The Commander Series Forum

I've read through the painting tutorial from intobattle.com, i'd love to be able to paint at this level but for the time being Id settle for a little less detail. Are there any more recent step by step guides for lesser skilled painters?

i'm not sure about washes and the like and I rely quite heavily on the dip.

Washes aren't that different to dipping.

What scale are you thinking of painting?

6mm, I've done some 28mm so I'm not starting from fresh but I've never painted armour either.

Basecoat, wash, dry-brush highlight, varnish, done!

Would the army painter dip be too thick to use instead of the wash?

I've used army painter on 10mm and 15mm and got good results. For 6mm I've found that a wash does as good a job.

I basecoat, heavy drybrush highlight, wash (winsor newton peat brown on brits, GW badab black on russian and germans) then another highlight.

Army Painter do some really nice inks for washes, I've used their soft, strong and dark tones, diluted 2 or 3 to 1 with water or acrylic flow enhancer and they do the job on 6mm figures and vehicles nicely. I've assumed the inks are the same stuff they dye the varnish with to make dip, but, as you suggest, I think the dip is too thick to do the job nicely on 6mm figures. I use the same inks on 10 and 20mm figures and it looks great IMHO. Then varnish with a cheap DIY acrylic matt varnish from B&Q or Wilkinsons. The inks are c. £3/pot and the varnish is a fiver. Simples!

The Army Painter Dark Tone is identical to GW's now discontinued Devlan Mud, which was a cracking little wash.

I've become a big fan of this stuff:

http://www.snmstuff.co.uk/vallejo-washes-sepia-...

from Vallejo. It had a very dirty finish if you use it straight from the pot, but if you mix it at the ratio of about 2 parts wash to 1 part water and add a tiny bit of washing up liquid to help it flow, then the results are excellent. Then I just dry brush the original tank colour over the top and I'm done.

Used to make my own wash from Acrylic Matt Medium and black or brown paint but recently switched to the Vallejo Shade. would have gone for the Army Painter ink but my FLGS was out of stock. I find I can block paint the figures wash with the shade and most of the time drybrush not necessary IMHO. That's with 15mm figs.

I think I'll try the Vallejo shade. Cheers

What about bases? Is there a similar product to static grass or tufts in 6mm

You can get shorter versions of static grass. I got some from Minibits/Pendraken but they seem to be out of stock at the moment

http://www.minibits.net/Basing-Materials-c10/St...

Just paint over vehicle with humbrol paints then do some dark highlighting and varnish. Simple as that. I don't think an undercoat is necessary. Never a problem in 30 years.

Admitedly this example is for 15mm vehicles, but I'd use the same technique for 10 or 6mm models.

1. undercoat
2. basecoat
3. Vallejo Sepia Wash (bought in big 200ml pots - bargain)
4. dry-brush with lightened basecoat
5. final dry-brush highlight with white/buff

http://timstanks.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Zv...

For a beginner, there are too many washes and highlights. At 6mm, few of these details can be seen unless from close range. Pictures in previous postings on this forum show how far people go to make things look good. 6mm is always a scale for the achievable. The paint job should be achievable too. The beginner can get the basic job done and base up to an achievable standard and then as technique improves can re-paint and improve. It shouldn't get in the way of getting a game staged. Full opposing armies can be bought and battlegroups quickly painted up for games. This is the beauty of 6mm.

I ended up throwing some army painter dip on them. I think they came out quite well.

Now I need to base them. I've got some of the textured gel stuff, do I stick them down and try to get the stuff between the models or cover the base and squish the models into it and touch up around the feet?

And what about the tanks?

not a great photo but you can sort of see them

I wonder should I matt varnish them before I base them?

http://s287.photobucket.com/user/thebigandyt/me...

Rats - I can't get them off the lollipop sticks

Gonna need a sharp knife and a bit of gentle prising - if you've used superglue you might need to split the lolly sticks to free the infantry.

If I paint vehicles on lolly sticks, I paint the "gel" on the base, let it dry and stick the model to the gel with PVA - it dries clear but takes all night to set. A bit of flock, static grass or sand sprinkled on the wet PVA then covers any marks from taking them off the sticks/nails etc.

Infantry I paint in strips so I can handle them and then clip them up to stick down. I superglue them to the base and then carefully paint the gel around the bases, then hide any marks with flock etc. Can be a bit of a pig if your hand shakes when applying the gel, but I space the figures out and have a wet towel standing by to wipe off any blobs.

Good luck.

Cheers I hadn't thought this would be so fiddly. Maybe I should have stuck with 15mm

It's worth it in the end!

I think I will prime the mdf bases first next time. The shine comes through a thin layer of sandy gel.

Could try overpainting with Flat Earth.

phew this is hard work. ive almost got a small battleforce of italians based. I've still to label them and finish bits and bobs off but i'm relatively happy with them.

heres an infantry stand

http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll126/thebig...