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Help: Complementary base colours for Yu Jing / Nomads

Discussion in 'Miniatures' started by KGG, Sep 15, 2019.

  1. KGG

    KGG Well-Known Member

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    I am still very new to Infinity and miniature painting in general. I have managed to collect a good number of Yu Jing and Nomad miniatures, primarily based on models I think look cool. I'd say my painting skills are firmly in the 'beginner' category.

    I have gone for a 'Corvus Belli' colour scheme with both armies - Nomads - Red + Red/Black.
    My Yu Jing ended up a little more yellow, but otherwise 'Corvus Belli' box art colour.

    I'm having trouble with the colour of the bases though. I didn't like the 'rusty corridor' / 'rusty highway' on the boxes, so I made my own with plasticard + foam -
    Yu Jing on clean urban / forbidden city theme (road and pavement with some inset Yu Jing-inspired decorative floor plates)
    Nomads on clean, sci-fi spaceship theme (flat, straight lines + creative use of cut up zip-ties for some texture)
    Every time I paint them, they seem to be too jarring, too bland or somehow just look 'off' when the mini is added.

    TLDR:
    Any ideas, inspiration or tips would be greatly appreciated for urban + spaceship bases, particularly if they happen to pair well with the default army colour schemes.


    Bonus: I've recently noticed a good number of the models I own have 'tactical rocks' which ruins the whole 'pristine forbidden city' theme I was going for and looks like an accident waiting to happen aboard my Nomad spaceships!
    How have others gone about fixing this?
     
  2. archangeleong

    archangeleong Deadly Ninja Assassin

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    You should really post some pics so that people can help you. :-)
     
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  3. KGG

    KGG Well-Known Member

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    @archangeleong You have some fantastic stuff on your blog. Great inspiration, I love the fat Yuan Yuan. Yeah, I think you're right. Given the amazing quality of the other members work on here, I was a bit reluctant to post any of my stuff, but here it goes.
    I am fairly happy with spraying, but as soon as the paintbrush comes out I feel I ruin my work with terrible brush control and poor colour choices and end up stripping it back down, hence none of my models are finished yet:

    ----
    Yu Jing
    ----
    A selection of my Yu Jing city bases. You can probably tell I was inspired by the CustomMeeple 'Guijia base' I've seen online (I tried spraying dark blue/blue-white transition base as a contrast to the miniatures light yellow, but not convinced by my results. Definitely too dark and something else is missing too. Any tips for how I can salvage it?):
    IMG_5753.JPG

    A few of my base-coated Yu Jing models (I'm finding yellow really hard to work with):
    IMG_1468.JPG
    IMG_2338.JPG

    ----
    Nomads
    ----

    A selection of my 'spaceship' bases. Primed black/grey (Really not sure what to do with these. I thought some green might go well, but after the Yu Jing bases attempt was a bit of a failure, I think something more neutral might be better):
    IMG_8362.JPG
    And my initial base-coating of Mobile Brigada to go on them (I'm relatively happy with my red spraying, not sure what I did differently though and I can't seem to replicate it as well in yellow with Yu Jing.):
    IMG_3253.JPG

    Any comments and ways to improve both models and bases would be awesome.
    Cheers!
     
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  4. archangeleong

    archangeleong Deadly Ninja Assassin

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    It's a good start, but you have only really applied the base colours. You need to shade and the highlight your miniatures. Basically as a minimum you should use 3 colours for each colour you work on (Base, shade and highlight)

    Shading:
    You should now wash a darker colour into the gaps. Just water down a darker colour or use one of the premade washes available on the market (Use Army painter washes as they are very forgiving, or Vallejo, or even Citadel). This will start to give your minis more definition and look less flat.

    Highlight:
    Use a lighter colour than your base colour and carefully paint the edges of things. This will make the minis "pop" and stand out more. It is hard to do well and takes a lot of practice but it is worth it.

    These are the minimum techniques of miniature painting and there are many tutorials on how to do them out there (there is a good one on painting a Guija on the CB website blog at the moment FYI). Have a look and play around, you will probably surprise yourself with what good results you can get by just applying these basics.

    Your bases will benefit from these techniques too. I would dry brush them with a lighter colour an you will really see much more detail pop out. Dry brushing is great technique to use on bases.

    That's all I got time for today, so hope it helps. Good luck!
     
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  5. KGG

    KGG Well-Known Member

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    @archangeleong Thank you for taking the time to write out such a great response! I'm very grateful for your advice.
    I'll read around some of the techniques a bit more and check out the tutorials you mentioned. I think this has given me a good basis to develop my techniques.

    Cheers, I'll be sure to post again when I've given this a go.
     
  6. Koin-Koin

    Koin-Koin Well-Known Member

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    Don't be shy to share your progress in your own thread or in the monthly painting group thread (a new one created each month).
    You'll be able to get a lot of constructive comments.
    I personally didn't paint Infinity model for quite some time* now but sharing my paintjob here made me progress a lot.
    You'll find that members are very open and helpful whatever your level.


    *I hope I can soon and will definitely be part of the monthly painting group.
     
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  7. colbrook

    colbrook Grenade Delivery Specialist

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    The Grognard in me wants to say that flocked goblin green bases go with everything, especially if you paint the guns red!
     
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  8. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    What I did for most of my bases is a simple plain concrete look. You want something kinda bland to not distract from the model itself.

    Now, you can mess around with color theory to help the models 'pop' compared to the base. Yellow and Purple are complementary colors, so you want to use a bit of purple in the shadow color for the YJ base (if you're really brave, you can do that in the shadows of the mini, but let's keep things simple at first). Red and Green are complementary colors, so you want to use a little green in the shadows of the Nomads.



    With a razor saw. I *hate* Tactical Tripping Hazards with a passion!

    Since I based all my YJ minis on intact urban bases (Antenociti's hex bases), models with a "Tactical Tripping Hazard(TM)" get the rock removed and that raised foot placed on the curb. It's a little harder for spaceship bases, but you can just add some pipes or electrical boxes from plastic.
     
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  9. KGG

    KGG Well-Known Member

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    Thank you all! There's been some really great advice & support from everyone.

    @Koin-Koin Yeah I think I'll build up on the basics and then maybe start showing some work on the painting groups for tips on the intermediate and advanced stuff if I get to that point!

    @Section9 Cheers. Maybe some green 'floor gubbins' or stripe on the sci fi bases might add that complementary flair I'm hoping for!
    Oh yeah. Looks like a saw and some creative thinking is what I need then. Thanks
     
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  10. KGG

    KGG Well-Known Member

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    I thought I'd post a quick update. I took the advice on here and read a few tutorials. I quickly made a mess of the Zuyong, but I used it to mess around with shading and highlighting techniques before I striped it. So now I've ALMOST got my first mini finished. It's just a lowly Kuang Shi and it took me all day, but it's far better than anything I would have thought I'd be able to do.
    I still need to cover up a few mistakes like the overpainting on the leg, paint the hands and add some highlights to the helmet and cables, but I just had to post the difference! Please let me know what else I can do to improve it.

    Thanks all for the help and suggestions.
    IMG_9826.JPG
     
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  11. Koin-Koin

    Koin-Koin Well-Known Member

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    That's some [EDITED] improvements !!!
    I wish mine are that fast.
     
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  12. archangeleong

    archangeleong Deadly Ninja Assassin

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    That is a fantastic effort! Are you sure you are just a beginner? Wow great improvement!
     
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  13. Red Harvest

    Red Harvest Day in, Day out. Day in, Day out. Day in, DAY OUT

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    Very good brush control there KGG. Nice clean lines. That's about 70% of good painting. The rest is shading and highlighting. To improve, don't paint white things white. Paint them a light gray and highlight to white. And always remember where the light is supposed to hit the mini, so your shadows and highlights make visual sense. Mmm. sometimes, adding yellow to lighten the green, instead of white, makes for a more intense green, if that is what you want.
    Ah, and practice. A lot. Best way to get better. There is no substitute -- like watching the YouTube videos -- for just painting.

    Bro, if flocked goblin green bases are as far back as you go, you are no grognard. Which is not a bad thing, TBH.

    To GW's credit, its introduction of the plastic bases was a very good thing. The old metal bases, which were a part of the mini, were a real PITA to deal with.
     
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  14. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    This!!!

    I'm super-sensitive to caffeine, I actually paint better after having a beer or two to get the hands to stop shaking.


    Yes. Depending on what 'kind' of white I'm trying to get to, I use a couple different colors to start from. For a very hard/shiny white, I start with a sky blue (A close match to the one used as the WW2 Luftwaffe underside blue). For a softer, dirty-fabric white, I like to use Deck Tan as the base. And if it's somewhere inbetween those, I use a neutral gray as the base.

    I have used both the Hard blue-white and the soft tan-white on the same mini before, hard blue-white on the Guilang's helmet and armor plates with tan-white on the outside of the coat.

    Also, I very rarely use pure white even for highlights. I tend to use Vallejo Ivory most of the time and only a small dot or line of pure white at the very point of a highlight.


    This is probably the next most important lesson, and one that takes the most work. I bought a small light-tent for taking better pictures, and it came with two very very bright halogen lamps. I use one of them to show me where shadows are supposed to fall on the model.


    Or an obnoxious lime-green bordering on fluorescent.


    Yup. It's why I have a crapton of models I can use for civilians. Mess up while painting one, like with a hideous color combo? No problem if you don't strip it, there are always folks wearing hideous color combinations out there.
     
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  15. KGG

    KGG Well-Known Member

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    Thanks everyone! I'm so happy with the way that Kuang Shi came out. I honestly never thought I'd get much further than doing a base layer on these models. It's definitely opened up a lot more options and I feel more confident about tackling some of the bigger models and centrepieces now.

    I noticed this too. Being hungry and having a coffee made it pretty bad. I'll remember the beer trick next time I'm painting in the evening.

    These are great tips! I would not have thought to do this. I definitely need to read around colour theory more and learn to spot where 'cool' and 'warm' colours should go. Mixing paints is another thing I need more practice at too. The colour in my head is rarely the colour I end up with when mixing. Sometimes adding black or white does seem to wash out the colour a bit.

    Hahaha, Brilliant! Yep, I'd say the only civilians who decide to hang around when sword-wielding robots, rabid wolf-men and literal mind-control aliens show up in town probably have a few issues to contend with beyond a poor fashion sense.
     
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  16. Mob of Blondes

    Mob of Blondes Well-Known Member

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    Black and white are going to wash out the colors. Instead of black, try adding a complimentary, and instead of white, a stronger version of what you have.
     
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