I bought this model cheaply second hand. It was partially and very poorly painted, plastic cement had been used to glue the figure and had melted and distorted some of it. Thankfully the paint was very thin so though it looked poor it didn’t adversely affect the figure. Anyway after much puttying and sanding and swapping out the things that I could swap out (it came with it’s sprues of additional bitz) I started painting it. Not used to painting a lot of flesh I was a little apprehensive but I think it turned out alright. Knowing what I know now I would have done it quite differently but alas that is not the case. Anyway painted up and pretty happy with it, the cow I still consider to be awesome (and by this stage I hadn’t ruined it with my rubbishy freehand orc design on the cloth between his legs) I went off to varnish it before somebody chipped the paint.
I sprayed the varnish on as I normally do only for the mist to start to condense into a stream part way through and before I could react it dumped a truckload of varnish going from his head to his belly, naturally on all the light flesh coloured parts. I stopped immediately and then watched to my horror as the acrylic paint started to split and sag from the weight of the enamel varnish. Laying the model on it’s back to vainly attempt to stem the affects of gravity on the sagging paint I stomped back into the house and tried not to think about it for a few hours. When I went back the model was virtually ruined, or at least that’s how I felt at the time.
I sanded back the ruined paint (quite a mission with all that varnish whilst still trying to preserve much of the other paintwork) and repainted and touched up. Turned out ok, not as smooth as it was but probably not too noticable. The most obvious areas are around the nipples and the belly button where it was difficult to sand. Fortunately you expect a bit of wrinkly fleshy tissue in these areas so it actually isn’t much of a problem. In this photo you can’t really tell.
I think this model is the coolest thing in your Orc army. Although the chariots and fanatics are close.
Buy the way it is called a loin cloth, but in this instance it could be an apron as he is wearing trousers. It is probably a surcoat remnants. Or just part of GW’s fasination with putting banners and symbols everywhere.
The cow is a favourite of mine too.. especialy with cheese and lettuce.
Real shame about the varnish. Ever since you told me about this I always test my spray cans before applying to. Thanks for the life lesson.
Unfortunatly i have not learnt to blend paint… still seems hoplessly wastefull and complicated.
P.s Post pictures of your wet pallet please.
Well yes I was tossing up between loin cloth and banner (since I think that is what it is supposed to be, at least on my figure), in the end I thought it best to be non-commital as is politic.
Heh yeah well the annoying thing was I do always test my spray cans first. But this got a partial block mid stroke. Now I test first and then do very tiny bursts and work my way up to what still amount to short bursts when I’m comfortable the thing wont destroy my paintwork. The problem was made worse probably though from spraying enamel over acrylic. Normally it’s not a problem because the spray droplets are so fine and it dries so quickly but to heavy a coat as in this case and it starts to unfix the acrylic. Anyway, live and learn.
Yes blending is wasteful and complicated which is why I got into bad habits like from the pot which is bad for your both your paint and brush. I guess at the end of the day you get out what you put in. If you take shortcuts you get out a half-arsedly looking good miniature, but if you take your time and put the extra effort in you get out a great figure. Or so I assume, the jury is kinda out until I actually put such thoughts into practice and produce something to match.
Well ahh yeah. When I start using it, and have proven it works I’ll ahh do that, I guess. I’ve not really bothered with the 15mm stuff I’m painting at the moment, though I suppose I could give it a whirl, take some photos and let you know. There isn’t really much blending to do on something the size of your fingernail though.
Actually there some interesting shading and highlighting discussions on the GW blog (the one we have an rss feed for on the front page) or go here
“…got a partial block mid stroke. Now I test first and then do very tiny bursts and work my way up to what still amount to short bursts when I’m comfortable the thing wont destroy….”
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Now just hold on a dang minute…!!!
What you talking about boy???!!
And if it sounds, what it sounds, like… I don’t care one iota to hear…
Sheesh I don’t know, one minute you’re grateful for the life experience and the next you don’t care one iota for it. There just know pleasing you.