My Catachan Squad

VERY cool models! Now I got what you were doing with the hair... sorry for doubting. That will teach me to have faith on you! HA!

I like the paint job! The cammo is not the way I do it, but yours is VERY effective... I'm not sure, but I think I like yours better than mine. Wow... that sounded really bad! Anyway, in our tradition, we will all push you to improve!

I think that dr!zzt, Kadzik & 02laney are right. Your models would benefit from a nice wash/ink. Laney made an AWESOME tutorial on washing. It would help you. As an alternative, I would also reomend 'Dipping'. I made a nice tutorial (if I may say so myself) that would work WONDERS. Both techniques have pros and cons, and they come down to materials on hand and personal preferences. In my humble opinion...

Dipping
+ Excellent technique for novices or hobbysts with minimal painting experience. You paint basic colors (3-7), then dip (or brush) the model, wait 24 hours, then spray Matt Finish (remove gloss) and base.
+ Produces superior table-top quality models. The dip would produce amazing detail levels of 'black-lining' and 'shadowing' that would produce models of an extremely high table-top quality that require no highlighting nor detailing
+ Masks errors aused by brush control. If your pouch is a few mm off mark, the dipping will cover that 90% of the times... it forgives mistakes attributed to innexperience.
+ Easy to mass produce. If you have 100 skeletons to paint... base 'em with white primer, paint shields and few other items with solid colors and dip. You will be done in no time!
+ Provides SUPERIOR model protection. The dip is a type of varnish, and you have to put a coat of Matt Finish (another varnish) which also is lacker based... so your model will be VERY protected against scratches.
- Higher initial investment. The can of the dip is ~$25... it will last forever, specially if you brush it.
- Longer drying period. After you dip, you HAVE to wait at least 24 hours. It will feel dry after 2 hours (which still very long!) but if you put the Matt Finish the, you see the paint "crack" and go to hell in flames.
- Does not favor further detailing. Once the model is dipped, you can detail it... but you won't get blending or shadowing correctly. So if you are trying to achieve a further definition, you are not going to get it.
- Does not favors further technique development. If the only thing you do is dip, then you won't learn blending or inking or dry-brushing... and forget weathering and NMM. Your models will always look 8 out of 10... but you never pass that point.
- Can never reach Award Winning models. Models seem 'mass-produced' and there are several techniques that you can NOT reach with dipping... so no Golden Daemons for you!

Personally, I prefer WASHING... because I tend to aim towards that elusive 10 out of 10 (right now I'm on a 7.5 if I get lucky!)... but the models I have dipped BLOW my mind. Reduces the painting time significantly and the results are impressive on the table. As a matter of fact, my Catachans WILL be dipped... once I get around to painting again.

Think about what to do with your models. The way you have them is nice... but since they are 13 models (I think), I suggest pushing your limits. I understand how hard is to see a 100+ model army and having to paint it all! In this case, you already reached the MAJOR goal and you could push yourself a little more. You would be surprised!

ABOVE all... we are here for you, backing you up all the way to victory! Good luck, and thanks for sharing your painting adventures with us!!! ... and thanks for the pictures!

Mordheimer wrote:

- Higher initial investment. The can of the dip is ~$25... it will last forever, specially if you brush it.

What are you using?! Normal mordant (I'm not sure it's the correct word. I mean this kind of "paint" to protect wood, which penetrates into wood structure and don't cover but reflects the grains) costs about 5-10$ per litre and is just as good.
It's some kind of sarcastic joke that things with prefics model cost twice+ as much as normal.
Tools for green stuff? C'mon, thats orthodontic and carving tools.
Small drills? I can buy more powerfull, lighter, with more options for the same price.
Undercoat? Right paint in spray is even better.

These are no ordinary complaints We gamers and modelers are colecting our "scrapyard" for converting and modeling: caps, resistors, twigs, sand, pieces of the frame moldings, unused parts of older figurines......and many of use use this overpriced "tools"

They look good. Not so sure about the bright green hair but it could work.

Burndown29 wrote:

P.S. Mord, ill base them after i finish the cleanup painting and get some army painter on them for shading.

So you are planning on dipping them?

Kadzik Yeah its amazing what people will charge.

yes I plan on dipping them, after a bit of cleanup work. and i dont remember who asked, but no, it is not tallarn flesh paint. i use the game color paints from vallejo, cause my FLGS doesnt sell GW paints, because they have a tendency to dry out in the pot during long periods of no using them. what i did was put a dime size puddle of rosy flesh on my wet pallet, and then added a touch of filthy brown for the tan look.

PS Mord, for some reason I have always been good at painting camo schemes. i dont know why, but I never have any trouble with it. i think the trick may be no to try to go too detailed with it, or it starts to look fake. Also, for tiger stripe like these guys are, i try to make sure all the lines go in the direction they would go were the model standing up straight, so if it is kneeling, the stripes on the lower legs are almost vertical, whereas on the upper legs they are horizontal. I am kinda confusing myself trying to explain this, so if you cant follow what im trying to say let me know and ill do my best to clarify