Ye Olde Inn

Hey there!

I'm currently painting my Mantic undead, and I've collected some pictures from the web as reference. Now I was looking over this image, but I can't find where I got it from anymore, and I wanted to ask the painter how he managed to make the blood so, well, bloody. Does anyone have any ideas? It looks really shiny and wet. I love the effect, and want to try it too:

lots of ways to get similar effects.

One simple option could to brush shiny varnish on the bloody areas.

You could also apply many layers of washes - They get that "wet" look. Perhaps start by normal red, then apply red and black washes.

I would also suggest the varnish solution!

Thanks for the tips!

Well, as other said, you should coat the blood with a shiny material - varnish would be the natural choice, but I got nice results with glue. I'm working on a zombie ogre. I got a Warhammer ogre bull and hollowed out his body to show his intestines. I paited, brushed and highlithed his interior, then covered it with a thick layer of superglue. The thicker layer of "moisture" made it look more gory than with varnish alone.

Then there is the "no metallics" technique, i. e. paint small, very bright and well defined highlights. This is very difficult (I myself definitely can't do tricks like this), as you have to envision how the light would be reflected from a shiny surface from a given point of view. If done correctly, the figures will look really (really!) good from this point of view, but somewhat odd when seen from another angle.

If I want shine I sometimes grab some cheap testors gloss paint. I've never tried it for the blood effect but if I have a really dark model and want black armor to stand out from other black areas Ill paint the armor with the gloss black.

Another cool painting technique I found when googling pictures for inspiration to paint my Ogres:

http://elementgames.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=9

So here we go with some pictures, I used these colours in this order for the prep work (photobucket deleted my pictures):
#1 Primed Halfords Grey,
#2 Undercoated scorched brown (use calthan for lighter bronze/gold, snakebite for mega shiney)
#3 Dwarf Bronze/tin bitz
#4 Dwarf Bronze/shining gold Highlight (Burnished Gold for mentally shiny)

Step 5
Two coats of devlan mud - let it dry thoroughly between each


Step 6 This is a wet palette, I live by the wet palette, it cost me 99p (sponges) and is made from a firebelly tray (lid keeps it wet overnight), wet sponges, and baking paper, capillary action steadily sucks water through to your paint meaning it doesn't dry out so fast.


Step 7
Hawk Turqoise: Frankly the best colour ever released, mixed VERY thin, skimmed milk or less, wet palette stops it from drying out and making another batch of a different consistency.


Alternate Verdigris Mixes/Additions
+Dark Angels Green (usually followed by a 'highlight' of straight HT as above), slightly darker
+Goblin Green - A bit more..gren
+Skull White - Gives a very different (somewhat more realistic) look, you can mix all of the above, play around!
I'm pondering about doing one every weekend or something, we'll see how it goes, I've got a few sets of pictures prepped so I may build up some credit and put out a slew of them in the next few days when my eyes need a break from painting thundertusk horns...

Step 8
Either blob it all over, or concentrate on recesses, I chose the latter:


Step 9
Let it Dry


Done, here's it on a unit of leadbelchers' cannon :

Superb effect! And that wet-palette is amazing! Must try it!

index of more tutorials: http://www.elementgames.co.uk/forums/tu ... ex-t4.html

I bought some cheap ass cans of spray paint yesterday at the Action (Dutch cheap shop), just to test them out on my miniatures, as a cheap alternative for the expensive GW citadel chaos black primer (€12,50). These were only €2,- a can!

One grey matte primer spray, and 1 black matte spray, both acrylic. The black one didn't say it was a primer, so I got the grey one as well, as backup.

I sprayed a cheap mini from Dragon Strike, that I had given a milliput tile base, also 1 plastic base with milliput on top, and one milliput base made from a mold I made from an original HQ base. Just to see how it would stick on plastic and on milliput:



The grey primer coats very well, leaves a smooth surface when applied thinly in 3 layers. I'll post more results when I've painted these bases, to see how the paint holds.
The Black spray also coats pretty well, smooth surface, and no noticable flaws. You can see some dots in the picture, but that's probably reflection from the flash, as I can't make that out in regular light. I'll also post results after I've put some paints on these black coated models/bases.

So far I'm happy with the result. Let's hope the paints will hold on these coats well.

I'm planning on using the primer and the black spray on styrofoam, which I'll use to make dungeon tiles with as soon as I get one of those foamcutters (with the heated thread). Also bought 6 tubes of acrylic paint (blue, red, yellow, green, black, white) for €1,50 at the Action, to use for these dungeon tiles as well, applied on top of the spray primer. I can simply mix the colours for different shades.

That's grey? It looks like you recast it in metal.

Make sure you seal your styrofoam before you spraypaint it.