I wanted to give a quick test run to my bones and craft paints.
I realized you can barely see any mold lines on the rats from the Dungeon Attack set that came with my bones, so I decided to paint them up. This saved me a lot of prep time, and meant I wasn't terribly invested in the minis, either. They're rats, for goodness' sake. If I give them a good base color and then glaze them with Army Painter Quickshade, I'm done.
The hydrophobic nature of the bones repelled my (fairly thin) Apple Barrel Colors Black paint.
But it took my Apple Barrel Colors Pewter Grey very easily.
Since I mostly paint over grey or black primer anyway, I decided to color the minis grey.
Admission time: I never thin my paints. I paint straight out of the bottle cap after a quick shake, and I only thin for washes or if the paint gets too thick from age or heat. Otherwise, I don't care to thin them. So painting the bones with "straight" paint was normal for me.
All-in-all, it worked well. It took 2-3 attempts to get everywhere, mostly because I worked quickly and didn't always check my work to ensure I got everywhere.
I also wanted to try out bending the mini to get at nooks and crannies - it worked. The Bones bend and then go right back to their original pose. Nice.
The ABC paints didn't flake off when I flexed them, either, which makes me happy. "Dump them in a bag" is easier for transport than "put the in individual nooks in my transport cases."
Next up is some brown (with the grey giving a base to color the brown and give it something to stick to) or darker grey ('cuz I like grey rats) and then once that dries they get glazed and then sealed. I took some pictures, but I'll post them once I've gotten through the lot.
I'm enjoying this so far, and I've gotten most of the way through my preliminary trade pile. I just need to check my non-dupes to see what else I don't care to own.
I don't thin my paints either, unless I'm doing a lot of cloth such as a wizard's robe. I painted straight out of the bottle and it mostly worked. I did have a bit of hydrophobic behavior, which was weird but easy enough to get around with persistence.
ReplyDeleteAre you planning on drybrushing the rats? I didn't look at them very much since I already have a dozen painted metal rats, but I vaguely remember that their fur isn't very detailed.
PS - Looking forward to the pictures when you get to that point.
DeleteI will drybrush or directly highlight their tails, ears, noses, etc. once they've been quickshaded. That seems to work pretty well, even when they are pretty weak on raised detail. I pick out the detail I can see and touch it lightly with the original shade or a shade lighter, maybe a tiny bit of white or light grey, and that's enough to make the details stand out a bit further away on the table.
DeleteWe just got our box on Friday, we're waiting on our big shipment of bases and then going to dive hin.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear about how painting directly on them turns out - all I could find was hard-core painters who went ahead and primed them regardless. I'm NOT that kind of stickler for detail - I bought in because they're cheap plastics for hordes of hordes, not cheap minis that happen to be plastics. And GIANTS zomg.
I'd actually be happy to prime them, as I know what primer goes with what color. But I don't feel like finding out the hard way my primers will end up tacky, flaky, or peel off later. I expect to burn through a lot of "Pewter Grey" getting my minis ready. :)
DeleteI didn't prime either of the giants and they've taken a brick red and a flesh tone just fine so far. I might post some before and after pictures on the first attempt at drybrushing them.
DeleteI'm sure it will work - it's working so far. But I don't want to put a Bones figure painted, say, Troll Flesh Green (what I use for my orcs) next to a metal figure painted Troll Flesh Green over black primer. I'd be surprised if they ended up the same skin tone. That's also why I've been painting my test minis grey - it's nearly the same hue as my primer, so they should match the previous minis of the same type of figure that I have already.
DeleteBase-coating for consistency makes sense, if your other figures are fairly consistent in their colors.
DeleteI'm not as much for consistency, since my collection has been painted over literally 20 years, with different paints, primers, brushes, techniques, patience, and skill. The rats and wolves already don't look particularly alike, so if I add in some more rats that look different, it's not a big deal.
I just prefer the consistency. Especially when I've gone to a lot of trouble to make them the same - if the 2-3 new lizardmen I have look nothing like the 25 or so I painted a year ago, it's annoying and I know I'll always pick them last to use.
DeleteAlso I'm terrible at colors, so if I find a good scheme I'll write it down and then use it again. It bothers me if I do all that work and then it comes out differently because the underlying layers aren't the same. Defeats the purpose of all that note taking.