Octopus Overlords

Picked up some Army Painter color metallics to paint my CarWars minis. The cooler weather should let me prime a bunch.

Edit: Primed cars from Car Wars are drying off in the sun this afternoon. It will be interesting to see how the color metallics look on a miniature.

The speedpaints don't come out until next year, right? I think I will have to get at least a few colors or the mid-ranged set. They look like they do something different enough from Contrast paints that they are worth it. I agree with the video, some of the contrast paints are great and others are dodgy (green and undiluted purple, for example), so I would love to have some alternative choices.

baelthazar wrote:The speedpaints don't come out until next year, right? I think I will have to get at least a few colors or the mid-ranged set. They look like they do something different enough from Contrast paints that they are worth it. I agree with the video, some of the contrast paints are great and others are dodgy (green and undiluted purple, for example), so I would love to have some alternative choices.

Yeah, they’re saying early 2022.

Here's my Street Masters contrast paint collection. This is the Core Set, plus the original Kickstarter bonuses and the Aftershock Kickstarter bonuses. It's not quite complete... I still have about a dozen ally/rival figures to paint, and I'm working on making my own assorted rubbish tentacles for the Recyclord enemy set since it only came with tokens for them.



Here's a photo of the figures in action, plus some upgraded loot crates.

Very nice work!

That’s a lot of work! Great job!

As a fellow NJ resident, if you want to take your skills and apply them to another set of Street Masters minis...

They look great. The little terrain upgrades are awesome.

Wow, that's great! I imagine it feels really good completing something on that scale.

I really should consider going back with the contrast paints. I hadn't thought about how good those results would be until I saw your excellent work!

Wow, thanks for all the nice comments! I skipped taking my "usual" well lit close up photos because I think they look like crap... up close. While I don't really care for contrast paint, it delivered what was promised. A fast way to get a lot miniatures painted well enough to look OK on the table.

Daveman wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:12 pm I skipped taking my "usual" well lit close up photos because I think they look like crap... up close.

[Soapbox]

They all do. No, not just yours, everyone's. Unless painted specifically for close-up photos. Everything about the hobby is designed to be used at arm's length, and blowing a 1" miniature up to 6" in a photo is going to make it look awful.

It's like looking at an oil painting from four inches away and saying it looks blotchy. That's not what the medium is for! It's why I took to shrinking my images down to no more than a couple of times the actual size - it shows what I actually have sitting on my desk when I'm done painting.

[/soapbox]

Another thing I am excited about with the Speedpaints. I have been really utilizing zenithal to very good effect lately and the contrast paints are a mixed bag with Zenithal shading. This looks a bit stronger.

baelthazar wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 11:48 pm Another thing I am excited about with the Speedpaints. I have been really utilizing zenithal to very good effect lately and the contrast paints are a mixed bag with Zenithal shading. This looks a bit stronger.

Just post the regular share link directly into your post - the board does the rest.

I was trying this, but it wasn't working... huh. You would think I don't work with technology every day...

Sorting through my Pulp Alley figures…I blame Blackhawk for all of this madness…

And I painted these delinquents in about an hour and a half last night.

Bring back the whoopee cap!

I knew what a whoopee cap was, but...

It is also referred to as a Jughead hat (so named after comic book character Jughead Jones, for whom the hat became an iconic piece),

The way it's drawn I always thought he was wearing a crown. I never knew why, but I never read Archie, so I figured it was covered somewhere.

I haven't painted any minis in about 35 years. But, I bought a used copy of Dungeon Alliance on BGG. I decided to do something besides play with gray minis. So after watching several videos on YouTube, I have bought some materials to make them all look like they were sundropped.

My plan is to spray prime them with white. Then use Citadel Nuln Oil Shade. After that dries, I will make a decision for each mini whether to leave it like that or add a colored wash over the Nuln Oil. I don't want to take forever to do these 21 or so minis. I just want them to have a little character. I think the white with Nuln will look good on most of them. However, I'm not so sure about a second colored wash. I bought some Citadel washes called Carroburg Crimson, Agrax Earthshade, Biel-tan Green, and Brakenhof Nightshade. Any thoughts if these will look ridiculous or maybe some sort of cool? Again, all of these will probably be applied over the Nuln.

I also bought a few minis to practice on before attempting the Dungeon Alliance ones.

After looking at Hentzau's last post, I feel kind of foolish and embarrassed. Mine will look nothing like that. That kind of paint job would take me several days, not an hour and a half. I really don't want to get back into mini painting. I just want to sundrop them so I can start playing.

Here's the main video I'm using as my inspiration from Rob's Tabletop World.
https://youtu.be/Imibk6o68As

Fardaza,

I did basically that with my Nemesis figures and I love how they turned out. The only alteration was that I did Zenithal priming (hit it with black all over, gray at 45 degrees above, and white directly above), and then I hit all my figures with a drybrush of white (no fancy technique, just normal drybrushing). They look amazing.

I do suggest hitting them with other colors (particularly if the characters are "themed" to a color - like the Warrior is Red). Almost all of the Citadel Shaders look very good with that kind of "Sundrop" method. You won't believe how much better they look than regular grey figures.

Once you move forward to dip your toes back into painting - check out Citadel Contrast paints. They are only one step more difficult than this sundrop method you are looking at (in this case, you put colors on different spots).

From Descent - these minis are so much fun. I used Sorastro's guide for this one to push me into doing some off source lighting, which I think came out pretty decent.

Very nice!

Man, I need to get past my fear of painting and just go for it after seeing all this great work.

Really excited to finally see your bodypainting in action, hepcat.

Sadly, the cops are onto me and I can't find any more victims.

To steer slightly back on topic and honor the "painting tips" portion of the title - I did learn that very lightly mixing some of the color of your light with the color of your surface worked well to create some of the light - I wouldn't (hadn't) thought about doing it that way.

Malificent wrote: ↑Mon Nov 08, 2021 4:01 pm To steer slightly back on topic and honor the "painting tips" portion of the title - I did learn that very lightly mixing some of the color of your light with the color of your surface worked well to create some of the light - I wouldn't (hadn't) thought about doing it that way.

Angel Giraldez (famous Spanish mini painter) blew my mind with the tip to add YELLOW to colors to increase brightness, instead of white. He says (rightfully) that white "desaturates" colors, while yellow increases brightness. This works with most colors, but will obviously "tint" things depending on the base colors. Still, it is a similar tip to adding the color of the light to the original base.

Angel Giraldez can do amazing things using only primary colors and mixing. But I'm more along the lines of 1-2 hours paint jobs than his 5-10 hour ones.

Yellows also tend to be thin paints so will mix well. I haven’t tried it, but makes sense.

I am currently painting up my Car Wars cars using color metallics. The flat surfaces have been challenging, and I’m dreading using washes. It hopefully will make some details pop and dirty things up. Or fail.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Mon Nov 08, 2021 6:19 pm Yellows also tend to be thin paints so will mix well. I haven’t tried it, but makes sense.

I am currently painting up my Car Wars cars using color metallics. The flat surfaces have been challenging, and I’m dreading using washes. It hopefully will make some details pop and dirty things up. Or fail.

I have had mixed results with washes on top of my TurboDork metallics and turboshifts. The Army Painter strong wash dulled the shine and shift, making it look more organic/dirty than metallic. I suspect nuln oil would do the same, so you probably want the glossy version. The Army Painter color washes, blue, red, and purple did better - popping the details and not covering too much of the shine. I had pretty good luck with the purple, green, and soft wash on my "Sundrop" Nemesis characters.

I will say - if you drybrush back on the same metallic color (lightly at first, building up as needed) after you do the wash, it will look better. It brings the shine back to the upper levels while leaving the lower levels and crevices shaded.

Most things you put over a metallic will dull it. Drybrushing and/or manually building it back up is usually necessary.

Another alternative is to do a pin wash, but it's much more time consuming (a pin wash is manually brushing a wash into the recesses rather than flooding the whole thing.)

I’m getting a few brighter TurboDork metallics on Friday. I’ve been using Army Painter color metallics so far. Maybe I can use Army Painter Dark Tone on the bottom to dull down for dirt and Army Painter Color Inks on the tops.

Or just dry brush the tops.

I think this goes here. First, how did I totally not hear about this when it was announced back in August? Second, how is this the first time there are official D&D customizable miniatures on sprues???

Zarathud wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 11:43 pm I’m getting a few brighter TurboDork metallics on Friday. I’ve been using Army Painter color metallics so far. Maybe I can use Army Painter Dark Tone on the bottom to dull down for dirt and Army Painter Color Inks on the tops.

Or just dry brush the tops.

I just noticed this. Something I have taken to doing is to drybrush TurboDork on darker colors to make them "pop." It is a certain look, but I really enjoy the effect. For example, I had the frog boss from Altar Quest painted in Zenithal basecoat and then put light green contrast paint for his skin. I thought he lacked a certain depth, so I drybrushed some TurboDork turboshift Emerald Nightmare on him and it really made him pop. I'll follow up with some pics at some point.

Turbodork works best (mostly) on dark colors. You lose some of the shift if not applied direct to black (or sometimes white) basecoat, but you still gain a neat "shine." It works well for armor, cloth you want to look "fine" (like silk), and beast flesh.

Once again, I love these Descent minis:

Boy, that's pretty.

I know some folks complained about the style direction Descent took, but I love the look of them.

Another preview of the Army Painter's version of Contrast Paints. This is the first I've heard the price mentioned - about 50% cheaper than Contrast - which is kind of important.

That's most of the 22 cars painted from the Car Wars Kickstarter Double Ace. The paints are an Army Painter metal set, and a handful of Turbo Dork bottles, over Reaper or Vallejo base coats. The large surface areas on the cars needed a thin first coat, with varying levels of metallic paint as a second (or third) coat. Destroyed three cheap brushes in the process.

The wash on the last 3 cars is drying tonight, then I need to prime and paint the last 10 cars. Those cars are from the Miniatures Pack Two and Four. I'm hoping for a decently warm and dry day this weekend.

Fortunately, there's a local shop (Burn In Designs) selling a wooden organizer which should keep all of the cars, the build cards and many of the obstacles in the main box. I've been to their booth at Adepticon a few years ago. I'll post a photo once it's all painted and built.