Inking and drybrushing- living together

[martin goddard]

This discussion is aimed at wargame figures rather than  vignettes, dioramas and collector pieces.

May years ago (1973) it was almost unheard of to either drybrush or ink figures.

Then there came the patching of lighter colours to bring out depth. This might mean a  blue jacket would have a patch on the sleeve, chest and back of a lighter colour. the a patch of black into the crevices.

Then came along inks and dry-brushing.
I think (??) inks have become the dominant way of finishing of a paint job.

When painting 15mm figures for your gaming army do you use inks, drybrshing, patching or some mix/none??

When did you start/stop using those techniques.

Other techniques you have abandoned  e.g black undercoat?

I don't accept that thee is a best method, rather a preferred one.

martin

[John Watson]

I have always undercoated white due to my eyesight. If I undercoat black I lose the depth of field on the figure.
I started putting a wash, usually black, over my figures about 10 to 15 years ago. If I paint a 28mm figure (rare these days) I use washes of different colours for different parts of the figure.
I only dry brush my bases to bring out the depth and to reduce the blandness of a single colour base. I started this after a CWB day at Weymouth Squash Club as a result of questioning one of the other players whose bases I liked. I can't remember his name but I am grateful to him. This must have been about 10 years ago. Martin or Stewart will know how long I suspect.
John

[Big Mike]

I can remember how tedious it felt painting my first real Wargame army in the late 70's. 25mm Minifig Prussians. What became of them at the hands of my ex-wife is another story!
I now spray a primer usually of the base colour and then add detail in flat colours (pouches, weapons, flesh etc), then a wash, often ending with a highlighting dry brush.
It suits my eyesight and with a simple, lighting base, I am pleased with the result.
It is a better to be pleased than trying and failing to please everyone else.
Mike

[John in York]

I always use a black undercoat for 15mm figures. I also use the black for the deepest shadows.
I only drybrush the bases. I've never had any success drybrushing figures. Too much or too little.
After the base colours I ink all or some of the figure. I then highlight the inked areas and sometimes other areas.
Works for me.

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I'm with Big Mike. I started off with 25mm back in the 70s with good 'ole enamel and white spirit, no shading, but I always put filler on bases and painted them before an application of mixed flock culled from my Dad's model railway supplies. As a rookie with 25mm metals I started with a zinc car body primer (goodness only knows why) but rapidly transitioned to white spray enamel and have stuck with white ever since. I did experiment with black but like Big Mike detail definition with a black undercoat has always been a problem for me and nigh on impossible in 15mm. There was a natural transition to acrylic spray undercoats due largely to availability.
I made the transition to acrylics quite late into the 1990s frustrated with the lack of primary colorways for a 15mm samurai army. I first used drawing ink on some 25mm ECW as well as on my scratchbuilt scenics and then experimented with 15mm. Now it is s.o.p. Flat paint all the figure and detail, ink wash lowlights and to pick out detail then reapply the original colour and paler patches for highlights. Occasionally I'll wash pale uniforms first to better see the detail. This all inevitably includes an element of drybrushing which originally started as adding dust and grime.
I stopped all over flocking bases when I started gaming armies from drier, desert climates and used only small patches of flock for clumps of vegetation and fine sand highlighted in almost white for added base texture. It is only since the Mex Rev that I discovered a mid brown on the textured base covered with fine stone ballast requires very little in the way of highlighting. The dust adds just the right tone while the smaller grit makes the ground uneven but not challenging. A strategic grass clump or two adds character and they are done enough for me. These days it is picking out the detail that is the biggest challenge!

[Leman (Andy)]

Undercoat black, block paint, black magic wash, highlight, satin varnish.

[martin goddard]

Inks are of course more effective with the sharp detail now available on metal 15mm figures.
This detail was not there at the dawn of 15mm.
Possibly a bit less effective on the smooth detail of plastics.

martin

[Leman (Andy)]

Then of course there's 3mm. Definitely white undercoat, paints then soft tone type of ink before varnishing.

[Sean Clark]

I think I'll do a video on this.

My painting varies from week to week. For a long time I would spray a figure in the dominant colour and then add tee detail before using Army Painter dip. I tend to use washes or inks now to speed the process up. The dip (painted on not actually dipped) takes 24 hours to dry really.

Regarding black undercoat, I find a medium drybrush with a light grey helps to define the features and highlights the black parts at the same time. I can then block in the colours, wash and I'm done.

I rarely go back and highlight. For washes, in my experience, you can't beat the GW Agrax Earthshade, Seraphim Sepia and Reikland fleshade. I used these on my Western Posse that I painted in a day a couple of years ago.

The Army Painter washes stain the base colour too much, though I've heard that if you add a bit of liquid soap it helps.

The only time I go back and highlight is if a colour like red or white has gone too dark due to the wash. I'll reapply the base coat as a highlight. I've done this with some AWI Highlanders most recently.

Its a topic I could talk about for hours to be honest 😊

[Smiley Miley 66]

Not sure on the quote "Smooth Detail on Plastic" I think this is only true to how the particular sculpture in how deep the grove, dips, raises and details are, or how  prolific on that particular model; wether is plastic, metal or resin ?
I started doing ink washes on good old Airfix kits in the early 80's after a magazine article in the good old Airfix Magazine.
One thing seemingly for sure Arcylics make shading easier than enamels, well that my own personal view. As using a white spirit based wash etc was time consuming and getting it right did have its problems. Obviously the events and products of today do make it easier as buying washes are very easier straight off the shelf.
Now you can buy so many different washes that it can be confusing, for some of our newer members of the hobby.
As I ve always say nowadays it is about layering. Basic coat, wash, dry brush repeat. Until the colour and effect that you wish to archive is done.
Miles

[Panzer21]

Here's a post designed to make you feel old.......

Back in the Jurassic when I started painting, you had the choice of enamel paint or well nowt really......
If you were lucky, you could get proper Humbrol military colours. Sadly I lived in a rural wasteland where the only enamel available were small pots of gloss. I learned to thin them and so got a sort of semi-matt wash. I remember getting some matt enamel and finding it say too matt and flat with very different handling qualities.
In those days it was block colours; discovering a Rotoring pen led to black lining but that was as sophisticated as it got. Based with flock in lurid green on cardboard bases (my how primitive it sounds now...)
I remember painting some Hinchliffe peltasts (squashed in the mould to be almost demi-ronde) in a rush. One lot in red, the other blue, all with white shields, bronze helmet. There followed a disastrous experiment with some artists matt varnish (must have been out of either Humbrol or household gloss) which ended with them covered in white patches as if they had some sort of mange.....
While they were painted, they looked dreadful. It was that point when I decided if I was going to paint, it may as well be the best I could manage.

My ECW army was the first ever painted really well; I followed the Peter Gilder guide from Military Modelling which was (IIRC) basic colour with hands and faces shaded and highlighted, rest drybrushed. Horses oils on white primer wiped off. Units were copied from MW which had just been published. Put a lot of effort into that army with miliput cannonballs  added to the polyfiller crafted bases (muddy ruts and cannonball furrows).
It was a nice army, sold at Northern Militare (I often wonder what happened to it). It was in the course of adding units that I first encountered acryllics.
GW had just released their first range so I tried them using the same techniques I had mastered. I still remember the yellow coated regiment (obviously painted in the dark) glowing in the light of day for their first battle.......radioactive wasn't really the effect I was after....

As water based paints were more pleasant to use I stuck with them; it was an experimental switch to black undercoat which was the next revelation, leave some black as shade between areas but still shading face and drybrushing highlights. The black also toned down the brightness of acrylics.
It was a natural almost inevitable slide into the Dalymore method which was my downfall......

While I became a very good if slow painter, it also meant I was unable to paint a figure without 4-5 fleshtones  (depends if you paint bottom lips...) and 3 tones on everything else. Switching to predominantly 15mms just meant a smaller area to paint, but I was still using the same techniques....

Painting became a chore. I did paint some 20mms using washes in a rush for a game, but it became the only way I could get motivated.
Things changed again when I embarked on a project bordering on insanity using plastic Spencer Smith figures. These have virtually no detail and what you add is painted on......
For a few years I combined the black undercoat  one colour toy soldier blocked in colours with elaborate Dallymore techniques on 15mms and the odd 28mms until the SS figures became almost the only figures I was painting consistently. The benefit is it teaches accuracy of nothing else.
If you are really interested in this fall into insanity, you can read the background on my blog http://aufklarungsabteilung.blogspot.com.

Just recently, I dug out some old Peter Pig SCW and attempted to finish off a part painted unit.......
It crystallized the realisation that if I want to actually paint everything I want before I depart the World, I need to try some quicker techniques.....
A little at ago I bought some Army Painter shades and have just bought some GW contrast paints for some experiments.
The other alternative seems to be block colours with a wash of either Army Painter or esoteric own formulas of inks and floor polish. Such experiments have never worked that well in the past, and I can see myself having to go back as add highlights.....

My apologies for this lengthy soliloquy.....
Neil

[Colonel Kilgore]

I've been using one of Simon C's approaches described previously on this very Forum: white primer (currently brushed-on Stynylrez), followed by a GW Lahmian Medium-thinned all-over splosh of the main uniform colour. I then block-paint the other colours and brush on Army Painter Strong Dip.

I get some automatic highlighting from the initial wash coat that the "dip" complements quite nicely. And it's all relatively quick.

I do dry-brush the bases too.

Simon

[Big Mike]

So much to good stuff to glean from all these posts.
Sean, that video is awaited with much anticipation.
Mike.

[Leslie BT]

Agreed Martin, over the years you develop styles and techniques that suit you.

I have used graphite sticks, soft artists' pastels, water colour crayons, graphic designers felt markers, oil paint, artists acrylics,  inks, stains, washes, dry brushing, oil washes, glazes, household emulsion, and pretty much every building material, artist's materials going.

And I always use white spray undercoat from Halfords.  Even when I have primed with Tetrosyl primer on plastics.

[Leslie BT]

Go over to Sean's post on painting using all his talents showing several quick methods for your painting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeCofWSG3yE