I have a couple of minis that need to be ghostly (including Slimer.) I've been trying to find a good written or video guide, but not with a lot of luck.
I've found a few, but the issues are:
- they assume you're using Citadel/GW paints, and refer to them only by name. That's tricky because I need to look up each and every one of them and hope I can color-match them to my craft paints. It's impossible when it's some very specific "Slaanesh Nostril Interior Pink Glaze" type of glaze or ink; or
- they require an airbrush; or
- they just amount to "oil-stain it green and drybrush it white and call it a ghost!"
I've done the last one. It's not bad, but it's not ghostly. And ghosts-are-green seems to be a thing, ever since the LOTR movies, but I'm actually angling for grey or blue if possible. I'll go green if necessary but I'd like options so they don't all look like Slimer.
Does anyone have a suggestion, especially one that doesn't require me to have an airbrush and a complete collection of GW paints? Worse comes to worst I'm just going to brush up from blue to grey to white and slap on some Ral Partha Will-O-Wisp glow-in-the-dark paint, but I am hoping for options beyond that.
I don't paint minis but I do paint, and one thing you might try is simulating an internal light source by painting the crevices with a light, saturated color and accentuating the base with the same paint on the highlights. That's an inversion of the normal ambient occlusion shadow that we use to perceive an opaque object's form. Another similar idea would be to paint the undersides of the figures with a likewise otherworldly light source, with dark fake form shadow on the top-facing surfaces carefully blended to invert whatever top-down lighting you excpect to look at the figures under.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I don't know what I'm talking about but some things you might experiment with. Good luck!
-joel sammallahti (diceandlives)
That's helpful, actually. I'm not sure I can do it, but it helps me understand.
DeleteMost of my painting has been learned by copying and by rote - I don't have any real understanding of the theory and techniques underlying it. So an explanation like that helps me get some of that.
http://www.beastsofwar.com/games-workshop-painting-tutorial/simple-effective-paint-scheme/
ReplyDeletethat might help
That's one of the ones I read before I got frustrated and posted this. It's simple-but-effective if I want green ghosts and have the GW paints and tints they mention. Color-matching them to what I actually have is really hard.
DeleteAside from Unknowns tips on "inverse" frybushing (instead of dark to light, go light to dark) and reversing the shadows (paint the under side brighter) I'd other this strikingly obvious one:
ReplyDeleteJust oil-stain it blue and dry brush it white and call it a ghost.
:P
Honestly I've done that with some red ghosts (I like red for "hellish" or "angry" ghosts, blue for "serene" or peaceful) and then doing the inverse dry brushing and it works pretty well.
My concern with blue and then brushed white is that's very similar to how I do ice. But yeah, I might just have to try something of that sort.
DeleteWorse comes to worst, I might do black primer, heavy brush of dark blue, and then brush up blue and grey and a final light drybrush with white and see how that does. It might be more smokey than ghostly, but that may do.
Something else i do, but this moves out of "painting" and clearly into "modifying the miniature*"... but...
DeleteI like to cut the feet/legs off and remake them into the "pointed toe/dwindling legs" you sometimes see on movie ghosts and then mount the fig using a clear post. Often raising a bit to emphasize that it's floating.
That is if the mini isn't already like that.
* My other passion (aside from painting) is modifying. Which is what drew me into tactical miniatures gaming, which is an all consuming thing. Time, money, everything, it just sucks it all away.
Heh. They don't have feet, so it's not an issue. :)
DeleteI'm assuming these aren't translucent miniatures, right?
ReplyDeleteThe tutorial Chris pointed to doesn't actually require color matching. It roughly translates to:
Prime the miniature with white on top going darker lower down. Without an airbrush, you might prime black and dry brush a single stroke of white, top-to-bottom, on each side.
Use whatever main color you want, dilute the paint a lot and put some everywhere. You could even do a dunk here. The important bit is that the light-to-dark shading will show through. You're trying to have their feet fade out, basically.
Dry brush white. Sorry about this one, I think all tutorials will have this step.
The last bit is just finishing, do whatever you think works well for eyes. I like gold paint applied with pointed toothpicks myself.
As a personal addition, maybe paint the base lighter than the feet to accentuate the effect.
Note that this isn't me speaking from experience, this is just me attempting to "translate" the tutorial to get away from numbered paints and airbrush techniques.
They are metal.
DeleteThe problem with the guide is that I have no idea what colors to use. I think I've got a handle now on how to layer the colors - just not colors to use. That's where color matching is what I'm after.
This paint equivalencies guide may help, Peter (compliments of Bill "DungeonDelver" Silvey who mentioned it over on the Knights & Knaves Alehouse forums recently): http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart
ReplyDeleteIIRC one or more of my old painting guides or booklets had some suggestions for ghostly minis (I'm thinking it was from Grenadier, but it may have been in one of the random How To Paint Minis booklets I'd picked up years ago too). Will see if I can dig it up.
Allan.
No love: I looked in the three Grenadier Action Art set booklets (which is where I thought the suggestions would be located), as well as in my Floquil and Morningstar minis painting guides, but nothing.
ReplyDeleteThe suggestion as I recall it was to paint in reverse: to place lighter colors lower/deeper in the figure, and to then paint darker colors over them. But again, I can't find the reference to validate it further, sorry.
Hmmm: perhaps it was in one of the Dragon magazines in the 60s....
Allan.
No love there either. If it pops into my head, I'll let you know .....allan.
DeleteNothing in the Heritage LOTR Painting Guide either ....allan.
DeleteThanks for the conversion chart, and thanks for looking!
DeleteI also found this, which sounds tricky but doable (and lists the colors in generic terms, which helps me immensely):
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/617098.page;jsessionid=2B1633F8E5E20D1205B8A56EEE008133#7242379
De nada! I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, but did find this guidance for painting a shoggoth in the Grenadier Cthulhu creatures boxed set insert (the painting color codes are for Polly S Colors):
Delete"To capture the iridescent quality of this black ugliness, paint a base color of black (PF 15) then dry brush the entire figure dark green (1445). Next dry brush lightly with shades of red (1462), blue (1431), and light green (1443) at random. The eye areas are yellow (1456) with a thin wash of red (1462), with black (1419) pupils."
Still no mention of a ghost, though, but perhaps it was in another of their sets ....allan
Wow, I don't how ghostly that'll look, but it sounds pretty awesome. I'll make something that color for sure!
DeleteDo they have glow-in-the-dark paints? Because my favorite ghost mini ever was the old style LEGO Ghost minifigure.
ReplyDeleteSure, you can find it pretty easily in craft stores. I have some old Ral Partha paint. It's an overcoat, and I've used it to good effect on a few minis. Dab it on the eyes for your Cujo minis.
Delete