Hey guys monkey here, i recently picked up the new plastic model stegadon he's all assembled and ready to get some paint on him over the week! However im a fairly new and pretty average painter at this current moment in time, so i thought instead of screwing this beautiful minature up ill ask you guys! So i was thinking painting him red, what colour should i start off with? Then after that what should i do? If anyone knows a step by step painting thread (bar the one on the GW site) id appreciate it, or if anyone has some time do they mind guiding me through? I know this is asking alot but im really quite stuck here. Thanks monkey
I would suggest painting up a few other models first to get a bit more of a feel for painting, you are right it is a huge and centrepiece model. If you don't have much else, at least paint the skink crew before the rest. And since all of the LM army is effectively lizards with scales and skin, you can experiment with the scheme for your stegadon on a smaller model to see how it looks before tackling him. I think one of the most important things you learn as you develop painting skills is confidence though, same with converting. When you start out, you are afraid to make a mistake so you are afraid to try. I went through that with lots of early models not getting too much paint. Just remember, it is easy enough to paint over mistakes, or if they are painted on thick it can be stripped back and started again. Don't be afraid to get it messy and try new things, you will never get good at the more advanced techniques like highlighting if you stick to drybrushing. Sure the first few tries might look a bit off, but just keep practicing, post pics of what you have done and get feedback. As to the red stegadon, there are several ways to get red and many different shades of red. What kind of red are you looking for? How light or how dark do you want it? You can go for a fairly dark and neutral red/brown look, or go pure red and highlight up to a blood red look, or even make it really bright and highlight up to orange/yellow as I have done with my carnosaur and skink scales. As a general basic guide, you should aim to have 3 tones of the colour and the middle one will be the look you are trying to achieve. The darkest will be the base coat which you apply first. Then a mixture of the dark and middle for a coat over almost all of it, leave the deeper areas alone. Then the straight middle colour leaving a little bit less alone. Mixture of middle and light, and finally light. The 3 colours might be scab red --> blood red --> blazing orange, or scorched brown --> scab red --> blood red, or whatever tone and look you are going for. Also the thickness or thinness of the lightest colour will change how the model looks, and applying washes at various stages helps to smooth your highlights and add depth where you may have missed. As an example, here is my WiP carnosaur: (Looks like Sammy disabled url tags so you will have to highlight it) http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc80/strewart/Lizardmen/carnosaur.jpg It started off with scab red as a base coat, then had 50/50 scab/blood red as a first thick highlight followed by straight blood red. Then it got a coat or two of red ink which is why it is shiny in the red areas. Then a highlight of mechrite orange, and finally a very light highlight of bad moon yellow. Now it needs a bit more ink/wash to blend it all a bit better. In hindsight, I should have done more between blood red and orange, but there ya go. Hope that helps.
Thankyou so much for that long reply, really helped, erm yep ive painted a few skinks using different schemes, ive decided on a purple skin colour with orange scales here are some pic's And here are some using a different paint scheme ( i applied a wash over this one after however i dont have any pics with the wash sorry.) Erm as for the colour scheme on my steg id like a fairly dark red however not to dark, im so unsure on how to go about this tho as you can see from those pics im a very average painter however i am getting better , what colour's and what order do you suggest? Thanks!
Your painting is plenty neat enough, it takes some people a lot of time to even attempt eyes let alone do them decently. It isj ust a touch flat and thick. You should water down your paints a little bit first. It will take more than one coat, but several thin coats is better than one thick coat. Definitely helps to bring out the detail. I think all that I would be suggesting to improve this model is basically in my first post. Use one or two extra shades and layer the model a bit. Try getting a yellow, thinning it down a fair bit, and putting it just on the raised areas of the scales. Once it dries it will be a lot duller than it started since it is a thin coat, most of the orange will still show through. Then get another slightly thinned down mixture of yellow and put it just at the tip of each of the scales down the back and a dot right in the centre of all the other scales. See what you think of that. I'm not too familiar with purple colours, maybe just mix a tiny bit of white to the one you used and carefully run it over the raised areas. A wash will definitely help the body, and cover up any mistakes you may make with the lighter colour. For a dark red on the steg, try going scorched brown > scab red > blood red. A bit of ogryn flesh or devlan mud should make it look good, though you may need to bring it up a bit lighter before putting the wash on as it might not show through a mostly brown/scab red. You will have to experiment a bit and see what you like. Good luck!
For your golds I recommend this GW link http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?community=&catId=cat40018&categoryId=400021&aId=11600012 I now use it on all my models. The colors are good, I would go with the lighter purple and maybe put the orange on the shield too. Other then that add a little water to the paints, remember a bunch of thin coats is better then a thick coat.