Preparation and painting with contrast/speedpaint paints – Cthulhu Wars
In this article I describe my process of painting figurines with contrast and speedpaint paints. This is how I painted all the figurines I made for Cthulhu wars. I made them to be "tabletop ready", but I think that with these techniques, a higher quality figure can be achieved, with proper preparation and attention to the precision of details. An example from the pictures is an Acolyte model from the game.
The painting process was almost always the same, with slight variations in the primer and initial shading. The first step is of course the spray primer, which I started with white paint. This is where I did the most variation in the process because after a few tries, I ran out of white spray cans, then light gray, and ended up with a plain gray paint. I realized that the optimal color for this type of painting is light gray spray can – you want to emphasize the hollows of the figure, but not kill the shadow color (like you would with a black or dark gray primer). The light gray spray provides a good base for the shade colors that I apply in the second step, emphasizes the contrast with the white drybrush, and leaves me with the dark color that I apply in the later stages.
The next step, regardless of the tone of the primer I applied, was to apply the shade colors from GW. Which color it was, depended on the primary color I wanted to achieve. For example, for red, blue, and yellow, I prefer a purple, or at least an approximate purple shade. In the example of this model, I used Carroburg Crimson, which is a purple-red tone. Likewise, for green, I used Athonian Camoshade, but in retrospect I should have gone for a warm shade (like red), I like the difference in warmth between contrasting tones better. I colored the leather and books/papers with Seraphim Sepia, the easiest way to contrast the skin color later.
After the shade paint dried, I applied a white drybrush over the entire figure. This is the final step to prepare the figure for painting diluted colors such as contrast.
Let's start with contrasting colors. Given the simplicity of this model, I applied maybe two colors in total, but I did the same thing on more complicated figures. Red over the dress, paying attention to the separate parts I wanted more beige, skin color on skin, brown on the book and Skeleton horde for the beige parts (to get the dirty fabric effect). I used speedpaint medium on many of the dark contrasting colors to thin them out, but sometimes it didn't work very well. On large areas, such thinned paint leaves stains that need to be cleaned up.
The last step is to define the details of the model and potentially add highlights. In this case, I subtly touched up the red stain with a lighter red drybrush, painted the dagger with off-white, painted the belt, and added patterns to the open pages of the book. The model is now tabletop ready and the entire process takes about 20 minutes of painting. The only downside is that you have to wait for the various thinned layers to dry, but I usually plan on painting other models in that time.
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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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