Niops Association Militia

[Giovanni Blasini]

With the new box sets, my wife and I are divvying up the 'Mechs to paint, and I decided to do all of mine in Niops Association Militia colors, now that there's a listed color scheme for them.

I looked up the Niops Association Militia here on CamoSpecs, which lists them as using several historic SLDF paint schemes, though "the majority tend toward a white and gray with blue trim."  I've always liked that look, and settled on that for my color scheme.

So, after prototyping it on a tiny battleforce scale Panther, the first two I did was the next Beginner's Box Set Griffin.  I also had an ood plastic Griffin that needed painting, so I decided to do them both.

Front view:


Right side, to give a closer look at those PPCs:


And back details:


Despite the fact that I suck at painting, I'm still reasonably happy with how these came out.

[Daryk]

If you're happy with 'em, that's all that really matters!  :thumbsup:

[Giovanni Blasini]

If you're happy with 'em, that's all that really matters!  :thumbsup:

Soooo...any critique on the painting itself, or tips?   ::)

[Juodas Varnas]

Soooo...any critique on the painting itself, or tips?   ::)

Honestly, the main thing i see is that the paint seems to be very thick

Were you thinning your paints properly? It's usually better to thin them down too much and simply apply a few extra coats, instead of putting it too thick and hiding all of the details.

Other than that, just putting an ink-wash (things like nuln oil or army painter quickshade wash) to get into the recesses and make the details pop out would do wonders for the minis.

Then you could do some drybrushing on the edges too.

[NeonKnight]

I'm not gonna criticise or anything else, as I know how hard it is to start something, want to be good at it, and then have someone say something, and crush you.

But I do want to ask, can you post a pic of your painting equipment? Brushes & Paints? better to offer tips if I know what you have. I.E. can't tell you how to make an awesome Chicken Cordon Blue, if you only have canned ham, Salt/Pepper & cheese strings (can be done, but I can't tell you without knowing that's all you have ;))

[Giovanni Blasini]

I'm not gonna criticise or anything else, as I know how hard it is to start something, want to be good at it, and then have someone say something, and crush you.

But I do want to ask, can you post a pic of your painting equipment? Brushes & Paints? better to offer tips if I know what you have. I.E. can't tell you how to make an awesome Chicken Cordon Blue, if you only have canned ham, Salt/Pepper & cheese strings (can be done, but I can't tell you without knowing that's all you have ;))

Reaper MSP Starter Paint Set  (Pic was better at Amazon's site than Reaper's own).

This paint brush set

Honestly, the main thing i see is that the paint seems to be very thick

Were you thinning your paints properly? It's usually better to thin them down too much and simply apply a few extra coats, instead of putting it too thick and hiding all of the details.

Not sure what "properly" would be in this instance, though I noticed that as soon as I apply any water at all, the paint seems to want to adhere to the droplet, not the mini.

I've noticed with my WarShip minis, which I did with the same set, the paint doesn't seem quite as thick, and I wonder if I'm putting more on the 'Mech minis because of the white paint in general, or behavior on plastic vs metal minis.  Dunno.

Other than that, just putting an ink-wash (things like nuln oil or army painter quickshade wash) to get into the recesses and make the details pop out would do wonders for the minis.

Then you could do some drybrushing on the edges too.

I'll have to look into that.

[NeonKnight]

OK, cool. Do you have a paint pallet or wet pallet? If not, I recommend this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96mjmqWTPfM

Also, as I am unsure of your age, but even with myself before my vision got as 'old-man-reading glasses' I was using one of these:

https://amatop10.com/best-headband-magnifiers/

Sure, they look kinda goofy, but really help see the upclose details better.

[Major Headcase]

Honestly you've  got good eye for color balance and the drive to get stuck in. At this point my advice is practice practice practice.  :thumbsup:  (one way is to practice on green plastic Army Men from the Dollar Store; no cheaper test models available!)
Advice:
1. A great beginner's trick to paint White models? Use white spray primer and then paint the other colors over that! Then the white color (one of the more difficult colors to paint well for even seasoned painters!) is smooth and even and the other colors will go over it better.
It's one of the reasons I use colored primers; grey, blue, rust, brown, etc. It makes the primary base color clean, even, and fast, which is a real boon when painting large forces, or just getting the base colors uniformly applied.
With the base color so quickly and easily applied, you can focus more time and effort on learning new detail techniques to bring out the models lines; like dry brushing and ink washes. If that interests you.

[carlisimo]

Soooo...any critique on the painting itself, or tips?   ::)

The older Griffin's front cockpit glass is great!  Good color choices, too.

I'd mostly just recommend a second coat on everything - and if you want to try a wash, do that before the second coat.  Start from the inside out, i.e. first the jump jet exhausts and LRM faces, then the white, then the blue.  Don't use pure white - it's best done as light gray with pure white highlights (try drybrushing with the flat brushes).  Looks like you might be using light gray already, but I can't really tell from the photos. 

Oh, and use the larger round brush (the no. 3) as much as possible.  Especially with that set - the bristles look shorter than I'd usually go for, so going bigger might help compensate.  When it no longer holds a point, replace it with a natural Sable no. 2 or no. 3.  Use the no. 1 for detail work and "painting inside the lines".  Even for painting decorations on on 6mm infantry, I personally wouldn't ever use the three smallest round brushes in that set.  They dry up on me before I can bring them up to the mini.

The liner brushes are more specialized - might come in handy for careful applications of a dark wash, but normally only when doing more advanced washing techniques like oil washes or gloss washes over gloss varnish (in either of those cases, the wash will run down the recesses between panels instead of staining the whole surface). 

[Valkerie]

Following some tutorials helped me out a lot when I started backup.  I did the walk-through with the Battlemaster at the back of Total Warfare, the one that came in the 2015 box set for painting the Ceti Hussars, and the one Dave Fanjoy did for painting the Sword of Light in Combat Manual: Kurita.  The techniques I learned from those have proven useful in many other projects.

[Giovanni Blasini]

OK, a few more, though some of these are WIPs.  Click to embiggen:



Group Shot: Shadow Hawk LAM, Wolverine, Unseen Thunderbolt (WIP), Awesome



OK, my Wolverine.  First mini I tried doing after the Griffins, so still rough, but better than the last two at least.  No, I didn't primer it.  Yes, this was undoubtedly a rookie mistake.  And, yes, I'm having issues with the white paint adhering in spots.  This wasn't as pronounced, I think, on the Wolverine or the Awesome, but holy cow does it become an issue on the Shadow Hawk LAM.  You can see I tried to get the sections between the panels in black to highlight some of the details better, with varying degrees of success.



And here's my box set Awesome.  A bit more experimenting here, done at the same time as the WVR, with similar methods.  I still don't feel this one's done, because it could use some cleanup.  Less issues with wearing on the white paint here, because there's more of it.



WIP Unseen Thunderbolt repaint.  Old one was a uniform tan, which is basically serving as primer at this point, and is showing that, yes, I should have been using primer from the start, and therefore was being a big dummy.  I've got one box set Shadow Hawk that's less complete than this I might finish at this point, but going forward after that, I'll be primering everything before I go for this.  My wife uses dark enough colors that it's not an issue for her the same way, but with the white, OMG, is it a problem not to.



Underside of the Shadow Hawk LAM.  And I thought the white paint adhering to the plastic minis was bad?  HAHAHAHAHA!

The grey-painted areas, I think, are supposed to be the legs, but I'm not entirely sure.  This is one of the areas it's hard to line up the sections exactly between the two minis.



Top side of the SHD LAM.  The lack of blue was intentional here.  I'd originally been planning to go with a paint scheme similar to the Grumman X-29, but wanted to try to find each of the 'Mech's corresponding spots on the ASF.  I don't think I was entirely successful, and it's possible they don't line up 100%, but with the wings and fins at least having the top surface white and the bottom surface blue, it's *real* easy to see where they line up when the LAM transforms into a 'Mech. 



Speaking of which, front shot of the SHD LAM.  The dome-like structure on the top of the ASF mode mini disappears entirely in 'Mech mode, as far as I can tell, and the section underneath becomes the 'Mech's chest.  The extra-tiny LL (or AC/2) and LRM-5 appear to both increase in size, the nose forward of the canopy/head ends up on the back somehow.  I can't tell if the arms are supposed to be underneath this or not,  with the hands protected at the rear.  There's also no obvious jump jets in 'Mech mode, at least that I could find.



Side view.  Close-up on my camera is a little soft here, it looks like, but hopefully the details aren't too washed out.



Rear view.  See what I mean about the fighter nose?  That's definitely the top side of it we're seeing, not the underside.  Very weird.

So, yeah, call this round two.  Hopefully it's improved over round one, and we'll see if I can do better on round three.

[Major Headcase]

Terrific improvement!! You've really advanced! Especially on the cleaner lines between colors and the smoothness of the coats! Bravo. Keep it up!  :thumbsup:

[worktroll]

Something to consider - muted metallics on joints, heat sinks, weapons.

I find the best way is to paint black, then drybrush a darker metallic (eg. gunmetal) over it. Or paint dark metallic, and then apply a black wash to that section.

Having these additional details help your mini pop.

[Valkerie]

You are progressing well sir!  8) :thumbsup:  Really like the color combo.

I also agree with Worktroll's comments.  He gave me the same advice and I haven't stopped using it on my gun barrels.

[worktroll]

Another hack - once the matt sealant coat is dry, use a dark fine-tip felt pen to colour in the cockpit glass. It's easier to control than paint most of the time, and leaves what I find to be a pleasing semi-gloss finish.

That's when I'm not using metallic green.

[Giovanni Blasini]

Matte sealant?

[worktroll]

A spray you give your minis a coat of, to protect them. Comes in a number of formats - matt and gloss, which leave the surface flat or shiny, and acrylic or varnish, the latter taking much longer to dry.

I prefer matt finish - looks more "war machine" to me. The point being if you fill the cockpit before you apply the sealant, it matts (or glosses) what you did.

If that makes sense?  I use Humbrol acrylic matt sealant because that's what I can get. USians talk about krylon.

[Major Headcase]

He means a flat or dull coat spray sealant. To protect the paint and remove any glossy shine from the acrylics. Typically the last step to a finished mini.  :)

[Giovanni Blasini]

Yeah, no, my wife uses it on projects.  Just never thought of it on minis.

[Valkerie]

I use it on all of mine when they're finished.  Krylon's Flat Acrylic is my go to.

[worktroll]

It really does help the paint jobs survive handling. Also the flocking.

[Major Headcase]

It really does help the paint jobs survive handling. Also the flocking.

I've been experimenting with a new way of doing ground cover (grass, foliage, etc.) That avoids the very annoying "bald base" syndrome over time. Instead of using soft material flock or static grass, I use mixed texture sand and fine pumice, and paint it like grass... dark green base, drybrush up two or three shades of lighter greens or yellows or browns, depending on the environment. And then adding longer tuft grass (that stuff never falls out!) And larger rocks as... well... rocks...  :)

[Giovanni Blasini]

So, as I'm getting ready for an Alpha Strike campaign, I'm gathering and/or painting my minis again, and I thought I'd share.

First up, a Medium Battle Lance (127 points)



Shadow Hawk SHD-2H
Thunderbolt TDR-5S
Griffin GRF-1N
Wolverine WVR-6R

This next one is best suited to either a Battle Lance or a Command Lance (132 points):



Highlander HGN-732
Highlander HGN-732
Panther PNT-9R
Panther PNT-9R

One of those two lances will be my main lance for the campaign.  The second lance will be this one:



Recon Lance (68 or 72 points)

Phoenix Hawk PXH-1 or PXH-2
Wasp WSP-1A
Wasp WSP-1A (yes, I know it's the Primitive Wasp)
Stinger STG-3R

I've ordered another Stinger mini I'm going to paint in Niops colors on the way.

Last up, I've got one of the smallest Gunpla models out there, a Zaku III, I'm painting in Niops colors, next to one of the new Awesome minis for scale:




Oh, and I've got a bonus Tiny Panther (Panther Cub?) in the shot as well.

[Daryk]

The last image is only showing an imgur error? ???

[Giovanni Blasini]

The last image is only showing an imgur error? ???

Should be fixed now.  One turns out to be more out of focus than I'd realized, though.

[Daryk]

Yep, it's there now, thanks!  :thumbsup:

And yeah, that lower shot is a little blurry...

[Daemion]

Double Griffin!  Both pilots named Jean Claude, by chance?

I'm gonna have to go hunt up that Shad LAM fighter, now. 

[Giovanni Blasini]

Double Griffin!  Both pilots named Jean Claude, by chance?

I'm gonna have to go hunt up that Shad LAM fighter, now.

Got a third one painted now, so not really?

And yeah, the Shadow Hawk LAM is fun.  Gigantic, but fun.

[Giovanni Blasini]

Update on the NAM force:







Yep, finally got my Black Knight.





Also started work on my first Burke tanks.

And now for something completely different: a 28mm scale Nighthawk PA(L) suit:

[Valkerie]

Looking good there sir.  Still liking that blue and white scheme.  That blue just pops against the white.  8)