Let's Paint! with Valus: Convergence Optifex (Part 1: basics and basecoats)

Man, how long has it been since I've posted in my own blog?  At this point most bloggers would apologize for being behind on posting due to real life, but forget that.  There's no point in making excuses to the tens of people (ha!) that have been left hanging in my absence, but I will thank Andy and Popculture for towing the line while I was out.  Seeing what the kids are doing with these new-fangled video games is pretty awesome, and the Trollblood and Cygnar updates are awesome as well.

Pretty much me and video games

But now it's time to break my posting dry spell, and the real question is what should we do to mark the occasion?  Well, if you are any good at reading titles, you'll know that this is my first paining post!

Today, I'll cover prepping an set of Optifex Directive for painting through applying basecoats.  For an idea on how this will look at the end check out my Algorithm Dispersion Optifex*

First, get the models cleaned.  So far I've been happy with the quality of PP metal, so there shouldn't be too much work to make this work.  Still, be sure to remove the flash and obvious mold lines.  Every time a model is mold lines gets painted, Matt Ward writes a piece of fluff!

Bah! How do you rotate this thing?

After cleaning the model and getting the flash off, priming comes next.  As most know this step keeps the paint on the model, which is pretty much mandatory.  For this step, I used the Reaper black primer, thinned out with a little water.  The ratio I used is 3 drops primer to one drop water, while the usual tends to be 4-5 drops of primer.  I like multiple, thinner layers of primer because it allows me to preserve details better.  On some of the Convergence models and GW Finecast, I've learned the hard way how easy it is to lose fine but important detail.

Another picture fail

The first step is to get the clothing painted.  Optifex are some of the only models in the Convergence line that have cloth, and even then it's a little detail beneath the armor and tools.  By painting this first we'll be able to reach into the deeper recesses of the model without messing up previous steps.

Next, comes the first big coat where we really start adding color to the model.  I added Shadowed Steel to basically anything that wasn't overwhelmingly brass (i.e. the head).  The brass layer will be added next, and goes over this coat easily enough.  Reaper's triads typically use the medium color as the base, but I like trying successive highlights so I started with the darkest color.

It should also be noted that I frequently jump between Reaper and GW paints, and this is mostly due to budget constraints.  I'm usually a Reaper fanboy, but if I could do this again I'd use GW's metallic paints for the silvers.  Highlighting Reaper metallics is difficult, and the lighter colors don't thin well.  You can still get results to be proud of, but for the path of least resistance go with GW metallics.

Hey, I got it right this time!

Finally, we use Warplock Bronze for our brass areas.  Here, that means the thin trim on the armor, a few details on pauldrons, gloves, and tools.  The head is also bronze.  The end result of the base coats is a pretty dark model, which is only going to get darker when we add black wash (GW's Nuln Oil in this case).  In the next post, I'll cover how to make the models pop through edge highlighting and adding glow effects!