I've started yet another project. Terrible, isn't it? But there's something about the nights drawing in that always makes me feel like painting the smaller scale figures. So, after purchasing Maurice and being mightily impressed by it, I got some Pendraken 10mm Austrians for the SYW. Now, normally I'd prime them black, but I'd read a few forum posts, and what have you, espousing the virtues of a grey primer with a black wash. Now, when I first started painting 6mm Napoleonics I'd actually used white and a black wash, but switched over to black later on. But I thought I'd give grey a try. However, I thought that the effect was acceptable, but not as crisp as a black undercoat. Also, I think the black is a bit faster, too, as you're not waiting for the wash to dry and you don't have to block the gaiters, cartridge box and tricorne in as they are already black.
So here's some pictures of a unit primed with grey + wash versus a unit primed with black and you can make your own minds up.
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| Black primed front |
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| Black primed back |
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| Grey primed + wash front |
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| Grey primed + wash back |
Here are some side by side shots from different angles:
I realise the comparison should probably have used the same pose, but I think you can still clearly see the difference.
I use grey primer because its neutral. It doesn't effect the paint going on so what I see is what I get. That's the benefit for me.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe the black undercoat. I've experimented with a grey undercoat on certain projects but for figures I'm still in favour of black undercoat. Though at the moment I'm undercoating black (on 28mm figure) and drybrushing brown (GW's Calthan brown) which I'm finding really helps in picking out detail. It's my variant of a technique I read on the web of black undercoat and drybrush white. I chose brown since I would generally block in a lot of a figure with a dark/mid brown colour to mute successive colours. Not sure if it would be of use on such small figures. Anyway nice work, and look forward to seeing more of this 10mm stuff.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I don't see a difference. I use both grey and black primers. I find with grey I have to paint more because the automatic shading isn't there as if I had used a black primer. But then again I hadn't done a black wash over the grey. I'm not seeing or understanding the reason for a grey primer with a black wash when I can get the same effect with a black primer.
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