Birds of Prey

I made a little progress this weekend with the miniatures in Star Trek: Fleet Captains. Much like my last batch of models, I painted these guys using a fast technique with a limited palette. The only notable difference was a black ink wash just before drybrushing. I'm not sure that was the best choice since it left the Birds of Prey a bit darker than my D7s. Fortunately, when placed side-by-side all of the ships still appear to be a cohesive force.

That's 7 down and only 17 more models to go. Ugh... this hobby is suppose to be fun, right? :)

Painted 4 minis in 1 day - That's a new record!

Here is my first set of painted models from the board game Star Trek: Fleet Captains. Apologies for the pictures: the white balance is off (the background should be a pale blue).

Since I have a total of 24 miniatures to paint, I decided to try a fast method of washes, drybrushing, and minimal highlighting. Aside from the red/orange engines, my palette was limited to just four colors: Templar Blue, Ashen Blue, Black Green, and Ghost White. After priming, I finished all four models in about 3 hours. For me, that's lightning fast!

I'm pretty happy with the painting results, but I do have mixed feelings about the models themselves. All of the models included with the game arrived assembled and attached to their bases. I was disappointed to see that each has a defect where the plastic was broken/cut/torn from the casting sprue. Also, most parts were misaligned and attached with large gaps. I've tried disassembling a few models, but it's a real chore and can require cutting away plastic (and then rebuilding) simply to make a repair.

So here's my warning to others: fixing the minis in this game will require a lot of effort. While it's not an impossible task, it really is time consuming. But if you're a nerd like me, you'll just persevere ... and probably enjoy it!

My first attempt at painting a mini

I was digging through my old photos and came across the one posted above. I forgot all about this little guy! It's a Chaos Iron Warrior Space Marine from Games Workshop. Now that's a mouthful.

I painted this model way back in 2002 (was it really that long ago?) following my first visit to a local game store. I had just built a plastic model tank and I was looking for some paint. Before long, the hobby supplies were an afterthought as I was now browsing a wall of detailed miniatures. Although I had painted a few Ral Partha minis in high school, I had no idea people still made these things nor that they had become so intricate.

This little guy was repainted about a dozen times until I thought he looked "just right." He's the model that ultimately inspired me to search countless web sites and forums where I learned about tricks & techniques for painting. Lost years ago after we moved, it's fun to see him one more time.

Painting Tutorials

If you're looking to learn more about painting minis, I'd recommend checking out the DVDs from Hot Lead. The 3 disc set is pretty comprehensive and perhaps most useful to beginners. There's a lot here that would have saved me quite a bit of trial & error over the years!

For me, the most useful information concerned matte medium and retarder. I've long had mixed results with this stuff. After watching the videos, I came away with a better understanding of their use and saw an immediate improvement in my painting. Using these materials is really helpful for layering and wet-blending.

You'll also see numerous demos of differing techniques. In particular, I thought the example for wet blending was great. I enjoyed watching demos for NMM and I only wish there was more.

I also learned to appreciate keeping a notebook. While I've tried this before, I never saw much value. But by actually applying paint to my pages (rather than just notes) I've discovered that I can plan out the entire palette for a mini. Now I can see what works before slapping down some paint. That was a great suggestion from the video and one I plan to use more often.

Although you're not going to watch 8 hours of video in one sitting, it is worthwhile to grab a copy of Hot Lead's DVD as a reference. Hopefully you'll find it as useful as I have.

Easy stone bases

Months ago, I was experimenting with basing in greenstuff. My original thread can be found here at 40k Online. Would you believe it's taken me about 6 months to actually paint one of these? Wow - I'm easily distracted!

I specifically made these for use in Incursion, a game which takes place inside a WWII bunker. I knew the common gravel basing technique just wouldn't do, so I came up with the trick of pressing a rock into greenstuff. It's an easy way to create a simple, rocky surface in scale with 28mm miniatures. Painting is a snap, too. Just a base coat of dark grey, dry brushing with light shades of grey, and finally an ink wash to bend it all together.

Here's the finished product using a miniature I painted last week. I wasn't too happy with my painting, but at least the base is an improvement.

Current score on Cool Mini or Not:

Yikes - what is that mess?

While it's not the best picture, this model doesn't look much better in person. Where did I go wrong?

This zombie is from the Weird WWII line of miniatures by West Wind. While I like the quirky subject and the price is great, a number of the models I've purchased have had very soft casting details. As you can see in the picture, the hands were pretty messed up and the face looked like it was melted by a candle. But, a good painter could still get good results. I, on the other hand, totally missed the mark.

So what can I learn? Here are a few things I could have improved:

All of my color choices are poor. While I thought I had a good match for Field Grey, I made the wrong choice for the highlights. Next time I work on a German soldier, I'll more towards grey than a yellow/green. Also, the choice of a greenish shirt beneath the coat was a real miss. Maybe a brown would have been better?

The contrast between skin colors and the coat is too great. The skin was supposed to be a purple/pale green that just fell flat. I assumed that purple and green would compliment the coat, but sadly, it was just wrong. The picture didn't capture the skin colors well but then neither did I!

Beneath a few coats of paint are my mistakes at painting blood stained clothing. Looked goofy, like he fell into a can of red paint! I tried painting some dark browns like dried blood as well, but that looked more like he was eating chocolate ice cream. Needless to say, I applied a coat of paint to hide the entire mess!

Finally, the coat blending is splotchy. This guy could have benefited from more blending. The boots are no better. Honestly, I could see the model wasn't going well but decided to just finish and move on.

While the end results is ok for a simple gaming mini, it's not what I was shooting for. I guess this will just be another piece of fodder in my small army for Incursion. Oh well - there's always next time!

Pathfinder

Caught the painting bug this weekend. After digging around my stash of models, I found a US Pathfinder by Artizan. Something simple, nothing too elaborate... just a miniature where I could practice blending. I've also been striving to increase the contrast in my pallet. Not quite there yet, but I'm starting to see progress. A bit more shadow would have helped.

Uniform colors were primarily from Reaper paints: Olive Drab, Olive Drab Shadow, and Worn Olive Drab. I also used a bit of Worn Olive Drab plus GW's Bubonic Brown for the final highlight.

Overall a nice little mini for anyone building an army of American WWII soldiers.

Analog

Like most everyone, I made the switch to digital photography long ago. And why not? Picture albums can be shared online, the expense of development is gone, and even bad shots can be resurrected through some clever editing. Yet I still think I always took more interesting shots on 35mm film.

Why might that be? I'm sure it has a lot to do with patience. With film, I wanted to conserve my shots and choose the proper exposure. While many shots were sadly too dark or too light, the composition was generally better than what I've shot recently.

Rummaging through boxes packed in the basement, I came across my Olympus 35RC. It's a yard sale item that I actually never used. After some clean up, the little rangefinder didn't look too bad. Surprisingly, the battery still had some juice to power the light meter!

I've been inspired lately to try my hand at black & white film. Maybe it's a big waste of time, but I'm hoping this exercise will help teach me the patience for better composition. With all the ice and snow, it's the perfect season to find contrasting images.

Lacquer and acrylic paints

Did you know that you can mix Tamiya acrylics with lacquer thinner? Sure enough, it actually works – and it works pretty darn well.

I've had nothing but headaches with Tamiya's metallics. They're just too thick. Relegated to the back of my paint drawer, I had forgotten that I even had some until earlier today.

I was reading about painting tank tracks when I came across an interesting thread on Armorama. One reader posted that he often mixes Tamiya metallics with lacquer because it thins easily for an airbrush. I had to try it for myself:

In the image above, the track was painted with a 2:1 mix of X-10 Gun Metal and XF-10 Flat Brown. I've got to admit that I was expecting a real mess, but it was no problem at all. The paint and lacquer mixed easily and sprayed very well. I used a 1:1 mixture of paint:lacquer and airbrushed at about 20 psig. When I was all done, I even cleaned my airbrush with Windex. I can't believe it actually worked.

Although Alclad still remains to be my favorite metallic paint for an airbrush, it's good to know that Tamiya's metallics aren't that bad after all.

Itty bitty tanks

I recently picked up a copy of Memoir '44. It's a simple skirmish game with fun little miniatures. While the game components are pretty nice, I decided to paint a few replacements from GHQ.

Here's a shot of the Churchill Mk VII:

Finishing these little guys is a snap. Although there are numerous steps, they're quite easy and lend themselves well to painting models en masse:

Prime with a grey automotive spray.

For the base color, airbrush a 3:1 mix of Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-59 Desert Yellow.

Highlight by airbrushing Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green.

Seal with a gloss lacquer.

Spot wash with a 1:1 mix of black and burnt umber enamels.

Lightly drybrush with artists oils. I chose a light khaki color.

Using artists oils, blend black and grey on the muzzles.

Seal again with a gloss lacquer and then flat lacquer.

I also painted the tracks grey and picked out the details using the spot wash. Even though it's hard to see, I wouldn't choose those colors again. Next time, I think I'll substitute a dark brown for the grey and follow-up with a drybrush of orange-brown to imitate rust.

At a scale of 1/285, the tanks are tiny (about 15 mm in length). I suppose you could paint additional details, but it would be a struggle.

A minor quibble of GHQ models is mold seams. On the Churchill, you can see the seams on the turrets and somewhat on the sides just above the wheels. Unfortunately, it's impossible to remove this casting defect without destroying the terrific details. I've observed this to some extent on nearly every GHQ model I've purchased. Honestly, at such a small scale, I don't know how GHQ could minimize it further - just a fact of life I suppose. Once the models are painted, you look past it anyway and forget the seems are even there.

Back to painting

After a long hiatus, I decided to pick up the brush and try my hand at painting once again. Here are a few pictures. Maybe it's not my best work, but I'm happy with the results considering the rusty skills.

The first miniature is a Blood Angels space marine from Games Workshop. To accelerate the process, I base coated the model by airbrushing Tamiya gloss red over white primer. I don't know how much good that did since it still took me a full day to finish the rest of the mini!


Unfortunately, I coated him with a sealer from DecoArt called Triple Thick Gloss Glaze. I thought this might be a fast way to apply a bullet-proof protective coat on a gaming miniature. Although it did the trick, the heavy sealer obscured all the details. Oh well, live and learn.

The marine fired up my inspiration so I decided to paint another model. This time I chose a simple sturm zombie from the game Incursion and primed with a grey automotive spray. I limited my palette to muted colors and tried to focus my efforts on applying a lot of contrast. Here's a shot the paint palette.


Considering the troubles I had encountered with the marine, I fell back to my 'tried and true' approach for sealing: airbrushed coats of Model Master gloss and flat lacquer. Much better!


I have a couple zombies on hand and will probably tackle more of the undead in the future.