I had time to paint a few more minis since I posted Obi-Wan. First, an Alliance Smuggler takes Drokkatta's place and now completes my new incarnation of Team Fulcrum together with Hera:

Next I also finally painted two Jet Troopers who reinforce my Team Palpatine:

Next I will propably paint 0-0-0... we'll see.

I think yours would be one of the few tutorial videos that i would PAY to see! I'm always amazed by the perfect coverage of your colours and the detail...i thought I had made a fair amount of progress in my painting, but this is lightyears ahead! If ever you make tutorial videos, you'll already have one subscriber...

Thanks, @Cpt Barbarossa ! I have no experience doing videos, and good tutorial videos require a good production value and a lot of time to make - and I'd rather spend time painting than looking into and then committing to making videos. But I appreciate your comment.

This week I've painted Bossk, who will now join my gallery of bounty hunters for Imperial Assault:

"Hello, what have we here..?"

A WIP of the smoothest, coolest smoothie in the galaxy!

I started painting Lando last night, and the head is finished. On to the cloak and clothing!

That's amazing!!!

On 26/01/2018 at 6:04 PM, Fourtytwo said:

Thanks, @Cpt Barbarossa ! I have no experience doing videos, and good tutorial videos require a good production value and a lot of time to make - and I'd rather spend time painting than looking into and then committing to making videos. But I appreciate your comment.

Totally understandable i'm just curious, do you use only brushes or have you delved into the world of airbrushing too? The even spread of your colours makes me very envious...

1 hour ago, Cpt Barbarossa said:

Totally understandable i'm just curious, do you use only brushes or have you delved into the world of airbrushing too? The even spread of your colours makes me very envious...

I use brushes only, and I always, always apply thin coats of paint - meaning I always dilute my paints with a bit of water, never applying them straight out of the pot, painting multiple thin layers where needed. While it may sound counter-intuitive, diluted paint applied with a sharply pointed brush allows great control when painting teeny-tiny details. The trick is to apply almost no pressure on the brush when doing this. I also use diluted paints to create a smooth gradient with the highlights, because this allows you to move the pigments on the area you want to highlight, creating a greater density of pigments where you want the highlight to be strongest. This might sound complicated, but all it takes is a bit of practice.

@Fourtytwo I've found that whenever I try to thin my paints with water I get the opposite effect: when I try to paint a small area the surface tension of the water makes it form a little bubble/spreads it out instead of staying just in the location where I put my brush. Have you ever run into anything like this? Am I maybe just thinning them too much?

13 minutes ago, ManateeX said:

@Fourtytwo I've found that whenever I try to thin my paints with water I get the opposite effect: when I try to paint a small area the surface tension of the water makes it form a little bubble/spreads it out instead of staying just in the location where I put my brush. Have you ever run into anything like this? Am I maybe just thinning them too much?

Sounds like it's too thin. You want it thin, but not too thin , just about a bit thicker than milk i'd say? (hard to explain, but you'll get a feel for it eventually).

A really great way of thinning your paints, is using a wet palette. I just use a tupperware lid, with a cut kitchen sponge in it (wettened) with a piece of grease proof paper over the top. Paint on top, an extra dab of water when needed. helps you get that mix right, and stops it drying out too fast.

1 minute ago, 54NCH32 said:

Sounds like it's too thin. You want it thin, but not too thin , just about a bit thicker than milk i'd say? (hard to explain, but you'll get a feel for it eventually).

Skim or 2%?

A really great way of thinning your paints, is using a wet palette. I just use a tupperware lid, with a cut kitchen sponge in it (wettened) with a piece of grease proof paper over the top. Paint on top, an extra dab of water when needed. helps you get that mix right, and stops it drying out too fast.

I appreciate the tip, and I'll have to give it a go. I've tried the homemade wet palette before for mixing colour gradients, but at my skill level I've found it's only really been worth setting it up when I'm painting a larger one-colour surface and really need a good gradient. But you're right that it would make it much easier to just add small amounts of water at a time (vs a conventional palette) - I'll try it out next time I have to do some fine detail.

How are you priming your minis? Spray of brush? Any zentihal?

@manatee_x : 54nch32 got it right. If you thin your paint, only do it to a point where the paint does not yet run, and do not overload your brush with thinned paint, only so much that it is on the tip of the brush and roughly half-way down the bristles. At first, you will need to make a conscious effort to get the paint diluted the right amount and not to overload your brush, but with practice, you won't have to think about it any more - it becomes a natural addition to your painting skills.

25 minutes ago, Jabby said:

How are you priming your minis? Spray of brush? Any zentihal?

I always use Chaos Black spray primer from Citadel, because it is a quality product and I never had problems with it. I usually give the minis a white colour spray on top for zenithal pre-shading. I fog the white spray colour in a 45° angle from above from all four directions all over the mini but only so much that no area will have a continuous coat of white. The teeny-tiny speckles of white spray have another benefit: They make the surfaces a little less smooth, so that your thinned layers of paint can be more easily and evenly applied to them.

It took a bit longer due to time constraints, but Lando is finally painted:

Amazing!

UTINNI!

Your color transitions are so perfect.

Very good job.

I just finished painting and varnishing my Hired Guns, which I needed for one of several skirmish lists for an event in april.

As always incredibly smooth colors and blending. Nice touch with the adjustments on the leftmost HG.

Love the jackets!

Since I watched the REBELS series finale tuesday last week, I'm busy sculpting Ahsoka as she appeared in the epilogue, just for the fun of it. This takes time, since I'm sculpting in layers onto the re-posed mini of her we got for Imperial Assault. I still got a bit of sculpting to do as well as scratch-building her staff, but the figure is taking shape and looking good so far:

You never cease to impress Cool project!

holy cow that's epic

Your stuff is amazing! Do you happen to have an instagram account? Id like to follow if so...

Fourtytwo you ever thought about streaming your painting? Even just some commentary while you paint is inciteful to beginners like myself.

16 hours ago, FrogTrigger said:

Fourtytwo you ever thought about streaming your painting? Even just some commentary while you paint is inciteful to beginners like myself.

I second this. I would love to watch you paint.

...this sounds creepy doesn't it?