Orange Blood Angels with Vallejo

[Firepower]

Currently I'm trying to guess what sort of wash would be best towards the end.  I think Nuln would be a bit too strong, and look rather poor on such a bright tone.  I don't think red or orange washes would do well enough to get a dark lining into the nooks and crannies like I'll need it to.  Agrax, maybe?

 

Another question, is Lahmian medium just matte medium?  If it is, would a big bottle of Liquitex would do just as well?  It'd certainly last longer and be easier to deal with (again, crappy GW paint pots).  

Edited January 19, 2018 by Firepower

[Arkhanist]

Luther uses gloss nuln oil as his final shading step, but it does intentionally tone the red down some - it can be a bit daygo if you go too heavy on the yellow, or at least it does for me! Black does work better with red IMO, I think brown ends up looking dirty or oily more than shadow. Some people can make green work (due to colour theory) but I'm not one of them.

 

Since you just want to shade the crevices, two options spring to mind;

1) oil pinwash. Oil washes are commonly used for scale tank modelling as they stay open (i.e. wet and workable) far longer. You do a gloss varnish coat first to protect the paint and provide a smooth surface for the wash. Then you touch an oil wash dipped brush to a seam, and it wicks into the join. If any overflows, you can just wipe it off with a makeup sponge or q-tip, it's far more forgiving. 

 

2) flory models clay wash (or alternative clay wash). This is water based. Unlike acrylics, when it dries, it reactivates with water again every time. So you slop it on, then literally wipe it off with a wet paper towel and it only remains in the crevices. A varnish coat first helps as it can stick a little bit to a matt paint and require a bit more rubbing; with a gloss coat it slides right off. If you leave more on, it looks more like weathering, with a nice effect; and you can repeat if you take too much off. Satin varnish pre-coat works nicely if you want a mix of shading and a bit of weathering.

 

Lahmian medium is more than just matt medium, I'm pretty sure there's some flow aid in it and it's more watery than usual artist matt medium. It also dries semi-matt, rather like paint natural sheen, than a flat matte. But other than that, pretty similar You could replace with a semi-satin varnish or medium for a similar effect I think, or just use matte medium/varnish for a flatter finish if you prefer.

Edited January 20, 2018 by Arkhanist

[Firepower]

From experience, I can confidently say that just lining with wash is outside of my skill set....or patience.

 

Considering the paint job is almost entirely done with airbrush gradients, meaning it'll look wonky to make corrections to fatter-than-intended crevice lining using a paint brush, I'd prefer just an all-over wash if it can get the job done well.  

 

I have no idea what "daygo" means, but I presume it's not good   So the brighter the color, the worse black wash will look?  Because that's sorta my guess.  And speaking of yellow, if I go completely old school, aquillas and such are yellow-orange, rather than black or metallic.  I'm not sure which approach I'd take there, yet, but it would be something to factor into an all-over wash formula.

 

Green would be interesting.  I did some 'color theory work' like that on Grimaldus' gold chains a while back, using greens and purples on the gold.  It was tedious as all hell, really.  I don't think I'd wanna try that on an entire model.

Edited January 20, 2018 by Firepower

[Arkhanist]

Sorry, typo there - meant dayglo. aka lots of bright glowing red I ended up with when I first tried Luther's method, which isn't the intended result! Neonmole is using a close version of Luther's scheme, and you can see how it looks pre-nuln oil wash with fairly bright highlights. Gloss nuln oil filters down the whole model some as well as shading, so it reduces that effect to the intended more grimdark style - you can see the final effect on the previous page of that thread.

 

In your case, a whole model dark wash I think would tone down the bright red-orange you're trying to achieve too much - only shading the crevices would work better. Red glazing etc would intensify the reds and smooth blending still further, but not give you much contrast shading.

 

Oil pinwashes are WAY easier to achieve than with acrylic by the way. I was amazed when I first tried it how much easier it is, and it's ideal for airbrushed models precisely because you don't want to have to try and touch up with paint after. With oils, you literally wipe any mistakes away, it takes ages to dry. Don't give up on pinwashing til you've tried oils, it turned it from a waste of time to a very useable technique for me, and my hands are not particularly steady now I'm old and past it. It's just a bit time consuming.

 

Alternatively, just build up the contrast with your pre-shading step, and skip a shading wash altogether. Didn't used to do em in the old days (cos the acrylic inks were god-awful). Just use a glaze to intensify colour and soften edge highlights if needed.

Edited January 20, 2018 by Arkhanist

[Firepower]

I used oil wash on my Broken Arrows project (link in my sig).  My experience was greatly different from how most sell the technique.  The oil paints were insufferably reluctant to stay mixed with the spirits on the palette (every damn time I had to reload the brush), and they dried on the model rather quickly.  By the time I finished re-stirring the mix on the palette, whatever I just painted on to the model was either dried, or were still liquid but already permanently stained the paint underneath. 

 

It worked out in the end, but I had to abandon the precision of pinwashing for just an all over coat of the stuff with what little I could do to wipe away the thicker spots from flat surfaces like the shoulders.  So basically I was left with a grainy looking Nuln Oil, now that I think about it.

 

And from a practicality stand point, the precision of pinwashing takes a painfully long time compared to a full coat of wash

Edited January 20, 2018 by Firepower

[Arkhanist]

I usually take a pre-mixed oil weathering wash, and then just thin it further with odourless thinner as needed, I've not tried mixing it from oil paint. But it's not for you, that's fair enough.

 

Clay wash and wipe? The only downside is flory models are UK based so shipping would be a bugger I guess, unless there's a US equivalent?

 

Go to about 9:15 to see it in action.

 

Edited January 20, 2018 by Arkhanist

[Firepower]

What pre-mixed oil washes do you use?  I only ever saw tutorials of DIY, on the spot washes.

[Major_Gilbear]

You could also try using Citadel Carroburg Crimson, or Army Painter Red Wash - both of these are a crimson/maroon colour, and provide nice deep "red" shading.

 

Okay, it's outside the original colour scheme (where basically the shade was a flat red achieved with ink washes), but it would do what you want and not dull down the colours too much.

 

I would apply these washes before the last few highlight steps - not only does this allow you to clean up any bits where the wash shouldn't be, it also allows you to judge the final tonal gradient better as you build up the highlights.

 

I have some Bloodletters painted in basically this scheme (although I also added a little purple to some of the deepest recesses) - if it stops raining today, I'll snap a pic and show you. :)

[barjed]

 

Hopefully barjed will let you into the secret of how he's doing his primaris, was about to suggest you ask when I saw you already had!

 

Hopefully I won't have to sacrifice too many virgins or chickens to beseech this latest God of Orange.  Chickens are expensive.

 

 

I am thou and thou art I. I have heard thy cry. Or something like that :P Anyway, I am happy to share my tiny bit of knowledge.

 

It is not possible to paint very bright red highlights on red without some form of a preshading. You can do it in many ways. You could do it like Luther does it by using a zenithal priming pre-shading, where you first apply a dark color (black or blue) and then apply a white/yellow over that from the top. Then you spray the whole model with red. This is good for a deeper red, where the preshading mostly emphasies the shadows.

 

I do it in a slightly different way. I usually start from a regular red and then I apply extreme highlights to it, all up to a warm off-white. This gives you a very garish miniature straight after airbrushing but it's not a problem because of the two next steps. First I wash the miniature and I do it all-over with the biggest brush I can find. I dilute the wash 1:1 with Lahmian Medium and a tiny drop of Glaze Medium and I also varnish the model gloss first. This reduces the surface tension so much that you can avoid any pooling completely and you get a very clean, shaded power armor without having to resort to oil washes (I hate oil washes).

 

The final step is to apply a red glaze to the whole miniature using an airbrush. You can do it once, twice or more. Each pass will push the oranges into reds and whites into oranges, giving you great control over the overall color of the mini. Unlike pre-shading, where you are mostly stuck with the shade of red you got. I find it to be a huge boon. Glazing also kills any shine from the gloss varnish and gets rid of any dusty airbrush paint you might have on your marine.

 

Here's the exact recipe for my Orange Blood Angels.

 

1. Prime Vallejo Pure Red (from the polyurethane primer range).

2. Airbrush the first highlight of Trollslayer Orange Air. Do it liberally, go nuts, just avoid the deepest parts of the mini.

3. Airbrush the second highlight of Ungor Flesh. Be more selective. Don't overdo it. For Primaris I aim for the chest, face, shoulders and sometimes feet.

4. Apply a gloss varnish with an airbrush.

5. Wash all-over with Agrax Earthshade diluted 1:1 with Lahmian Medium and a drop of Vallejo Glaze Medium.

6. Airbrush 1-3 thin coats of Bloodletter Glaze.

7. Edge highlight with a brush using Ungor Flesh.

 

It sounds complicated but it can be done really fast. In fact, I have just finished the airbrush part of painting on my Aggressors and it took around 3 hours to do 6 in this way.

[Firepower]

I've never done a wash through an airbrush, actually. Is it as simple as really, really thinning it down? Times that I've done that accidentally just ended with ugly wet mess that wouldnt adhere in solid coats to anything. It just kinda...sputters.

Is there a medium to add in the airbrush beyond thinner?

And I'll have to figure out what colors in Vallejo match that recipe Dunno how you stand airbrushing with GW pots.

 

Edit: By the by, do you ever seal the gloss back to a matte or satin?  And at what point do you apply the decals?  If I remember correctly, micro sol and micro set are best used on a gloss surface...

Edited January 21, 2018 by Firepower