Friday, December 8, 2017

The Fall of Mordor


It's time to finish off the Morghul knight that was originally painted with oils during a Hobby Hangout session a few weeks ago!  As I have emphasized a great deal lately, it is possible to paint part or even the majority of the figure using oils, and then finish it off with "regular" acrylic paints.

Here's a link to the first post:



In this case, I will take a few of the Reaper Liner paints and the Secret Weapon weathering paints to emphasize a few of the darker areas and sharpen up some of the edges, as well as add a little extra detail to the base.

The more I work with oil paints, the more ways I discover that allow me to go further on the figure.  Initially I saw the oil paints as a way to create very rapid transitions of color on broad surfaces, especially larger figures and cloaks.


This is something that I have wanted to try for a very long time... putting not only lighter toned colors around cobblestones, but the more usual dark sections of the mortar.  You can see a bit of this lighter color on the left side of the base, which was made using a Green Stuff World texture roller.


The Secret Weapon paints were perfect for this task, as they are designed to be used in a glaze form, and are also very matte in finish.  Sometimes the oils can be a little on the shiny side, and this kills that right away.


I used my handy Green Stuff World leaf punches to create a little ground foliage to go around the joint where the hoof met the base, and he was ready for action!


I will do one more post with the rest of the completed images.  In the meantime, he is also here:



Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Fashion Statement


It is time to return to the Old West with Knukledusters Miniatures!  I have painted a few of these over the years, and they have always been fun.  This character was especially interesting, as I found a fashion reference that I thought would be neat to paint...


While this dress reference is not exactly the same shape as the figure, I liked the way the colors an patterns might look on the figure.


Obviously I had to make a lot of adjustments to it to make it work with the figure, but it certainly made the larger flat expanses have more impact!


There's actually a kickstarter campaign running right now for Knuckledusters miniatures, and there's a link below.  The game (Gunfighter's Ball) should be very fun, as we have a lot of western theme terrain here already!

There might even be some other interesting things in the future... who knows.  Perhaps some larger scale figs, or possibly busts.  Just sayin' :-)

This is the $19k stretch goal figure:





Monday, December 4, 2017

Oil Slick in Mordor


I have painted many Lord of the Rings figures in standard acrylic paints, but this Morghul Knight would be the first figure that I tried painting in oils!

For those of you who are more familiar with my process, you know that I begin with a thinned down wash of various darker tones over the entire figure.  This has more to do with getting the surface ready for the subsequent layers of thicker paint than making shadows.

I have a number of oil painting live sessions, which I will link to later.


The entire surface is covered.  While this looks like it was out of control, there is actually a great deal of precision, as I made certain areas more reddish brown, others more of a blue/grey, and so on.


You can get a peek at the future layers on the figure by seeing what happened with the base.  On the left is the original wash, followed by more layers of thicker, more opaque paint.  Keep in mind that thick paint sticks to thin paint, and vice versa.  You will see me refer to this over and over in this article and on every live video!

Here's a link to the live session that I did right after painting this guy during a Hobby Hangout on Wednesday:



The same opaque colors used on the base were also placed on the figure.  What I love about this part of the process is that those original washes remain wet, and allow me to mix wet into wet on the surface.  Those original washes now combine with these new layers of paint to create shadow areas, more color transition, and so on.


Here are a few steps of paint application.  I am not simply making each layer lighter, I am also trying to shift the color a bit.  That is, sometimes more blue is added, or more ochre, etc.  It is important to note that your brush strokes must be very direct and precise.  You cannot "tap away" at the surface as you might with acrylic paints.

Since all the underlying layers are wet, you are picking up some of that paint each time you touch it.  This remains on your brush, and will then darken or change your newer brush strokes.

Simply turning your brush over will show you that it has picked up some of those previous layers.


As always, I constantly alter the colors that I am using.  This is much more similar to a 2D approach to miniature painting.  You have no choice but to mix more of your own colors with oils, as there is not the gargantuan number of "every color in the rainbow" as you have with acrylics.

But, the whole point of using oils is to work and mix right on the figure, so you won't need all those jars of paint.  You will be able to get all kinds of interesting and subtle variations.


At this point I try to work in blues ad greens into the armor plates as well as lighter colors and semi-highlight shades.  The idea is to prepare the figure for some "weathering glazes", which will get some rust colors into those crevices.


As the work progresses, you can see that a lot of the initial shininess of those first washes has diminished.  This is due to the thicker, more opaque layers.  The key thing to remember with the oils is that you have time... don't rush!  While they don't take ages to dry (especially when you use more white spirits to thin them down), you have many hours to work with them while they are wet.


Now it is time to add that rust!  I took some Sienna and Ochre to make a few rust tones, and thinned that down quite a lot with the white spirits.  While it seems crazy, these very liquid layers will act in much the same way as glaze of acrylic paints.  Of course, you will have to exert a lot of control over these, as getting to cute with them will simply create a mess instead of oxidation...


Once those glazes were applied to the areas of rust, I mixed some very deep dark wash colors for the cloak and other parts of the armor that needed those deep shadows.  The inset shows some of those darker lines added into the deep crevices.


The robes needed just as many color shifts as the armor, as once again, that is the whole point of using oils!  Otherwise I could just do standard layering with acrylics.  This means adding greens, purples, reds and other unusual colors into my still wet paint.

By using some "feathering" brush strokes with a cleaner, dryer brush, I can scumble the layers together at the edges and mix those crazy colors into what is already there.  This will tone them down, and you will only notice the color shift when you are specifically looking for it.

This is the kind of subtle variation that makes a figure more interesting to look at.

You can also see that I have been adding some brighter highlights at this stage.  I try to keep that kind of work until the later stages, because I need the "context" of all the other colors and values set in place to show me how far I need to go with those highlights.


Now you can really see all those variations, and that the paint continues the become less shiny.  However, these newer layers that I have been adding need to be thinner, because of that "thick paint sticks to thin paint, etc." statement early in the post!  

I went from very thin to progressively thicker layers, and now I must start to go in the opposite direction.  These newest layers have to "ride" on top of many layers of wet paint.


In the next post I will show how this was finished off, along with some images of the figure on the base.  I will try to do more figures like this on the facebook live broadcasts.  Lots has been planned, and I have been prepping lots of figures for them.

Any support on the Patreon page is appreciated, as it allows me to do more how to articles such as this.  It takes a while to write up the text and match it to the images taken during painting!

Here's a link:



Sunday, December 3, 2017

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!!



Saturday, December 2, 2017

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!



Friday, December 1, 2017

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:



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:



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.



Thursday, November 30, 2017

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:


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: