Sunday 14 July 2013

Glazed and Confused

After discovering a new model shop at the end of a long walk with some friends, I raided their Vallejo Paints section for a selection of glazes to try out the "shaded basecoat" technique as used by James Wappel of Kickstarter's "Painting Pyramid" fame. Having a great deal less than James' 12 years of full time model painting experience (and his prior work as a 2D artist), I wasn't too hopeful of anything amazing on my first few models, but it was certainly a different style to the usual 'highlighting up' from a darker colour.


 The first thing I found interesting was the differing textures across the Vallejo range of 'transparent' glazes, as compared with the Citadel paints. Depending upon the colour, the pigment was either quite translucent, or actually very grainy similar to a pigment powder solution you might mix yourself. A lot of online reviews pointed to the 'smoke' colour as being especially grainy but I found the transparent reds and oranges to be the same. This led to some interesting methods of 'pushing' the pigment around within the wet area you apply it to.


 This is after about an hour of trying out the reds, yellows and browns at different watered down ratios, and with a little edge highlighting to 'block' out the colours and touch up where I wanted the original colour to show through. I had undercoated once more with "British Armour (Desert)" and I am using GW "Screaming Skull" with white highlights along the edges.


You can see a little more of the stages involved above. I used a yellow/mustard blend to lay down some shaded areas, then mixed in the browns and reds as the dried. One thing I was really impressed by is the amount of time you have to work with glazes, both on the model in defining exactly where you want the pigment to dry, and on the palette. It was quite refreshing to paint for over an hour without having to add a retarding medium or thin down a new batch of paint!

This guy is a Necron Canoptek Wraith, and the first of many Necrons to come. I had dabbled in some glazing of models for existing armies I had already started painting, and the results were so different  to the previous models I decided to start something new for this experiment. I'm sure they will end up looking quite different after a few months of glazing, but perhaps the real test will be in speed and consistency, both of which are a problem at the moment! Looking forward to a few extra tips once the "Painting Pyramid" videos arrive. Keep it up James!

4 comments:

  1. Now you're going for Necrons?

    Hope you're well,
    LDH

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    1. Hiya Leigh,

      I wanted to expand on my weathering projects, and found Ork and Imperial Guard t-shirt saves to be useless against my frequent opponent over here. Bring on the 4+! Just keeping myself out of mischief mostly, and enjoying the (short) summer!

      Cheers,

      Matthew

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  2. Love the work. Completely awesome. would you mind giving me some tips when you have the free time. if so please contact me via e-mail. Thanks. bes1sent@yahoo.com

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    1. Hi 2Step Steph, I tend to post 90% of what i'm up to on the blog anyway, any specific requests?

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