Wednesday 28 April 2010

The Mechrite Crisis & Painting The Slaughter-Lord

Made a proper start on Project: Lotsared! Historically, not a favourite colour of mine to paint! I've always used Dark Flesh as a base when painting red but when painting a whole army in red that step seems awfully clunky and time consuming with the Mechrite Red foundation paint in my paint box... or so the idea began. After some infuriating experimenting painting the red I found Mechrite Red to be plain awful. The colour just didn't sit nicely with me and the consistency was far from brilliant. I have to admit I was seriously disheartened by the whole affair and my rather awful looking basecoat on Rogoth The Berzerker when I started him.
Then suddenly, everything changed. I was sitting with my son when he was painting and I noticed that he painted the red on his mini with great ease. It turned out that his Mechrite Red was so very different to mine. His has a nice thick consistency more like the other Foundation paints I have and the colour was a much deeper red than mine. Suffice to say, my son has had his Mechrite Red requisitioned until I get to the shop to replace my dodgy one. I know that's not the most interesting story but it raised an interesting point, at least in my mind. How easy is it to sit and paint in isolation and not be aware of the differences between two paints of the same colour (in theory) and same age. I'd have been absolutely distraught if I'd bought a second pot of Mechrite further down the line having painted half my army to find it was a completely different shade. Out of isolation!

Anyhow, I've now made a start on the Slaughter-Lord of The Gorewing.



Clearly, there is still a lot to be done on this mini but I'm just pleased to have finally brought an end to the Mechrite Crisis!

6 comments:

Andy - bG said...

I have an idea what you are talking about, I had a pot of mechrite red turn to sand after flying once, every other paint I had survived fine, just the mechrite red that went bad.

I've read a few places where the foundation paints can sometimes be a problem, I can only guess it is something due to the high level of pigment in them, it must be a very delicate process producing them which might be why there seem to be so many dodgy pots.

SC John said...

I have noticed mine tends to separate and looks oily and requires a really god shake and mix, but then works fine. I added a bead into the pot to help when shaking it up, seems to work well.

John
Santa Cruz Warhammer

Ferran said...

I tend to shake the pot really thorroughly and then dilute it about 2:1 water:paint. First time I tried foundations I didn't like them at all but went back to them a while after and the ones I have seem ok for the job they do.

Elazar The Glorified said...

Thanks for commenting guys. I've shaken it, stirred it, you name it I've tried it. It must just be a faulty pot because it's nothing like the other one.

noeste said...

Personally I'm not a fan of the Mechrite Red colour at all, and I'm not sure if it's too much blue in it, or what it is, but to me Red Gore or Scab Red gives a much better result, and are easier to mix and blend with Blood Red or however you highlight your reds..

Might be that I've got a bad pot as well, never know, but I don't think I'll buy another one just to check it out.

Your Gorewing's coming along very nicely, the weathering's looking great!

Da_Sub said...

I have found that of the three pots of Mechrite I have bought one was much like you describe. I ended up thinning it down into a wash by adding some yellow to turn into a nice dirty rust colour and adding lots of water. Rusty Barbed wire and terrain bits are now a breeze.

However the last pot I bought was a great colour but far too thick so I add some Baal Red wash to it at a ratio of 3:1 MR:BR. It is now the perfect consistency and coverage. I get this feeling I will run out of it before finishing my Skitarii and have to go through the hoops all over again.

I have had alot of discussions at the FLGS and it seems that of the foundation paints Mechrite, for whatever reason, is the most inconsistent colour of the range.