"The Final Libby" Topic

I must say you paint in a different way to the norm, or at least my norm. I'll have to experiment with your method of painting skin, it gives a quite interesting result.

I'm curious about your chalk weathering technique on the armour. How does it take to being handled, does it come off easily or does it spread around. I presume you use a fixative or laquer to protect the finish does the chalk melt a bit? I remember using pastels years ago that they dulled significantly after being sprayed with fixative.

Oh and love the shattered tiles on the base that is a great idea.

I love it.

I just wish I could do faces like that…

Great job!

I want one of those..plus her sisters.

Great job. I too wish I could paint a face like that. Never get eyes like that. Super!

Inspiring work.

I've just started experimenting with using pastel chalks myself, but haven'tbeen having such great results with it. I echoe the question above – how do you fix your chalk weathering, without loosing any of the effect? I find spray varnishes take away a lot of the effect I'm trying to use them to protect.

Cheers,
Paul "TuffSKull" T.
mercenarybrush.com

Fantastic. Better than I'll ever be able to do.

I haven't tried these methods either. I'm bookmarking this article. Thanks!

Very cool – and very unusual techniques. I love the tile collapsing under her foot, by the way – a small thing that adds tremendously to the animation of the scene.

Doug

I'm going to try the chalk weathering-rusting on some of my warmachine stuff.

I'll try a thin matte varnish and see what happens.

I knew I was holding onto all those pastels for a reason!

You really can only use the chalk method for display pieces. On pieces that are handled a lot the chalk will tend to rub off from the areas where the miniature is touched. You can seal them with varying levels of success, but most don't as it's usually not worth it. Chalking/weathering is usually the last step on display models.

I understand that a spray sealant would blow the chalking away. Has anyone tried a brush-on sealant with this technique?

Great article!

I would think a brush on sealant would wipe away the chalk worse than a spray on would blow it away. Careful spraying (perhaps with an airbrush rather than a spray bomb) would seem more likely to work.

Doug

Probably depends on how much you've rubbed the chalk dust in (rather than just applying it to the surface), the type of chalk, and how heavy the sealant spray is.

Actually, you can seal the chalk with a spray. I've done a little chalk weathering, and I seal it with Testors Dull Cote. The only thing you have to be aware of is that the sealing will darken the chalk, which may change the final appearance of your miniature.

I find myself (I've been using MIG pigments for some time, although I played around with ground chalk pastels for a bit before that) that the key to getting sealable chalk weathering is to spray the mini with a matt varnish first, and to over-apply the weathering. The matt coat gives the pigment lots of surface texture to get stuck into, and putting 'too much' of the stuff on means that when you spray over the top and some of it gets lost in the topcoat, you can still see the effect.

Thanks for the comments on the article so far. Great you like the miniature and are interested in my techniques. Sorry for the delay but I got cut off the internet for some days.
The chalk thing is not really difficult to handle but one can experiment a lot with it. Basically I use a knife and rub off the chalk from the stick so I have powdered chalk to work with. I use a brush (an older or cheap one) to get it on the miniature. This is where you can start experimenting yourself. Usually you cannot really cover large flat surfaces with the pastels but it tends to stick in recessed areas very good so it is kind of a wash with different results.
If you want to seal your miniature it is another thing. As Delthos mentioned the method is very good to use for display pieces which will not be handled a lot in their "life". I usually to not use varnish on those pieces because I want them to be as matt as possible. Also I use the chalk often to look like dust. If you use varnish this effect is no more. So you should use varnish first and after that use pastels for a dust or dirt effect.
Some of the pastels might get rubbed off the miniature if you handle it frequently but the chalk in the recesses will last. Because getting the chalk on the miniature is a fast and easy method you can always use more of the pastels on the miniatures if it got rubbed off too much.
You can use varnish after using chalked pastels and if you don't use too much (I use spay can varnish usually) it is no problem except as described above. The best way is to spray thin layers of varnish. using an airbrush might be best but I don't have experiences using one.

Cheers,
Holger
fantasy-miniatures.de

Wow!………….i never looked so good!!

excellent technique with the chalk weathering, not something i would have even thought of doing!

thanks very much indeed

Libby is a nice name.

the first HF 'Liberty' was so named as she is modelled after myself and is 'fuller-figured'!! Liberty being another workd for freedom and implies that not all female fantasy models had to be set in the same mould of barbie doll perfection.

the conversion from 'Liberty the axewoman' to 'Viking Liberty' didnt work so we called the viking version 'Libby' and this alternate version has stuck through her many different guises.

mind you we havent yet got a HF figure called Sally but i suppose everyone know Libby is me anyhow so it doesnt really matter!!

I arrived at miniature wargaming via model railroading & 1/72nd plastic modelling, so I was familiar w/ pastel weathering; it works nicely on game minis, even ones that will need to be dullcoated & handled.

The trick is to apply the pastel dust heavier than you think you need to, because the spray dullcoat will remove some of it. Do one quick, light spray pass, let that dry, then do a normal spray coat to fully protect the miniature.

The vehicles here warbard.ca/sg2gallery.html and in my other galleries were all weathered with a combination of drybrushing, ink washes & pastel dust.

My hats off to you your work is far above the pale. My son and are are duly impressed with the PA Libby job that you did. I am now off to the hobby store to try the pastels, my presumption is that the chalks will adhere better once a coat of sealer is applied, is that correct?