(Tutorial) Speed Painting Pink horrors - Working with basic glazes

Hey good people!!

For today i will be reposting a tutorial that i have done earlier on on our facebook page. I have had a few people repeatedly ask how i paint pink horrors which i have done earlier for some clients in commissions. But i felt that some people still couldnt quite get the hang of it so here i am trying to do a little more detail. Lets hope it turns out well!

They are simple, really easy to paint, and fun as hell to work with as the models themselves are really cool. Alot of options and alot of useful bitz. so yeah i guess i will get straight to it!!!

First of all the list of paints!!

-Vallejo Squid Pink (well done smarty pants)

-Vallejo Glorious gold

-Vallejo Bonewhite

-Vallejo Beasty brown

-Vallejo Cadmium skin

-Vallejo Brown wash

-Vallejo Golden yellow or Livery green (for eyes)

- Vallejo black primer

-Vallejo white primer

- Vallejo Glaze medium

-Vallejo Magic blue

-Vallejo Cold grey,

-Vallejo black

1) First Clean and assemble the model. This is pretty straight forward and i am not going to go into too much detail. However this kit is great as the mold lines arent too troublesome and usually in areas which are easy to get to so you dont have to worry too much. Then i like to mount my stuff on cork because it gives you something nice to hold onto. 

2) Now, this is quite and important step. The priming. For this specific model we will be doing something called dual priming. This is essentially where you prime the model black first and then white from above in a downward angle. Reason this is great is because once you start adding colors to the model, it adds shading without having to go through the trouble of preshading almsot every bit of the model. Since the model is small preshading can be quite a pain in the backside so try leave it to this and try get the hang of spraying the white primer at the right angle. NOW i am doing this with and airbrush. But keep in mind that you can jsut as easily do this with spray cans. You loose a small amount of control, but in the end it wont effect the outcome too much. Also, if you are speed painting like we are doing here it doesnt matter that much here as it is essentially about getting the models up and paitned as quick as possible so you can have a game with them and still have them look good!! so below here you will see what the model looks like after priming. You will also see how the priming works from a top view and a bottom view.

 Top view

Bottom View 

 3) Now we are going to start adding some actual colors to the model. To be able to make the most of the dual priming technique, you have to make sure that the paints you are using are thinned down a fair amount and this is VITAL. You can even add a small amount of glaze medium if you want(make sure its a little though.) This lets the colors underneath show through and when the layers are thin you can decide when you feel that your pink covers enough. This all ofcourse comes down to taste and everybody has different taste, so ya. Also the reason you thin it down is because you will probably have to do more than one coat of the pink. Therefore it is important for you to have a thin layer so that the result can be nice and smooth and not bumpy. It looks like crap honestly and unless your painting Nurgle daemons or anything with some sort of plague or disease i dont think you really want to have small turds all over the model. 

4) Now the next step is also quite important but definitly not a must. Just to break the colors abit and give a slight contrast add in a small amount of the flesh colors into the pink that you are using. With this it helps you get a little amount difference in the shades of pink. It will get a lil boring if there pink is jsut a flat pink. So when you do this stage its really simple. Just shoot the new mix of paint straight down from the top. This allows the paint to only hit from the top and the pink shading and black dual priming will do the rest of the work for you! Now go clean your airbrush!! coz u wont really be using it anymore.

5) Now comes probably the most important part of all. This is where you make your own glaze. for the glaze you can use any color that you want, but ideally use something that works with the pink. Personally i used purple but i know this also works with browns and reds. But dont be stupid and go and choose something like a bone color or what. That will just guarantee you a facepalm from me and the rest of the wargaming community. AANNNDDD BACK TO THE POINT, so yeah for this part get your glaze medium and your purple. What i did is that i mixed the purple and glaze medium as such: 5 parts glaze medium to 1 part paint. This makes makes the glaze very thin already which is what you are looking for. But now, you also have to add water to it!! so make sure that the ratio of the water and the glaze is 1 : 1. if yo uahve done it right the glaze should look something like the picture below. With this consistancy it falls into the crevices really nicely and thats exactly what you want. Now take a look at the image under that and you will see what it looks like once you have painted it on. If you want however you can take this a a step further and take a cotton bud ( the ear cleaner thingy) and just dab it onto the raised areas of the model. This cleans that part off and lets the pink show through really clearly and still retains the qualities of the glaze in the crevices. As i am far from as smart as a nobel prize winner i ofcourse forgot to take pictures of that. But in the next step you will see what i mean.

6) First before anything!! LOOK closely at where the glaze dried. this was after i dabbed it off with the cotton swab and this was the final result. This is ideally what you want at this point. Now we can continue with the next stage. For all the feathers give them a nice even coat of cold grey. Make sure this is thin too and do multiple layers as this doesnt kill the detail too much on the actual feather.  Then after that all the arm bands and and bangles and all where painted appropriate colors. For the bangles and rings and stuff i gave them a base color of glorious gold, and the arm bands where painted with black. For this next part you need your glaze medium again as you will be needing it on the feathers. mix up the same consistancy for the glaze but rather than purple use blue. This makes a nice thin glaze that you apply to your feathers.  

7) next step is getting all the details done. This includes painting the respective areas with beasty brown, also paint toe nails this color. tongues where painted with purple as well and teeth and finger nails where all painted with bonewhite. The feathers were lightly drybrushed with Vallejo Model air White, and washes were applied on the proper areas :D i used the brown wash for the areas like the teeth and also the gold. Make sure you get a nice trim of the golden objects with the brown wash as this gives a nice "blacklining" effect or whatever you wanna call it. Eyes were then painted color of your choice and a brown wash was given around them also. Also for any areas which are silver, i used Vallejo Model air steel as this is a very ncie and bright metallic. I think this suits the bacground theory of the pink horrors qutie well and i think it goes along quite well with the bright and vibrant colors they are at this point, and once you ahve done that give them a quick glaze with the blue from the previous steps.

8) Last step is nothing special. Drill a hole in the foot and then pin it to the base. be careful when yo udo this though and take your time as the ankles are quite fragile and can break if you do it in the wrong direction. So ya. If you dont want to pin them that is fine too. Then just stick it onto the base and we are good to go!!!

Alright guys this is all for now. Hope the tutorial helps. Even if your not painting this exact model i hope you can adapt some of the technqiues into your painting and apply it on other models!!!

If you guys have any tutorial requests feel free to let me know and i will do what i can to make it happen!!! Peace out and stay insane.

Read More

The art of Painting and modelling (random thoughts)

greetings readers!!

i just wanted to throw together this short lil presentation/read abt some personal thoughts of mine regarding our hobby of modelling.

i dont really know where to begin but i guess that this is in a way just a little post regarding my thoughts and maybe some tips and tricks that can get you a long way in regards to painting.

First off, here are a couple of really important things you need to remember. YOU ARE NEVER THE BEST PAINTER. This is something that is fairly important to me. I hear and see alot of people that are incredibly arrogant because of their painting skills. this pisses me off alot. Our hobby is something that takes years to develope and some people might not have as much time to practice, or money to fund our hobby or whatever the reason is, but they may not be at your level. DO NOT BE AN A$$HOLE because of that. If somebody compliments your work. TRY to be modest. Say what you think you could improve on or explain what you might have done differently next time and also try and maybe share the techniques used to paint your model. nobody likes to get a reply like "yeah i know its nice." If you say that to me i promise you will be on my shit list for good and it doesnt matter what you say you will always remain there.

also remember, YOU CAN NEVER LEARN TO MUCH. Dont be shy, ask questions. from both experienced painters and new painters alike. This will always help you increase your knowledge base and you can learn thigns from the wierdest and most unsuspecting places. So if you are wondering something, ask. Also feel free to let that person know that you will try to replicate their techniques or make your own version of it. This is vital because at the end of the day the skillz that you have are all learnt from somewhere, and its always nice to know where you learnt it from. your painting tool box of techniques will take years to develope from many different places and some jsut out of pure luck will come from your own creativity(bear in mind that for it to be a succesful outcome, these types of ideas dont come along TOO often so make the msot of them.) Also if you have the time, look up tutorial videos on how to paint certain ways and how to do certain things. Just by watching this i can say that i feel that  have personalyl improved alot over the years simply by trying to be perceptive and practicing thigns that i know how to do. My old martial arts instructor once told me that you will never learn the beauty of a simple punch until you become a black belt, because once you reach that stage you will start from scratch and completely understanding what a punch is. This really applies to modelling.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. I think this is kinda self explanatory. But it is SOOOO VITAL. once you reach a stage where you feel that you might not know what to practice on next pick the thing you hate the most and work on that. I had this problem with Flesh earlier on in my painting career. It was the bane of my existence and i hated it. I did everything i could to avoid painting flesh. simply because i felt that when i did it i was not happy with the outcome. So one fine day i sat down in front of a model that was almost all flesh and thought "im not gonna paint anything else till i am happy with you. " and that is exactly what i did. I painted and repainted the model a ridiculous number of times till i was somewhat satisfied with the outcome. Then i started to apply what i had learnt here to other models that had flesh parts to it, and at the end of the day i this was a great learning curve for me. I now really enjoy painting flesh and i love experimenting with different tones and seeing different results and so on by trying new things. I even try to put as much flesh as i can in any models i assemble simply because i look forward to painting the flesh tones later on. Now my next goal is to learn how to paint black in a way that i am happy with.

the next important point is STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. the comfort zone is always a comfrotable place to be in (DUUUUUHHHH) but what really makes us progress is moving out from our little shell that we live in and try something new. Through my 10 years of on and off painting warhammer and 40K i have painted almost every single race. Simply to learn and try soemthing new. What might work for one type of model, will possibly not work for another, and this is where you really learn how to adapt. After you get the hang of adapating you can look at a model and already see and figure out what you want to paint and how you want to paint it. So never try to limit yourself!!! However if you are working on personal projects, make sure it is something that you enjoy doing because if not its just gonna become a chore and the beauty of the hobby will be lost.

And last one for today is DONT EVER RUSH. To get into this hobby seriously you have to understand that you have time on your hands already. As a result use the time and make the most of it while you paint. Rushing will lead to unfinished details and your happiness with the outcome will not be as high as if you really put in effort into it. there are certain things you can do to make things easier like painting in a Production line manner where you paint everything at one go such as a base color for a batch of models. This helps you psychologically as you wont be so disheartened when you finish one model and realize that yippee i have another 47 models to paint exactly the same way. Taking your time however wil llet you achieve results that you are happy with. I honestly find that working with deadlines is a dangerous thing. For me for example as a commission painter i paint almost all hours of the day. During the day time when i am working on projects for clients i will do my best to make sure that my levels are maintained high. But that is only because i want to be professional when it comes to work. ALOT of people hate their job, but they do it will anyway because they have to be professional. By no means am i saying that i hate my job. i LOVE it. but i have very little time to work on my own personal projects because all my time is spent on painting for clients. bottom line is though, take your time and you will be much happier with yourself at the end of the day.

Hope this helped you guys out a bit!!! I dont know how much but maybe it was just something useful to read or whatever. But ya. I dunno. LOL

Take care and stay tuned for more!!!

Read More

(Product Review) VALLEJO WASHES WOOOOHOOOO!!!!

Greetings people!

Wow it sure has been a few really screwed up weeks with a hell of a lot to do both in terms of school and other things happening (work, Music, etc) BUT FINALLY i have managed to find some time to do another review of the Washes!!

Firstly before i go into the details about this review i just want to let people know and highlight that almost every single person i know does their washing differently so do keep this in mind when you use washes or make your own. It is extremely important for you to understand that what might turn out your way for you might vary alot from another individual. 

NOW something else i need to say is that there are many ways to prep your models before washing, and all of these also play a huge part in the outcome of the model and how it looks so keep that in mind!!! Some people jsut wash the whole thing in one specific color like black or brown or whatever color. Some people use different color washes for different areas or only use a certain wash for certain colors. Some people varnish before washing to make sure they minimize surface tension and making sure the wash flows well (the vallejo varnishes are great if you are working with Vallejo washes). I myself have a weird way of working with washes that many people are not very used to. I have seen it happen a few times but i must admit i am one of the only people i know that regularly does this. But what i do is that i paint a base color, then i wash it, and then i paint on top of this. Reason i do this is because it gives a very nice and subtle change and blend when it comes to shading. Therefore if you ever have the time give it a try!!! 

Finally on to the actual review of the vallejo washes hahahaha.

OK, so basically the vallejo washes are great. I could be an idiot and leave it at that and say nothing more but ofcourse that wouldnt be fair to you all taking the tiem to read this looooooong and tedious article. Back to the point, the washes are great. They have an extremely interesting range of colors and what i really like about them is that they have very natural colors. The natural colors gives a hell of a lot of different ways you can combine colors with washes and get different effects based on what you are looking for. So this is definitly something that people should look into. However there are not really any funky funky colours like purple or blue and stuff. But honestly, i feel that if you are washing over a color like blue you dont need blue but rather a black or grey shade.      *note* all of the washes reviewed here are done on a test model that has simply been primed white. NO VARNISHING OR ANYTHING ELSE HAS BEEN DONE. HOWEVER IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED WHEN WORKIGN WITH THESE WASHES

Which brings me to my next point. Vallejo actually has a few colors which are very unique. They have a GREY wash. This grey wash is outstanding. It is used like any other wash but instead of giving clear and deep dark lines at shading areas it gives a more subtle variation between colors and can help to eliminate the unnatural look. Because honestly, if you are spending alot of time and not to mention money on your models you want them to look as bad ass and natural as possible when you are done right????!!!! so do look into using grey as an alternative. Will give more details on the black later.

But here you see what the grey looks like. Take note at how nice and sublte it highlights all the details. 

Now for the next one we have another color which may not be common to see in washes but is honestly very highly appreciated. Dark yellow. Just look at that wonderful deep and rich color. Keep in mind that this is jsut one layer of the wash. And yo usee how deep and rich the color is. This dark yellow wash can be used for MANY things. Primarily ofcourse washing yellow. Yellow is a ridiculously tedious colour to paint where you need like 1245823948750916427 thin layers of yellow for it to actually look yellow, but this wash helps alot. To start with you can use it over a nice and flat white base color and just wash this and you will see the details beneath. if you want it darker ofcourse jsut wash it again. Its that easy. Another great use of thsi wash is if you are working with OSL lighting from a fire or open flame for example. Ofcourse you can go through the process of manually painting hte glow on flesh or wherever you need the shine but if you are painting a flesh tone that is getting hit by a flame this wash can help you a lot. as you can see it gives of a nice warm yellow which fits perfectly with OSL lighting and you can easily use this to add nice gradients of lighting. However if you are doing this i recommend you thin it down. This gives you mroe control over how strong you want the color as the closer it is to the light source the stronger the light will be ofcourse.

Other than that it can actually be used in combination with other washes(or jsut this one alone) on Vallejos lighter colored textures like their white pumice. It can give a very nice sandish type of color (if you want this shade of course) and once you have washed the pumice once its pretty much good to go. There wont be any need to paint or anything. VOILA, DARK YELLOW FTW PEOPLE!!!

By the way two different pictures under different shades of lighting to show the depth of the color

Next up is Dark Khaki Green. This color is absolutely beautiful. It flows very very well which means that most of the time the shading will fall exactly where you want it when using this color. This color is also great for a wholerange of uses. It works on many many colors and it really helps to get a gorgeous sense of depth when you use it to wash. This wash as it doesnt discolor very much is very easy to clean up as well. it works very well for khaki base colors (DUUUHHH) like pants and khaki uniforms and also great for painting camo as it has a very nice earthy color to it that also replicates the color of sand alot. The greenish tint that it has is also a very nice addition as it gives you a very big difference from a brown wash that. The green is also a very natural green as well that perfectly suits camo type of colors and also gives a very subtle and somehow at the same time strong contrast from regular brown washes. 

Again we have another brownish shade and this time its European Dust. This european dust wash gives a very rich and deep brown wash. Its not dark in anyway but its strong. Also if you compare it to the above wash, you can see that this one clearly has a colder feel to it whereby the Dark Khaki Green wash has a warmer feel where it is redder. This wash is one of the best all round washes vallejo has to offer along with the Light Grey wash that they have. You can use this brown on almost any type of base color and it will always give a wondrful color. It doesnt add too much tinting to a the base color but rather it gives a nice outline on the details (kinda like a not so harsh version of blacklining of details) It gives really nice depth to the washed area and thru this really makes alot of the details POP alot. Perfect for almost anything.

The Brown wash has many similar characteristics as te European Dust Wash. This is one of those wonderful washes that you can use on almost anything and it will do nothing but make them look better. It has a beautiful tone to it and gives you alot of room to play around espcially with the other brown shades from the Vallejo washes range. 

Now here comes a vey important wash for everybody. BLACK. Black wash is honestly one of the best washes they have. I love using it on metallic areas especially if they are machine related coz it gives of a really nice and gritty dirty metal type of texture that has gone through a fair amount of oil and soot and what not when it comes to all this type of stuff. The black wash is also perfect do doing panel lining as it flows perfectly on a proper base and also it gives a wonderful finished effect. It is also perfect to drybrush over especially if you are woking with metallics as it gives a very nice and natural change in the colors when combined with drybrushing. The black wash is also perfect dark base colors like coats or maybe a dark armor color. It really gives cery nice natural shading and it really helps to give a really strong POP around details, so this helps you and makes your life much easier as you dont have to worry about spending so much time on making details not look so flat. Also bear in mind that when painting with the black color it looks much darker when its still wet. So be careful when you paint with this color. Once the color dries it will stil lbe dark, but nowhere near as dark as when its wet. So be patient when painting with this color and work in a smart way. Dont overload or underwash or whatever. Just learn the feel of the wash before you start fully working with it. EXPERIMENT!!! Its always fun and it always gives you great inspiration!!

This Beautiful color is Vallejos Light rust wash. It is magnificent. Personally i have used this for ALOT of different thigns ranging from flames, to red armour and also rust (which i presume it is for). This color functions very much like the Dark Yellow wash earlier shown, as it really helps to amplify the desired color and it gives an intense and deep final product that will bring you close to a visual orgasm. this wash also works great if you mix it with some of the earlier washes such as the brown wash if you are not looking for such a strong orange tint to the wash. It is very very friendly to work with and it gives wonderful results. It works Much better as rust than i thought it would but for this specific color make sure you paint in many thin layers if you want a deeper color. Partially because this stops pooling from happening and it also lets you determine what stage of rusting the model is in. Also it gives you a much greater control of the finished piece. This wash really gives you a chance to let the creative juices flow. You can use it for so many things and it only helps you (all you need to do is let it help you hahahaha) I am sure that the uses i have used it for is not even half of what its potential is. Not only can you use it on models but same like the earlier examples it works wodnerfully with the Vallejo textures if you are going for a dark red/ martian type of terrain themed base. If i could explain this wash in one word all i can say is WONDERFUL

Last but absolutly not least is the Oiled Earth Wash. This wash works alot like the European except this one has a slightly blackish tint to it. Fortunatly this cane only really be seen alot in the deepest recesses. Therefore this will be a small paragraph as most of the things that can be said about this wash apply similarly to their Brown wash and also their European earth. Kind of like a cross over between the two with a little bit of grey wash as well. It is a great color, but use it carefully and find out where you like it and how you choose to work with it.

As a little conclusion to this article i jsut want to say that i realyl applaud Vallejo for their washes. They are truly amazing. They work with everything and they have such a huge variety of washes (some of which i didnt even include) that are perfect for pretty much anything!!! Just the different shades of brown alone are fantastic and it lets you get more out of your painting! This allows you to use all your knowledge and improve your skills as a painter by constantly figuring out new nice color combinations and also washing in different ways to achieve different outcomes. Their washes are Truly great. I HIGHLY recommend these as i have pretty much changed all my previous washes and am almost solely using these at the moment and i am not complaining at all. However i did mention this in one of the earlier reviews, that make sure you shake them really well before you use them!!! sometimes the pigment collects at the bottom if you dont use them for a while ;)

Take care folks!!! If you need any tips or advice do feel free to message me on our FB page and also there are plenty more examples over there of the Vallejo washes used!!!

Read More

Urban Basing with Vallejo Magic

Hello Good people

To start with i want to say a big sorry to all those that have been expecting something from me recently. Life has gotten in the way quite a lot as my school will be starting in about 2 weeks and a lot of papers and things going on between us with payments and all that crap bla bla bla etc etc. Not gonna go into too much detail, but you get the idea :D

Anyway, today i will be doing a base tutorial. I have always loved urban bases. I guess this is because i feel it seems very logical to have the warhammer universe taking place in war torn cities across space where the whole battlefield is nothing but rubble. So therefore through out my years in the hobby i have tried to do them in many different ways. They all turn out quite well in the end and there are ltos of different ways to do them, but here is a very easy way that i do them. If you do use this method though try and maybe do it in bulk, because certain things take a while to dry and this will help maximize productivity!!! So ya. wouldnt want you to waste too much time eh???

Ok so straight to it!

Apart from the standard stuff like paints, brushes etc etc here is a list of what you need.

Now As you can see here there are things that most people may not have in their tool box. But i assure you all these things are very worthy investments. Not only do alot of these things last a long time, but the thing is that i think that bases are just as important a part of the model as the model itself. Why would you spend 40 hours on a character model just to put him on a regular base with just a bit of sand on it?? wont that be a little boring? (this is up to debate ofcourse as people say thats good and makes sure all the attention is on the model itself. I however think thats stupid.)

But here is a list of things

1) Vallejo Still water

2) Vallejo Surface Primer

3) one of the Vallejo Textures (this as you can see is red oxide)

4) 4 or 5 of the Vallejo Pigments and a pigment setting solution

5) a little piece of plasticard

6) a little bit of PVC Tubing

7) Some random military accessories from any hobby store. Here i have Barbed wire (15mm scale) and a metal beam or support of some kind. (these things add nice character to the base once completed.)

8) VERY IMPORTANT SLOTTA BASE

OK! So now. The base itself. well to start with you need to make sure its a slotta base. Ofcourse this isnt necessary but it will make it easier for you later on.

HERE WE GO. HANG ON TO YOUR HATS.

1)

First you need to carve out the base. As seen on the picture above use the slot as a measuring point for where the future water will be. Cut carefully and make sure that you dont end up snapping the base, coz the plastic is thick and if you apply too much pressure it will break in half. (for those that have been in the hobby a while you know it happens sometimes when the models where still in pewter that you would get a broken base. That sucked:(

2)

Glue the Base to the Plasticard Piece!

3)

Trim the sides of the plasticard sheet. Be careful when you do this. Try to cut it as close as possible to the base and then the rest you need to file down to get a nice and smooth finish. Try to not use a regular modelling file for this because they are quite rough and this will result in you getting very small nice scratches on the base which i think looks horrible later on. So what i do is i actualyl use a very soft nail file. They get the job done, are cheap and work very very nicely when you need a smooth finish. Anyway once you are done your base should look a little like this. 

4) 

Now on top of the base we are going to start placing down some thing which will help to add some shape to the finished base. In this case i just used a random piece of sprue that has been lying around and irritating me. But being as lazy as i am i haven thrown it away, but i guess that was good afterall. muahahaha. But as you can see here i added that piece to the base after i cut it in half. Then after that i also a small piece of pvc tubing which i also glued onto the base sticking out over the pit. Also at this point try to mount it on something like an old paint pot or a piece of cork or something

5) 

Now its time to break out the Vallejo Textures. I did a peoduct review on this earlier so you can check that out and see what type of texture you want to use as they are all slightly different. But i used Vallejo Red Oxide as i think the size is quite good. So once you are at this point jsut slap it on pretty much anywhere and everywhere (dont cover the pipe ofcourse silly) and then leave this to dry for a while. To apply this just use an old brush and dip it in and palce it on the base. As i said in my review of this stuff you can sculpt into it a bit as it is gel based so thats also really good. Try to not make it too smooth and all as we are trying to go for an organic and natural look with lots of bumps and crap and stuffs. so ya u see what i mean. Also its important to get inside the crater/pit. 

6)

Right  now this is an optional step. It is definitly not necessary but i just think it adds a nice little amount of detail to the base. So i added some small barbed wire (oh ya as i said use 15mm scale barbed wire) and also a small piece of the Beam and jsut kinda throw it in there somewhere, Mine is kinda in the pit. Reason i use 15mm scale wire is because its perfect size. Its very small and it you were to think of it, in regards to the 28mm figures that this base is for, if you put most other types of barbed wire by other large companies (no names mentioned hihihihi) then the barbed wire will pretty much be as thick as a electrical wire on a telephone pole. And thats not what we want. We want THIN and small Barbed wire. Something that looks real. So use this! But again as i said though its not necessary ofcourse not. So if you dont have the chance to use this well thats fine then. Skip this stage :) This is where the idea of doing this basing in bulk comes into play because now you have to Leave it to dry!

7) 

Next step is priming. First i based it with Vallejo Grey Primer, and then i just gave it a quick coat of Vallejo Black. Did this stage with an airbrush to speed it up. 

8)

First over this black coat i added a heavy drybrush of Black and white mix to the baseAt this point it was time to add some other colors to the base so to start with i used Vallejo Cold Grey, and gave it a nice drybrush of this color, then i continued with Vallejo Model Air White to do the next lightest dry brush.

Then after this it was time to work on the metallics! 

9) 

So first when you work with metallic keep in mind that your base can be a similar color but dont make it too similar coz you will loose the detail of the metallics. So what i did was i used Vallejo Model air Steel and mixed in a small amount of black to give it a nice darker steel look. leave this to dry for a while and this is where things start to get interesting ;) BRING OUT THE PIGMENTS!

10)

Pigments are fun to work with and always give great results even if you arent an expert at using them so they are very user friendly. Especially the Vallejo Pigments. Some pigments set quite hard without any setting solutions and if you do screw up are a B*tch of get off. These however are quite good. Much more forgiving than some others i have tried before. So here what i did was that i did some brief highlighting work on the metallics then i did the pigments. For the pipe i used the Vallejo Natural Iron Oxide Pigment. Its a nice dark blackish grey color which looks very good on pipes, and then i used a fifty fifty mix of the dark red and burnt sienna pigments on the beam. Once this was done i set them and left that to dry for a minute! Once this is done, paint the rim of the base black as well. 

11) 

Vallejo still water. Closest thing you can come to liquid gold. Absolutely wonderful to work with. What i did was that for this specific example i mixed it with a brownish pigment. This adds a realyl nice effect later on as you will see. However bear in midn that this makes it murky, so you wont be able to see much through it later. This lets you be in control of what you want as a result. Ofcourse you can add things like green inks instead, this still leaves is see through and you will be able to see the bottom of the pit or if you have something like maybe a body or whatever underneath it can still be seen. So keep this is mind. 

You dont need too much pigment, but add enough to get what you want. Also when doing this step try to avoid wasting. So do a little first and if its not enough make some more :) But basically at this point once you have mixed in the pigment it should look a little like this! Then this is pretty much the last stage. Just pour this mix into the pit and let it dry! it takes a pretty long time so leave it over night atleast.

12)

TADAAAAAAAA

This is what it looks like when its done!

Some things to bear in mind. When you are doing the pit, try to make the whole look as natural as possible. This tutorial doesnt really showcase this well as i made this specifically for the sake of the tutorial and i didnt have time to do all this properly but where in the hell are you going to see a battefield where there is a carter/pit that is a perfect semi circle????!!!!??? Nowhere right??? so jsut keep these things in mind ok! Be creative and do what you want! Try new things, and so on. You have the freedom to do what you want here so just have fun!!!

Read More

(Product Review) Vallejo Textures and a Few washes - more wash reviews will come soon.

Hi guys!

So today we will be doing our ever product review!! Exciting indeed! Today we will be reviewing a few of Vallejos Textured paints and two of their washes! This is what we used:

The products used

1)Vallejo Red Oxide Texture
2)Vallejo Desert sand Texture
3)Vallejo Brown Earth Texture
4) Vallejo Brown Wash
5) Vallejo Terran Earth Wash

Firstly, the products themselves. They are all absolutely wonderful to work with. Very easy to use and they cope very well with your demands of them. The textures can be applied in a number of ways. They can be painted on with a brush, or scooped onto the base with a small spatula of some sort or a toothpick. They are also gel based products that allow you to do a small amount of shaping and sculpting to the texture when applying them onto the base if you are going for a specific look. For each Texture we showed the effects of washing and also drybrushing, for the drybrushing we used Vallejo Bonewhite.

The three Textures straight from the pot

Vallejo Red Oxide Texture:
Color of the red oxide is as you can probably guess red. It is a very deep red that is absolutely perfect if you are looking for a Mars type base or a red desert type of theme (think grand canyon!) and so on. The  texture itself is also very fine which is great as for scale modelling regular sand is pretty big if you do actually put it to scale. One grain of sand will be the size of a toilet paper roll, which i dont think is very realistic. Anyway back to the point, when the base was drybrushed with bonewhite, it gives a wonderful effect. The two colors compliment each other very very well and also the drybrush helps strengthen the textures, LOTS. So if you decide to do any minor sculpting in the base for whatever reason, this is a very useful product. Also we decided to wash the base. The wash is applied without any brybrush and we also have a result from first drybrushing and then washing. The first one without the drybrush gives a very unique look. It doesnt really change the tone of the red too much but rather adds texture in a different way than the dry brushing. The wash gives a texture that comes more from under the grains in the texture. This gives shading and a very natural feel. Great for people that dont want a too elaborate base that will not pull too much attention from the model itself and focus on the base, but while still maintaining a very nice Table top level base. The next one is the drybrush first and then the wash. This is gives a wonderful end result that is of a very high quality. It gives a very nice soft tone on the top layer of the grains which highlights the base and adds a nice warm feel to the base. it also breaks the heavy red color and adds a bit of variation.

Brown Earth and Red oxide bases Drybrushed with Bonewhite

Being a color that is not very common on bases unless you are doing themed Mars type of bases, it is still a wonderful product. Depending on how you play with the colors and how you work with it, you can still achieve very nice and realistic outcomes that dont look too "odd." In fact they dont look odd at all! Most outcomes even the product just from the bottle gives a very nice color and natural feel to it. VERY Useful. Can be magical and gives a huge variety of results.

Red oxide Base and Brown Earth Base washed with Brown

Vallejo Desert Sand Texture:
The Vallejo desert sand texture is interesting. It is also quite fine grained again giving it some more realism rather than actual sand in regards to scale, and also the color is already a very warm Bonewhite type of color. Therefore this texture does limit you in terms of drybrushing for lighter colors. HOWEVER, you can be very adventurous and drybrush darker colors. This doesnt really work for all people, as it doesnt really work in theory being that a light source (most often the sky) hits from above, therefore making the drybrush normally be a lighter color. But to each their own, and to some people it may work and some it may not. Since the texture however is a light color, it gives alot of room to paly with when it comes to washes! The possibility of washes you can use on this are endless and each one gives very different results. Some subtle, some strong. It all comes down to the how you wish to wash them.

Left: Brown Wash    Right: Terran Earth Wash

For our examples, we have done two washes. We first washed with brown and then Terran earth. Both are earthy natural colors. They are a little similar but they both look great on this base. Same concept applies that it gives the base a beautiful texutre from the bottom up. But since the original texture is such a bright color it does make it darker (which is often what you want when you wash) but you once the wash is dry you are able to drybrush a white color on top for maximum brightness possible if you are looking for that!

Unfortunately, personal preference limits me a little with this base. I am not a huge fan of light bases. The most I will go to is light brown, and that is still really pushing the limits. But everybody has their own preferences!

Vallejo Brown Earth:
My favorite of all these three textures by far. The color is beautiful. A very warm brown color that looks alot like Vallejo Beasty Brown (maybe it is? I don't know :P) and this gives you so much space to work with. The color can be washed in many different colors and they all give very nice different results. Drybrushing is also easy to perform on this texture as the grains are jsut the right size for basing and the capture paint well when given a light dry brush. This alone gives you endless possibilities. It allows you to drybrush a variety of colors that can later be altered with washes, or it can be left just dry brushed! Very worth trying out.

First we drybrushed again with Bonewhite and after that we also washed a base without a drybrush. The drybrush gives a nice finish and is already good enough for any table top figures wether it be display pieces or table top armies as a whole. Adding washes to the drybrushed gives a very nice contrast that makes the base look outstanding while also giving nice dark and natural crevices. do try this out. Well worth it!


The Textures in general:
The textures are a very useful tool in your toolbox. They work very well in many different ways. And great thing about them is that they are already in a gel medium. This saves you plent of time in your basing stage as you dont need to worry about first painting on pva glue, then applying sand and waiting for that to dry and then coating it in another layer of pva to lock the grains in so the dont fall off (thats how i base atleast). This saves you alot of time. And the fact that the textures are colored also take a huge load of your back as you dont have to worry about basecoating the base with a model already painted and on the base or however you do it. I beleive you get the point. There are also many other textures such as the Grey and White Pumice textures and also the Black lava (WHICH IS AWESOME) and all these textures have their own pros and cons.

The only honest problem I can find with the textures is the coloring. MAKE SURE YOU DONT GET IT ON YOUR CLOTHES. That can ruin a very fun day of painting very very fast. And it is extremely hard to wash out. But I guess that's good in a way coz I presume that means it sticks really well to the base ;) Silver lining people!

Vallejo Brown Wash:
This is a very nice wash. It can be used straight from the bottle or diluted to your prference. Gives a very nice even coat and doesnt really pool very much apart from the intended areas. If mistakes do happen it is also very easy to clean up wit ha cotton swab. They work very well with the bases and the washes arent so sharp either. Some other washes are very dark and give shadows that seem a little unnatural to me. But then agian i presume that is personal preference.

Vallejo Terran Earth:
Also a very nice wash to work with. This brown has a more brownish tint to it while the brown wash has a bit of a greenish feel to it. These two different tints compliment both washes very well. The terran earth also works the same way as the Brown wash. Easy to use straight from the bottle, and doesnt get in the way at all when you work. Great color to use for washing leather and cloaks or anything else brown for that matter. Thinned down it can also be used to make water and rust streaks when it comes to weathering! Well worth the try. But if you do this, make sure you thin the paint down and build up layers slowly. It takes about 4 or 5 layers for the streaking to really give full effect.

The Washes in General:
The washes are great. Not much to say about them other than TRY THEM. Very handy tools. Also the Vallejo range of washes is extremely varied and gives you very many options in natural tones. And the thing is that often in each color section they have different shades of the wash which i think is wonderful and lets you choose what you are looking for. By this i mean that under the black section for example, you can find the Vallejo Black wash which is very dark and firm. perfect for oil and grease stains mixed with some brown wash, but they also have grey wash which is a little lighter than the black, it lets you shade things with a softer color which is wonderful. And as the stated examples about, i would put them under the Brown category, and they are different shades. There are also many other shades of brown that they offer. When using the washes though, make sure you shake them well before using. If the bottle stands around for a while the pigments collect at the bottom of the bottle and you will not really get your desired tone out of the wash. Also, if you dont shake well enough you may pick up those grains of pigment which have not been dissolved properly and accidently slap em on your models, whci hyou dont want. It looks very weird have a nice subtle shade and all of a sudden a spot of really dark brown/black/whatever color you are using. Also and last but not least, the amount of wash you are getting for the price you are paying is great, high quantity of high quality paint for a good deal!


Alright guys!!! That's pretyy much it for our first review! Will be posting some more soon once we have the time! If you have any questions, do feel Free to ask or visit us on our
Juggernaut Painting facebook page

Thanks!

Juggernaut

Read More