Right. I know the minis still need work. I know the highlights are awful. I know the lighting is poor and there is some dust to blow off. But do you know what? I am quite pleased. From a distance (arms length) they look a whole better than they did 20 years ago!
Right. So I like the thick dirty wash I gave them... gives them a nice dull overall look. Was very tempted to leave them there. But this time I tried a few (very dodgy) edge highlights. I am not looking for a Golden Demon finish, I just want something that is not too sore on the eyes from a few feet away.
I know the photos are washed out, still experimenting with everything, but they have to look a bit better than the originals from 20 years ago.
My aim now is to add a few highlights, a few more of the washed down base colours to tone some of those highlights down, then maybe varnish them (which I have NEVER done before... I was going to use Vallejo Polyurethane Satin). Then take them off their slotta bases and start to try and fit them on the finished scenic bases.
This is all just me easing back into things and slowly, one tiny step at a time, improving my technique. All comments welcomes, especially those that point out where I can improve!
Right... so I think I am at the stage where the base colours are reasonably neat and ready to go, along with a fair few spot colours.
They will be getting a liberal coating of the sepia wash from Vallejo (from their large dipping pot but brushed on) and I will see how they dry tomorrow before I do the rest of them (the heavy still has a backpack to finish off as well).
Then I will have a look at maybe doing some edge highlighting and a few other touch ups to finish them off. Then the main bit that worries me, getting them off that base and slotta bit to go onto the already painted scenic bases I have done.
So this time round with the repaint I am aiming to have them a little neater (hey... I still cannot paint to save my life but I can do a better job than I did before). I am intending to have more than just a few main block of colours.
I am looking to bring out some of the detail of the models with multiple tiny little spot colours. They will be getting a very liberal sepia wash which may well cover up a lot of what I am messing about with but hopefully something will still show through.
So the aim is to tidy up the main colours. Then give it a good old wash. Then do some edge highlighting and see how they look then.
Along the way I need to attend to the bases as well. The Ratskins and Scum I undercoated at the same time will be painted up in a different batch as they will be using quite different colour sets.
Whilst tidying up my model cupboard I also found a lot of Junker I-Kore (I think that is what they are) which have sparked the interest of following through the Necromunda theme with a massive load of Enforcers!
Once the flesh colour has dried I like to give it a good drenching in Flesh Wash. I am still using an ancient bottle of GW Flesh Wash.
Once this is dried I like to start to build up the main colours. I normally paint in large batches. This time round I have around 15 gangers and about 10 ratskins/scum/bounty hunters etc on the go. I normally just choose a colour that takes my fancy from the paint box, measure out some on my palette (I use Vallejo mainly with the dropper bottles), add a drop of water and go to town.
With the repainting of this gang, instead of having them all in a 'uniform', I want them to be more realistically dressed. I would prefer them this time to have some unifying colours (I have gone for various shades of blue) but still have a good deal of variation in themselves. I think I want them more like they dressed themselves in whatever they had to hand rather than have some uniform dress handed out from the central gang store. They still have the same colour tabard hanging down but this time I do not want all their scarves to be the same colour.
I am also going for something a bit different with the weapons. I have several hundred Imperial Guard with red lasguns. This time I want the gang to be more varied but I want the best weapons to be a dark green. I can imagine these were 'borrowed' from some PDF or IG store somewhere.
I am also going to have many tiny spot covers in tiny different parts of the detail. A lot of this might be obscured in the heavy sepia wash later on but I want there to be some variety in the colours in play here.
My painting skills are very limited and I am still learning. I think rather than blending really well I will stick with various colours, heavy wash, edge highlighting and then go from there.
