Glazing - need some advice

[darknesseternal]

Many, many moons ago I posted some pics of my army so far with the disclaimer that I'm not much of a painter. At the time, I got some good feedback, and one of the constructive comments that came up more than once was that my characters were a little flat and lacked detail/distinction. For a couple of examples...

and

Sorry about the quality of the pics, but you can see enough to see that indeed, they are a bit flat.

One of the things that was suggested to me at the time, was apply a thinned out glaze to help bring out some of the details a bit more.

So I would like to get some advice on glazing. What is it, how do you do it, how does it work etc.

A few things that I should mention is the models are pretty much in a finished state, I just would like to bring some more (un)life and detail to them. But I don't want to have to repaint them all over again. Also, what they have on them now for their skin is just elf flesh, with a rotting flesh dry brush over the top. In 6th ed I played Lahmians, so I wanted them to have the look that they could pass for being alive. I'm not a fan of the grey, dead look, nor the purple dead look either. Nor do I want them to have a blue hue to them, or look pale white (though when I get around to doing Neferata, I might go for that unearthly pale white with her). Being difficult I know. Basically, I like them to look like they have just fed, with a healthy glow to them. I mean, going to war with your enemies, I would think you would feed well beforehand to make sure you had your strength up. I don't get going to battle in a weakened, decrepit state.. one should always look their best! Perhaps the Lahmian mindset has not left me completely

Anyways, any advice and help you could give would be appreciated.

 

[Josef]

use the new GW washes they are GREAT

 

[The Dark Sheep]

I agree with josef. The washes are the best thing you have at hand for doing just that. I suggest tha you was the skin with "ogryn flesh" before adding a light drybrush/higlight of the colour you want it to be...
I also suggest that you wash the gold with gryphonne sepia or devlan mud (or a mix of the two). I don't, however, think youy need to highlight this if you are careful with the washes.

 

[darknesseternal]

Cool, appreciate the advice.

Probably a stretch I know, but do you have any pics of any models showing where ogryn flesh has been used so I can get an idea of what to expect?

Also, what sort of effect on the gold would either of the other two washes that you mentioned?

 

[robh]

You need to be aware that a glaze and a wash are 2 different painting techniques.

A glaze is a thin even coating of a colour designed to alter the tone or hue of everything underneath it equally.
A wash is a heavier coating intended to settle in the low points/joints of a figure and colour those more intensely than higher parts of the figure.

In your case the wash is what you need to use. The glaze will just give you an equally flat look in a different colour.

The GW washes will work as described correctly above, but you can equally well use acrylic paint diluted with cold boiled water to which a tiny drop of liquid floor wax or dishwashing soap has been added (tiny drop!!). Or another often used technique is to use a small amount of black or dark brown enamel paint mixed with an enamel gloss varnish. This latter option is a standard technique used for the 20mm soft plastic type figures as it gives a beautiful shaded finish which is very tough. Matt varnish after to kill the shine.

Another thing I noticed in your description, you used elf flesh and then drybrushed rotting flesh. Really they are incompatible colours one is a red/yellow base the other a green/grey. If you want the rotting flesh look you would be better to mix a little of the rotting flesh with a bit of graveyard earth as your basecoat and then go with the rotting flesh drybrush. Or better use the elf flesh as you did and drybrush with Pallid flesh for the effect you want. The latter is a warmer and possibly still living colour, the green of the rotting flesh is just dead meat.

The pictures you posted show that you have already mastered the most difficult part of miniature painting, your paint is cleanly applied and in the right places. No messy runs, missed bits or colours where they shouldn't be. Great start.

 

[The Dark Sheep]

Sure. I'll put up some pics tomorrow (after I've found something with the right texture in my bits box).

 

[Josef]

i used the flesh on the faces on these models.

i used the gryphonne sepia on the yellow helm

hope it helps also for the gold what i do is use brazen brass (stocked up when i saw that it was discontinued) with a highlight of shining gold then i wash the badab black over it and it looks nice heres an example.

 

[darknesseternal]

Cool, so I will put some ogryn flesh and gryphonne sepia on the shopping list and try them out.

I do want to ask though, the suggestion to give the gold a wash as well, is that because you think it is too bright and has too much lustre to it or something? Initially I was wanting to go with a regal, oppulant sort of look with the gold.

robh, I appreciate all your advice. I have utilised washes a little before (I think). With my skeleton warriors, I give them a basecoat of bleached bone, and then do a chesnut ink wash over the top, before drybrushing bleached bone back over the top, which gives this looks and effect.

I will need to be alot more careful with the washes on the characters though.. with the skellies the washes are applied very liberally. It was funny what you mentioned about pallid flesh as well being a better choice of colour. Just as the third character, the one with snakes, had Pallid flesh used on it. The mate that got me into the game 5 years ago (I'm a painfully slow, or procrastinating painter, I haven't picked up a brush in 8 months at least) had given me some paints to get me started, and had suggested doing elf flesh, and then pallid flesh drybrushed. Which worked fine. Except their was only a small amount of pallid flesh in the pot he had given me, and by the time I got around to the other characters, it had dried up, and then GW had discontinued it, so I thought I would try rotting flesh as an alternative. So to get the same colour as the old pallid flesh, how would I go about trying to achieve that?

 

[blood knight]

nice vamps i want to see em' all glazed up

 

[Josef]

with inks it was hard i never got them to work coorrectly but I LOVE the new washes and for skeles what I am doing is a primer coat of white then air brush badab black over then high light the joints with bleached bone. I love how it looks.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

You will find the new washes much more simpler to use, the lay exactly where needed without leaving botches on the raised surface, plus they dry matt, not gloss, so no shiney models!
Trust what Josef says, I started using them recently and they really do add the depth you are looking for.

 

[robh]

Yes, Inks were (still are!) hard to use well as they have to be used in multiple coats, very thin and in a medium other than pure water. Always use flow improver or floor wax in an ink mix to avoid the "tide mark" lines that you see when inks are used too liberally with too much colour in the mix. The GW washes do not have the same degree of difficulty.

DE: Pallid Flesh is a slightly pink colour which you could achieve by mixing a tiny drop of Scab Red with an drop of white then add in elf flesh drop by drop until you come to a colour you are happy with. Remember to thin the paint slightly before you use it. (By drop I mean the amount of paint that will drip off the non hairy end of a paintbrush that has been dipped into the paintpot)
Alternately if you can buy some paints, Rackham Colour do a flesh shade called Craggy Skin which is the most perfect compliment to GW Elf flesh.

Those skeleton warriors look fine.

I would recommend you check out the following website for a host of excellent tutorials and guides to painting wargames figures.
www.paintingclinic.com

RobH

 

[blood knight]

i love to put inks on my skellies