Painting 101: Vuel's Stepladder Approach

A fellow hobbyist asked me on how I painted cloth for my elves, hence this article. For painting technique, it's the simple edge highlighting technique that most painters used. For colour selection however, that's another matter. Before we proceed, keep in mind that the amount of detail on the model that you're planning to paint will play a huge role too.

The technique for  my colour selection was a result of trial-and-error over the years I've been in this hobby. I've tried colour-blending but I felt that it took too much time. I've tried wet pallete too but I personally felt that the preparation was too messy. Therefore, I resorted to use more hues of the same colour. While this caused me to spend more on paints, I'm saving more time. Pictured below is the Stepladder for my browns. (If you noticed, greens and browns are my forte, followed by blue.)

The first tip: there's no place for black nor white in the Stepladder Approach. Take a time to ponder your surroundings; rarely will you see absolute black or absolute white in all things. Don't think so? Get yourself a blank piece of white A4 paper and observe closely. Under non-direct white light, it actually has a very subtle grey-ish hue.

Take a look again at the colours above. From left to right, notice that the colour hue changes gradually from dark to light. This is the basic concept for all techniques out there, and thus applies to mine too. The paints may not necessarily be exclusively GW (the picture above is just an example). Feel free to explore new line of colours to create your own unique sequence recipe/formula.

In case if you're wondering, from left to right:

#1 - VGC Charred Brown

#2 - GW Scorched Earth

#3 - GW Calthian Brown

#4 - GW Bestial Brown

#5 - GW Snakebite Leather

#6 - GW Bubonic Brown

#7 - GW Kommando Khaki, for cloth - Note: an alternative is GW Bleached Bone, for solid materials

The next step would be, to strictly abide to the sequence that you've created. For instance, if your base colour is #1, then your next highlights will be #2, #3 (and so forth) till you decide whether the depth and brightness is to your liking.  If you started with #5, then your highlight colours will be #6 and/or #7.

Lets go into a scenario...say, you're planning to paint a brown-coloured model in a forest floor (an environment bordering between low-light and direct sunlight), but you still want the brown to be distinguishable. Looking at the paint sequence below, I've chosen to start with #3, then gradually highlighting in sequence, stopping at #6.

Following the colour sequence mentioned above, example of the end result can be seen on the WIP Wood Elf below.

Here's an example of different hues chosen as the sequence starter on another WIP Wood Elf.

There was a question regarding the role of washes in this technique. Washes are plausible, but you may need to further experiment regarding the sequence of washing. For my Wood Elves, previously I only used one wash (Sephia) for the yellow, skin and bone colours. After GW released their new line of paints, I have now started applying Athonian Camoshade for the bone colour, as it blend the colour better with my green/brown theme.

As a summary, this is my Stepladder Approach:

1. No Black or White, at all.
2. General Concept of dark to light hues of the same colour.
3. Abide strictly to the sequence.
4. Washes, only where necessary.

That's all. Hope this helps.

Hobby 101: Making a Silicone Mould for Resin Casting

First of all, credits to Jeff Brooks for he was the one that taught me. It's time to share the knowledge. Keep in mind, this walkthrough is meant for a one-sided casting which is more suitable for cating resin bases or terrain. I have yet to successfully make a two-part mould, for I am just a servitor, and need to learn more from the Forgemaster.

Before you start, make sure you have all of these available:
- a plastic container/CD rack
- RTV silicone and catalyst
- silicone release agent
- putty/modelling clay
- the 'master'
- double-sided tape/PVA glue
- toothpick

The very first thing that you must do is to plan; how big your 'master' is going to be and make one. Quoting Khairul: "If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail." Some very important useful tip from Jeff: (1) make sure your 'master' is solid and secure, and (2) avoid undercuts whenever possible. The size of the plastic container that you're going to need is determined by the size of your 'master'. Pictured below is a plastic container I used, overturned, and a hole made at its base. Please ignore the blue stuff for now.

Let's move on. These are my 'masters', glued to the lid using a double-sided tape. Remember to make sure that the base is totally clean, and the 'master' is glued properly and evenly on all sides.

This is the RTV silicone I used. My advice: read the manual and follow exactly as written. Make sure you mixed enough catalyst needed to the amount of silicone used, and pay attention to the mixing ratio; is it per weight or per oz. Unless you have a micro weighing scale, I do not suggest the ones mixed per weight (although they tend to be cheaper than its counterpart).

Once the mixture is ready, it is ready to be poured into the container. There are two things that you need to pay attention before pouring it:

(1) the lids are tightly shut, and packed with putty/modelling clay. Yes, that's the blue stuff in the picture.

(2) apply silicone release agent generously over the master and base of container. I used the spray can agent, while a friend of mine swears by vaseline gel. Well, either way works as long as you get the intended result.

Once those two things are secured, pour the whole thing in and leave it overnight. It should be perfectly cured after 24 hours under room temperature, but it could be much faster if you happened to have a vacuum-pressure pot. However, if you have mixed the aforementioned catalyst insufficiently, please be prepared to wait up until 2++ weeks for the mould to properly cure, regardless whether you have a vacuum pressure pot or not.

This is how the mould should look like after it cured and released from the container. Extract the 'masters' gently and this is where the toothpick came into the picture. Once all 'masters' are extracted, the mould is  now ready for resin casting. There are lots of two-part liquid resin out there, each with its pros and cons (and price). You'll need to do some research here.

And there you have it, a quick walkthrough on how to make a mould for resin casting. A dear friend of mine who migrated to Australia gave me his set of vacuum suction cups to use for moulding (pictured below). I have yet to test them as the stuff that I currently need to mould were quite large. Rest assured, I will utilize them someday.

Hope this helps, and feel free to ask any question. Hope you'd enjoy making a mould as much as I did.