figuras

SMOKE MARKERS: Smoke markers aren't exactly flames, but they are certainly related to fire. Smoke markers are great for marking destroyed tanks, keeping track of how a fire is progressing though an Empire Coaching Inn, and a myriad of other uses. It's a good thing then that smoke markers are a snap to make. Below, you'll see how aluminum foil and steel wool can be used to simulate smoke on the tabletop. In addition to these easy-to-find materials, all you really need are some super glue and some spray paint!
40-mm round bases with just aluminum foil, aluminum foil and steel wool, and just steel wool.

Paint any of the three markers above with layers of spray paint to achieve a color gradient.
PAINTING FIRE: There are many ways to paint flames. Heck, which primer you use (Skull White or Chaos Black) is often debated. If you have a technique that works, stick with it. If not, we asked Rob how he went about painting his flame-ridden army so you can get some ideas for your own painting projects. It turns out that he starts off with Skull White in order to get a brighter finish. Below, check out the progression Rob uses for his flame scheme. Most of this paint work is done with rapid drybrushes, so the going is quick and easy. However, towards the final steps, you'll have to put the drybrush down and paint a bit more neatly so as not to obscure your deeper shades of orange.



1:Skull White Undercoat	2:Blazing Orange	3:Fiery Orange	4:Golden Yellow	5:Sunburst Yellow

PUTTY AND FLAME EFFECTS: Putty is the main method Rob uses to create fire. It only took him 5 minutes to sculpt the flaming skull below, and all he used were a pair of clippers and a hobby knife (watch your fingers)!

Check out the images below to see the process and then give sculpting flames a try. After a few attempts, it'll come easily. Once you get the basics of the putty technique for flames, you can try your hand at more elaborate projects like the ones featured at the bottom of this page.

Shape a small amount of putty with clippers.

Then, jab the putty with a hobby knife.

Flame On!


he flames on this heavy flamer depend on a paperclip understructure to maintain their shape.



A simple flaming sword conversion.		Fire makes this scenery element even better.

Technique 1: Overbrushing

Overbrushing is an easy way to paint basecoats and highlights on chain mail, scale mail, hair, fur, and other heavily textured surfaces like a model's base or groundcover. This technique makes use of a brush that is more heavily charged with paint than a drybrush. Pull the loaded brush over the surface of the model to deliver pigment to the detailed peaks while leaving the darker color completely undisturbed in the recesses.

The line between overbrushing and drybrushing tends to become blurred in some instances. Sometimes, the first application of paint on a model that you "drybrush" is, in reality, really an overbrush to deliver a heavy application of paint. Subsequent layers are delivered by drybrushing with a decreasingly charged brush. Another way to distinguish the two is that overbrushing doesn't produce the classic "dusty" appearance you achieve with drybrushing.

Overbrushing Is Easy – Just Follow the Steps Below to Find out How to Do It:

Load up a large or small drybrush or tankbrush (depending on the size of the area you are painting) with paint. Make sure that it's a lighter shade than the base color.	Wipe a tiny amount of the paint away on a sturdy paper towel or soft rag. This step is pretty much a judgement call, but you want to remove enough paint so it won't flow over the model.	Pull the flat of the brush across the details of the model. This technique will deposit the paint on the raised surfaces but not in the recesses. Repeat this step with a lighter tone if you like or follow the instructions for drybrushing on the remaining layers.

Technique 2: Drybrushing

Drybrushing is a simple way of adding highlights and picking out details on raised areas of a model. It's also a very quick way of finishing a model such as a vehicle that has wide surfaces or a creature that has a large percentage of its body covered in hair.

Drybrushing and overbrushing are similar techniques, but the latter makes use of more paint on the brush and thus has a slightly different style of application. Overbrushing results in a slightly different appearance and that also makes the technique stand apart from drybrushing. Most painters blur the line between the two methods, however – what may begin as overbrushing might become drybrushing as the paint thickens and dries on the brush.

How to Drybrush Models in Three Easy Steps:

Load up a large or small drybrush or tankbrush with paint. Make sure that it's a lighter shade than the base color.

Wipe most of the paint away on a sturdy paper towel or soft rag. Continue wiping the bristles on this surface until the brush, while applying pressure, leaves only a faint mark.

Lightly stroke the brush over the surface detail of the model with a "back-and-forth" motion.

Tips and Hints:

Drier brushes will leave a slight dusting of color on the higher details of the miniature while wetter brushes will deposit more pigment on the surface and may leave streaks.

Repeated applications will amplify the drybrush effect. This repetition, combined with other, lighter colors, will increase contrast.

The drier the drybrush, the quicker your brush will wear down and become splayed (this advice is more of a warning than a hint or a tip).

Large armor plates (such as tanks and other vehicles) benefit from a larger brush to avoid streaking.

Most any surface can be drybrushed, but fur, hair, chainmail, and other heavily detailed surfaces garner the best results.

Examples of Excellent Surfaces to Drybrush

Technique 3: Washes

Washes allow you to shade a lighter base color quickly, and the technique adds a level of realism to areas such as skin, hair, fur, and metal. A wash basically stains an area on the model and then sinks into the detailed crevices of a miniature to create shadow. The more ink in a location, the darker it will appear. A wash can be controlled to a certain degree by adding more water to the ink to make it more fluid and less dense and dark when dry. You can also add in white glue to enhance the gathering quality of the ink or add a little liquid dish soap to break the surface tension of the ink to keep patches or "tide marks" (right) from forming when the ink dries. Of course, you can combine more than one of these controls to the mix to make full use of an ink wash's powers.

Here's How to Use a Wash Successfully:

Charge up a brush (preferably an old one or your transfer brush) with an ink of your choosing. Deposit the ink in a puddle on your palette.	Consider adding other ingredients to your ink. Decide on the effect you would like and use the formula below to create it. Add water and white glue so the wash gathers better and produces a stronger contrast when dry. Add liquid dish soap and water to the ink to reduce surface tension to keep the ink from staining the surface with unsightly patches or "tide marks." Add other pigments to the ink. Try adding black to another ink to darken it. For example, a good mixture for greasy metals is Chestnut Ink + Black Ink + Water + Dish Soap (3:1:5:1).	Apply the ink mixture to the area you want to wash, taking care to stay "in the lines." Also, make sure that the paint you are applying the wash over is completely dry. The excess ink will flow into the recesses and collect there, instantly darkening these areas to create shadows. Let the wash dry thoroughly before moving on to the next stage in painting your model. Be careful – add too much ink (and not enough water and white glue or dish soap) and the result may appear gummy.
Try Applying Washes to:
Large expanses of skin (including horses or other steeds).
Large expanses of metal (a knight's plate mail, steed's barding, or Necron's carapace).
Weapons of all types – both fantastic and futuristic.
Animal fur, fur on capes, and manes of hair.
Just around the rivets on vehicles to create localized rust.
Gold metallics, as they become much richer after receiving a Chestnut Ink wash.

Technique 4: Staining & Glazing

Staining

So, what's the difference between glazing, staining, and washes? Washes are typically used to shade or tone select (and usually small) areas of a model, such as weapons or the fur on a fur-lined cape.

Staining almost always affects approximately 80% of a model (or more), although it can be used to great effect on smaller surface areas as well. Typically, staining is used over a white surface or a surface that was primed black and then drybrushed white. Inks are ideal for staining as they do not necessarily need to be diluted with water before they are applied.

How To Stain a Model:

For a white undercoat:

For a black undercoat drybrushed with white:

Mix an ink with a bit of water and a drop of white glue on your palette (4:2:1).

Mix an ink with a bit of water and a drop of white glue on your palette (4:2:1).

With a large brush, apply this mixture over all the white areas you want to stain.

Use a large brush to apply this mixture over the areas you drybrushed with white paint.

Set the model down and allow it to dry completely before moving on to the next stage.

Set the model down and allow it to dry completely before moving on to the next stage.

Here's an example of a horse that has been undercoated white with spray primer and then stained with a mixture of Chestnut Ink, Black Ink, white glue, and water. Note the smooth finish and lighter tone overall.

Here's another example of a horse that has been undercoated black with spray primer, drybrushed with white, and then stained with the same mixture inks, white glue, and water. Note the deep shadows.

Glazing

Glazes are used to intensify or restore strong color by applying a layer of ink. This technique works well on gems and other decorations that you want to stand out. Glazes can also be used to tone down or unify layered areas on capes or other sections of clothing.

In the end, all of these techniques are interchangeable, and – to be entirely honest – it's hard to differentiate between all of them. All three use ink to recolor the pigment beneath.

How to Use a Glaze:

Apply a base color over either a black or white undercoat depending on your preference or needs.

Drybrush or paint a dramatic highlight over the basecoat. It can be a few shades lighter than the basecoat.

Mix a little dish soap and water into the ink and paint it over the base color and highlights.

Set the model aside and allow it to dry completely before moving on to the next stage.

Glazing is one of the best methods of creating a strong yellow color that has some depth to it. Begin with an orange and then drybrush with white to create highlights before finally glazing the whole area with Yellow Ink. This glaze creates a strong yellow with shading and highlighting. Additional glazes of ink can be applied to create a more intense color if necessary

Technique 5: Layering

Layering is a technique for representing shade and highlights by painting successive gradations of color from dark to light. The easiest form of layering is a two-tone process over a black undercoat. This approach allows you the option of finishing models quickly to get them on the tabletop for battle. It's perfect for building large armies in a minimal amount of time. Under close scrutiny, however, this layering technique tends to fall apart as our eyes aren't that easily fooled up close.

Once you feel comfortable with the two-tone process, try painting your models with the more advanced multi-layering technique. This technique adds more layers between the darkest and lightest tones by mixing the two extremes together in different proportions.

The Two-Tone Process over Black
If you're looking to finish an entire army, this one is the technique to learn. It's a technique that's fast, less labor-intensive, pretty easy to learn, and looks decent from an arm's-length distance. Most miniature painters that "paint-to-play" learn this style of layering, and some individuals have refined it to a point where they can use the method to paint individual models for display purposes. The entire model is developed over a black undercoat by applying two successive layers of paint, starting with the dark shade and finishing with the lightest. Now, although this technique is called the "two-tone process," there are some exceptions. In the case of faces, an additional layer may be added for more realism. The face is, after all, the focal point of the model and deserves the extra attention.
- - -
Here's How You Layer with the Two-Tone Process over Black:

Undercoat the model with Chaos Black Spray Primer.	Paint a deep blue over the cloak but leave the black undercoat showing in the deepest recesses for the darkest levels of shadow.	Apply a lighter blue color over the high relief on the cloak but leave a line of dark blue between the black and the lighter blue.
The example above uses blues, but you can do this technique with any color as long as you start with the darker layer. This technique is actually good practice as you move towards multi-layering– you can extend the two-tone technique with one additional layer to produce more subtle effects.

Faces Are Very Easy to Paint over a Black Undercoat. Here's How:

Paint Dark Flesh over the black undercoat and leave the eyes and any extremely deep creases black.	Paint a layer of Dwarf Flesh over the face but leave Dark Flesh in the creases such as the eyes, mouth, nose, etc.	Paint the highest points on the face Elf Flesh – generally, the bridge and wings of the nose, the chin, the top of the cheekbones, and the jaw line.

The Multi-Layering Technique
The multi-layering technique is much more time consuming than the two-tone process over black, but the result of your painstaking work is a reward in itself. The most difficult thing about all layering techniques is the choice of color. It is very important to choose shades that work well together over your undercoat color.

Paint an Area of a Model Green in Five Stages with the Multi-Layering Technique:

1. Paint the first layer with Snot Green.
2. Paint the second layer with a 2:1 mixture of Snot Green and Goblin Green.
3. Paint the third layer with a 1:1 mixture of Snot Green and Goblin Green.
4. Paint the fourth layer with a 1:2 mixture of Snot Green and Goblin Green.
5. Paint the fifth and final layer with Goblin Green.
Each layer builds on the previous one but does not completely cover it. This limited overlap allows the layer beneath to show through and creates depth and shadow with each pass of your brush. The example above was achieved through the use of colors straight from the Citadel range. Try mixing up your own pigments and layering with those.

The Dramatic Layering Technique

The dramatic layering technique is a slightly simpler approach to layering that nearly cuts out the process of mixing paint altogether. The tricky part is picking out colors that work well together despite the differences in shade. This technique also rarely uses more than three layers – an excellent proposition for speeding along with your army painting while maintaining quality!

The best way to get started with the dramatic layering technique is to take a look at the Citadel Colour range and work out dramatic contrasts picking out a "root" color, a midtone, and one of the lightest colors in the series.

Many people find it quite difficult to get good results with very bright colors with this technique because the colors are hard to tone together. A way of getting colors to tone together better is to mix a little of the adjoining color(s) into the paint for each layer. This mixing draws the colors together so the contrast won't be as apparent to the casual viewer.

- - -

An Example of Dramatic Layering

This Chaos Warrior was painted with the dramatic layering technique almost the whole way through to its conclusion (minus the ink washes on the metallic areas and the drybrushed fur on the cape). The red armor is a good example of the technique. The armor was given a basecoat of Scab Red (over a black undercoat) with a highlight of Blood Red over that basecoat. Finally, a tiny bit of Fiery Orange was used to accentuate the edges of the plate mail.)

Paint an Area of a Model Brown with the Dramatic Layering Technique:

Paint the first layer with Scorched Brown.

Paint the second layer with Snakebite Leather.

Paint the third and final layer with Bronzed Flesh.

As with multi-layering, each layer builds on the one beneath it but doesn't cover it completely.

cucapamodelismo@yahoo.com.mx