Thank you for the lovely comments. In an effort to get my painting mojo back I've been trying to knock out some simpler bits and pieces. So first up given I got the camera out today are my ghosts. So as mentioned
over here, these are a selection of old Citadel ones, Midlam Miniatures, Checkpoint miniatures and what I think of as
new Citadel (but are in fact actually quite old now!).
So despite my "I'll churn these out quickly" ideas reality got the better of me a bit. I'd heard good things about Army Painter
Pastel Seafoam SpeedPaint as "Ghost Juice" and thought I'd perhaps try that.
Now normally I don't base my minis until I am done, but the Midlam models are on cast bases so I opted to base everything and put down some texture. I knew I also wanted to put a bit of "ghostly light" onto the bases - so they would need to be "done" by that point.
So I started with a black prime from the airbrush then did a zenithal highlight in white and then tried slapping on the
Juice ... disaster, the SpeedPaint re-activated the white and I ended up with a messy splodge. Where did I go wrong? I had heard stories of re-activation with the v1 SpeedPaints, but supposedly that was fixed in v2. Well when doing my zenithals I tend to use white ink rather than paint since I find it flows nicer through the airbrush. Now it's supposed to be waterproof, but I guess it wasn't SpeedPaint proof. So back in the stripper for that ghost and re-primed again in black.
The other thing this first failure taught me was I'd not gone solid enough with the zenithal - they needed a stronger highlight since I wasn't going to add much later. The black of the shadows was also too harsh. I wanted some black for edge definition, but it didn't really work for the general shadows.
So for my second go I did things a little different. Again a zenithal highlight, but stronger. I then used Vallejo Verdigris from the underside to add some coloured shadows - the Verdigris is a little darker than the Pastel Seafoam so would work well. I cleaned up the zenithal highlight and then did the bases repainting them and adding 1mm static "dead grass" and a few tufts. I then varnished the models to protect these layers. I wasn't quite sure about a gloss or matte varnish - normally with washes like this you'd probably want a gloss, but I did want a bit of general staining from the Seafoam so opted for a matte in the end. When that was dry I slapped on the Seafoam. I did a little OSL on the bases with the airbrush at this point and once everything was dry went back in with a few glazes of near white and white just to bring up some of the highlights a little more.
Some of the Midlam models in closeup. I very much like these, they feel like the older miniatures and are lovely castings.
Some classic Citadel ghosties
I'm pleased with how they all came together. Nothing complex about the paint scheme and no need for a super steady hand, it was nice to just get an entire unit "done".
