[WM] Advanced painting techniques in 10mm?

[athensfantasy]

Hi all,

I wanted to start this thread to collect tips and tricks on painting Warmaster armies.
My Orcs army is painted with pretty standard process and a lot of washing/lining.
Yesterday I started painting some Ogres and wanted to see if I can raise my standards a bit (see attached pseudo non metallic metals the weapon - very crude as you can see).

I am fascinated by NMM techniques although obviously the scale does not lend itself to complex glazing etc.

What other techniques are you using? If any of those do not fit to the scale do you have any clever adaptations you could share?

I am toying with the idea of doing little or no washes and certainly less dry brushing and instead applying selective highlighting in 3-4 different grades of the same colour. The idea being that from a distance it would not matter if the result is a bit "pixelated" and you would achieve excellent contrast.It should also be quite quick as well.

thoughts?

[Grumbledook]

Raise your standards a bit? That axe is rather lovely..... not only that but I'm probably viewing it at at least 10x it's actual scale - let's not forget that it's still Warmaster scale!

I used to play around with nmm when I was collecting rackham miniatures and it was (and still is) all the rage. One tip I remember was taking a photo of the primed miniature with lighting from above, then using the photo as the reference for highlighting when painting. Also the gradual build-up to a sudden highlight, in conjunction with washes. I ended up returning to metallic paints since I couldn't justify the time it took to paint one figure while the lead mountain grew, although some lucky souls have an innate ability to paint nmm fairly quickly..... I'm shamelessly jealous if you are one of them.

The old Rackham Cry Havoc magazines were always full of nmm tutorials if you can find any online copies, I have some somewhere i think and will try to dig them out and scan a few pages if possible. That said, there are loads of online examples but for some reason they don't seem to make the technique any easier for me to do!

with my own 10mm figures I tend to use airbrush paint (with a brush), saves thinning and still lasts forever at this scale, and washes mainly. My problem is that I always chicken out and don't brave the almost white highlight which is supposed to be super effective at tiny scales.

Really looking forward to seeingthe finished unit and any further tips.

Oh, just a quick question; how long doing your sample take and how many layers? 

[athensfantasy]

It took about 1.5h of failing and experimenting and going back to fix things. I was trying to paind multiple Ogres in parallel - this was the only one that gave me a decent result.I did not use layers cause the surface is really small but was mixing different colours and progressively applying paint in smaller surfaces - sometimes blending on the miniature. this is no true NMM - I used a metal paint as the basis and was adding either blue, black, light blue or white to create extra contrast.

I have all the miniature mentor tutorials which are fantastic and there are now some excellent free videos on youtube (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/user/paintingbuddha ). But all those techniques are difficult (and an overkill) for 10mm.

So for painting warmaster armies I want to find a faster way that achieves the same effect from a long distance. I will keep on experimenting and share any small wins!

[jchaos79]

That axe rocks!

Looking forward to see your paint without paintbrush and washes. In fact I normally paint that way.

Prime in black.
Color one layer.
Some zones of the figure a highlight
Varnihs.
Next unit.

I do not have the skill of non metallic metals, but I did an experiment when painting some units of chaos, so I paint them without using metallic paints... Do not planned to much, just take the pencil and start painting. I remember I watch some mangas series because they paint in only two colors, non metallic, and they looks pretty cool. Do you know what I mean? in example: Mazinger Z, cowboy beebop, berserk, etc... just take whatever photogram of metallic armours and you see how they use browns, grays, white and blues in a very simple way.

Here are some pictures of what I get, those mangas non metallic days. Those units are little or non metallic paints on them:










I do not expect to rise your painitng skills with my quick paint examples, just for sharing. Hope it helps.

[Stormwind]

I must admit, my techniques nowadays are more me trying to figure out how to do it faster rather than better!

[Ole]

Looking forward to see your paint without paintbrush and washes. In fact I normally paint that way.

painting without a brush?

now this has my attention!

Ole

[Meraklis]

well, although the scale is not suited to really advanced techniques I would say that  washing, blacklining and layering are the main tools of our trade.
 
Alternatively if you really want to study (and practice NMM) I suggest you take a better look at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VepXVggrfiE

[athensfantasy]

I have tried the loaded brush technique shown in the video.
He makes it seem so easy and fast but I failed miserably
I am sure it takes a lot of practice to get the consistency and amount of the 2 paints on the brush exactly right...

[Rowlybot]

Honestly, the older I've got the less effort I put into a figure or strip of figures.
I could never do most of the advanced techniques - even glazing gave me headaches - I stick with my style, simp colours painted neatly and a wash to add definition.

If you crack NMM at 10mm scale then I think you should get a trophy!

[jchaos79]

Looking forward to see your paint without paintbrush and washes. In fact I normally paint that way.

painting without a brush?

now this has my attention!

Ole

fingertips conceptual painting... it is easy to blend colors in 54mm figures with this technique 

I mean drybursh.

[athensfantasy]

WIP pic attached
Moving slowly but I am almost done with the weapons.
Those will be the central point of attention for this unit so maybe i ll move faster after that.

[andys]

I'm just happy to get the things painted to my "they won't win any prizes but they're as good as these old eyes can manage" standard!

I'm doing an Albion Army at the moment. I've got 16 units of Warriors to paint up. So far I've done 4 units - ye gods but it's a drag! Then there's 4 units of Chariots, 8 units of Cavalry and possibly some more Wolfhounds. Oh, and the Characters and some Polar Fox Giants I've asked the kids to get me for Xmas. Whimper 

Still, there are worse hobbies I could do. 

[Tiberius]

I also am still working on the basics, so I haven't pushed myself too far!  Mostly I do simply a mixture of washing, drybrushing and a little highlighting when I'm feeling ambitious.  Already my lead mountain is so big I often have a "good-enough" philosophy.  The Tale of Warmaster painters thread does give me some great motivation though.

Nice work, the NMM looks awesome.

[jchaos79]

Indeed, they look awesome! great work