Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Humidity be damned: primerfest 2011

Not sure it was the best idea, but when the humidity dipped down to 60% here this afternoon (positively arid for central NC in fall) I sprang into action.


Army Painter Dragon Red
(Battletech, Kuritan 2nd Sword of Light; OGRE, 1st Polish Lancers):





Army Painter Demon Yellow
(Heavy Gear, Eastern Sun Emirates Honor Guard and Footmen; OGRE, Vatican Guard





Battlefront/Flames of War War Paint British Armour
(Heavy Gear, ESE-aligned Badlander clan; OGRE, undetermined Combine unit)





Army Painter Ultramarine Blue
(OGRE, Royal Navy)




So it worked out fairly well, all things considered. Bullet points (bet you a dollar I can't actually get this into a bullet-pointed list):
  • War Paint, as usual, is freaking fantastic. I am redoing army paint schemes in my head in a frantic effort to use these as much as possible.
  • Army Painter is good, but the brighter colors I guess make it a bit trickier?
  • the red went on surprisingly well, the real champ of the day (not counting War Paint)
  • the yellow had a few problems; some weird strings of paint I had to knock down with a fingernail, a bit of a bumpy finish in places, problems getting into very tight spaces on the Heavy Gear minis but worked like a charm on the flatter surfaces of the Ogres
  • the only real disappointment is the Army Painter Ultramarine Blue. I've used it already as the color primer on my Heavy Gear MILICIA MP Cadre, and I had similar problems today - powdery coverage that rubs off at a touch.

Here's a few close-ups of the problems with the yellow:


Still, here's hoping a bit of touch-up paint and an eventual wash knocks these problem spots down.

PS: hey! I think the bullet-points worked!

EDIT: well, the close-up pics of the yellow guys were so underexposed and blurry that the problems don't show up. Maybe I just need to bring a dry ice machine every time I plan on fielding them....

2 comments:

  1. I'd like to see the primer problems. Army Painter makes the FoW primer. Obviously, I swear by that primer now, but I'd love to see/know more about your primer problems.

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  2. Britt,

    I'll bring the yellow guys to Ron's tomorrow so you can take a look, but like we discussed I think part of the issue is that some colors, particularly brighter ones, require a really high pigment density. There are parts on the yellow guys that are bumpy/crappy, then there are parts that are perfect, then there are parts that look nearly vinyl-dipped.

    I am totally willing to take my share of the blame for them, between suboptimal priming weather and my possibly disastrous technique, but even so the yellow primer was periodically blowing out big drops and strings, while the red went on so smoothly it was a positive pleasure to use.

    Anyway, I'm hoping that maybe a judicious touch with superfine sandpaper and a bit of a touch-up topcoat will do the trick. We'll see.

    Meanwhile, I have Dark Eldar paint questions to ask you tomorrow....

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