Skarre Tutorial – the coat
This will focus on the layered blending technique I used for the outside of Skarre’s coat.
The basics –
I work from the inside out on models – meaning that areas that are the more difficult to reach are done first. This (hopefully) prevents blotches of paint in the wrong place and mistakes later on. This also leads to some models being assembled as I paint. With Skarre, because her left leg obscures some of the model, the inside of the coat were painted and the leg attached afterwards. Then her flesh, bone corset, leggings, and skirt were done. The basecoat of colour for her hair was also added because some of those areas will be hard to reach later on.
Colours and consistency – the colours used ranged from a blue/black up through lemon yellow with a couple of spots of pure white at the end. I like to use complementary colours that hopefully make the area ‘pop’ with greater contrast. I thin all the paints with the thickest being the base colour. This index card shows both the colour and how thick and/or transparent each layer was.
Primed – a very thin layer of paint on primer has been applied. There only needs to be enough primer for the paint to adhere to – so you may see glints of metal showing through. That’s ok – I just need enough for the paint to grab.
On to the colour
The typical progression I use is mid-tone, shadow, then highlight. Skarre’s coat is no exception.
The first layer of base coat looks very thin and blotchy. I’m not concerned when I see this because there will be many layers that will even out the colour and the surface of the model. The direction of the brush strokes also helps to smooth out the colour. Each layer is done in a different direction. So the first layer follows the direction of the folds, the second goes across the folds, the third is more diagonal, and so forth. 10 layers of base colour were used.
First Layer
Last Layer
Shading – 3 colours were used. The first covering the largest area and follow colours cover progressively smaller areas. Even with these smaller areas I use brush strokes going in different directions.
When I started to add the shadow colours my paints started to chalky. It looks like white chalk dust rising to the surface of the dried paint and when more paint is added it seems to be absorbed by the chalk. To stop this I add two layers of gloss varnish to seal the paint and cover that with Reaper’s paint sealer, which lets me add more colours. This time around the water I used from the kitchen tap caused the chalk. Once I switched to filtered water the chalk was gone. Of course I didn’t discover the solution until after the coat was painted…
After the 3rd shadow colour was added the entire coat was glazed with 2-3 layers of the first shadow colour, Sapphire Blue. Then the most diluted version of the base colour was reapplied to the brightest areas. RMS Blue Liner was then used to dark-line around the area and the edges of the coat.
Highlights – Between each of the 4 highlight colours a glaze of the basecoat colour was used. This glaze was more targeted that previous glazes and kept away from the shadow areas. A final glaze with Sapphire Blue was done to blend the shadow areas back in.
Highlight 1
Highlight 2
Highlight 3
Highlight 4
The Lemon Yellow highlight was the last colour done until the model was finished and placed on the base. This allowed me to place the brightest highlights in the correct spots. Additional glazes of the base coat colour were added to smooth the transitions between the colours.
Here’s the final version. When you're not close up the blending is much smoother - isn't it?
Ask any questions that come to mind. Let me know if there are any other areas you see on the model that you’d like more info on.
