SteamHammer's models

[SteamHammer]

With such a high level of painting ability on display on the forum (so many beautiful models!) I'm ashamed at my attempts. But maybe posting these will give other beginners the courage to try. After all we can hopefully only get better.










Same Talos, different background.

[AndyS]

Nice work SteamHammer. I can see some easy ways to improve if you don't mind me saying. Looking at your Beowa it seems that you have only put a metallic base coat on the axe. It needs more interest as it is a large area of flat colour at the moment.

How long have you been painting?

[AndyS]

Looking again I would say that the best piece of advice I could give you (and anyone else) is to thin your paint. At least 50/50 with water. Extenders and mediums I'll not mention just yet!

[SteamHammer]

Thanks. Any advice or links to tutorials on working with metals without doing NMM?

I was painting GW stuff a couple of decades ago but then took a very long hiatus and only started up again two years ago with Malifaux. So advice is always welcome.

[AndyS]

I'm sure everyone will be happy to help on here. Have a look at my early Troll WIP. I think I wrote something about metal on there.

[SteamHammer]

Do you thin the metallic paints too?

[razormage]

I always thin my paints, regardless of the shade. Colors that are more opaque (blues, metallics, some reds) get 3 parts paint to 1 part water, while colors that tend to be thinner (yellows, whites) get 4 or 5 parts paint to one part water.
I was taught to mix the paint to be about the consistency of milk. Stick a toothpick in a few drops of milk and swirl it around - that's about where you want the mixture to be. It's thicker than water, but thinner than the paint just out of the pot.

[Azhrarn]

Do you thin the metallic paints too?

Depending on the finish I want I'll use different thinning agents for my metallics.
Water is always a good standby and won't change the paint much.

If you want the metallic to be slightly less shiny, then using something like Vallejo Model Colour Thinner is a good choice.
It'll flatten the metal colour a little (because it is a somewhat flat transparent medium), which makes colours like that ideal for base layer metallics.

If you really want to get your shiny stuff on, I prefer to use Tamiya X-20A thinner.
It's mainly Isopropyl Alcohol and Butanol combined with a light surfacant and a few other things. But the effect it has on metallics is pretty spectacular, it keeps the flakes in suspension better than water or the Vallejo thinner does, resulting in a really smooth, shiny metal surface. The downside is that it reduces your working time with the paint quite a bit as all those volatile alcohols evaporate rather quickly compared to the other 2 options. It looks great though if you get it right.

[Rick_Boer]

Weren't you supposed to be on holiday at the moment?

[Azhrarn]

Weren't you supposed to be on holiday at the moment?

I am, I'm typing this from the lounge area of a massive tavern/hotel in south-east Canada. About 9000 kilometres from home.
Resting up a bit, because the flight here by water-plane was more than a little rough, pretty bad turbulence because of the wind.

Relaxing means reading up on the stuff I like on the net, so I was just catching up to all the stuff that's recently been posted.
Still disliking this US style internet though, it's so damn slow. Not even close to the 60 Mbit I have at home, but I'll manage.

[SteamHammer]

Thanks for the tips, especially when on holiday.

[Azhrarn]

Thanks for the tips, especially when on holiday.

No problem Steamhammer, now i have time to post stuff.

[JLLongshore]

You can listen to all them, but I think they are wonderful as is!

[SteamHammer]

Thanks. My attempts at stippling are so far failing. Just looks blotchy rather than the fine detail Andy S gets on his metal. More practice is needed. One more finished off:

[Azhrarn]

Thanks. My attempts at stippling are so far failing. Just looks blotchy rather than the fine detail Andy S gets on his metal. More practice is needed. One more finished off:

That is one serious brass bull. Looking good, can't see the stippling all that well, but my tablet doesn't have a large screen. Will need to remember to look again once I'm back home.

[SteamHammer]

Poor lighting but just to prove I am still alive. Just having a bad couple of weeks of real life getting in the way of painting.

[shadowbcfc]

Great paint jobs mate I just recently bought myself the talos miniature. How did you go about painting him? Really like how he turned out cheers

[SteamHammer]

Just the standard bearer to go.

As for the Talos painting I roughly followed the first half of this tutorial http://www.tinyworlds.co.uk/blog/painting-aged-patina-bronze/ but stopped before the "Making it Shine" part as I didn't want it too shiny.

[SteamHammer]

A couple more done

[JLLongshore]

very cool, thanks for sharing!