Thanks for checking out my first go at the slapchop painting technique. I can paint minis that well, I will be the first to admit that, but this really was fun to have a go with. I guess it's about finding out what works for you 👍😀
3 steps of grey/white colors isn't even really necessary in my experience! I used to do that aswell but when I compared two identical minis underpainted in 3 vs in 2 steps, I couldn't really make out a difference. Now I just underpaint using a 50/50 mix of AK Ash Grey and AK White Grey, which makes for quite a dark grey (mechanicus standard grey from citadel is a pretty close match from what I can see online) hitting the model all over but going a little heavier on everything that would be receiving sunlight. Then a lighter drybrush of pure AK White Grey (which is most similar to corax white I think) - ONLY using downwards strokes and not hitting ANY of the downwards-facing areas. This was my biggest mistake in the beginning when slapchopping, which from what I can see you were doing aswell. The great thing slapchop does is it allows you to put down your shadows in the underpainting step. If you apply all of the underpaints in all of the areas, you might aswell have started with a white primer (that's a bit exaggerated as the way I was doing it first still looked miles better than speedpaints/contrasts over white primer but you get the idea) Another thing is never use paper towels for drybrushing. It's a bit counterintuitive but when your brush is dry, the texture of the paint will be chalky. Paper towels suck the moisture out of the brush and using literally anything else to wipe off the paint is better. You did mention this by saying you need to make a drybrush/texture palette and while that works best, there are a lot of options. With a texture palette you can immediately see how the drybrushing will look on your model, but I started using plain cardboard, then a piece of wood and for the longest time some texture paint, rocks and sand glued to a piece of cardboard before remembering that I own a resin 3d printer and just printing one out (don't do this, it's stupid and expensive and I should have just bought one - if you own a filament printer, go ahead) I hope these tips help you! Slapchop changed the way I paint forever, as time now isn't such a huge factor anymore. Every once in a while I do paint a model the oldschool base, wash, highlight way but for the most part, slapchop helps me get my models table-ready
Oh, and another pro tip: You don't need to drybrush using white/grey! What I like to do for my Khorne Daemons especially is hitting the downside areas that would be in shadow with a deep, warm purple instead of keeping it in the usual dark-ish grey! When I apply my red speedpaint over that, it looks really great! But you could also use a pastel blue as your final, lightest color for example if you were painting something you'd want to look quite cool. Buddy of mine did this with his cities of sigmar which he painted using a wintery theme. Looks great!
Thank you so much for this advice. That is absolutely awesome 👌. I appreciate your response, and I will definitely have a go the way you have explained 👍😀
Thanks for checking out my first go at the slapchop painting technique. I can paint minis that well, I will be the first to admit that, but this really was fun to have a go with. I guess it's about finding out what works for you 👍😀
that poor brush lol. cheers from America mate
🤣 brutal, I know. Thanks for the comment. Was great trying this painting technique out 👍
3 steps of grey/white colors isn't even really necessary in my experience! I used to do that aswell but when I compared two identical minis underpainted in 3 vs in 2 steps, I couldn't really make out a difference. Now I just underpaint using a 50/50 mix of AK Ash Grey and AK White Grey, which makes for quite a dark grey (mechanicus standard grey from citadel is a pretty close match from what I can see online) hitting the model all over but going a little heavier on everything that would be receiving sunlight. Then a lighter drybrush of pure AK White Grey (which is most similar to corax white I think) - ONLY using downwards strokes and not hitting ANY of the downwards-facing areas. This was my biggest mistake in the beginning when slapchopping, which from what I can see you were doing aswell.
The great thing slapchop does is it allows you to put down your shadows in the underpainting step. If you apply all of the underpaints in all of the areas, you might aswell have started with a white primer (that's a bit exaggerated as the way I was doing it first still looked miles better than speedpaints/contrasts over white primer but you get the idea)
Another thing is never use paper towels for drybrushing. It's a bit counterintuitive but when your brush is dry, the texture of the paint will be chalky. Paper towels suck the moisture out of the brush and using literally anything else to wipe off the paint is better. You did mention this by saying you need to make a drybrush/texture palette and while that works best, there are a lot of options. With a texture palette you can immediately see how the drybrushing will look on your model, but I started using plain cardboard, then a piece of wood and for the longest time some texture paint, rocks and sand glued to a piece of cardboard before remembering that I own a resin 3d printer and just printing one out (don't do this, it's stupid and expensive and I should have just bought one - if you own a filament printer, go ahead)
I hope these tips help you! Slapchop changed the way I paint forever, as time now isn't such a huge factor anymore. Every once in a while I do paint a model the oldschool base, wash, highlight way but for the most part, slapchop helps me get my models table-ready
Oh, and another pro tip: You don't need to drybrush using white/grey! What I like to do for my Khorne Daemons especially is hitting the downside areas that would be in shadow with a deep, warm purple instead of keeping it in the usual dark-ish grey! When I apply my red speedpaint over that, it looks really great!
But you could also use a pastel blue as your final, lightest color for example if you were painting something you'd want to look quite cool. Buddy of mine did this with his cities of sigmar which he painted using a wintery theme. Looks great!
Thank you so much for this advice. That is absolutely awesome 👌. I appreciate your response, and I will definitely have a go the way you have explained 👍😀