As I’ve written about before I have quite a few tabletop war game miniatures. I’ve also mentioned how I needed a plan, motivation, or some sort of painting group in order to get through all the models I have lying in boxes and cases. Ask the Universe and it gives back they say… Not too long ago two of my friends, independent of each other, started holding group painting sessions! I used one of those opportunities to finish my Battlefleet Gothic Necron fleet and just today I went to another one to start painting my Horde Legion of Everblight models. I’ve been putting off painting these models for well, years now, because they’re mostly flesh and flesh is notoriously difficult to paint. Give me armor any day and I’ll happily slap the paint around. It’s very difficult to mess up painting leather or metal. Flesh though? That’s hard and I was scared. Scared because I don’t know how to paint it and scared because the pros who do make it look so good.
Thankfully my friend is not only an experienced painter but well versed in various flesh painting techniques. I spent six hours today at a table next to him as he guided me through how to add paint flesh that looked vibrant and had depth. Basically, it all comes down to lots of layering and selective use of washes. I added the base layer and two additional layers to all four of them and then concentrated on a single model for the rest of the time in order to learn as much technique as possible; so that in the future I could complete the rest of the models at home. The final model, which took the lion share of time, has nine layers of paint, four washes and used a total of seven different colors in various blends on it. Oh, and it still isn’t complete! The mouth, including teeth, all still needs to be painted, washed, and highlighted. I’m hoping I get faster as I go along.
Once the mouth is painted the only thing left to do would be to paint and flock (fake rocks and grass) the models base and I’ll be done. This wasn’t easy to do and I’m not completely happy with the results my progress throughout the day really improved. I’m hoping by the time I get to the really big models I’ll have the technique down and can turn out a really great looking model. Of course, if I do I’ll tell you about it here.
I think your skills made a big jump yesterday, J. You picked up the idea pretty quickly and developed the skill quite rapidly, particularly for a first stab at a new technique. Each model will go more quickly and look better than the last — I think you conquered that fear pretty solidly.
Thanks! I just need to not wait another six months to a year before I get back to it!
Problem is I forgot to write down what I was doing!