Hello guys, welcome back to Not Just Mecha, it s Marco here and today is the last episode
of the speed painting series dedicated to Cursed City!
Every single boxed game out there brags about the crazy number of models packed inside the
box and every single boxed game out there reaches that crazy number with a bunch of
what in card games is known as chaff. In the micro cosmos of that specific boardgame
every little miniature and token has its purpose but from the point of view of modelling and
painting that s the boring part of getting the box ready for gaming.
Here the chaff is one third of the box and it s represented by the twenty models of the
little vermin horde of rats, vampire bats and mission tokens. This whole series is focused
on speed but when it comes to the basic minions you really want to move at lightspeed so here
I cut every possible corner focusing on the most essential parts of the three foundational
columns of painting, colour, contrast, and definition to complete the job in less then
two hours. Don t forget to SUBSCRIBE and hit the bell
button to always know what happens on the channel and if you want support my work, like,
comment, share watch another video and maybe check my Patreon page where you can find the
real time footage of my videos with every single little line and brushstroke! Thanks
a million guys! The aesthetic goal is again to create diversity
inside the general uniformity of the warband or uniformity through diversity if you prefer
so I m going to use the same ideas and principles I used in the last few videos but mixing and
matching those techniques to create another different speed painting workflow that will
deliver a slightly different visual output for every single model still keeping them
harmonious as a unit and part of the rest of the army.
To get all this in the shortest time possible I fuse in the first stage the three core tricks
I used on skeletons, zombies and vampires. I start with a general coat of black primer
to create my lowest, darkest value that I plan to use for an high contrast sketch of
the volumes like I did on the skeletons. But, instead of using white to set the volumes
I use coloured primers like I did working on the vampires but the logic of their application
is more the one I used on the zombies! The single steps are extremely simple and
straightforward and you saw their basic principles in the recent videos so here I get the chance
to go deeper into the explanations focusing a bit more on the reasons why this stuff works.
I really want you to be able to transfer and adapt these ideas on every other project and
understanding how everything behaves and interacts you can make them really universal!
I use a single colour for every bat, so they will look internally more compact but the
unit will deliver a ton of subtle diversity when they are packed together. Painting animals
and beasts I like to introduce some variety to make them look more realistic or at least
different from troops with a proper uniform and the intentional unified look it creates.
The other side of the coin is the random application of the same basic tones that I use on the
rats! Painting the humanoid vampires, I used the
idea of coloured primers to set the foundation of a smooth flow of progressive shades but
here I use it to create the illusion of a chaotic swarm made by single little elements
all slightly different. I probably didn t highlight enough this aspect
in the last videos, but the simplicity of these techniques hides a lot of reasoning
in the colour theory department. My enemies are visually ranked based on the saturation
of their colours to show their relative place in the power and food chain of the city, with
how much blood and flesh they can eat. On the vampires I was super careful in overlapping
and putting next to each other only colours that can mix in a harmonious way creating
new vibrant and saturated tones. Red, magenta and blue are a good example because they are
progressive in the colour wheel and their mix creates powerful shades of violet able
to gently connect the cold and warm tones with a natural flow.
Here on the zombie rats I don t have any problem in overlapping the complex, relatively warm
tone of violet with a muted green. In the core of their application, they are still
strong hues, but thanks to their complementary position on the colour wheel I know that the
shades created around their borders will tend to a nasty greyish tone, much more interesting
than a grey created with simple black and white, but still a true vibrancy killer.
Not to mention this touch of brown used in the final stage as last point of connection
between the different hues. Brown is a great bridge colour because it contains the primary
tones of every colour theory system, so it can be used to fix and connect even the craziest
transition, especially if are looking for realistic colours from the everyday world,
but for these same reasons it will kill the saturation where applied. Carrying different
proportions of every major tone you can be totally, mathematically sure that two or more
complementary tones will meet neutralising each other in an explosion of grey and desaturated
shades. The second stage of the plan is the proper
high value zenithal light and to push even more on the theme of the balance between diversity
and uniformity I use grey on half of the models and a light skin tone on the other half.
These layers unify all the random tones under a compact general look. The highest lights
get the vibe of the environmental light I used on the rest of the army, but all the
previous colours are still there in the light and dark mid tones, and of course in all the
shadows. I used different quantities of pure white
on every other model of the set but here I completely skip its extreme light value. These
models are quite literally at the ground level and when they are next to the other figures,
I want a clear visual jump between the quantity of light caught by the large shoulders of
the big Vargskyr for example and the lower values on a rat or a little zombie cat.
You can easily see here on the bats how the colours of the underpainting still influence
their look in a super strong way. But when you see them all together the zenithal colours
get the priority creating more general uniformity in the two main tonal blocks of flesh tone
and grey. At this stage is still pretty obvious that these are only two main foundational
tones, but oil paints will do all the rest! Before moving to oils I quickly take care
of the bases. I don t have time to lose and since the models already contain a good quantity
of brown in the shadows, a bit of overspray can t do any real damage so I can safely use
the airbrush and keep running. As a bonus, the fine mist of the light overspray also
creates a good weathering effect on the ruins and columns!
Same spirit applying a quick coat of Contrast Blood Angles red on a couple of details like
the roses on the tombstones. And a flat, covering layer of gold and silver here and there.
Never underestimate the unifying power of the bases and their rims! Most of the times
what you perceive as colour coherency in an army is coming 99% from the bases. Nobody
will really notice if a unit in your Ultramarine army has a slightly different shade of blue
but change even a bit the tone of the bases and the army will become a mess.
Like working on the zombies my selection of oil paints covers almost every major slice
of the colour wheel. Black is always there for the darkest values
and it s a main component of my bases since the beginning. I have two warm tones in the
form of magenta and a deep red, Payne s grey for the blue, sap green to boost the sensation
of rotting flesh and main source of yellowish notes and two browns to use as balancing factors,
burnt umber more in the red spectrum and Vandyke brown for a lighter orangey contribute. The
only basic tone missing in its pure form is yellow and that s because contrary to acrylics
yellow oil paint has a crazy opacity and covering power that doesn t work well for transparency
effects, even at extreme dilutions! This time I want the oils to do a lot of work
for me, so I play a bit more with the timing of each layer and the consistency of each
colour. Using oil washes the relation between the finish of the acrylic layer, the dilution
of oil paint and the time they stay on the surface can create an infinite variety of
effects and modulation levels. As rule of thumb, a mat surface absorbs more
paint in a uniform way so like here in my case it s a better starting point when you
need to add tones and extra shades, while a satin or even glossy finish works better
for a sharp definition because the wash cannot stick well on the raised, open areas and naturally
flows into details and lower parts following capillarity and gravity.
An important factor to consider when working with transparent oils is how much time you
leave them on the model. Everybody knows that oils take ages to dry, but in reality, when
you put on the model just a bunch of white spirit with a micro quantity of paint inside
things are really different and few minutes between the first application and the second
make a huge difference in how they impact and stain the surface. For this reason, working
on the rats, I wash first their tails with magenta because I want this tone to really
soak into the previous layers and leave a strong chromatic mark.
Dilution is intuitive because it works pretty much like with acrylics: thicker paint delivers
more pigments and literal saturation staining more the surface while adding more thinner
you get a translucent behaviour. You can see on the palette how I prepared my dark colours,
mixing a thick paste with just a bit of thinner, to the point where you can t really call these
washes anymore. These tones will be at the same time my main source of definition and
physical oily grime, so I want them to fill every detail and deep line of the sculpts
with a consistent, thick mass of pigments to make them easy to read in the distance
even on these small models. The job of the other tones is to apply a transparent filter
on the basic sketch adding soft and flowing chromatic sensations, so I push on their transparency
and ability to move and mix with each other on the surface using much more thinner.
I want to point out that the desaturating behaviour that you see in action here and
in the next phase is not intrinsic to oil paints, but something created on purpose by
mixing precise tones and overlapping them on top of a conscious underpainting. The vibrancy
and saturation of oils is on average higher even than the best acrylic paints, but on
the channel, I used them more in this kind of applications so I m starting to be afraid
that I m delivering a limited perspective on their use. Oil paints are coming back in
full force in miniature painting thanks to the great informative work of my generation
of painters and content creators and a lot of you are investing in this tool so in the
next future I want to reorganise all my content about oils pushing more on their use for bright,
clean, and saturated painting and proper general painting to give you the full spectrum of
their awesomeness! The cleaning stage here takes the simplest
and most essential form possible. The objective is only to take off the overflowing excess
keeping a good amount of paint inside the details to compensate for their small size
and low definition and dry q-tips guarantee a low impact on the adhesion of the layer
of paint without absorbing or entering the details too much. Remember that you don t
need to apply any strength or real pressure because the paint is completely wet and with
still a huge amount of white spirit inside that will make it super easy to remove.
In the last stage I apply a quick light definition using the same pastel colours I used on all
the cursed city enemies. I used to consider this set the weakest of the Scale75 artist
range; all the colours here are just basic hues in a ton of light grey and you can easily
create these tones by mixing but if you need to paint a bunch of pale desaturated models,
you should consider adding them to your collection to speed up the work! The logic I follow here
is probably a bit counterintuitive, but it works really well in a speed, army painting
context; I add extra details, definition and textures only on the largest and most visible,
open parts of the models. The idea is to optimise the visual impact of the time I spend on the
models making more interesting what s already interesting. It s a kind of subtle misdirection
that mimics in a simple way the natural behaviour of your eyes that in real life perceive in
high definition only the central part of your visual field. This way the main parts and
focal points will look quite advanced, catching all the attention with a minimum amount of
work. Even if the work was really quick, summarising
the amount of little interesting events and brushstrokes in a short video is a challenge.
The theory is all here but if you feel the need for more examples you can find all the
real time footage I have from this paintjob on my Patreon!
And here is the final result! I know they are not super exciting like the big heroes,
but these are the kind of models that everyone has to deal with while painting a boxed game
or an army. Even if they are not your main concern, they are still part of your force
and you want to maintain a consistent look and quality, so they are always an interesting
challenge where super-efficient workflows are created. Plus, I m really happy they gave
me the chance to expand and talk about all the stuff I had to left behind in the recent
videos to give you the full picture of all my planning
and scheming!