An Exercise in Dry Brushing

[Captain Mike]

Hello all! 

 

So I started painting big models again after a few months and realised that I've become, well, not very good at it. Another way of saying "even worse". 

 

So whilst I try and get my paint between the lines for my Fire Badgers, I'd thought I'd dig out a spare model and get seeing how much I can achieve with a dry brush. The main body armour and weapons were dry brushed straight onto black, the dirt and blood onto them, and the plasma coil was first painted then drybrushed (and is pretty poorly done compared to some I've achieved). The metal bits were the only bits not dry brushed, consisting only of mithril silver, a wash of blue, then another layer of mithril silver. 

 

EDIT: Hopefully better pics. The model is pretty dark, but the last photos were ridiculous. 

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr344/Captain_Mike_Parker/P1010152.jpg

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr344/Captain_Mike_Parker/P1010153.jpg

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr344/Captain_Mike_Parker/P1010154.jpg

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr344/Captain_Mike_Parker/P1010155.jpg

 

Feel free to comment, destroy etc. And hopefully I'll be back to painting properly soon. 

[Captain Mike]

So I got a little tired of painting my Fire Badgers, so I thought I'd do another little drybrushing experiment. This one involved building up then washing to try and smooth out the result. I also tried dry brushing on the battle damage (see the shoulder guard) but I think it doesn't look very well. A wash made it a bit better, but not much. 

 

The end result is, naturally, quite messy and gritty looking. I quite like it, although it is a little dark again. 

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr344/Captain_Mike_Parker/Random%20Paints/P1010177.jpg

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr344/Captain_Mike_Parker/Random%20Paints/P1010178.jpg

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr344/Captain_Mike_Parker/Random%20Paints/P1010180.jpg

 

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr344/Captain_Mike_Parker/Random%20Paints/P1010179.jpg

 

Also tried some different photo taking techniques, think it worked out alright. Had to retake them because the natural light was a bit too reflective. 

 

 

[Firepower]

Dry brushing is a generally poor choice for painting Space Marines.  They have too many long, smooth surfaces.  That being said, it did work well enough for you here and there.  The dirt on the second fellow's feet and ankles looks pretty good.  

 

It doesn't work too well for a blood splatter effect in my opinion, either.  Sponging and some carefully placed lines and spots is a better method.  And of course there's always Tamiya Clear Red.

 

And then of course, mold lines.  Tsk tsk.

 

Odd that you would choose the metallics specifically to use something other than drybrushing.  That's generally the go-to method for metallics.

[Captain Mike]

My main army is drybrushed black, but because the two colours used are so dark it works okay, it just creates a slight highlight. But for lighter colours, yes, it tends to be a little awkward. It's why I tried using a wash to see if it unifies the colours any better. The end result is always going to be quite dirty, I think, but if that's the aim then it can work. And, as an added problem, it brings up even the slightest mould line left... 

I've never tried sponging, might give it a go. Dry brushing is at least better than directly painting it on, which tends to look really artificial unless you do it brilliantly.  

 

I used to always dry brush metallics, but in the end I found I never liked the result. Much prefer washing a solid base and then highlighting or building it up. 

[WarriorFish]

Dry brushing can be a great method of painting, especially if for whatever reasons you're not a brilliant painter. As mentioned though Marines are not very good subjects for it as they're got too many curves and not enough raised edges and the like.

 

Don't forget to target your dry brushing, if you're tickling the whole model then that's not going to net you very good results (even less so on Marines) - use a smaller brush on the raised bits and it'll work better. Like most painting it's best to build it up with lighter layers too.

[Captain Mike]

One thing that has always interested me about space marines is the shoulder pads. Space Marines are generally considered a good starting army for painters (with scope to be good for experienced as well, don't get me wrong), and one of the first things a new painter learns is highlighting. When I was starting (must be about 8 years ago now, on and off) I had real trouble learning to highlight with Space Marine shoulder pads. There just didn't seem to be a natural place to highlight them. 

 

When I started on my Fire Badgers, I decided to dry brush a dark grey over black, and found that if you brush down over the shoulder pads, it deposits most of the paint over the curve of the pad, giving a passable highlight (a little crude, granted). Of course, I've seen people highlight them well, and other people not bother to highlight them at all, but it was always a sticking point for me. Just a something I noticed as I learned to paint.