Equipment Advice Please

[Orc]

Hello Everyone,

I\'m totally new here and need some advice please
I havent painted Mini\'s in about 10 years, I want to get back into it and need some equipment advice. I am a fine art student and have Mini painting experiance so am not a complete novice.
What I need help with is advice on what gear to buy, I am going to start back with GW Orcs and Gobbo\'s, bit of a greenskin at heart
I have saved up quite a bit of cash, and would like tips on paint sets, brushes etc.
I have used GW paints in the past and like them but have read that a lot use Vallejo paints to. Shall I get some of each? Like a GW set and a Vallejo Game Colour set? Also what other useful equipment should I get? Oh one more thing, I am currently stuck in bed due to an injury, so spray priming may be a problem, any other ways of priming?Pretty confused Any help would be great!

Cheers

 

[dougaderly]

Hey Orc,

GW or vallejo is really just a preference. I prefer Vallejo. Something to remember, the Vallejo model color is softer than the GW and the Vallejo game color, so it will chip off easier. Just means more coats of varnish and matt finish. The Advantage of the Vallejo (and for that matter, the Reaper master paints) is the eyedropper bottles that won\'t dry out.

For brushes, A Windsor and Newton Series 7 size 0, 1, or 2 would last you a good long time. For the 15 bucks I spent on my size 0, it\'s lasted as long as 4 of my cheap synthetic brushes, so has already made up it\'s own cost. Don\'t forget to get some brush soap for it.

Other goodies that will make your life really easy: Pin Vise. If you buy the drill bit sets you get at a hobby shop for model railroads you can get 20 or so drill bits for about 20 bucks, vs. I believe about 8 dollars for 3 GW ones. For brush on primer, I\'ve been using reaper\'s brush on for a while and I\'m satisfied with it. Up here in Concord, it\'s either cold and dry or wet and warm, so spray priming doesn\'t work out too well for me. Lastly, a bottle or two of matte varish, although labelled matt, is often more of a semi gloss or a satin finish. fix this by getting some Testors dull coat and applying it as the last layer over the other varnish you use. I use a bottle of windsor and newton matt finish then hit it with the testors dull coat. I\'m sure anything I missed someone else will fill in. Welcome back to the club!

Also, forgot to mention to pick up a nice set of needle files for those flash lines and I\'ve also found a nice supply of beer helps the process along as well!

 

[Dragonsreach]

Welcome Orc and say goodbye to:-
A) Street Cred
B) a life.

Paints are easy. Choose that which you know. GW\'s paints do have a lot going for them, ease of availability color range intended to be for their own range of models. (ok price and life span are against them)

Brushes. Well I would suggest that as a Fine Art Student you\'ve got access to many supplies of brushes. I personally prefer Winsor & Newton series 7, but Daler, Da Vinci and Rembrant are other manufacturers. ( If I remember correctly one of our forum members James Sequiria has access to some good brushes as well, can\'t remember the name though).

Other Bits & pieces, Sharp craft knife, (X-Acto), A good set of files, a good quality pair of pincers, Pin vice, drills and the most effective tool Wet & Dry paper (400 grit).

You can get brush on primer Vallejo do it and GW used to, don\'t know if they still do. I\'ve not found that the \"brush on\" is any better than spray, in fact for some things it\'s actually worse. But some people get great results.

Don\'t forget to show us what you can achieve.

 

[Orc]

Thanks for the advice!
Thats helped a lot, I was planning on buying a full paint set so I have access to a good range of colours. If I went for a GW master set, what sort of lifespan am I looking at with the paints?

Thanks again!

 

[Ritual]

If you plan on mixing GW and Vallejo paints you should go for the Model Colors instead of the Game Colors as that range matches GW\'s colour range almost exactly. With Model Colors you\'ll have a huge selection of paints that are not available in GW\'s range.

Most people seems to prefer GW\'s metallic paints over Vallejo\'s.

For the tools, Mike covered pretty much everything you\'ll need to get going. But, you might also need a putty of some sort for gap filling and such. If you can find it, I would suggest MagicSculpt as it is easy to use, cheap, good quality and sets hard so you can sand it after it\'s cured.

EDIT: About life span on GW paints... it depends a bit on how you use them and how often you use them. If you paint straight out of the pot and, thus, keep the lid off the pots while you\'re painting the paints become thick quite fast. I used to replace my Chaos Black once every few months, but I know there\'s ways to keep them usable for longer. The Vallejos don\'t dry out, but the nozzle on the bottles easily gets clogged so you need to clean those out once in a while.

 

[Orc]

Cheers for that Ritual,
I was worried about the paints I wouldnt be using that often.... How long will the unopened paints last? As for the well used paints, I plan on putting the paint onto a pallete for watering down and mixing etc. I wont paint out of the pot. I also really like the look of NMM painting and plan on giving that a shot.... I have been through the many guides and realise it might not be suitable for painting the bulk of my planned Orc horde. But I would love to try it on bosses and specials. So any little tips much valued

cheers again!

 

[Ritual]

Unopened or rarely used paints will last longer, of course, and not only because you use less of them but also because you open them less and, thus, the paint will not be in contact with air as much. If paints do start to get thicker you can pour some water in them and mix thoroughly and the paint is good to use agian.

NMM is indeed a nice looking technique, but I would advice against mixing regular metallics and NMM as it doesn\'t look good together. It would probably look better if you used one of the techniques for all of your gaming force and metallics is probably the quickest and best option for an orc horde. But, do try NMM out as well! It\'s both challenging and fun and it forces you to think about light and lighting directions and such which you will have use for in all of your painting.

 

[Orc]

Thanks again Ritual,
I was hoping to give my horde a Dark red armour theme.. so Metallics may not be as usefull after all, as I will have to layer and highlight the red armour plates anyway. Do you think NMM would make it to time consuming? I am stuck in bed at the moment with a knee injury so do have plenty of time on my hands

 

[Ritual]

I think really good metallics are as time consuming as NMM, but with metallics you can take short cuts that you can not do with NMM. In the end you will be the one to decide wether you\'ll take the time to do NMM on every model of your orc horde or not, but seeing as you will do the armour in red you won\'t have as many areas to consider. Things such as belt buckles, mail, studs, rivets, chains, etc. are fairly quick to paint regardless of wether you use metallics or NMM so that leaves the weapons...

I suggest you try NMM on a couple of miniatures before you decide and see how you like the technique and if you\'re happy with the results you get.

 

[Orc]

Yeah, good plan....
I might buy a box of Orcs just to test the different techniques to see which I get on with best.
I never did a great deal of metallic painting, do you have any links to good guides? I\'m up to date with the shading, blending and highlighting techniques for solid colours, but could really do with some Metallic tips

Cheers again!

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Orc
I have saved up quite a bit of cash, and would like tips on paint sets, brushes etc.

Lots of prior threads on brushes worth hunting up. Look under my name and the word Kolinsky and you\'ll find a few.

Originally posted by Orc
Also what other useful equipment should I get?

The tools you\'ll need for prep and holding the piece during painting - at the most basic you\'ll need a craft knife with one or two blade styles, a half-round needle file and maybe some fine abrasive paper.

Then if you want to pin you\'ll need at least a pin vice and some small bits, plus wire of some sort(s) to put in the holes. Glues, putty, flock grass, bases... lots more stuff beyond the basic painting and cleanup supplies.

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
Welcome Orc and say goodbye to:-
A) Street Cred
B) a life.

lol

Einion

 

[Ritual]

I may not be the best person to ask for advice concerning metallic painting since I almost always use NMM, but I do know a little bit still.

First, use coloured washes over your metallics to give them more depth and \"life\". It\'s a good idea to use matte paint to shade it because you don\'t want to get light reflections in your shaded areas (that would look weird). So, you can use ink washes for the lighter areas, but make sure to át least finish off the shaded areas with matte paint glazes. Which colours to use for shading and the various coloured glazes or washes is a matter of preference. Different colours can create different effects and you\'ll have to experiment to get a feel for what you like. Just remember to keep the paint extremely thin. It\'s better to apply many layers to slowly build up the effect you want then to mess things up with an overly thick coat.

You will get the best results by repeatedly apply washes or glazes over your metallic areas and then re-touch them with metallic paint. Remember to keep the metallic paint thin when doing re-touches.

Finish off with applying a lighter metallic paint in the places you want highlighted the most. If you have it and want to create an extra shine, apply a few small spots of Vallejo Model Color metallic medium in the absolute brightest spots. This is in fact the same method as when you do NMM, only done with metallic paints.

 

[Orc]

Thanks again Ritual, great tips
Cant wait for my paints and Orcs to arrive now, getting really excited about painting again! Cant wait!

Waaaghhh!!

 

[Ritual]

You\'re most welcome! Good luck and post pictures of your progress if you want good advice and feedback along the way!

 

[Orc]

Yeah, I certainly will.... Might be a bit to embarrassed to post my first few attempts. But once I have got the hang of it again I\'ll get some pics up for some tips and advice

 

[markstorch]

One thing that hasn\'t been mnetioned if you are going with the GW paints is to store them upside down. It might sound silly at first, but by inverting the bottle, the paint itself seals the bottle and the paint lasts a lot longer.

Anothrer thing I have found helpful is to periodically (every few months or so) open up all your bottles (one at a time of course) and check the consistency. For the ones that are looking a bit thick, I have bropper bottle of Future, and I give it a squirt and then close it up and shake it up real good. The floor polish is just clear acrylic so I find that makes up for a btit of the evaporation. In fact, for some of the colors, they worked betetr after that treatment than before.