I think this is the best model you've painted so far. You really nailed the details on the face. 😎 Okay so for people wondering about who came up with this method of painting a.k.a Slap Chop/Grisaille/under painting/Veneda/Verdaccio/dead layer/whatever you want to call it: This is the traditional way of painting because it's useful for making smooth blends, it's easier to draw then paint, and it's cheaper. Paint used to be really expensive. A lot of the names for colors come from the materials they were made from. "Cobalt Blue" is named so because it was literally made from cobalt. Imagine you're in Italy during the 1500s. In order to make Cobalt Blue, you have to get cobalt mined in sub-Saharan Africa and wait for it to be shipped by sail boat from the Gulf of Guinea around the coast of Senegal/Sierra Leone/Liberia, up to Morocco and the Canary Islands, before it finally goes through the Straight of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. Then you have stuff like Crimson Red or Vermillion, which (during the Renaissance) was made from drying out dead insects and crushing their scales before mixing it with white chalk. Some hues could only be made this way. Cochineals were used like this, and they only come from one place: Central and South America. Attempts were made to import and raise them to Ethiopia and Australia, which failed. So our poor Blood Angels players would have to wait for a harvest of cochineals from the Aztecs, who were at war with Spanish invaders, and then peel the scales off these bugs to dry out to make pigment. Which brings us to under painting. Rather than use expensive, hard to get paint and mixing different pigments together to get the values you wanted, it's much easier to use do your painting in black, white, grey, and maybe another color like yellow or green that could be made from readily available materials. Artists would use Carbon Black or Burnt Sienna to do most of the work. Just go light some wood on fire, turning it to charcoal, then crush it up to make black. Or grab some dirt, toss it on the grill, and use that. Or crush up some lead and mix it with chalk. Then, once you have your under painting done, you can just glaze over it with the expensive pigment bought for you by the Pope worth more than your house. You get the effects seen here in the slapchop method, without using a literal boatload of paint. You could also make paintings by drawing out the whole thing using oil-based crayons. Since they used linseed oil just like oil paint, it would bond to whatever you painted over it. Much, much easier process than trying to paint those really fine details using a brush....which was also expensive because the hairs in it came from weasels in Russia. Better to avoid unncessary wear and tear on your tools by simply shaving down an oil crayons into a point. Draw out all of your fine details, then you can just glaze over the black and white with whatever hue. The shavings can then be used to make more crayons, so you're not wasting material. We're spoiled as fuck in today's world where a lot of this stuff is now made synthetically. You can still get pigments made using traditional methods, but most people prefer the $10 tube of synthetic blue to the $100 tube (no, really) of Cobalt Blue. Plus, changes in shipping have drastically lowered the cost of goods that exist far away. A lot of miniature painters have typically just bought five different shades of blue, then used those to build up their layers, because that's the method we all used to learn how to paint since we had to learn it from gaming magazines and rule books. tl;dr--don't get upset over who invented what, because you're wrong unless you're arguing over artists from the 1200s.
Love, love, love all this, yes quite right it doesnt matter what people want to call this (maybe I should make up some silly name.....ArthursWobblyBits) it works wonders for painters like me that could spend hours painting something and still not be happy with it when this incredibly simple method turns my grey bits of plastic into something I am happy/proud to display either on my desk or in a table top game =)
I just started working on some Warhammer Underworlds models using oils. I did start with an umber underpainting for the gold armor areas, a mars black for the cold blue ultramarine cape, and a verdaccio mix of mars black and yellow ochre to make my green for the face. I think it looks different than so many other people's work, but I like the way it looks personally. Thanks for spreading the info about traditional painting and how we are still emulating it in ways even today with miniatures. Have a good one!
We used to use this 'zenithal, drybrush technique back in the eighties on historicals but we didn't have the contrast paints in those days so we used watercolour paints. Weird how it's come full circle again!
Yeah, it's like fashion that goes, umm, out of fashion then comes back in and is claimed as the 'newest, greatest thing'. It's nothing new but great to see it coming back. I wonder if GW's insistence on their way of 'hobbying' resulted in it being lost as a general technique. I don't really recall it being a way to paint from eavy metal.
What's comical to me is how this hobby has became more about the minatures & how much detail/realism you can get. But 1/72 & 1/35 scale tank & aircraft modelers have literally been doing this since the 60's - 00's. It's not even really about the actual game anymore HAHA. People used to paint em up like "true game pieces" because they just wanted to play Warhammer / Warhammer 40k / Warhammer: Blood Bowl. I don't even think half these RU-vid painters play the game much anymore.. it's all about the pieces. I'd much rather just paint figures occasionally nowdays. I don't really like where 40k went the past few years & they pretty much phased out Warhammer red box.
Pro-tip for when you're struggling to get him off the painting base at 12:00: the easiest way to break a superglue bond is to pop the model in your freezer for a few minutes. This makes the glue far more brittle and you can just crack it apart without worrying about damaging anything.
I messed around with the undercoat for the slap trap method a few weeks back. From what I can tell, you can get different effects with different colors. At the time I used dark red as a base coat with a mint green on the highlights. After I put on some skin tones the results looked raw and infected which worked pretty well for what I was working on.
That helped.... I just bought a bunch of speed paints - and I did not dry brush enough... not by a long shot.. Can't wait to get home and give another go on other models.
I've actually found it pretty effective and time saving to prime a miniature grey, go over it with a thin black wash and then drybrush highlight white on the raised edges. Helps if you plan on batching a group of 30-50 minis.
@@taylorpaul432 I have a few old bottles of GW Nuln Oil which I use but I've made a bottle of my own using the recipe from Geek Gaming Scenics. Another method involves an oil wash using any black oil paint and an odorless thinner.
I'm still new at all this and I bought grey for my prime/base coat instead of black. If I want to achieve what you're saying, could I get the same result of a black wash by thinning a black paint and going over the model?
I never thought about drybrushing before applying a contrast paint. Thanks for introduceing this idea to me. I have always struggled using contrast paints and now I can see why.
The algorithm sent me. That's a great technique. I haven't painted figures for 35+ years. I would have killed for this technique even though I loved painting them. Cheers!
I hit upon this technique in the 80s, but we didn't have contrast back then. Had to water everything down. Never went anywhere with it. Nice to see it's rise to prominence in this age.
1) youtube late, 2) it isn't just the technical side that is getting better, it is you. 3) I still think the hollow figures should have a metal skeleton not only to magnetize, but to give heft and a place to hold fiddly bits.
I really glad you showed how to do this with a brush for the initial drybrush. Everything else I have seen uses an airbrush and I don't have me one of those.
I recommend using colors other than black as the base layer. You can use contrasting colors. Green as a base with white over it will give flesh a palid sickly tone. Red will give it a richer tone. maroon will make it look more realistic etc.
@@MiniatureHobbyist yah both the base and dry brush can be used to influence the tonal feel of the model. Cold? Use blues. Hot? Use bright reds and yellow. You can do a lot with it and then filter with the speed paints.
I'm a new painter, and your videos have e been Sooooo helpful. I'm watching you from the little island of Guam by the way. Thank you sooooo much for your explanations and tutorials.
Mini looks great! And thanks for the run down of this method. Been painting casually for years now and never heard of this method! Will have to try it out soon.
I can not wait to try this. I have been struggling to get my bad guys to look like bad guys and I think this is going to help so much. Thank you for showing you paint labels so I can go get some of these to try and recreate what you've done and learn how to do it with other models. Slap Chop method dry brushing... I've already learned so much lol.
Quick tip, the Tamiya White Putty is way easier to use than green stuff for filling gaps. Just squeeze out of the tube, paint it into the gaps, and let it dry. The Tamiya putty does shrink a tiny bit, so green stuff is better for wide gaps. I find the shrinking totally unnoticeable on mold lines though and it actually works to your advantage as it pulls in a bit from the inevitable over fill.
I discovered the "slap chop" method a couple of years ago. I am glad it's actually a thing and not just me. I have been pondering as of late, thanks to all the traction slap chop has received lately, maybe trying a more advanced method. Instead of using black, use 1-3 dark colours, then grey + white dry brushing followed by contrast/speedpaint.
Yup its definently spreading like wild fire, yeah I really want to experiment more with the dry brushing colours and doing several and then applying contrast paints, fun times ahead =)
I belive using grey primer and light grey drybrush would be more benefitial as the constrast between base na highlight is to drastic for SpeedPaints to show their full potential. Drybrush is a basic technique but takes time to master. That is my advice. To use more gentle colour transition.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing. This has inspired me to get my plastic painted as I always found it so daunting. You have given me that confidence to give it a go. Thank you.
Yes, in 20 minutes. as a slow painter. And that includes all the drying, the preparation, the paint swaps, and speeding up 5x in the montage, and skipping most part, for a full 10 minutes video. Nice.
Good to hear you’re starting to enjoy the painting side of the hobby. I find it difficult to find the time needed to really get my miniatures to look how I’d like them to so the new speed paints are a huge boon to my painting style. 👍🏼 I’ve also re belled as the RU-vid’s seem to have turned down my subscription. Keep up the good work sir.
Nice work. I’ve been using this or a zenithal primer technique for about six months now. I love it. Been able to plow through loads of townies and other NPCs recently acquired through Kickstarters. With SO MUCH plastic, this method has saved me a ton of time.
I'm a novice painter and I think my results are really good for my skill level. But I needed something faster for goons. Since I have Zombicide Undead or Alive waiting to be painted. And there are a lot of "8x" of each zombie. Can't wait to get the "horde" painted with this method!
Wow. Very impressive paint job. I have been on the fence when it comes to speed paints. You might have just helped me make a decision to purchase them. Great video!
Reaper Minis has a line of "super washes" they're testing. There are still some of the Alpha test batch still available on their website. (Good video, I've just got the Super Washes and the AP Speedpaints that I'll be trying out within the week. This gives me a good basis to start from. Thanks!)
I first tried this method on the indomitus launch neurons and couldn't believe that it looked so well and saved so much paint also. thanks to your video I'm going to try this with the other kill teams im making.
I really like to use the runic grey from army painter as an alternative for metallic paints over a grisaille. It works really well on shiny swords imo.
Its not me its contrast paints, they do all the work lol, I used to spend hours painting a figure and it seemed to get worse the more I painted it lol =P
Interesting technique. I'm a scale modeler, too, and there's a very similar technique where you essentially paint the model in black and white and then lightly airbrush translucent layers over the monochrome underlayer. You basically get the same effect as in this video. Jose Luis Lopez Ruiz wrote a book nearly a decade ago called Painting Guide for AFV of World War Two and Modern Era (sic) that shows what can be achieved this way. Just like Slapchop (ridiculous name, but catchy), the monochrome layer does the heavy lifting for you.
Underpainting or value sketch is the correct name, no idea why slapcrap has suddenly become popular other than someone decided to rip off a trademarked name for a kitchen appliance. Whoever came up with it not only just stole a technique that's been around for decades but stole the name from someone else's product too.
@@georgemoonman2830 My theory is this: at the end of the day, there's only so much new that can be said about painting minis, and the RU-vidrs need whatever new content they can generate so they can get the views to make the bucks. So, suddenly, all the mini channels talk about "Slapchop," and then next week, some other old idea with a fresh coat of paint, so to speak.
I have to say I learned something today. I used to paint (going to get back into it later this year) and the black primer with light drybrush then speedpaint - gives a better looking miniature than I ever did (other than dragons) because I could never get "flesh" to look right.
I can totally relate at the end of the video with you. I am to faffy, spend to much time on a figure and I'm now scared to even try and paint after all these years. After seeing this though you inspired me and I will try the paints you suggested. I also lost heart with the airbrush breaking and clogging up with paint. I will try this out, it looks great by the way!
Something I've learned recently about the Tamia extra thin this happened to figure it out by chance, but you don't have to sit there and brush it all over the place you plan to put the piece you can actually dry fit it together and then take the brush with a decent amount on it and just tap it to the seam and it literally follow the seam all the way around the piece it flows better than inks or shades it's crazy takes two seconds and gravity doesn't affect it at first I would hold it so it could run down but it just goes where it has room so you can touch it to a groove and it'll fill the groove in all directions and it uses far less glue this way
Haha and to me its bliss, no distraction from the model and I can see the floor underneath, if I want a fancy base I will make a diorama for the model, have a great weekend bud =)
@@iceniwargames6347 exactly, we are all different and will love and hate different things, this one had a yellowish dry brush and I will be trying other colours, as for primer I have to use up all the black cans I have lol =)
Amazing. I think it would even look better with a mid gray prime + bright drybrush. I feel that the full black prime pushed the shades too harsly to the dark side. I think a belly should not have dark folds, but deep brown folds. So your overall look feels like a comic book. Which is still fantastic, I am just thinking how I would do.
I have unintentionally been doing a similar method, except I’ve been using Indian Inks as a base coat because they work well as a primer and go on super thin. Just make sure it dries waterproof.
@@MiniatureHobbyist the Dr Martin ones have a nice dropper top on individual bottles, just don’t pull from the top of the ink after shaking or you can end up with bubbles. They’re marked airbrush safe also but I haven’t tried that just yet. Don’t use a pricey brush either, once it sets the ink is pretty hard to rinse out. The paper white one doesn’t dry waterproof, but makes a really nice bone/chalky white finish for skeletons.
Thanks for the tutorial! Would you recommend starting with slap chop for a complete beginner, or is it better to start with more traditional paints to build up painting skills?
A few questions if you don’t mind. What drybrush do you use for this? And how much force do you brush with? The makeup brush I tried with tends to cover the black undercoat to much.
I use a cheap makeup brush lol, I brush off most of the paint on the kitchen towel and then rub quite hard, its a case of trial and error I guess, just keep experimenting =)
@@MiniatureHobbyist Will do, and thanks for the advice! The makeup brush I have works great for normal terrain drybrushing, but I suspect it might be to.. fluffy for the smaller details. Me at the makeup store tomorrow: ”Excuse me, is this brush good for slap-chopping?” 😉
You can also buy a cheap brush set from a craft store, they're not the super fine brushes we use for the detail work, but when you're brushing over a whole figure it doesn't need to be. Although avoid the extremely cheap brushes that aren't fiber at all. The larger ones in the set can be used for terrain, if you ever get into that, or you can save them for detail painting the next time you need to touch up a wall or piece of furniture around the house. And, as brushes wear out over time, with bristles spreading (especially when you get pigment particles up in the ferrule), your previously-amazing pointed brushes turn into busted old drybrushes automatically.
Slap chop is kinda funny. I have been doing something similar for ages when painting to get around that I am slightly colour blind(light green/yellow green/blue red/brown). Watered down black as a wash then after it dries I dry brush on grey or white. (was the speedpaint that was meant to be grey but more blue the "runic grey" because i use the holy white or gravelord grey)
