"Priming white, how do I bring the details out?" Topic

As I age and my eyes deteriorate I am having a difficult time picking the details out, especially on any figures 15mm or smaller.

I tried priming black and dry brushing white to bring the details out, but I still had a difficult time and I was not satisfied with the results.

I would like to go back to using a white primer, but what do people suggest I use to bring the details out before painting? I am thinking some sort of wash or toner as well as a magnifying desk lamp.

What do you suggest?

Vallejo Pale Grey Game Color Wash (Lavado) 73.202

yes give it a wash, paynes grey for example

I know everyone is different, but I never could get used to a Magnifying lamp.

If you don't already wear glasses, ave you tried Drug Store Reading Glasses?

You could try using contrast paints. They do the shading and the colour in one go over a white primer.

Did you try the other version of "dry brushing"—Zenithol priming? Spray coat black all over, then spray white solely from above and slight angles from above on sides. While it is designed more for highlighting and color, it would have the effect of bringing out details that are hidden by the black primer.

Magnifying glasses, or illuminated, magnifying glasses.

Gray primer can also be an option.

Perhaps then drybrush with white, if desired on the larger patches, and avoiding the recesses.

Supposedly, gray primer on its own is a good, mid-option between white and black primers.

Get the Dollar Store reading glasses. I suspect they are just/almost as good, at 1/10th – 1/15th the price.

For 6mm I prime white then give the figure a wash of a dark ink that brings up the detail. If I then paint in a thinned acrylic some of the wash shows through creating a kind of preshading.

Least expensive method: mix up some Magic Wash (color of your choice, but I recommend black). Magic Wash is Pledge Floor Gloss + acrylic paint, to form a custom-colored wash. The next best technique, IMO, is to apply The Dip. Both will take acrylic paint, superbly; Pledge Floor Gloss is clear Acrylic medium; The Dip is Minwax Polyurethane + stain (Royal Walnut), which takes acrylic paint readily. The Minwax is available in a wide array of colors; the Royal Walnut is a darker shade, easy to find, and it can be used as a wash on the finished figure, giving it a rolling in the mud look, which I prefer. The Royal Walnut color is dark enough, to provide enough shading to bring out the details, nicely, without hiding them, as the Tudor (black) color might. Cheers!

A thin wash of burnt umber over white will work pretty well. I keep a tube of it on hand for horses anyway.

Gray brings out details better than black or white. I use an Optivisor magnifier but I saw a different one for $25.00 USD that I might pick up after Christmas. It had 4 different lenses. OR switch to 28 mm. I paint very few 15 mm now.

I've got my eyes on this one.

link

Now, just need some quatloos to make it happen.

I use white but my art student niece told me years ago use grey primer, I will as soon as my white runs out( I hate being wasteful )

I use a wash of Payne's grey or black

I find that treating the figures prior with a light acid bath, (i.e. soak them in vinegar overnight) wash with clean water and air dry. Then, using a reeeaally light touch a quick spritz of white, or light grey primer. Details on my 15s seem to "pop" right out. Keep the primer can moving quickly and do not allow it to "glop". Doesn't take much primer, I use double sided tape to mount my figs on long wooden sticks, paint stirrers work well. I then just make one quick pass top, both sides and bottoms, at a distance of about 8-10 inches DONE!!! Keep a bottle of brush-on primer handy when taking them off and touch up with a really thin wash if necessary.

I recommend the Optivisor and a bright lamp. That combination works well for me.

Bring out details over white primer? Brown wash. Thinned Burnt Umber or Raw Umber. "Magic" wash with acrylic varnish or Future doesn't hurt.

I use also an optivisor and good light.

I use Citadel corax white. I then position the figure under a bright light to create light and shadow on the feature.

This may sound a bit sarky, but it's not meant to be. It's what is happening to me now and how I'm learning to live with it.

What can you see on the table at arm's length? If you can't see it close up for painting then it's unlikely you will see it on the table. So don't worry about it. Many years ago, a chap I used to game with painted a 15mm British Napoleonic army in Britain's Deetail style. Looked great on the table, which is really all that matters in the end.

Forget magnifiers. Although I recommend a decent bright/daylight lamp if the real thing isn't available.

I use a light grey primer and then a black wash brings out the details, but probably the most important thing is plenty of light. Depending on what detail I am painting I use either an angle poise lamp or a lamp/magnifier both with LED bulbs.

Vallejo has a grey primer that is a very light grey. You can brush it on.

Being slightly darker than white it's much easier to see details than just white.

+1 Jeffers! I realized, 25 years ago, that I normally only view my mini's on the table, at 3-5 feet. At that distance, I can't see much detail, even with 29 year old, 20/20 vision! Any details painted, which can only be seen closer than the tabletop, are really a waste of effort, for me. I paint for me, no one else… Cheers!

I heard once that the best lighting is to use both incandescent and fluorescent over your work area. Your eyes get misled by using only one. Figs painted under Incan wind up looking too dark. Figs painted under fluores end up looking too light.

I still use white primer (I am 72). I find a small bright spotlight plus magnifying headset works for me.

Wash it with GW's Seraphim Sepia. It will bring out all the little bits and pieces and actually looks great afterwards as a bonus. It's a technique I picked up in the 10mm ancients circles.

I only paint 10mm now and I'm a Grognard – with the failing eyesight that comes with age. I prime in grey. Works well for everything I have to paint.

I'm with Chad47 (and same age) except for the headset; could not get on with mine, so always tell my optician that my specs presctiption needs to take account of my model painting. For smaller scales I have often used the black primer/white dry brush technique.

I have been dealing with the my eyes getting worse for some years. I have, with the exception of a brief flirtation with black priming, always primed in white. While on occasion I have used either a sepia/soft tone ink/wash to help bring out the details, which does help, I find the two most helpful things for me are good lighting (I have three lamps on my painting desk -- Ottlite, halogen, and LED -- since I paint in my basement with little natural light) and a magnifying visor (I think it is a Carson with four different lenses and a small LED light). I had tried a magnifying floor lamp with florescent light but could never get used to it.

I've heard a lot of talk about 'optivisors' what, exactly are they and where do you get them? I don't want to see 'on-line' availability, I need to see, feel, and touch, see how they work, are they comfortable, do they work, and can I afford them? Living in Florida now my work area is a small corner in my garage. After I negotiate my way around the cars, bikes, gardening tools, and general storage I can try to get comfortable and do some work on a repurposed card table(not having a basement sucks out loud).

One place to look for Optivisors or similar magnifying devices is at a place like Hobby Lobby or Michaels, in their crafts section because jewelry makers, bearers, etc., have similar viewing problems. Fly fishing stores usually have magnifying lamps and such also, because people who tie flies ALWAYS seem to use a magnifying glass stand for doing the work.

Hobby Lobby has them as Yogi said. Think of them as very powerful reading glasses that focus on things VERY close. Most come with small lights on the spot being looked at too.

I use the following method for priming and it helps pick out the detail in the casting, so I can see what I am trying to paint and also find it. I also use a small high intensity lamp and a big window with daylight.

I prime with a 5:1 ratio of mineral spirits to rustolium flat black paint. This is oil-turpintine or mineral spirit based material and is NOT a water soluble mixture.

Pva glue about 20 figures to a piece of non-slick cardboard. Brush onto the figures with a course brushy brush. The mixture spreads over the lead because it's surface tension makes it move over the surface. No missing coatings on the underside or horses or between legs or behind things. The mixture becomes a little thicker in nitches and they are then outlined in black. Smooth areas and external bumps are scarcely coloured and stay a little shiny. Your detailing of metal is properly decorated and you can even dry brush later if you want more.

You only need a microscopic- 50 micron (0.05 mm) layer of "paint" to give good adhesion to the metal. Be sure to give it at least 24 hours to dry off the solvent and air cure the paint…………

ADVANTAGES: cheap,,,,,,(use a well sealed ex-kitchen food jar for storage and reuse),,,,,,,,,,,no clogged aerosol can buttons,,,,,,, excellent coverage- thin everywhere,,,,,,,,,, you can do it inside without very much odor problem….,,,,,,. you don't have to risk breathing paint particles or getting the paint on other things.,,,,,……You apply only a thin coat everywhere and don't have to overspray or spray from different angles to get underneaht things !!!,

<<<<< let me emphasize that, you never have to get a second layer of paint over things(which is thick and hides details), in order to get coverage on all sides of the figure.

DISADVANTAGE…….You have to wait for the paint to cure.

Also, IF you wife is not home, you can make the cure faster by using a low temerature oven or a heat gun

I use acrylic, water-based paints and with the normal thickness of craft or minatures hobby paint, do not have a problem with needing more than one coat to completely cover.

Sometimes, you can use watered-down paint and get some shinyness showing thu. After drying that paint, you can use another different shade and blend in trasnistions of colour- or allow a faint metal shine to come thu. (paint light tan/cream, then paint white in more exposed areas for austrians and other white uniforms)

Don't paint over bayonets until the end and then a single coat of silver/gold will give a good finish. No need for multiple and thick coats to hind the priming layer.

I haven't experimented with using other colors of flat rustiolium primer in this priming mix. I will be doing a bunch of Brit's soon and will give a red paint a try.