One tip I have for batch painting clanrats to mix up skin tone: do them in batches of 5 and stick with the same skin tone for the 5 but change it up for the next batch. Once they're all done, just mix them up in the unit. Next time you paint a clanrat unit of 20 change it again and you can mix them up even more.
My favorite part of this video isn’t the amazing paint jobs or the really informative techniques… for me it’s the audible excitement I can hear in your voice, it’s honestly making me want to go pick up a brush right now and start painting! Keep it up!
I like the look of the book rat the most. maybe it would be different with a unifying shadow colour once you see an entire army. But on a standalone model thats the one for me
Absolutely agree. All three are great, but the book rat is just stunning. Event with a unified army, his spell effect is a good reason for him to have slightly different light and shadows. He would pop up beautifuly.
It is the best by a country mile, but also the best model by a country mile. flesh, cloth and smoke are basically built for that style of painting. When you have a million little trinkets, small bits of chainmail and three belts, not so much.
Ninjon, I wanted to thank you for your videos. I love how realistic they are. It makes painting minis much more approachable for me and has shown me techniques I would not have thought of otherwise.
Seems like you could easily use all three styles where appropriate. Use the first style on the chaff units to get them pumped out quick, use the wetblending style for more important characters and then use the colored underpainting where the base naturally enables it. That way you can spend the least amount of time possible on the low end units.
Jon, thanks for these tips. Most important one for me is to focus on what gives us joy and ignore the rest. I've always hated initial basecoating and while I don't have home conditions for an airbrush, doing the black primer + contrast paints works wonders. I've picked it up from your previous videos already and boy has it revitalized my hobby! It no longer feels like chore and I'm back to having great fun. Much appreciated!
Dear Dana Howl, Naomi Sword ‘n’ Steel, Lyla Mev, Ninjon, and Brent Goobertown, I wanted to reach out to you all and say thank you! 4 months ago I was involved in a motorcycle accident which left me with a shattered left leg. It’s been a long recovery, and I still have a long way to go. I’ve had 4 months of sleepless nights dealing with so much pain (and a little depression), but watching your videos helped ease my mind, kept me company, and got me through some of those very long nights. For that, I will never be able to thank you enough. The results of this accident have been life changing. Next week I will be returning to work on light duty, with hopes of returning to full duty in 6-8 months. (I’m hoping to get just 1 more year of patrol in before I retire.) But unfortunately, my days of riding motorcycles are sadly over. But that’s okay, because I can still build and paint. Again, thank you all for what you do and for being part of my journey to recovery. You’ll probably be seeing a lot less of me in the comments and stuff, but I promise I will still find time to ‘slay the grey’! God bless you all. Most sincerely, Kevin Romans 8:28
Every single Ninjon video I watch has me leaving that I wish he had a playlist for the songs he puts in his videos. Or at least a tag in the videos so I can find them and listen to them.
Highlighting your whole army is the easiest thing you can do to make the paint scheme really pop. If you're doing a huge batch all you need to do is highlight heads and shoulders and it sells the effect beautifully.
@@samd5466 Oh yeah, even just slapping a quick drybrush of a neutral colour like a bone over the whole thing looks better than nothing. I’m just making fun of Jon’s tendency to make speedpainting videos that always have about half a dozen highlight layers cause he can’t help himself lol, especially cause most people can’t pull it off as quickly as him.
@@kaidenggsjsjjenf You aren't wrong, i really cant help myself :) But I've found that by doing it often I've gotten much faster at it, so the long con is to get everyone faster at it :)
@@Ninjon Tbh yeah, thanks to you pro UA-cam painters I’m now one of these pretentious snobs whose “speedpainting” includes highlights too, I’m sickened by myself. So I shouldn’t even be talking shit when I do the same thing 💀 Still probably couldn’t do a whole army that way without losing my sanity, so at least I’ve still got some dignity.
I think the wet-blend rats look the best, partially because the color scheme is brighter so it'll pop more on the table. Putting them all on a table a few feet away and deciding off of that is always the play 👍.
This video resonates with me. Years ago I burnt out painting multiple army’s and whole scenery’s for Infinity. I walked away from wargaming for like 7 years that I’m just now looking to get back into painting.
The Fanatic line's so good. I still use a medium to thin em down a bit but a lot of these are totally good to go out of the bottle, and there's so much pigment dude
I really like all three. The crisp look of the second might be my favorite and the third one was also cool. The difference in what I like for each is not something that is really better or worse, just different. But to mention one, number two - but I also really liked number 3 as well. That said, the approach I will try is the method you used for the first rat - I think that may be a bit better way to challenge my rather poor techniques right now and quickly give me a look I can work with. :) Awesome video as always, and thanks for stressing the point of painting should be fun. It's sometimes easy to forget.
No question, you're one of my favorite mini painters. I can't believe how good some of the results are, as well as the logical mental steps you take to get there.
The Skaven are the faction that drew me into the hobby way back in 1999-2000. I've always wanted to build the army, but kept pushing it off. This is the year I do it, with an entirely new model refresh; I'm finally doing it. This tutorial couldn't have come at a better time :) thanks!
Always love how you don't do the same thing every vid. You change up techniques and styles as well as try new concepts. Always a great watch and informative.
The first gives me classic GW vibes while the 2nd and 3rd are more dramatic and painterly with the use of shading. I like them all. The points you raised about finding things to enjoy in the scheme and making sensible compromises were well made. Really enjoyed the video
The Underworlds Skaven gangs are *SO GOOD*, so characterful, even in monopose. Super glad you demonstrated some excellent painting strategies for them; the purple underlit Skittershank is absolutely stunning. Not sure how I'd achieve something similar without an airbrush but experiments will have to be done!
for the third option to keep the violet/red/burgundy colour in the shadows of the pipes you could wet blend the contrast paint with some sigvald burgundy or similar, using the burgundy in the shadows to keep your shadow colour.
I definitely thing using some kind of zenithal over colorful undertones is the way to go, in my experience for army painting. The Contrast over black definitely created too much of a gap and the model looked a little spotty. I think the Marco Frisoni speed painting method is, IMO, the most fun and efficient way to do it: colorful zenithal undercoat -> Contrast to block in the colors -> oil wash -> have fun sketching highlights. Congrats, you got a killer model for not much time!
Cool vid. I wish this was about when i painted a few hundred rats in my skaven army. I used white primer, thinned regular paints then washed the whole model with agrax earthshade. The important models got more effort. The overall look was fantastic and it won me best painted in the only tournament I entered
The message of taking your time and enjoying what you enjoy just hit home really hard. I'm currently working through 20 world water bezerkers dreading the amount of painting to do. So that's a great reset moment, instead of stressing about how much I have to do to finish. I'm just gonna have fun painting khornes angriest boys.
Just picked up the new Age of Sigma Skaventide set today and I had the same idea as you about painting the Skaven with different furs and skin tones 😃 I’ve been out of the game for longer than I care to admit so I’m learning quite a lot from watching videos like yours. I’ve also got the Old World Tomb Kings army set to build and paint so plenty models to get back in to the swing of things and learn how to paint again 😅
~ @7:00: “humans have different skin tones so why would these be different?” That’s exactly the philosophy I have with my orks! I use different base greens on each batch so when they’re combined into an army their skins will look slightly different from one another.
Great helpful demonstration and explanation. I'm just finishing a Mini troll from Archon Studios. I primed in black, and "Surprise,!" all my colors turned out dulled and dark. Mmm. There might be a lesson here. Watching you overlap and blend colors has been a bit inspirational for working on the next mini I paint.
Of the three, I think I like the priest the best, although the metallics on the first one look great. I'll definitely be borrowing the technique of underpainting with white to help glowing details pop better.
12:30-12:55 Honesty, I don't I'd mind the time difference in painting. The consensus I've seen is to find a simple quick good-looking scheme for your basic units, but on hero/leader models you take that little extra time to help make them stand out in the army. Also, the models look amazing and that new Skaven army are going to be awesome.
Hot tip for doing contrast paint / washes for detail work. Use a low quality scholastic" grade sable brush. They hold a lot of liquid and do not let go of it fast so they do not flood the surface with more paint than you want. the bristles have basically zero spring or snap which in every other use makes them not a good choice but with washes and contrast paint I find actually useful.
My favorite go to for vibrant miniatures is zenithal white over black, then slap Contrast paints like purples, reds, blues, to give an undertone, then regular layering or actually just highlighting, since 70% of the model is already done. Actually pretty much like Ninjon did in a previous video. IIRC it's also the method used by the excellent Craftworld Studio.
The purple shadows were stunning. I was thinking of using a similar colour for the second models smoke, instead of black to give it a more unique look and style
You are very correct about wet blending. It's definitely a little harder to to than what it appears in videos, but it's worth trying because it's easily one of the most satisfying things when you finally start to get it. Just gotta be brave and sling that paint.
I'm doing a variation of fur and skin tones for my Old World Beastman army and it is keeping the army painting fresh with each model. 30+ minis in and its still fun finding new combinations.
The purple undershadow could work great if you want an OSL heavy army. It could be fun to have different coloured light sources and then applying tints of colours on their clothes
Yay, Skaven! I was really excited when I saw you were going to be painting rats in this video. I thought all three models looked really good, but imo the second and third ones were a bit better than the first. And 30 years ago when I started painting my original Skaven army, I had the same thought about having different skin and fur colors on my rats. They run the gamut.
Excellent vid! Its good to have a habit breaking exercise every so often to break out of our self imposed rigidity. Even though you used different methods your colors all work together within the same army. Maybe the importance of the model, or unit (troops, specialists, heroes), should dictate the method. The purple under lit color method might be a cool way to tie a whole unit together, even though they share the same colors as another nearby unit. That could also be a handy way to keep units distinct from each other in big horde armies.
I agree the wet blended one pops quite well, and as someone who has wet blended armies before, it is worth it for quick contrast. And if you mess up on the blend of this particular robe? Well there's 30 more to get it right on. No one will notice. A unifying shadow would be quite useful. Maybe it's my view of Skaven speaking, but I'm leaning toward a muddy green brown, rather than that red violet. A fun option that you can play with to increase variety in the minis would be to use different but similar universal shadows.
I've painted my opr ratmen in different colors: captains and vets are white rats (coz bloodstains look good on white fur), stealthy ones and titan are black , ogres brown and tge rest are different greys priest and monks are grey too, but have their own thing with cloth color sheme. Looks nice and diverse and also adds clarity to the army when it's on the table.
Using different skin/fur colors and shades definitely makes the process of painting an army more fun. I've been doing just that for a number of werewolves I'm painting now.
I painted a complete Ork army in one hit and quickly sold it on and didn’t pick up a paint brush for about 10 years. I now only paint a maximum of 20 in a go and never the same thing consecutively. I really love the hobby now and enjoy the wind down it gives. 😊👍
Those paint jobs were so well done, all 3 methods worked well. I think it’d be a preference thing if someone wanted to take the time with the second approach, and I think there’s a lot of space for creativity with different potential shading colors for the third approach.
I think a color coordinated shadow is actually an excellent idea. I've tested this in a game with a sick (fast to test schemes too) painting tool, called Moonbreaker. I have learned literally all my skill foundational techniques in that program. NMM, OSL, stippling, true metallics. etc. Outside of wet blending I think every technique I've wanted to try, has worked in that program. A video game with a distribution structure of digital hand painted minis I think is one of the ways to convey miniature painting into a more profitable venture. If you can distribute digitally, now you have one model you're painting being sold to several people at a rate where you can afford to spend time on the piece. I hope the concept spreads. I hope I see it happen for Talespire.
You painted them so they all look great. They're skaven, so they're the coolest Warhammer army. The results of 2 and 3 look the best. 2 is the overall best looking with those lovely wet blends, but I think 3 gives you the best mix of speed and style.
I love the time and energy you put into your videos. Each week I learn something new or am led to rethink what I do. You are a class act and a great contributer to the community.
Teenage mutant ninja rat ftw! The “up lighting” in addition to the zenithal white is a great look and doesn’t have to be that red purple across the army. Maybe the plague monks are their signature sickly green, clan rats red, etc. maybe the atmosphere works best on just the important character models. Alternatively, double down and make the army look like every rat comes with ground effects lights 2 Rat 2 Verminous, especially when new doom wheels come out.
@Ninjon I remember a while back you mentioned getting rid of some older paints you don't use. Idk if it's a good idea but I thought it might be kinda fun if you had a contest to test people's painting skills and you could give away the paints you wanted to get rid of anyways to the top 3 or 5 or however many people. Idk just a thought. I really enjoy your videos and while I don't have the same to paint currently I learn a lot from watching you paint. Thank you so much for everything you do!
You know what? I love a Friday Ninjon video and I love Skaven, this was my favorite. Love some new ideas for how to handle my next little Skaven warband. For me, the smoke effect is amazing on the plague rat but that lighting effect to the Eshin rat is freaking awesome.
Thinking about colors across an army makes me think of my Tyranids. There are multiple groups in the army, each has variations of a single color. So there's a platoon of blue termagants, each a different shade. Then there's a platoon of red, green, and earth-tones. The color variation has done a good job of keeping my interest while painting space-bugs.
As an individual model I think I liked the underpainted ninja rat the best because it had a lot of atmosphere. But towards the end when you showed all three together, both that and the first test got totally lost compared to the wet blended test which is just so much more vibrant and punchy at arms length and I think will end up looking more impactful on the table from several feet away.
I really love the broccoli smoke on your second rat!! It feels equally like poisonous sewer water and nature-magic 😅 And as someone without an airbrush, thank you for the non-airbrush video even if it wasn't to make it more easily copy-able for people like me
wow, that actually happened to me. I was invited to present my work at a convention and had to print and paint models for 30 days straight. I haven't painted another model for a year and a few months now...
I'm planning on starting some skaven in 4th edition, and the anti-zenithal shadow is something that I've been really curious about for a long time, not just how it looks but also how to paint over it and when to apply it.
Nice video. You most likely thought of that already. But I usually do the colour from below after the sloppy steps with contrasts. Then you don't need to be so careful. It gives an different look but it is one I like 🙂
I painted Skaven in al brown cause that was my test models. I started painted OPR in all unique fur colors, I only did 10 Skaven out of 20. Ratmen I got done with 40 minis alot further. Neither are done, but I want to go the OPR more than the Skaven. I also suggest painting squads different colors.
This was interesting. I have been painting the usual base-shade-highlight way but these things in the video have been on my mind and Im going to start a new aemy soon. I went back and forth several times when I watched this video to rewatch and listen again. Thanks so much this was the kick in the rear I needed to dare trying to paint in a new way.
all three look incredible. I wish I had your talent. This standard of paint would take me hours... will nevertheless carry on! im also gonna give wetblending a shot. It also felt encouraging that you were painting "straight from the pot" as I always feel guilty doing this! Even though I painted for 25years this way before my wet palette. keep up the great content. I still have SO much grey....
Really loved the video! One of the best on your channel, imo. The whole approach for army painting and the techniques tested and showed really helped me get out of a paint slump, so thanks a lot! And good luck for your new army :)
Thanks ! Also You don't have to paint everything in your army the same way, you can switch to different technique for heroes and have fun seeing all their details.
I would love to see a follow up video to this with 3 more techniques: contrast over zenithal, basecoat + oil wash, and something else? That would cover the vast majority of speed painting skills overall, I think. ❤
When it comes to army painting I don't tend to try the same speed and techniques with every miniature. Unit leaders, heroes etc. deserve extra care. That said all 3 of your test pieces look superb and would fit really well toogether in an army
This was a great video... i love the purple shot from thr bottom for some cool shadow effects... Im really looking forward to trying this out on maybe some characters or some darker, more "foreboding" units. Cheers Ninjon
The bullshit thing here with me is that I think they all look awesome. Personally, I really like the idea of using the second one as your basis (for you) since you enjoy wet blending. For me, I think that’s the thing that gets stuff done fast; not because it’s quick, because it’s isn’t necessarily quick at all, but because it allows momentum to be preserved. Basically - if there’s something you love doing (for me it’s shading and highlighting because I’m a basic bitch) then that helps you MAINTAIN a speed of painting, which is often more important than SPEED painting itself (if you hate something, you’ll slow down). Hope that makes sense. TL;DR - the thing you love doing will be the fastest over a sustained project, because it’s enjoyable. Not because it’s quick, but because you will keep going at a steady pace.
Underpaint -> Zenithal over that. You got them Shadowcolours you can leave be, but you can still wetblend over that. I guess that would be the best of both worlds for you personally
And now the idea of having varying skin tones for my skaven is stuck in my head lol. Really interesting techniques that I want to try now, really liked the way you did that metal! Thanks :)
Long time subscriber, first time commenting. You do a fantastic job of making your videos entertaining and approachable at the same time. Keep up the good work!
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One tip I have for batch painting clanrats to mix up skin tone: do them in batches of 5 and stick with the same skin tone for the 5 but change it up for the next batch. Once they're all done, just mix them up in the unit. Next time you paint a clanrat unit of 20 change it again and you can mix them up even more.
I was thinking the same thing. When I painted a Zombicide box, I'd paint one or two of each sculpt with the same color clothes, then go to the next.
This is what I do as well. Five at a time, change skin tones. Rinse, repeat.
This is good advice. I did it for a ton of board game minis. It prevented the repetition and feeling that it was never going to end.
This approach got me through my poxwalkers
Legit how I painted so many Ork Boyz. Lol
My favorite part of this video isn’t the amazing paint jobs or the really informative techniques… for me it’s the audible excitement I can hear in your voice, it’s honestly making me want to go pick up a brush right now and start painting! Keep it up!
I like the look of the book rat the most. maybe it would be different with a unifying shadow colour once you see an entire army. But on a standalone model thats the one for me
Absolutely agree. All three are great, but the book rat is just stunning. Event with a unified army, his spell effect is a good reason for him to have slightly different light and shadows. He would pop up beautifuly.
It is the best by a country mile, but also the best model by a country mile. flesh, cloth and smoke are basically built for that style of painting. When you have a million little trinkets, small bits of chainmail and three belts, not so much.
Ninjon, I wanted to thank you for your videos. I love how realistic they are. It makes painting minis much more approachable for me and has shown me techniques I would not have thought of otherwise.
Very kind of you, thanks so much!
Seems like you could easily use all three styles where appropriate. Use the first style on the chaff units to get them pumped out quick, use the wetblending style for more important characters and then use the colored underpainting where the base naturally enables it. That way you can spend the least amount of time possible on the low end units.
Jon, thanks for these tips. Most important one for me is to focus on what gives us joy and ignore the rest. I've always hated initial basecoating and while I don't have home conditions for an airbrush, doing the black primer + contrast paints works wonders. I've picked it up from your previous videos already and boy has it revitalized my hobby! It no longer feels like chore and I'm back to having great fun. Much appreciated!
Dear Dana Howl, Naomi Sword ‘n’ Steel, Lyla Mev, Ninjon, and Brent Goobertown,
I wanted to reach out to you all and say thank you! 4 months ago I was involved in a motorcycle accident which left me with a shattered left leg. It’s been a long recovery, and I still have a long way to go.
I’ve had 4 months of sleepless nights dealing with so much pain (and a little depression), but watching your videos helped ease my mind, kept me company, and got me through some of those very long nights. For that, I will never be able to thank you enough.
The results of this accident have been life changing. Next week I will be returning to work on light duty, with hopes of returning to full duty in 6-8 months. (I’m hoping to get just 1 more year of patrol in before I retire.) But unfortunately, my days of riding motorcycles are sadly over. But that’s okay, because I can still build and paint.
Again, thank you all for what you do and for being part of my journey to recovery. You’ll probably be seeing a lot less of me in the comments and stuff, but I promise I will still find time to ‘slay the grey’!
God bless you all.
Most sincerely, Kevin
Romans 8:28
Man, that second rat with all of the wet blending looks so good! Loving the green warp smoke.
Every single Ninjon video I watch has me leaving that I wish he had a playlist for the songs he puts in his videos. Or at least a tag in the videos so I can find them and listen to them.
I can't remember which video, but they were a sponsor once maybe half a year ago?
I get my music through Epidemic Sound. My favorite artist is Lupus Nocte, check them out and you'll recognize a lot of the music from my vids :)
Yep, the Synthwave is strong in Jon’s videos!
It's Time Attack by Lupus Nocte this time ;)
Part 257 of Jon trying to convince us to highlight our entire army 😂
They do look amazing tho
Highlighting your whole army is the easiest thing you can do to make the paint scheme really pop.
If you're doing a huge batch all you need to do is highlight heads and shoulders and it sells the effect beautifully.
@@samd5466 Oh yeah, even just slapping a quick drybrush of a neutral colour like a bone over the whole thing looks better than nothing. I’m just making fun of Jon’s tendency to make speedpainting videos that always have about half a dozen highlight layers cause he can’t help himself lol, especially cause most people can’t pull it off as quickly as him.
@@kaidenggsjsjjenf You aren't wrong, i really cant help myself :) But I've found that by doing it often I've gotten much faster at it, so the long con is to get everyone faster at it :)
@@Ninjon Tbh yeah, thanks to you pro UA-cam painters I’m now one of these pretentious snobs whose “speedpainting” includes highlights too, I’m sickened by myself. So I shouldn’t even be talking shit when I do the same thing 💀
Still probably couldn’t do a whole army that way without losing my sanity, so at least I’ve still got some dignity.
Thank you for the positive and fun video! I was feeling discouraged with my painting and this really cheered me up. Thanks
The shadow change in the cloak with the warm color was very informative and was pulled off nicely.
I think the wet-blend rats look the best, partially because the color scheme is brighter so it'll pop more on the table. Putting them all on a table a few feet away and deciding off of that is always the play 👍.
This video resonates with me. Years ago I burnt out painting multiple army’s and whole scenery’s for Infinity. I walked away from wargaming for like 7 years that I’m just now looking to get back into painting.
The Fanatic line's so good. I still use a medium to thin em down a bit but a lot of these are totally good to go out of the bottle, and there's so much pigment dude
I always learn things when I watch you, and if I haven't told you before, you are the funniest guy of this UA-cam genre.
I really like all three. The crisp look of the second might be my favorite and the third one was also cool. The difference in what I like for each is not something that is really better or worse, just different. But to mention one, number two - but I also really liked number 3 as well. That said, the approach I will try is the method you used for the first rat - I think that may be a bit better way to challenge my rather poor techniques right now and quickly give me a look I can work with. :)
Awesome video as always, and thanks for stressing the point of painting should be fun. It's sometimes easy to forget.
No question, you're one of my favorite mini painters. I can't believe how good some of the results are, as well as the logical mental steps you take to get there.
The Skaven are the faction that drew me into the hobby way back in 1999-2000. I've always wanted to build the army, but kept pushing it off. This is the year I do it, with an entirely new model refresh; I'm finally doing it. This tutorial couldn't have come at a better time :) thanks!
Always love how you don't do the same thing every vid. You change up techniques and styles as well as try new concepts. Always a great watch and informative.
The first gives me classic GW vibes while the 2nd and 3rd are more dramatic and painterly with the use of shading. I like them all. The points you raised about finding things to enjoy in the scheme and making sensible compromises were well made. Really enjoyed the video
The Underworlds Skaven gangs are *SO GOOD*, so characterful, even in monopose. Super glad you demonstrated some excellent painting strategies for them; the purple underlit Skittershank is absolutely stunning. Not sure how I'd achieve something similar without an airbrush but experiments will have to be done!
for the third option to keep the violet/red/burgundy colour in the shadows of the pipes you could wet blend the contrast paint with some sigvald burgundy or similar, using the burgundy in the shadows to keep your shadow colour.
I definitely thing using some kind of zenithal over colorful undertones is the way to go, in my experience for army painting. The Contrast over black definitely created too much of a gap and the model looked a little spotty. I think the Marco Frisoni speed painting method is, IMO, the most fun and efficient way to do it: colorful zenithal undercoat -> Contrast to block in the colors -> oil wash -> have fun sketching highlights. Congrats, you got a killer model for not much time!
Cool vid. I wish this was about when i painted a few hundred rats in my skaven army. I used white primer, thinned regular paints then washed the whole model with agrax earthshade. The important models got more effort. The overall look was fantastic and it won me best painted in the only tournament I entered
The message of taking your time and enjoying what you enjoy just hit home really hard. I'm currently working through 20 world water bezerkers dreading the amount of painting to do. So that's a great reset moment, instead of stressing about how much I have to do to finish. I'm just gonna have fun painting khornes angriest boys.
Just picked up the new Age of Sigma Skaventide set today and I had the same idea as you about painting the Skaven with different furs and skin tones 😃 I’ve been out of the game for longer than I care to admit so I’m learning quite a lot from watching videos like yours. I’ve also got the Old World Tomb Kings army set to build and paint so plenty models to get back in to the swing of things and learn how to paint again 😅
~ @7:00: “humans have different skin tones so why would these be different?”
That’s exactly the philosophy I have with my orks! I use different base greens on each batch so when they’re combined into an army their skins will look slightly different from one another.
Great helpful demonstration and explanation. I'm just finishing a Mini troll from Archon Studios. I primed in black, and "Surprise,!" all my colors turned out dulled and dark. Mmm. There might be a lesson here. Watching you overlap and blend colors has been a bit inspirational for working on the next mini I paint.
Of the three, I think I like the priest the best, although the metallics on the first one look great. I'll definitely be borrowing the technique of underpainting with white to help glowing details pop better.
12:30-12:55
Honesty, I don't I'd mind the time difference in painting. The consensus I've seen is to find a simple quick good-looking scheme for your basic units, but on hero/leader models you take that little extra time to help make them stand out in the army.
Also, the models look amazing and that new Skaven army are going to be awesome.
Hot tip for doing contrast paint / washes for detail work. Use a low quality scholastic" grade sable brush. They hold a lot of liquid and do not let go of it fast so they do not flood the surface with more paint than you want. the bristles have basically zero spring or snap which in every other use makes them not a good choice but with washes and contrast paint I find actually useful.
My favorite go to for vibrant miniatures is zenithal white over black, then slap Contrast paints like purples, reds, blues, to give an undertone, then regular layering or actually just highlighting, since 70% of the model is already done.
Actually pretty much like Ninjon did in a previous video. IIRC it's also the method used by the excellent Craftworld Studio.
I like the third approach because it gives a unified look all over the army. Maybe I'll find an army project where I dare to try it myself.
The purple shadows were stunning. I was thinking of using a similar colour for the second models smoke, instead of black to give it a more unique look and style
13:16 that is indeed a great sculpt!
You are very correct about wet blending. It's definitely a little harder to to than what it appears in videos, but it's worth trying because it's easily one of the most satisfying things when you finally start to get it. Just gotta be brave and sling that paint.
I'm doing a variation of fur and skin tones for my Old World Beastman army and it is keeping the army painting fresh with each model. 30+ minis in and its still fun finding new combinations.
The purple undershadow could work great if you want an OSL heavy army. It could be fun to have different coloured light sources and then applying tints of colours on their clothes
Yay, Skaven! I was really excited when I saw you were going to be painting rats in this video. I thought all three models looked really good, but imo the second and third ones were a bit better than the first. And 30 years ago when I started painting my original Skaven army, I had the same thought about having different skin and fur colors on my rats. They run the gamut.
Excellent vid! Its good to have a habit breaking exercise every so often to break out of our self imposed rigidity.
Even though you used different methods your colors all work together within the same army. Maybe the importance of the model, or unit (troops, specialists, heroes), should dictate the method. The purple under lit color method might be a cool way to tie a whole unit together, even though they share the same colors as another nearby unit. That could also be a handy way to keep units distinct from each other in big horde armies.
I agree the wet blended one pops quite well, and as someone who has wet blended armies before, it is worth it for quick contrast. And if you mess up on the blend of this particular robe? Well there's 30 more to get it right on. No one will notice.
A unifying shadow would be quite useful. Maybe it's my view of Skaven speaking, but I'm leaning toward a muddy green brown, rather than that red violet. A fun option that you can play with to increase variety in the minis would be to use different but similar universal shadows.
I've painted my opr ratmen in different colors: captains and vets are white rats (coz bloodstains look good on white fur), stealthy ones and titan are black , ogres brown and tge rest are different greys priest and monks are grey too, but have their own thing with cloth color sheme. Looks nice and diverse and also adds clarity to the army when it's on the table.
Using different skin/fur colors and shades definitely makes the process of painting an army more fun. I've been doing just that for a number of werewolves I'm painting now.
Its wild as hell seeing p3 paints being used again like its 2010 haha. Those things used to be the hotness back when they launched then.
I still love my Hammerfall Khaki! One of the few colors I had to order a new pot because I completely used up the old one.
Cygnus yellow. No better cold yellow imho.
@@sysiphuspeart9012 I just wish the bottles are more sturdy because the caps on mine always split apart.
Necrotite Green was one of my faves.
I wish Privateer could have avoided tripping over its own dong while wearing cleats...
I really like that second rat. The smoke and blending are amazing. Do remember those contrast paints for bullshit details. 😊
I painted a complete Ork army in one hit and quickly sold it on and didn’t pick up a paint brush for about 10 years. I now only paint a maximum of 20 in a go and never the same thing consecutively. I really love the hobby now and enjoy the wind down it gives. 😊👍
My guy! Used to watch your videos back in 2019, I'm genuinely happy to see your still going hard painting your minis
I'm looking at painting 70+ guardsmen of the Vostroyan variety in the near future... Food for thought on the process, in this video! Good timing.
Nope. No armies for me, ever. But I do enjoy painting unique models and busts. Your videos are always great to watch Jon. Love your work Sensei.
Im a fan of layering but I like the contrast paint undercoat for speedpainting. I like the Sergio vibe it gives
Those paint jobs were so well done, all 3 methods worked well. I think it’d be a preference thing if someone wanted to take the time with the second approach, and I think there’s a lot of space for creativity with different potential shading colors for the third approach.
I liked the 2nd one the most, that wetblending looks great, im gonna try that too next time I'm painting cloaks.
I think a color coordinated shadow is actually an excellent idea. I've tested this in a game with a sick (fast to test schemes too) painting tool, called Moonbreaker. I have learned literally all my skill foundational techniques in that program. NMM, OSL, stippling, true metallics. etc. Outside of wet blending I think every technique I've wanted to try, has worked in that program. A video game with a distribution structure of digital hand painted minis I think is one of the ways to convey miniature painting into a more profitable venture. If you can distribute digitally, now you have one model you're painting being sold to several people at a rate where you can afford to spend time on the piece. I hope the concept spreads. I hope I see it happen for Talespire.
12.22 I lost it. that SMOKE OMG. Dude.... extra flex.
You painted them so they all look great. They're skaven, so they're the coolest Warhammer army.
The results of 2 and 3 look the best. 2 is the overall best looking with those lovely wet blends, but I think 3 gives you the best mix of speed and style.
I love the time and energy you put into your videos. Each week I learn something new or am led to rethink what I do. You are a class act and a great contributer to the community.
Teenage mutant ninja rat ftw! The “up lighting” in addition to the zenithal white is a great look and doesn’t have to be that red purple across the army. Maybe the plague monks are their signature sickly green, clan rats red, etc. maybe the atmosphere works best on just the important character models. Alternatively, double down and make the army look like every rat comes with ground effects lights 2 Rat 2 Verminous, especially when new doom wheels come out.
@Ninjon I remember a while back you mentioned getting rid of some older paints you don't use. Idk if it's a good idea but I thought it might be kinda fun if you had a contest to test people's painting skills and you could give away the paints you wanted to get rid of anyways to the top 3 or 5 or however many people. Idk just a thought. I really enjoy your videos and while I don't have the same to paint currently I learn a lot from watching you paint. Thank you so much for everything you do!
You know what? I love a Friday Ninjon video and I love Skaven, this was my favorite. Love some new ideas for how to handle my next little Skaven warband. For me, the smoke effect is amazing on the plague rat but that lighting effect to the Eshin rat is freaking awesome.
Thinking about colors across an army makes me think of my Tyranids. There are multiple groups in the army, each has variations of a single color. So there's a platoon of blue termagants, each a different shade. Then there's a platoon of red, green, and earth-tones. The color variation has done a good job of keeping my interest while painting space-bugs.
I love the wet blending as well as having different colored skin throughout an army😊
Awesome video 😊😊😊
As an individual model I think I liked the underpainted ninja rat the best because it had a lot of atmosphere. But towards the end when you showed all three together, both that and the first test got totally lost compared to the wet blended test which is just so much more vibrant and punchy at arms length and I think will end up looking more impactful on the table from several feet away.
The wet blend looks sweet! I would be interested to see how it worked on a model that didn’t have such a wide canvas to work with.
I really love the broccoli smoke on your second rat!! It feels equally like poisonous sewer water and nature-magic 😅
And as someone without an airbrush, thank you for the non-airbrush video even if it wasn't to make it more easily copy-able for people like me
The blends on the rat-priest's cloak are really clean, I may actually try that out!
The second and third rat looked great! Very vibrant!
wow, that actually happened to me. I was invited to present my work at a convention and had to print and paint models for 30 days straight. I haven't painted another model for a year and a few months now...
I'm planning on starting some skaven in 4th edition, and the anti-zenithal shadow is something that I've been really curious about for a long time, not just how it looks but also how to paint over it and when to apply it.
Nice video. You most likely thought of that already. But I usually do the colour from below after the sloppy steps with contrasts. Then you don't need to be so careful. It gives an different look but it is one I like 🙂
Just gotta say I appreciate your vids, and what you offer the community. Thanks for being awesome.
I painted Skaven in al brown cause that was my test models. I started painted OPR in all unique fur colors, I only did 10 Skaven out of 20. Ratmen I got done with 40 minis alot further. Neither are done, but I want to go the OPR more than the Skaven. I also suggest painting squads different colors.
This was interesting. I have been painting the usual base-shade-highlight way but these things in the video have been on my mind and Im going to start a new aemy soon. I went back and forth several times when I watched this video to rewatch and listen again. Thanks so much this was the kick in the rear I needed to dare trying to paint in a new way.
Rad vid. Super helpful to help construct a plan for creating a scheme.
Now to choose the final path… They all look wicked haha.
all three look incredible. I wish I had your talent. This standard of paint would take me hours... will nevertheless carry on! im also gonna give wetblending a shot. It also felt encouraging that you were painting "straight from the pot" as I always feel guilty doing this! Even though I painted for 25years this way before my wet palette.
keep up the great content. I still have SO much grey....
Really loved the video! One of the best on your channel, imo. The whole approach for army painting and the techniques tested and showed really helped me get out of a paint slump, so thanks a lot! And good luck for your new army :)
Also of them looks great! I hope to see an army painting project your Skaven
Thanks ! Also You don't have to paint everything in your army the same way, you can switch to different technique for heroes and have fun seeing all their details.
I would love to see a follow up video to this with 3 more techniques: contrast over zenithal, basecoat + oil wash, and something else? That would cover the vast majority of speed painting skills overall, I think. ❤
I just finished painting this underworlds set (my gf is playing the daughter's half), it was super fun
When it comes to army painting I don't tend to try the same speed and techniques with every miniature. Unit leaders, heroes etc. deserve extra care. That said all 3 of your test pieces look superb and would fit really well toogether in an army
Really loved that plague rat, also the hashashin rat, really good job overall, cant wait to see you army painting them
Honestly ima be using the first model as a template for my new Skaven army. Looks dope and around my wheelhouse skillwise.
This was a great video... i love the purple shot from thr bottom for some cool shadow effects...
Im really looking forward to trying this out on maybe some characters or some darker, more "foreboding" units.
Cheers Ninjon
I've been learning nmm and doing it on every project is teaching my so much
That third one looks incredible, due to the shift in colours across most elements.
The bullshit thing here with me is that I think they all look awesome. Personally, I really like the idea of using the second one as your basis (for you) since you enjoy wet blending. For me, I think that’s the thing that gets stuff done fast; not because it’s quick, because it’s isn’t necessarily quick at all, but because it allows momentum to be preserved.
Basically - if there’s something you love doing (for me it’s shading and highlighting because I’m a basic bitch) then that helps you MAINTAIN a speed of painting, which is often more important than SPEED painting itself (if you hate something, you’ll slow down).
Hope that makes sense. TL;DR - the thing you love doing will be the fastest over a sustained project, because it’s enjoyable. Not because it’s quick, but because you will keep going at a steady pace.
Excellent video. I love the plaguecaster. I’ll definitely be using contrast for the bullshit details and I’ll be using cards from the color cube.
Batman '89 is such a deep cut, great video Jon. Those rats look lovely
Glad someone caught that 😂
I'm a simple man, I see Skaven and I hit like before I finish watching. Can't wait to see more of this new army!
I will have to rewatch this one when I go back to touch up my Skaven Blood Bowl team. Thanks for the variation tips
I need to find my unpainted skaven minis again. Thanks for the inspiration! I especially liked the 2nd one!
Underpaint -> Zenithal over that.
You got them Shadowcolours you can leave be, but you can still wetblend over that.
I guess that would be the best of both worlds for you personally
I'm all about the ninja rat, that purple with white fur is badass.
And now the idea of having varying skin tones for my skaven is stuck in my head lol. Really interesting techniques that I want to try now, really liked the way you did that metal! Thanks :)
Wet blend with the shadow should speed up the wet blend model and look great too
Long time subscriber, first time commenting. You do a fantastic job of making your videos entertaining and approachable at the same time. Keep up the good work!
I think that an off-white zenithal while a vibrant under shading will make the use of contrast as a base coat wayyyy cleaner imo
Always look forward to your videos. The presentation and quality + Banter is always top shelf.