andy

Stahly being a mensch: https://taleofpainters.com/2022/09/top-tip-visual-comparison-of-all-61-contrast-23-speedpaints-24-gsw-dipping-inks/

Buy the cool new stuff, and sell the moldy old stuff through Mindtaker. Life is short, enjoy the ride.

Man, I miss Zgames. So many good memories

I think most paint lines are pretty good nowadays... I mostly use Vallejo paints though have started adding Scale Color, which I really like. They have high pigment density so are great for glazing, and dry super matte. GW paints are good, but like people have said their bottles are craptacular. I use their shades and Contrast (stupid expensive but pretty useful) lines as washes and glazes but am transferring them over to dropper bottles. Next time I order paint (afaik there isn't a decent source for paints in Portland/Vancouver so I mail order) I'm definitely going to add in some Pro Acryl -- I hear their Titanium White is awesome. I tried a few bottles of Army Painter but didn't really care for them, the colors I had were pretty thin and chalky but I probably just got unlucky. Every paint line has great paints and stinkers, I probably just chose the stinkers. AP has a lot of fans so they must be alright. If I were starting over, I don't think I'd buy a mega-set. I suspect there's a lot of dead-wood colors I wouldn't use very often. Maybe I'd pick up a basic set and add to that depending on the colors included.

Finished the 33-ork batch. Hooray for Contrast paints.

Progress... but 33 boyz is probably too large a batch 🤯

'Ere we go!

Trukks are boring, so I painted Makari instead.

Trying a new technique I've named "zenithal weathering" -- by leaving a model on a shelf for a really long time, I slowly build up an initial layer of dust that adds an authentic lived-in feel to the model. You can see the effect best on the primed trukks in the pic below.

Hmmmm, decisions decisions... the pile o' shame is wide, and deep. Ok, sticking to the fundamentals: 4 ork trukks painted and ready to WAAAAGH! by the end of June.

They've improved it a lot since I last checked it out well over a year ago. I'll be using it to make PDFs to dump on my iPad. Thanks for the pointer.

I've got one more week before my 2nd vaxx dose takes, and my lockdown 'ends'. In celebration here's a psychopatic assassin I just finished:

Here's Lena doing what cats do.

This is Chloe getting some laser treatment at the vet, before she crossed the Rainbow Bridge. 😎 .

Yeah, my complaints are purely thematic. Didn't even consider the relative strengths of the writing, storyline, etc.

The Boys Season 2 -- They removed most of the humor present in the first season and replaced it with nastiness. I made it roughly half-way through the season before pulling the ripcord.

Finished the unit. Not finding white to be much fun to paint. Gonna try a unit of Allarus Terminators. If they're just as tedious, gonna backburner this project.

Congratulations!

Brushes are a very personal thing. Use what feels right and works for you, there's no universal answer. Some people find high-end sable brushes to be a waste of money. I love them; I have a W&N Series 7 #1 round that I've been using almost daily for going on two years... seems like a pretty good investment to me, a lot cheaper than synthetics (which for me last maybe a month before the tip hooks) in the long run. I use W&N Series 7 for layering and edge highlighting, but for glazing I use the Raphael 8404. I have a Da Vinci that's great for fine details. For metallics and washes, I use whatever synthetic brushes I have laying around cuz those paints are murder on natural hair brushes.

I use The Masters brush cleaner for regular cleaning. For brushes that have been victimized by washes and metallics, I'll first give them some time with W&N Brush Cleaner and Restorer then some TLC with The Masters soap. I rinse a brush out in water, then circle it around the Masters soap a few times. I swirl it a bit on the back of my hand, then rinse it out with water. I then give it a quick swab across the Masters again and give it a twirl to restore the point. The Masters works as a leave-in conditioner as well as a soap... so helps preserve the tip. Just give the bristles a quick rinse in clean water before using the brush again. Also, I'll give the Masters a wipe with a paper towel to keep it clean. The W&N stuff is serious business. It'll de-gunk dried in place paint, even out of the ferrule. It's kind'a magic. It'll also strip the paint off the handle of the brush. And it doesn't damage natural hair bristles. Like I said, magic.

Man those are disgustingly awesome.

Yeah, kind'a feels like this thread is winding down. I still like it though, will be fun to look back on when covid is a distant memory. Anyways, here's the test model for my Solar Watch Custodes.