Wamped 3!

The details have been released, so get painting for one of the biggest online painting competitions!
Details can be found over at the Wamp website, with a handy link right there ay the top of this blog. It's free to register and enter, and there are prizes for winners, runners up, an overall best in show prize, plus spot prizes and sponser prizes!
The best paint job does not always win, vision and idea play a part in the judging so really anyone can win.
Hope to see you there!

Painting Tips: Thinning your paints

Every one has done it. You have opened that paint pot, dipped your brush in, put it to model, and all the detail just disappears under a nice thick layer of paint, and you panic. I do it regularly, think I only need a spot, and then mess my model up.

What are the benefits of thinning your paints? You will not lose any detail in a model with correctly thinned paints, no matter how many times you have to go over the area. The paint will also dry a lot smoother, and there will be no brush strokes in the paint.

So what do you do to think your paints?

Method 1: Basically, you need a palette, a brush some water and the paint. Get some paint on your brush, and put it on the palette. Then using CLEAN (cannot stress that enough) water, use add it to the paint off the brush. Generally, one brush of paint to two brushed of water is where I want to be personally. Play around to get your own ratio. We are looking for paint the consistency of single cream, maybe a bit more watery that that.

Method 2: Go out to your local model shop, and see if they sell Vallejo Game Colour Thinner. This is basically a acrylic medium, and comes in a wonderful dropper bottle. Put your paint on a palette, add one drop of thinner, mix, add more if needed. Still looking for the single cream consistency, and usually (for me at least) 1 paintbrush of paint is thinned by 2 drops of thinner.

Now clean your brush before you start to paint, to get off excess paint, as any excess will defeat the point of watering down the paint. Before you put brush to model, wipe off excess paint on some kitchen towel.

You will notice that the paint may need another coat to get a good, solid covering on the model. This is OK, in fact wanted. 5 thin coats of paint is much better than 1 thick coat of paint. Yes it pushes painting time up, but also the paint dries a lot quicker like this, and you can see the colours emerge, and you have a lot more control over the paint.

One more method I sometimes use, especially with GW paints, is to thin down the whole pot at once, so you can paint out of the pot. Be careful with this, you don't really want to over thin the paint, as you can still use a palette/thinner later. I have used this on quite a few of my GW paints, they last longer and I don’t need to waste time thinning every colour every time I want to use them.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I did take some but they really did nothing. I will make a video over the next day or so to show consistencies.

Miniature Painting: Which Primer?

More to the point, what colour? Black, grey or white?

There are many people who swear by using a certain colour for their primer, and just as many who probably have never given any thought into it. In my (ahem..) quest for painting perfection, I have used all three, and settled on grey as my colour of choice, but I also know when to use the other colours.

Black will generally produce a much darker, grittier feel to a finished model, with colours on top being muted and not as bright. Black also creates a “auto shade” effect, where the recesses will be darkest on the model, usually enough to make you only push the highlights.

Grey produces the most realistic (in my opionion) colours. It still creates a little amount of auto shading, but also pushed highlights a little as well. It takes longer to work with, due to you having to go back and finish the shadows as well as the highlights when the base coats have been completed.

White will create the brightest finished model, and has a “auto highlight” effect. There will be very little shading on the model, so you will have to do and do these yourself, but the highlights will be very prominent from the start.

All three have their followers. Black I use when I am batch painting or speed painting, as it leave things like guns and parts you don’t paint black, and takes to a nice dry brush easily. Grey I use for one off models, such as character models. The paint takes well to the grey, and helps the model stand out a bit better when all the other models are on the table, due to you starting on a lighter base colour. (However, I am finding myself using grey a lot more for everything recently). White I very rarely, if ever use. I just don’t like how bright it makes the model, which to me is very unrealistic. I would only use white one something such as Eldar in WH40k, as these are very bright models when finished.

Here is a little example (excuse the extreme blur on the second photo... but it is only the colour we are looking at so I didn’t retake it.)

The first picture is just the base undercoats. The second is the models painted with a base coat of Mordian Blue foundation, mixed 1:1 with some game colour thinner. You can see the difference, black on the left, which is much darker with much more prominent shadows, and white on the left which, to me, the blue looks way to happy. The middle grey, is perfect to my eye, looks very close to what the paint in the pot looks like.

So there you have it. Use black for quick jobs, grey for everything else and white on special occasions. OK that just my opinion, but next time you reach for that can of spray primer, as yourself, are you using the right colour for the job?

Painting Miniatures: Paintbrushes

Painting miniatures is a skill that can be learnt. Of course it helps if you have an artistic flair, but it is one of those skills that CAN be learnt, and learning how to do it well takes a different amount of time for everyone.

One of the main stumbling blocks that I myself came across was paintbrushes, and which one to use and when. I have been through many brushes of almost every size, and have come to the conclusion that I need 3, no more and no less. I think this will apply to most people who just paint for the tabletop and themselves. If you are painting for competition or display purposes, all the sizes will have a purpose, but for the average gamer/painter, I believe that you only need 3.

So which ones? Well, I have a size 000, for detailing, a size 1 for everything else, and a old Games Workshop large dry-brush for, well, dry-brushing. I paint everything from large aircraft to the smallest Grot with these brushes.

The size 1 I use for just about everything. Get a brush that will always come to a good point (personally I use Winsor and Newton, expensive granted, but ALWAYS come back to a point.) With a brush with a good point, no matter what size it is, you will always be able to do detail, and be able to switch in and out of doing large areas, such as armour, back into doing wristbands and necklaces with ease.

The 000 is used for those hard to reach areas and other things, like eyes and gun scopes. That’s all that’s used for, don’t even think to use one of these for flat surfaces, you will get brush marks and be there painting for a long time.

The large dry brush I use is defiantly at the end of its useful life. Any large stiff bristle brush will do the job for dry brushing though, even other brushes that don’t keep the tip can be used for dry brushing, as it kills brushes fast.

The most important aspect however, I practising with a size 1 brush. The size of it at first may seem prohibitive, making you think that it could never be used for detail, but when you get used to using just the tip of the brush with different pressures, you will be amazed at what can be achieved with such a large brush.

Practice, practice, practice. Paint to your best standard you can, and other times just go out and buy a cheap model and just paint. Don’t care too much what you do to this model, keep it fun. Get good brush control and the rest will come.

WAMP 2012!

August 11^th 2012 is the WAMP 2012 live event in Mansfield, UK.

Who are WAMP? WAMP is a great miniature painting forum that can be found via this link. I have been a member for a while now, and it really is one of those places on the internet where you can just kick back and have a conversation about the hobby. Gaming wise, they don't talk about it a lot, as most of the posters there are helping out people or getting ready for a competition.

I have yet to find a forum that will help you out as much as the guys here will. If you need help, then these people will help you. I cannot stress how much these guys (and gals!) helped me when I first ventured there.

They also have a store, where you can find wonderful miniatures to paint. There is a wide range of miniatures there from companies that I personally had never heard of, and models that you will want. So buy from the store, get stuck and seek help in the forum. You cannot want for more than that!

There is also the webazine Portal, a run down of all things miniature with interviews from all over the industry. It really is a great read for anyone interested in the hobby.

2012 is the second WAMP live event. It is being held at the Maelstrom gaming store in Mansfield. Go here for the details. I hope that I shall be going, if I get much interest from around here I might make it the first TNG excursion.

The event will focus around a painting competition, with feature hands on painting help, and a separate speed painting contest. All in all sounds like a fantastic day out that we all need to go to!

Go and visit the WAMP forum, here at www.wampforum.com, and enjoy your stay there.