Oil Paint on a Brass Scorpion...

[Deacon Ix]

First off I am not good at painting, so when I got a Brass Scorpion I did realise that I could never paint it to the standard of the majority I see on the internet so I thought I would try something different and here are the results: -

It's done by floating oil paint on water and then rolling the components in to pick up the paint, this was my first attempt on a model (I did experiment on other stuff before!) and I do intend to do a few more as it is a really easy of getting a nice effect with out being any good...

I hope you find the effect interesting, I apologise for the quality of the rest of the model...

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=15395&d=1439477426
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=15396&d=1439477426
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=15397&d=1439477426
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=15398&d=1439477426
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=15399&d=1439477426
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=15400&d=1439477426

[Cactus]

Whoa, that looks awesome!

Can you explain a little more the process? Are you dipping the parts into a tub filled with water and has the oilpaint floating on the surface? Or are you mixing the colors on the models with a base layer of water?

[CoffeeGrunt]

That's a really cool effect! I'm with Cactus, could you go into a little more detail on how you did it?

[Wolfshade]

I'm not good at painting... I might disagree
.

Great job

[Gotthammer]

I might disagree

Me too - looks awesome!

Also this is the technique:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lifz4jC6BSg

[Deacon Ix]

Cheers for teh replies!

Gotthammer has got it mostly right with the video except I dipped in afterwards rather than put the model in first.

I'll post something a little more complete on Sunday as I have to dive off now

[Kirsten]

that is a genius idea, and looks incredible

[Morgrim]

What are you sealing with, and when? I know with using oil paints for weathering you paint the model, seal with gloss spray, apply the oil paint and do all the affects and then reseal a few days later. Do you do the same technique?

[Deacon Ix]

Thanks for the interest! - I decided to try this technique out as the best my painting could be described as was "you can paint with in the lines..." but cheers for the compliments!

I basically wanted to do something cool on my scorpion but lacked the conventional skills to do so and remembered years ago doing oil on water or 'Suminagashi (http://suminagashi.com/)' as I have now found out!

I read up what I could find about oil paints on models and painting over acrylics, like painting a varnish over to stop the oil paint (mostly the thinner in fact) dissolving the acrylic.

I had played around with oil paints on models to see what they did.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/dv8_eve/Models/th_2015-08-17%2017.43.55_zpskcrrbzlb.jpg (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dv8_eve/media/Models/2015-08-17%2017.43.55_zpskcrrbzlb.jpg.html)

And I did a few trial runs with different undercoats / base layer, varnishes (gloss/matt), different thinners (White Spirit/linseed oil) and different paint constancies.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/dv8_eve/Models/th_2015-03-30%2022.43.36_zpso3txlcfs.jpg (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dv8_eve/media/Models/2015-03-30%2022.43.36_zpso3txlcfs.jpg.html)


What are you sealing with, and when? I know with using oil paints for weathering you paint the model, seal with gloss spray, apply the oil paint and do all the affects and then reseal a few days later. Do you do the same technique?

I found that if you used gloss the oils ran a lot more (as to float on water they had to be thinner) so for the above samples I used Matt Varnish (Humbrol) before and after. But for the actual scorpion I didn't use any pre varnish at all as having done some samples the oils didn't seem to have any detrimental effect on the acrylics without the varnish and the oils ran less. Which on a shaped surface was desirable.

The scorpion was undercoated black (citadel) and I then airbrushed it with black, just to get a more even coat.

I thinned the oils with white spirit, basically by eye to a constancy that was thin enough to float on water but think enough not to run.

Filled an ice cream tub with distilled water, I had found that using my tap water it dried with a slight mineral crust in places, so just used battery water from the local Halfords.

I used measuring syringes (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005Y3TI3I?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00) to drop the paints on the water, in a fairly random pattern, and then used the end of an old paint brush to swirl it together a bit.

The actual process took about half an hour to do all the parts that needed the effect - I just dipped them in, some with a bit of a roll.

The water and oils had to renewed several times as the paint was used up, if a part came out that I wasn't totally happy with just redipping then came up with a new pattern.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos during the process as it was amazingly messy and oil paints don't come off easily.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/dv8_eve/Models/th_2015-06-19%2017.14.57_zpset8juozf.jpg (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dv8_eve/media/Models/2015-06-19%2017.14.57_zpset8juozf.jpg.html)http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/dv8_eve/Models/th_2015-06-19%2017.16.01_zpssduclcrj.jpg (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dv8_eve/media/Models/2015-06-19%2017.16.01_zpssduclcrj.jpg.html)http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/dv8_eve/Models/th_2015-06-19%2017.15.49_zpsw4jomtgf.jpg (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dv8_eve/media/Models/2015-06-19%2017.15.49_zpsw4jomtgf.jpg.html)http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/dv8_eve/Models/th_2015-06-19%2017.15.04_zpsimy2m9am.jpg (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dv8_eve/media/Models/2015-06-19%2017.15.04_zpsimy2m9am.jpg.html)

It took a good 5 days to dry and I left it for a few more after that to make sure before I did any more.

Once dry I blacked out the parts around the plates and then varnished the oil paints on the surface of the plates, 'Ard coat' brush on on the plates on the main body and spray gloss (Humbrol) on the removable plates, mostly to get a shiny finish on them.

Plates where then edged with Vallejo Red Gold

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/dv8_eve/Models/th_2015-07-16%2021.27.24_zpskwvdur2f.jpg (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dv8_eve/media/Models/2015-07-16%2021.27.24_zpskwvdur2f.jpg.html)

and the rest of the detail done with a black wash over any metallic part to dull it back a bit and give some depth.

It's not perfect but I am happy with the result.

I have a little bit of an issue as although the surface of the plates are varnished the rest isn't yet and I haven't decided how barring getting some brush on Testors Dullcote or matt varnish.

I am pleased with the way it came out and am intending to do my Eldar in a similar way.

[Psychosplodge]

That is very pretty.

[Morgrim]

Since the plates are large, fairly flat surfaces you might be able to mask them and then spray seal the rest of the model in a flat coat. Test first of course but painter's tape should be okay to use to tape some butcher's paper over the plates. You might get a bit of duller area on the gold edges but that shouldn't be too noticeable.

Don't use newspaper. The solvents in the spray WILL make the ink run. I learnt that one the hard way.