Painting a space marine using ONLY oil paints

[@adamssmartthings]

Wow thanks so much for featuring my comment and painting this marine fully in oils! You rocked it! I go back and forth between oils and acrylics because of pros and cons. Your work is definitely inspiring!

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Glad you liked the video! Oils and acrylics are both awesome for different things imo :)

[@dndthings]

It's awesome how smooth you get those blends at the end when you look at what it looks like after taking off some of the first oil wash.

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Its a very satisfying process!

[@xk8able]

Great video! Love to see your attempt at Dark Angels. Could be cool to showcasing mixing greens and as well with the cream robes.

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I actually have lion el johnson in que. I'm a little hesitant to start because of ALL the detail. So it's a bigger project. Maybe the video could be several episodes long. Havent decided on how to approach that content yet :)

[@xk8able]

@Watchpaintdry_minis that would be really cool to see! Any thoughts on what paints would work well for the normal 40k dark angels green? I've messed around with phthalo green and mixing yellow into it for highlights. I know greens can be easily mixed but it's a bit of a pain for army painting.

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I don't really have a go-to green that I like, thats pre-mixed. I like pthalo green + a warm yellow (ochre or yellow oxide). If i were in the market for one, i'd maybe look at army painter fanatic range, AK or Schmincke primacryl for heavy body acrylic :) I'm working now on Lion El Johnson using a lot of pthalo green + titanium yellow + ice yellow for the saturated green tones.

[@drexciya8083]

Unbelievable. Love the light and shadow work on this. It has such a presence.

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

glad you like it. I have more warhammer oil painting coming soon!

[@patrickdixon5692]

I would love to see a purple like either pre-heresy emperor's children or hawk lords

[@TheMichaellathrop]

I'd love to see your take on Wordbearers in this style, I'm curious how you will deal with the technical challenge created by the presence of all of the runes text and sygils on their armor. Also I like the darker red you get on them and the blood ravens as compared to the brighter red's of the blood angels and world eaters.

[@Bean_Waterfowl1026]

Amazing work love this style I’m currently painting this way of blending

[@curtcleancut]

This is amazing. I'm trying to push myself more into using oil paints with my figures. I've started with oil washes and deductive painting methods. If you feel up to it, I'd love to see a Blood Angel model get painted and see what colors and hues you use. Please keep up the great work!

[@Armoredattacker]

Really love seeing this! also highly recommend Mended brush studios for their oil strats to!

[@virgilromero3252]

You got another sub my good dude!! I’m going to paint Adrax, captain in Phobos, judiciar, sternguard and judiciar this way. I’ve already got the base but I was stumped on how to get a nice blend. I was missing the wash part

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Glad you liked the video!

[@karlmoore1837]

Starting to look at oils, myself. Would like to see either salamanders or death wing done using oils, in this way. Thanks for the video.

[@scyvvir6393]

I'm probably way late but I would love to see Emperor's Children. I love deep, rich purples and bright, saturated pinks but I've been having some trouble with them.

[@doughdip8910]

I think doing an Iron Hand or Iron Warrior Space marine would be really cool to do. Especailly adding in NMM when applicable.

[@WitnessMyMinis]

awesome work , that is one good looking smurf !

[@karlmoore1837]

Been trying oils for a bit now, with mixed success. A couple of things that I've run into is: knowing when the oil is, or isn't going to adhere to the model. If you have to wait for oils to dry before adding detail and markings, then it isn't as much as a benefit as with workflow with acrylics. Texturing seems to be tricky with oils as you want to blend and transition but not too much. Maybe you'll cover those in your next video on oils. For the time being I'm going to see if I can't get oil blends with acrylics by putting in a slow dry agent.

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I agree - texturing is not easy with oils. It's not really playing to their strenghts imo. If you're having problems with paint not sticking, try applying either a thicker or thinner layer. If the bottom layer is matt, the oils should stick. Dont be afraid to do a thicker layer that you can work out the lumps to a even thinner layer with the blending brush. With oils thinner layers sticks to thick and thick sticks to thin as a rule of thumb.

[@frugal10191]

Lovely job. I would love to see some more on how much you thin your paints before applying them. One thing I really struggle with oil paints is the consistency, if I put a second colour on top it blobs and smears rather than going on smoothly like yours does.

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I don't really thin them at all. Only for the pre-glaze will i use dilutent.

[@alexH712]

This is a bit of a late reply but you might find it helpful - in oil painting there is the notion of "thick over thin" which basically means that if you put an oil paint over the top of another, you need to make sure the second coat is thicker than the first, otherwise they smear and blend. This video explains it well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oaTLdJ6pbNyUqKs

[@TheTreborus]

uh, because of the hight details and because i love them, i would wish for death guard, Lord of Contaigon has a lot of wonderful details, maybe non-metallic metal bronze would be something im interested

[@DW_R]

Love your painting Malte and have followed you on instagram for a while - but I really have to say, the answer to "can you achieve heavy metal style on a Space Marine" has to be no! At least for a small mini like this one, the results just don't look anywhere near as crisp as what a painter of your talent could achieve with acrylics, and I'm saying this as someone who has gotten into oils for washes and working on larger patches of skin etc. But the smoothness and contrast is definitely something I think is more difficult to achieve with oils.

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I appreciate it. I'm very new to the small scale painting. And yes, i'd tend to agree with you. Oils and acrylics have different strengths and this project felt a bit funny since the eavy metal style is CLEARLY made for acrylics. But it was a fun experiment none the less. Appreciate the support my friend!

[@DW_R]

@@Watchpaintdry_minis oh absolutely. I think I'm going to keep practicing with oils (I massively understand your points about highlights going down to a midtone once blended - struggle hugely with that!) and use oils mainly for washes, metallics and speed painting-style tricks, then varnish and start with the acrylics for the crispness/edges. Great video as always brother.

[@scottlarmore5038]

Would love to see dark angels done in this method

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I have a video on lion el johnson, but that's acrylics 🙂

[@bobbyfillier7931]

I'd love to see an iron warrior done using only oils

[@Elythia]

I want to start painting miniatures for my board games and I am thinking about whether to buy acrylic or oil colors. At the moment I am heavily leaning towards oil colors, because one can blend them so well. But I am also a big fan of „special effects“ like silver for weapons and fluorescent colors for lights. Is it hard to mix them? Especially using acrylic on top of oil? (As a beginner, I don’t want to start with both right away, I just want to know my options for later.)

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

You can certainly get metallic oil paints. I've heard good things about gamblin 'silver' paint. I also have it, but havent gotten around to using it yet. I mostly paint non-metallic-metal but I'll experiment with this silver paint soon. You should be able to find flourescent paints as well in oils - but I don't have experience with this. I think flour paints are mostly a miniature specific paint, so i don't know if any of the traditional artist oriented brands make this in oils. You can 100% mix oils and acrylics on the same model - just not in the same painting session. You can paint oils on top of acrylics (works best if the acrylics are matt finish) - and once the oils are dry you can varnish and paint acrylics on top of oils. A really popular approach is to paint the entire model in acrylics and give the model an oil wash in the end. Very much like the first step in this video i did. Thin the paint, rub it all over the model and remove the paint from raised surfaces. Hope that helps. Good luck!

[@MapleMcIntyre]

Would love to see imperial fist or white scars, clean yellow and white with oils would be interesting to see!

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Duely noted! White is a super interesting color to paint!

[@razork_arts]

salamanders please! wanting to try oils on my salamanders chapter

[@stefanrosch1991]

Blood angels would be nice. Highlighting red is always a pain for me. And do you thin the oils when you are applying them?

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I use the oils straight out of the tube most of the time. For the first step i like to thin them to create a wash before applying the thicker layers on top

[@henningfrey9237]

Really nice vid. THX. Here in germany its quite Touch to get Gamblin. What oils can you recommend? I only several of Schmincke...moussini and norma. But they seems to dry very slow. Any Suggestionen for speeding up that and other prints?

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Schmincke mussini is great. If the drying time is giving you issues, use some liquin from winsor and newton

[@philhack3731]

Well done sir!

[@NotSureWhatsHappening73]

Hello! Do you have any advice on using oils without using solvents? It’s not too difficult in traditional painting to go without it but I wasn’t sure if it would make it hard for minis.

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I pretty much dont use solvents besides the pre glaze step. Almost all the heavy lifting is done with paint straight out the bottle, but you need some thinner paint for the pre glaze as not to obscure detail imo

[@JP-dv7rf]

Great video, if you don't mind my asking; what varnish did you use?

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

AK ultra matte and satin varnish through the airbrush. Just make sure the oil is fully dried before applying

[@NobleWizard]

Does an oil painted model look like it's been painted with oils compared to the smooth finish you get with acrylics? Do you have a preference of which medium you prefer to use?

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I like oils for bigger softer surfaces like skin tone on a bust. I think acrylic is better for textures for instance. But this is also a matter of personal preference

[@ClockworkGFX]

Honest feedback, I think you brought your highlights up too high and blew out a lot of contrast and saturation.

[@MseeBMe]

Wow!

[@davelogeman]

Very nice! Could a pin wash reactivate the dry paint that it is going over?

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Likely yes. But i used very little of it. And only in recesses. But a quick varnish would be the safest bet.

[@amimeebee]

imho... it would not be the pinwash reactivating the dry paint, but maybe the user abusing/rubbing it in. The pinwash itself is applied by slightly touching the recesses and it flows into place. If one does not touch it until most of the thinner has evaporated, its pretty much unlikely that anything would happen to the previous layer of paint. (and while one could wait until its completely dry, its more likely that there are a few places where one needs/wants to do some cosmetic fixes. Could be done after the wash dried entirely too, but probably faster to fix it with a blending brush, while there is still a tiny bit of wetness to the overspill. just keep in mind.. its more gentle touches instead of rubbing, pushing or dragging.) If you watch some oil painting videos that use the thin over thick method, they clearly show, that the thinned down paints do not harm the previous layer, but the user, in case he does work the newly applied paint/thinner too much into the previous one.

[@abijango]

Please do Blood Angels this way!

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I'm working on it! Stay tuned!

[@Goblinovski]

Wow, love it! Do you need to varnish it? And if so you use the standard acrylic varnish?

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Yes standard varnish once the oil is fully dried

[@kazzIsTheName]

Well done Malte. I like the approach of using oils on something as simple as a Space Marine. Do you have a recommendation for a "beginner set" or tubes of paints that would be good to start with?

[@marcna4582]

Just dont buy student grade oils or cheap none brand and you will be fine .

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Thanks mate. I would buy indian yellow from Williamsburg, napthol red and ultramarine blue along with titanium white and black (lamp, ivory or carbon) i wouldnt worry too much about the black. I rarely use it. But the yellow and red are the most important

[@kazzIsTheName]

Roger

[@dannnn5451]

My bad if I missed it, what do you think was the total time invested at the desk?

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

I'd guess 3-5 hours. two painting sessions.

[@rutgaurxi7314]

One undoubtedly stupid question: Is it possible to paint this straight from a black acrylic undercoat, or is a wash purely situational, depending on the model *and* undercoat? Edit: Would you be able to tackle an Eldar Vyper, it's one of the few Eldar models that's aged incredibly well, or possibly a historic model, both would be welcome.

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Not a stupid question at all. You can oil paint on top of the primer or an acrylic undercoat. Just make sure it's matt finish. I think that doing an acrylic base coat works the best. The oils are a little transparent, so the undercoat helps with saturation and coverage. Appreciate the requests!

[@davelogeman]

Black templars please.

[@triisgaard2699]

De der make-up svampe kan være ret irriterende at skaffe. Normal har dem nogle gange, men kun i mindre pakker.

[@jedmfonseca]

Only oil paints!? Maybe I got it wrong, but isn’t the primer and the first layer done with acrylics? 🤔

[@Watchpaintdry_minis]

Technically yes. The first layer is acrylics. But covering that layer with oils. The acrylics are just there to give a matt surface so the oils has an easier time sticking to the figure. If you have a matt primer or a matt varnish, then that works just as well.