Supplies, Skorne and … Spaceships?
I typically allow myself about $20 a week to invest in my models. Three weeks ago it was the Blazing Sun Frigates. The week after that I picked up the Battleship. Last week, I picked up Lord Tyrant Xerxis. He’s not put together yet though, sorry. Maybe next time?
I bring this up because this week, as much as I want mechanics for my pStryker Theme Force, I bought some hobby supplies instead. Primarily, I was happy to find Master’s Brush Cleaner.
As I understand it, this stuff is amazing. Here’s a Youtube video explaining how to use it. When I get a chance, I’m planning on spending some much needed time with my brushes and this stuff. It will be good.
But wait, there’s more!
I also grabbed two new brushes. The first was a #2 Chisel Blender
that I’m going to use for covering large areas. The other one was a #10/0 Spotter
for detail work. Yay for cheap-but-still-(hopefully)-really-nice-and-will-last-a-long-time paintbrushes! And, now, if I mess them up, I have the magic soap!
So far so good. My other big problem with painting are my old paints. They’re a bit dry and need some attention. So…. I picked up some Liquitex Acrylic Flo-Aid. It helps the pigment separate for even coverage but it also increases water tension. Thus, it makes the paint want to even out into a smooth coat, but if it’s not diluted enough, the paint will pool into drops on the model and not lay flat like it’s supposed to. I’m a bit skeptical, yet optimistic. We’ll see.
Enough about random stuff, here’s what you’re really here for. Some pictures of models!
I realize it’s fairly unimpressive right now. Sorry. All that’s down is three or so coats of diluted Gore Red. Most of Morghoul’s armor is the lacquered red over gold style, so there’s not much at this stage. There’s actually a nice tutorial in the Skorne book on the lacquered armor. I’m hoping it turns out for me as well as it did for the studio.
The Cyclops Savage on the other hand has lots of red armor…
He’s looking pretty good. There’s a fair bit of regular old red armor there, so there’s lots to block out. I’m thinking aqua for the accent color… or is that too Everblight? Perhaps some jade green? Thoughts?
I’m thinking I’ll be doing my reds via glazing. It involves mixing paint and transparent medium to achieve a see-through-yet-tinted layer of paint. You then layer this on over and over again and the more layers there are, the stronger the original color. I’ll cover it in more detail, but it worked decently well on my Firestorm Armada Directorate Frigate.
Oh, I didn’t show you? Check it out:
Yay spaceships! Now, before you scrutinize the little guy, remember… the model’s just a little larger than a quarter. The white dome doesn’t work, so that needs a change. Suggestions?
A blue wash on the dome might work?
I've been using Liquitex flow-aid and Liquitex acrylic medium (with drying retarder) and love both, especially the flow-aid. Try it, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how much easier it is to get (especially older) paint to flow nice and flat. I have an old Ral Partha red-brown color that I use on most of my cryx that I love and if it wasn't for that I wouldn't be able to use it at all as the (now I see why they don't make them anymore that I'm aware of) color seperates from the medium quickly and always required me to stir it often. I still have to stir it, but only about once every 20 minutes or so. Anyway, it also dried funny and not always the same, but flow-aid really helped even the paint out and get it to do what I want it to do.
I've been using Master's Brush Cleaner for a few month's now and I really like it, especially when using metalics and washes or inks as I think it really helps get the last of the paint out of the brush.
Something else that helps, that I bought probably almost 8 years ago, was a brush tub at Michaels – which they still sell, though I couldn't find on their website for the life of me, but did find on the Dic Blick website, here: http://www.dickblick.com/products/loew-cornell-round-brush-tub/. It has raised ridges which help knock paint out of your brush as you're rinsing it out. This may seem like a waste of money, but trush me it really helps.
Oh, I forgot to add that I don't know why in the picture of the brush tub the brush is tip down as I certainly don't store mine that way and I also threw away the lid after it gathered dust for about 6 months.
::sigh:: I also also forgot to ask if you would please please show an example of what "blocking out" is. I've heard of it and think I get what it is, but it'd be nice to know exactly.
@Redmanphill – I tried a blue wash on the white and it didn't turn out terribly well. The white is so far from blue that every brush stroke shows up. I may just go with more blue, but brighter.
@Mugu – Good, I'm glad to hear someone has used and likes this stuff.
Blocking (to me) is the process of deciding what parts of the model will be assigned each color. In this case, I've decided which parts will be "red armor" and have painted them accordingly. I think the name comes from the idea that you carefully paint the border of the armor panel thus drawing a block, and then you can be a bit more sloppy filling in the bulk of the color.
Thanks for the Blocking explanation – turns out I do that already! Go figure. 😛 Thanks again.
Let me know what you think of the brush masters soap! I'm very interested in getting some as well (but my budget is tight as well) so I've been trolling for opinions.
Great lookin skorne so far! I did up the battlebox for a friend a while back and they were fun models! (tho red isn't my best friend 😉
-Pszito
@Pszito – The tub of the brush soap I got was pretty big and even with the Michaels 40% off coupon not cheap (about $20 if I recall correctly), but if you can find someone to split the cost with you, I really think you could literally cut the soap in half and share it with someone as you'll probably not go through it very quickly.
@Pszito – You can find the smaller tubs at Michael's for $9.99, I love the stuff. YOu can also get even smaller on eBay for $7 if I remember right. Even the smallest will last a LONG time.
thanks for the advice guys, i'll scope it out and get my clean on!
stay frosty.