You see, it's constructed from assorted bits and pieces on a lump of soft, slatey rock from the beach near here, and when I spray undercoated it black I absolutely loved the brief moment of directional shadow I got from all the relief detail, so I practised on a few old sprues and gave it a go when I spray-primed it grey. Can you see it in any of these pics?
- Should I pretty much leave it as it is but maybe add some highlights and a bit of shading in the 'illuminated' bits? This seems to be the best option...
- Should I try to tidy up the directional light/shadow to make it 'pop' more? I worry that I won't match the colour of the primer and I'd just make it look rubbish.
- Should I just paint it?
- Should I paint just the 'illuminated' parts?
- If do paint it, I'd quite like to use a muted palette, in keeping with both the Star Wars aesthetic and the 'moonshine'-style illumination...if so, how the heck do I achieve this? I'm rubbish with colour.
Finally, regardless of each and all of the above, how should I paint that dinky wee Lambda Shuttle?
Please offer any ideas you can think of if you'd be so kind - painting really is not my forté!
Yours in hope,
- Drax.
Just paint it!!
ReplyDeleteAhh, but left unaided I would inevitably cock it up.
DeleteAnd I'm buggered if I'm sticking another bunch of random stuff to a rock.
Thanks for swinging by, Richard!
If you don't like how it comes out painted, you can also take the paint back off and try again :).
DeleteI think if you limit the additional painting to parts of the base, the small amounts of colour will make the subtle stuff on the rock pop more.
ReplyDeleteThe advantage is you can always decide to adjust the rock if it doesn't look right later, after the base has been touched up. Maybe stick to historical naval colours except for pops of red/white/yellow on small lights, power conductors, and landing sites.
Good call - this is one of the approaches I was thinking of, but I hadn't quite considered that level of detail: good thinking, Batman.
DeleteIt looks pretty cool as it is! I wouldn't mess with it too much, perhaps just shade with some dark grey and highlight with some thin white. Maybe highlight the rock with a light grey to make the structures pop a little more? Just my thoughts, I don't really know what I'm talking about! :-)
ReplyDelete...that, I suspect, is much the trouble I have.
DeleteCheers, Paul!
Your rock there is a "cold" (bluey) grey. so, light cold grey drybrush to pick up some more detail (properly dry brush, not sloppy wetbrush :))
ReplyDeleteThen a warm grey for the structures to contrast but keep muted,
Then some splashes of "star warsy" colour - pick a blue, orange, red or green - maybe even two and pop a couple of stripes/markings on the buildings.
Then wash, either greyish or earthshadish.
That'd be my approach to try and ape the paint of the SW minis.
Aha! I had a feeling I'd get some sage advice from you, mate.
DeleteYou know I'm terrible with colour (I had no idea that grey appeared 'blue', for example), but I took your advice: it's Halfords grey spray primer!
Great tips, thanks: I shall have a plan and a think. In basic terms of greyness, does lighter = 'colder' and darker = 'warmer'?
Colder greys have a blue look to them. If you put some great side by side you will see some have more blueish appearance. Your primer is a cold Grey so similar greys with blue in them will work best. It is subtle though. Any very light Grey should work well for highlighting.
DeleteCameron has it right - just to confuse things, we can throw in a "neutral grey" too, which would be a result of mixing pure black and pure white.
DeleteThe idea of warm and cold comes from the side effect of not having a true black pigment, but rather our black having tones of blue or grown in them, so we have warm or cold greys, cold greys tend towards the blues and warm browns and beiges - theres a lovely long post here-
http://10rooms.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/difference-between-tray-grey-warm-grey.html
which may shed additional light, it's worth knowing as it can be used to effect, in a cold mini, go for cold greys, but if you want contrasting greys such as a grey cloak and a NMM grey weapon, use cold for the weapon and warm for the cloak to create contrast. or as in this case, to deineate the cold rock, from the buildings (also of note, in the SW universe a good rule of thumb is rebel - warm grey - imperial - gold grey)
Wow - strewth! Thanks, chaps!
DeleteI agree with karitas. I would do a light Grey drybrush. Really wipe most of the paint off and light highlight all the rock. Something like a 1:1 mix of codex Grey and white would work well. I would the do a careful wash with a dark brown wash like agrax earthshade to shade the details.
ReplyDeleteI would then paint the man made structures. The same colour is realistic but I think you want to accentuate the detail. I'd do a dark Grey, wash dark brown, small line highlight with light Grey on the buildings. As karitas also said some color splashes on the base would match the star wars aesthetic. I think blue or dark red details would look very nice. Some metal with a wash on details would look good too.
Again, thank you!
DeleteI'd forgotten how shade blind you are. Humm. Good luck !
ReplyDeleteYup: I genuinely am pretty darned terrible. I'm fairly sure Karitas still doesn't believe me.
DeleteI'm as confused by concepts like 'violet brown' as my cats are by the concept of not coming back into the house specifically in order to use the damned litter tray. Furry little gits.
Looking good so far - I'd probably suggest a properly dry dry-brush of a lighter grey on the rock to pull up just a bit more of that texture. Following that, perhaps a wash on the installation to give it a little bit of separation from the rock color, while keeping to the same overall shades of grey. Picking out some of the base details in a metallic would likely help it 'pop' a bit.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I dig it as-is too!
Thanks, Mordian.
DeleteI'm wary of using a metallic though - what might you mean, please?
I'm thinking just some tiny bits, perhaps just the pipes going in to each circle, and the bit of mesh. Something dark, like a boltgun metal followed by a black wash to keep it all very subdued...
Deletethis is such an interesting and different piece! I love what you have so far. I agree with drybrushing with light grey or white for highlights and pop.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of this post- asking for advice on how to paint a piece. Do you mind if I borrow the concept?
Cheers, Loquacious,
DeleteAnd you are entirely welcome to do so. I've done it a few times over the years, and the good readers of this blog have never yet failed to come through for me.
Yay Nice People!
Shades of Grey. Lots of them. The shadows will create themselves. The Lambda should be white with a light dark wash to hit it's recesses.
ReplyDeleteOr just paint it black. It's unlikely to be anywhere near a star, so there'd be a strict lack of light to illuminate and show detail. Much easier! :)
"Shades of Grey. Lots of them."
ReplyDelete- Fifty?
Thanks, mate.