Painting progress

[kaltorak18]

Thank you.

I just don't like the gold though. After painting that test ship I should have tried it on one of the bigger ships... I mean it looks nice, but it hides some details because the gold flecks are a bit distracting. It'd look ok if it were a smaller area (such as highlighting a component or gun), but i just can't bring myself to paint the entire fleet with it. So, I need to strip the paint off the few mini's I've tried and start again.

The real question is... what color goes with navy blue and doesn't look completely lame other than gold/yellow? I tried a cayman blue on one of the bombers, but it ended up looking like a piece of candy. I'm tempted to try out orange, but I fear it'll have the same problem :/

Anyone have any suggestions? I suck at choosing colors. I'm very technical and this is creative/arty. This is not my forte.

 

[kaltorak18]

Here's a quick picture of one of the bombers... it looks pretty good IMO, but I just can't deal with gold being everywhere on the big ships. I could do the smaller ships in gold and navy and the bigger ones in another scheme i guess...

 

[Ben2]

What gold are you using? Is that a coat of GW/Coat D'arms shining gold, or a thin coat of P3 blighted gold?

There are a bunch of different ways to paint gold, you might try two thin coats, a chestnut ink wash and then gold/silver mix for highlights.

 

[zorlak21]

Looking good...

 

[kaltorak18]

What gold are you using? Is that a coat of GW/Coat D'arms shining gold, or a thin coat of P3 blighted gold?

There are a bunch of different ways to paint gold, you might try two thin coats, a chestnut ink wash and then gold/silver mix for highlights.

Currently I use watered down acrylic folk art paints from michaels. So that mix is gold metallic, with a bit of black and very little red. Watered down to a 1:1 ratio with tap water.

I apply the paint in a bunch of thin coats, but watching a few more videos on painting I think I thin the paint TOO much now.

Hmm.. I need to get some ink washes. I might try making a wash with the acrylic paint first with some acrylic matte medium, but the inks just look easy..

 

[Ben2]

Ah, that explains it.

Gold is a tricky metallic, as it doesn't cover anywhere near as well as silver or boltgun metal.

You might think about getting some model paints. Do you have a local stockist?

If not American ebay should be ok for things like Vallejo game colour.

There are a number of paint ranges.

Vallejo Game Colour (which is very like the GW range in terms of colours available)
Vallejo Model Colour (which is every uniform colour you can think of)
Tamiya (not tried)
Reaper (not tried)
P3 (rather nice paint range brought out by Privateer Press, good for blending)
GW (VMC and Coat D'arms do the same thing for cheaper in bigger pots)
GW Foundation range (worth getting some of these if they fit your scheme)
GW Washes (get Devlan mud as a general rule)
Coat D'arms (this is the old GW range that was in use until the mid 90s, in exactly the same pots).

I'd recommend Vallejo Game Colour, it's cheap and it's good.

Some painting links

http://blog.brushthralls.com/
http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/5760-Articles-Index

 

[kaltorak18]

I'll definitely try picking up another gold and some different metallic paints from some model paint manufacturers, as it seems folk art doesn't do metallics very well. And I found out what the difference between their paints and the model paints... and I'm going to try picking up a solution today - matte acrylic medium. According to my reading, that's what the miniature paints have to thin them out a bit more. So maybe that'll work better than just plain water.

I found a store that ships Vallejo game color paints. I'll try them out side by side and see the results I'd like to keep using folk art if possible as it's $1.25 USD a bottle compared to $2.50 + shipping for Vallejo or $3.70 for GW. It all depends how the acrylic medium works out.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Ben2]

I'd try US ebay.

There is one seller doing 8 Vallejo Game Colour at $2 each plus shipping.

Or do you have a model or hobby store nearby?

 

[Gamethyme]

I found a store that ships Vallejo game color paints. I'll try them out side by side and see the results I'd like to keep using folk art if possible as it's $1.25 USD a bottle compared to $2.50 + shipping for Vallejo or $3.70 for GW. It all depends how the acrylic medium works out.

Thanks for the suggestions!

And you get a much larger bottle for that $1.25, too.

I use the craft paints with the Privateer P3 metallics (they have a metallic purple that, in conjunction with their Gloss Black made my Deathjacks look like they had beetle carapaces).

The craft paints also have that nice glow-in-the-dark paint that you can mix with other paints for a cool effect ...



Eric