Star Wars Legion - Separatists Basing Article
For the last year I’ve been trying to get my Star Wars Legion Separatists army ready for the table, so I can play a few games. One of the reasons I chose this faction (other than the fact that SW droids are great), is because droids paint, up quickly. I don’t need my army for this game to look display ready, I just want to get them ready fast, match their look from the films and be happy when I see them from a distance. To achieve this I’ve been fine-tuning their basing scheme throughout the year, and I’ve found a recipe that to me looks good enough, is relatively quick, and very easy to do (no brush control needed here). As I’m finishing my last unit for the game, I thought to share it. The scheme was originally supposed to look like Geonosis, but with time I’ve made it my own. But still this is fitting as the last unit I’m painting is the Star Wars Legion Geonosian Warriors (I love these sculpts - fiddly, but fantastic!)
I start out with a small ball of milliput that I place down in some random areas with my fingers. This is to create elevation. For me a flat base is always more boring than an uneven, elevated base.
I then use a sculpting tool (whichever I have on hand, doesn’t really matter as I’m not sculpting anything) with some water to smooth out the milliput, and make a few elevated areas.
I push a few small rocks down into the milliput before it cures. No need for glue here, that comes later. Also I’ve come to learn that uncured milliput and superglue is a very bad combo.
I crumple up a small piece of tin foil and poke it at the uncured milliput to create some texture.
Now the rocks will get fixed in place as I put a small amount of superglue all over the cured milliput, and the rest of the base as well. Then I use a teaspoon to sprinkle some baking powder all over the superglue. A minute later I wash the whole model under the sink, to get rid of excess baking powder.
I use a crackle paint from Citadel (Agrellan Earth) and cover the flatter area of the base with a good chunk of it.
When the crackle paint is dry I prime the model.
I paint the base using a combination of reddish and brownish, earthly tones. I just slap them all over the base haphazardly and without thinking, as later they will be brought together with a shade and some drybrushing. Paints I used here were Mephiston Red, Mournfang Brown and XV-88 from Citadel, as well as Burnt Sienna from Golden SoFlat.
Shade with Agrax Earthshade.
Lightly drybrush with a beige/grey/whitish color. I use Tyrant Skull and Wrack White as these are actual Dry paints from Citadel, and I still have them lying around.
I finish off the base with a few grass tufts. The drier they look the better. I also put a bit of Seraphim Sepia wash into the middle of the tufts to bring their color tone down a notch. And of course finish with a black base rim.
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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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