Learning to Paint… Again with Daleks

So the first few are done, and as a milestone of I actually got things done and enough for the profile, full frontal and bum shots all in one here you go.

The main trick now is to keep going and move onto the next models for which I have started.

The main room light I took the picture under has the Blue Dalek looking a bit darker than when pictured under my painting light in an earlier entry.

There were pictured about a foot away so does not show whatever imperfections there are under the usual gaming light and a few feet away they look passable.

My painting approach is I have BBC Iplayer lined up with Doctor Who episodes and I began from the Dalek Invasion of Earth, just my watch progress when I started and part inspiration to start. (I’m currently working my way through seeing every avaliable Doctor Who episode and had already seen the prior versions). I try and watch two episodes at a time for about an hours painting all in all, a few days I’ve managed two sessions.

Honestly its all this weird evil bleeders fault.

So in painting up the minis, with the Daleks I’m painting from the bottom to top, as painting the Skirt, bumps and mid section neatly is the bigger part of the work. Which can require repainting splodges over lines and bumps, and the area around the bumps.

Its fairly quick to finish them off when getting to the Vents and dome with eye stick, and the lower part has the larger surface area another reason its a bigger part of the work.

So when looking at painting back in day, I was very linear in my approach, put on the primer then main colour then details, so things like the bumps on the Dalek Skirts would be done later in the stages.

With much cursing and painting over slips, again and again, until got it right for 6 inchs away then 3ft away never even noticed…

These days I try and do things a little smarter, and with more of an idea of the easier way of doing things. Soooo I do the undercoat which is either the colour of the bumps or go blobing them on and then paint around them is the trick, minimal touch ups and done.

So the question is not how to paint the bumps on, but that you end up painting around them. So undercoat then bumps first then main colours is the approach I’ve gone for. Think its working as less cursing and faff than I recall.

So got the Daleks undercoated just like 37 yrs ago, done by hand, and my first ever painted army was Citdel Plastic Daleks used with some rather dubious rules for Rogue Trader 40k, so I really am going back to my hobbying roots.

The same approach would work with Space Marines, being largely smooth surfaces with some piping and vents etc. So I’ve gone for Lead Belcher and Abaddon Black undercoat, some all one type on a model and for a few a bit more mixed up to see what the results are like.

One of the advantages of picking the Dalek New Paradigm as they come in a varitey of colours I can get to try a feel for what seems to give the best results.

Next will be applying some Colour paints.

The Stone Dalek effect Back Left, I achived using a Plasti Coat spray with rough brick effect already built in, so literally just point and spary.

So were to start I need some Projected Energy Weapon fodder.

Fortunately as a bit of nerd I picked up ye olde Doctor Who Adventures a magazine for the younger fans ehm, stopped publishing about 10ish yrs ago. Amongst its many Doctor Who themed give aways were some Dalek models suitable for painting, so I’m going to use those for some, smooth surface large coverage and try a few things and see how paints work.

The first lot are about 3 inchs tall, and I’ve some suitable reference material.

As there just for some dislpay if come out ok, or chuck if not, I can also approach the painting without worrying of making a mess of the precious models.