I found the time to do a little painting last night. I got the midtone
coat finished on my Standard Bearer, but decided not to press on to the top
coat as it was getting late. Instead, I brought out the dozer blade for my
Forgeworld Vindicator. I've got all the blue done on that already, but needed
to start on the metallics.
I was too lazy to take a rather boring shot of a blank dozer blade, but
essentially I'm painting the bottom teeth of the blade and the surrounding
plate, as well as the side plates silver metallic, while the blade face is my
standard Ultramarine blue. Back when I was working on my drop pod, I'd had a really tough time on the metallic sections of the model. My Reaper Master Series metallic paints just didn't cover very well. I was getting brush strokes, pigment separation, and not enough paint in various areas. I muddled through, but decided MSP silver metallics weren't going to work for large areas anymore. It had been suggested that I try out the GW/Citadel line of metallics, so I grabbed a pot of Leadbelcher and a pot of Ironbreaker a couple months ago.
I broke open the pot of Leadbelcher and started working on the dozer blade. I held my breath and started applying paint. SWEET MOSES! It was like a revelation. The paint went on in a single coat, and perfectly covered the primer. I didn't need more than a single pass on any of the primed areas. I did need a quick second touch on areas that I'd gotten blue paint into, but it wasn't the struggle I normally encounter with my MSP metallics.
I've always been a bit of a Reaper paint snob, but I have to say I'm sold on these Citadel metallics. I don't think I'll go back to Reaper metallics on anything larger than infantry weapons. My only concern with the Citadel paint is that pot design. I had to paint with the pot open on my desk, which made me think it would dry out over time since it's constantly exposed to open air. Has anyone noticed drying in the modern Citadel paints?
I've been listening to some 40K music in an attempt to get myself
re-motivated to paint. It's not that I don't want to paint, it's just that when
I have free time at 8pm at night after a day of work and a few hours playing
with my son, it's hard to park myself in the heat of my office (it's been an
Indian summer here lately) and put brush to model. It's even tougher when I
spend an hour or two a night working on home improvement stuff, like redoing
windows in our living room.However, 40K related music seems to really help with getting the mental
juices going. I've been spending a lot of time listening to the soundtrack to
Space Marine. You can listen to the whole thing on YouTube if you don't want to
buy it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v4kaE_XbR8).
I recommend Titus' Theme, Battlements, Titan, and A Hero's Legacy, though
there's no bad track in the whole thing. The tracks have a little ore meaning
if you've played the hell out of the game like I have, as you can picture the
scenes from which they are pulled. Also good is the Dawn of War 2 soundtrack (also available on YouTube), and
the first track from the Ultramarines: The Movie soundtrack, "Steel and
Doom." Yes, that one's also on YouTube. I can fire these up on my Kindle
Fire and listen to them while I paint, or while I'm trapped in my cubicle at
work.
The GW metallics are great. I'm a big fan of Vallejo but when XRG stopped ordering Vallejo I started slowly picking up GW paints and the metallics are the best I've used.
ReplyDeleteThe drying out thing still happens. If I know I'm going to work with a color for a while then I will load up a brush and put it on my wet palette to work with instead of leaving the pot open.
That's probably what I'll do then. Do you thin the GW metallic at all?
DeleteI've watched a bunch of the "official" GW painting tutorials on YouTube lately, and the painter/presenter (Duncan) always loads a palette with paint instead of painting from the pots. That should have been a clue for me.
The tutorials are actually pretty good, too. Not the most advanced techniques, but they help when you're trying to understand what they were intending when you're trying to build vehicles using subassemblies, etc. The Knight Titan one is a revelation on how the model was intended to go together and be painted in pieces.
I don't thin it. Any time I've thinned it it requires two coats to cover. The water seems to move around the metallic elements and gives spotty coverage, kind of like what you had on the Reaper paint.
DeleteAh, ok. That's pigment separation. Good to know.
DeleteThe only metallics I've used are from Citadel and Delta (cheap craft paint.) I have old pots of mithril silver and shining gold, both around 20 years old now, that are a bit thin but the other ones I've tried cover almost anything in one coat. There used to be a set of colored metallics (green, blue, red, and purple if I remember correctly) that I wish I had picked up. I have the blue and it's a great color.
ReplyDeleteIf you're looking for 40k music search youtube for D-Rok Oblivion. It's a 40k themed metal album from the 90's.
Reaper has some colored metallics as well, though I've never used them. Not sure I can find a place for them in a Marine army. I thought they might look neat on Dark Eldar armor though. They also make "pearlized" colors that would be good in the same places.
DeleteI'll take a look for that album.