Well, a lot of people are taking the plunge and not having any specific direction to go on... So in light of @NairoD 's painting challenge, I said I'd do something special.

Here it is, Step by Step. How to paint some TIE fighters, from the bare plastic, all the way up to what I consider "HERO" level for my business.

The first part will concentrate on showing the Step-by-Step of the Basic paint Scheme - a Scheme which I consider Detailed enough to be paid for, but not so much it takes forever to paint. This is also the level that I would hope all beginner painters aspire to... Honestly, you'll get there quickly if you TRY.

So for now, I'm going to keep things as quick and as simple as possible... I am using almost exclusively Games Workshop equipment and paints because, basically - they're easy to get. Online or in store, as a great many places stock them. Please, of course, do not consider this gospel to do - rather, its mostly what I have on hand, and your own colour choices will of course amend as appropriate.

Equipment Used

Brush - In this instance, its an old, old Citadel "Starter" Brush. If you're buying a new brush, the equivalent is a Medium "Layer" brush from Games Workshop. But you could also get away with a Size 1 Artists brush from your hobby store. Just make sure any brush you pick up new lacks "flyaway" bristles and forms a nice point.

Knife - This is a standard hobby knife. I personally prefer the style of blade shown, but as long as its fairly sharp and you're careful, you can use the longer edged knives.

Primer - Chaos Black from GW.

Paint - Colours and pots as used
- Dawnstone (GW "Layer" Paint)
- Abbadon Black (GW "Base" Paint)
- 'Ardcoat (GW "Technical" Paint)
- Moot Green (GW "Layer" Paint)
- Nuln Oil (GW "Shade" Wash)

And really, that's it. You might see one or two of my painting sticks going through - they're simply to hold the models so I can do so without touching them with my fingertips... A lot of people will use small tubes or individual sticks - this is more of a personal thing, just find a way to have the model held, without actually touching them with your fingers... In the absolute worst case scenario - you can paint on the Squadron Ts if you're careful...

And now, we begin (with some very haphazard photography)



STEP 01 - THE PREPARING


Here, basically, we're looking at the standard models, straight out of the pack... In this instance as well, I was handed these models from someone else (they're actually a commission!), so not knowing the circumstances of how they've come to me, and how long they've kicked around in other things - they were washed in warm water and soap and, once rinsed, left to air dry.

This is them Dry.

Take careful note of the mold lines on them - those are those ugly seams on the inner panels, but they also exist on the outer edges of the wing panels themselves... Although they're not horrible in and of themselves, they can do some funky things later on, so its best practice that they go.

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STEP 02 - THE SCRAPENING


These are in the various conditions of being prepared... The mold lines are removed by placing the blade along the mold line, angling it, and scraping backwards along the line... Think of this as the opposite of a cut - in a cut, you're moving the blade in the direction you want to cut - in this case, the blade is pointing away and just scraping... Do it gently along those inner lines (works best if you place the blade touching against the wing-root, and then scraping out.). Once thats done, do the same thing for the edges around the Wing Panel itself. Trust me, you'll see a nice little thin line of plastic flake off - and that makes ALL the difference at a later step!


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STEP 03 - THE PRIMING

Here's where we get to me being a crotchety old modeller... PRIMING IS NOT PAINTING . The whole point of a Prime is to prepare the surface to accept paint... You don't want to swallow the whole surface in paint. Check the Above. Notice how its all patchy and dotty and dusty? The level of prime above is about as thick as I would always suggest going... Now, Priming the whole thing in Black, well, it is a shortcut... But its a bad one. Because bare prime won't wear like paint, and it won't colour like paint... Priming prepares the surface - and now, the surface is prepared! Follow the directions on the Rattle-can in regards to Distance, Temperature and Humidity... Always paint in sweeps. Never spray directly at the model in question...


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STEP 04 - THE TERRIBLE PAINT

You know how hard it is to hold things and take pictures at the same time without a Tripod? Its hard. Anyhow. Here's a quick shot the paintbrush in question (its an older one, but it checks out) and the main colour we're using on our TIEs. This is quite a bright grey, and it works well because things are going to get dulled down as we go. But notice how the brush is long, thin and pointed - that's what we want in a brush... The Paint Pot was thoroughly shaken before being opened...



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STEP 05 - GETTING THE PAINT ON

Here, I've collected a "Blob" of paint. This "Blob" is a standard measuring unit for me. One "Blob" of paint. Ideally, when you're painting, you don't want paint to cover the entirety of the bristles and get up into the metal (the ferrule), instead, keep the paint on the bristles... If it does get there, Wash the brush thoroughly as quickly as possible... (Circular swirls in water, don't push the bristles against the bottom of the water-cup)...

For a Pallet today, I'm using the back panel of an Imperial Fighter Pack. Cut the square of plastic out to get the ships out - reusing the plastic!

This "Blob" of paint goes onto the pallet, and then, I'm rinsing the Brush....


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STEP 06 - SHOWING THE BRUSH AGAIN

The Brush has been washed an the Blob is on the Pallet... Nice Blob. We're going to De-blobbify you now.

When Washing the Brush, to Reiterate, circular swirls in the water, without pushing it against the bottom... When you pull it out of the water, place it down on a piece of tissue or other absorbant paper - placing it as "side down" as possible to not bend the bristles. Then, as you draw the brush back towards you, rotate it in your fingers, so the bristles are, for the lack of a better term, 'swirled' into a point gently. This, and the practice thereof, is essential brush maintenance while working.


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STEP 07 - THE DE-BLOBBENING

Now, we collect a second Blob. This time, its a Blob of Water. Note that the Blob of water is a little less blobby than the blob of paint, but there's still also some water left in the bristles... All of that is good. We now swirl them together, thinning the paint from its really heavy weight, into something much more manageable... The amount of water to paint should be, on average, no more than 1:1... Now, as a word here, I live and Work in Calgary, where it is always dry , so I add a little more water... Experiment with how much water you add - it should always be some , but it doesn't neccessarily have to be more ... The point is to get a paint that's nice and free flowing, but when you draw it out on your pallet, doesn't immediately "curl in" its edges because of surface tension (that's too much water), nor do you want it to remain 'blobby', that's too little... In short, you can paint from the pot, but we're after best-practices here for a lifetime of painting to come, so its good to learn...


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STEP 08 - DE BLOBBINATED

And now, we're ready to do some painting.... The paint is nice and thin, but not so thin it curls in... a Nice Goldilocks zone, of sorts...

Of course, after swirling and mixing, we wash the brush again, and again, dry it, all back into a point ... Its as if we're starting with a fresh brush.



STEP 09 - PICKUP PAINT


Here's where the Paint meets the bristles, folks... Drag just the tip of the brush through the paint - all jokes aside, this is important - you want paint to be on the bottom third-to-half of the bristles, but what you don't want is paint all the way up it, and you defintely don't want a blob or drop of paint... You want the paintbrush to have a nice little load on it... Because we're using a technique here, called edge-brushing to start...

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STEP10 - THE EDGE BRUSH


Here, we're basically taking the brush, and dragging it almost perpendicular to the edge we want to paint.. The tip of the bristles are hanging off the other edge, and we're transferring paint as we move the brush sideways... This way, we're using the edge itself to limit where the paint goes.... If you try to paint by pushing the tip of the bristles onto the edge and moving back and/or forth, you'll have a situation where the bristles may slip, and in doing so, slap paint down the sides of the TIE - which we know we don't want to be Grey!


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STEP11 - CONTINUE THE EDGE

Here, we continue with the same Technique - the Edges of the TIE Panel exterior are all Raised - so we can follow on with the same technique - using that Raised Edge itself to control where the paint goes... Again, if we were pushing Bristles down into it, it would be almost uncontrolled where the paint goes.

Now, that being said, this is what we're concentrating on now: "THE AREAS WE WANT TO BE GREY, ARE TO BE GREY"... If you get a little grey onto where the Black is going to be, well, we'll fix that later... But if we don't get GREY where we want it to be GREY, it won't be GREY. GOT IT? Make it Grey where its supposed to be Grey


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STEP12 - GREYNESS


The point about Grey Being Grey applies here... We get paint on the Wing Roots, the Body, the Underside... I do make one exception though - The Cockpit itself... That's going to get some special treatment - but otherwise - GREY AREAS BECOME GREY.



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STEP13 - RESULTING


Remember how I said not to worry too much about if the Grey Slipped? I meant it - here's where they are for me... Notice, Grey areas are Grey, but there's some grey Spillover... This is no matter (in fact, I was more careful than usual here - I usually get more grey spillover!)



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STEP14 - THE SEINAR TOUCH


Here's how we're going to fix and generally neaten everything up... Everything that applied to the Grey (which is rapidly drying as you can see, in the Calgary Lack-of-Humidity) applies to the Black. If anything, I add a little more water, because this is a Base Paint - Base Paints inherently have more pigment than layer paints, and can tend a little more on the thicker side - note though, that I did the pull-away at the bottom, to make sure I hadn't added too much Water...



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STEP15 - THE ONLY TIME I CARE


To paint the Black, I get it on the Brush as I did with the Grey... But what I do is I aim to place the brush on the side panel, near the center cog, in a sideways manner (as shown above)... I then draw the paint Back out towards the edge... I also do a gentle side-by-side motion... What should happen, is the whole recessed area gets covered in black, but because we're doing so with light pressure and not pushing too hard, the paintbrush never jumps over onto the raised grey of the Panel Lines... Fill in the Gap!

You might also find, if you were a little too thin with your paint (too much water), that you can see grey through the black... if that's the case, wait for it to dry , and then, do it again. The paint on the model will dry much faster than paint on your pallet, because there's much less of it... So you will have time to correct it...

Generally, after doing 2-3 panels on a Fighter... I wash the brush, and re-get Black Paint... Base paints can and will dry quickly on the brush, so keeping the brush fresh is in your favour.


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STEP 16 - MORE DETAILS


I also take the time at this point to paint the Reactor on the Back, and the Cockpit on the Front... The customer requested Gloss Black cockpit, but I would also at this time paint the cockpit any colour I needed to.... Red, Blue and TIE Fighter Game Yellow have been choices so far, but basically - Grey where Grey, Black Where Black... Internal Wing Panels are also solid black at this point as well..... Because now, we're getting to the "detaily" part... Although, some call it bottled magic - really, its just another tool.


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STEP17 - THE OIL OF MAGIC

Nuln Oil... Notice the Patch just below the Tub - That's Straight Nuln Oil. I am not using straight Nuln Oil. I am using, again a roughly 1:1 mix of Nuln Oil and Water... This thins it down, doesn't make it as intense... But otherwise, mix it up, and load it up... Don't be too concerned if you load the brush - a loaded brush works here...



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STEP 18 - APPLYING OIL


Slap that Oil on. Push it on, push it around. EVERYTHING gets Covered in Oil... EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. Note at this point, I've transferred them into my Holder - because you WILL rub off the oil while its wet - it takes quite a bit longer to dry on the model - doubly so because its watered down....

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STEP 19 - THE OILNESS


Here's how the Nuln Oil looks while Wet... It looks pretty intense and shiny - but don't worry, its going to dull down as it dries... It just takes a little bit... Ideally, try to have the models sit as vertical as possible while drying, as it will flow down - if you have them sideways, it'll pool on one wing side and not the other and look uneven, whereas an oil that tends to pool underneath, tends to look more like shadows than anything...

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STEP 20 - Mostly Done



Here, things are mostly done... Solid, gritty TIE fighters... They've gotten a bit of wear from my holding them a bit while wet (this is why I tell you not to do it!)...

Also, here's where you make the prize for cleaning those mold lines - because if you don't - the Nuln oil will settle against the mold line on the panel edges, giving you this solid black line down the middle of the edge of the panels, which generally just... doesn't visually work.

Note as well, this is a pretty MACRO close up shot - they don't quite look as dirty when they're on the tabletop, or at arms length even - that's something you'll pick up...

(Its also something we'll correct in Part 2)


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STEP 21 - FINAL DETAILS



Final details are all in this amalgum step... First thing, I painted the cockpit area 'ardcoat , because that was the Gloss.... Then, once that was dry, I did the sideways brush technique to hit all of the cockpit panel lines with Dawnstone, but not the internal cockpit glass... Because this is, basically, Raw and unwashed Dawnstone, the colour is a tad brighter than the rest of the TIE fighter - but that is entirely fitting. When we paint models, we want eyes to be drawn to certain points (genreally, this is the face of the model ) - and this is enhanced by painting the face lighter than you would normally anticipate... In this case, the TIE Cockpit is the pseudo "Face" and it still works.

Then when all that is try, I take a little bit of Moot Green and paint the Blaster Ports... This again, is mostly a sideways brush, but I start from UNDERSIDE the model, so I don't accidentally splat onto the cockpit if my toddler smacks my arm at that inopportune point...



STEP 22 - BASIC COMPLETE



And there you have it... One completed TIE fighter Squadron to "BASIC" standard.

Now, if you're paying attention to the differnet colour mixes and matches on the pictures, you can tell that this has basically taken a few days to get like this... But it is literally 2-3 minutes a day, for a couple of days... If you can get a block of 30 minutes, you can follow all of these steps and get it done. As a commission painter, that's my goal for a "Basic" Squadron. 30 minutes.

Now, of course, there's a lot we can do from here.....

And from here... We're going to go into the HERO steps, because that's where my commission is - this is going to be a variant of Mauler Mithel, so we're going to step everything up (and add a few colours to the spread as we do so... But just a couple)...

We'll also expand upon our techniques as we;re going.... But for now, if you've followed this far... Thank you for your Patience

You can find more Squadron painted Inspiration on my Facebook page - Imperial Phoenix Hobby Works

https://www.facebook.com/ImpPhoenixHW/

I'm semi-regularily posting what I'm working on, showing some inspiration from my painting desk. Its generally Star Wars Related, but often I get non-Armada projects with Rebellion and IA on there - and maybe even some X-Wing...

And of course, I'll continue this in the next post on taking it to the Next Level (The Hero Level), and then I'll work on some detail customization!

PART II - HOW TO MAKE THINGS BETTER

STEP 01 / 23 - NEW PAINTS


Previously, the whole model had been done with a single tone of Grey - Dawnstone. Now, we're going to prepare a little by getting the next-lighter shade of Grey, Administratum Grey... Basically, its the original colour with a bit of white added... So if you're using a custom colour for your basic colour, just keep that in mind - go a step lighter.

But now we've got it, we're not going to jump into it right now.



STEP 02 / 24 - RETOUCHING

Now, taking the Brush, and Dawnstone - I'm going to use the same Edge-Brushing Technique, but be just that much more careful as I apply it... In this case, its being applied to the Upper TIE Wing Panels - that is the Top (horizontal), and the front and back vertical edges... Basically, the edge of the top "HALF" are repainted gently... The underside half is left at the moment - that's okay to be nice and shadowy... I also Re-edge the External Panel Lines at the same time - again, SUPER carefully, but I am willing to touch up with Black if I make any mistakes... I'm MUCH more likely to rub and splattered paint quickly with a finger and re-do everything I've just done at this case - the point of the matter is, I'm using the same techniques, just much more carefully.



STEP 03 / 25 - BASIC HIGHLIGHTING

Now we're onto the step that a lot of hobbyists refer to as "highlighting" - that is placing a lighter colour on top of a darker colour to show where light would would be impacting - it gives us as 3D feel to a flat model. We can't rely on LIGHT to do it (like it would on a real-size model) because the model is simply so small - it doesn't have enough suface area to show it, so we add it artificially.

At this point, the 3 bumped ridges on top of the cockpit ball have all had Dawnstone right over the top - notice that I've not covered the entire thing in it - I've kept the Dawnstone within the "borderline edges" of the under colour (Dark Washed Dawnstone), which leaves a bit of the dark washing in place... I also place a line on top of the reactor jutout, and paint the top of the wing roots (but not necessarily the lower edges of that - I can if I'm confident in reaching it without filling it in - you always want to be leaving the original colour around.)

The larger areas around the top of the fighter ball also get a little smudge of dawnstone, to highlight it - again, keep it to the middle of the open area, and don't try to snug up against any areas where they would be shadows.


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STEP 04 / 26 - THE PART WHERE I START TO NOT BE GOOD AT THIS



Also, its the part where I start going from Macro to SUPERMacro to show how terrible I am...

Essentially, now we're up to Edge Highlighting - I'm not great at Edge Highlighting... There are others out there, who are absolute masters at it, and put me to shame - so for lack of a better term, I make my business on being the Everyman and making Paint Jobs that Everyone can do with a little dedication and practice - rather than the Superhuman.

So what is happening here? Well, basically, its the same "Brush perpendicular" technique that we've used so far... Except now we're perpendicular to the edge ... We've taken the next lighter paint - in this case, its Administratum Grey - and we're painting the edges with it... Very thinly, very carefully... Often, we need 2 passes for it to really show, because it goes on with a shine that makes it look REALLY BRIGHT, but then dulls as it dries and becomes a gentle, subtle highlight...

I'm starting with the Wing Panels... I'm hitting, again, JUST THE TOP HALF of the Wing Panel Edges themselves (in fact, I'm doing even less, leaving the last 1-2mm of the lower portion of the wing panel untouched)... The reason for this is we're basically providing a point where Light will have been caught, and over-emphasising edges and somewhat... In this case, its mostly edges...

I'm also doing the Spokes on the Wing Panel here - but very carefully, I'm trying to only do the edge - the corner - of them that's facing UP... Not facing down... I've also put a little dab on the edges of the central spoke itself - again, on the top half, to look like its caught light from above... This part is tricky and eminently frustrates me, and is going to make me go back and touch up some of that black that you can't really see at arms length but I'm taking SUPER_MACRO pictures so its right there, Dammit!


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Step 05 / 27 - MORE HIGHLIGHTING



Now we continue on to provide more of that highlighting - As you can see, i've hit the Top spokes of the Cockpit ball again - again, leaving a little of the basecoat and the original basic highlight showing -the whole thing isn't just flat colours, its basically 3-4 tones of colours... Concentrate the lighter tone to the highest and flattest piece of those.

Then, I place a dab on the diagonal corners of the cockpit ball itself, just below that center piece - because, basically, that's where light would be shining off the ball edge... Whereas it was kind of a contoured blob with the Dawnstone, with the Administratum, its pretty well just a dab touch - a tiny little ball, for just the highest piece of it...

I also then add a little streak the top half of the Reactor Outlet, and to the topmost portion of the Cockpit Window - so the upper-half of the cockpit is even brighter than the lower half... Again, to reflect a light source that is *above* the Model.


STEP 06 / 28 - CONTINUING


This isn't so much a Step, rather than a moment to stop and check... I make sure I break out my light, and I shine it from above, to make sure i'm hitting all the bits and pieces I need... That all of the shaded areas are still appropriately shaded, and the lit areas are Super-Bright and Lit... It also serves a nice comparison to the above picture, which was a more muted yellow light - this is the harsh white of Flash

Just a few more details and we're at "Hero" level... The differences are subtle, but they do make a huge visual difference when completely done - and indeed, it at a minimum doubles the time it takes to paint the squadron...

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STEP 07 / 29 - THE REAL DETAIL


Now you can see the reason why I chose the "long" bristled brush as I did at the start... A lot of it, is for this step... Internal Wing Mounts.... This is done basically by taking the paint (Dawnstone) on the brush, and making sure its about a third to two thirds of the way upp... Then, carefully holding the model, I place the tip of the brush up against the wing root (in the center), and sweep it out to the edge, again, almost holding it perpendicular (so the brush itself is the 'rule', and then doing it with a slightly quick-ish motion... Its not perfect , and anything that's terrible just gets swatted with Black and I try again once its dried... But its a time and error to get it sorted there... If I am feeling really adventurous, I'll then go back and do it again, this time with the Administratum, and try to artifically place the thin line of that so its on the top edge of the dark line, just like the highline outside - but I'll be honest, I skip this step unless I'm perfectly Rested and having a good heart day


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STEP 08 / 30 - THE FINAL TOUCH

The last final step here, is to brighten up those bright Blaster points on the front... Now, the Moot Green I've already used is pretty bright - so how do we make it brighter? The biggest problem is if you add white to something alreayd very bright, you tend to pastel it out a bit... So in this case, I'm adding Yellow... That makes the colour "Brighter" without becoming pastel... I used Flash Gitz Yellow here, because it was within arms reach, and itself is fairly bright... The yellow technique works well with Reds in particular, where adding Yellow to a Red will make it Brighter (as orange is still vibrant), whereas if you add White to it, it turns it Pink and Pastel - this is one point where Paint Admixture is different to Light Admixture, of course

But there we have it.

30 Steps in Total , brings us from Bare Plastic to Completed Models with far more Detail than anything that size REALLY deserves - Accomplish-able by a vast majority of people...

Of course, I will always bow in wisdom and ability to those out there who can truly paint - and we are blessed by a few of them on these forums indeed - but I sincerely hope that this will at least encourage someone who has never tried before, who has said "I can't ever do even a fraction of that", to see what an Everyman can do... Even more so when they have more time and concentration than this Frazzled Stay-At-Home Toddler Wranger...

(Reserved)

Ok this is pretty awesome. When I was learning to paint miniatures (Armada was my first miniatures game) I watched a lot of tutorials and how to's and this puts all of them to shame insofar as detail goes.

Thanks for this!

1 hour ago, BrobaFett said:

Award for most cryptic post ever goes to Dras.

(reserved for future comment on future post)

It did take me over an hour to edit it all in... And I still dropped a picture at some stage, which is annoying (the 'ardcoat step)

That's very helpful, Dras. Having written some tutorials now and again, I appreciate the effort that goes into something like this. I've been a little intimidated by the small dimensions of my squadrons; I look forward to trying out your technique!

Thank you for this. I really struggle with painting TIEs.

Very detailed basic guide Dras, well done.

Adding the 1st step of Hero-ification as I go... This'll be broken with To Be Continueds, as I didn't get the whole thing done... It is literally a work in progress while I try to also wrangle the toddler.

On the less talented side of the spectrum, I did a thing! (I'm actually quite happy with how mine turned out with as shaky as my hands are.

You may consider less Talented - but All of the basics are there... I think all we'd need to work on is posture and balance to really get you to a point where you can neaten things up...

Note: I have shaky hands. And not just normal shaky hands. I have wildly swinging blood pressure which, oftentimes, leaves my hands physically moving with my heartbeat - and one of the controllers for said blood pressure (other than crashing hard with medication) is caffiene - which, of course, involves further shaky hands... A Damaged shoulder also means my right hand, despite being my dominant hand, is actually very week to long-term holding - and fatigue shakes a lot as well...

But the secret for me is the posture... I sit at my desk, I place my Elbows on my desk at shoulder width, and thus, hold the model and paintbrush in front of my face... Then, when I'm ready to put brush-to-model, I touch my wrists together... This triangle arrangement between elbows and wrists cuts down a lot of shaking. Mostly because my hands have trouble shaking independently at that point - Brush and model are generally shaking in the same manner and same direction so its mostly neutralised.

Keep At it

Keep Practicing. You'll see vast improvments - because I can tell, even from what you're showing there - That you have the ability, you have the basics, its just oging to come out with Practice now.

Also. if this sort of thing is something that people like (I know its a staple in the Imperial Assault forums, for example) - I could make a run of it for different Squadrons of Star Wars Lore... I paint a bunch of them (Nova, Dagger, Bandit, Blue, Red, Rogue) quite often, and it could be a monthly sort of thing....

Let me know. I might set up a bit of a Go-Fund-Me so I can afford some better equipment - and maybe even show movies (because my webcam won't focus at a length worth a **** to use at the moment)

If you were to put together a Patreon, you'd be the first I'd subscribe to.

I have a question: What oiling does to the paint? What are are you using it for?

Using Nuln oil. Take a look at this picture:



Do you see, for example, along the edge line at the top of the cockpit - how that is a thin black line? And the darkening shadows in between the ridges on top of the TIE fighter cockpit ball? - that's the Shading provided by the Nuln Oil Wash.

The other benefit it has, of putting it over the black, is it evens the black out somewhat... It makes the black darker, without providing a shine to it, and if there's any part of the black that patchy (perhaps becasue there was grey underneath that section), then it evens the black colour out.

Essentially, the majority of the black wash works into the recesses to provide shading - it has a secondary effect of darkening the basecoat down as well... This stops the grey from looking "Flat" and "Boring", and makes it more realistic.

I'm using Black because my main colour is Grey.

When I get to Rebels, you'll see I use an Ivory/Off-White as my base coat for them, so the shading colour there is a Brown (Agrax Earthshade), as it provides contrast with the base colour.

On the odd "Royal Guard" squadron I paint, which are red - I use a dark red wash (Carroburg Crimson) to darken it down.

Now, please, don't get confused, the "Brand" of the colour is "Nuln Oil". I am not actually using an Oil. This is an acrylic wash made by Games Workshop. I don't use any oils on anything this size...

Do you always match the hue of the wash to the hue of the basecoat, then? IE: I should not be using Nuln Oil on my green zentraedi-style MC cruisers - I should be using a green wash or even Agrax because earthtones?

4 minutes ago, FoaS said:

Do you always match the hue of the wash to the hue of the basecoat, then? IE: I should not be using Nuln Oil on my green zentraedi-style MC cruisers - I should be using a green wash or even Agrax because earthtones?

To go a little more advanced - The question there is what is the Result you want...

As a straight comparison, you have a Green Basecoat, and you apply straight Nuln Oil - its going to go very dark, and look very shaded and shadowed.

Agrax Earthshade, its going to look dirty as well as shaded... Older, beaten up.

If you are are using a darker, pure green, then Biel-Tan green is basically a mix of Black and Green washes - so it will shade darken, but it will also maintain the "green" colour, without adding a black patina to it.. You can really see the patina on the edges of that photo I reiterated above with the Nuln oil - it looks flat up greasy - that's because the colour is so light (grey) and the wash is dark.

If you re using a more "camo" green, then there is another mix - Athonian camoshade - which is a mix of Greens and Browns - again, applied to a straight greenm, this will have a "dirtying" effect like pure Agrax does, but not anywhere near as intense, because it still maintains the green colouration...

If you've got a Dark colour, and you want to get a nice colour contrast through - and re-use your original colour as a first highlight - then go with a complimentary base-colour for starters... Using a straight other colour and really throw the colour mix out, requiring you to highlight with different shades...

Now, specifically, if I remember my Zentradi, their base ships were a very dark Green... You could probably get away with straight black over them, but be wary that you are specifically very darkening the base coat - so your base colour tone could end up being too light of a highlight - but a super-dark base will also allow any hull-lighting done bright to really stand out against it.

A Green wash is likely to just be a little more subtle, and make the green a little "richer" in colour, because it won't dull it down as much as Nuln.

Also, I apologise for no progress on the advanced line today. Hothgary went from 28c and Sunny yesterday to 100km/h winds, rain and hail today... (but at least we avoided funnel clouds so far)... But that meant a lot of battening of hatches and comfort for the Kiddo, who was quite terrified of watching debris fly around outside.

On 5/24/2017 at 11:05 AM, Darth Sanguis said:

On the less talented side of the spectrum, I did a thing! (I'm actually quite happy with how mine turned out with as shaky as my hands are.

Also, if I am, in statement to this picture in particular...

Mount them on Stands, place 'em on a Table next to a Star Destroyer - and then stand back and take a picture....

They'll look 'effin Rad there

Close up Photography always, ALWAYS sucks for tiny details.

23 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Also, if I am, in statement to this picture in particular...

Mount them on Stands, place 'em on a Table next to a Star Destroyer - and then stand back and take a picture....

They'll look 'effin Rad there

Close up Photography always, ALWAYS sucks for tiny details.

I've actually tabled them since painting, they don't look bad in the the mix of things lol

Just now, Darth Sanguis said:

I've actually tabled them since painting, they don't look bad in the the mix of things lol

Yep. The single hardest point for us to overcome as critiques of our own work, is we've spent the past 'X' amount of hours looking at these things three inches from our noses, and taking pictures that blows up all of the details 600x to show us how pathetic we are.

But 90% of the time, a Miniature is viewed at a length of at least three Feet... The shortest one should critique a model at is the length of your arm straight out in front of you... Look at it there, because that's the minimal distance and focal point you'll view it at for the rest of your life, basically

Couple more Steps up.

...... Looking into a Patreon, only honestly, lack of ability to commit to content I feel will hold me back. I'll have to do lots of convincing to myself.

1 hour ago, Drasnighta said:

Yep. The single hardest point for us to overcome as critiques of our own work, is we've spent the past 'X' amount of hours looking at these things three inches from our noses, and taking pictures that blows up all of the details 600x to show us how pathetic we are.

But 90% of the time, a Miniature is viewed at a length of at least three Feet... The shortest one should critique a model at is the length of your arm straight out in front of you... Look at it there, because that's the minimal distance and focal point you'll view it at for the rest of your life, basically

we can overcome that... well I'll be ******.

It can be done

... Just as the guide is now done, up to the end of Hero level.

Have you considered using eyedropper bottles for your paints, @Drasnighta ? I used to use the old GW paint pots back in the day, but for palette use, those eyedropper bottles (Vallejo, Reaper, Army Painter, or P3 all do their own lines) are much better for me and don't force me to use blobs of paints. Much easier to get reasonable recreations of mixes too (as "drops" of this to that are easier to use than "blobs") and also easier to use with paint additives too for that reason.