Painting, undercoat spray vs. painting

[MedicineMan]

No reason at all why you shouldn't use cheaper sprays if they work ok. Halfords do black,white and red primer cans which I've used before. However, these are for cars and so come out a little thicker than the GW one. Also, they're a little slower to dry so you have to leave things for half an hour before you do any touch up spraying.

There's a wealth of info on the sites that I linked to in an earlier post of Gottaa's re paint brands. I actually like most of GW's for brushing although some of them are atrocious. The metallics are excellent. Only thing I really hate is the pot design. I keep meaning to buy a stack of the dropper bottles that Vallejo use and transfer all the paints over. I must have had over a dozen dry out on me, not so bad when they used to be a quid a pop but it's 2 quid plus now iirc.

 

[Gottaa]

Looking at varnish, I've decided I'd like to avoid sprays totally, as then I can do everything inside with good lighting, magnifying glass which would suit me better. Anyone use the "Game Color - Matt Varnish" by Vallejo ?

My current plan of action is
Game Color - White Primer by Vallejo for the primer
Vallejo colours for the green, black, etc colours
GW silver for the gun/weapons
Army Painter Strong shade (either dip or brushed on)
Game Color - Matt Varnish

Only thing I'm unsure of is how much two bottles of the primer, and two bottle of the varnish will cover, but anyway that is the plan

 

[Cuthrose]

I am in the process of about to start painting my Space wolves.

Current plan is to

Spray Blank,
Full Model Basecoat in Grey
Black wash
Dry Brush in same grey as above
Paint Details in with various colours due to SW being a pain.
Black wash again.

how does that sound?

 

[Zed]

One ting to watch. The army painter shade is essentially a gloss varnish. I haven't tried using a matt varnish over top yet to see the result so you might want to test before going whole sale as it could come out cloudy.

 

[Requiel]

An important tip for varnish (whether you are brushing it on or spraying it) is to wait for the paint to cure properly before you apply it. This counts double if you've used metallic paints on your figures.

While acrylic paint is dry in a few minutes, it takes a few hours to properly cure. Varnish will thin the paint it is applied on and mix with uncured paint. This will ruin your paint job as it will then run. Metallics have aluminium flecks in solution (to give the metallic effect) and these can be easily lifted out of the paint by varnish.

Always leave the finished figure for a day or so before varnishing.

Regarding spray vs paint varnish, I prefer to spray as there's no danger of brush marks on the figure afterwards, plus varnish will eat brushes as it's much harsher than acrylic paint.


Cuth:
Drybrushing power armour is not a great idea as it will tend to look messy and rough. I'd just paint in the highlights rather than drybrush them on.

 

[Gottaa]

the army painter article has you dipping the model in shader, and then applying matt varnish (with army painter spray), but I will test something non visibile before I go crazy

Maybe though with my idea of a more cartoony look for my models just the shader which will varnish as well but leave a shine will be okay. The main thing is though I've finally got the stuff ordered Infact if I could just dip and be happy with that then I won't be eating through brushes !

Looking forward to seeing how the first ork turns out with white armour. I'm hoping just the white primer will be enough and I won't have to do over it with another white.

And does anyone know with the vallejo primer paint, should it be distilled or used as is ?

 

[Zed]

Havent tried the primer paint from Vallejo. Normally ive used the skull white or Chaos black sprays from GW.

Though i now have a Skeleton Bone primer from Army painter to start the Deathwing off in. Then its devlan mud or Gryphonne sepia (cant decide which so ill try both) followed by graveyard earth / Bone white (1:2 mix) and then some bone white then skull white for the highlighting.

(theoretical)

 

[Gottaa]

Found a guide on vallejo paints other may find useful

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/asp-inc/_modelis.asp?p1=ing&p2=modelcolortecnicas

upshot is
paint:water

1:1 Minimum rate of dilution used primarily for basecoating. Good solid coverage.
1:2 Thin coatings, airbrushing, outlining and small details. Thin without being transparent.
1:5 Minimum for highlighting and shading. Transparent, base color will show through.

 

[Gottaa]

Quick one, paints are due to arrive tomorrow

Painting metal, do I do anything different ?

 

[Zed]

Just prime and paint. Nothing different to plastic. They can be harder to put together so you might need to pin bigger models.

 

[MedicineMan]

I'd give metal models 2 or even 3 light primer coats. Edges tend to be 'sharper' so the paint can wear through a little easier. Metal figs can also be top heavy. I superglue a penny to the bottom of flat bases to try and balance it out a bit. With slotta bases you can put bits of fishing weight in there.

 

[Gottaa]

Ohhh a penny in the bottom ! That is genious, and useful for the ork models I've done that are leaning too far forward and have a tendancy of falling over

 

[Brutus]

Or 2p pieces for the larger bases!

 

[Zed]

Just remember - queens face down, its still (apparently) considered treason to deface the queens head on a penny... or soeth went the discussion at the club on Monday night.

Now ive just looked it seems it was illegal (with a fine or upto 1yr imprisonment) but its been repealled under the forgeries act of 1981 so you can do what you wish ...

personally id be safe and stick the queens head down just to be sure or use euro's what you cannot spend in england like.

 

[Gottaa]

I'll draw a little moustache on her first, then stick her face down, or maybe use some flock to give her a beard

And my big order for bits has been dispatched, but it's a partial dispatch, to come later is .... white primer and basecoat brush :/ At least I'll be able to store my models now though and build all the stuff I've been holding off doing due to space limitations.

 

[Zeus]

My mate uses bolt cutters to cut pennys in half, is that treason? The cop we play with hasn't shot him yet...

 

[MedicineMan]

Quick tip if you're going to invest any money into GW paints. Make sure you keep the top and side edges of the inside of the cap clean of any paint as the pots aren't totally air tight and you'll find they dry out fairy quickly depending on where you store them.

I've just decanted most of mine (minus the 10 or so that were beyond salvage) into empty Vallejo bottles to which I added a glass bead or 2 as an agitator. These have a screw top and I've never had a problem with any drying at all.

 

[Tempy]

Adding a glass bead's a good idea !

 

[Gottaa]

Do they need shaking then ? wondering if I do this to the new vallejo paints I'm about to get

 

[Tempy]

The old Citadel paints needed shaking from memory.