WIP Cadian IG Army Photojournal

[Vampyre69]

My son has now gotten into the hobby and he wants to build an IG Army and I thought I would practice on a few of his minis before I take the plunge in painting my Dark Angel army.

Here is a few pictures of the status of how the weekend was spent. Please note I have been away from painting since \'98 and just now getting my brushes wet once again.

As you can see I have some much needed tutelage to get to a point were I can even start discussing topics with a great many of you. But we all have to start some where!

I hope to keep this journal current as we continue to build his army to at least 1500 points. During that time I will also begin putting paint on my minis.

Again comments are enjoyed and thanks for stopping by.

There are still 4 more squads of 10 as well as 3 heavy support crews and a Leman Russ, which we break open the air compressor and try out the air brush.

 

[DaN]

Not too shabby
Are the guys on the last photo finished?

 

[Undave]

What DaN said. If you can bang out a whole army to that standard you\'ll be well away.

 

[Vampyre69]

Originally posted by DaN
Not too shabby
Are the guys on the last photo finished?

Close. After looking at the picture I can see that there are a few more highlights that need to be added and also a wash on the sergeant\'s face to show the detail more. Then they will get a matte spray sealant and be placed in the box awaiting the rest of their mates.

And who could have an IG army without the feared and respected Commissar!?

But as you can see I am still trying to find the best layers for the guardsmen and would like to get to level of many of the members here by the time my son and I get to the end of his 1500 points. :beer:

 

[krom1415]

Looking good so far, thats more cadians than I\'ve painted all year, well done, if I can assist you in any tips you might need just PM me

 

[Vampyre69]

Here are the 3 that were at 90% now at 100% with decals and matte varnish.

Easily tabletop worthy!

 

[Recoil889]

it seems like you could dilute your highlights with a little more water, or, while the paint is still wet, get a damp brush and pull the highlight down twords the middle, and it will lighten it up and make a more subltle highlight....also..moldlines:flame:

 

[DaN]

Have you seen the amount he has to do??
Mouldlines?? They aren\'t THAT noticable lol

Yeah - for rank and file they look fine
If you ever get \'em finished (I know I wouldn\'t)
Maybe you could pick up on those details.

 

[Vampyre69]

Ok first, mold lines...yes my dread nemisis! But I chose not to point those out to my 10 year old as we put them together. SO the first batch of 20 IG will have mold lines and some serious sprue scarring. But again I wanted him to see what its like to get started. Once he gets more confidence I will show how to use the xacto to remove the mold lines.

And we are doing the ink wash practice tonight after soccer so we should see something different from the next batch as to the 3 that I did for the basis of what they should look like.

I like the idea of using the more water to dilute the highlights even further! I will increase the amount of water even further to get an almost transparent feel to it and see how quickly that dries to build upon it with more layers.

I\'ll try it tonight and post up some quick snaps to see the difference. Its funny how much more you see when you have the macro setting on. I read how some guys use the macro setting but purposelly make their images smaller so you cant see all their flaws. LOL! Its the those flaws that I wanted pointed out! I may not know a flaw from a hole in the wall but Im willing to learn and thats why I decided to become a poster rather than a lurker!

So again thanks for the comments!

 

[Thunderhawker]

Bah - for the ones I actually play with, I don\'t go overboard with mould lines. I clean them up but I don\'t lose my head if there are a few minor ones still there as I paint.

 

[Vampyre69]

Originally posted by Recoil889
it seems like you could dilute your highlights with a little more water, or, while the paint is still wet, get a damp brush and pull the highlight down twords the middle, and it will lighten it up and make a more subltle highlight....also..moldlines:flame:

Well last night I started with a little of what you mentioned and at the same time showed my son the effect I was trying to achieve. I first took some brown ink and watered it down further and applied it to the creases of the khaki uniforms. Then, I gave that some time to dry and then went with the desert khaki and watered it down slightly to get an almost runney mix and hit the raised areas and added some bleached bone to that mix and continued hitting the highest areas. I did the same technique for the camo green and let that sit.

My son was working on getting his base coats on his first 3 of the evening and sadly, I forgot to get some WiP photos. I rectify that this afternoon.

I am happy with the results. The results were subtle but more defining than the last 3 that were completed w/out the extra washing and highlighting. It was a bit more time consuming and for the regular troopies I am not certain this is a step that needs to be applied every time. I dont work for GW and although their minis in all of the photos are painted very well its way too time consuming trying to get picture perfect troopies for gametop activities.

But I do enjoy the challenge! With experience I am sure those steps get easier and quicker?? So could it be possible to have that quailty all the time????

 

[Recoil889]

Well, heres my take, and answer to that as best as i can. You might not agree with me, and since this is for your son, it might work better for your D.A\'s. An army it self(in my opinion) is a show peice. Now, because you have alot to paint, and want them to be table top standard, you might have a formula similar to this:

1.Basecoat all Areas.
2.apply 1st coat.
3.apply Highlights/shadows.
4.Varnish
5.bases?

Simple enough and easy to mass produce them. It would be relativley simple to crank out 10 a night like that.

Now, if you want to acheive a higher standard, with a little more work, like maybe 7, or 8 done in one sitting, you could possibly modify your list like this.

1.Basecoat all Areas.
1a.apply a darker wash over the base coat. helps to define shadows.(not ink though, diluted paint. ink is too shiny imo)
2.apply 1st coat.
2a.Apply your coats in even, watered down paint. Should be a milk like substance. Apply 2 or 3 coats insted of 1 thicker one. This helps to preserve details, and lets the paint look..less \"thick\" if you will.
3.apply Highlights/shadows.
3a. Apply the highlights light like i said before.
4.Varnish
5.bases?

And, one peice of advice i would give you is this: If you plan on keeping them the green/khaki scheme, prime in a lighter color than black. try a white or gray. Its hard to get good coverage with greens and lights like khaki. IMO its the easiest to tell whats primed/not with white. Gray can be confusing.

i hope this can help you somewhat, good luck!

:beer:

 

[Vampyre69]

Excellent suggestions!!!

I picked up some Tamiya (sp?) grey primer tonight and after our black primed IG squads are done we shall move on to the new primer.

Here area few updated WiP shots of whats being going on in the craft area:

The first 2 shots are using some of the said suggestions from above and using a wash to dirty them up a bit and then going back in with a more thinned out lighter color doing a little touch up with several layers. As you can see there is still much to be learned!

For the last photo, the 3 in the red box were all done by the kid and it was really great to see him actually taking the time to get his brushes wet and doing some mixing and also working on his technique. After I showed him the comments here he has become quite the fan of the \"boards\" and is looking forward to your comments. Again he is only 10 and I wont trouble you with all the history of how he wasnt born with any fine motor skills. He has come a long way! Thanks for the look and we will be posting some more tomorrow.

 

[Vampyre69]

Well he has done a little detailing and highlighting! I am happy with his progress but he gets bummed out when he looks at his lines and then looks at mine. I have told him that he is doing so much better than what I did when I first started and that my lines are still way too sloppy!lol

Here are his first 3 with highlights:

And while I was out the other day I went and picked up that gray primer from Tamiya and next door to the Hobby store was a gaming store so I picked up some minis for my son\'s army here is what they look like with the new primer.

I am thinking that I will be priming all of the IG with this stuff! It is next to perfect in coating and covering.

 

[Roger Bunting]

I wish I had a camera to show him my first minis. His are peices of Art compared to mine. I didn\'t shade or highlight, didn\'t base, didn\'t manage to get the paint neatly where it was supposed to. And I was 11 when I started so he has a year on the gae when I began, too. lol

 

[mud duck]

Ain\'t that the truth. Hell, at Ten he\'s doing a better job then me at 30... something, and that with almost 20 years of practice. Tell him that I sez to \"Keep up the good work! And to remember that you can only get better, but better is never as good as you\'d like.\"

 

[DaN]

I got that officer on the far right!
Anyway - yeah, Tamiya primers are very good IMO.