Chess board blankets

[Paul]

Be honest now, who was thinking, "what the hell is this going to be??".

I got a PM from Hellfoot giving a link for a page on doing Chequers. Thanks for that Mate
http://coolminiornot.com/article/aid/807/page/1
The idea is great, but then I thought, "bugger, can´t do that!" as I base with black. Then I came up with a variation Paint the whatever in black base and instead of using a pencil on a white base as suggested in the link, scratch the pattern with a pin!!!!!!

So here goes. Thin coat of black Acrylic base. Has to be well thin as too thick and the paint flakes off in big lumps.



Paint the first colour. Here I´ve used emerald green with a bit of brown, about 66%green-33%middle brown. Basically fill the alternate squares all over the figure.




Paint the second colour. This time 66% canary yellow - 33% middle brown.



Noe comes the fun bit. You have to go over every square again using a lighter tone of the first colour, but basically painting more of the edge of each square each time (working from the middle out). This takes at least 3 goes, moving up to near pure emerald green or canary yellow. This seems (and I found this out by accident) to give the material look




Paint the underneath of the horsecoat (ie; where it´s flapped back) and finito!! The very last bits of edging I do when the riders on as I´ve found that damage can occur when attaching the riders and that just makes me want to tear my hair out when I´ve attempted to get it near perfect and then have to redo bits. (and obviously the saddle and reins etc have to be painted as well)

[Michael Robert]

Paul
more inventive as ever. This site is becoming the holy grail of 72nd scale figure painting methods. Awesome, or as I would say Magnifique

Michael

[Hellfoot]

Hey awesome result dude! Isn't that an Italeri Crusader Knights fig?

[Konrad]

Not bad,Paul.
Not bad.

[Martin]

Hi Paul,
Nice way of doing this!

[dutchboyinohio]

Interesting technique! I'm wondering though, it seems that scratching in the pattern leaves a lot of paint flakes from the base coat on the horse, which makes the blanket look somewhat bumpy where the squares meet. Are you going to do anything to resolve that issue? Just wondering....

Other than that, the colors look great!

[musketier]

excellent tutorial I was curious to know how you did it. I think the flecks of paint make it look more like a quilt.

[Paul]

Interesting technique! I'm wondering though, it seems that scratching in the pattern leaves a lot of paint flakes from the base coat on the horse, which makes the blanket look somewhat bumpy where the squares meet. Are you going to do anything to resolve that issue? Just wondering....

Other than that, the colors look great!

I noticed that as well. Bit lazy of me not to brush the excess off before I started filling the squares. next time yes!! I´ve now brushed off the excess flakes and when it´s finished, with rider I´ll put a photo.

@Musketier. The first attempt I did free Hand. The idea with the drawing of the pattern was kindly suggested by Hellfoot, I just altered it a bit by using a pin to mark the pattern. If you watch the video, the guy in in bases his figures white first and the files a pencil down to a very sharp point to draw the basic pattern. As I base with black, this wouldn´t work and a pin has a fine point anyway.
@Hellfoot, It is

[Hellfoot]

@Paul Why don't you use a white pencil and file it to a point?

[Paul]

@Paul Why don't you use a white pencil and file it to a point?

I actually tried the white base and then the normal pencil sharpened to a piont , but either my point wasn´t pointy enough or the base paint wasn´t a certain make cos it just seemed to tear the base off in large chunks. I was going to just go back to doing them by freeahnd and then a small leprechaun by the name of geoffrey wispered in my ear, "use a pin why don´t you"
(you have to say this with an irish accent to get the full majesty of his words, and what selfrespecting leprecaun is called geoffrey? I´ll never know )
But it seemed to work although he never did show me the pot of gold

[Peter]

Good tutorial , but Hellfoot has a point to. Why not with a pencil?

[Paul]

Good tutorial , but Hellfoot has a point to. Why not with a pencil?

Cos Geoffrey had a better idea

[Hellfoot]

well it also depends on the grade of the lead. H's are hard and will tear paint and B's are soft and dark. A normal white coloring pencil shouldn't be a problem since the tip is soft.

[Paul]

Aha!! I firstly used a HB, the middle one in the range but then used a B4, but at this end of the range it is so soft that getting a point that is fine enough is near impossible and you end up with black fingers from the graphit, which led to smaering of the model anyway. So it must be the base coat.

[Fenton]

Good effort Paul...Wouldnt using a really fine drawing pen do the same job...you wouldnt have paint flakes everywhere?

I suppose if you were really keen you could use a hot pin and score the plastic itself before painting

[Paul]

Good effort Paul...Wouldnt using a really fine drawing pen do the same job...you wouldnt have paint flakes everywhere?

I suppose if you were really keen you could use a hot pin and score the plastic itself before painting

Scoring the plastic??? Maybe.
The problem with pens is that the ink then discolours anything painted over it or it has a very purple gloss shine to it afterwards. Worth a thought though

[Fenton]

I found in the past that the really high quality mapping pens etc dont fade or anyting, and you would only be using it for the outlines of the intial chessboard pattern

[Paul]

I found in the past that the really high quality mapping pens etc dont fade or anyting, and you would only be using it for the outlines of the intial chessboard pattern

Sounds interesting, which make??

[Fenton]

Umm to be honest there the ones I permently borrowed while I used to work for Ordance&Survey..they were a German make that arent made anymore...but I remember the mappers telling me that they were similar to Rotoring

they look something similar to this

http://www.rotring.com/en/produkte/tech ... graph.html