#varnishing

ok so, again, this is particularly optional stuff, but Practice etc etc etc.

Water Transfers are little super-thin water-activated stickers that allow you to(theoretically) get the look of super-clean, super-fine symbols on your models without having the super-humanly fine motor control needed to create them by hand. I ONCE AGAIN did not take pictures of this process but bscl: Anything GW sells comes with a little sheet of these transfers, and they also sell supplements of subfaction-specific ones if you dont want to play whatever the Posterchild for a particular faction is(tho some, like the Eldar, are small enough that their transfer sheets MAY include everything you need, idk as I havent bought Eldar minis yet) A transfer sheet looks like this(I've already cut some out, youll see)

The process has lots of steps, but it's pretty straight forward. First, you paint the part of the minis you want to stick the decals on with a THIN NON GLOOPY layer of varnish(GW recommends their gloss varnish, 'Ard Coat, but I dont have that so I just used their matte, Stormshield). Varnish doesn't fully cure for about a day but an hour of drying time is fine for this. Then, you cut out the transfer you want, I used the tactical squad decal which is a little arrow, using whatever method you think best(I used my hobbyknife). Then you put the transfer on a paper towel or tissue and apply a goodly amount of water to it(I used my brush, dabbing it around 4 or 5 times, but if you have a dropper around that's perfect for this), and let it sit for about 30 seconds. While waiting, you wet the area of the mini you want to put the transfer on. Now poke gently at the transfer with your brush; if it moves then it's ready and if it doesnt, apply some more water and do some more waiting.

When it's ready, you pick it up with some tweezer, hold it near the area you're transferring it to, and gently prod it off the paper and onto that area with the brush. It doesn't need to be properly oriented right away; as long as the transfer and area remain wet you can fiddle with it, you have literally all the time you'd like to place it. Once its on you sort of just poke it into the orientation you want and, once you're satisfied, take your tissue/towel, dab away the remaining water, and press the transfer flat for a few seconds. Give it a few to dry, then apply another thin layer of MATTE varnish(unless you're looking for a glossy finish on the shoulders, I guess) to lock it down and you're done!

Now a problem with transfers is them bunching up, or getting bubbles stuck underneath them. There ARE chemical solutions to this, custom transfer mediums you can buy, but there are more reasonable workarounds. During the cutting phase, if you'll score empty areas of the transfer, for instance down the middle of an Ultra symbol or in the negative space made by the angles in the decal, this will reduce the pressures on it during transfer, create joints for it to bend at, and breaks in the transfer for air to escape through. Unfortunately I didn't find a vid explaining that until AFTER doing my transfers, so they may look a bit jank XD XD

ok so: Painting decals. All Space Marine chapters/legions have their own Heraldry, and canonically they include these on their pauldrons, with the other holding their squad designation. My problem is: The Nova Paladins aren't a canon Space Marine type, so no transfers for it exist. Again I COULD have just left the other shoulder blank but I didn't want to, so I painted a symbol on instead. I have a series of symbols of the NPs in me Noggin', but I went with a Circle surrounded by four triangles pointing outward at the cardinal points, symbolizing an exploding star, painted in Vallejo white.

And I forgot to take pics of BOTH pauldrons before applying the varnish -___- SO! Here are the finished models three days hence, with two layers of varnish each given a day to dry, and the pauldron heraldry Complete

As you can see, some bubbles here and there, but not bad for a first go. I'm also Pretty Ok with the Chapter/Legion Mark, tho I'd like to get better at painting tiny details like this; I tried making a stencil but I couldnt really get it small enough X| X|

Varnishing itself is pretty easy: I used GW/Citadel's Stormshield matte varnish, applying it with a regular #4 square-head brush. Don't let the varnish goop anywhere, and if it looks thick to you on the brush you can water it down with a palette, but I just used it from the bottle, occasionally cleaning and wetting it, and it was fine. As I said at the top, I did one coat on each model, setting them aside somewhere they could sit unmolested for a day when I finished, and then... let them sit there for a day to set before applying the second coat. If you wanted a glossy finish to certain parts of the mini you could use a gloss varnish there, but I wasn't looking for that here. I manipulated the models from their base while doing this, and plan to go back and varnish the sides of said base in future to protect ITS paintjob, but we don't need to hold up these posts for that.

So there's the Heavy Intercessors Finished! I had allot of fun with this learning experience and find the final results Acceptable ^v^ ^v^

So WHAT HAVE I LEARNED:

go piece by piece, mini to mini, to make sure I paint EVERYTHING the first time and avoid constant repainting of stuff Im not satisfied with

More Rigorous use of the Notebook to record what needs to be painted AND notes for these posts. For instance: write down the things you learn so you wont forget by the time you're ready to write your summation u_u

TAKE! PROCESS PICS!! Obvsl I wont be shooting video but there were allot of times when I forgot to document relevant steps in my hurry to do the next one, and I'd like to not do that in future

Keep my brushes wetter, keep a better eye on the amount of paint on the brush, and dont paint until I feel Steady.

Use different painting handles. Im Not A Fan of the GW one I have; it barely accommodated these Intercessors and the spring loading made it Finicky to get a model in and out, and FELT like it was always a split second from launching it into space.

Dont Varnish after basing. I found that, sometimes, little bits of flock or tuft would pull loose while I was varnishing the boots and get painted onto the model elsewhere with the varnish. If I base AFTER varnishing, this wont be an issue.

Alternatively: Experiment with doing bases differently and separately. This seems like a Big Deal, honestly. This raises the issue of priming tho. Maybe I could stick them to the paint platform with putty or tape at the feet? One option is using my hobby drill to drill holes in the feet of the minis, drill holes in the bases, clip some paper clips into teeny pegs, and use those to connect the minis until Im ready to prepare the bases, then take them off. I could also do something similar to connect the minis to painting handles, then detach them once I'm read to base. Hmmmm |:T |:T One of the painters I really like, Dana Howl, just glues the minis down with the basing paste as she applies it tho, so idk if it's THAT huge a deal. Maybe I just need to Accept My Destiny of painting the bases u_u u_u u_u

The prime I used here was too dark for the scheme I ended up using, I think. Next time I paint Nova Paladins, I think I'll try using a grey and white prime, and after that just a pure white prime. I've also heard things about PINK being a good prime for bright colors and especially yellow, so I might try a pink and white prime, or maybe just paint a bright pink onto the stuff I'll paint yellow later on a white prime.

So that's all I can remember u_u u_u

And now a teaser for my next project: ELVES!

with Sarge for scale OwO

I'll be painting these two Elf Rangers from WizKids' Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line of D&D Minis. As you can see they're about half the size of the Primaris Heavy Intercessors, so it should be Interesting. Im going to try to make this a quicker process, but we'll see how it works out. Hopefully I can start tomorrow so Seeya Then ^v^ ^v^

EDIT: OH WAIT!!!!!! I forgot to cite my sources by linking to the videos I studies for this project :3 :3 :3

HOW TO PREPARE MINIS FOR PAINTING: a step by step guide by Brushstroke Painting Guides

FUNDAMENTALS! A Complete Guide to Painting Minis from Goobertown Hobbies

How to Underpaint Miniatures: A Beginner's Guide to Sketch Style by Dana Howl

A Budget Starter Guide to Underpainting Miniatures: Hobby Basics 102 by Dana Howl

How To Paint a Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures D&D Human Fighter by TheMiniJunkie

How to Paint a Heresy Era Blood Angels Legionnaire by Duncan Rhodes

HOW TO PAINT KRONOS HEGEMONY: A Step by Step Guide by Brushstroke Painting Guides

How to Use: Citadel Technical Paints - Gemstone Paints by Warhammer(this is GW's official community youtube channel)

Citadel Colour - Transfers by Warhammer

Applying Transfers on Space Marine Shoulder Pads by Warhammer; the one I SHOULD have watched

HOW TO MAKE PATCHY GRASS BASES: A Step by Step Guide by Brushstroke Painting Guides

KEEP IT SIMPLE! Easy Basing for Miniature Skirmish Games by Dana Howl

Painting the Hoth Rebel Army by Dana Howl

Flock and Scatter How to Seal Your Miniature Bases by Geek Gaming Scenics. I didn't find this one's advice particularly useful, sadly, tho perhaps With Time I will realize it's Wisdoms u_u u_u u_u

VARNISHES ...and how to Use them Wisely by Duncan Rhodes

Goobertown, Dana Howl, Brushstroke, and Duncan Rhodes are honestly INVALUABLE resources for this hobby. Of the four Brushstroke and Howl will waste the least of your time: All are great, but Goobertown tends to ham it up a bit(which isn't BAD! and he makes up for it by rigorously indexing his videos in the load bar so you can skip around easily), and Rhodes likes to talk.

Rhodes covers EVERYTHING, but he's a really good source for advanced techniques, especially painting ones.

Brushstroke is not only a Good, super-informative miniature hobby channel, it's also a pretty decent ASMR one.

Dana is... Awesome. There's really nothing else to say that really encapsulates Her Whole Deal. Good painting advice(even if she mostly works with an airbrush which I dont), good color advice, good basic advice, good basing advice, Concise, Direct, and Hilarious.

Goobertown is an Endless source of inspiration for general Hobby tips and tricks(I am GOING to do magnets >:> Epoxy spooks me a bit tho X| X|) as well as being a great source for painting advice, spcl for beginners, AND he breaks down the science behind allot of this stuff. I owe to him my not getting a gloss varnish for this project because he proved it didn't really benefit you to do a gloss undercoat and matte overcoat, even though most ppl(like Duncan) will swear up and down it does something.