After seeing a few videos about the Slapchop technique I decided to try it with the 1/72 soflt plastic ratmen from Caesar Miniatures.
I have to say that I'm not satisfied with the result, which seems to be quite different to the ones I saw on Youtube, so I suppose I must be doing something wrong. Maybe the miniatures are too small for Slapchop or maybe GW's contrasts or Army Painter's speed ones are more suited for that than Vallejo's Xpress, which are the ones I have at home.
The result is poor and the time and effort is superior to standard painting of block painting, dipping and a few lights. You need to prime the figure in black and then retouch it with a brush to cover those holes where the spray doesn't reach. After that, it's drybrushing it in pale grey and then drybrushing in white, to finally apply the contrast paint. If you ask me, it's too many steps and a poor result in the end.
I think I will paint another batch of ratmen with the dip and then post some pictures comparing both methods.
Here you have the first wave of "Skavens". The big one that will fight as an Ogre Rat, is an original GW's painted by a great friend from the hobby who gave it to me together with a box of Caesar's ratmen. I only painted the base and some lights on the metallic parts.
In this picture you can compare the figure on the left with the Slapchop technique, next to the one on the right primed in white and painted with Xpress directly. As you can see, there is no noticeable difference in the final result; maybe even the right one is better. BTW, I had to give two coats of Xpress to both figures to get a decent result, so it is more work added.
And finally and comparison between traditional block paint, dip and lights on the left and Slapchop with Xpress on the right.
Hi Javier. I agree that the straight contrast paint seems to be better than the Slapchop result. Especially considering less effort is required.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that contrast paints are a great thing for "enthusiastic" painters like me and are only slightly useful for talented painters like yourself who can get better results from normal paints.
Yes, at least in that scale, Slapchop it's a total waste of time and effort IMHO.
DeleteI agree the more traditional method has worked better here, although the slapchop would probably be fine a table top distance (especially with my eyesight!). I've tried a couple of contrast paints and, other than the fleshtone, I don't seem to be able to get the sort of results that others do.
ReplyDeleteMe neither after a few tries. I won't use them again to fully paint figures, maybe for washes and veils.
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