Sunday, July 6, 2008

Painting a Tallarn

Since I'll be finishing painting individual guardsmen in the next couple of days, I wanted to document how I'm doing it for my own records. It might be interesting for others to read. Heck, you might find a step I could skip. Anyway, here's how I'm doing it for future reference:

  1. White primer. I've tried black and white is much easier. In the end they look the same, but with 50% more effort with black.
  2. Brushes: Sable 10-0 for detail and #2 for base coating. Two of each so one can dry while the other is in use. Clean brushes with Tamiya acrylic paint thinner X-20A.
  3. Basecoat 1: Mechrite Red.
  4. Basecoat 2: Khemri Brown. Note that I stopped using a second coat of Graveyard Earth since the wash made it the same color as Khemri Brown.
  5. Details: Codex gray for canteens and base coat of knives.
  6. Chainmail for all metallics. Boltgun metal was too dark. A base of Boltgun metal with chainmail over it made no difference once the wash was applied.
  7. After details are applied, go over reds with Terracotta. The blochy effect is fine, plus the Terracotta coat fixes a lot of mistakes.
  8. Skull white for head scarves. Bleached bone makes a nice drybrush afterwards but is hardly worth the effort.
  9. Add special detail spot colors for goggles, meltaguns, scopes, etc.
  10. Wash: Devlan Mud. Avoid those special detail areas.
  11. Basing: Base coat of Mechrite Red with two coats of Terracotta.
  12. Apply PVA glue to base with grunge brush. I've noticed the PVA glue has a better viscosity than Elmers white glue. Base with mix of Woodland Scenics iron ore ballast, half fine, half regular.
  13. Varnish.
I'm missing some finishing steps, such as highlights. I'm open to suggestions.

Voila!

4 comments:

  1. It's funny when you come up with a system that works real well right as you are near the end of your project.

    Are you painting your metallics on a light or dark base? I've always heard that painting them on a dark base makes them 'pop' more and looks better.

    Which of the new citadel washes is a brown color? Their silly names throw me off sometimes. Thanks.

    -Josh

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  2. Devlan Mud is the brown wash, which is what I'm using. For a few models I accidentally bought a replacement bottle of Badab Black and used that instead. Doh! Stupid names.

    I'm painting metallic on white primer, but I could see where a black base might work better.

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  3. I used Tamiya paints for my Tallarn with a wash of Badab Black at the end. Take a peek and tell me what you think.

    http://www.dogsbody.ca/archives/6036_1367181066/309644

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  4. Very nice. The wash works well with that combo.

    ReplyDelete