Talk Fantasy Football

OK, I know the basics of painting (the very basics maybe ), but some things when painting give me problems. So, asking the interwebs for some help/advice:

1. Black cloth. Black armour is easy... paint black, drybrush with silver/gold/whatever. Job done. But how do I get a decent black cloth look (background: my planned wood elf team are the Black Squirrels, so I want to put them in a black uniform. And given most other WE teams are green/yellow/brown I thought I'd go for something different)

2. Glass. I've got a sideline figure holding a couple of bottles... but I've got no idea how to paint these up. Ideally I'd go with one green, and one brown, but I want them to look like wine bottles.

I'm sure I'll think of some more, will update/post again when I do.

Here's how I do Black cloth.

Base - Matte Black
Layer 1 - Matte Black:Dark Grey (3:1) thinned
Layer 2 - Matte Black:Dark Grey (2:1) thinned
Highlight - Dark Grey

Layer 1, 2, & Highlights should work up to the high points in the cloth folds.

I've got nothing for you on glass.

Glass is translucent. Most miniatures tend not to be translucent (most)

When painting glass all you want to do is create an optical effect.

How to do that?

Your stereotypical bottle holds an amount of liquid. When people see something resembling the shape of a bottle covered in paint making the surface suggest that the wannabe bottle contains a liquid the mind of the casual observer starts seeing a translucent bottle shaped container holding an amount of liquid.

So the first thing on your list, paint the bottle in a bright color, maybe adding a bit of shading towards the sides.

Something like this would be a good start:



Then decide on a color for your liquid and a desired amount of it in your bottle to be.

The best thing would be to really thin down your paint, then paint the liquid up to the level where you want it, applying it like an ink or glaze rather then paint.

With your liquid in the bottle you only need to add a reflection or two on the bottle to make the casual observer believe he/she is looking at a translucent object rather then opaque white metal with a few layers of paint

Also for painting glass there is this tutorial from fantasy games in Poland. http://fantasygames.com.pl/blog/liquid-in-a-glass/

They have one for clear bottles made with some clear plastic sprue too as an alternative. Maybe give them a coat in Tamiya translucent colour for the desired look?
http://fantasygames.com.pl/blog/mini-bottles/

black cloth is pretty easy.. P3 have a great colour called greatcoat grey, it's pretty much exactly between chaos black and codex grey.. bo black cloth, greatcoat highlight then use thin codex around the edges or on any raised areas (that's how I did the black on my Fezglitch below):



as for glass, it's all about the ability to make the surface look highly reflective.. so bright highlights, gloss varnish coats and some dots of white to simulate reflection are the key.. again, this is the best example of my own work I can find below:

I wouldn't start with black for cloth, I'd start with a dark gray and wash black so you've already got a transition. That's what I'll be doing with my Skaven. Then just edge the original gray.

I'd go Norses route .. I find htat gives a better result than the black-ink (or wash) one.
You could do slightly harsher highlights than the codex-grey ones, only you need to remember the highlights need to get thinner the lighter the colour is (a lot thinner actually)

With the cloth it depends if you want it to look black or very dark grey. One of the difficulties with highlighting black is that a lot of grey paints tend to be lighter once they dry.

I use 2 different methods depending on how much time I have and just how dark I want the black to be.

The 1st is using very minimal highlights, pick a mid grey and just paint a very think line of it on the sharp edges. If the surface is mostly smooth like a space marine shoulder pad then paint a thin line 1 mm from the border, especially in the corners.

The other method if you have something like a cloak with lots of folds is to layer highlight it from dark to light grey. Then apply black washes to darken it again, you can apply as many as you need until it is dark enough again. I usually give the edges a highlight of mid grey after.

Thanks Sandwich... I needed tips on black as well for boots.

I think I will go Norse's way.