Meet Bitey

Back to the Jurassic Park of painting with this T-Rex from Collecta.  It is the same figure as the last T-Rex, but with a very different color scheme.

It was a challenge, because I had to 'reverse' some of the shading!  That is, the crevices between the scales had to be light, instead of darker.

To do this, I had to work on those darker colors first, along with creating an overall tone.  A grayish green was painted on the dorsal sections of the dinosaur, with a tan on the ventral surfaces.

Then things got interesting, as I made a few mixes of the Secret Weapon weathering paints and glazed in those lighter colors into those crevices!  As I have shown many times, those paints are fantastic for glazing.  I have also mentioned many times how I love to do "lighter" glazes.  It was certainly a valuable tool in this case.

I used that lighter greenish glaze on the upper surfaces, which instantly made those darker scales stand out.  This was also done to a lesser degree with a brownish-tan mix on the underside and around the eyes.

When the lighter tan glaze was allowed to flow into the crevices of some sections of greenish color, it made a fantastic transition!  I was very happy with how that worked out.

These techniques turned out so well, I have been prepping a few Lizardman figures that might allow me to try and do this on a facebook live.  It is very hard to show this in still images, and I think even just a few minutes of seeing me do this on camera will get the idea across.

Thanks to everyone who has supported the Patreon page!  It is much appreciated.  This week I will be painting the December raffle figure in a facebook live session, and raffling off the November figure as well!!

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Glazing away

You have seen me using the Secret Weapon weathering paints in combination with the Reaper Clear paints.  Miniatures like this have a combination of weathered and higher saturation tones, which means that using the two together in many layers of glazes is ideal.

Both color sets can also be used in a more opaque role, which is why I love the utility of each.  The Clear paints can cover very well with the addition of just a bit of opaque lighter color.  They don't lose their intensity at all, which is very handy!

When it comes to toning down some of the colors, the Secret Weapon washes can do that very easily and naturally.  Adding a little bit of the warmer tans and yellows with the Clear Green makes a very nice warm, bright green, perfect for cloaks, etc.

I also like to use both of these paint types with the Reaper liner paints, especially on bases and other much darker areas.  They all dry completely matte, and though the shades are very dark, they are not a 'dead' black, but have enough interesting tone to them to keep your deepest shadow areas from becoming a very boring thing to look at !

With the brightness of the Clear paints available to make your highlight also stand out more, this will enhance your deep shadows as well.

I will be trying to demonstrate more of these thoughts on the Facebook live sessions with a batch of Dark Sword figures that I have been prepping furiously.  Each one will try to profile certain techniques and materials, such as oils or acrylics.

My goal is to show the same effect with different mediums, so that you don't feel limited to oils only or acrylics, etc.

Here's a link to the Patreon Page which is helping to make more of those live sessions possible!

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Fire it Up

Here's another example of the Vallejo fluorescent paints, this time on a Reaper BONES Fire Elemental.  I used the orange and yellow fluorescent paints, along with some of the Reaper Clear paints and Red Liner.

He's also here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/322911939579?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

I have many examples of Object Source Lighting and other effects such as these using the fluorescent colors.  There is even a live Facebook painting session showing the early stages of another elemental:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10210069480067641/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I enhanced the base and the overall shape of the figure by using the Heavy Gloss gel to create additional "flames".  This was especially important to incorporate the figure itself into the base, instead of having all the flames suddenly end when it touched the base!

This is the same heavy gel that I use for water effects, as well as icicles.  That makes it very handy for a number of effects.

The fluorescent paints have a very different consistency from just about every other kind of miniature paint.  It is very thick, but it is extremely translucent.  That property is obviously what makes these colors so intense and saturated.  

Even though they are very thick, you almost have to think of them as a glaze.  So, in some ways it is better to begin with your lighter colors, and apply the fluorescent paints afterwards.  Any lighter opaque colors that are mixed with them will hurt the intensity of the colors and take away from the effect.

Mixing in darker colors such as the Reaper Clear paints and Liners does not have this effect, since they are also very intense colors, and they are not very opaque.  It is possible to preserve the fluorescent nature of the colors by adding the Clear Red and Red Liner, for instance.

I will be trying to do a few more live videos on these types of paints, using some smaller Dark Sword miniatures as well as other larger beasties.  The green and blue fluorescent paints are fantastic for sci-fi glowing effects, but I have also used them for fantasy figures.

The more support I can get on the Patreon Page will allow for more of the live videos.  They are handy, since people can ask questions during the broadcast, and that can add to the lesson quite a bit.

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Lesson Plan

The latest Facebook live session once again focused on oil paints, and the reasons why I have been using them more and more.

Here's a link:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211659999469632/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I was trying to demonstrate the value of using the oils to map out the majority of your colors and values, a bit like a "Super Shaded Basecoat" technique.  For instance, on this figure, I could rapidly place a number of different colors on the cloak, and easily blend them together.  If that had been done with acrylics, it would have taken much longer to get those color transitions, and I probably would not have been as bold with the choices!

I also worked on this figure in the pre Live Session hangout.  In this instance, I wanted to see if I could glaze very thinned down oils over wet oil paint.  Even I was shocked at how well that worked!  Of cousre, I was following my normal rules of 'thick paint over thin paint' and vice versa.

My initial layers were thicker, which allowed such thin paint to adhere to these layers, as opposed to wiping them away.  This can happen with wet acrylics, but not to the degree that it might with oils.

I did more of this glazing during the Facebook live session.  My initial layers were very thin, putting a darker glaze on all the surfaces.  The successive layers became thicker and thicker, which allowed them to stick to this initial underlayment.

Once I had built up these thicker layers, I could go back in with those very thin glazes, which really amazed me!

I will be posting finished results of those figures once they are completed and based.  Again, the idea if to use the oils like I use the Stynlrez primers, and that is to establish a nice solid base of colors and tones, which I can finish off with more precision with my usual acrylics.

These are the kinds of things that I want to show in much greater detail, especially in the Live session format.  This is why I established the Patreon Page, so that I could spend more time doing these things on camera!  Here's a link:

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Trapper

This was part of an exercise during my last podcast with the Models Workshop folks.  While it is an audio cast, it was very helpful to have some things being painted at the same time we were recording, because I had several figures on the table all at once.

I talked a great deal about painting efficiency, and as you know, it is very helpful to have a lot of different genres and types of figures ready to paint.

Figures like this one, which have a lot of earth tones, skin, etc., are even more ideal, since it is going to have a lot of areas in common with just about every other figure.  This means that I can simply grab a figure that has a similar color set, and get that little bit done.

This also keeps me from overworking figures, which can happen if you just keep hammering away at the same figure for hour after hour.

Many years ago in art school, there was a major emphasis on not lingering too long on any particular area or piece.  Grab the figure, work on those common areas, and move on.  You get a "fresh view" of a figure more often with this method... a way to step outside your projects.  

Also, an interesting color combination on one piece might end up being just as good on another, even though it might not have been in your original plans!

I will be doing a few live broadcasts this week, starting on Wednesday.  Late in the evening, I will participate in the Hobby Hangout, which will lead into a Facebook Live session.

On Friday, I will join another broadcast with the Models Workshop crew.  You never know what topic may come up, since it really is a painting hangout at heart!!

I enjoy doing the live hangouts and Facebook live sessions, since they allow me to show the principles that I am talking about here.  I try to make them a "working broadcast", rather than a purely how to exercise.  This shows the down and dirty methods for getting figures painted, as opposed to a pre set demonstration only showing one concept.

As you know, this was a major reason why I started the Patreon page, so that I could do this kind of thing more often.  The people that have seen these kind of "working demos" have been able to get a lot out of them, as they are also more informal and participation is encouraged!

Here's a link:

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Shifting Sands

Just before Thanksgiving, I had a chance to get back into the oil paints again.  These images are from a Google Hangout that I did to show how I use the Mig Ammo OilBrushers.

There are a few of the Mig Ammo washes in the little caps... Afrika Korps wash, Dark Wash and Brown for Green Vehicles.  The idea was to show how to vary the tones on a "limited palette" tan color scheme.

I alternated on each wash color as I moved around the vehicle, making sure to have warmer or cooler tones on each part of the hull.  These would be further accentuated by the addition of the OilBrushers.

I put a few of the OilBrushers on a palette, and you can see the variety there as well.  One of the tones is actually a light flesh tone.  That will be used to create the "bleaching" effect of the sun on the vehicle.

As I mentioned many times during the session, the primary source of weathering on these desert vehicles is bleaching, as opposed to rust and mud!

I love working with the oils, because the ability to mix right on the surface as if it were the palette is so much fun!  Using those initial washes as a base, I could allow the more opaque layers of OilBrushers to mix with my washes, creating even more subtle color transitions.

This is especially true in areas such as the lower hull.  The Dark Wash is more of a Van Dyke Brown tone, which is a little cooler.  By mixing in the more opaque OilBrusher colors with this, I was able to get more of a shadow tone without having to mix special colors to create them.

Meanwhile, on the upper hull, I allowed the lighter more opaque tones to mix in with the Afrika Korps wash which was already in place.  Again, it is all about mixing right on the surface.  The whole point of using a material such as oil paints is to be able to do something like this, so why not take advantage of it!

More mixing takes place, adding some layers of lighter colors.  While it is possible to do this kind of mixing with acrylics, it is nice to be able to take my time!  Also, I am trying to be mindful of the bleaching effect that I want to create.

It is important to keep in mind that oil paints should be applied in thinner or thicker layers.  Unlike acrylics, thinner layers of oil paint will not adhere to thin layers already in place.  Therefore, you will want to apply thicker paint to thin layers, and vice versa.

I used a very nice White Spirits to thin paints down, but the OilBrushers are already a very nice consistency, so you don't really have to worry too much about thinning them down.

I also wanted to show how to manipulate and shift the overall tones without having to use washes or filters.  I added a bit of the Ochre to the palette, and that was mixed into existing layers of color to make it a brighter tan.

This higher intensity tan was needed to give that sense of bleaching that I mentioned earlier.  Adding this more saturated tone made the surrounding areas more bleached out by comparison.

Some rusting effects were added to the exhausts, and even a bit on the surrounding areas.

All the while I was working with the oils, I had to keep in mind what I wanted to do later with weathering powders.  I want to have the lighter dusting effect down in the crevices, so I have to keep those recessed areas a little darker than I might do otherwise.

That is also true for the lower sections of the hull, where the sand effect will be very pronounced.

This hangout session was followed by a Facebook live painting session that showed how to do these same desert effects using regular oil paints.  You can watch that here:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211564190874477/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Toys for the Holidays

Most of you probably recall the various toy dinosaurs that I posted to the blog early in the fall.  Those were very unusual, in that they were actual toys.

The material was very similar to BONES, but you could tell that it was not engineered to accept paint the same way as BONES would.  Ironically enough, these are pretty much 28mm scale critters!

The mould lines are impossible to get rid of, and the material is smushy.  To make things more challenging, there is a bunch of raised letters across the chest (company name, copyright, etc.).

This is one of two T-Rex figures that were painted, each one with a different color scheme.

I did have fun with the face on these guys!!