Two painting questions I would love your opinions on: A) How do you achieve the smoothest results when painting. My minis always look slightly... chalky? B) What’s the best technique for painting extremely small areas, such as knife and baggage straps? Thanks
A) How do you achieve the smoothest results when painting. My minis always look slightly... chalky? = water down paint and add layer upon layer upon layer of thinned down paint. Be patient and you will get much better results
B) What’s the best technique for painting extremely small areas, such as knife and baggage straps? = Use a small tipped brush, turn the miniature around more than you turn the brush (rather than turn the brush around the miniature), draw the paint away from recesses and areas you have already covered, don't use too much paint.
A. In addition to thinning down with paint, you can also thin with acrylic medium. I use a lot of shitty craft paints and a hit of medium can make a big difference in coverage and spreadability. Be aware that it will take forever to cure, and it can't solve bad or cheap pigment. B. Remember only the tip of the brush needs to be small. 15/0 brushes are easy to come by but suck for stuff like straps... they don't hold enough paint to really get going. When I'm blacklining a model or something like that, I use a long-bristled but pointy-tipped brush that can hold what's required to hit a detail in one stroke.
Ok thanks for the post! I use Valejo paint which I think is pretty good quality? I try to just water it down maybe like 4:5 paint to water ratio. And that technique with the a larger brush sounds very good will definitely try that! Thank you
Vallejo is good paint. When I say shitty paint, I mean like Apple Barrel... it's a bad habit of mine.
I also do this, using a drop of glaze medium helps a lot. Takes a LOT longer to dry, but because of the glaze medium the paint stays where you put it. I just wish I could buy it in larger bottles than the usual Vallejo 17ml size. Even a 35ml bottle would be better! If I'm doing a wash that I want to cover the entire model, I add a drop of Future (erm, it's "Pledge with Future Shine" floor cleaner now). Yes, really, a floor cleaner. It has something in it to break surface tension and the stuff goes everywhere. Had it ruin a model that way, once, my highlights kept wandering into the shadows! Yeah, I have quite the collection of paint brushes. For some jobs, I use Tamiya 10/0 liner brushes that have very long bristles (they're seriously about 1" long!). Or I use Sakura Micron Pens, those are awesome for doing something with lots of lines like German splinter camo. For other jobs, I spent the money on Winsor&Newton Series 7 sable brushes. The point on the W&Ns is so good I can paint eyebrows with a #3, which is the size of a GW Large Brush(!). If you're buying the W&Ns, you will also want the stuff to take good care of them, brush soap and a dedicated brush cleaner tank. I have a #3, a #1, and a #0, but I use the #3 most of the time. You could probably get away with buying the #2 alone, using other brushes for your fine details. I also bought a couple Tamiya bamboo brushes, which have a very very good point but need some special prep before using. You need to soak them in water for a while to get water all the way up into the handle, to keep paint from getting up there and ruining the point over time. I have the 中 and 小 brushes (that's "middle" and "small" in kanji, #87018 and #87019) If I'm drybrushing, I use the dedicated GW drybrushes, they are the best for that rough job and last for years doing it.
I don't know if the Liquitex brand is available on your side of the Atlantic but here it's pretty common in art store. You'll find it in bigger size and will end much cheaper. Back to the original topic, medium is also of real use when it come to metallic paints. I personally find it difficult to properly thin them as the border between "not thinned enough" and "way too much diluted" can be really hard to find. Using medium instead of water to thin metallic paint helps a lot in my case.
Vallejo also sells bigger Glaze bottles, look for code 73.596 for the 60ml ones (70.596 is 17ml). And something even bigger but maybe different, Transparent Gloss Glaze Medium, 500ml and 5l, codes 28 and 29.590. Liquitex is probably more avaliable in his side, being USA brand.
Will have to special-order the Vallejo bottles, then. Or maybe ask the guys at Hobbytown to order some in for me.
You may also sacryfice a goat to dark gods i don't think it will help and goat will probably be unhappy and dead. But you may try. Other way easer solution is to not use model minature paint and just go for certain colours for Artist grade acryl paints they got buttery consystence fainer grain and dray way slower so you can even easly wet blend or clean a layer completly but are not as resilent and require varnishing after job done or you may get back to the Goat sacrifice idea :)
