St.Germaine
12-27-2011, 03:24 PM
A while back I got started on an idea for an IG regiment that I've wanted to do for a long time, a regiment based on the American Civil War Union army. I would like to get back to painting them but I need to improve them more than a bit in order to get revved up for painting in the volume necessary for IG. I've been a decent painter for a long time but have always had a problem with fabric. Armor, vehicles, monsters, and the like have always looked pretty decent but getting fabric to look good has not gone well for me. I'm looking for two things, 1)fabric painting tutorials that demonstrate techniques for painting large numbers of figures and still have them look decent and 2)specific color suggestions.
1)I've found some fabric painting tutorials that involve several levels of layering, shading, and blending; while this is great for individual figures, this process is ill-suited to the number of figures involved in an IG regiment. I'm a fairly slow painter and am prone to worrying about details more than necessary when painting large blocks of figures than I probably should be. Hints for speeding up the process or links to tutorials that cover this would be most appreciated. A big problem is that the uniform is two toned, very dark blue jackets and pale blue pants. Therefore, techniques such as dipping seem inappropriate for this army.
2)My base colors are very similar to GW's Citadel Foundation range Necron Abyss and Citadel Colour range Space Wolf Gray. Dark blue as a base color has similar issues to black (at least for me) in regards to shading and highlighting. It all looks like a big dark blob, even after adding some gold for the eagle and the twin rows of gold buttons on the Union jackets. Some specific suggestions for items that could be highlighted and or shaded to make this area of the figures less of a dark blue blob without changing the whole concept would be nice. I've toyed with the idea of perhaps having the plates on the torso be a slightly different color of blue to give it some depth but have not experimented with this yet. I suspect that a slightly paler shade would be best but I'm open to all suggestions.
The pants are a different problem altogether. The creases/folds on the legs should make this an easier exercise but I've not been happy with the results. This should be easier for suggestions to fix I'm hoping (particularly if I can find a tutorial that streamlines the process). Then I would need only specific suggestions that have worked for others in regards to color to use for the depths of the folds/creases and a color to use for the highlights.
Any suggestions will be most appreciated.
1)I've found some fabric painting tutorials that involve several levels of layering, shading, and blending; while this is great for individual figures, this process is ill-suited to the number of figures involved in an IG regiment. I'm a fairly slow painter and am prone to worrying about details more than necessary when painting large blocks of figures than I probably should be. Hints for speeding up the process or links to tutorials that cover this would be most appreciated. A big problem is that the uniform is two toned, very dark blue jackets and pale blue pants. Therefore, techniques such as dipping seem inappropriate for this army.
2)My base colors are very similar to GW's Citadel Foundation range Necron Abyss and Citadel Colour range Space Wolf Gray. Dark blue as a base color has similar issues to black (at least for me) in regards to shading and highlighting. It all looks like a big dark blob, even after adding some gold for the eagle and the twin rows of gold buttons on the Union jackets. Some specific suggestions for items that could be highlighted and or shaded to make this area of the figures less of a dark blue blob without changing the whole concept would be nice. I've toyed with the idea of perhaps having the plates on the torso be a slightly different color of blue to give it some depth but have not experimented with this yet. I suspect that a slightly paler shade would be best but I'm open to all suggestions.
The pants are a different problem altogether. The creases/folds on the legs should make this an easier exercise but I've not been happy with the results. This should be easier for suggestions to fix I'm hoping (particularly if I can find a tutorial that streamlines the process). Then I would need only specific suggestions that have worked for others in regards to color to use for the depths of the folds/creases and a color to use for the highlights.
Any suggestions will be most appreciated.