An essay on slapchop

With that highbrow title, let me lay out the subject. I tried slapchop and I like it for what it is, but I am also acutely aware of its deficiencies. In short:

Pros: 

• quick 
• reasonably good looking (with practice)

Cons:

• looks bad for warm colors
• looks bad for skintones
• if you want to paint some details white... prepare for a hundred layers on black

With these in mind, I applied slapchop where feasible, but painted the skin by hand, avoided very warm colors, and painted the eventual ice bases by hand white. See my Free Folk Raiders.

This was satisfactory for a while, but I do need some experimenting in my hobby from time to time. So I decided to tackle the cons of slapchop with a warm undercoat... see several experiments. Conclusion: slightly better for warm colors, worse for cold colors, and still too rough for skintones. Not worth the effort. Slapchop remained firmly the domain of rank-and-file troops, with the above caveats.

The ideas took some time to marinate, but after a long while, I was ready to experiment again with... slapchop 2.0? Warm chop? White drybrush on colored undercoats? I'm still working on the name. But here's where I got.

Experiments on a colored undercoat and white drybrush

The crux of the matter is starting from a white primer. This enables doing ice bases without painting white by hand for hundreds of layers.

Then, do some contrast basecoats: Apothecary White overall, Gryph Charger Grey on the fur trim, and Wyldwood on the bones. I've already done something similar to this, but only with the whites and I did the bones manually.

Drybrush white.

Paint the bones Skeleton Horde, then go over any leather straps with Snakebite Leather.

Looks quite OK, a bit slapchoppy, but I never could have pulled this off on a black undercoat.

Now, for something a bit more colorful. As above, but coat all wood and bones Wyldwood. Paint the ropes Aggaros Dunes (inspired by the painting tip). Basilicanum Grey beard. Garaghak Sewer part of the leathers.

Drybrush white.

Paint the rope and wood Seraphim Sepia, the bone Skeleton Horde, the beard Soulblight Grey...

...and the brown leathers diluted Gore Grunta Fur.

Conclusion

Some colors are just fine after a white drybrush on a well textured surface (Apothecary White, Gryph Charger Grey). Others work by applying a darker basecoat, then a lighter, somewhat similar color after a white drybrush. Let's experiment with the colors, then try to codify this, somehow.

Painting a first batch of Frozen Shore Hunters with Slapchop 2.0

Start with a white primer. Start with the lightest colors: Apothecary White leathers, Gryph Charger Grey fur.

Basecoat any other colors.

White drybrush overall.

Black Templar, then Basilicanum Grey works well for black hair.

Ratling Grime and Basilicanum Grey both work well under Soulblight Grey for grey hair.

Seraphim Sepia works best over two coats of Wyldwood or Garaghak Sewer. Nuln Oil and Agrax are too weak. However, it falls apart when placed next to bone.

Gore Grunta Fur, then Agrax Earthshade works as a passable red hair. I later tried Fuegan Orange, and Reikland Fleshshade which are too weak and Cassandora Yellow which is too yellowy.

Bone, rope and fur as above.

At the end, paint all the small leather straps Snakebite Leather.

Conclusion

We are on to something here.

Paint the rest of the Frozen Shore Hunters

Test more colors!

Space Wolves Grey and Ratling Grime both work for fur, and look OK after the drybrush.

Same goes for Targor Rageshade and Mortarion Grime.

For leathers, I tried Gryph Charger Grey, Black Templar...

Ratling Grime, Space Wolves Grey.

Gryph Charger Grey undercoat works well with another layer or Space Wolves Grey, but the gains are minimal.

Basilicanum Grey works well on Black Templar, while Ratling Grime overpowers the drybrush.

Agrax Earthshade works well on Ratling Grime, while Nuln Oil is too weak.

Doubling up on Space Wolves Grey is slightly better than on Gryph Charger Grey.

Diluted Gore Grunta Fur works well over Gore Grunta, while Ratling Grime doesn't do much.

However both work well over Cygor Brown.

Conclusion

Another tool in the toolbox! I think I'd still rather do rank-and-file using regular slapchop, but I'll put this version to good use when painting characters and other things that just need a white primer.