Witchhunters WIP, Sonnia Criid v1.0

[shawnreed343]

Ok, I'll say right off the bat that I'm not happy with this and have -already- been touching up. Really, I've realized I have insufficient lighting in my workspace and need to relocate. On the flipside, I figure I'd show you my *sigh* sloppy looking version 1.

http://shawn-reed.deviantart.com/#/d2yuqav and http://shawn-reed.deviantart.com/#/d2yuqjj

Does anyone have any tips for how to do the super-fine details? Like eyes? Because I'm finding that a needle won't hold any paint half the time, and that when it does the tiniest drop is too big. I'd appreciate any tips in this from anyone with experience. '

[Magius]

Let's start with what you got right. The eyes actually look pretty good on this mini (not the best I've seen, granted, but still a lot better than I can do), and you did a very good job on the hair.

Now to the easiest fix - I'd recommend hitting the model with some flat sealer to cut the glossy reflection off the model - Krylon Flat Sealer or Testor's Dullcote depending on if you used a Laquer-based or Acrylic-Based sealer (respectively) for the gloss sealer.

I'll leave the rest to someone who won't be quite as blunt as I'm inclined to be, but I will say that working on your blending on the clothes, and learning a good technique for drawing lines on clothes like what she's wearing would go quite a ways toward making the model look better.

Magius out.

[the imp]

Does anyone have any tips for how to do the super-fine details? Like eyes? Because I'm finding that a needle won't hold any paint half the time, and that when it does the tiniest drop is too big. I'd appreciate any tips in this from anyone with experience. '

No needles.

Get yourself a decent 3/0 brush and practice painting only with the very tip. If you're not overloading it with paint, a 3/0 will lay down lines finer than almost any pen and put an iris in almost any eye. Learning how to steady your hand will probably take you more time than figuring out how to make fine lines with a good brush.

The brush doesn't have to be fantastic, but a reasonably priced sable brush with no stray hairs or hook in it is essential to have if you want to do any detail work. And while it might be tempting to jump right to a 5/0 brush, it really won't help if you're not able to do a reasonably good job with a 3/0.

Also, make sure you're adequately thinning down the paint with water. If it's too thick, it'll cake on whether you're using a good brush or not. The important thing to remember is that it's better to use multiple thin coats than to ruin your surface details with one thick coat.

I also recommend that you put off tricks like light source effects until you've got the basics down.

[shawnreed343]

Thanks for those tips. I've come to realize for one that, though it seems small, the brush I have is far too big. (I'm going to trim it tonight) I also bought a few more materials tonight- brown and red inks, skull white, and sunburst yellow. I also need a proper desklamp rather than trying to use the ceiling light behind me.

Last time I painted minis, it was Necrons for 40k. Yeah, there's not a lot of special technique in that; though I tell you, a few thin white lines down the green tubes of the gauss weapons looks badass.

[shawnreed343]

Indeed, thank you -very- much for that brush tip. It just so happens I was able to get a desk lamp and some -proper- fine-tipped brushes earlier- and I've done a MUCH better Sammael Hopkins. I finished the initial painting, and decided to add a custom greenstuff cloak; so that's drying currently. When it's done I'll paint it and probably have new photos before the day is out. I also painted the Purifying Flame, which is fair enough- it's hard to get detail on flame. I'll need to find something to strip the paint on Sonnia (anyone know something good for stripping Citadel paint? I'm not sure what Citadel uses as a base) and start all over from scratch with her. But I feel much, much more confident now that I have the proper tools. I had wondered 'why the heck did I do so horribad??' Two reasons- I didn't have enough light, and didn't have a proper brush- except for the black and varnish, she was entirely done with needle. o.O

Edited September 17, 2010 by shawnreed343

[Major_Gilbear]

Okay, some first principles for you.

One; you need to post here on the boards please. Posting pix elsewhere and then having folks navigate to them is just lazy. It says "Hey folks, please come and look at my stuff - I'm not bothered enough to show you though, so you'll have to come and see them yourself". It's a poor way to get comments. For example:

Two; you need a decent light. No matter how good you or your materials are, it's all wasted if you can't see what you're doing. Get an anglepoise with a low-energy bulb, preferably a "daylight" bulb or one whose light is more white than yellow. You need a very bright but low energy bulb as you can see properly that way, but the lamp doesn't give out heat over your workspace and doesn't therefore dry the paints too fast.

Three; get some new brushes:

I've come to realize for one that, though it seems small, the brush I have is far too big. (I'm going to trim it tonight)

That will kill your brush permanently. Just buy a better brush (a Size 1) with a very sharp point. Not a long point, a sharp one. That's how you do the little details without the paint drying on the brush. Maybe go to an art or good hobby shop and try some out in person. They don't need to be super-expensive, but you should be able to find something good for $7.00 or less. Go for natural Sable at the very least, and try for Kolinsky Sable if you can. Look after your brush by rinsing it in clean water regularly while you paint and after each session. Don't stand the brush in water on its end, and don't do anything that causes the bristles to splay if you can avoid it at all. That will help keep the point sharp.

Four; don't rush. Take your time, do the main areas on one colour first, then shade it, then highlight it, then move onto the next area. It helps to do all areas of the same colour at the same time. It also helps to thin your paints (at least 50:50 with some clean water on your palette (you do have a palette, right?). Paint several thin coats of a colour rather than aiming to cover in one thick one. This paint in thin layers will look smoother, dry faster and will preserve the model's detail. It takes more effort, but strangely not much more actual time.

Read a few tutorials around the web and watch some painting vids on YouTube to get tips on good painting techniques and see how they are done. Spending around 8-10 hours (or more) over several sessions just on the painting of your Master is not too long! The Master is the centrepeice of your force after all.

Five; Gloss varnish is protective, but a thick layer just obscures detail and the finish makes most models look fairly unappealing. After you've varnished with one or more thin layers of gloss, go back and do one of matte varnish to kill the shine.

Six; plan your model. So, plan the colours, plan the base (and the base's colours) before you start. You want the model to stand out a bit from the base, but also to fit it. You want to consider what areas will be which colours and how they will look together, and how the different details will look together.

Adjacent areas are that are done in the same colours will visually blend together for example, so you need to find a way of either defining them or otherwise separating them visually.

If you are not confident in making bases, either buy a pre-made one (lots of places on the internet sell them), or stick to something simple that looks good (sand, gavel, painted, and then a few patches of static grass for example). Complicated bases that distract you from the model or which cause the model to 'blend in' to them are usually not a great idea.

Seven; in the end -if you really hate what you've done- it is usually better to start afresh than to keep fiddling with it in the vague hope that it will magically be fixed. There are several sayings about this (some ruder than others), but one that applies quite well is "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear". If you are just touching up a few details, then starting over is a bit drastic and can be avoided. But if you don't like the main areas or colours or something else that is fundamental, you will waste a lot of time of trying to fix something that probably isn't worth the time investment. In this case you can either buy a new model, or paint-strip the one you are unhappy with. Most people paint-strip, as it is cheaper.

I hope that helps you somewhat, and please understand that my advice here is meant to be honest rather than rude!

If you get stuck or need more help, please feel free to ask more questions.

[the imp]

There are lots of options for stripping paint, but the one least likely to poison you or stink up your place is to soak the figure in Simple Green for at least 24 hours, then scrub it with a stiff brush. An old tooth brush works perfectly. I'm pretty sure Simple Green will damage plastic, so remove the base first.

[Major_Gilbear]

Simple Green doesn't damage plastic apparently - lots of folks on other forums use SG to strip GW tanks bought from fleabay.

[AvatarForm]

You should post your updated pics of the flame and samael in this thread. EDIT the original post to keep everything together where we can easily spot them.