Airbrush School

August 08, 2016 by David Springer in Miniatures

Experts are great.

Even better than experts are experts who share their knowledge.

Gamer's Haven has one of those experts. The humble master of painting, Mike.

On Saturday, he offered a hands-on airbrushing course, and I was lucky enough to go. The only requirement was that you were to bring your own larger model to paint. Generally, this means a Warhammer 40,000 vehicle.

The only large miniatures I have are some Infinity remotes, and the crazy Abominations of the Zombicide Kickstarter.

Friday night I hastily primed the Abominatroll and Wolfbomination. The Abominatroll is a crazy, humongous monster, complete with armpit hair. The Wolfbomination is a bit more tame, looking more like a large wolf.

The Abominatroll from the Zombicide Black Plague Zombie Bosses Abomination Pack. Complete with longest title ever.

After teaching us the basics of airbrushing, Mike turned us loose with the 2 airbrushes that he brought. I started with the Abominatroll, and per Mike's recommendation, started highlighting him with straight white.

I found this to be difficult to control. It didn't produce the smooth transition I had hoped for, but it did produce a transition. Honestly, the model didn't look great. The white spattered in spots, making the giant Troll look like he had run through a grey polkadot factory. The highlighted areas didn't make much sense. Plenty of folks cane over to give the "eew, you paint d it like that?!" look while smiling awkwardly. By all accounts, it was a failure.

The Abominatroll after final touches were applied.

Onward to the next mini to mess up, the Wolfbomination! Starting with a dark brown, I base coated most of the Wolfbomination, creating some shading. I then switched out to a medium brown and highlighted the face and other raised areas. Unfortunately, the paint I used had a glossy finish to it, but I think those efforts will look great once hit with the matte varnish. The entire process took less than 10 minutes.

The Abominatroll with Grin and Scowl from the Zombicide: Black Plague kickstarter.

Leaving the Haven defeated, I faced the reality that it was not possible to ruin the Abominatroll further. Once I got home, I started slapping a purple wash all over him. And he started, miraculously, to look more interesting. The wash helped make the shading look more interesting, and picked out the details.

The Wolfbomination from Zombicide: Black Plague - Wulfsburg. I plan on doing the next one in a grey-wolf theme instead of the brown.

Perhaps the most important thing to note is that the airbrush layer was so thin that it didn't obscure detail at all. This made washing over the top of it a breeze! There were a few spots that needed some light drybrushing in order to pick out details, such as the underside of the arms.

The Wolfbomination required less work. I did a light drybrush on his mane to make the details of the hair pop. Otherwise, all highlighting is from the airbrush, and the shading from an application of Quick Shade.

A size comparison between the Wolfbomination and Silas from the Zombicide: Black Plague core box.

So there they are, the poor two minis that were the first to be airbrushed. They shall forever wear their pathetic coloration as a warning for all who yearn to learn about airbrushing.

A Year of Painting

August 06, 2016 by David Springer in Miniatures

I almost didn't do this post.

To do it right potentially requires pulling out the camera and taking quality photos of newly painted figures. Honestly, I don't want to stop painting long enough to do that.

The story goes something like this. While we were in Scotland for my brother's wedding I found Sorastro's Painting Guides for Imperial Assault. I had been fooled into buying the Imperial Assault deal on Massdrop, and it had arrived shortly before we left. There was not much literature about IA, and searching for it instead produced a link to Sorastro's guides.

It only took one watch to know that I wanted to try my hand at painting.

The first Stormtroopers were full of mistakes. You can read about those mistakes here.

The first Imperial Assault Stormtroopers.  You can see the brown wash used instead of black on them.  Having the correct paint helps. — The first Imperial Assault Stormtroopers. You can see the brown wash used instead of black on them. Having the correct paint helps.

The droids that followed weren't much better, but they were easy to do.

These minor improvements continued. Each miniature introduced a new technique to understand and master.

Then Vader was the next figure I wanted to do. That said, I had zero confidence in my own ability to properly highlight a miniature. An alternative was needed. Queue Zombicide!

Zombicide comes with so many miniatures that it was the perfect tool to help get better. Painting half of the zombies and the survivors helped me understand contrast and color theory better.

The Zombicide survivors are under attack...

Then, "real" miniature games started calling. Infinity was the next game painted, and that phase lasted for a good 8 months and will continue once I have wrapped up Zombicide Black Plague (and possibly RelicBlade as well). There are still hundreds of unpainted Infinity minis. That said, many of my favorite paint jobs have been on the Infinity miniatures.

All of the Infinity miniatures completed in 2015.

Painting the Corvus Belli sculpts is quite different from painting the Imperial Assault or Zombicide minis. Infinity generally has detail to the extreme, including what could best be described as greebling. The poses aren't as dynamic as I would like, but they generally gave character and style.

After dabbling in three different factions, the Steel Phalanx of the ALEPH was the force chosen to be focus on.

The first Infinity list, 150 points of Steel Phalanx.

This was my first alternative color scheme, and it didn't really hit its stride until about 15 miniatures in. There are a few good miniatures in there and they have a similar theme, but the identity and cohesion I was hoping for never matured in a way that looked great on the table.

Infinity has officially occupied most of my painting time. I started painting Caledonians in October and continued until June when I took a break for Zombicide: Black Plague. Over 8 months of painting miniatures for the same game.

And now for a sad statistic. In that 8 months, I only completed 56 figures for my collection. That is nearly 255 days at a rate of a miniature every 4.5 days.

Ouch.

Zombicide: Black Plague has been fun even if the miniatures are a lower quality. I learned how to airbrush while painting it, and it was like being back at the beginning all over again.

The airbrushed Abominatroll next to Scowl and Grin from the Zombicide Black Plague kickstarter.

Man, I am bad at airbrushing right now. But with practice, and I have a ton of miniatures to practice on, I think it can be an amazing tool in the arsenal.

So there it is. My year of painting in review. Honestly, it was all possible because of the magical Sorasto. Please check out his guides and consider sponsoring him on Patreon if you fall in love with the hobby as I have.

Finally, here is a small gallery of how my panting has improved over the year. Thanks for reading and- to quote Sorastro- happy painting!

First Stormtrooper and Latest Infinity Trooper

The Stormtrooper was the first model I painted. And here is my last standing next to him, a Chandra Special Ops for the ALEPH faction of Infinity.

Phil from Zombicide and Scowl from Zombicide: Black Plague Kickstarter

Two versions of the law in lands overtaken by zombies. Phil was completed nearly a year prior to Scowl.

Wanda from Zombicide and Nelly from Zombicide: Black Plague

Wanda was the first miniature I painted where I was thrilled with the highlights I had done on my own. Standing next to her is Nelly, one of the first miniatures I tried to shade with something other than a wash (though I did use a wash as well...).

Something Like Painting - Zombicide Black Plague Start

June 28, 2016 by David Springer

Opening the Zombicide: Black Plague kickstarter box was truly magical. My 20 month old daughter was my companion for the opening ceremony. After each item we removed, she would utter "awesome" in her most powerful (for a 20 month old) voice.

The thing is, she wasn't wrong.

It was awe inspiring. Box after box of miniatures and artwork were pulled out. There was an endless supply of miniatures, both hero and vilian, and we had an incredible time looking through all of them.

Since that wonderful evening a week and a half ago, I have tried to focus that excitement into painting as much Black Plague as possible. The zombies are the largest portion of the work, and the least exciting. I started with the first nine of the walkers, runners, and fatties.

The first Zombicide zombies covered in Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade

The only problem was that I lacked the quick shade, and my FLGS did not have the Strong Tone Quick Shade that I was looking for.

Instead, I started focusing on the first six survivors I wanted to paint. First up were Cadence and Lady Grimm:

Lady Grimm and Cadence from the Marc Simonetti Guest Box

Lady Grimm was a bit of an experiment, and the first mini I have painted in less than an hour. I used Army Painter Silver to base her armor. The armor was then covered in a blue shade, hoping that it would give good depth and make the armor look more like steel. Unfortunately, it didn't come out like I hoped. She does have a good amount of depth though, and I think she looks good on the table.

Cadence is my favorite survivor sculpt out of the many (30+) that came in the Kickstarter. She's dynamic, interesting, and just damn cool.

Looking at her now, my only regret is that I didn't put more contrast into her face. The Reaper fair skin triad does not produce enough contrast, and I need to start shading down further.

I then moved on to Baldric and Nelly.

Nelly and Baldric from the Zombicide: Black Plague core set

I worked on Baldric first, and tried to crank up the contrast by using an excess of wash. It worked really well. I love how his hair and the inner brown robe turned out. The hair is Celestra Grey, blue shader, and then highlights with Celestra Grey and Reaper Ghost White (a white with a hint of blue). The robe is the Reaper Ivory triad with a heavy wash of Army Painter Strong Tone, a brown wash equivalent to Agrax Earthshade. His outer robe is Reaper HD Armor Grey Shaded with Nuln Oil, and highlighted up. The skin is Reaper's Tanned Skin triad.

Honestly, Baldric is an exceptionally easy figure to paint. He looks fine without eyes. His robes have deep grooves to help give him character, and all of the cloth is easy and obvious to highlight.

Nelly on the other hand is not. Her arm blocks access to her face. Her sword is flimsy and- even after straightening multiple times using hot water- bent back awkwardly. Her apron, which is whitewhite in the character art, is angled oddly which makes it difficult to highlight.

I tried a few different things with her. Perhaps the most radical was mixing a dark base skin tone. I combined Rakarth Flesh and Mournfang Brown to create a dark rosy skin tone, and base coated the skin (that I could reach) with it. I then created harsh highlights using the Rosy Skin Shadow, and highlighted up appropriately from there.

Her eyes were also nearly impossible to get right. I intentionally left them large and thoroughly surrounded by eye liner and mascara. The addition of a white dot on the pupil provides the simulated glint of crazy eyes. I feel this makes her look a little more like the barmaid who has lost everything and finally snapped.

Her hair is the standard Reaper red hair triad. The apron and blouse (that's what a frilly shirt is called, right?) are Celestra Grey, washed with Nuln Oil and highlighted up to white. It has nice depth, especially in hand.

The weakest point of both figures is unquestionably the sword. I don't really know how to pull off True Metalic Metal well. They lack the depth and interest of the other parts of the model. For that reason, I may switch to NMM... But it's so slow, and more work than I want to do on these figures.

It is worth noting that Sorastro's approach to painting on bases is quite incredible. It doesn't take much work, but turns into a lovely painted road pattern. Bigger stones and smaller lines look better, but it is kinda hard to mess up (I would have messed it up otherwise...) because each "mistake" simply gives it more character.

A Zombie Post

July 31, 2015 by David Springer in Miniatures

Can the record show that the Empire is boring?

I know, it is largely my own fault for choosing to paint them in plain schemes. However, I was attempting to keep the Emperor's forces as similar to the movies as possible. And that meant uniform, consistent, and repeatable for the inevitable second purchase of the Imperial Assault core set.

Now Zombies? Zombies are interesting.

There are no uniforms for the recently-dead-and-now-not-so-dead. You can paint colors other than white, gray, and red. Also, Vader will not be around to murder you if there is some dirt on your pants.

Last weekend, I started on a few test zombies from the first Zombicide box set. The figures have a decent amount of detail, though they are less detailed than the Imperial Assault figures. There are enough ridges and lines to guide a newbie painter, yet still give freedom to give the minis life with extra details if desired.

For the color scheme, I decided to go with a yellow death skin tone as opposed to gray, puke green, or white. The goal is to reproduce the cartoony feel of the art of Zombicide. Then again, when everybody's yellow, nobody's unique. Final flesh colors for all 80 of the zombies have not been determined by the panel of experts on zombie dermatology.

Another fun part of painting the zombies is that I get to consult my wife about the colors, involving her in the process at least a little. For the first three zombies, she helped pick out their outfits. I hope that when my wife's survivor puts the zombies down for good, it will be more than just a zombie to her, it will be something she helped create.

Another skill that the Zombicide minis are allowing me to learn is mixing paints. Purchasing a huge chest of Citadel paints to get every shade of color I want is not even close to financially possible. It's somewhere closer to broketown and pennylessville than here. Instead, a dark blue jean color has to be mixed by hand. It's fun when the color you want finally comes together, and a bummer of wasted paint when it doesn't.

The decision I have not been able to make is whether or not to highlight the zombies after applying a black, cartoony wash. I kinda like their over-dark form, and it makes painting them very simple and quick. The survivors are supposed to be the centerpiece of Zombicide, and having bright zombies would certainly compete with them.

Unfortunately, you don't get better at highlighting when you don't ever highlight your minis. Strange how that works.

Early work on the survivors.  Really pleased with Wanda (chainsaw lady) and Phil (the sheriff), but Doug's glasses and Amy's monochromatic bags/belts are giving me fits. — Early work on the survivors. Really pleased with Wanda (chainsaw lady) and Phil (the sheriff), but Doug's glasses and Amy's monochromatic bags/belts are giving me fits.

Going forward, my plan is to continue to paint the survivors, and steal a mixed color for a zombie or two. I hope to have a varied group of zombies to compliment the the bright survivors once everybody is painted.