Technique Toolbox: The Foundry System
May 6, 2014 by elromanozo
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Kevin Dallimore is the painter who’s most associated with the style. He did the Foundry painting guide books and I believe the Foundry paint range was produced with his input. There are lots of examples of his work on his website – http://www.werelords.com/pages/Kevins_page.htm. I saw Kevin doing some painting at the Warlord open day last year. He does dilute his paints and build up layers with the three colours rather than just putting one on top of the other. I like the Foundry paints. They’re not cheap, unfortunately, but the flow and coverage is good and they have a wide… Read more »
Forgot to mention that I do use the style but only when painting historicals. I don’t use it for fantasy or sci-fi.
I did some clicking around and as a “history guy” myself, this technique seems to be popular with Napoleonic painters, etc. The colors on the uniforms are bright and vibrant, and the gamers who use them can be very fussy about the accuracy of the colors (this regiment wore dark blue coats with red trim and a white sash with off-white trousers, etc). This seems to fit with the “paint by numbers” aspect Romain describes?
Yup. We love our button counters ! 😉
Proud “button counter” myself. Well, with 20th-21st century stuff, anyway. Does that make me a “rivet counter?” God, I hope not. 🙂 When I’m painting / building / fielding WW2 vehicles, I tend to let history a LITTLE off the leash. When my crew and I are ready for hard-core history in our games, we’re usually not playing a miniatures game at all. All about what you like / are in the mood for, I guess.
True ! His work steps away from the system’s basic (that I’m presenting here), but still counts a lot on contrast, triads, and omnidirectional lighting.
Another great video, Romain, and an “interesting” technique. I get how it is simple, easy to remember, and great for beginners. That almost seems to imply that it’s fast and easy, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. As you say, it seems to require pretty serious precision, and you have to paint the miniature three or more times (after priming / base coating, of course). Do you find that it loses some detail when you coat the mini so many times (@redben says that there’s a way to do this without just putting one layer atop another)?
The way I do it is to prime the mini, then apply an undiluted coat (or two if needs be) of the A paint, then multiple diluted coats of the B paint over all but the recesses, followed by multiple diluted coats of C on the raised parts of the mini. You shouldn’t wind up with any more paint than if you’d painted it using newfangled blending techniques so you don’t lose any detail. It’s certainly more time consuming than using base coat, shades/washes, and drybrushing, but the effect is nicer and I think it works really well on units… Read more »
In the interests of saving time, I don’t always put all three coats onto every part of the mini. If the area is small and isn’t going to stand out much regardless then sometimes, I’ll limit myself to just the A and B and in some cases, like spear shafts, I may only use the B.
I hear what you’re saying about consistency across a unit. When mixing / blending, when you run out and have to make more, I find it next to impossible to reproduce the exact tone again. To avoid this, I mix lots of paint for a unit, which can be messy and sometimes wasteful when I wind up making too much of a certain blend.
I don’t worry to much about getting the exact tone throughout the unit. Uniforms don’t stay their original colour for long once they’re in the field. I think a slight variance looks more natural.
For me this is one of those things where expression captures the reality I’m going fo. By which I mean if I was turning out redcoats or Roman legions I would want them to look uniform on the table, even if the reality isn’t quite so much.
Thanks !
It IS fast and easy, and it WILL teach you precision if you want to achieve good results… It has that going for it.
I was given some paints from the Foundry and found them rather nice, whilst I am not a fan of their 3 stripe method, I do use them uite a bit. Sadly they are very expensive kf you use a lrge array of colours, but great for people with just one or two armies. I would have bouht the lot from them, but with about £350 of paint already, it is just to hard to justify. 🙁 I would certainly recommend them to new hobbyists just entering the hobby or someone who wishes to upgrade from their tacky GW set.… Read more »
I’m painting the cloth and suchlike on my Empire troops in this way, though using Vallejo paints. I’m another believer in never mixing paints for units and I’d thought this would be quicker, not having to wait for a wash to dry. The results are a decent tabletop standard but really I’ve made a rod for my own back. It’s quite time consuming. Once I’ve finished the units I’ve started in this way (just 60 or so left) I’ll do the rest in the GW style, and let the washes do a lot more of the work.- they’re much better… Read more »
This page shows some mini’s painted with the ‘Foundry method’:
http://www.twfigurines.de/oldwest/oldwest3.htm
The chap on this channel uses it:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvf43EaAtBIeC75Ndz0cThw
You can also see the method used with blending to a higher level here:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3MqSyG5HkjKseY5QLhS4dA
Thanks, that’s exactly right !
Fairly horrible isn’t it, especially when compared to most of the other techniques you have shown us. I do like the Foundry triads very much, but I do not use them in this ‘pure’ manner. Rather they are a shortcut for blending and highlighting, but only in conjunction with washes and other paints, all depending on the particular area of the miniature I’m making a mess of…. I mean painting. This series of technique videos has been invaluable, Romain, thank you very much. Over the years we have seen many examples of your favoured methods, but I for one would… Read more »
Awww… You’re a dear ! Thank you very much for the amazing compliments… Washes and glazes are coming, and you’re not the only one who has requested it. They’re a part of Technique Toolbox as much as any other, but I have tried to be as comprehensive as I could ! The foundry technique has its uses, and, if nothing else, it teaches you precision and how to decompose light. I’d rather see a figure well painted with this technique, and with a proper colour scheme, than the mess someone made by screwing up with washes too thick and dry-brushing… Read more »
I’ve not used the Foundry paint system. I have always mixed my colours but the style is pretty close to how a good percentage of my tabletop minis have been painted over the years, before I discovered there were other ways to paint. I still use it when I want to knock out something quick.
Hi Romain! Congrats on another great video and the great comments in it. I have used some of the triads but not in the same sequence… I usually do the basecoat, then the shade and then the highlight. If you blend in an additional layer of diluted “deep” shade and “light” highlight you get very nice tabletop results. The best thing about these triads for me is that you get very similar levels of contrast between each layer no matter what colour you use, and I confess I have trouble doing that when layering the usual way, using paints from… Read more »
Great video again Romain, I’m learning a great deal from these. I think the Foundry system is a good system to use if like me I;m not in no way an artist. Colour is colour to me, but I think the foundry system is a good way of getting good results with little effort. In the 30 odd years I’ve been in this hobby I think these videos now show the vast techniques being used and I for one admire those that use them, like I admire those painted minis in the Salute competition. I also think that all systems… Read more »
That’s the spirit ! Let’s not get stuck with just one trick ! 🙂
I’ve been trying to learn this method for better part of 10 years by now.
Back when I was starting I wrote this piece about it:
http://www.smallcuts.net/articles/kevin.jsp
I happen to like it and I think the triads are heaven-sent for people with no color sense like me. Even the Foundry paints don’t always look right when you’re painting them, you’ll have to just trust they will once dry.
I also love how Kevin can use this style to create pattern and texture e.g. extra folds in cloth where none actually exist on the miniature.
I find this technique limiting… It’s very piecemealed. I don’t think it helps beginners get that sense of colour, or even put them on the way of good display painting, but it does help them get things done in a painless (sometimes fun) way… which is the only part anyone should be interested in ! 🙂
I don’t personnally like it, but I still included it in the toolbox because of the reasons above, and the ones you mention.
I’m not a display painter, and I have no desire to become one.
I enjoy painting and I paint for myself, in a style and to a level I feel happy with.
Maybe this piece I wrote almost exactly 10 years ago helps illuminate where I come from:
http://www.smallcuts.net/articles/progress.jsp
Eh…
Contento tu, contenti tutti.
It feels like a simplified, cut down version of GW’s current method to me. – I suppose the biggest difference is the lack of the wash stage and the fact that while those 3 tones are very similar, GW goes for big contrast (is that the word?) between the different stages.
Well, there’s no wash stage, and no dry-brushing… nothing fancier than simply applying colour. The Foundry system also dilutes more, sometimes. And the rigidity of the Foundry triads changes everything.
I’ve got a lot of Foundry paints which I bought years ago when they were first released. Imagine my delight when I discovered last summer that they were still usable after being stored in a sealed tin.
The paints are nice to use, but I don’t use them as intended, using them with GW washes and mixing the colours. They are a good starting point though.
Oh, absolutely ! 🙂
Also I think it right to mention this technique is really designed to go over a black undercoat. It is for mass painting armies and not individual display pieces. Kevin himself describes adding in several stages between the 3 layers of paint for more show piece quality.
As a method of painting say 350 Napoleonic figures in 3 months to a decent tabletop standard I don’t think you can beat it.
Love your work Romain, please keep it up!