I’ve taken some time to test a new set of oil paints on some old Heroquest Fimirs and a Star Crusade Ork. I frigging love them! I am so hyped that even though I’m going away soon to work abroad for three months and have very little space in my suitcase, I managed to squeeze a small colour set, the Rackham minotaur and a few forest minis in.
If you like blends but find blending with acrylics tiresome, oils make the process simpler and much more enjoyable. On these Fimirs I worked fast and with thick paint and even fiddling around on my first try in less than two hours I had done the skin on all four of them.
The very long drying time is a boon and a small curse: you have all the time in the world to blend, correct, add highlights and shadows or secondary colours. So far I had no issues with the colours getting desaturated when you mix them: on the contrary, I find them particularly vivid.
After the paint dried, in a couple of days (the paint was very thick) , I sprayed the figures with a matt seal and painted some of the details in acrylics. The acrylic paint was slipping on the surface a little – maybe it’s the oils, maybe it’s the spray, maybe it was because the acrylics were very diluted already on the wet palette… I’ll have to test more.
One axe I have done in nmm with oils, which seems perfectly feasible, too. Edge highlighting is also the same as with acrylics, only you have to wait longer until the previous layer is completely dry. Oils can be used for very effective washes as well.
I spent a little bit more time on the Space Ork, diluted the oils with more medium and worked with much thinner layers. I think it turned out pretty nice.
Finishing these I went back to the Rackham minis and going back to a familiar medium I have the nice feeling I understand it a little better. I hope I can finish the two of them I was working on before I leave next week.
Till next time!
C
Deuteros 