News: No news is good news...

Login  |  Register

Author Topic: Help Painting Tanks  (Read 2800 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Temperance

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 59
  • Country: us
  • I *LOVE* 40k Online!
Help Painting Tanks
« on: June 20, 2018, 03:27:37 AM »
Eeew, think paint!

That's what I told myself after I finished basecoating my exorcist. I thought I'd gone past the old days of thick paint, and wattered my paint down, but you can see distinctive areas of paint build, as well as brush-stroke patterns, on my tank.

I assume an airbrush is probably a good way to avoid this... to avoid the brush-stroke patterns being visible, at the very least.

Does anyone have tips on how I can avoid these two things on my future tanks though? It looks really tacky. I'm not sure why it exists, since my infantry miniatures base coated just fine, so it can't be me being completely dumb and using super-thick paint... Maybe if not airbrushing I just have to apply like, 3-4 layers of very watered down paint to avoid it? Not particularly stoked about that many layers for a base coat... but if it's what it takes.

Any advice?
(Also, is there any good way to mask this once it's been done, or is my one tank a little bit FUBAR? ... it's not terrible and I'm not trying to win any painting contests, but it is a bit disapointing. I wanted/want this army to be my best yet.)

Offline dog_of_war

  • Aspect Warrior
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 862
  • Country: ca
  • Armies: Orks, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, Dark Eldar
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2018, 09:59:52 AM »
Do you have any photos of your results? It may help us determine if there is something in your technique or materials that are affecting the results. What kind of brushes are you using? What is the dilution of your paint i.e how much water to paint 1:1 2:1 etc. And most importantly what type of paint are you using?

An airbrush will certainly give you a very clean finish, but the learning curve is steep, as is the initial investment.

Offline Temperance

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 59
  • Country: us
  • I *LOVE* 40k Online!
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2018, 05:30:11 PM »
Working on getting a picture up. my email isn't recognizing that I sent it from my phone yet.

I don't have an exact paint/water ratio. I definitely used much more paint than water. Maybe like a  brush dipped in water going down onto a palat of paint... which isn't much of a measure. If I had to (completely) guess I'd say maybe 4 or 5 paint to 1 water?

Dipping my brush in water and then dipping it into the appropriately colored "smudge" of paint smoothed it out enough for my infantry models though.. there's no clumping or visible storkes or obstruction of detail on them (of course, infantry models don't require as much smooth surface to be covered so.... maybe it's just that, and more water is needed to make it extra smooth on vehicles?)

My brushes were from GW. I started with the (I think) XL base brush to give the areas a general coat, then went back with a small layer brush to try and fill in any spots that were still white or needed more precision.

The paint was also GW (abadon black on the sides, and celestra grey on the top part).

I'll upload the photo if/when I can get that through.

Edit: Was able to get my image to my PC... Was there a way to upload it here though? I can't seem to find anything besides the image tag above, which just does
« Last Edit: June 20, 2018, 05:46:08 PM by Temperance »

Offline Lord of Winter and War

  • The Cause of Diabetes -Captain- Necrontyr Immortal - KoN Veteran - Master of All Diplomacy | Wi-Fi Nomad |
  • Ancient
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8901
  • Country: ca
  • Armies: Harlequins, Spiderfang, Bonereapers, Space Wolves
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2018, 05:57:32 PM »
I find tanks life anything, you need to paint in multiple. Thin coats. I don't use an airbrush, I just water the paint down, and apply 2-3 coats as needed.

I use imagur for uploading and sharing photos, it's pretty easy to use for that.
Harlequin Army Blog

That's not blatant, this is blatant: I'm super happy that I'm playing Austria, the greatest nation in all of Diplomacy!

Azore of Austria

Offline Irisado

  • A Light in The Grim-Darkness ~ Guns Don't Kill People, Copyright Stats Do | Farseer | Reporting Live! from the Crime Scene | Somewhat behind the times
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11480
  • Country: gb
  • Soñando debajo del arco iris
  • Armies: Administrators must not play 40K
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2018, 06:22:19 PM »
Edit: Was able to get my image to my PC... Was there a way to upload it here though? I can't seem to find anything besides the image tag above, which just does (Image removed from quote.)

This sticky will help you with posting pictures.
You haunt my in-box like an ex-girl friend could only dream of.

The Forum Rules - Please Read and Remember Them.

Soñando con una playa donde brilla el sol, un arco iris ilumina el cielo, y el mar espejea iridescentemente

Offline dog_of_war

  • Aspect Warrior
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 862
  • Country: ca
  • Armies: Orks, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, Dark Eldar
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2018, 07:48:06 PM »
Sounds like you need to water down you paints a bit. GW base paints could be watered down 2:1 or even 3:1 for base coating (more water than paint) depending on the shade. As Killersquid said, multiple thin coats is the key. It won't really start looking good until the third or more coat.

If you can find a primer in the same colour as your base coat, even better. GW have some of the more popular, but there are a ton of other variations from other manufacturers. Army Painter is one I've used for a primer base coat. Not as fine a primer as GW, but cheaper and works well on large vehicles where you don't have a ton of small detail.

Offline Lord of Winter and War

  • The Cause of Diabetes -Captain- Necrontyr Immortal - KoN Veteran - Master of All Diplomacy | Wi-Fi Nomad |
  • Ancient
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8901
  • Country: ca
  • Armies: Harlequins, Spiderfang, Bonereapers, Space Wolves
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2018, 10:31:28 PM »
Edit: Was able to get my image to my PC... Was there a way to upload it here though? I can't seem to find anything besides the image tag above, which just does (Image removed from quote.)

This sticky will help you with posting pictures.

Just watch out when following this, as the information is old. Photobucket has changed a lot since this was originally written, and is basically now a scam, Avoid using it like the plague. Flickr is also a pain to use. The easiest hosting site to use is imgur, and has easy to use links for sharing on forums.
Harlequin Army Blog

That's not blatant, this is blatant: I'm super happy that I'm playing Austria, the greatest nation in all of Diplomacy!

Azore of Austria

Offline Temperance

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 59
  • Country: us
  • I *LOVE* 40k Online!
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2018, 12:25:44 AM »
Thanks for the warning about the sites.

But also thanks for the water-down-further tip. You were right, and I guess I wasn't watering it down enough even if it was working ok on my infantry models. I went at a second tank today going ~3 water to 1 paint, and don't have the problem at all (although other issues are still present).

Took a ton more time. Most of a day to reapply coats in various colors multiple times. But definitely worth the effort.

Very cool to have a painting tip that - literally - produces notable improvement overnight. Thanks.

Offline Cavalier

  • One Archon to Rules Test Them All | High Corsair Prince of Painting | Warlock
  • Lazerous Penguin
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2585
  • Country: us
  • Corsair Prince
  • Armies: Eldar, Dark Angels, World Eaters
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2018, 01:39:30 PM »
What color are you trying to paint your vehicles?

My best advice is get some spray painter from GW or Army Painter and use that. Airbrushes are great but do take some experience and patience. They can be frustrating at times and not great for beginners, in my opinion at least.

Spray Primers make life so much easier and I couldn't reommend them more. I actually highly suggest going with a color scheme that matches the GW spray primers to new players. It just makes the process so much easier.
Check out my army! Eldar Corsair Army

I'm also on the Splintermind Podcast! http://www.facebook.com/splintermindpodcast/

Offline Temperance

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 59
  • Country: us
  • I *LOVE* 40k Online!
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2018, 05:52:10 PM »
I had thought I would be painting them white (and so primed them white) ... in retrospect that was a mistake, since I decided in the middle of things that I actually wanted to do the side portions of the tanks in black (sort of leaving the center compartment white) to create a bit of contrast with the infantry.

I think it will create a good look once I fill out the fleur de lys in bronze/gold and get some other colors on the trim and highlight, but I'm having a tough time filling in all of the little gaps/holes in the smoke stacks and doors on the black part. I've tried using some really watered down paint, but it just won't seem to go in there (or pigment it enough, if it does). Using completely unwatered down paint might blot out the white in the deep recesses, but at the cost of blobbing up. And that's probably worse.

Any ideas? Think a black nuln oil wash would get in their and change the color any better than very watered down paint somehow?

It's not the sort of thing you can see without picking the model up and staring. But having white in those recesses on the black siding is a bit rough.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2018, 05:53:21 PM by Temperance »

Offline SeekingOne

  • Exarch
  • Senior Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1509
  • Country: ru
  • May Hoeth guide our ways...
  • Armies: Eldar (Saim-Hann), Space Wolves
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2018, 06:15:49 AM »
Well, the best thing you can do is get an airbrush :) But if that's not an option, and you need to cover white with black, the second best thing you can get is this:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61f25gH3A2L._SX466_.jpg

This is Vallejo black primer. And it's absolutely the most awesome black paint for hand-brushing ever. It comes in a fairly liquid consistency, so it goes on very smoothly and you can easily get it into all recesses with minimal encouragement and without any further thinning - and yet it has excellent coverage. If you can get yourself one - try it, it's great.

And no, Nuln Oil won't work - it will just make your white look dirty! :)

Image tags removed to prevent hotlinking - Iris.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2018, 07:24:17 AM by Irisado »
I fight against Chaos and for Order, because it means fighting for Life against Death. There is no other battle truly worth fighting.

"If it's not for a tournament then play whatever it is that you like. Without the pressure of having to utterly destroy your opponent it opens up alot more opportunity to have fun." - Lazarus

Offline magenb

  • Aspect Warrior
  • Senior Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2162
  • Country: au
  • I *LOVE* 40k Online!
Re: Help Painting Tanks
« Reply #11 on: June 25, 2018, 05:42:02 PM »
Just use a black primer spray can and mask off any area's you don't want it to hit.

Since you already have a white primer on, Vallejo also makes black paint in their model color range 70.950 (this is non-gloss version). You can water this down a fair bit, so have a play with the ratio, it will go on like nulon oil but with much better coverage, 2-3 layers and it will be a solid black. Same process works with their gloss black paint.


 


Powered by EzPortal