"Painting 15s! I need some suggestions" Topic

Hi Folks

I am looking for some helpful tips on shading effects for painting my 15mm figures. Take a look at the link below. These are fine, but how do some guys get those killer looking figures?

link

Thanks
Dave
ABQ

Yours are as good as I've ever done.

Have you tried the Dip? (Miniwax polyurathane tudor satin)

David McBride gets great results with it in 15mm. He block paints without shading then brushes the dip on, then most of it off.

The minis at Splintered Light are all 15mm and painted that way.

link

Lots of close-up pics in different categories.

I'm not sure I have an answer but like you I like painting over a dark/black base color and leaving in the "creases." I think the thing I then do that makes me most pleased with my figures is that I then highlight rather than darken because the highlight helps to make the color pop and gives my figures a richer look than they did before I added the highlight. For what they are worth, you can see mine at link

doc mcb, where can you get the miniwax?
Waar In 15, what highlight do you use?

Currently after I paint, I add a semi watered down satin finish. Does that have the same effect?

In terms of highlighting, with 15s I don't want to over do so if there is an obvious lighter shade of the color I want to highlight, I will use it and then do a third level by combining white with that lighter shade. If there isn't an obvious lighter shade of the color I will simply add white to the color I want highlighted and go with two levels of color. If red is the color I want highlighted, I'll generally use a shade of yellow instead of white to avoid making it look pink.

Dave,
Check out this link for an explaination on shading and highlighting a figure.

link

An example for red would be the following. The shade would be red mixed with Blue to achieve a redish purple. The highlight to red would be adding a little yellow to the red.

For a Crimson the shadow would be the same, but add a little white to the crimson to lighten it.

Green follows the same as red, add blue for a shadow and add yellow for a highlight.

John

Polyshades Minwax is sold in paint/hardware stores. It is a varnish and stain for wooden floors. I used to use this and have shifted to using a mix of water/Future acrylic floor wax and black India ink. Either one will do. Minwax also coats your figures with varnish.

Also, since you paint plastic figures: I used Minwax on plastic figures and no paint came off, even though in one case a horse's tail broke off. The figure and the tail were still painted.

You can either dip the figure in Minwax (hence the term 'the dip') or you can paint Minwax on. But use cheap brushes. The stuff eats brushes. Use Tudor Satin (the darkest shade) to start.

The only place we've ever found the Tudor satin shade is Ace Hardware.

Brush it on, don't actually dip. Then brush the excess off.

And yes, it eats brushes.

Coat d'Arms make water-based stains designed for use with this method. It's called "Super Shader" and comes pre-mixed in Black, Dark Brown or Light Brown:

link

No turpentine needed for clean up, does not eat brushes, and best of all no stink.

Mark "Extra Crispy" Severin
ScaleCreep.com
FlagshipGames.com
DeepFriedHappyMice.com

HandL
Your figures look great and I would be happy to have as good as yours on my table !

Hi Dave,
Your figures are really nice as is.

Is there a particular style you want to achieve? Everyone has pretty much pointed you in the right direction but if there is a specific effect/style you wish to match do you have an example of it you could show?

I've been changing the way I paint my own figures this past few years to speed up my painting while not losing to much detail and highlight.

The painted on dip can give really nice effect however doesn't work with every uniform colour (found it works best with red, browns, white and flesh). It also needs a lot of control over 15mm figs as it can hide the detail.

I've found myself going more for the style Von Blucher has linked to.

Best of luck with yer search!!!

Cheers
Paul

Don't think of white uniforms as white but as shades of grey – leaving white only for the highest highlights. It will produce a more subtle effect yet still 'pops' when completed.

I got mine at ACE Hardware-Lowe's doesn't carry the Tudor shade. Make sure you get the poly-satin not the glossy. The block painting is nice, but he could have saved a lot of time by just paint the faces flesh and then brushing on the dip for the same effect.
Also after the dip give them a spray of Testors Dull coat.

I've found for doing white uniforms (particularly with white belts) that I like to first paint them light grey, next wash the figure in a transparent brown ink, and then high light in white (dry brushing over the uniform). The brown works well on the flesh as well, I high light the flesh (nose and chin) with the original flesh color.

Hi Dave,
I think your figures look great as they are – thanks for showing your 15mm OG Spanish Line – I was keen to see them in the flesh.

When I did my Spanish recently I block painted the figures and then painted on Army Painter Strong Tone, using the brush to clear away those places where the Army Painter was pooling more than I wanted: link

I've since highlighted their straps with white. It's come out pretty well – but if you want to see the method used rather more professionally then you need to look here at Paul's blog: link

And follow the process though to it's conclusion.

Thanks these are great tips. I will experiment with some of these ideas. What is block paintung?

Block painting is just filling in the colour in a solid block – no shading or any of that malarkey. Normally it is what you do before adding highlights and shading. If you use the army painter be sure to paint in a brighter colour than usual as the AP tone will darken things down – you can put some of the original colour on as a highlight.

I was rather apprehensive when I first tried it – I was concerned some of the detail would be obscured – but that wasn't the case at all so I'd recommend doing all the detail work before adding the AP. But I can't emphasise enough that you need to be prepared to brush away the stain where it gets too thick otherwise it looks dreadful.

The Minwax stain advocated by Doc Mcb is essentially a homemade Army Painter. The AP is pretty pricey – £20.00 GBP here in the UK for a small tin (but you can do 300-400 15mm figures with one tin so not too bad). Lots of people say it smells pretty bad but I didn't really notice much – and you will need some turps as it is oil based.

And leave it a good 24 hours to dry (although mine was touch dry much quicker than that). As I say if you follow the model laid out by Paul with his Saxons above then you'll do okay. I think your soldiers look very nice now!

Do you have to have use multiple AP tones for the different colors or is there a clear coat that you use?
I sound like such a novice! I have been painting for years, but this is the fisrt time I have looked for ways to improve my game.

Scratch that last question. I figured it out.
But, on Paul's blog: did that AP make the flesh naturally darken in the edges to give them a clean look?