Army painter Daemons

Johnny KTOU 2012-09-23, 15:45

As I've started painting again, I figured I'd write a quick article about army painter.

Army painter is brilliant when you don't have much time; you only need about 4 steps to paint whole squads with a very good table top effect. It will never be as good as a proper painting with shadings and everything, but the standard are still pretty good.

The 4 steps are:
- undercoat the nodel using a spray with the adequate color
- paint the area of the model and the details
- dip the model in the quick shade can
- varnish and finish the base

The undercoating part is the hard one: the color you spray is not just the undercoat to hold the paint, it is the first coat itself. You need to find which color will be the major color, which color will define your model but remember the final model will be darker once shaded.
For example for my plaguebearers, I used skeleton bone (GW bleached bone) as once shaded you have a brownish-yellowish skin color that fits perfectly. For my tzeentch models (flamers, screamers, daemon prince), I use crystal blue (GW enchanted blue) and for the daemonettes I use plain white (once shaded it gives a very pale skin)

The painting part is when you put all the details on. There is no point doing the most beautiful effects as the shades will probably alter and hide them; this is why the quality will never be as good as a properly painted one. Keep it simple: do the bloodied areas, the weapons, the bones... Do a little highlighting where needed and that should be enough. You can do a lot more, and it will show, but remember that the point of army painter is to paint quickly.

The next part is the dipping. This is the disgusting part... The product itself is sticky and horrible, don't put any on you hands... or on the carpet... Do this outside and use gloves. When the model has been dipped, shake it above the pot to remove most of the excess. Then leave the model to rest and use a very old brush to help the product flow: it sometines get stuck and you end up with a massive puddle on the model... Brush the excess off, but make sure the entire model is covered. It will harden after 12 hours and be completely dry after 24 hours.

The last part is the varnishing and the basing. Be very gentle with the matt varnish spray, otherwise the model will be covered by a thin white film that ruins the whole figurine. Do a quick spray, only once and that will be enough. Remember that you have just dipped the whole model in a sticky product that becomes very hard, so the varnish is not here to protect the paint, but to remove the shining effect.

Need to try and get these 400 points ready now! Very Happy

Fire-Warrior 2012-09-23, 15:59

Wow, they look awesome. I don't think the quality is any less than painting normally. In fact they look sharper and neat and deffo put mine to shame! Nice work. Look forward to seeing your combat squad for the tourney.