The Bust Saga (part 2)
If you are a bit older and from Zagreb, you probably remember Saga o Pičekima? If not, the joke will elude you. Well, hopefully beside the Croatian pun, you will like the rest of this saga. Goran and Marko will take you on a miniature painting journey while they build and paint one and the same bust for their Admin Challenge. Why call it a saga? Because everyone who knows them knows this will take a while to finish.... They chose a bust by Crecy Models that comes in two options – as King Ladislav Jagellone and as Grand Master of Teutonic Order Ulrich von Jungingen. Goran and Marko will do different versions...
GORAN: The first thing I did today, while still at home, was attaching the bust to a plinth. I cut a piece of steel rod 3mm thick and 5-6cm long, for which I then drilled holes in the bust and on the stand. I drilled both the bust and the stand several times, due to insufficient depth and insufficient vertical drilling angle.
MARKO: Unlike Goran, I fixed my bust to a makeshift base with a makeshift pin so I skipped wrapping the bust in masking tape (he will explain the process) and immediately started spraying. Luckily, I found some old cardboard box in which we could spray at will with an open window for ventilation. We used black spray that I brought from Slunj. It's so matte it's gray: D
GORAN: Then, immediately after arriving at the hobby corner, I began to protect both the stand and the exposed part of the bar with masking tape. The reason is that I don't want the stand and the bar to turn black when applying the black primer. I applied the basic black layer of paint with even movements, at a distance of 25-30 cm from the miniature, in a box that Marko found and which served excellently to protect the surrounding inventory from paint stains.
MARKO: The first thing I set out to paint were the messiest parts - in this case chainmail. Two silver colors (S75 Heavy Metal and Trash Metal). I drybrushed first with a darker shade and then with a lighter one. Then I covered everything I messed up over the line with black paint. When it dried, I ran a mixture of brown and red over the robe and shield (cloak holder). These parts will go red as on the boxart. The cloak will certainly not be red. I will still see what color I will put it in (I have to explore a little the coats of arms and colors of Ladislav Jagellone)…
GORAN: Then I set out to put the basecoat on the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. Since I don't have much experience with combining colors or coloring such large scale miniatures, I decided to try to work out the "official" color scheme available on their website as closely as possible (https://crecymodels.com/catalogue/grand- master-ulrich-von-jungingen /). I started with gold details, first I painted the upper rim of the bar on the chest armor in Scale75 Dwarven Gold, and the rest of that part, as well as the edges of the round cloak clasps, and the outer edge of the raised visor in Scale75 Elven Gold.
After that I started to paint the beard in Dubai Brown color by Scale75, it is not bad to mention here that some browns (like this one) and gray (Rainy Brown) have a weak consistency, so I do not recommend diluting them at all. Then I went to paint the cloak, the largest surface on this figure, in the aforementioned Rainy Gray, along with the shields above the round cloak buckles. The problem with “whiter” colors is that, due to the finer pigment, their coverage is weaker, so the recommendation of "internet wisdom" is to start with a medium to lighter gray color. All in all, I am satisfied with what has been achieved, although, knowing my patience, ie lack of it, I am most afraid of the cloak and the mentioned shields, since it will require effort because it is a lighter color.
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Science behind Acrylic Paints
- Binders (eng. resin) – form a film – in our case probably pure acrylates, I suspect they are styrene acrylates.
- Fillers – in addition to adding volume to the paint, they also affect the viscosity, coverage and appearance of the dry film
- Pigments – the main division is into organic pigments and inorganic pigments. Inorganic ones are more covering but have less vivid shades, while organic ones are often quite poorly covering (yellow for example) but their shades are vivid and bright
Additives:
- Anti-foam
- Rheological modifiers – affect the behavior of wet paint on the substrate (e.g. spillage) and the behavior of the paint when a force is applied to it (brush, roller, spray, airbrush). Rheological modifiers also include thickeners that affect the viscosity of the paint.
- Dispersants – envelop pigment and filler particles and prevent their agglomeration during standing. Good dispersion of pigment and filler affects the coverage and uniform appearance of the dry film. There are a bunch more but I won't go into too much detail
- Solvent – in this case water.
Contrast paints and speed paints – high pigment content, but not so much that it causes high coverage. They are formulated to spread, not to stay where you put them. The result of spreading is that the paint collects in the recesses, where a thicker film of paint remains than on the protruding parts of the miniature. Where the film of paint is thicker (the recesses), the shade of the contrast paint is more pronounced, unlike on the protruding parts where the film is thinner, which is why the shade is then influenced by the color of the substrate.
Composition:
- Binders
- Pigments
- Additives – all listed above + surfactants that reduce the surface tension of the wet paint film, which is why it flows
- solvent
- I would say they do not contain fillers, or contain very, very little of them
Washes – similar in formulation and behavior to contrast agents, only they have a much lower proportion of pigments, certainly no fillers, a higher proportion of surfactants, lower viscosity, and probably less binders.
If we want to greatly dilute acrylic paint or contrast, it is better to use a product intended for this purpose from the manufacturer of that paint rather than water, because it contains all the necessary amount of binders and additives for that paint to retain its properties.
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U ovom članku, naša Dunja nam otkriva znanost iza akrilnih boja.
Akrilne boje – visoki udio pigmenta i dobra pokrivnost. Ako su dobro formulirane ostaju tamo gdje ih naneseš, ne ostavljaju „brush marks“ i suše se dovoljno sporo da stigneš napravit što želiš na minijaturi a opet dovoljno brzo.
Sastav:
- Veziva (eng. resin) – formiraju film – u našem slučaju vjerojatno čisti akrilati, sumnjam da su stiren akrilati.
- Punila – osim što dodaju volumen boji utječu i na viskoznost, pokrivnost i izgled suhog filma
- Pigmenti – glavna podjela je na organske pigmente i anorganske pigmente. Anorganski su više pokrivni ali manje živih nijansi, dok su organski često dosta loše pokrivni (žuti npr) ali zato su im nijanse žive i jarke
Aditivi:
- Protiv pjene
- Reološki modifikatori – utječu na ponašanje mokre boje na podlozi (npr razlijevanje) i na ponašanje boje dok na nju djeluje sila (kist, valjak, sprej, airbrush). Pod reološke modifikatore spadaju i ugušćivači koji utječu na viskozitet boje.
- Dispergatori – obavijaju čestice pigmenata i punila i sprječavaju aglomeraciju istih stajanjem. Dobra dispergiranost pigmenta i punila utječe na pokrivnost i ujednačen izgled suhog filma.
- Ima ih još hrpa ali neću toliko u detalje
- Otapalo – u ovom slučaju voda.
Kontrastice i speed paints – visoki udio pigmenta, ali ne toliki da uzrokuje visoku pokrivnost. Formulirane su da se razlijevaju, a ne da ostaju tamo gdje ih staviš. Posljedica razlijevanja je skupljanje boje u udubine gdje onda ostane deblji film boje nego na isturenim dijelovima minijature. Tamo gdje je film boje deblji (udubine) nijansa kontrastice izraženija, za razliku od isturenih dijelova na kojima je film tanji zbog čega na nijansu onda utječe boja podloge.
Sastav:
- Veziva
- Pigmenti
- Aditivi – svi nabrojani gore +
- surfakanti koji smanjuju površinsku napetost mokrog filma boje zbog čega i dolazi do razlijevanja
- otapalo
- rekla bih da ne sadrže punila, ili ih sadrže vrlo vrlo malo
Washevi – po principu formuliranja i ponašanju slični kontrasticama, samo imaju puno manji udio pigmenata, sigurno ne sadrže punila, veći udio surfakanata, manji viskozitet i vjerojatno manje veziva.
Ako želimo jako razrijediti akrilnu boju ili kontrasticu bolje je koristiti za to predviđen proizvod od proizvođača te boje nego vodu, jer sadrži svu potrebnu količinu veziva i aditiva kako bi ta boja zadržala svoja svojstva.
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