Sea of Green - A Waaaaagh Tale (Fantasy Painting Log)

[Lord Cedric]

Hello fellow hobbyists. It has been a long overdue need to get some color slapped on my armies. I have been an avid collector and moreso a friendly gamer without being a painter for too long now, and because of this I have accumulated 13 armies and various terrain pieces that need to come alive with paint. With thousands of models to paint.. it's definately a bit overwhelming for me. Thus this plog is born, to give me focus, record my progress, keep at it, encouragement, and to allow for others to constructively critisize and help me become a better painter.

I had thought of creating just one big plog of them all, but then decided to give each army its just due. So here is my Orcs and Goblins painting log. My signature indicates about how many models in approximation I have and the only armies with enough paint for me to field in color are Brets, Dwarfs and High Elves. So looking at that, I need a painted "evil" army for a lack of a better word and Da Greenskinz is the most fun army for me to play on the Destruction side of Fantasy.

A quick picture of a few of my assembled models of different armies. For this plog, the entire second row from the top are my Orcs and Goblins that are assembled so far. I have many more boxes (read TONS) yet to put together, but I will concentrate on these for now I think.



Model-wise, expect to see many oop models as I have been playing and collecting Warhammer Fantasy since 4th edition though I have bought and/or acquired many current sculpts too. I have just received my first box of greenstuff and have zero skill using it, but thought I should have it on-hand for when I get some advice with using it. I hope to become skilled enough with the stuff to do a model justice.

A word of caution.. I am not a prolific painter though I aspire to become one. Each one of my pics is open for constructive critisism and I encourage it as I truly want to become a better painter. I do not play in tournaments, so my painting will reflect that. However I hope to eventually achieve somewhere in the neighborhood of better than table-top standard. On the hobby side of things, painting has been at the bottom of my priority list as all I really wanted to do was game (and boy does it show!). However as I have gotten a bit older now I have been so inspired by other plogs and encouraged by my local group and some on here as well (thanks Harry!) to get some painting done. Many of my models have already been assembled and in some cases even bought that way. You will more than likely see mold lines and mess ups and unfinished bases. However, I plan on getting better in all of these areas. For the bases, I plan on doing them all at once after the unit is finished painting for now as I do not have any themes planned yet. I will be asking for ideas.

Ok, enough of my bumbling and onto the pics!

My first unit of Greenskins are models from the 6th edition Orc Battalion set of which 2.5 were given to me from a friend. I do have some Citadel paints, but most are unfortunately dried up, so Apple Barrel paints were used on these. They were first undercoated with Army Painter and finished with Quickshade Strong Tone. Instead of actually dipping, I chose to brush it on to see if I could get some better control. They turned out ok, but it will take some practice I think. I have yet to apply the Matte Finish and will do so after the full unit is painted.



As you can see, aside from painting in general I could really use some advice for painting teeth. These were painted with a brush. I have started to use a toothpick for more accuracy but I am having problems getting a solid coat. Anyone with ideas or suggestions with this or just my painting overall?

Thank you all and I will be updating this as often as I can.. target goal is weekly.

- Lord Cedric

[azhagmorglum]

Hi,
Just a quick comment about your painting. So far, so good I'd say, neat painting and the quickshade looks nice. As for the teeth, I think you painted them very well, they are well defined and convincing. Maybe it's a quicker method you are asking for?

Keep it up anyway, it's cool to see another greenskins army around here.

[Lord Cedric]

Thank you for the comment and support, Azhagmorglum. I very much appreciate it. With the teeth, I find myself doing about two coats on them using a brush. A couple models I over applied and and it covered up the recessed shading areas so I had to re-do it. I am just such new painter that I am unsure of what methods tend to work out the best.. the first time. hehe.


I have so far painted 15 Orc Warriors with extra choppa and wanted a quick change of pace before I work on another rank of 5. I decided to paint one of my Boar Chariots. Here is my progress:



I had primed it with the same Army Painter spray used on my Two Choppa unit. I then painted a nice black coat over that followed by basic coating. Finished with detail painting (I found some chainmail paint not dried up so used that on metal parts of chariot) and then brushed on Quickshade. Both the Driver and the Spear Rider are not yet glued on. I wanted a bit of variation in color so decided that the spearman.. errr.. orc gets a little bit of red painted armour.

Any thoughts and comments on this too? Should I do a bit of drybrushing on these models after the quickshade dries to add texture? Or is that step suppose to be done before quickshading? When I mentioned I am new at painting, I wasn't kidding. hehe.

- Lord Cedric

[azhagmorglum]

I'm not used to that quickshade product, so I don't know if you have to add texture before or after the shading. I'm not a fan of drybrushing too, since it often looks messy and destroy brushes. I only use it for my bases and lately when I painted the wood on my rock lobbe (I think I'll use that technique more on my warmachines). You can check my plog for examples if you want (shameless advertizing ^^)

Anyway, it doesn't show that you are a newcomer at painting, and it seems that you are eager to paint more, learn and practise some techniques. I can only recommend you to read articles about painting (no need to read the biggest ones, and often other people's logs are very useful). So keep it up, and don't discourage yourself. You are already off to a (very) good start.

Quick question : after priming your models in green, do you repaint them entirely in black or just the areas other than skin?

And finally about the teeth : paint them the best you can, it really enhance the face, which is the most important part of a model (at least a strong focus point). I myself particularly enjoy that step, and is usually one of the last thing I paint on a model.

[Lord Cedric]

Thanks for the suggestions Azhagmorglum. I also checked out your plog and really like what you have done there. Changing up some of the poses on your orcs really enhances the overall look. I see you placed them on regiment rank bases. How does that work for you when gaming? Do you use a counter until enough wounds are there to remove one?

You know, I used a bit of drybrushing on a skaven unit I was working on last year and it looked good from a distance but when I took a snapshot of it I could really see the inadequacies of it. I put it off as my lack of skills. So I may take your advice on that one and do it sparingly. I do have quite a few warmachines to paint up, I just don't want to ruin the model.

One tecnique that I hope to learn is highlighting.. and very much so. I downloaded a pro painters video on how-to-paint miniatures and checked out many different plogs which is how I've learned what you see so far in my pictures above. But I love reading other plogs to not only get ideas and inspiration, but to also learn how they prepare, paint, and stay motivated (prehaps my greatest weakness).

After I prime the models green, I only repaint the non-green areas in black. I leave the skin as-is and paint touchups later on. Sorry, I should have noted that in my text earlier. And thank you for the help on the teeth. I agree, it is a focal point for the model as it's a natural thing to look at the face of something first (at least for me).

Thanks for the encouragement and I am glad you like what I have done so far. It really means a lot to have another persons opinion and it helps motivate me to paint more and learn more.

- Lord Cedric

[LocaLicious]

Hehe, that is a vast amount of Orc&Gobs! My jaw kinda dropped by look of that shelf and the spray scene of your Orcs My warhammer approach must be the total opposite of yours - I've never played a game of warhammer, but always enjoyed painting..

It looks like you have a pretty steady hand... should come in handy I might have some suggestions as well ...

The teeth/mouths .. I usually paint the entire thing a dark red , Scab red usually. (from the old color range) In that way the mouth/throat/tongue/gums are red and theres some depth. Next I paint the teeth Grave yard earth (old color) , and then I highlight them with bleached bone.... Fairly simple , and provides a great result.

The red on the boar chariot rly works! Gief more of that

@ The dry brushing ... In my experience you have to very careful , else, as azhagmorglum says, it easily ends up a big mess. Whipe off most of the excess paint and make sure it not too wet - if not it's very likely to just cluster up in the recesses...

I have an Orcs&Gobs log as well if you want to check it out for inspiration

Keep it up this will be good!

[Lord Cedric]

Thank you very much, LocaLicious! I visited your plog and I must say I am very impressed. The skin tone and even moreso.. the eyes. My Orcs are currently blind. How did you paint yours?

Hehehe, yeah. I have a lot of models somewhere in the vincinity of 3000+. I have so many boxes yet to assemble and some still in shrink wrap. What you don't see in that first picture of the bookshelf is also along that wall I have an 8-drawer cabinet filled with more armies and models both assembled and still on sprue as well as 2 more drawers laying next to it.

Regarding teeth and mouths - I like your idea of painting the area dark red for depth. Question. Can this be done after applying Army Painter Quickshade? Heck.. can anything be applied after this type of shading? Or do I need to do that prior to?

Thanks for the Boar Chariot comment and I will look at more places to add a bit o' red to it. I was really trying to come up with a contrasting yet complimenting color that would add to the model yet not distract from it. Also I wanted the SpearOrc to have his own identification amongst Orc ranking.

In regards to dry brushing, that exact issue has happened to me a few times already - where the brush was too wet and it filled in many recessed areas of the model. I think I am just going to need to find a junky model and play around with this tecnique more.

I have another question pertaining to highlighting. Can either of you or someone else help me out and offer suggestions and/or methods on how to learn to do this? I visited Elfboys Wood Elf plog http://www.warseer.com/forums/showth...des-Wood-Elves and the highlighting mixed with shading was jaw-dropping and REALLY made me want to learn it. I have an Arachnarock to paint up some time and would love to be able to apply this technique to it.

Thank you once again for your help, suggestions, and comments. I greatly appreciate it!

- Lord Cedric

[LocaLicious]

Thanks Well the eyes I actually had to go back and check my own log to remember what I did where :P Those who are not Savages: Just red base, a black dot and a small white dot to resemble light reflection ...

The Savages eyes are painted orange, a mix of orange and yellow, and finally just yellow. I might add a little white dot there as well ... (and I just realized I forgot to paint eyes on the black orcs.. lol)

I am I not familiar with the quick shade actually :/ does it work sort of like a gloss varnish? If so , it alright to paint on..

Looking forward to see how the dry brushing turns out for you..!

And hell yes, his wood elfs are so awesome! I can't rly tell the difference between shading and blending tbh ... which one is which :P When I highlight I just usually add some lighter color to the mix and work my way up .. Like on the Orc skin ... I don't think that technique is either shading or blending (?) .. mb just regular highlighting :P since you can see each brush stroke I guess.

[Lord Cedric]

Thanks Well the eyes I actually had to go back and check my own log to remember what I did where :P Those who are not Savages: Just red base, a black dot and a small white dot to resemble light reflection ...

The Savages eyes are painted orange, a mix of orange and yellow, and finally just yellow. I might add a little white dot there as well ... (and I just realized I forgot to paint eyes on the black orcs.. lol)

I am I not familiar with the quick shade actually :/ does it work sort of like a gloss varnish? If so , it alright to paint on..

Looking forward to see how the dry brushing turns out for you..!

And hell yes, his wood elfs are so awesome! I can't rly tell the difference between shading and blending tbh ... which one is which :P When I highlight I just usually add some lighter color to the mix and work my way up .. Like on the Orc skin ... I don't think that technique is either shading or blending (?) .. mb just regular highlighting :P since you can see each brush stroke I guess.

Thank you for the eye tips! That sounds really what I am looking for. Once I seen those peepers on your Savage Orcs, I was like "wow.. I'd love for mine to look like that!". I'm anxious to give it a try!

As for how quickshade works, it's kind of a cross between the older inks and the newer washes. If applied correctly, it's not suppose to clog up in areas like the old inks did yet give a more prominent coating over current washes in my opinion. And yes, it dries very glossy. I have, however, purchased the Army Painter Matte Spray to tone down/eliminate the gloss but I have yet to use it because I wanted to spray a whole unit first and not waste extra spray for a single non-character model.

There must be something to this drybrushing wood stuff, hehe, as another person suggest it to me too. I will most definately do that, thank you. Question.. is drybrushing the last layer on a model? Meaning after shading? I am asuming so as it would seem that the shade could cover up the drybrushing.. but as I am a beginner painter, I just want to make sure.

Perhaps what I need is a guide. Kind of like..
1. undercoat
2. first basic coat
3. etc. etc.
as this would help me better understand where/when certain tecniques are applied. I can follow directions well, but am almost always a bit timid to do so at first (darned OCD).

Good point on the terminology of Elfboy's plog and shading/blending uberness. Either way though, I'd LOVE to get highlights like that eventually. And I'll make sure I take some pics of some drybrushing!

Although I do not have a pic update, I have, however, created a nice fluffy background for this army! I hope I didn't slaughter any written history. Hopefully, with the help of all of you, I can determine how I want my bases done and overall army themed. It's based off of an Online Warhammer Fantasy Campaign I was to be in, but unfortunately didn't take off as the creator/organizer had to step down. This was created by myself as I was to play O&G's, so probably has some loopholes in it. lol. So anyways, here it is:

Ghorug IronSkinz "the Eyegouger"

Little is known of Ghorug's early history. What is known is only passed down by those enemies lucky enough to have escaped his devestation, or rather, freed by Ghorug himself, minus a few body parts, to instill fear in his enemies.

Ghorug is a Black Orc from the IronSkinz tribe located at the tip of Rib Peaks in the Darklands. During the Great Waaagh! of Grimgor Ironhide, Ghorug was "recruited" into Grimgore's Immortulz. After the slaughtering across the Blasted Wastes, Grimgor's army returned to Red Eye Mountain.

Growing restless with boring Skaven hordes, Ghorug had heard of a great war in the north brewing - the "End of Times" (edit: This was the online campaign's title)

With the promise of War, Ghorug, along with a small retinue of his IronSkinz Orcs and Night Goblin's Red Eye Tribe (who knicknamed Ghorug "Eyegouger" over a rather nasty incident with a spoon and a rock) followers travelled NorthWest to carve his name with fear and destruction. All in-hope that Grimgor will take notice and once again emerge from underneath the mountains for another Great Waaagh!! that the world has ever seen.

So, there it is. I hope that I had the timline and characters correct. But that is the theme I am going with for this army. So hopefully I can get some ideas on how to do bases around this.

And once again, Thank you for the encouragement and very helpful advice!

- Lord Cedric

[Lord Cedric]

Hello everyone. I wanted to give a little update to what I have been working on.

First off, I want to thank EVERYONE for their generous and fantastic advice! This information and techniques are very much appreciated!

I ordered some different paints and brushes to assist me in improving my skills. I have various Citadel and Vallejo paints available to me now. So I was wanting to wait for those to arrive before I tried some of the given suggestions.

What I have been working on is doing some color mixing and highlighting (along with some fine-detail work on face area).

I have a few pics of my first attempts *ever* at doing these on a model I selected as being my test dummy. From a distance it turned out ok, but close pics make it seem streaked and incoherent, or rather not blended very well in my opinion. The skin tones look a bit better, but I think I really messed up on the armour and other non-skin parts. What are your suggestions to help me improve highlighting. Am I to do complete color area coverup minus the crevaces and deeper areas? Is this best done in a circular motion? Do highlights take more than one coat?

I also think that my eyes and teeth look better, but can still be improved. Part of my issue here, I think, is because of how many layers total I have on these areas already before I tried doing these new-to-me techniques.

Here are some pics for you to critique. I put a non-highlighted model next to it for comparison. (**Note** The first couple pics are with flash so you can see where highlights were painted better):















I am sure even from the poor pics you can see what I mean. Something about a camera that really pics up my painting flaws. hehe. Oh, and also I messed around attempting a little bit of basing. I plan on getting a whole new test model that has not been base colored yet, only undercoated and trying posted suggestions. Does anyone have any tips for me on how to improve my highlighting? Perhaps me try blending with it? I dunno, this is all really new to me.

Once again everyone. THANK YOU for helping me! I am very excited on the new information you have all shared with me. I am really liking this Highlighting thing and know that it will just take a bit more practice, but I can already see the type of results that help define and bring "alive" the much better painted models I see from your plogs.

- Lord Cedric

[LocaLicious]

woops, it seems I never got back at you on that drybrushing thing sry

@ the drybrush before or after your shading. I guess you can do both rly... I think I'd prefer doing a wash or shade after the drybrush, because I think there is a difference in how the colors work with and without a wash on it. explained: I think washed stuff tend to get rather mat or gloomy, whereas a layer of paint on top of that would appear more clear and sharp (dno if that made sence)
So you would have two colors which might be the same, just lighter/darker, but "shine" differently (haha my English is broken this evening)

On the other hand I would be careful doing a wash over a too light brybrush .. if you fx. drybrush with a light color like Bleached Bone, and use a wash on top of that, the Bleached Bone would bring up too much of the wash color, instead of just making the color darker. On page 41 in the old version of "how to paint citadel miniatures" theres an explanation of a technique called "Glazing" (apparently) which I guess it more or less what you do if you wash or shade I guess.. in short: To use a wash over a light/white area to bring up the color of the wash.

I hope this is making some kind of sense :P I'd rather not confuse you instead of helping

@ the highlights. I actually think it's working out very well for you .. All I can say is that it takes some practice, and some getting use to the colors and their consistency. I usually water down my colors a bit when I mix them for highlights.
And the rest of the highlights on the shirt and stuff .. dno how you do it, but try watering down the paint a bit, and do a few small strokes in the same line, rather than one big , where you end up just shaking too much when you concentrate that works well for me!

I think the colors are rly good as well. Especially his shirt.

If you like you can come up with a recipe for the skin as well , so that you know how to mix to get transitions that are not too dark/bright for each orc you paint.. might not be necessary, but might save you some paint in the long run

Compliments on the teeth and tongue! Looks soo much better with a bit of red there!

Keep it going!

Loca

[Harry]

Great to see you going for it and starting a plog. best of luck with the miniature mountain.

Painting advice.
First ... I am not an expert painter ... but I have painted a lot of stuff so can give advice on how to paint lots of stuff to an OK standard.
Second what follows is not in reaction to your painting specifically but the general advice I would offer from my experience of painting stuff.

Rule one: Always, always thin your paints. you are putting on lots of layers by the time you are done it will look like you have put it on with a trowel if you do not thin your paints. Even if you are only doing a couple of layers if paint is too thick it will obscure the details.

Rule two: Thin it even more. You would be amazed how watery the paint is of some of the best painters when doing blending. Even though you may not be proficient in advanced techniques yet I would still say thin the paint more than you think. Two thin coats are always better than one fat coat. I sometimes slap on three or four washes of colour as a base coat but the paint is so thin you loose none of the detail.

For painting lots of stuff fast both washing and dry brushing are your friends!

Washing ... After painting a base coat I almost always give the area a wash with a darker paint. so for orc skin for example having painted it green I would be mixing up a very thin watery wash of very dark green paint (Watery Dark Angel green, green wash or ink) and painting the whole area. The wash ends up in the recesses .... shade sorted. If you want to paint darker shades and highlights this really helps identify the natural shade/highlights on the model for you. Your army painter is doing the same trick ... but .... army painter all over has a tendancy to blend the different colours together. Different washes on different colours keep the areas seperate and are a bit more subtle.

Dry brushing ... used in the right plases it is a huge help. It is obviously best on fur, fur cloaks and other textured surfaces ... but I use it for all kinds of things ... on the model above I might well use it to add aquick highlight to the trousers. The key to drybrushing (IMO) is to .... thin the paint. I know it is called dry brushing but the paint should be a bit wetter than you think. I call it wet brushing. You do need to spend some time wiping off most of the paint.

Highlights .... I think you are heading in the right direction with the highlights. You just need to make smaller transitions. By this I mean try not to jump from dark grenn to light green in one hit. You need to mix a paint which is only a little bit lighter than the base colour for the first highlight. Then work up from there. You only need to do a couple of highlights for a big impact but the steps, the first one especially, can not be too big a step. Heres another top tip ... thin the paint. The best blenders are putting layering up highlights with paint so watery that you can see the colour underneath showing through. the paint is so thin you have to spend a good deal of time wiping off the excess so you don't get runs and when you do paint the model it hardly looks like you are changing the colour at all but it does dry lighter and the result is very subtle transitions in colour. Now these guys are doing 10 transitions but even if you are only doing a couple of highlights this is still a good way to paint and will help you get better results even if you only take a small step towards it. Small steps with highlights. (Even if you do not end up with very many highlights or very light highlights). You should be reserving the lightest highlights for the smallest areas and the sharpest edges only.

Washing after highlights ... I will often wash an area I have just highlighted. a wash over the top can do wonders for blending in harsh highlights and making it all look more natuaral again .... the key so as not to kill all the highlighting? Yup you guessed it ... thin the paint. this wash should be very thin. It does not matter of you are using paint or washes for this ... I would still add water. I even wash dry brushing. Especially in the example of the trousers above. I would dry brush to add abit of texture and a quick highlight but would definitely then wash over the top the blend things in a bit.
You will loose some of the highlightswith the wash .... so you can be a bit braver and go a bit lighter with your lightest highlights as they will be brought down a bit by this wash.

Metalics. ... You can just paint stuff silver and then wash with black or brown ink (or you army painter) .... job done. In fact for very polished armour High Elves, Bretonnians this is probably the way forward ... owever (IMO) with lumps of ork metal you need a slightly 'rougher' result. For teh weapons and armour of most of the bad guys I start undercoated black then dry brush with 'tin bits' then again with 'chainmail' then finally with mithril silver. Each time letting plenty of the previous colour show through. You get a lot more texture on the metal and it looks more 'real' because of it. This is one of the few times I do not thin the paint and use it straight from the pot.

Teeth, bone, horned helmets I paint scorched brown then some stripes of snakebite leather then bleached bone. Total pain in the **** (especially when dealing with a mouthful of small teeth) but the result is a lot more satisfying (IMO).

Thats my advice. Hope it helps.

Harry's top tip ... "Faces and bases". Do put the extra time into the faces and the bases. It is the bits folks notice. time spent here is never wasted. (clearly shown by the faces side by side of your two orcs above ... well done ... huge improvement).

So bases.... You can just stick some scatter materials on and call it a day but the difference the time spent on the base can make is at least as big an impact as the time you spent on the faces. The scale of scatter material is never right. you have to paint bases for them to look right with painted models. I have developed a very quick way of doing bases and it is the one thing i am asked about the most on my plog ... so i guess i am doing something right. I cover with sand. paint the whole lot (incluing base edges ... I'll come back to that in a mint) Bestial brown I then drybrush it with snakebite leather and then snakebite bleached bone mix. (I then paint a few rocks in grey but this is not essential) Then add static grass.

Base edges ... I know back in our day the base edges were always green but the current look is to paint them the same colour as the bases .... and it does look tons better than green edges (IMO)

One last thing. stick at it, try stuff out ...experiment. don't worry if you are not too excited about some of you first efforts youcan improve fast by sticking with it. Starting with a bunch of 'cheap' starter box plastics is a great way to go. It won't matter if there is a bit of variation in the quality/style of the paint job as you try different things and improve.

That's my top tips ... best of luck with it all.
I look forward to watching your skills improve over the coming months .... years.