Re: [GZG] Painting Guide for Starships

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: john tailby [mailto:John_Tailby@xxxxxxxxxx]
> 
> Most painters put the wash on way too thick. It looks cool when wet but 
> dries all over the model and makes it look dirty.
> 

Why on earth why you paint a starship this way ? Oh, wait... :-)

My painting technique, especially for ships, is to start with black primer, and drybrush layers of successively lighter shades until the overall effect is what I'm looking for. The drybrush dries faster, so you can mass produce miniatures, and you never end up with a muddy wash. A couple of shades of grey with a few areas picked out in color works very well and paints up very quickly.

A good drybrush technique involves a small amount of paint on the brush, with the bulk of it promptly wiped off on something dry and with some texture (paper towel, palette with layers of dried paint, etc). Done with a wide brush you can get a layer onto a ship of any size in relatively few strokes. The first layer or two will look awful, just streaky dark grey over black, but once the middle layer goes on and the highlights start popping out it looks great. Pick out some details and you have a good paint job in minutes per miniature.

You'll have a hard time producing the quality and quantity you get with drybrushing with a wash-based technique. I'll get some pictures online in a week or so when I get around to finishing a batch of BSG ships.

I'll use a wash in certain circumstances, like any large smooth colored area, but when I do I prefer acrylic inks to anything else (thanks Citadel !). Thinning paint produces terrible washes.



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