Painting Skaven: Ikit Klaw

[athelu]

My local games workshop is having a painting contest, where you must paint one of the new models before the month's end. I picked up most of the second wave models, but have decided to paint ikit klaw for the contest. Not sure if he is actually going to make it into my skaven list, but if anything he will be a really cool warplock engineer.

Based on some recent painting articles I have been reading, I have taken the following steps:

1. Clean the metal model in soapy water.
2. Scrub the model with a toothbrush or brass brush until it shines.
Both of the above steps are apparently necessary to remove the mold release on the model. The articles claim that the reason painted metal models chip and flake so much is that model prep is never done correctly. I figured it was worth a shot.
3. Prime the model white.
Many of the articles I have recently read suggest ALWAYS using white primer. 1 argument is that it will not de-saturate the colors applied. 2 is that it enhances the detail of the model, allowing you to see what needs to be painted. I can actually believe #2.
4. Take pictures of the now primed model with the zenithal light source (overhead). Convert these images to Greyscale and print/save for reference. This is to give you a exact picture of how the shadows are created on your model based upon your light source.

Here are the pics:









I thought perhaps some other people could benefit from the Grey scale images.
Tonight I will start actually painting him, and will keep this blog rolling.

[MagickalMemories]

That is a very CREEPY looking model. Seriously.
I look forward to watching your progress.

Eric

[HarlequinZero]

I'm stealing this grey scale trick for when I paint characters. It's pretty neat.

Oh, and I mostly agree about the priming philosophy except I use light grey primer. I think white has coverage issues that requires more coats to clean up. Grey let's me get the paint down faster w/o obscuring details. I DO use black primer, but only when the model is going to be over half black when painted or I want the colors to be darker.

[Norseman]

I do a different and lazier trick, to crate the same effect

I prime black and then hit the model with a very light one directional white spray. this gives you white only on the high bits and creates a lighter color when you paint over it with most colors. When dealing with a color that is very opaque I just prime the color most of the model will be then give a spray of a lightened color in the same unidirectional way to create a highlight on the top and high portions.

I cant find my camera or I would include some examples.

[MagickalMemories]

I'm stealing this grey scale trick for when I paint characters. It's pretty neat.

Oh, and I mostly agree about the priming philosophy except I use light grey primer. I think white has coverage issues that requires more coats to clean up. Grey let's me get the paint down faster w/o obscuring details. I DO use black primer, but only when the model is going to be over half black when painted or I want the colors to be darker.

FWIW, guys, my project of the day was to clean and prime over 120 Dragonforge bases for my Dark Eldar army and a ForgeWorld Mega Dread which was as close to fully assembled as it's going to get before painting - lots of intricate places on THAT one (I'm in banking - had the day off LOL).
I recently picked up a new spray primer for this very purpose. Got it at AutoZone (or one of those "Auto" places). it's Rustoleum Clean metal Primer (I also have their plastic primer, but haven't tried it).
I can't begin to tell you how phenomenal it was for me.
One coat coverage! Just a few passes, and I'm set.

Nothing needs any sort of touch-ups or anything. Even the intricate little "gubbins" of the Mega Dread.
I cannot tell you how happy I am with this primer. If you're having issues, you should give it a try, if you can get it.


Eric

[HarlequinZero]

Actually, I wasn't griping about primer coverage, I was griping about paint coverage OVER white primer. Grey primer makes that a non-issue for me.

[athelu]

I always worry about using a lacquer or enamel primer since they are so much thicker; i would hate to lose detail. but the automotive primers have a lot more "tooth" than any hobby primer, that is for sure.

Sorry for no updates. I will take some pics tonight (have the base colors on him now).

[MagickalMemories]

Actually, I wasn't griping about primer coverage, I was griping about paint coverage OVER white primer. Grey primer makes that a non-issue for me.

My bad.
When you were referring to coverage and needing multiple coats, you were echoing the issues I've experienced with most white primers (when priming).
The worst for my has always been black primer, followed by gray. White, then brown (auto) primer have always been my best & asecond best.


@ athelu

Sorry for the slight distraction.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how you progress on this beast.

Eric

[athelu]

(Using clickable thubnmails this time to keept things from getting out of hand with the pictures)
I started (like everyone else) with getting all of the base colors on the model. Here is what I have done:
Silver/Steel :Based with chaos black
Gold/Bronze: Based with a 3:1 mix of shining gold:bestial brown
Robe: Based with astronomicon grey
Leather: Based with Scorched Brown
Fur: Based with Scorched Brown
misc: Based with Scorched Brown

[athelu]

I decided to star with the robe. My rationale was that it is pretty much one piece and in tight enough to the model that subsuquent handling should not mess up the work. Using the B&W pics for shadow reference I started in with the first shadow. The first shadow was as follows:

5:1:1 Water:P3 Exile Blue:GW Hardcoat

I put this on as a glaze. the 5:1 ratio is pretty standard, and the addition of the hardcoat helps with the paint flow, and is to reduce rings/pools of color.




My intention is to build the shadow in a more green/grey than black or brown. This is because I plan to freehand either green flames or triangles on the base of the robe when done and I want the palette to be similar.

[athelu]

DANG & BLAST but the pictures of the second shadow were completely botched. Not a one turned out clear (darn new camera). I started on the first highlight already, so will not have good shots of this step, but I can at least summarize what was done. The second shadow was mixed similar to the first with the following:

5:1:1 Water:P3 Coal Black:GW Hardcoat

This was applied to the deepest recesses of the model and folds of the cloth. You want to leave some of the 1st shadow still visible at the edges. As far as the glazes go too, you do NOT want to see results after the first application of the paint. If you do, then the glaze is too strong. It should take multiple passes for the color to realize.

[Norseman]

Here are some pics of the spray effect I do to get a similar effect as you described.

[athelu]

If you were going to use washes for the base coloration, this pre-shadeing would be nice.

[athelu]

Next step was the highlighting of the robes. Needed to get back to the base color, so I applied thinned down astronomicon Grey to all the high points:

[athelu]

Then the second Highlight was applied. This was a glaze of skull white, just on the highest points:


I then moved on to the armor. My plan is for him to be wearing black metal armor, with most likely some weathering. I started by applying codex grey to all of the armor plates:


After that Dried, I used a wash of chaos black in the armor joints and around the rivtes and details.


I applied the first highlight, which was codex grey again, defining the edges of the plates and the rivets (darn camera):


The second highlight was a 1:1 mix of codex grey:skull white applied to the edges and rivet tops.


I then did two washes of badab black over all of the armor to blend the previous steps together. I then decided to paint the raised armor details:


I used Vallejo Air color gold. I really like the airbrush metallic paints, because the mettallic is so fine. I find the GW metallics to be very thick, and do not thin down well at all. The vallejo air color needs no mixing, just paint it straight out of the bottle. Takes a little longer to dry than the standard acrylics when used this way, but I like the nice bright color.

Next I am going to blast the model with some testors dullcote, to seal up all the work so far, and to change the surface of the robes back to a matte finish.