Its time to don my Andy Warhol wig cause its Factory time.
I went all Henry Ford on the leadpile's ass today and cleared enough room to make a conveyer belt layout (see pic). To fix, to rebase, to prime, to texture, to magnetise, to paint, to hell and back, to infinity and beyond!
My lower freezer compartment is also full with minis. I had to eat the icecream to make room, dammit. Superglue is weakened greatly by freezing, and the contracting and expanding of the washers as I dunk them in boiling water pops the bases off nicely. But that is a task for another day. Quite clearly I have much to do here already, and seeing so much all layed out like this helped immensely with facing a long buying freeze. Quite clearly I can paint exciting figures all year.
The problem is my collection is too big for my tiny little flat, so the vast majority of it lives in a secure lock up most of the time in plastic bags within plastic storage tubs. Rummaging through these tubs is a total joy of mine as I forget what I have quite often. I could sit for hours doing it. Those that live here in my study also live in tubs, so its hard to picture.
Being able to lay out a huge chunk all at once was great.
I can now actually see a light at the end of the lead pile tunnel... for many of these figures can be completed pretty quickly if I group like models and paint in blocks, like I was doing an army.
I can quite easily imagine doing all the chainmail in one go, all the leather... bone, flesh and so forth in blocks of five to a strip- maybe twenty on the desk at once. Certainly all my lizardmen could be blocked in one go.
To facilitate fast block painting I went with a white base coat (killing a skull white can in one day). I found with my orc warband that contrary to the foundry army school of thought, shading downwards from highlight tone is quicker than building up from darkest, as often a couple well aimed thin washes over white can get you game ready. Plus it gives a brighter finish, which will help the mini work on the tabletop.
I have been getting great black lining using ink, alchohol and flowaid water (1:1:10). Doing this after basecoat works well.
Anyone had any success airbrushing white enamel? I am loathe to buy another skull white can considering how long this one lasted.
I'm surprised you used Skull White spray; don't you find it kinda powdery? The Mr Hobby primers could be an option: they come in a few different grades, and in white or neutral grey. They're smaller though, so ultimately more expensive than GWs cans. Most cans are 400ml; the only big ones I've seen/used are for automotive or graffiti purposes.
ReplyDeleteThe most reliable and cost effective primer for me has always been the Plastikote automotive variety which you can gte matt or gloss usually Bunning and Mitre 10 stock it or the Australian store equivalent
ReplyDeleteOh yesh, Powdery as hell, and mostly empty as far as I could tell. I get more mileage out of a small tamiya grey primer can.
ReplyDeleteI am off to get some plastikote! Cheers minitrol!
When I have better ventilation I may try airbrushing humbrol enamel white- my brush on fave too.