Albino Saurus Lord WIP & New Paint Brush Review

One of the casualties of last year's hobby-hiatus was the plastic Saurus hero that I bought to experiment on with some new (to me) painting techniques.  Armed with my new Winsor & Newton Series 7's and needing a break from painting Temple Guard, it was time to get back to work on the Saurus hero.

One of the things I wanted to try with this model is a method for painting a "cool" black and white using turquoise to shade and highlight the colors.  I based my recipes from two BoLS tutorials (here's a link to the black and the white).  As these call for some P3 colors, I modified them so I only have to use my GW paints.

The Saurus is going to have albino skin with black scales.  The turquoise should tie him in with the rest of my army, which is painted with the now OOP Scaly Green.  If you know your Lizardmen fluff, this means he's marked for greatness by the Old Ones!  Since the bulk of the model is going to be white, I started with a light gray undercoat (another first for me).  I then built up the albino skin with the following:

1. Base coat with white mixed with a small amount of Hawk Turquoise and Fortress Gray.  You know you're in the ballpark when you look at the color and think "minty fresh toothpaste."
2. Wash the area with Hawk Turquoise. 
3. Apply a wash of Hawk Turquoise mixed with black into the deepest recesses.
4. Going back to the base color, start adding highlights.  Then mix in white for the next layer and use pure white for the final highlights.

(Sorry for the poor photo, I'm still learning to use my new camera)

Next, we're onto the the scales.  After a black base coast, mix in successively larger amounts of Hawk Turquoise for the highlights.  I also mixed in a bit of white for the final highlights to give the sharp edges of the scales a bit of pop.

I think the results are pretty cool, even if this technique has a limited range of applications.  At a minimum, this guy should stand out nicely amongst a crowd of his green skinned brethren.

As for my new Winsor Series 7 brushes, they are flippin' amazing!  The tips keep a point perfectly and the paint flows smooth as buttah.  The bristles hold a good amount of paint, so you spend less time loading and reloading your brush.  The most interesting thing I've found about these brushes is that I do not have any issues with paint creeping up into the ferrule, a frustrating problem I've always had with GW brushes.

I've mentioned a few times in the past that I've been focusing on improving my painting technique in terms of brush control, overall neatness and speed.  What's so awesome about these brushes is that after painting with them for just a few hours all of these things feel like they're improving.  It was my crappy brushes holding me back!

If you're using junk brushes and you take your mini painting even somewhat seriously, I implore you to upgrade your brushes.  The Series 7's would be a great investment.  Now I just need to pick up some proper brush soap to keep these puppies in tip-top shape (thanks to Master Manipulator for that important reminder).

Now as for the Saurus, it's onto a new technique for painting gold I've been wanting to try.