Gaaah! my painting sucks

GreenDragonInn · **Joined:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:43 am **Posts:** 56

aside from the MoM box set I've been painting a WoMT box and they suck!
It's really frustrating having to recoat them damn figures, each time the figure getting thicker!

Ive painted about 10 of them that look alright but between them they look different. One is highlighted different to this one etc...

My brushes fail at brushing to, 90% of them have Chainmail stained on them and there are bristles flying everywhere!I have a captain and banner bearer and 3 citadel guard that I dont wanna paint as I dont wanna ruin them.
And my paint is running out! 12 or so warriors of MT and half the chainmail pot is gone...GW is so expensive. It would be ok if they pots were 3-4 dollars but they're 6 dollars AUD each!

Anyone els have this nooby problem, as in, they're figures sucked badly when you first started?

Angularity · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 157

I think we've all gone through this. I don't currently use the GW paints, I use the Humbrol enamels I practised with 30 years ago, but the advantage of the water-based GW products is that they don't smell and irritate my loving wife. However, achieving a reasonable standard is still hard work, and needs a lot of practice. I'm used to mixing the colours I want, so the recipes I read here ("add 2 parts snot green to 1 part elf flesh...") don't mean anything to me; if I want a slightly lighter green, I've practiced enough to know how to achieve it.

The figures I painted last month are better than the ones I did a year ago, and I think the ones I do next year will be better still. I won't ever be entering competitions, because life's too short for me to get that good.

My advice? Buy the best brushes you can afford, experiment with other paints, and practice on some metal figures, as you can always dip them in solvent and get rid of your abysmal first efforts. Mostly though, just keep practicing. Do you think Shane Warne didn't get clattered for 4 every other ball when he started out? He got the hang of it eventually...

GreenDragonInn · **Joined:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:43 am **Posts:** 56

thats true, after posting this I realise I was just having a whinge

Anyways, ill finish painting my WoMT and have a go at the metal figures. I want to collect some rohan next I think...

theskinnyhobbit · **Joined:** Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:36 pm **Posts:** 57

I think that we all were at your stage or worse when we began. One of the most common mistakes that beginners make is to apply too much paint. If you ran through a half a pot of chainmail on 12 men then you are using too much. Always mix your paint with water. A 1 to 1 ratio is approximately right. It should end up the consistency of melted butter. Once you dip your brush in the paint, make sure that you wipe the excess paint off on the palette, so that you do not put loads of paint on your model.

A simple way to paint gondor armor is to prime your figures black and then drybrush them boltgun metal. Another simple method is to prime black, overbrush boltgun metal and then wash the armor with devlan mud or badab black. (If you are not familiar with drybrushing or overbrushing try a google search and you should find tutorials.)

I second the motion to purchase high quality brushes (although they are not needed for drybrushing or overbrushing). They can last a long time so long as you rinse them out every few minutes while you are painting. Also do not mash up the point by leaving it tip down in the water.

GreenDragonInn · **Joined:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:43 am **Posts:** 56

Thanks, ill have to get better brushes.

Im just a bit frustrated as how my painting sucks, but GW is expensive, you need to paint minitures to get good at painting, but the minitures themselves are really really expensive!

TheEggman · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:08 pm

IF you want to strip the paint off your Devlan Mud figures, it's really easy. Put them in a plastic ziploc bag, then spray oven cleaner on them. Close the bag, leave them for a few hours. Now scrub them with soap, water and a toothbrush. The paint just flakes off! :yay:

Don't worry about your painting. I have probably painted about 125 GW figures, and 30 1/35 scale figures, and only about the second half are at all decent. :roll:

whafrog · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:35 pm

If your brushes are coated with paint and bristles are flying everywhere, sounds like you're not rinsing enough, which is at least half of what makes painting such a painstaking process.

First, don't paint from the pot. I use the back end of the brush to dip into the pot and drop onto the palette. Then I wipe off the back of the brush and dip it into clean water, adding a drop or two (or three...) to the palette. Mix well with an old brush, and start painting.

When you dip the brush into the paint, just get paint on the tip. If it's a blob on the tip, it's too thick. Water it down until the brush gets loaded, but you can still see the top layer of bristles. I usually paint several figures at a time, so if you have a lot of paint in the palette you might have to water it down again. For most colours except the Foundation colours, this watering down means you'll usually need two or more coats of the same colour. But it'll look way better in the end.

You have to rinse the brush every few strokes, or at least every two or three dips into the palette. This seems tedious, but the paint climbs up the bristles and works its way to the root, and once it's there it tends to stay, and your bristles start to spread.

Hope that helps...

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:30 pm

A few pictures will help in pointing you the right way, though the advice listed is sound.
I've kept the first ones I did eight years ago and I have progressed no end since then and I do not spend a lot of time painting, my life is too busy.
So if I can get my standard to a reasonable level, I'm sure you can

Good luck

garmenhord · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:57 pm

Start with the moria goblins. After a few of those you will notice you will get better. My first gobs were pretty bad but the last ones were improving enormously. Or at least if you put the old ones next to them. I have started almost a year ago. And my painting has improved. I got the mines of moria box painted. I think after the moria box you might find out that painting is not that bad.

GreenDragonInn · **Joined:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:43 am **Posts:** 56

Thanks guys for all the help guys!
It's been well taken.

Ill keep practising and improving!

CreatureFear · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:09 am

What I say probably echoes pervious comments (which I didn't read all of).

If your models are losing details and your brushes getting ruined its likely that you're using too much paint and not using any water - which should protect your brushes (they likely have paint drying on them, etc). Using a palette (even your hand, that's what I do) should alleviate much of this - as you can thin the paint out (with or without water) before you apply it to the minis. Half a pot on WoMT shouldn't ever happen - I've used Chainmail on all of my figures, this got me through the armor of 2 boxes of orcs, 3 boxes of warg riders, one box of Uruk Scouts, one box of Morannons, one box of Galadhrim, a Mordor Troll and a Winged Nazgul (which, yes, didn't have many metal areas) but I think the example stands - and I still have about 25% of the pot left. I think you've been using far too much paint - fix this and use a palette, even if it's your hand and you should be fine. The rest falls into getting used to painting minis in the first place - and you'll only get better and better as you go along

Hope I helped.

GreenDragonInn · **Joined:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:43 am **Posts:** 56

thanks Creature Fear.

I do have a pallete but the damage was done

Im sick of chainmail, im going to finish of my gondorians (what little I have) then move onto a different army for now. Im thinking on a box of the last alliance or rohan army.

Id go for armoured wood elves but they seem really hard to paint.

Tobold Hornblower · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:19 pm

Don't be so hard on yourself. I know it is easy to say, much harder to do.

When I started out in this hobby, it seemed I couldn't get anything right. I eventually got to be satisfied with some of my efforts, if only for a brief moment, before I allowed my desire for perfection to ruin it for me.

I have not painted any Lord of the Rings miniatures since. I have painted the odd board game figure/component (such as for Fury of Dracula, Runebound, Battlestar Galactica and The Adventurers), but that's it.

Recently, I have been crazy enough to prime one of the figures from Space Hulk (3rd Edition). Now I am faced with painting it and, if I do, I will want to tackle the rest. I am not relishing it.

Anyway, I digress. I wouldn't want you to end up spoiling the fun for yourself, as I have. Painting the figures should be enjoyable and rewarding. I can still recall the excitement of noticing that my painting was improving.

And may I say, I envy you living in Melbourne. I have permanent residence for Australia and hope to make Melbourne my home sometime next year. What a wonderful city.

All the best.

theavenger001 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:44 pm

Tobold! Glad to see you back.

I think everyone has summed it up pretty well. When I started my figures were pretty bad, but now with two years practice under my belt I'm getting better and bettter.

GreenDragonInn · **Joined:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:43 am **Posts:** 56

Tobold Hornblower wrote:

And may I say, I envy you living in Melbourne. I have permanent residence for Australia and hope to make Melbourne my home sometime next year. What a wonderful city.

All the best.

It's a pretty good place, though I dont actually live in the city but the suburbs.
Australia as a country is pretty good IMO, though im obviously very biased.

Gaaah! my painting sucks

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