December 2, 2011 by elromanozo
Video Sponsors: Heavy Gear - Infinity
Here's the second part of Romain's series of painting a Cygnar Ironclad.
If you missed the first part, you can catch it here.
Painting a Cygnar Ironclad... Part 1
4
Gorgons Snake Their Way Into Footsore’s Mortal Gods: Mythic
2
Battle Through Gothic Streets With TTCombat’s Terrain
3
Artel Show Off More Of Their Grimdark Imperial Characters
5
Quirky Spur & Singe Dive Into Gangs Of The Undercity
4
Get Stuck Into A Play On Words With Puns Of Anarchy
6
Fragging Unicorn Talk The Basics Of Gangs Of The Undercity
1
A Bugbear Family Pops Up On Kickstarer From Meridian
7
Games Workshop Prepare Snazzy Ident For New Ventures
2
Fireforge Lay Down Plenty Of Byzantine Kickstarter Teasers
7
Lucid Eye’s Baron Mors Welcomes You To His Castle
2
Mighty Dweghom Thanes Join The Call For Conquest
4
Osprey Talk Activations & Battle In Fantastical Oathmark
3
Dynamic Normans Join Victrix’s Upcoming Plastic Kit
4
Unreleased’s Hillside Skirmishers Defend Their Wild Homes
2
Warlord Join The Worcestershire Ambassadors Charity Drive
13
Chuy & Apprentice Journey Forth From Ninja Division
6
Crooked Dice Paint Up Their 7TV: Fantasy Skeleton Warriors
5
Steamforged Faces The Last Giant In Dark Souls Board Game
1
3DAlienWorlds Has New Taui Landing Pad Ready To Print
8
Hardcore Miniatures Release New Space Dwarves Set
25
Grind Up Plenty O’ Corpses With New Necromunda Gangs
2
Mattes Miniatures Head Into The Abyss On Kickstarter
1
Hunt Down Merchant Vessels In Warlord Games’ Black Seas
4
Middle-earth Favourites Return & Updated Matched Play Options
6
Spire Tyrants Warband Rampages Into Age Of Sigmar’s Warcry
1
Prepare For Psychic Spying In Off The Page’s Mind MGMT
2
Unleash The Hungarian “Mace Thrower” For Warlord’s Bolt Action
3
The Ghora Sneaks His Way Into DGS Games’ Freeblades
5
Deadly Blood Angels Descend On Forge World’s Battlefield
2
Grow Your Finest Civilisation In Super Meeple’s Genesia
good to see pt2. eagerly awaiting pt3 and prob. 4
Lovely effects on the metals mate
Thanks ! I think it works.
BoW Romain
Ooooh, fade ins on the paint palette. Fancy
Now all you need is background music.
Flower scented warjacks? Maybe if they were painted in pastels.
On your paint based washes to you recommend using distilled water for thinning the paints? I find that undistilled water will dry in hard lines at the edges due to the mineralization, which can reverse the intended effect.
So for quick and dirty shadows on metals you layer up a black wash. For your heroes / high detail models, would you do the same, or would you actually blend deeper shades of the metal paint?
What was the final count on the layers of metal washes?
Thank you for your interest and questions, @ubiquanon !
I use tap water for all my miniature needs, but do check the hardness of your local water supply… In some areas, you may get a water that has unintended effects on your painting. In such a case, use bottled water (distilled if you prefer, but it doesn’t really matter).
Also, sometimes, when you use too much water and when you leave droplets on your surfaces, it dries and leaves little circles as the surface tension of the water makes the pigment particles accumulate on the edges of the droplet. The key is not having too much water or paint on your brush, or “breaking” the drops as much as possible, spreading the paint in a thin veil. Some people also use a small drop of mixing medium to prevent that sort of thing, but it has other effects you might not want, such as prolonging the drying time (when water actually speeds it up).
“Quick and dirty” metal is fine, even on heroes, if you want a high contrast and subdued shadows… It all depends on what you want to do. However, I seldom “just” do a black wash over metal myself, as I find it a bit crude… In this tutorial and in most of my personal works, I try to find a color that is non metallic version of the metal used, or slightly darker. Either that, or I try and enrich my tones in dfferent ways…
But I’ll probably do a tutorial about that some other time.
I don’t remember the final count of the washes on the metals, but the metals still aren’t done yet.. I still have to oxydize them properly, and there’s highlight to be made ! You can very well leave them at that, or do a lot less than what I did, but there’s no point in not showing you how to do something fancy !
I’d say there’s priming black, priming grey, priming white, basecoat (3 thin coats, more or less), shading with one color (2 coats, but you would get better results doing more), shading with black/grey for shadows and contrast (2 coats, 3 or 4 in some places, but only in the shadows), oxydizing (1 or 2 coats in some places, but for a fancier, more realistic result, you’d better do more coats, more transparent !), highlights (3 different coats, I believe, but I could be wrong, and you’d do well to work more with transparencies).
That’s around 16 or 17 coats all told for the metals, but for the filming of a tutorial you can hardly spend days on a single miniature, so it’s not as extensively blended and well done as it could have been… Just enough so that you get the gist of what to do.
But of course, the whole surface isn’t completely covered each time… And even on the surface that is indeed painted by a single coat, we’re working with extremely thin coats, washes and glazes. It’s all transparent, and none of the details are drowned in paint.
I hope I’ve answered your questions…
In any case, don’t hesitate to question how I do things, experiment, see for yourself… And paint the way you like to paint ! It’s always better.
BoW Romain
Thanks very much for these detailed comments. I appreciate your clear answers.
Have you guys thought about using stills & graphics interspersed with the live action shots.? I agree that once you get the idea of a technique, and demonstrate it in both a flat surface and a detailed (heavy relief) area of the model, you pretty much have 99% of the technique covered. I know the real challenge with these is not really the video capture, but rather the editing.
Iv’e just picked up a ton of Protectorate, so I might send you guys some vids of the stuff, and see what you think. Of course I am more of a painter than a gamer (75 / 25), so take it what its worth, but I think your work here adds a huge value to what BoW has to offer. Keep up the great work!
Also, I picked up the mixing medium for the P3 line. Have you used it?
Do send anything you want, I’m sure the guys at the studio will be thrilled !
I’m also eager to see more of your work.
As for the editing… Time prevents us from doing something exceedingly elaborate and fancy (well, fancier than what is already being done… And I can tell you, the job is very well done indeed !)… Our fearless editing team does add stills and 360° shots when it’s called for.
It also has become apparent that many people want to see the whole process.
For quicker videos of particular techniques (as opposed to longer ones of a complete miniature), there’s always the 3 Colors Up Tips, available to backstagers !
As for the P3 mixing medium, it leaves a slightly more satin finish (most other mediums are matte), but since this is the sort of thing one uses sparingly, it’s all right. It’s good quality, at any rate…
I won’t go into the use of such a product here, as it warrants an article, or perhaps a tutorial of its own.
Thank you again for your precise and keen questions,
BoW Romain
This might not be the place to ask this, but are you going to any oxidized copper? You know that greenish look.
It is the place to ask !
The greenish look is actually called verdigris, and is the common way to describe oxydation on copper and its alloys.
I’ve done it on this very miniature, it’ll be in a future part of this tutorial. You can see some of it in the 360° view, actually.
Stay tuned !
BoW Romain
Romain,
Can you tell me who makes the Royal Navy Brown that you are using for the gold tone wash?
Thanx
My detective work finds that Royal Navy Brown is Prince August colour 985. Prince August is now Vallejo and colour 985 is called Hull Red. I can’t tell if the colours are the same on my monitor.