So, GW and PP each have their own proprietary line of paint: Citadel and P3, respectively. I decided since I'm new to the hobby that I would paint a helljack using each of their paint lines only to see which one I would like better. I'll go through some pictures of each of the jacks being painted so you can see how I did it, then I'll post pics of the final result. Unfortunately, the beginning pictures have been lost on my old phone (which broke) -- here's what I have. The jacks are all metal, but there are some brass edges and glowy bits that break up the giant swaths of grey.
Assembly instructions, as used by me:
1) Open box.
2) There's a LOT of parts.
3) Pick out parts used by this particular jack.
4) Damnit, the crabjacks have way too many nooks and crannies. Resist urge to glue everything together at risk of losing parts.
5) Okay, basecoat everything in black. Back legs and head are glued to body, as well as arms to shoulder plates. This means I have a total of 6 pieces running around.
6) Base with metal color.
7) Eyes and other glowy bits with green. Bright green.
8) Beer.
9) Bronze edging.
10) Now for highlights. Basically, I stepped up the color one step, and applied a really light coat to the areas that light would hit if it were coming straight down.
11) Glue together.
a) After I glue this to the base, I drybrush up from the bottom with black, and touch lightly with a very very dilute wash of dark blue. I was trying to go for a "rising from the shadows" look, so that's what you're seeing in there.
12) Gloss coat.
13) Dullcote
14) Highlight some spots lightly.
15) Gloss highlights.
16) Profit. or blog post.
GW Harrower is up first.
This is after step 9. The base coat is 1:1 Abaddon Black : Leadbelcher. The glowy bits are straight Moot Green that ends up with Yriel Yellow in the mix, and the bronze parts are Warplock Bronze. (All names are from the citadel paint line). This pic shows the distribution of the parts to give you an idea of how I put together the pieces.
This is after highlights. It's subtle, but the bronze gets highlighted with brass, the metal parts with straight leadbelcher.
Now with glow effects -- straight Moot green diluted and washed over the neighboring areas. It's not visible from this angle, but the eyes project light as well. This is after a gloss coat as well, painted straight on by hand.
Dullcoted. At this point, I highlight the center/highpoints of the bronze metallic parts with more brass paint, and then cover those spots with gloss coat.
P3 Harrower was painted using the following colors: Cryx Bane Base (mixed with Menoth White Highlight at a 2:1 ratio for highlights), Necrotite Green (mixed w/ Cygnus Yellow for highlights), Molten Bronze (mixed w/ Exile Blue to shadow instead of highlight), with the same process. Below are finished shots of both.
GW Harrower:
P3 Harrower:
The duo next to each other (P3 on left, GW on right):
Overall Opinions:
- GW paint offers better coverage. It's less watery out of the bottle, so it's a little easier to give a solid fill or a thick coat of paint if needed. I like the way it handles for most purposes. The colors aren't always what I'm looking for, but blending solves that.
-P3 paint is much better at turning into a wash. Being water based and all. It was a little more finicky to give a solid coverage coat, but I suppose that comes with practice. It's also MUCH more lively. The GW paints resulted in a very cold, gritty look, whereas the P3 stuff looked more lively.
Personally, I think I am going to go more with the Citadel paints, as it gives me that "Creeping Darkness" look that I was going for. Hopefully this article gives you some helpful insight as to which paint you'd like to use.
Nice comparison! One note on technique if I may. In my experience, and I think you'll find this reiterated on the web a lot, is that several thin coats result in a superior result than one thick coat.
ReplyDeleteI've been at this for 30 years or so (though the quality of my figures doesn't always show it!), and at this point I almost never put paint straight on a figure without diluting it. Sometimes it is just by dipping the brush in water before I take up paint, sometimes adding a drop of some commercial product onto my pallet with the paint I am going to use. I am no painting expert, but this has generally improved the results I get.
Another piece of free advice (which is worth exactly what you pay for it generally), is poke around on wargame blogs for people who use a "wet pallet". While I do not use one (though I just bought what I need to start over the weekend), the idea is catching on and may actually be valid.
Good luck and keep up the good work! And always remember that whatever works for you is right, no matter what anybody else says.