additional weathering, maybe something as simple as a grime and dirt drybrushing (Seen later in this tutorial), the model will boast that much more character. The great thing about many of these weathering ideas, is that you can easily add them to models you've had finished for some time now!

-Aaron (grey_death)

For those of you seeking answers to your modeling and painting questions, send them in to ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com and you might see your email featured here!

Friday Quick Tip: Priming with Gesso

I love Tamiya Fine Surface Primer. Not only does it prime well, but it has a great grey color that I love to paint over. I've found the grey helps me see the model details and shadows better than black or white. The one thing I don't love about it is the price. That, and the rest of the hassle of spray priming.

So when I read about priming with gesso I figured it was time to give it a try. My local art store even had a nice shade of grey that was just a hair browner than the neutral Tamiya grey I love. Plus it was cold and rainy outside, so it was a perfect time to try out a spray primer alternative.


Yup, under $4. And that's probably enough gesso to prime a dozen Space Marine Chapters or Eldar Craftworlds and maybe even enough for an Ork army.

Here's our favorite Librarian, ready for a prime:


After reading WeeToySoldiers, I was careful not to glob it on too thick. Even as "miraculous" as gesso is supposed to be, I didn't want to have to strip it all off if it obscured some details. Here is the first coat when wet:

And when dried:

You can see it is a little splotchy with bad coverage in some areas (bottom of the robe, toes and wrist). Reading the comments on the gesso posts I've found that there is a big difference between the white and black gesso. It seems that you get much better coverage with the black. Not surprisingly the grey is probably in-between. To get good coverage you need two thin coats. With the black, one coat is enough. With the white liquid gesso, you might need multiple coats.

I also did a quick prime of one thicker coat on some plastic Scouts. The thicker coat covers better, but obscured a little of the fine detail. If you are doing a big horde of Orks, one thicker coat will be fine.

And not all gesso is created equal. The stuff I got was fairly liquid, about the consistency of syrup. The gesso in this tutorial looks to be quite thick, almost like paste. I am sure that any type will work well, but you'll need to get it to the right consistency first.

So the bottom line on gesso: it is a good alternative for black primer for single or small batches of models. But like anything else regarding painting, it takes some practice to get used to. Believe it or not, priming is a painting skill just like any other: the more you do it the better you get at it. So get out there and get priming! (That's one step closer to being fully painted.)

Have you tried gesso? What color did you use and what were your results?

Lava Rock Asteroids

Working with some of the inspiration from last week and my Nebula tip, I went to work on creating some additional space terrain for my Battlefleet Gothic battles. And what better place to start than Asteroids!

I thought a few times about trying to use regular foam, and even did a few quick tests with some pink foam and bead foam. Neither worked out for the speed I was looking for. And then working from the idea of using real rocks, I came up with the perfect starting point, Lava Rocks!


The transformation was as simple as a few coats of spray paint. Starting with black spray paint as a basecoat.


After the black spray was completely dried, I found some dark grey spray and heavily dusted them on all sides.


Again, letting the last coat completely dry, I broke out my white spray paint to finish off the job with a very light dusting. This last step was done by spraying from about twice the distance away from the rocks.


Don't mind the blueish hue from the rocks in the last photo, it's simply the reflected light from the natural light from the open garage door. Which brings up another point, always spray paint with good ventilation!

That's it! They're ready to play! I'm definitely planning to do a good chunk more of these, as well as a variety of other terrain to include planets. Now I just need a full fleet to use!

Friday Quick Tip: Nebulas

With the Babad War Campaign build up that went down in 2009 from Bell of Lost Souls, I was bitten by the Battlefleet Gothic bug. It started out by just buying and painting up my Sons of Medusa Battle Barge "The Might of Heracles". As I started reading the rules for BFG, I began to feel the pull of BFG terrain, and I just couldn't help myself. After a quick trip to the local Hobby Lobby craft store, I was ready to start my table.

I knew I didn't want some boring just stars type starfield to battle over. So I broke out the spray paint and got to work!

You'll need a black cloth for this technique, so if you want a hard table for BFG, you're kind of out of luck on this technique, sorry! But I think a cloth cover for normal tables is probably best because BFG is definitely a flavor of the week game, and as such having a dedicated table seems a bit much! For my cloth I purchased an approximately 4'x6' foot section of Black Jersey Knit cloth.

You're also going to need a small selection of spray paints. I did the first trial with reds, but for this I've used a single Rustoleum blue spray.

To start out, flatten out the cloth on a flat surface, and then take up a small knot worth and curl it up like so:


As you can see, these photos are somewhat bright, it's because I opened up the garage door since I'm working with spray paint! Have good ventilation when using sprays people!

When you have something similar to this, just spray the balled up area with whatever color or colors you want the nebula to end up being!


Next just flatten it all back out!


As you can see, the knotting/balling up of the cloth has created a lot of great variation in the paint that gives the nebula a really nice random and natural look!

The final step in nebula creation is to dust the entire thing lightly with an additional spray of blue to add some more glow to the already vibrant nebula.


Flick some stars on using a toothbrush and some white paint and you're good to go!

I hope this little technique was helpful, BFG is very niche, but it's a dedicated group that love the game! This will hopefully find those of you interested in the game well, and hopefully, we see more variation on those starfields for any space based gaming!

Magnetic Predator Turret

Well, in continuing with the magnetic theme from last Friday, I thought I would share some additional thoughts on a different section of the Predator tank, the turret!

When I got the word that realgenius wanted to do a magnetic Predator quick tip last week, I was really excited, because just the week before, I had started gathering materials for just that myself! And this being my first foray into magnets in minis, I was really looking forward to his insight into the subject. I was most definitely not let down either!

I decided I would start with the turret on mine. I know that I'm really not going to use the autocannon all that often considering the foes I'll most likely face ( most of them being marines ), but just having the option open to me, makes the Predator worth just that much more.

To start off with, I installed magnets in the turret weapon mounts themselves. I did this with the turret still open, and let both sides dry completely before moving on to gluing the turret together ( with yet another layer of super glue at the top of the magnets ).


From this view you can see both the placement of my weapon mount magnets and my vertical alignment magnet. I used the magnet at the top of the turret in addition to a magnet installed into the back of the weapon.


You can see the placement of both the balancing magnet, as well as the weapon mount magnets in the sides. For the weapon mount magnets I cut clean the normal studs and drilled out a hole to embed the magnets.

In this photo you can also see the ammo box magnets, these were simply glued into the slots on the boxes. The back of the turret was drilled and magnets placed in the corresponding spots.


All said and done, it was well worth the little bit of extra assembly and will really add value to every kit I purchase from now on. Magnets save you money, plain and simple.