Painted Halloween Horrors (Zombies) by Studio Miniatures + I need your Help!

[samuraitrev]

Thanks pred. I might try that red cornia tip. I think it could work. Only one way to find out!

[samuraitrev]

Here's some work in progress for Superman.

Stage 1 Preparation
Trim mould lines using a craft knife and a set of mini files. (round and flat files). Don't forget to trim the base too. There's usually a little bit of plastic on the edge where it was attached to a sprue. Ok now super glue your figure to the base. Make sure its standing up straight (check from the front and side angle.) Once the glue is dried mount the figure on something with blue tac. It needs to be secure so you can turn it upside down often with out fear of it dropping off or moving at all An old paint pot/wine cork a piece of plastic or wood cut a piece of stiff card. Basically anything that comfortably fits in your hand where you can paint the model from all angles. Don't paint it while holding it. Here's a few reasons. You will lose smudge the paint job. You will also transfer natural grease from your body onto the figure which will have weird reactions with the paint. They're quite tricky to hold and you may drop it. Lastly some bite you have been warned...

Stage 2 Undercoat/Primer.
I use spray paint. It takes seconds and a can will cover hundreds of figures. Use it in a well ventilated area unless you want spray paint on the inside of your lungs. I spray painted this fella twice. Two thin coats are always better than 1 thick coat. A sculptor has used many hours and considerable talent to get that detail if you spray too much paint on your model you're going to start losing the fine details.
   

Stage 3 Base Coat
Ok once your figure is dry you're now ready to start to bring it to life with your base coat. It's up to you on which order you paint your miniatures. One method is paint from the inside to the outside of the figure. Basically on a human miniature. 1st paint the flesh. 2nd Hair/facial hair. 3rd paint close fitting garments if visible underpants/bras/tights/socks. 4th T-shirts, shirts, vests, blouse etc. 5th trousers/pants. 6th coat/jacket 7th shoes 8th anything they're carrying gun, bag, hand weapon, whatever.

Another method is paint the large areas 1st they could be wearing a huge overcoat that covers most of the figure. Paint that 1st and it feels like it's almost finished your base coat!

The last method is more advanced you paint/shade/highlight each section as you go. For example the flesh has its base coat then a wash/shade is applied and once dried highlights are applied to the face.

Highlighting tips:
(A quick effective method is drybrushing. get a lighter flesh colour than your base coat onto your brush then wipe the brush on a tissue until almost all of the paint has come off then gently rub the brush across the area you want highlighted over and over until you see the raised areas starting to pick up the lighter colours. You can even apply a 2nd even lighter colour highlight but know when to stop. This method is quick but the results can look messy if overdone.)

After that area is highlighted you move on to the next area and repeat. Keep doing this until finished. I've tried to keep this guide simple so you can follow at your own pace with clearly defined stages. If you have any questions please put them in this thread or PM me. I'm on here just about every day.
   

I use Games Workshop paints there's lots of other good quality paints out there too many recommend Vallejo Paints.
All base coat colours have a small amount of water mixed in to thin the paint. Protecting the details is very important.
Flesh: Tallarn Flesh and Elf Flesh mix 50/50
Hair: Chaos Black
Suit: Mordian Blue
Underpants/Boots/Cloak: Mechrite Red
Belt/Badge: Iyanden Darksun

Stage 4 Shading
Ok at this stage you could happily game with your model and from a distance it looks fine but let's take it to the next level and add some depth. We are now going to shade the model here you use a watered down darker colour than your base coat and apply it to each area for example on his cloak mix the red base coat with a dark brown. The mix should be 1 part paint to 2 parts water. This is made a lot simpler and quantifiable using a pipette. 2 drops of water 1 drop of darker paint. When applied the mix should sink into the recesses of the figure and pool/settle there. e.g eye sockets, elbow/knee creases. under the chin/shoulders/groin, define muscle definition and into folds in clothing, fur and hair. If you want to take this further you can add an even darker shade to really shaded areas.

A foolproof shading method I now use is just apply ready mixed shading paint called washes on to each area of basecoat in turn. These washes have a high amount of pigmentation in them so you get concentrated shading in the depths of the miniature.
   
Flesh: 1st a 50/50 mix of Talarn Flesh and Codex Grey 2 drops of water.
2nd Thraka Green
Hair: No shade needed
Suit: Asurmen Blue
Underpants/Boots/Cloak: Baal Red
Belt/Badge: Gryphonne Sepia


Stage 5 Highlighting
Here you can do some drybrushing already discussed. I prefer to layer my paint. Start with your base coat colour and mix it with a small amount of a lighter shade. Or if you have lots of colours just use the lighter colour. The advantages of mixing your basecoat with a lighter colour is they're more likely to match. What you really want here is to build up layers of gradually lighter colours without being able to see the layers. Here's an example on a face there are plenty of places to highlight ridge of nose, brow, forehead, cheek bones, chin, top lip and philtrum and jaw line. A little can be put on cheeks too unless the miniature has recessed cheeks like a zombie leave them shaded. After you've applied the lighter colours to that area now add an even brighter highlight to an even smaller area. eg if you did the whole forehead before now do an even smaller area in the centre. I think about 2 or 3 stages of highlighting usually suffices. Experts will use more. I haven't got the time or talent

Flesh: 1st Rotting Flesh 2nd Rotting Flesh and a small amount of White.
Suit: 1st Mordian Blue and Ultramarines Blue 50/50 2nd one part Mordian
Hair: Adeptus Battlegrey and Chaos Black 50/50
Blue and two parts Ultramarines Blue 3rd Ultramarines Blue.
Underpants/Boots/Cloak: Mechrite Red and Blood Red 50/50 2nd one part Mechrite Red and two parts Blood Red 3rd Blood Red
Belt/Badge: Iyanden Darksun and Badmoon Yellow 50/50 2nd Bad Moon Yellow


Stage 6 Fine Details
Here's where you do all the fiddly little bits you've been dreading! Eyes with or without pupils. Jewelry. Badges/buttons ets. Remember like my example eyes aren't always necessary there's not much point forcing them there. This is how I do eyes. If you have to do them use the smallest brush you've got put a little dip of white at the end and paint a horizontal line across the eye ball - Then a tiny spot of black touch the center. Ideally hit it 1st time if you hit the eye in the wrong place go back to white and repeat. Some people use a black fiber tip pen for the pupil. I've never tried this myself. Another way is paint the eye black and apply a little white to the two edges at the left and right. It's also sometimes good to paint the top part of the eyeball with a dark brown or black to prevent your model looking like its permanantly surprised!

The S logo on his front was painted using the same colours as his cloak. Then Highlighted the same way as the cloak. Blood was painted Terracotta. Shaded with Brown Ink and highlighted around the wound edges and flowing blood with Red Gore.

Stage 7 and 8 Basing and varnishing
This stage is often overlooked or rushed but can make so much difference! This part can cover a thread in its self so here's my article on bases http://www.thezombiegame.com/forums/Thre...our-models

See above in this thread for finished article.
Here's some tips
Be patient, don't rush.
Get good quality brushes you can't go cheap here
experiment be brave it's amazing what you can find out
research and read what you can. You can always learn more.
Practice

To get the flesh look on the Dead Bee use the same flesh base coat as superman and use a watered down Thraka Green wash. I didn't even use a highlight. Quick and easy! Rotten Grey is Fortress Grey basecoat. Leviathan Purple Wash and Highlighted with 1st Astronomican Grey Fortress Grey 50/50 2nd just Astronomican Grey.

Hope this helps Now get painting and show us the pics.
   
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[phantomninja]

A great step by step, this makes painting seem so easy and quick. Another great look into Samurai's terrific painting method! +1 rep for that.