Struggling with the red

[Valkyrion]

So far I've tried:

Black Undercoat, mechrite red, layer blood red, highlight - it works, but takes beyond my attention threshold to paint a single mini

 

Black undercoat, mechrite red, overbrush blood red, highlight - it works on marines, but not tanks. But it looks...I don't know...messy.

 

White undercoat, blood red, mud wash shading, highlights - as above but not as good

 

White undercoat, blood red, sepia shading, no highlight - as above

 

Dragon Red basecoat (army painter), dark tone dip - not as good as the pictures on army painter make you believe, doesn't work on tanks very well

 

Dragon Red basecoat, overbrush blood red, mud shade, highlight - looks like the first option, is quicker than the first option, but doesn't work on tanks.

 

And various slight differences in between.

 

So I'm struggling a bit to find a decent, relatively quick way of painting red that works for both marines and vehicles.

 

Any suggestions? I've tried the tutorials on here and they don't work for me, either because I'm doing it wrong, or I'm doing it right but finding it takes too long. The dragon red, incidentally, if a superb spray, giving excellent coverage and a nice basecoat IF you can find a way to highlight and shade it properly.

[Brother-Captain Devlonir]

Maybe you should try:

Dragon Red Basecoat

Shading with Devlan Mud (either full covering or only recesses)

cover non-shaded areas with Blood Red

(optionally) highlight with blazing orange

 

I use your first option myself with 2 layers of red usually before shading instead of highlighting (i like my red to look a bit darker, so add depth with shading preferred over highlighting) and I know it takes quite some time to finish. but the end result is worth it and I dont paint on deadlines for tournaments or whatnot, I only paint for myself and my own collection.

 

Still, I didn't see what I posted up above as one you tried yet. Might be worth it and it's a 3 step process without highlighting.

[Liath]

Recently, i tried :

Basecoat white (GW Spray paint), Blood Gore Red (50% Blood Red + 50% Red Gore), Shade with really thin layers of 50% Blood Gore Red + 50% Scorched Brown + Hint of blue (just the tip of your brush), and highlight with 50% Blood Gore Red + 50% Blazing Orange (thin layers).

 

It's a lot of mixes, gives great results but not very quick.

 

 

Edit:

Realized you really wanted a quick way of doing it, so:

 

Basecoat white, Blood Gore Red (described above), Wash with Devlan Mud, Drybrush Blood Red, Highlight with Blazing Orange.

[boopmaster9000]

Depending on where you live, I'd suggest finding a name brand primer. Actual primer, not the spray paint from GW. Doing some research will go a long way regarding this. The color you want is a gray, a warm gray if you can find one.

 

Next is the fastest way that I've achieved, but bear in mind I assembly line 5 minis while I do this, so maybe not as fast as other methods:

(Vallejo-GW)

Scar Red-Red Gore 1:1 water basecoat

Scar Red- Red Gore with Bloody Red-Blood Red 1:1:2 water

Badab Black wash 1:1 water, pin washing detail. These should be thin layers and dry fast so moving fast on this step is no biggy.

If you have gone out of the detail too much, go over them with the Red Gore/Blood Red mix.

Paint your major surfaces with Blood Red.

Highlight as you please, I personally use dwarf flesh with blood red.

 

As for tanks, well I haven't tried it yet...

[cowboy3569]

Valkyrion,

 

This is a subject that i am sure is dear to the heart of many a BA player and collector. Obviously its hard to give the correct advice as the end result you desire will be very singular to you.

 

The recipe i use is as follows: (all GW paints)

 

Undercoat - Chaos Black Spray

Basecoat - Mechrite Red.

Wash- Devlan Mud.

Drybrush - blazing orange then vomit brown.

Overbrush - 50/50 mix mechrite and blood red. (now i may be misusing the term overbrush here, i actually apply this not in a brybrush manner but just normally as if i was applying a layer but i leave the edge highlights from the drybrushing visible. On that you could always ignore the drybrush and do edge hihglights but I'm not that great at them so i try to keep them to a minimum)

Wash - Baal Red.

 

Like i say this may or may not be to your liking, There's some pics of my mini's in my Blog and galleries if you wanna look and if you look in my Topic Strike Force Sendini theres a link to the page on CMON where I was intorduced to the 50/50 mix that helped me so much.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cowboy.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Black undercoat, mechrite base, then a very thin, watery coat of blood red. Seems to work reasonably well on marines, but slightly trickier for tanks.

[Emperors Immortals]

Try your first method with a last wash of baal red, and try to do 5 marines at a time - works for me.

[Brother Captain Kezef]

I favour a black undercoat, mechadendrite red followed by red gore. It gives a good solid base for further highlights and details and if you are not a fan of painting (like me, I'm a game not a painter damn it!) it's fine as is for rank and file.

[SnorriSnorrison]

Hi there,

 

I had this problem as well, and I didn't find foundation-colours to be satisfying, at least not mechrite red for my rather bright shade of red. So, i switched to a white foundation, which solves the problem of things getting messy.

 

But what then? I experimented with pure blood red, put some washes on it(and it got messy again!), so I thought it might be a good idea to use paints from oter manufacturers, in this case Vallejo.

 

Bloody Red + Blood Red + Water(1:1:1) is the recipe I'm using right now. The advantage of Bloody Red is that it covers pretty good with one coat and therefore you can build up the real tone in the following steps, i.e. the blood red coats are thin but cover quite well.

 

After that, shades need to be done. First, I thought that just a wash could be the way, but it didn't look right to me. Not strong enough, and all them washes are not quite what I was looking for. Even though, I recognised their value as glazes. I strongly thinned Baal Red down and glazed it over the miniature, 2-3 times. The shade is exceptional, speaking deep but bright at the same time.

 

So, the depth has been added, now on to the real shadings in the recesses: I mix Scorched Brown and Blood Red(about 1:1) and paint it straight into the recesses, done. :cuss

 

After that, we need some highlights. It's not important if you use Tanned Flesh(check out Vahouth's thread, nice stuff indeed) or Blazing Orange with some yellow(my receipt, for example), just do some highlights. Pure red without any highlights looks a bit flat.

 

 

Well, yeah, that's it. That's how I paint and probably the reason I haven't finished something while I should. Ah well, RL keeps kicking in all the time. ^^

 

 

Snorri

 

 

 

Edit:

Following IronKobra's example, here's a pic. Okok, those guys were actually primed black then pink, but you get the idea. ;)

 

http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/ad309/Snorrinorrison/BILD0425.jpg

[Valkyrion]

Cheers all. It's the washes I'm trying to avoid. They work really well on the marines but you can't get proper coverage on a tank with the large flat areas.

 

I sprayed a 'spare' tau devilfish with the dragon red and filled in the gaps between the armour plates with mud, which works and I don't mind doing things like that with a wash, but it only works inasmuch as provides some shading - the following highlights still don't work right.

 

I know a tau vehicle is a different shape to a rhino and so it can't be exact, but I tried highlighting the square areas with blood red to one of the oranges and it's not nice.

 

Maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and spray a rhino - dragon red base with a couple of light drybrushes with orange and shade with mud. The theory is sound....

[SnorriSnorrison]

I also did highlights on my tanks, just as washes, or glazes in this case. If I paint tanks, I also add Gory Red(Vallejo) to the Bloody Red/Blood Red mix and then layer some Blood Red over that. Then I proceed just as described above, but more shadings between the armour plates.

 

Snorri

[IronKobra]

So far I am using the method:

 

- Black Basecoat

- Mechrite red

- Wash 50/50 baal red & mud

- Layer 50/50 blood red & Mechrite red

 

This leaves a great base to highlight as you prefer. I will be doing up to orange and then glaze baal red to tone it down. it looks a little like this:

 

http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab36/IronKobra84/WIPSternguard38.jpg

 

For vehicles, Jawaballs has had some lovely looking tanks using the Armypainter Dragon red (watch his youtube vids) but he primes the tanks BLACK FIRST! then kind of an over spray of the dragon red. I immediately bought a can of the red after seeing his results. Watch his vid and you'll see how the black primer gives the pre shade in the deeper areas. After the red had dried you can just over brush with your chosen method of doing red.

[NeopoleonOz]

They work really well on the marines but you can't get proper coverage on a tank with the large flat areas.

 

Hi mate,

 

If you have access to a GW spraygun or an airbrush, the washes work very nicely on tanks... you dont get that splotchy finish.

 

Cheers

[capitalist1]

All I do is this?

 

Base with Red Gore(scab red will work too.)

 

2-3 layers of Blood Red(really to whatever you desire)

 

Wash in red ink.

 

 

Enjoy.

[Brother Captain Kezef]

My bane is gold, still havn't finished painting up my SG properly (most of it is fighting in black undercoat). I love playing 40k but I find painting to be a chore and it takes me forever to get the motivation.

[Judaz]

I use two spray colours, first white and then AP's pure red. But I'm looking for that really red colour. One wash with baal red and then I use an old can of GW's ruby red on the parts I want to be more red than the rest. Blood red works aswell, but ruby is a bit more...erh...red. I also highlight with vermin brown instead of blazing orange beacause I want to keep them red, not orange.

 

Wow, when I read what I've written, it seems like I want my marines to be red, really really red. And then I look a little to my left and see my computer, all red and nice. ;)

[Redfinger]

Get an airbrush, airbrush the marine "Vallejo Black Red", then airbrush the highlights "Vallejo Flat Red" Then hand paint the edges a 50/50 mixture of "Vallejo Falt Red" and Vallejo Sky grey" then the final highlight is about a 30/70 mix of the smae colors on only the most extreme edges, the ta-da, there you have it, a painted/high-lighted marine in under 15min.

 

Ashton

[captain Angel]

I use these steps

 

spray skull wight

base coat mecharite red

paint blood red

wash Baal red

dry brush blood red

 

this is how i paint my Blood angels

[Volchek]

Hmmm...

 

I struggled with my Blood Pact IG tanks, which were a dark blood red.

 

I used the AP Dragon Red and then mixed up a large batch of Les Bursley's Sepia Wash recipe (AwesomePaintJob.com). I have a cheap single action external mix airbursh and a small compressor that I only use for washing an assembly line of troops and for "even" wash coverage on vehicles. This works like a charm and is not that expensive.

 

After base, highlights, and wash I pick out the details like icons, lights, weapons, etc.

[gabrionus1]

I really prefer

 

priming- skull white

base coat-blood red

wash-flesh wash in recessed areas only (old GW ink)

highlighting-blazing orange or some other orange that is more red than yellow

[Red Fury]

I haven't seen the recipe I use so I'll throw it out there:

 

-prime white (I use Armory primer)

-spray lightly with AP pure red (no need to worry about full coverage, just a good start)

-paint with Vallejo Bloody Red diluted with water about 2:1 (you don't need to dilute it too much or it won't cover at all)(this step you cover all the parts the spray inevitably misses and also changes the Pure Red color to the Blood Red color.)

-wash with Ogryn Flesh wash. (Mud is too dark and messy, sepia doesn't do enough)

-highlight edges with Blazing orange (don't drybrush just line highlight the edges)

-highlight tips with Fiery orange (for just the highest points)

-wash with Baal red wash (this ties all the highlights and reds together making it look a lot more cohesive)

 

It looks like a lot of steps but there are two sprays and two washes in there, it's actually very quick.

Works great for marines, not so much for tanks because of the washes. You can do it, you just paint the washes into the recesses and avoid the flat panels. It's OK, just not as deep looking as I'd like.

[shan vener]

well heres how i do my red

 

mechrite red

DONE

 

seriously it looks pretty good just on its own (will post pictures when the camera memory card decides to work ;) )

[pate]

I followed gw's guide on painting blood angels, except that after 2-3 marines I changed the basecoat from som brown to mercherite red. Been struggling with the blood red, takes quite a few layers to get it right and my first couple marines looks quite sloppy. Partly because the brown I used as base didn't really help getting a good coverage of blood red. Also I just bought a citadel spraygun which seems to be handy. Based a few marines, going to spray them blood red next. Going to be interesting to see the results. Anywho it has to be faster to get a good coverage than by paint brush.

[capitalist1]

My bane is gold, still havn't finished painting up my SG properly (most of it is fighting in black undercoat). I love playing 40k but I find painting to be a chore and it takes me forever to get the motivation.

 

I have a quick and good method for Gold.

 

Base the model with Tin Bitz

 

Then Use the Vallejo antique gold, give it some decent coverage IE like a very heavy drybrushing.

 

Then use the Badab Black wash, dont be afraid to use the wash either.

 

Then mix one drop of Vallejo Silver with 3 drops of the same antique gold and lightly drybrush the model.

 

This should give a very good ancient gold effect. If it ends up too bright, then add another light dose of badab black and vice versa.

[Brother Nathan]

see the thing is everyone sees the red they want differently. i dont like the blood angels red, but like my own. which changes quite often throughout the army. i like to think that the paint would age in a way the longe it is in my chapters service, lol.

for me i find the best thing-chaos black, mecherite red, red ink(good luck getting anythough) wash with very waterd down chaos black(though the black wash might work, corrections with red gore. and some models have warlock purple in just before the inking.

it very much depends on how bright or dark you want to go. for my blood letters i simply chaos black under coat, drybrush white, red ink, black wash. compleately different look. khorn bezerkers hadlots of gore and ink. nids got gore. eldar got mercherite red then black wash...(yea i like red...)try experamenting with sections of spue or spare torsos and helms as most people have spares and its good to practice on busts that you can make from them.

also look through blogs etc and look for someones stye you like and ask how they did it. most wont mind passing the knowledge on.