The gw box art is like the picture on a frozen dinner. No one is expecting the same result but a rough understanding of the content is still comforting

I'm just painting my very first mini at the sweet age of 66 years. I'll never be the painter you are because you do amazing work but hopefully I can get till it's not terrible. I'm trying and thanks for the videos to help me learn. Got a long way to go so..... 👍😀

My wife's comment this morning, "Your painting guys' videos are so weird".... Never stop being weird, Jon.

I feel one of the greatest hindrances for new players is that they ca't get close to the box art immediately. I have always told new players "The guys who do these paint miniatures for hundreds of hours a year for 5, 10, 20 years..you just started. Give it time." But, that GW kind of omits steps?  Not gonna lie: that feels a bit like sabotaging the new players confidence in their painting.

Just thought I’d mention for people who aren’t aware. The colours on the back of the boxes are actually created by the Warhammer ‘Army Painter’ team, rather than the ‘Eavy Metal’ team who are the ones who actually painted the box art miniatures. The Army Painter team’s job is to paint massive swathes of miniatures, often to fill backgrounds of photography or dioramas in Warhammer World. This means they’re painted to a somewhat lower quality than the box art. They will often take Eavy Metal recipes and simplify them in a way so 1) They can finish their own armies quicker, and 2) so achieving the box art aesthetic appears achievable to the end consumer. This is why the box art seems inauthentic sometimes.

P.S - If you search their recipe for making Poxwalkers you’ll find a pretty good scheme for pinkish nurglings 😉

To Duncan's credit, when he was at GW he always made his guides achievable by the average person with a modest amount of practice. At a glance his results looked very similar to box art because he was using a variation of the recipes combined with some clever tricks to approximate the tonal range of the master class paint schemes. If you looked closer though, you could see he generally didn't use techniques that were much like the 'Eavy Metal painters. Or even the bulk army painters.

That said, it's really interesting to see the technique of glazes and washes being moved to near the end of the process, spreading quickly. It's a distinct trend. I think the Artis Opus guys helped push too. (They tend to use glazes to bring together dry brushing at the end.)

I suspect a reason it's taken a while for people to discover this is due to the general way GW demonstrated the use of washes for so many years. A wash over a big, flat shaded section of color tends to leave an inconsistent and dirty patina over broad surfaces where you don't want it. The GW (and Duncan Rhodes) method for dealing with this was to layer paint back over the flat areas to clean up the undesired dirtiness.

But a glaze, or even a heavy wash, over a shaded area blends in way better and doesn't look "dirty". If anything it just adds an extra layer of color texture that creates a sense of richness.

This guy looks like Matt Damon and Tom Hanks had a kid. Great talent too.

Really like the last point  - giving extra obstacles that prevent us from picking up the brush is not necessary. SImplification is king to get shit done, improvement comes with practice and experimentation. Love the video, love the result! 🙌

2:50 "So that was a fucking lie"

"This is the opposite of speed painting" - Truer words have never been said.

The eavy metal teams don't use washes, they use glazes for the shadows as well as the highlights. They also go very very bright on the highlgihts and very very dark on the shadows to accentuate the contrast. Even then, the image is altered in post to give even more contrast and saturation. The models themselves won't pop like that in reality (obviously they still look ridiculously good).

Anyone remember that scene in Falling Down where Douglas goes into the burger joint and the burger he gets is the flattest thing you've ever seen, yet he looks up at the pictures on the wall showing their burgers and they are the plumpest, juiciest, most appetising burgers ever. That's what this reminds me of.

"It's not Agrax, it's ae-g-ruhx" -Hermione Granger probably

Awesome video. I've 100% said out loud "you liars, you fuggin liars!" When looking at the recommended colours vs what's on the box art 😂

I understand glazing now more than I did from watching three other "how to glaze" vids.  Thanks!

I'm fine with them giving simple steps as long as they're honest, that it's simpler than what is done on the box art and is for beginners/fast painting. I feel they leave it a bit too vague.

Gotta say, you are one of the few YouTubers, that actually give concrete advice.
I mostly hear advice that is either vague or just for beginners.
Keep up the good work, you're doing a great job!

Ninjon is a great mini-figure painter. He also has a real knack for explaining techniques/pitfalls in a way that makes everything 'click'.

This video was sick! I learned so much

At 5:25 they aren't actually telling us to layer it over I think, those are just names of the paint "types" (Edge paints were incorporated back into the Layer paints recently).