Inking vs. Painting

Orion dartanyu · Post by **Orion dartanyu** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:04 pm

So what is better overall?

I know inking gets into the cracks and places it is hard for paint to get, but does the finish product have a good overall quality to it?

Also, can mixing ink and paint turn out good?

And I've heard inking is more difficult than painting. I suck at painting as it is, but I still want to develop this technique some. Are there step by step sites you have found to be perfect for describing the process?

Asmodeus · Post by **Asmodeus** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:15 pm

I don't know any sites to help you here, but from my experience using a lot of inks speeds up the time it takes to paint your armies considerably. And the final product is great, although it might be a little shiny. Using watered down inks to tint armor and reach recesses is of course the most often used and common practice.

Post by **Dyvim tvar** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:45 pm

Inking versus painting is not an either/or question. You generally do both.

For example, if you are painting a cold one, you might paint the entire thing enchanted blue. You could then wash the entire figure with watered down blue and/or black ink. It will settle into the cracks and create instant shadow effects. When it's dry, you could then use ice blue for highlighting the tops of the scales on the back.

This is a fairly standard way of doing a 3 tone method. (1) base color, (2) ink for shadow, and (3) highlight

Asmodeus · Post by **Asmodeus** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 10:18 pm

I completely agree with you Dyvim. But I have to say, I've seen some amazing figures done with nothing but inks (the most memorable being a Nurgle Greater Daemon). For most models, a combination of painting, inking, and drybushing produces the best results, but it doesn't hurt to experiment with different things, including painting figures without paint (ie, using inks). I personally don't have that skill, but with work, who knows.

Post by **Dyvim tvar** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 11:03 pm

Asmodeus wrote:I completely agree with you Dyvim. But I have to say, I've seen some amazing figures done with nothing but inks (the most memorable being a Nurgle Greater Daemon). For most models, a combination of painting, inking, and drybushing produces the best results, but it doesn't hurt to experiment with different things, including painting figures without paint (ie, using inks). I personally don't have that skill, but with work, who knows.

You're right that you can do some cool things with just ink. I forgot that I have done some of this myself in painting my Eldar fleet for Battlefleet Gothic.

The technique works best for stuff like a great unclean one, plague bearers, zombies, deamons and other such things. You ink over a white base coat and let the colors blend together. It's kind of like painting in watercolors.

Fellblade · Post by **Fellblade** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 11:17 pm

I sometimes use ink to thin my paint, instead of water. For example if I'm painting something red, very often thinning the red with water will result in poor coverage on the figure. Using red or magenta ink to thin the red paint will prevent this problem and often add a depth to the color that paint alone doesn't give.

Once I took a Clan War undead samurai, basecoated black, drybrushed white. The I used only inks for the colors, just washed them on liberally. It was the best-looking, fastest-painted (apart from drying time) figure I've ever done. Sadly, Tomb Kings do not reward this technique...

Lateo · Post by **Lateo** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 7:09 am

You should mix the 2, I do and I´m pretty happy with the result.