If you want to know where to highlight a mini, or need to paint the light of a blazing fire on some armour or such, This is how you do it.

First, Buy a sunlamp like this one.

Then, Shape it like so:

Place a white cap on it (GW primer works perfectly) and turn it on.

Place a mini on it and see where the light hits it. (works better without a base.)

You can also tape the cap to it and face it down at a model for different angles.

note:- In the interest of safety remove the cap as soon as you’ve taken a photo or worked out the light angles. [Forum discussion of this tutorial]

Step2: this step is easy, use a large brush and bathe the whole model in Devlan Mud. Don’t be shy here, but try some different amounts to see what you prefer yourself.

Step3: now for some highlights. Some of the highlights I did before the wash, that’s because I don’t want them to be too bright. In this step I’ve highlighted the Bleached Bone areas with Bleached Bone (and I’ve mixed in some Skull White on the very edges). I’ve picked out some metal details with Chainmail and Shining Gold. The fur is again painted with Bestial Brown and the outside of the cape is highlighted with Graveyard Earth.

Step4: here I’ve painted the shield hands with Charadon Granite, the inside of the shield with Scorched Brown and then I’ve washed the whole thing with Devlan Mud. This area is hardly visible, so don’t be too picky here.

Step5: here I’ve painted the shield with Scorched Brown and highlighted the edge with Schorched Brown mixed with some Bestial Brown. The mark is painted with Mechrite Red and the “nails” are painted Chainmail. This was all followed by a wash with Devlan Mud.

Step6: now I’ve glued the shields to the warriors. Then I highlighted the mark with some Blood Red. I’ve also finished the bases. They are done by first adding a watered down Charadon Granite followed by a highlight of Fortress Grey (the slate is Charadon Granite – Codex Grey – Fortress Grey – Devlan Mud). I also use dead grass and snow from Games Workshop.

OK! That’s all, hope you like it!

Paints Used

From left to right, GW Thraka Green Wash, GW Blazing Orange, GW Blood Red, GW Merchrite Red Foundation.

Any green wash, two reds, and an orange should be good for this tutorial but those are the ones I’ve used.

Step 1
Base with Merchrite Red.I chose this color because it’s a Foundation paint and it covers black very well. Use multiple, thin layers to get a smooth coat and leave black in any of the recesses that you find.

Step 1 - Merchrite Red

Step 2
Wash with Thraka Green. I usually do two light layers of the wash instead of one heavy layer because it gives me more control. The first layer goes over everything from step 1 while the second layer is more focused on areas I think would be in shadow. Be sure to let the fist layer dry completely before doing the second layer.

Step 2 - Thraka Green

Step 3
Highlight with Merchrite Red. When doing this step it is important not to cover all of the shading you just did in Step 2. You might aim to cover 80% of the red in this step, leaving that last 20% shaded. Look to leave shading in creases, where two things meet, and on the undersides / bottoms of things.

Step 3 - Merchrite Red

Step 4
Highlight with a mix of Merchrite Red and Blood Red. This mix should be a color halfway between Merchrite Red and Blood Red. Because Merchrite is a Foundation paint a good starting ratio is 1:2 Merchrite to Blood.

Step 4 - 1:2 Merchrite Red and Blood Red mix

Step 5
Blood Red edge highlight. Take your time and paint thin lines of Blood Red on all of the hard edges on the model. I like to do this on every hard edge, even the ones that wouldn’t actually be hit by the light, because I like the effect. If you don’t like the way it looks, just paint the edges that would be naturally hit by light.

Step 5 - Blood Red

Step 6
Edge highlight with a mix of Blood Red and Blazing Orange. Look to have your mix be in the middle of Blood Red and Blazing Orange, probably close to a 1:1 mix. Be sparing with this step and only use it on prominent edges and places that you want to stand out. Here, I used it on his shoulder pads and hands.

Step 6 - Blood Red and Blazing Orange mix

Done! I’ve included a shot that has the darkest stage, Step 2, side by side with the brightest stage, Step 6, so the difference is more obvious.

The Dettol will loosen the paint, and then using a combination of your fingers, toothbrush and a tooth pick you will scrub it off. How long this takes depends on the amount of paint on the model and the type of paint used. How much scrubbing depends on how impatient you are.

The guide is written with Brits in mind – using a safe household product (Dettol) that is cheap and easily found in this country. I know it sounds strange to think that an antiseptic disinfectant could paint strip your mini’s, but honestly it really does work.

This method can be replicated with stuff like Simple Green (for folks from the USA and Canada) and Pine-sol as the method is the same.

Please note Brits, you do not need to buy £5-6 a litre worth of Simple Green from their UK site – Dettol works superbly on plastic and metal and is totally safe (both for your mini’s and your health/enviroment/love lives/ parent realtionships!).

Why?

Why strip mini’s? Why pay games workshop for new models that you already own but were painted at the start of your hobbying journey? Why
not pick up those cheap badly painted mini’s from ebay?

Why write the guide? Having searched around for a day or so for a decent guide I decided to put all this knowledge in to one place for future paint strippers. This information is all out there and nothing is new – but for shear convince I have compiled it here.

Why isn’t there a GW master-class covering this sort of stuff? Why do you think.

What You Need

• Dettol – Antiseptic Disenfectant (Get the brown stuff. DO NOT get the nice smelling stuff (purple/green?) – it wont work)
• Jam Jar / Plastic Container – Big enough to submerge your models completely (or at least half in the case of tanks). I highly reccomend geting a container/jar with a lid if you don’t like the smell of hospitals…
• Touth Brush – An old one is fine, if it has a small head you may find it easier to get in between legs. Would not suggest anything too stiff as you are going to be scrubbing your minis with it..
• Cocktail sticks – Wood ones.
• Plastic Washing Up Bowl – An old one is best, this will get splatted with nasty funky dettol paint so please don’t use the one your mum uses for the washing up!
• Rubber Gloves – Whilst not toxic, neat dettol will dry your skin out and make it blister with prolonged exposure. These will get manky so again ask your mum/partner first!
• Newspaper – For keeping the floor/desk/patio clean
• Tea Towel – For drying models after – shouldn’t get too manky but again it may be wise to check first

That’s it. Nothing deadly, no battery acid or solvents. Everything might well already be sat in your kitchen cupboard…

Saftey

• Don’t drink the dettol you ninny.
• Leave out of reach of small children and pets. (You may be leaving this stuff lying around for an hour, night or a whole day)
• Put a lid on your container to escape spouse / parent wrath of doom +10 and to prevent any messy accidents
• Carry this out in a well aired room or outside – whilst not toxic, you will stink afterwards

Do not

• Use water to rinse your models without washing up liquid – you will end up with a superglue like sticky good of paint on your minis! Always rinse by using neat dettol on your tooth brush
• Expect this to be hugely tidy if your figures have already been painted several times and your in a rush.

Stage 1 – Soak

• Break apart your minis (optional)
• Take off the models base (optional)
• Drop your figures into your container
• Fill the container with enough neat detol to cover your models completely .
• Put the lid on your container
• Put it somewhere it wont get kicked or mucked about with.

Breaking apart your minis can help the dettol to get in and most importantly makes it much easier for your to scrub off the paint later. I recomend breaking off pieces that come away easy or very badly obscure a part of the model. You really don’t need to do this for all minis. Be careful as very small bits can be hard to pick up in rubber gloves!

Taking off the base can prevent flock from getting in your detol mixture, and hence this makes it last longer. This shouldn’t be a problem if you use PVA or super glue to stick flock on and alternatively leaving your bases on will let your minis all stand up properly and so let the dettol swish around them. You will be able to do more minis at once if you take the bases off however (but don’t put in so many that the detol can’t reach lots of parts on your minis). If you do take the bases off I suggest you stick a gloved finger in every now and again to jiggle the minis around.

When doing anything with neat dettol or the unrinsed minis I would suggest doing it either outside or in a well ventilated room. This is not really for health reasons (unless you class bruised ears as health reasons…).
Neat dettol stinks, nuff said.

When filling the container, remember that anything not covered by dettol will not be stripped. For tanks it may be necessary to strip one half and then flip the model and strip the other.

Stage 2 – Wait

• Wait some time
• Scrub off a layer or two of paint (optional)
• Wait some more time

How long this process takes varies greatly, based on the paint type, amount of paint, model type (metal/plastic), primer type etc

Some of my observation

• Metal models which have been painted multiple times will need to stand between 4-12 hours.
• Plastic models painted multiple times will need to stand for about 8-16-24 hours.
• Metal models which have been primed and painted only once can be ready as quickly as 4 hours.

In order to speed up this process you can scrub some of the paint off and then return the miniature to the dettol stripping pot. Follow the method in stage 3 for scrubbing.

Stage 3 – Scrub

• Use the toothbrush to remove the loosened paint
• Use a toothpick to get in the very tight cracks
• Return the model to the dettol stripping pot and return to stage 2 if needed

RINSE THE MODEL USING NEAT DETTOL – DO NOT APPLY ANY WATER AT THIS STAGE! – Other wise you will end up with a gluey messy model

Using your rubber gloves simply scrub the model with your touthbrush. Put your hands and model inside your washing up bowl to keep stripped paint splatters to a minimum and your ears a healthy pink colour. You should see metal, or a much deeper level of paint very quickly (one or two stokes).

If you don’t find this process easy then return the model to the paint stripping pot. If your in a rush, scrub as hard and as long as you like, your toothbrush should not scratch plastic or metal.

If you find the model gets a bit gooey, or you end up with paint fragments dotted around then just get some neat
dettol on your brush and wash it away.

Repeat this process until all of the paint is gone from the model. You can stop earlier if you like, but it is certainly possible to get 99.9% of the paint off the model using this process.

Our last annual sold out its entire run within a few months, so make sure you get your copies today!

Painting with true metallics can be a headache. Overdo it, and it looks clumsy. Don’t add any tone, and it looks fake.

This video demonstrates a paint scheme with simple dry brushing and washes. It’s a beginner’s guide to painting miniatures that you can step up to intermedia by playing with multiple washes, relining, and such.

As a player of some years I’ve heard a lot of bemoaning the cost of things and I don’t blame people.  Just the current cost of miniature products is enough to make some people quit the hobby.  But I’m not going to gripe about the cost of products.  Instead I’m going to discuss some ways to mitigate them.

Now the biggest expenditure a gamer has apart from the miniatures themselves is their paint collection.  Lord knows many of us could field a 3000 point paint pot army if Games Workshop would just write the codex (Get on it Cavatore).  Jokes aside it takes a lot of pretty colors to field an army and at $3.70 for a bit less than half an ounce of paint it can cost a lot to do an army right.

Now for the record I think Citadel paints are pretty good as are Vallejo and similar miniature paints including Army Painter and P3. However their price point is such that it makes them hard to sustain when you are doing a large amount of work.  These paints are particularly good for miniature painting because they are designed to adhere to the miniature materials be they Lead, Pewter, White Metal, or PVC Plastic.  They also have an advantage in that they are a closed color range.  IE they are designed with three or four shade steps to be as complementary as possible while maintaining their diversity of available colors.  All of these are good and there is even something to be said about having your paints available where you buy your mini’s but when it comes down on it if you are on a budget why buy a Cadillac when a Honda will do.

For that reason I look to craft paints and good old fashioned spray paints to get the job done.  The cost of 2 ounces of craft a craft paint usually falls somewhere under $2.00 and they tend to have a longer shelf life than miniature paints.  For that matter even artist paints often clock in ounce for ounce cheaper than miniature paints do and have a lot better characteristics.  Now most people don’t understand what the difference between paints are.  Miniature paints are not a lot different than most paint brands on the market, craft paints like Plaid or Folkart however are a lot different to both miniature paints and traditional paints.  The two product types simply favor different manufacturing methods and so their price points and characteristics differ drastically.

All acrylic paints consist of an acrylic binder and pigments for color.  In the case of most artist paints, model, and miniature paints the binder is made of two separate acrylate polymers. This double binder does two things, first it allows its binder to adhere to different surface types in equal measure and second it thickens the paint so that when it is applied it flattens out rather than clumping due to surface tension.  Craft paints on the other hand are simply a single multipurpose acrylic binder that isn’t particularly amazing at doing anything. The binder is actually closer in chemical design to egg white than it is to other acrylate binders.   Apart from their binder the pigment is slightly different as well.  Expensive paints use a variety of substances to obtain their color often these color mixtures are proprietary but they are often derived from minerals and elements.  This often makes certain colors more expensive than others.  Miniature paints and some low cost artist paints use colored ceramic powders as their pigment. In contrast craft paints use colored acrylic powders for their pigment.  This will mean that paints using minerals and elements will hold their color longer than either Miniature or Craft paints. In fact extended exposure of bright light to either will result in a marked loss of color vibrancy, with ceramic based paints dulling towards lighter tones and plastic based paints turning darker.  This all sounds very damming for my case for craft paints but it really isn’t.  The truth is that the faults in the paints can be overcome with a little bit of effort and the resulting savings can be extensive.

To start with choose a good base coat to apply your craft paints too.  Your primer is key to getting a non-model paint to stick and stick well.  The key is to remember acrylic polymers bond to other acrylic polymers.  While there is a certain amount of variability to how well they stick for the most part if you have an acrylic base down it will bond.    When in doubt I rely on Rustolium Indoor/Outdoor spray primer, generally a flat grey works best for me.  On the other hand if models are entirely plastic I’ll pull out a base coat of Krylon Fusion for plastics rather than a true primer.  The Rustolium is good for just about everything it has a slight tooth to it which helps the craft paints bond.  Krylon Fusion on the other hand comes in a much wider variety of colors and while it goes on smooth and glossy it can easily be covered with craft paints.

If you decide to use craft paints its best to find a brand you like and stick with them.  Differing craft paint brands have differing viscosity and characteristics which need to be recognized for you to overcome them.  As a rule when dealing with craft paints they have a higher binder to pigment ratio than artist paints and miniature paints.  This means they will be runnier.  This will also mean that when cut with water or a secondary binder they will turn translucent faster.  Lighter colors and metallic colors tend to be runnier still.  Due to their squirt bottle design its easiest to put small amounts of the paint on your pallet and let the water evaporate out of the binder.  This thickens the paint so it covers better.  The exact length of time to let it sit varies from brand and with color but usually it takes about 2 to 3 minutes under may work lamp before it spreads like a GW paint.  If I find the paint doesn’t work anymore a tiny bit of water added extends its working life.

Miniature paint tends to dry fairly quickly, don’t expect that with Craft paint.  Depending on the brand and color there may be higher moisture retention particularly in darker colors.  I generally expect that it takes 15 minutes for a layer of paint to fully dry, again slightly longer than the 2 or 3 minutes for miniature paints.  To me this works out to be about the time it takes to do a color or two on an entire squad so it isn’t exactly inconvenient.

If you don’t want to work with craft paints try working with artist paints.  The pigment in artist paints like Liquitex is generally higher quality than that of either miniature paints or craft paints.  They cost more than craft paints and the price varies by color however by ounce it is still cheaper than miniature paints and they still last longer.  However artist paints are designed for use on a canvas which has a thicker tooth to it than a miniature.  You may find that it’s best to cut the paint with another binder.  They make transparent acrylic medium which is essentially the binder without a pigment.  Cutting judicious amounts of the transparent medium with the original binder will thin it and make it spread better.  If you thought work times with craft paints were a lot longer artist paints will tend to last for a half hour or more.  They are particularly good for doing blended effects where two paint shades fade together.

Once you’ve painted your masterpiece you will notice that there is a certain amount of paint removal every time you touch the paint.  This is generally due to binder issues if you’ve chosen your base well it will be minimal if you haven’t base coated it will be extreme.  Either way it’s a good idea to put a top coat on.  You were most likely going to seal your miniatures anyway so that’s not a problem.  However our rule from earlier, acrylic sticks to acrylic, before you dip it in varnish or lacquer pick up a clear spray acrylic.  They make them in various glosses but I tend towards a flat one.  I lay it on thick as it seals the paint from oxidation which can cause material to flake and blister.  As a bonus many clear spray acrylics are UV resistant which will limit fading on cheaper paints. After wards you can dip it in lacquer to protect from handling if you like.

All in all to me it comes down to buying 30 colors for the cost of 10.  Often times you can get an even wider variety of colors as well which could make your army all the rage.

Stop by next time when I’ll look at finding the cheapest miniature…

Here are some pictures of those models so you can judge for yourselves but there are a couple of things to remember-

1. Dry-brushing marines works well on darker chapter colors; Crimson Fists, Dark Angels etc..
2. Use a big brush/little paint approach.
3. Always start with what you think is too little paint and too thin a wash. You can always go back if it is too thin but it’s harder if you’ve used too much paint!

So, here we are: Sprayed black…

Dry-brushed with ‘Necron Abyss’

Drybrushed with ‘Regal Blue’

Pick out details (joints, bolter etc) in black or other appropriate color.

Add silver, highlight details and add any other bits of colour required.

You can finish there or go back and keep highlighting or fixing up details but this technique is superb for rapid army production. You can also slot a wash in between stages 3 and 4 if the dry-brushing got too heavy (in some cases I did this after painting the glove red, to add some shading). A squad of 10 of these guys took 5 hours to paint (ok… not including bases) and that included two veteran models with a bundle of extra detail.

Edit: I’ve since discovered that the new purple wash works well over mechrite red to give a nice crimson!

Here’s a few more pics for you.

Anywho, on to business.

I have 4 Carnifex kits that I stocked up on long before the new codex release. Imagine my dismay when I found out how the carnifexes got nerfed! I had already assembled the above, and decided he was to be Old One Eye, as that character actually seemed worthwhile, though expensive. The other three shall be converted into a Tyrannofex, a Tervigon, and a Harpy.

Step 1: Basecoat

Step 2: Mix of Warlock Purple and Dheneb Stone

The ratio I used was 2 parts Warlock Purple, 1 part Dheneb Stone.

Step 3: Codex Grey Drybrush

Apply lightly to the already black carapace.

Step 4: Fortress Grey Drybrush

This was drybrushed even lighter along carapace edges.

Step 5: Heavy Leviathan Purple Wash

Cover all that “way too Slaanesh” pink.

Step 6: Dheneb Stone

Here comes that 5-step bone effect. Base in Dheneb.

Step 7: Devlan Mud Wash

Heavy wash, get it dark in all cracks/crevices.

Step 8: Bleached Bone Drybrush

We’re bringing the color back.

Step 9: Skull White Drybrush

Applied light and mostly along edges.

Step 10: Gryphonne Sepia Wash

This is the final step for the bone. Apply strategically, along the mid/deep areas of the bone. Near the roots. Leave the Skull White edges alone.

Step 11: Blood Red

Along the face.

Step 12: Fiery Orange

My bugs have bright warning signs along their carapaces. I chose Orange to play off and stand out from the current color scheme. Mine is meant to be garish and contrasting. There are other effects that are more in-line with the color scheme, yet still make a statement.

Step 13: Dheneb Stone

This is for the tongue. I’ve found that Dheneb Stone looks a lot like lifeless flesh. Applying a wash to it to give it life tends to look good.

Step 14: Baal Red

Ah, a fleshy red tongue.

Step 15: ‘Ardcoat

Again for the tongue. Makes it look slimy. Ick.

Step 16: Calthan Brown

Basecoat for the base. I’m going with my typical brown barren dirt scheme for the ‘nids.

Step 17: Basing Sand

Put down a layer of glue. Cover with Basing Sand. Allow to dry. Coat with watered down glue to seal so you don’t get those annoying bits of sand coming off later.

Step 18: Devlan Mud Wash

Done!

What do you guys think? Anything in there you found useful? Anything you’d have done differently? Lay it on me in the comments section.

Provided by Master Darksol

photo by Martin Hodgkiss

This guide will teach you how to remove and strip the paint from all of your old miniatures – plastic and metal. I’ve used this process on Games Workshop / Citadel miniatures in plastic, white metal and lead forms and it works great. You can soak plastics for as long as you like and they will not melt, loose any detail or end up with scratched surfaces. This process also wont touch your glue bonds. I’ve used this process to remove just a single layer of primer through to stripping models which have been primed and painted 2,3, and in one case at least 4 times.

The Dettol will loosen the paint, and then using a combination of your fingers, toothbrush and a tooth pick you will scrub it off. How long this takes depends on the amount of paint on the model and the type of paint used. How much scrubbing depends on how impatient you are.

The guide is written with Brits in mind – using a safe household product (Dettol) that is cheap and easily found in this country. I know it sounds strange to think that an antiseptic disinfectant could paint strip your mini’s, but honestly it really does work.

This method can be replicated with stuff like Simple Green (for folks from the USA and Canada) and Pine-sol as the method is the same.

Please note Brits, you do not need to buy £5-6 a liter worth of Simple Green from their UK site – Dettol works superbly on plastic and metal and is totally safe (both for your mini’s and your health/environment/love lives/ parent relationships!).

Why?

Why strip mini’s?

Why pay games workshop for new models that you already own but were painted at the start of your lobbying journey? Why
not pick up those cheap badly painted mini’s from ebay?

Why write the guide?

Having searched around for a day or so for a decent guide I decided to put all this knowledge in to one place for future paint strippers. This information is all out there and nothing is new – but for shear convince I have compiled it here.

Why isn’t there a GW master-class covering this sort of stuff?

Why do you think.

What You Need

• Dettol – Antiseptic Disinfectant (Get the brown stuff. DO NOT get the nice smelling stuff (purple/green?) – it wont work)
• Jam Jar / Plastic Container[/B] – Big enough to submerge your models completely (or at least half in the case of tanks). I highly recommend getting a container/jar with a lid if you don’t like the smell of hospitals…
• Toothbrush – An old one is fine, if it has a small head you may find it easier to get in between legs. Would not suggest anything too stiff as you are going to be scrubbing your minis with it..
• Cocktail sticks – Wood ones.
• Plastic Washing Up Bowl – An old one is best, this will get splatted with nasty funky dettol paint so please don’t use the one your mum uses for the washing up!
• Rubber Gloves – Whilst not toxic, neat dettol will dry your skin out and make it blister with prolonged exposure. These will get manky so again ask your mum/partner first!
• Newspaper – For keeping the floor/desk/patio clean
• Tea Towel- For drying models after – shouldn’t get too manky but again it may be wise to check first
• That’s it. Nothing deadly, no battery acid or solvents. Everything might well already be sat in your kitchen cupboard…

Safety

• Don’t drink the dettol you ninny.
• Leave out of reach of small children and pets. (You may be leaving this stuff lying around for an hour, night or a whole day)
• Put a lid on your container to escape spouse / parent wrath of doom +10 and to prevent any messy accidents
• Carry this out in a well aired room or outside – whilst not toxic, you will stink afterwards

Do Not

• Use water to rinse your models without washing up liquid – you will end up with a superglue like sticky good of paint on your minis! Always rinse by using neat dettol on your tooth brush
• Expect this to be hugely tidy if your figures have already been painted several times and your in a rush.

Stage 1 – Soak

• Break apart your minis (optional)
• Take off the models base (optional)
• Drop your figures into your container
• Fill the container with enough neat dettol to cover your models completely .
• Put the lid on your container
• Put it somewhere it wont get kicked or mucked about with.

Breaking apart your minis can help the dettol to get in and most importantly makes it much easier for your to scrub off the paint later. I recomend breaking off pieces that come away easy or very badly obscure a part of the model. You really don’t need to do this for all minis. Be careful as very small bits can be hard to pick up in rubber gloves!

Taking off the base can prevent flock from getting in your dettol mixture, and hence this makes it last longer. This shouldn’t be a problem if you use PVA or super glue to stick flock on and alternatively leaving your bases on will let your minis all stand up properly and so let the dettol swish around them. You will be able to do more minis at once if you take the bases off however (but don’t put in so many that the detol can’t reach lots of parts on your minis). If you do take the bases off I suggest you stick a gloved finger in every now and again to jiggle the minis around.

When doing anything with neat dettol or the unrinsed minis I would suggest doing it either outside or in a well ventilated room. This is not really for health reasons (unless you class bruised ears as health reasons…).
Neat dettol stinks, enough said.

When filling the container, remember that anything not covered by dettol will not be stripped. For tanks it may be necessary to strip one half and then flip the model and strip the other.

Stage 2 – Wait

• Wait some time
• Scrub off a layer or two of paint (optional)
• Wait some more time

How long this process takes varies greatly, based on the paint type, amount of paint, model type (metal/plastic), primer type etc

Some of my observation

• Metal models which have been painted multiple times will need to stand between 4-12 hours.
• Plastic models painted multiple times will need to stand for about 8-16-24 hours.
• Metal models which have been primed and painted only once can be ready as quickly as 4 hours.

In order to speed up this process you can scrub some of the paint off and then return the miniature to the dettol stripping pot. Follow the method in stage 3 for scrubbing.

Stage 3 – Scrub

• Use the toothbrush to remove the loosened paint
• Use a toothpick to get in the very tight cracks
• Return the model to the dettol stripping pot and return to stage 2 if needed

RINSE THE MODEL USING NEAT DETTOL – DO NOT APPLY ANY WATER AT THIS STAGE![/B] – Other wise you will end up with a gluey messy model

Using your rubber gloves simply scrub the model with your toothbrush. Put your hands and model inside your washing up bowl to keep stripped paint splatters to a minimum and your ears a healthy pink color. You should see metal, or a much deeper level of paint very quickly (one or two stokes).

If you don’t find this process easy then return the model to the paint stripping pot. If your in a rush, scrub as hard and as long as you like, your toothbrush should not scratch plastic or metal.

If you find the model gets a bit gooey, or you end up with paint fragments dotted around then just get some neat
dettol on your brush and wash it away.

Repeat this process until all of the paint is gone from the model. You can stop earlier if you like, but it is certainly possible to get 99.9% of the paint off the model using this process.

Stage 4 – Rinse

• Plunge the model into warm soapy water
• Rinse throughly
• Towel dry
• Check for a tacky residue

Once the model is totally stripped, plunge it into a bowl of warm water and washing up liquid. Make sure the water isn’t too hot or you will deform the plastic. The washing up liquid prevents the nasty gumming affect mentioned in the stage 3. Wiggle the model in the water for a while to make sure all the Dettol is off.

If you don’t get the Dettol off then you will find that paint and primer will not hold well to model. Rinse the model in cold water to get off any soap residue once this is done for the same reason.

When the model is dry check for a tacky residue, this will indicate that the model needs a bit more washing

Well done you… guess what, your done!

You will find your mini now smells of Dettol almost as much as you do. This is fine, in both cases the smell will dissipate. You will also find that you figure is free of paint and very, very clean. So much so that metal models shine far more then when you first got them out of a blister.

You can reuse the Dettol if you wish, however I find that after a few paint stripping sessions the solution becomes pretty paint laden and that the stripping effectiveness drops off sharply.

Being busy aside, I have managed a bit of work on various miniatures including my Unclean One, the main reason for this post.

Before I post pictures, here is a bit of a ramble. This is a beautiful resin model, full of lovely detailing, and in my eyes, it is an adequate (and much more cost effective) substitute for the FW model.

When I saw the FW model I thought wow, that’s beautiful (from a modeling perspective) but totally out of my price for a model that I would never use in games terms. Seeing this guy at Gamers Guild was a real boon.

I was talking to the lads the other night about the rise of hyper realistic painting, and the trend towards weathering powders and mediums, oil paints, airbrushing etc. These techniques and methods have probably been around for years, but at the moment, everywhere I turn, someone is producing gorgeously painted, hyper realistic looking models, which make the previous standard paint job from 2 or 3 years ago look as backwards as what GW’s 90′s era paint jobs look like to someone coming into the hobby today.

When I started this bad boy, I wanted to replicate this new trend with this model – styled on the FW version. When it came to putting this into practice I realized that I’m not really interested in spending hours and hours painting layers, varnishing, applying oil paints and fixers and powders, and more varnishes and sponging etc on a model that will really only ever sit there. Sure a display piece is worth that little bit extra, but for what I want and can achieve, I didn’t need that hassle.

As it turns out, this model took about 5 basic colours to get finished- a green for the flesh, a bronze for the armor, a bone for the horns, a brown for the straps and some red for the facial features. Obviously there were different shades applied, but at its most basic that was it. No fancy techniques, no messing around with varnishes and fancy powders. And the results…disappointment.

When I took these pictures, I thought I was done. The more I looked at them (and pictures of miniatures are rarely flattering, magnifying every blemish and errant brush stroke – unless of course you’re a pro painter), the more I thought I had ruined the model. So I decided not to post anything. And then I thought about it, and looked at the mini and thought what can I do to make myself like this model. So I applied some more paint, and fixed some obvious blemishes and bought some bits to finish of the base, and do you know what I found. The penny finally dropped and I found my mojo again. I liked the model, I realized I didn’t need all that fancy crap, sure its nice to look at but for practical gaming you don’t need it. This hobby is for me. It’s my outlet away from work and the missus. Its about me and my miniatures, my painting style, my gaming style, my everything. I share with the community to show pride in my work, to record my achievements, to show me.

So here you go, my Unclean One prior to my touch ups:

And these are the little blighters I am working on at the moment to lurk about his base:

Looking at the model I am chuffed to bits with him. I still need to fix some things I thought off on the bus home tonight and then I will post him finished with his little mates in the next few days – I have a 4 day weekend so have some heavy painting time planned.

Also, I have made some progress on my Knights (or at least 1 of them):

Now these Knights are turning into the polar opposite. I hate them. I wish I could go back in time and slap past Rogue Pom around the head and say “Build these buggers properly you fool – clean of those mold lines – rank them up better – and give them standard S5 all the time magical weapons not those poncy ‘only on the charge am I useful lances’”. I also wish I had painted my whole force in Nurgle colours – Mark of Khorne is really cool and as a Noob to fantasy was the right choice. Now I realize that WoC are tough as nuts without it, and I love my Nurgle theme a whole load more. Who cares, I cant change the past so I am sticking to my original plans and pushing on. Hopefully I can get him and maybe another guy done too over this weekend. Just need to figure out how to paint the horses. My test model is brown, but I think I like the idea of black better.

And that’s enough of a ramble for now. With any luck I will post again over the weekend.

Hope you guys are all enjoying the hobby for your own reasons like I am mine.

Cheers all,

Pom

PS.

I finished A Thousand Sons the new Horus Heresy book by Graham McNeill. What did I think – Stop reading this, go out to GW or any other half decent book seller and buy it and the est of the series – Damn fine book. Well done Mr McNeill.

Reading Cadian Blood by newcome Aaron Dembski-Bowden. So far it’s awesome. The front cover art does the book no justice what so ever and I passed it over for a long time. If you’re a Guard fan and liked BL God Mr Dan Abnett’s Gaunt Ghosts then this book is for you.

The Tzeentch daemon weapon has gun stats as well as melee abilities, so I was hoping to find something that looked like a cool gun. What I settled on was the old metal Kai Gun that came with an older Chaos Terminator Lord:

My only problem with it is that it’s a right arm, and the options in the latest codex have the weapon replace your melee option (which I’ve modeled on the left arm).

…out comes the hacksaw:

I’m not very good at greenstuff, but I’m ok at filling seams and doing small-scale stuff. All I did here was flip the shoulder section around so it will work as a left arm (I also drilled a hole for a magnet):

Now the only thing that still bugged me was that little circular joint near the elbow that typically sits on the outside of the arm, so I greenstuffed one for the other side (this is about as ambitious as I get with greenstuff:

Here’s the finished product:

and attached to the model:

I was quite disappointed when I cast my eye over my Khorne Warriors and the solitary Knight that I had started last nearly a year ago. The painting, by the standards I am currently painting to was rubbish. Lots of flat and uninviting colors, and the bases looked quite shabby. With my current crop of Guardsmen and random mini’s I have been utilizing layering and edge highlights as well as glazes and proper shading.

I had originally modeled all of my WoC bases as dark grey with clumps of dry grass and the odd snow effect using GW modeling snow. At the time I thought it was great, but since then I have entered the blogging world and been introduced to many and varied techniques. Also, over the weekend I had managed to have a look in at one of the GW lads current project involving a winter themed Wood Elf force. He was completely covering the bases in many layers of snow effect, with only very small clumps of dead grass showing through. It looked realistic and good. Mine on the other hand looked contrived.

So, I says to myself. What should I do, start over from scratch, strip what your not happy with, or look for a quicker less torturous solution.

I chose the second option. My Warhounds and Nurgle Warriors and both my painted character models are in decent shape (being the period of early highlighting experiments) although the bases looked shite. My Khorne Warriors can be salvaged by a few selective highlights and a rejigged base.

I thought back to all the snow tutorials I have read, and settled on the following method.

I took my standard PVA (white wood glue), added a splash of water, and liberally mixed in some snow effect until I had a runny gloppy paste which would flow off a brush, but had some stiffness to it.

I pulled a few test models of the shelf and slopped it on and left it to dry. Here are the results with some comparison shots for good measure:

One of the Khorne bases showing a lot of bare area and a thin scabby looking layer of snow effect compared to the new Nurgle bases with their thick covering and the warriors looking like they are crunching through the soft snow.

And same again for a Warhound showing a before and after.

And my WIP Knight – I should have waited to finish the model before doing the base but I got a bit carried away with my endeavors – I even ended up slopping some onto my Inquisitor Rex Trench Works base and to my mind it helps it Pop – the consistency of the dried snow when placed strategically makes it look quite convincing.

The Knight is at the base coat plus wash stage after I ended up going over a lot of the old paint in frustration at how crap it looked. Happier now and looking to do a more dirty/gritty job – still won’t be ‘red Khorne’, but it also won’t be a ‘salmon pink’ Khorne that it was looking like previously.

On other news, I got in another game of Necro at Vet’s night on Tuesday (only one more to go before the campaign finishes and we switch over to Fantasy). It was a 3 way bash with a 4th gang of Orks no less being used as the prize (the Orks used their 40K stats and if pinned got straight back up at the end of the turn). If you took an Ork out you got double experience, and if you contacted the body, you could drag it at half movement, and if you held it at the end of the game, you got an extra 10 credits after accounting for your gangs output from selling the corpse to a Xenos scientist. I bottled one of the guys in turn 3, and then slugged it out with Necro regular Dodd for another 4 turns with him eventually getting the upper hand, and allowing me to slink off with no more damage caused in return for all of the corpses (I had held 3 of the 5 by that stage). And he sold me back one of my Gangers which he had captured. I had amassed some quite good stats on my Gangers and I was at the point that if I pushed my luck much further I was going to have all of my expensive, souped up Gangers killed off, losing all their various skills.

I talked with Adam about my Empire issues, and he suggested I try some test models using a red and blue scheme (as opposed to a yellow and blue) as I really didn’t want to paint yellow anymore. When I get a spare 5 minutes here and there between working on my WoC I will demo up a tester and take it in with my yellow tester for comparison and see what the lads think.

I also finished off the new Shadow King book in the Time of Legends series and was quite disappointed. All the other books have been quite good, but this one seemed like the target audience had been lowered to a much younger group. It read quite poorly, and I’m not sure I can point out why. I didn’t feel that way about the original – Malekith – so can only presume Gav Thorpe (the author of both books) has changed something in the way he writes.

I am currently reading Sons of Dorn, an Imperial Fist novel by newcomer Chris Roberson (his claim to fame in the 40K-verse is the Dawn of War 2 book – can’t really comment as I haven’t read it) which isn’t bad, but feels like a bit of a ripoff of the old, classic Space Marine by Ian Watson – same three stereotypical initiates who learn brotherhood through a baptism of fire – same supporting characters (as in the exact same), and all the primary characters fit the same mould as Watsons (ie a rich kid with a French name, a tech/savvy kid, and a barbarian kid). The story diverged by Watsons in the second half but still…

And finally my computer is down and the techo has no idea whats wrong with it. I am updating using my 8 year old laptop which is seriously lacking in all respects but I am still happy to have it. Have you ever thought what we would do if we had no computers. I was in a bit of a frenzy until the missus pulled this out of a drawer.

I am back at work so hobby time has fallen away, and I don’t see me getting much joy over the weekend as now all the house stuff needs to be crammed into 2 days rather than spread over the week like I have been recently, and the missus has become quite used to me being a bit of a Mr Housewife and is hinting she would like me to take over more of the house duties – lame.

That’s it for tonight. Have fun all and good gaming to all.

Ok, The pieces for this particular build came from a few different places. Most of it was from the standard SM Dreadnought Box. The DA bits all came from the Ravenwing vehicle sprue (sarcophagus plate, leg plates, some scrolls and the DA icon mounted on top). The last bit that’s new is I snagged a Multimelta arm from the Black Reach box set. There’s only a little bit of magnetizing going on (and I’ll show it specifically). All the arms actually fit snugly “dry” on the arm pegs with the sole exception of the Multimelta. The hole in the arm is too small. get out a drill bit that’s large enough and make it bigger. It’ll fit eventually.

Step 1: Basecoat

Also pictured, the package of plasticard that I get for the base.

The only magnetizing on this model is to switch out the Storm Bolter with the Heavy Flamer on the Close Combat Arm. Above, I’ve highlighted where the magnets are. I go over the “how to” in these posts (part 1, part 2). The magnets used are a 1/16″ diameter disc magnet (1.5mm). You can find it here. It’s the smallest size they carry over at Gaussboys.

What I’ve done (as I know it’s a bit hard to see) is replaced a section of the arm’s “tab” with the magnet, and drilled a hole within the slot of the weapon. I’ve made a diagram to hopefully illustrate this better than I can describe:

This way the pieces still fit together in a slot-tab fashion with the addition of a magnet.

Step 2: Basecoat mix 2:1 Dark Angels Green : Knarloc Green

I have an interesting method of getting a Dark Angels finish. As with most of the effects I do, I want to build bright, then darken with a wash. I’ve tested a lot, and found that for what I want, a 2:1 mix of Dark Angels Green and Knarloc Green will give me the desired effect. Also, the addition of Knarloc means the paint will be nice and thick, ideal for a basecoat.

Step 3: Gretchin Green drybrush

This is the highlight step of my typical 3-step process (basecoat, highlight, wash). I’m focusing mainly on edges here, and avoiding the flat surfaces.

Step 4: Boltgun Metal

First up, all metal parts get a basecoat, but in addition (because this is a vehicle) I’ve very lightly drybrushed in specific places over the green to get some weathering in before the wash.

Step 5: Shining Gold

Step 6: Badab Black wash

Lay it on nice and thick, you want to bring that bright green down to an acceptable tone. I realize this may be brighter than some are used to for DA (partly due to GW’s inconsistent depictions of their colors over the years/codices), but this is about the shade that I have come to like for them.

Step 7: Dheneb Stone Basecoat

For all scrolls and skulls.

Step 8: Mechrite Red Basecoat

For all purity seals and miscellaneous parts you want accented in red.

Step 9: Blood Red drybrush

Step 10: Fiery Orange highlight

Step 11: Devlan Mud wash

This is on both the Dheneb Stone stuff, and the red stuff.

The reds are finished, now we’re going to go back to the scrolls and skulls.

Step 12: Bleached Bone drybrush

Step 13: Skull White drybrush

much lighter than the Bleached Bone. Feather it along scroll edges and around the “face” of skulls, i.e. the eye-sockets and jaw.

Step 14: Gryphonne Sepia wash

This should be applied strategically (as opposed to covering everything) to the mid-tone areas near the Devlan Mud creases. Try to stay away from edges where there is Skull White, this isn’t meant to tone that down.

Ok, next up, I’ve got a Multimelta and a Heavy Flamer that I want to try a trick on. I want some heat corrosion on the barrels.

Step 15: Devlan Mud wash

Cover about 2/3 of the barrel’s length from the tip. Typical heat corrosion goes from the metal’s base color to brown to indigo to black at the very tip. We want to leave some room for those other two colors.

Step 16: Leviathan Purple wash

Cover about half of the barrel’s length from the tip.

Step 17: Badab Black wash

Cover the last third of the barrel’s length from the tip. Voila!

Next up, there’s a technique I’ve been using on my whites that I first crafted on my Ravenwing Bikers. it’s a cool white, meaning we’re going to work up from a blue.

Step 18: Shadow Grey Basecoat

This is as dark as it gets.

Step 19: diluted Skull White

There will be two total Skull white steps. In this first one, the paint is diluted to still show some of the blue underneath. This is applied very carefully to only the raised areas. Also, I leave a tiny bit of the Shadow Grey alone in areas I want to appear very deep.

Step 20: Skull White

This time the paint is not diluted. In the case of the feathers, I’ve only put this on the last third of each feather, to leave the blue showing through on the rest. Also, you may have noticed I applied a freehand wing on that large blank space on the dreadnought’s front, and hit the missiles.

Next up, targeting lenses…

Step 21: Enchanted Blue

Enchanted Blue is still in production, I just still have an old pot of it.

Step 22: Deadly Nightshade

Ok, Deadly Nightshade is not in production anymore… technically. They basically made it a foundation paint and called it Necron Abyss. It’s equally as usable in this step.

Step 23: Ice Blue

A small rim of Ice Blue on the opposite side as your Necron Abyss (Deadly Nightshade).

Step 24: Skull White

A tiny spot of white in the middle of your dark area for the actual reflection point of your light source.

Step 25: Chaos Black

Barrel holes and script on scrolls. My dreadnought’s name is Remiel.

The models is ready. On to the base…

Step 26: cut out the plasticard

I’ve drawn a circle on the backside of the plasticard with a pencil and the base itself, so I can easier cut it out with my scissors.

Step 27: PVA Glue and basing material

I used some GW gravel. typically what I do to these is place some glue on the base, pour some gravel on the base… let sit… shake off loose/excess gravel back into container… apply watered down glue over the gravel. This will keep it sturdy.

Step 28:

I want the gravel to resemble crumbled ceiling/infrastructure, so I’m painting it Codex Grey

Step 29: Skull white drybrush

on the gravel.

Step 30: Fun with Washes!

Ok, I’m going for a look of an old tiled floor left to nature’s devices for a while. This also was the result of a lot of testing. The mix I use now is a 3:2:2:1 mix (Water:Devlan Mud: Badab Black: Thraka Green). I only wanted a touch of green and brown, and I flood the base with it. I actually want it to dry unevenly with some rings/discoloration. So while wet, I will touch some diluted Thraka Green or Devlan mud to an area and let it spread as it will. I’m sorry I don’t have separate pictures for all that, but it must be done pretty quickly so that it doesn’t dry before you’re done.

There you are! Glue him down and you’re set!

What do you think? Did you find this useful? Any tips or tricks that you use that are similar? Maybe suggestions for me (some area where you feel I could improve)?

Thanks for reading

Do you really need a pricey primer to paint your models. Answer is no not really. I know of people who spends $5 to 6 dollars to get one can of spray Primer. Just because they think it works better, or maybe it dries faster, and so on. To tell you the truth you don’t need Krylon Primer for you models. You can go to the local Dollar General and get yourself a can of spray Primer for about $1.25.

It works just as good as the name brand Primer and is much cheaper. So now you can get 2 cans of Primer, stop at McDonald’s for a double cheeseburger and still have change left over. So remember next time you go to Wal-mart for Primer you don’t need the name brand stuff. Get the cheap stuff, it works just as good. Now I will show some testing I have done and give you the reader tips on what works best.

First thing is don’t use Rust-oleum. I’m sure your asking why? Well I have seen Rust-oleum run about 7 to 8 dollars a can. The can is the same size as Krylon and the even cheaper Color Place. Color Place can be found just about anywhere too. It can be found at Wal-mart, Dollar General, and most hardware stores. Next thing about Rust-oleum is the fact it goes on thick and stays thick. You don’t want to deal with that. That then leads too stripping the paint off the model. Last thing, It’s very hard and very frustrating to brush on paint. Most of the time you want to see your model get some flier miles before, you’re done with detail.

Now on to the Test. I have lined up 3 models for primer. Now they are plastic models so they don’t really need primed, but it don’t hurt to primer your models. Now if your going to skip out on priming a plastic model then, make sure your going to do a very good base coat of normal spray paint. The models that I have lined up will be done in Krylon Ruddy Brown (Red Oxide in color place paint), Krylon Grey Primer, and Color Place Grey Primer. 2 Grey primers????? Yes there is a difference. Krylon Primer is Darker, then color place grey primer. You will see later in the article.

The following pictures are the primers wet, and then dry. Now you will see that Krylon says 10 minutes to dry. Yeah it will Dry in 10 minutes, but only in perfect conduction’s. So it still ends up about 15 to 20 minutes. All in all about the same as Color Place paint.

Note: When working with any paint you must be in a warm dry area to get the best results.

1) Krylon Ruddy Brown wet.

2) Krylon Ruddy Brown dry.

3) Krylon Grey wet.

4) Krylon Grey dry.

5) Color Place Grey wet.

6) Color Place dry.

As you can see above the Krylon dried darker, then Color Place Grey. Big thing both dried just as smooth but, with color place prime being lighter it will be easier to cover with a lighter color. You will see below because. I painted the models Flat white. All models in this test have the same amount of pass overs with the same amount of time per pass over of the flat white.

1) Shows model 1 primed with ruddy brown and model 2 primed with the lighter primer. I’m not sure how well you can see but,the ruddy brown is not fully covered. This would mean you need more coats. Makes more labor and more use of paint. Costing you more pocket money.

2) Shows model 3 primed with Dark Grey and then painted with flat white. Hopefully as you can see, The model is still a little dark compared with model 2 (above). Then you have model 4, Which is just a base coat of khaki paint. This show you that a plastic models don’t need a coat of primer. None of my plastic models has ever been primed.

3) The 3 models below have been primed and painted with different paints. From left to right. Commissar Yarrick Primed with Krylon Grey then base coated with Color Place Flat Black. Next is a Blood Ravens Terminator. Primed only with Krylon Ruddy Brown. It was a little dark for Blood Ravens colors but, it was worked by by me. Last model is a Commissar primed with color place primer and painted with color place flat black.

4) Is a GW building built by my girlfriend and detailed by her too. It’s still a W.I.P. but, It was her gift and my bowling ball. It was sprayed with the darker Grey primer. Just so show that the different primer colors can be used to base coat buildings.

Well I hope this big book on prime gave you some tips and will help save you money. So you can get me Ghazghkull for my birthday. lol

Now Microsol isn’t magic. I found that if you apply it after you have already sprayed a matt protective finish on the model it won’t help one bit. I also found it to be marginally helpful in removing the clear edge of the decal.

I looked online and found that Microsol is actually part of a two-part set. MicroSET is the first part.

Microset is also a decal softener, but it also improves adhesion. When used together, Microset and Microsol essentially make the transfer no different than paint. When used as I describe below, I actually was able to apply a wash over the decal without losing any detail or having the decal move. This is important since usually the bright colors of the decals are a stark contrast to the darker colors of my models.

The first step is to completely paint your model, applying any washes, etc. You can dry-brush before or after the decal application. I usually dry-brush after so the brushing effects can be seen on the decals, too.

The next step takes some tweezers, a paint brush, both hands, and some coordination. You need to paint the Microset onto your model then put the decal on it. The problem is that the decal takes 30 – 40 seconds to moisten in the water and the Microset dries in about 20 seconds.

Open the Microset and get your paintbrush in one hand and soak the decal in water with the other. After soaking the decal for about 20 seconds, dip the paintbrush into the Mircoset and apply it to the area on the model where the decal is going. Then apply the decal.

Be careful with the decal as the Microset is actually softening it. Try not to have so much water and Microset that the decal flows off, but just enough to keep it moist. After the decal is positioned where you want it, use the brush to gently remove the air bubbles and smooth the edges down. Gently is the key word here. The Microset will soften the decal to the point where it will conform to the shape of the model. This is perfect for shoulder pads.

Let the Microset dry for at least five minutes, then apply another coat. You don’t need to use a lot, just enough to moisten the decal.

Wait another five to ten minutes, then apply the MicroSOL solution. Again, you are not trying to drown your model. You need just enough to moisten the decal.

When it is completely try (at least 30 minutes), you are free to do whatever you want. The decal is now no different than the paint. You can use washes or more paint over the decal or even apply a wash to tone it down a bit.

Here are some picture of this method:

A Google search will provide you with a list of places to get Microset and Microsol. It usually sells for less than $4 for one ounce (which will last you forever).

When I started trying to strip my models, I originally tried methods, which I found online, that didn’t work and destroyed two of my marines. This did not make me happy. I have also seen brake fluid suggested. While this does work, the substance is also extremely hazardous if it comes into contact with your skin or is inhaled, and I do not recommend its use. Don’t use it.

Eventually, I came across the following method, which I will describe with pictures, to successfully remove brake fluid. To preface, I had models which looked like the marine on the left, and I had progressed enough to want them to look more like my newly painted models, of which there is a WIP on the right.

Step 1: Get Yourself some “Simple Green”

When I first heard of this stuff, I had no idea what it was and where you could get it. The fact of the matter is, you can get it at most home improvement stores, such as Home Depot or Lowes, and you can find it in the cleaning section, with all the concentrated cleaning chemicals and cleaning supplies. Heres what it looks like:

The great thing about this stuff is that it is non-toxic. It does have a smell, however, and you don’t want the concentrated stuff in cups in your house, so do this outside. Even if it freezes over a bit (which it has on me a couple of times) there doesn’t seem to be a problem. If you spill it on concrete or tile or whatnot, it’s a concentrated cleaner, and you’ve just cleaned the area a bit once you scrub it up.

Remember to read the directions and warnings on the Simple Green Bottle. Take any and all warnings seriously, although it is non-toxic. It can irritate some peoples’ skin. You’ll want to follow these directions, and wash up afterwards properly.

Step 2: Application

The best way I’ve found to do this is to use plastic cups, placing between 4-8 marines in each, and then fill the cup with simple green, covering all of the miniatures.

Here are some of my models soaking. You’ll notice a Land Raider Crusader over to the right in the first picture. It’s already been stripped on the bottom, so you can see some effectiveness there.

If I was in a hurry, I’ve had models be ready to have their paints come off in around 8-10 hours. The longer you leave the models in the Simple Green, however, the more the paint seems to loosen. I suggest a 3-5 day period of soaking for good paint removal.

Step 3: Paint Removal

This is once again a simple step. Either outside or in a sink that you can clean up afterwards with cleaning supplies, use a brush to scrub the paint off the model, doing so under running water. Be prepared if pieces come off the model where they were glued, you should be scrubbing fairly hard. I like to use an old toothbrush, but as long as you have a brush that will get into the cracks of the model and get the paint scrubbed, you’ll be fine. Here’s what my formerly dark blue model looked like after one scrubbing.

If you’d like, repeat Steps 2 and 3 to take even more off. I’ve reprimed the model and repainted from this stage, and been thrilled with the results.

Hope this helps, and feel free to make further suggestions in this thread if you have something else helpful on the subject.

This is a very easy paintjob that looks like a million bucks and is easy to do.

Like a million dollar paintjob

I used a Carnifex model to show how to get the paintjob that you see on the Tyrant above.

The steps needed are as follows:

1. Spray the LIGHTER color that you want on the model. I do this when it’s still on the sprue, but that is totally up to you. Don’t worry too much about a even, smooth spray job right now. Just don’t get it runny or gloppy.

2. Clip the pieces off the sprue and then REMOVE THE MOLD LINES – it’s very important that you get the mold lines off the model because ‘dip’ really makes them stand out. This can’t be stressed enough!

touch up the light color

3. Assemble and touch up the light color. On a bigger model,like this carnifex, do the legs/tail and body first, then mate them. Leave the head and arms off for now.

A few words on getting the carnifex to stand up better -
Trim the parts that are on the legs that get glued to the tail – don’t lop ‘em of, but cut the corners down so they have some play in the socket. Now that they are loose, position the legs so that the tail will be on the ground.
Also, cut these 3 spine bits off. They get in the way of the body/chest assembly from bending further up.

Dakka Rifle

Here is the Dakka Rifle I made, in honor of and in the style of RudyPicardo

At this stage you should have the body assembled and mated to the tail/legs. Paint the carapace whatever color you like (in my example, red) and then touch up the first color. (Tan)
You can see a few spots that need to be addressed…

It’s a lot easier to assemble and paint / touch-up without the arms attached. Once you are done with that, attach the arms. They were painted before assembly as well, along with the head.

One other note, if you are going to add any detail or accent color, do it to the head and weapons. They are the part that counts. The gun cables are a different color on this model because it is armed with a devourer – I made the cables and muzzle pink. It turned out looking like pepto-bismol, but worst things can happen! (my chief complaint is the lack of contrast, not the color) The gun cables on my other shooty ‘fexes are green. Again, this was just done for variety and to make the Dakka look different.

Here are photos with the weapons attached.
If you look at the pictures at this point, you see a paintjob that a 10yr old can accomplish! The bulk of the model has 2 colors on it, and the detail work on the guns and head are very simple. So far, not including the time it takes for paint and glue to dry, I have about 45min-1 hour spent on this model. (although this one has an extra 20 min spent making the devourer rifle…)

A little bit of attention has ben paid to the mouth and teeth -- nothing complicated.

Ok, now for the last 10 minutes of painting… the ‘dip’

I use this stuff slightly thinned out with odorless mineral spirits (available wherever you get the ‘dip’) at a ratio of 10 :1 or possibly 8:1 . If you get it too thin it starts separating and getting really strange. Get it to the consistency of heavy cream – milk is too thin!
I think I added 2 cap-full of thinner to the small can of ‘dip’. It will float, so shake well.

Now get an old brush and brush it on! In places where a bit more texture is welcome, glop it on. Legs, ribs, shoulders, etc… On the bits that you spent the time detailing, make a very light coat – it will act like a clear coat if you apply it thin enough.

One more thing – on these Carnifex models, the bottom of the chest, where the row of spikes are, there is a seam where the chest pieces mate. That area is a low spot and will collect a bunch of dip and needs to be smoothed out about 15 minutes later. Take your brush with a bit of thinner on it and dab it off. You should be able to load your brush with the glop from that spot and then use it to get the couple of other spots that you missed! (trust me. 15 min later you will see some places that you were just sure you got!)

After applying the ‘dip’ DON’T TOUCH IT FOR 8-12 HOURS!!!!! This is not our acrylic hobby paint, but polyurethane wood finish. It takes a long time to dry and is really tacky/sticky as it dries. Just leave it alone overnight.

And that next morning it will look like this.

Yes, it really is that easy!!

click for fullsize

This Gaunt looks great, and has only the tan, red, and dip on it!!

click for fullsize

Same with these Rippers.

click for fullsize

Tan and red on the body, black in the mouth, white on the teeth, dip. Thats it!

What dip could I get here in Ireland that would get the same effect?

Since I live in the US, I can’t directly answer that question.

However, the ‘Dip’ is a wood finish. specifically, an “all-in-one polyurethane woodstain and finish.”

If you were to go to a shop that has DIY home repair items and ask for something that is a “all-in-one polyurethane woodstain and finish.” you will probably get the right stuff.

Please look at this link HERE

This is the original page that got the information out there for all to use. The ‘Dip’ they show is a French product, and should be available throughout Europe.

I hope this helps, and please post back if you have any luck finding a good product. Cheers!

I have also used this technique on a squad of marines, some pictures

I decided to add these photos to show that the ‘dip’ does not have to be really glossy.
All of these models have a final coat of (fairly thin) ‘dip’ on them. These models also have more advances painting techniques used on them than the above miniatures… Just wanted to show the versitality of ‘dip’ as a final coat/varnish.

Also check out the tutorial thread on the forum or comment below

• Chaos Black
• 50/50 Chaos Black and Boltgun Metal (mix this up in a spare paint pot).
• Boltgun Metal
• Mithril Silver
• Devlan Mud
• Badab Black

When painting true metallics there are a few key points to remember. We cannot highlight all the way up to white, like we can with NMM. Mithril Silver is our brightest color, so to compensate for that we must shade much darker.

Also, keep in mind that these paints reflect light. This quality can be your best friend and your worst enemy. The reflectiveness can create excellent, bright, glowing highlights in a way that white cannot. But we can’t simply layer lighter metallic colors over darker ones, as light will reflect from the shaded areas and ruin all that hard work!

The secret is to make the shadows dull in addition to being dark; that way only our intended highlight areas will reflect light.

Matte varnish spray (such as Testor’s Dullcote) will change this reflective quality of the paint. Mithril Silver tends to turn super bright and less reflective, so areas that may have appeared blended will turn out looking poor after varnishing. If you are going to varnish a piece, paint the metallics last after varnishing, or don’t varnish at all.

It is very difficult to take photos of metallic paints before the technique is finished, but I tried my best to get the same exact camera and light angle for each of the shots. It’s a quick job after all, but it should give you a good idea of my way of painting metals.

OK, here we go!!!

1. The first step is to undercoat the piece with Chaos Black.

Chaos Black undercoat

2. Get an idea in your head of where you want to have the highlights. I am using a generic overhead source light. I went in Photoshop and drew on bright yellow where I want the highlights to be, and bits of white where I want it to be the brightest.

Notice the plain changes on the surface of the axe. There is an angled surface a few millimeters away from the edge of the blade. This will reflect light differently than the flat surface, so make sure to keep that in mind. Also, it is important to really accentuate this shift, so I will make sure to have a crisp highlight along it.

The highlighted areas

3. Now comes a thin basecoat of our dark metal mix. I’ll call this “Chaos Metal” (I’m so creative, aren’t I?) Notice how this is very reflective and the highlights change depending on how you turn the piece.

Thin basecoat of dark metal mix

4. Now I painted a thin layer of Devlan Mud. I use the washes straight out of the pot, there’s no need to dilute them with water. Don’t worry too much about shading now, this is just intended to dull down the basecoat and make things a little dirty.

Thin layer of Devlan mud

5. Next we have the first bit of shading with Badab Black. Reference where you wanted your shaded areas to be and paint this only there. Try to be precise with this. This is about 4 thin layers. An important thing is to keep the right amount of wash on your brush. You don’t want too much, that way you can control where the paint goes. The wash should be drying right after you drag your brush across the surface. If it takes any longer to dry then you are using too much.

Shading with Badab Black

6. I did some more shading with Badab Black. Notice that the shadows are getting quite dark.

More shading with Badab Black

7. Next I highlighted the areas I selected earlier with the “Chaos Metal” mix. There’s a dramatic difference in reflectiveness from the basecoat. That brown wash we painted on earlier did the trick perfectly! Notice the amount of contrast. By starting with a dark basecoat and shading even darker, we can really push those dark areas further. If the contrast is good enough here, then it’s time to move on! If your shadows aren’t dark enough, go back and shade some more.

Highlight with Chaos Metal mix

8. Thin down some Boltgun Metal and carefully paint on highlights. Do this in very selective areas. Concentrate on edges and those few spotty highlights we planned. It can be easy to overdo this step, so don’t overdo it!

Boltgun Metal

9. Finally, take some Mithril Silver and thin it down with some water. Paint this only on some of the top edges, notches, and corners. There’s also a very small amount along portions of that angle running next to the sharpened edge of the blade.

Mithril Silver

Finished!!

Here’s another example of some true metallics, on a Dark Angel Space Marine I recently painted:

Finished

That’s it for now! Thanks for looking!

Happy painting,

-Matt

Brushes & Paint

Necron with white basecoat

Step 1, White and Black

After a white undercoat, water down some Black and paint the whole base. Also paint the whole gun. Don’t worry about going over the rest of the model, we can cover it up with white after.

Step 1 White & Black

Step 2, Washes

Get your Gryphonne Sepia and wash the whole model with the brush straight from the pot. If you get some on the gun, it doesn’t matter. Make sure it flows into the cracks in the armour on the chest and neck. Wait for this to dry. Go make some tea.

Step 2 with wash

Back? Now do it again, except this time try to focus only on the joints, spine, pelvis, chest symbol and neck. If you get some on the armour plates, don’t worry. Wait for this to dry completely.

2nd wash

Step 3, Armour Plates

Slightly thin some Bleached Bone and cover all the armour plates, including the back of hands and hips. I left the fingers brown. I decided to do the front of the head (the face) only, giving it a skull mask look.

If you were careful with the 2nd Wash, you should only need one coat – two at most.

Painting the armor plates

Get the Skull White and mix a tiny amount of Bleached Bone. Paint this on the extreme edges of armour sparingly with thin lines. I did the collarbones, edges of the head and brow, edges of the shoulder plates and the top of the hips.

Front

Rear

Step 4, Gun

I wanted to keep the paint job simple, so highlights were minimal. Use Codex Grey to highlight the sharp top edges of the main areas, shaft and head of the gun.

Painted the tube feed Scab Red. Wait for it to dry then paint over it with Blood Red.

The gun

Step 5, Finishing Touches

At this point I drybrushed the base twice. Once with Codex Grey, then with a very light drybrush of Skull White. Tidy up the base edge with black. The few pieces of slate rock or ruin were done the same. By using a dark and relatively simple base, it emphasises the colours of the model.

I used Water Effects here, but any Gloss would work. Pain the tube feed of the gun a few times then let dry to make it shine.

Almost finished

I then cut a section of rod out slightly longer than the green rods. Compare it to the gap in the gun and then file down the ends to get them smooth. Add a small bit of PVA on the ends and carefully slot it into the gun. Polycement (plastic glue) would work but PVA dries completely clear.

Job Done

Job done! Hope that was clear and possibly helpful for anyone

Just a quick disclaimer: My photography set-up is not really that great. I use a piece of poster board and the same lamp I use to paint with for a make-shift studio. Since I had to set up and tear down for every step, you’ll notice some variations in the photos (most obviously in the backgrounds). I’ve done my best to make each photograph as representative as possible of each step in the process, nonetheless. I think for the purposes of this tutorial we should be OK and I’ll describe as much as I can for each picture.

Now, onto to FUN.

Here is what you’ll need:

I forgot to get my paint brushes in the shot, but for this project I used the same brushes I always use for faces. American Painter sizes 18/0 (for the extremely fine details) and 3/0 for the rest. I paid $1.69 each for these brushes at a local craft store. Take that, GW! (Also, not pictured: CODEX GREY… doh!)

Step #1

For the first step, I just painted the soon-to-be-flesh areas of the model in GW’s amazing Codex Grey. I love the hell out of this color because it covers black instantly and lighter colors can be painted right over it with very minimal effort. Trying to paint flesh colors straight over black is just a pain, so break out that Codex Grey and get to it!

Note for newbies: Do NOT use your paints right out of the pot… thin the paint to approximately the consistency of skim milk.

Step #2

Now, take Reaper Master Series “Tanned Shadow” and cover all of the Codex Grey. Since you’ve thinned your paints (right?), it will probably take two quick passes for full coverage, but these will go on relatively easy.

Step #3

GW’s Brown Ink is awesome. Whenever you buy a pot of ink, the moment you get it home, take a drop or two of dishwashing liquid and put it right into the pot. Be sure to shake the pot before each use! For those who don’t know: The liquid soap will break the surface tension of the ink when you apply it to the model and will let it flow into the deepest recesses.

With a mix of 1:1 Brown ink/water, strategically apply the ink so the majority of it goes into the deepest cracks of the model. You’ll notice I was quite liberal with the application treating it almost as a wash and at some points, I went full ink (no water) and put it on the parts that would be the most dark such as between the helmet and the face, and around the eyes.

Step #4

Now, this part is actually two steps in one… After the ink has dried, use “Tanned Shadow” (again) to go over the parts of the flesh that would stand out from the shadows, such as fingers, cheeks, eye brows, nose, knuckles, etc.. just imagine the light hitting the model and paint the things that would naturally stand out, relegating the inked sections (from last step) to the shadowy parts of the model.

Now, with “Tanned Skin” hit those “light” parts again, but now paint the parts that would be even lighter. Parts such as finger tips, tip of the nose, cheekbones, bones on the hand, etc…

Here is where you should take your time and go for as much realism and grit as you like… want a more dirty looking face/hands? Leave more of that ink showing! Want a pretty boy? Use more “Tanned Shadow” and hide more of that ink.

Step #5

Finally, use “Fair Shadow” sparingly to hit the most extreme of highlights. Ends of fingers, end of nose, highest points of the knuckles, etc. If you find the color is too bright for your liking, you can paint over it with “Tanned Skin” to turn it down a little, or just mix it with “Tanned Skin” to begin with.

You’re done!

Next tutorial we’ll take this Guardsman and give him a uniform!

Hope this helps!

Part 2

I have returned with the next Imperial Guard painting tutorial leaving exactly where my face painting tutorial left off.

Even if you don’t play Guard, newbies should be able to pick up a thing or two from this, since highlighting plays a VERY important role in the painting style for my guard. There is no blending or complicated technique involved at all, so anyone with the right brushes and colors can do this.

Did you hear me? NO COLORS WERE BLENDED IN THE MAKING OF THIS TUTORIAL. Blending is for people who win Golden Demons, not us mere mortals and certainly not for people painting up an entire ARMY. Of course exceptions can be made for important models in your force, but generally your average troop isn’t going to need it, which is why these tutorials feature a simple Guardsman.

Now, here is what I use for my Guard:

Reaper Paint

Feel free to substitute colors as you like. The important thing is to have a triad of colors that sit very closely to one another. You’ll want a dark, medium, and lighter version of whatever your scheme might be. Any shades that you require that sit inbetween your 3 main colors can (and will) be created by mixing.

Now then on with the tutorial:

NOTE: Again, I have to apologize for some of these photos… Since moving, I do not yet have a dedicated space for photographing miniatures and in order to take pictures I had to stop what I was doing, bring my lamp into another room and try to get the best pic I could. Some pictures turned out better than others, but I tried to pick the photo that best represents the step. The machine spirits are fickle, so consistency is out of the question for now. Once I do get set up, I will replace the photos in this tutorial with a more consistent set. Nonetheless for the time being, these will be more than enough to illustrate the step described, so let’s get out those brushes!

Onward!

Step #6

Now that you have a brand new Guardsman with a pretty face, it’s time to dress him! That’s Codex Grey on ALL cloth parts and a 1:1 mix of “Grey Liner” and “Muddy Olive” for the ALL the armor. A “Liner” is a series of paints from Reaper that is thicker than ink, but much thinner than paint. It’s absolutely perfect for things like ‘black-lining’ and mixing with colors to knock the shade down a peg.

Dont spend too much time dodging the details. If you get paint onto the Emblems or gun bits, that’s fine. You can always paint over them in black and they’ll be ready to paint when you get to that step.

The Codex Grey is simply a quick basecoat which will make your actual cloth color easier to paint on.

Step #7

Here’s an easy step. For now, we’re going to leave the armor alone. It’s time to work on the cloth!

Cover all of the Codex Grey with “Bone Shadow”. That’s it for this step.

Step #8

For this stage, I took a 2:3 mix of “Bone Shadow” and “Grey Liner” and watered it down a quite a bit. We’re going to give the cloth an inking here, making sure the folds and creases and shadowy areas get the majority of paint to create depth in the cloth. Don’t worry about being sloppy here, just realize that the sloppier you are, the more “touch up” work you’ll have to do in a couple of steps! Get to painting those folds!

Step #9

Time for some linework! Take “Grey Liner” and water it down to the consistency of ink. Taking a very fine brush, hit only the deepest folds with this mix. This is as dark as it gets for our cloth, so think about where there would be the least amount of light being reflected and hit these areas. Now is a good time to do some black-lining, such as the grooves around the pockets and shirt and anywhere else you’d like to seperate bits of the cloth. (You can see here I took the opportunity at this point to get a nice bold line to seperate my Guardsman’s hand from his cuff and also bewteen the cuff and sleeve.)

Step #10

Now that we’ve created our depth, it’s time to work our way back up the cloth and touch up at the same time. In this step, I used more “Bone Shadow” and cleaned up the ink that got into places I didn’t want it a couple steps back. “Bone Shadow” is our “main” cloth color so at this point you can make the cloth as dingy or bright as you like. The more of the ink you touch up, the brighter your cloth is going to look in the end. If it helps, look at the model from the perspective of playing a game of 40k. The parts you can’t see are those parts you can leave alone at this point. This is a good way to paint and I also take into consideration photographing the models from eye level when determining what is left in the shadows and what gets more color.

Step #11

We’re almost done with the cloth and it’s time for the final highlight! This step is pretty easy. Take a 1:1 mix of “Bone Shadow” and “Aged Bone”, consider the parts of the cloth you most want to stand out and hit them. I painted the top of the folds on the arms and legs, especially where they where bending. Also, I lightly brushed the front of the thigh and knee of the model’s left leg to make it look like the light was hitting that part of the material. Take your time here and make sure your paints are very thin and the highlights as clean as possible. This is what people will notice about your cloth overall when they see the model since this is the part that “pops”!

With that step, you’re done with the cloth!

A word about cloth: Painting cloth SUCKS. It’s by far my least favorite part of painting Guard. The only positive thing I can say about it is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. The different colors you use don’t even have to be that smooth! As long as your creases are dark and the tops of the folds are lighter, you can call it a day and no one will give you any lip. However, If you take the time to do your best, it can definitely make a fine impression so that is why I’ve taken pains here to outline those steps.

With that said, it’s time to move onto my favorite part! ARMOR!

Step #12

Paint the armor with “Muddy Olive” making sure to avoid the shadowy parts of the model which will show the darker basecoat. This is your armor’s primary color so the shoulder pads and anything exposed should be this color. If you look closely at the model here, you’ll see that I’ve left some of that darker base coat at the top of the leggings, as well as in the middle of the gun (around the emblem).

Step #13

Next up is a 1:1 mix of “Muddy Olive” and “Olive Green”. This is going to act like a first highlight. This isn’t the same as edging, but a precursor to it, like a thick highlight. Again, you can see the gun and how i’ve left a bit of the previous 2 coats showing as well as the leggings. For the shoulder pads, I’ve used this color to paint the parts that will start to reflect the light most; around the edges and on the dome of the helmet. Also, paint the edges of the helmet and you’ll start to see how highlighting can really make those areas stand out!

Step #14

Ok, here is where we start edging those highlights! Thin, thin lines on the edges of the armor in “Olive Green” all by itself. Remember to KEEP YOUR PAINTS THIN so it goes on nice and smooth and doesn’t chunk up! I love how the helmet and shoulder pads are starting to look quite dramatic with the shading and these new highlights. I shouldn’t need to say more here as I think the model speaks for itself! We’re getting close to the end here.

Step #15 Done

Ok, at this point in my painting, the steps became way too small to photograph since now we’re doing details. Besides, at this point you probably don’t need my help! For those interested, I’ll walk you through what I did:

For the emblems, I took a fine brush (size 18/ and painted “Codex Grey” onto the wings/feathers, making sure to leave black in between each feather. I then added little “Fortress Grey” and highlighted those same areas. For a finishing touch, I used “Polished Bone” and dabbed a little on the tips of the wings and the top of the skull.

For the metal bits, it’s just “Boltgun Metal”, the greatest metallic paint EVER! To make it look a little dirtier though, I took a 1:1 mix of Brown and Blue Ink (When you mix these, you get the color of motor oil!) and washed those parts. Once the ink dried, a went back with a little more “Boltgun Metal” and cleaned up.

Seal model with TESTOR’S DULLCOTE and that’s one more Guardsman ready to fight for the Glory of the EMPEROR!

FRESH MEAT FOR THE GRINDER:

Finished

Thanks for taking the time to read this! I hope it helps you in your hobby and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to PM me!

*There is a difference between tabletop and display standards. Tabletop means that everything on the figure is painted and based. This creates an army that looks good and is a lot more fun to play against. Display painting is a lot more time consuming and usually doesn’t involve the painting of an entire army. Display pieces are usually center pieces that reflect the painter’s entire painting career. DON’T EXPECT TO PAINT AT DISPLAY LEVEL QUALITY YOUR FIRST TIME.

Supplies The first thing a lot of people have trouble with is the paint and brushes needed. There are a lot of brands on the market and only a few are good for figure painting. First off games-workshop (GW) paints are not the definitive paints on the market. In fact GW paints lack in a lot of areas where lesser quality paints out perform them (more on that later).

Paint quality depends on two things, the amount of water and additives in the paint and the amount of pigments. The more pigments and less water, the better the coverage of the paint; however too much pigment results in a thick paint that’s hard to manipulate with a brush. All of the paints Ill discuss can easily be purchased at either Wal-Mart or Michaels Crafts with the exception of GW paints which can be purchased at any hobby store. I suggest Michael’s because the selection they offer is much greater then Wal-Mart or any other bargain bin store. Delta Ceramcoat is the best paint on the market and for that you will have to pay. At roughly $1.15 a 2oz.(59ml for all you Euro people) bottle this paint will last you a long time. I have been painting for over 7 years and not a single paint bottle has run dry.

This paint is excellent in every way, out performing GW’s paints in both coverage and price. The color selection is mind boggling but this is the same for just about every paint supplier on the market. Americana is a less expensive and lower quality brand of paint, however it very useful. At $0.71 cents for a bottle it is your best bet as you start your paint collection. There are fewer pigments in this brand of paint and some batches of the paint tend to be very watery. This makes it a great paint for making shadows and washes which will be explained later in this guide, but not the best paint for making a base coat.

GW makes two different versions of its paint. The regular paint is a good quality product but it is VERY expensive. $2.50 a pot (which is a lot less then the 2ox. bottle of Delta Ceramcoat or Americana) will leave a hole in your wallet and that’s less money to spend on models if you know what I mean. The exception here is the metallic paints that GW makes. These are by far the best on the market and are worth every penny. BoltGun metal, Tin Bitz, and Mithral are very good metal paints that cover good and keep there metallic sheen after they have dried. GW also makes the Foundation paint series. These paints are super saturated with pigment and are designed for making basecoats. They are good for what they are made for. A solid base coat is very important and these paints are probably the best on the market for only that job. Again GW paints are expensive but these are worth if you are going to become a serous painter.
Brushes are you new tools of creation. What the hobby knife and the model glue where to you in building your figures, the brush will now take their place. You will need several types and sizes of brushes, but that’s what I’m here for. For your first few projects you will find it best to have the following sized brushes at hand. One detailing brush at a 10/0 size, one broad brush at a 3/0 size, and one brush somewhere in between those two. I find that the American Painter series of brushes at Michaels work the best, if your looking for them they have a lavender colored handle. Brushes aren’t cheap and will be the most expensive thing you buy, each brush will be anywhere from $3-$7 a piece. But a good quality brush will last you many months of painting.

Brush care is very important to prolonging the life and usefulness of your brushes. Here’s some tips on keeping them in good condition for the longest time:

1) Never cover the entire brush in paint when you dip it into your paint. This allows paint to be drawn up under the medal that holds the bristles in place and can cause the brush to disfigure its shape. Over time this paint will build up onto the brush and start to glue the bristles into place.

2) Don’t kill your brushes with heavy stroking. Choose one brush that will always be used as your dry brushing brush(more on that later) and always use it for this purpose. Prolonged heavy usage with the small brushes will lead to bent bristles and misshaping of the brush head.

3) Always clean your brushes good in-between usages and when you finish your painting session. Have a small water tub handy at all time and try to never let paint dry on the brush. Wash the brush by swishing it around in the water and gently rubbing it against the sides of the water tub to help draw out the paint deep in the bristles. After that dry it on a piece of paper towel. If when you dry it you can see a color streak then your brush is not clean enough.

4) Use different sized brushes accordingly. Little brushes are for details so don’t use them to paint a large area, its puts unnecessary usage on the more expensive small brushes. Think about what you are doing as you do it.

Paint Techniques and Terminology

The following are several different terms and techniques that many painters use. A good understanding of these will help with understand other how to guides and advice given by other members of the hobby.

Priming- This refers to a special surface treatment given to all model before they are painted. Primers come in sprays and paints. In this case the GW primer is very good, not so cheap but one of the best qualities on the market. Primer attaches itself onto the model and provides a better surface for the paints to adhere to. NEVER paint without priming your figures, it will result in figures that have entire layers of paint flake off. When priming you are looking for a simple coating where even an uneven coating will be ok. Always prime in a well ventilated area, preferable outside. You can always have to little primer but mo much will ruin your model. Spray lightly and let it dry in-between coats if you feel a second coat is necessary. Primers come in Black, Grey, and White; choose a color that coincides with your paint scheme.

Base Coat- The base coat is the first coat of paint that goes on your model after it is primed. This coat is use to hide the primer color and establish a good medium for the rest of your paint to applied to. Base coats should always be the darkest colors on the model. For example when painting a light green cloak, you would start off with a base coat of medium or hunters green.

Highlights- These are layers of brighter colors that are used to create depth onto of a basecoat. Most highlighting represents where light would hit a model and make their clothing, armor, weapons, ect. Glow around the edges.

Dry brushing- This is perhaps one of the most important techniques to learn. Dry brushing is very simple, take your brush with paint on it and brush most of the paint off on your paper towel until just a little remains. Now when you brush over the model paint will only lightly cover raised areas. This is the primary way to create highlights. Its very hard to master, but very easy to learn.

Washing/Inking- These two terms apply to the same technique but with different mediums. Inking involves taking inks and watering them down. Figures that have base coats on them are then dropped into the inks. The inks which are usually darker colors sink into all the nooks and crannies on the model and give it depth. The color of the base coat is also changed slightly. Washing is the same idea, take some of your paint thought and water it down so that is it almost see through. Then with a brush direct where you want the dark colored wash to go and bring out all the details on your model. This is kinda the opposite of highlighting as it brings out all the lowered areas but making them darker.

The Work Area

It is best to have an organized work area. Put down a piece of newspaper or magazine so that if (and you will) spill paints they don’t damage your table. The paper will also provide you with a suitable surface to mix paints on and to take paint off your brush when you are dry brushing. Have all your brushes at hand as well as a small water tub. A plastic mixing tray is also someone nice to have around though it is not necessary. Then around your painting area line up all the different paints that you will be using. I keep all of mine in three wooden Clementine boxes(yes I have over 200 different colors) for storage and they work perfectly. Have the boxes handy just incase you need to find a color you don’t have out. Also have some paper towels ready for drying your brush and spills that might happen. When painting it is best to simply unscrew the top of the bottle after shaking it up and use the paint that is in the top. This allows you a lot of control with how much paint your getting on your brush.

Step by Step Painting

Finally we get to painting some figures. For this demonstration Ill be painting an entire squad of 10 Imperial Guardsmen from the Warhammer 40,000 game step by step to table top standards. If I was painting without stopping to take pictures this would take me about two days of painting, about an hour, hour and half a day. Again I’m a veteran to painting, so take your time and remember your in no rush.

With you figures assembled the first thing you need to do is decide on a color scheme. This is a critical and many times over looked step of painting with will only result in headaches later. Take on figure from your army and experiment on how different colors look on him . Get a color wheel and try to use colors that look good together like red and green or orange and purple. Remember black and white are hard colors to use and grey is a neutral tone that goes with everything. For my unit I’m using a simple yellow and brown color scheme as followed:

• Armor- American Mississippi Mud
• Clothing- GW dessert Yellow
• Boots- American Bittersweet Chocolate(Dark brown)
• Flesh- Delta Ceramcoat Medium Flesh
• Wood and belt- Delta Ceramcoat Autumn Brown
• Weapon- American Neutral Grey(Perhaps the most used and useful color by my book)

Extra Paints you’ll need:

• Americana Sand
• GW Boltgun metal
• Red, optional
• Hunters Green, optional

All of those colors are changed and enhanced by highlighting and washes but those are the base colors. After priming black, start off by painting all of the cloth with dessert yellow. This may require two coats since it is a yellow going over black. Lighter colors are always hard to paint over black so multiple coats are something to get used to. Paint the armor Mississippi mud and paint the flesh and stock of the gun Autumn Brown. Yes that’s right paint the flesh brown for now, don’t worry flesh comes at a later time. The gun should be grey and the boots dark brown. Once these are dry make sure that everything is evenly covered; again the base coat is very important so take time to do back and make a second coat if necessary.

Next comes your first step towards becoming a master painter. Using a lighter tan, sand or yellow color(I used Americana Sand) dry brush some highlights on top of all the exposed clothing. Don’t worry if you go to heavy in some places, this is going to be a single model amid an entire army so complete perfection is not required. Also this is your first model, painting takes time and practice.

Now take some of the dark brown and water it down to a wash. Paint this watery mix over the clothing areas that you just dry brushed. Wait for the dry brushed color to completely dry before you apply the wash or the colors will blend and look muddy. Allow this coat to collect in the fold of the clothing and around the armor, yes you have to wait a few minutes while the water evaporates but it will leave an awesome shading effect on the model. This wash style will be used again later so become familiar with technique.

Now where are getting closer to getting that OMFG model look. This step is another tricky one that will require some tie to master but is crucial to becoming a great painter. We are now going to highlight the armor. This effect is to simulate light hitting the armor and making it look lighter around the edges. To do this use a lighter color then the armor or what ever you are highlighting. I used a color called Butternut Squash randomly mixed in with some of the base color(Mississippi mud). Once you have a color you like then take your 10/0 brush and paint small lines around the outside of the armor on the shoulders. Paint opposite corners on the shoulders, dry brush the color on the helmet, and finally highlight the bottom of the flak armor on the chest. Refer to the picture as what this should look like. The stock of the gun just needs to be dry brushed with a sand/brown paint mixture to make it look like wood.

You are now almost finished with your model. The last few things that need to be painted are the fleshy parts, weapons, and the shoes. Shoes just need a simple dry brushing of a lighter brown. The weapon only needs the medal of the barrel and the power clip to be painted in. If your feeling confidant enough paint the small buttons red or green to add some much needed detail to the weapon. For flesh buy medium flesh (GW’s Elf flesh is to light in my opinion). Dry brush this over the brown so that it covers mostly everything leaving the sunken parts dark. If you paint them flesh by mistake don’t worry about, that will be fixed in the last step. Go light with the paint as facial details are very small and can easily be filled in and ruined with to much paint. Finally lightly brush sand over any of the eagle with wing symbols located on the chest plate, helmet, and weapon. Don’t use white, its to bright and will look out of place. Again be very careful not to get to much paint into the details.

For the last step make a large batch of the watery dark brown. Wash is over just about everything. On the gun it will tone down the metal and give the grey some shadows. On the face it will make the eyes look full and on the hands it will make the fingers visible. On the eagle symbols it will really give it a 3D look. Any areas that are to heavily covered can always be highlighted again.

And that’s it. You’ve painted your first model. Time consuming, kinda, rewarding, hell yeah. The trick is to paint your ten man squads in assembly line order. Paint all of the steps on all of the models at a time. When you are finished you can always go back and fix any thing or add more details as you see fit. The model below is one I put a little extra time into but used the same processes. It all about details in the pong run. This one really shows what the washes and highlighting can achieve when used properly.

One point I cant stress enough is the squad idea. These are single figures in an ARMY. They don have to be painted greatly as you can see from some of my pictures. If the face isn’t perfect or the armor is a little sloppy no one will ever notice. To show you this the 10 man squad is below and there will always be mistakes even when great painters like myself are painting. Unless you are very experienced and willing to devote 3 to 6 hours into a single figure don’t worry about super detailing and getting things perfect.

You never know what the figure is going to look like so take a chance and your time and have fun; this is a hobby first and foremost. Fun is the most important.

Basing

Basing is perhaps the make or break point. Models that have a base will look a hundred times better then the same exact model that doesn’t have a base. Basing can be simple as painting and will make everything come together. For your basic base just grab some dirt from out side. Spread this dirt out on a cookie tray and bake it in the over at 400 for 10 minutes. This will kill anything that was living in the dirt and stop it from inhabiting your models. Take some Elmer’s glue and spread it around on the base with a crappy paintbrush. Dip the base into the dirt and shake off the excess. DONE. You can always paint the sand once it dries or add bushes made of model railroad foam and the likes. Anything can be done as you can see I paint my bases with dark brown and then add snow on top of that.

Summary

This is just the beginning and not a definitive guide. Think of this as just a starting point. Everyone has different styles and likes, over time you even develop your own style. Take what you can from this tutorial and ignore what you want. Happy painting and feel free to Pm or post any questions or comments. Till then,

Fox aka Guant

First up, we prime white.
Sounds simple, but you might need to shop around a bit for a decent one. The GW one is fairly good, but I’ve had some awful cans of it, so I would feel bad ‘reccomending’ it. I also tried the Vallejo one, and that was awful. Maybe I got a bad can, but again, I’m not reccomending it. Probably the safest bet is some car primer. Also, it’s cheaper!
So, here we go, a white mini!

Next, we need to black out the bits that are going to be darker colours.
It’s pretty important to do this bit first, just ‘cos I’m normally not neat with my basecoats. If you are, maybe do this after. Up to you.

At this point, we need to decide where we’re lighting this model from. This might seem like an ‘advanced’ technique, but it’s very simple really.
Put the model under a light, normally facing into it. Look where the light is falling, and where the shadows are. Remember this, but if you forget, you can always put it under a light again.

Anyway, this is the stage I like to call ‘the panda’. Isn’t he cute?

Now, I did my metals next, as the way I do it involves some washes, and they tend to get messy.
So, here he is with metallics done.

Ok, this bit may make you think I am a bit mental.
Wash the recesses of the model, and any area that would be in shadow (remember from above?), with shadow grey.
This looks a bit messy, but roll with me.

Now, what we basically do is work our way up from our shadow grey to white by mixing it, firstly with space-wolf grey, then a layer of pure SW grey, then mix white into the SW grey, before a final layer of pure white.
You may notice that I did very few highlights of white on the back, as I had chosen to light him from the front. I generally left the back at the space wolf grey level, although there are a few that are above it.

Anyway, here are a selection of WIP shots, going from dark to light:

So, that is the white done!
Ok, so, it took a while (about 4/5 hours I believe), but you can cut that down by using fewer layers (I think I did around 10-12 in total), or by using a similar lighting style, but using very few washes rather that layering up, as I did.
If you want to try this, I would mix SW grey with white around 50/50, and wash the whole model. Then wash pure SW grey over fairly large areas centered on the main recesses and shadows. Then 50/50 SW grey and shadow grey, in smaller areas; before finally doing pure shadow grey in the darkest areas.
These washes would have to be very thin (around 3:1 water:paint), and probably add a bit of glaze medium to help make slightly nicer transitions.

So, you might be interested in seeing what the finished model looked like…
Well, here is a pic or two, and there are some more over *here* in my Black Dragon blog =)

Cheers guys, hope that was of some use, and feel free to reply/PM/email if you have any questions or would like to know anything else…

-t.

Color
Colors used are Vallejo Model Color, Reaper and GW.
Basecoat: Light Brown (929)
1st highlight: Basic Skin Tone (815)
2nd highlight: Ivory
Shade: Vallejo Red Leather
Eyes: Reaper Ice Blue
Pupil: GW Regal Blue
Eyebrows + Hair: Vallejo Black Brown

1: Priming
The figure is primed white, using GW White primer.

2: Basecoat
I mix Light Brown with water (3 part water, 1 part paint) and start basecoating the face.

3: 1st Highlight
I mix Light Brown + Basic Skintone (50:50) to highlight the face. continue with 100% Basic Skintone (mix with water 3:1). I only highlighted the forehead, tip of the nose, and top part of the cheekbone.

4: Eyes & Eyebrows, 2nd Highlight and shading
I paint the eyes with Reaper Ice Blue and put a fine dot of GW Regal Blue for the pupils. Eyebrows were painted using Vallejo Black Brown.
Finally, final highlight is applied by mixing Basic Skintone + Ivory (50:50). This time I only highlighted the forehead, tip of the nose, and top part of the cheekbone with only fine dot and lines. I also shade the bottom part of the cheekbone with watered down Light Brown + a small amount of Vallejo Red Leather wash (5 part water, 1 part paint)

5: Hair
I basecoated the hair using Vallejo Black Brown and highlight with Light Brown.

Thanks to Fellowshadow for his great article on painting a face.

1)First stage...the mini has been cleaned for mould-lines and glued to the base.

2)The figure has been primed with GW’s white spray. This was done lightly 3 times.

3)Finally some colour…. This colour is a 50/50 mix of GW’s Dark Angels Green and The Vallejo Model Colour Dark Green (#893). The color was thinned down with water and applied smoothly 3 times before it covered satisfyingly.

4)First some picture-explanation: The colour which have been cut out and put in the upper-left corner of the ‘palette-picture’ is the colour used at this stage. So…the first highlight have been applied here. This was done by adding a little Vallejo Bonewhite (34) to the base-colour + thinning it dramatically. Afterwards it was applied several times – because of the poor covering-ability, but this gives you a lot of control, ’cause you can see how the colour slowly starts to change and build up. You can create a very smooth blend by using this technique carefully. It’s called feathering.

5)A little bit more bonewhite has been added, and blended further up on the raised areas of the folds.

6)More highlights… as you can see the colour is beginning to become noticable lighter. The highlights is still ‘feathered’ on.

7)More highlights

The highlights are beginning to be applied only to a small area on the top of the folds.

9)Final highlight. This is done using pure Bonewhite. At the last stages the highlights are applied to a very small area and sometimes tend to become too powerfull, therefore a bit of retouching with the previously used colour are sometimes necessary.

10)Shading. This is done with a 50/50 mix of GW Chaos Black and the base colour. Apply to the deep part of the folds. Again the colour used is VERY thin so that you can slowly blend the colour smoothly in to the basecolour.

11)First layer of mudd. This is created using, again, a VERY thin 50/50 mix of the basecolour and the Reapercolour ‘Oiled Leather’ (18043). The colour was applied carefully, and several times (poor covering ability), at the bottom of the robe.

12)Second layer of mudd. This was done with pure and very thinned Oiled leather. The colour is applied further down the robe, to create the feeling that the mudd-layer is thicker closer to the ground.

13)Last stage. Here the mudd is highlighted with a 3/5 mix of Bonewhite and Oiled Leather. The colour is kept at the top of the folds, and is retouched afterward with Oiled Leather to make the blend smoother. And that was it.

14)Picture of the finished result.
A small note: You can change the colours if you don’t have those I’ve used, with these: GW’s Bleached Bone Instead of Vallejo Bonewhite. A 3/4 mix of GW Snakebite Lather and Bestial Brown Instead of Reapers Oiled Leather. And any dark green instead of my mix of GW Dark Angel Green and Vallejo Dark Green

15)The finished mini.

Reproduced with permission from Kaple, visit his website here

This was then gradually highlighted with catachan green, until I used it pure. Then I began highlighting this with GW’s camo green until I came to a point that was almost as light as I wanted it. However, I didn’t want it to have an overly camo green coloration, so I then highlighted this mixture with GW’s bleached bone, until I reached a shade I was pleased with, and then gave it a watered down catachan green/scorched brown wash. I also painted his little “skin circles” GW’s tanned flesh, highlighted with GW’s elf flesh. I then thinly painted red and blue veins, which where given a wash of elf flesh to ‘soften’ them. To give the area wet, mucus covered, look, I added a gloss finish.

I highlighted the warts further with bleached bone, and gave them a dark red wash (watered down GW’s scab red) to achieve the desired effect. To get a toad-like speckled pattern, I took my watered down catachan green/scorched brown wash, and put a little “bubble” onto the skin, then left it a few seconds, before dabbing it away with tissue, leaving a darker circle with a dark out line. I then repeated this on appropriate places on the skin. I pulled it off fairly well, and will use it again on similar surfaces. The idea came from when I was working with watercolors, where it is undesirable if this happens.

The stone was simply drybrushed GW’s codex grey followed by a black wash. The vines were painted GW’s goblin green, highlighted with camo green, followed by sunburst yellow. I then painted the leaves he is sitting on catachan green, highlighted up with golblin green and GW’s sunburst yellow. In the pic they look a bit too shinier than in real life.

Small jungle dwelling creatures festoon the model, I can see the sculptor had a lot of fun making this! I wanted to do an accurate job on the two frogs, so I went online and found some hreference of poison dart frogs.

One was given a coat of sunburst yellow, with a scorched brown wash, and then a speckled black pattern. The other was done with a turquoise color made from mixing white, GW’s storm blue, and goblin green, and given the same black speckled pattern. I think the skink has so much character, I imagine him crouching there, sucking up to the slann all day. The little teacher’s pet was painted with the same turquoise color as the frog, though with a darker storm blue base.

I painted the snake as a King Snake. In fact, it’s completely accurate! See, when I was little, I had this book about snakes, and there was a little rhyme to distinguish it between a similarly patterned snake: “Red to black poison lack. Red to yellow, nasty fellow.” Words to live by those are…

The first lizard was done in a tan color, with dark brown markings like a giraffe. The second was originally painted a very yellowy green, and although it blended in very well, as it would in nature, it made the back of the model a bit too boring. I then decided to paint him red with yellow stripes. I don’t think he turned out all that great, but it adds some color.

His various “jewelry” was then picked out in primary colors. Also, the magnets (large stones on the underside of the model) were given a gloss finish over black. Finally, I came to the horns. These were a challenge because, sculpted onto them were grooves that were a noticeable texture, but not noticeable enough to follow when painting them. I decided to paint bleached bone, and then add a brown ink wash to bring out the grooves. This worked quite well, though I half fudged it in the end. They were painted with the brown ink base, highlighted up through GW’s snakebite leather and bleached bone.

I decided not to give it a scenic base, and instead have the focus be on the model. I may have to add an actual gaming base in the future, as I plan on entering him into Gamesday (So I’m counting on you not to copy my idea! Oh wait, then I guess the step by step instructions where a bit silly…oh well!). I recommend this mini to all, it’s quick to assemble, and an absolute JOY to paint. It reminds me why I’m in this hobby after all. I sometimes begin to love focus on it after spending so much time building armies. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my first article. Sometime I might make another… Comments would be appreciated!

Wash, clean & dry your empty bottle. Prepapre a mix of the inks or whatever medium you are using to create the effect. Then squeeze the bottle and suck up some of those inks you have mixed.

After that, you can start testing out the colour and intensity of the splatter you wanna acheive. You can actually blow the inks around using the bottle.

Below you can see 2 different effects I created on the base and the final model itself. Have fun!

Through this article, I’d like to go over some of the basics of airbrush selection, care and basics. Hopefully, this will make you want to go out and buy some large scale kits and try new and different things. (Before I get started, let me say that most of the graphics were made on the computer, so do not get discouraged if it doesn’t look 100% the same. I’d like to update this article later on, as well as add more in-depth tips and tricks…)
Airbrush Selection

So, if you want to paint with an airbrush, you are going to need an airbrush. You will also need to get a compressor, but those are so varied and there are so many adapters, almost anything will work. Any compressor can be found in a major hardware store.

Single Action Airbrushes
Single actions are usually cheaper than other airbrushes. Nowadays, hundreds of companies are putting out single action airbrushes it’s almost like the airbrush is a disposable item like a pen! Single action airbrushes as the name states, have one action; press the trigger down, you get paint. That’s it, no funny stuff. Of course, this isn’t really very good for airbrushing minis with, as you would have to physically move the brush away from the piece, and you want to get in close for detail work. Single action airbrushes sell for less than $50.

Double Action Airbrushes
Double action airbrushes are better for painting models, and they are the best all around airbrush for a beginner who whishes to make the most of their equipment, rather than buy a single action, then have to learn a double action. Double actions, unlike some single actions, require needles. The smaller the needle, the more detailed work you can do. Believe me, I’ve seen some needles on an automotive paint gun… the thing looked like a small pencil!

The reason for the needle is simple, and it makes the double action, well, have two actions. If you press the trigger down, you get air running through the brush, if you pull back, paint flows. The farther you pull back, the darker the paint will come out, and the spray will also get wider. I’ll go over spray width and other things in the actual technique section. Double action airbrushes will be around $50-$100.

Turbo Airbrushes

Turbo airbrushes, as you can see look a little weird. However, turbo airbrushes also are known for a consistent, small line. This would be great for detail work, but not for basecoating. These things are hard to repair, and thus hard to take apart to keep clean. They are also expensive. Your best bet is to buy a Double Action, and if you feel you are going to be in the model painting business for a long time, save up and get one of these. Notice I said ONE, getting several double actions is a good idea, too but ONE Turbo will be good enough. Turbo airbrushes, as I said, are expensive, easily costing around $200 for a great model type.

For a great guide on Airbrushes Buying, go to Airbrush Action Magazine if you like airbrushing in general, maybe you would like a subscription. I know every now and then, they have an article about some 3D piece as well as a catalog for reference materials on airbrushing.

In this next Image we can see the basics of how an airbrush works: Paint is forced through the opening out through the nozzle to make a fine spray. It is how the paint is mixed and how it gets into the brush which is our next priority:

Now, within single and double action aribrushes, there are other types, too. This difference comes in how the air and paint get out of the brush and how it gets into the brush. There are two ways of the air/paint mix to come out:

• Internal Mix
  In an internal mix, the paint mixes with the air inside the brush. This will ensure an even spray. I would reccomend this type, even though it adds to the cost of the airbrush, because it is just one less thing that can be screwed up.
• Exernal mix
  An external mix obviously mixes the paint outside the brush… I know, I’m kinda confused too. These are then cheaper, but do not work quite as good an Internal Mix brush.

Now that we have mixes down, let’s talk about how the paint is to get in the brush and out to make the spray.

• Gravity Fed Airbrushes

In a gravity-fed cup, gravity is what makes the brush take in paint. The paint just goes down on it’s own accord. Gravity fed brushes are good if you do not like checking what the heck is wrong with the intake, because obviously gravity is not going to stop, so you know you have a clog if no paint comes out.

• Siphon Bottles and Cups

Nows a good time as any for me to go over yet another facet of Airbrushes. You can see the bottle on the left with suck or “siphon” up paint into the brush from the bottle. This is good if you are going to be doing big surfaces for a long time. However, the cup on the right side can have paint mixed in it by an eyedropper, or even those Vallejo bottles (more in paint selection). If you get the bottle, you’ll have to clean it and the straw up, however a quick wash will clean the cup, and then you can just add more paint via dropper. As you can see in the gravity-fed example above, it is also a cup style.

• Optional Color Switcher

One thing I want to spend a secod on is color changers. These things allow you to hook multiple bottles of paint to your brush so you cna switch them almost instantly. That’s right, no cleaning for blending colors, just flip the switch. These, however, are expensive, and professionals use them just because it saves them time. You may want to get one of these if you are really getting into the Airbrush field. (I have a strange feeling anyone who buys one of these will buy the Turbo airbrush…)

Airbrush Parts

• 1A Nozzle Gaurd
• 1B Needle Cap
• 2 Nozzle Cap
• 3A Nozzle
• 3B Nozzle Stop
• 4B Packing Push
• 5 Main Lever
• 6 Lever Push
• 7 Needle Stop
• 8 Needle Spring
• 9 Spring Stop
• 10 Needle Stop Cap
• 11 Cap
• 12 Valve Stop
• 13 Valve
• 14 Valve Washer
• 15 Valve Push
• 16 Valve Spring
• 17 Valve Nut
• 20 Needle
• 22 Neo-HOHMI Cup

Now, all of this looks a little techincal, but you’re going to have to know the airbrush inside and out for cleaning and other things. I have already adressed the needle. Remember: needle is key. needle is mother, needle is father. OBEY THE NEEDLE! (Whack!) Thanks, Dad.. I needed that. So as I was saying, the needle is the basis of a Double Action airbrush (from here on, I’m assuming you took my advice and got one instead of a single action). If the needle is dirty, the spray will not come out evenly. If the needle is crooked, the spray and handling of the airbrush is wierded up.

As you can see, the parts 13-17 are what connects the compressor’s hose the the airbrush. If the hose doesn’t fit, got get some adaptors and everything should be fine. Parts 1B and 2 are the nozzles that keep the brush from overspraying, they also decide how big your spray can get, So a smaller nozzle makes for a smaller spray, which is what we mini artists want. When cleaning the nozzle, it’s a good idea to only remove the bigger nozzle cap, as the smaller one does not get too dirty, and it is a pain to find if you accidently drop it (which you will, with more than one part).

The trigger (#5) is THE most hard part to get back in agian, so try not to remove it if you can help it, besides it doesn’t have a thing to do with the flow, because all it does is it controls the needle (see? Needle=Key). Like I said before, on double action brushes, the further back you go, the more paint comes out. On some airbrushes, the lever push can be adjusted so that the range of the trigger is limited, making for wider or tighter sprays.

Paint Selection

Now that you found yourself a good airbrush and compressor, you need some good paint. Again, Airbrush Action Magazine is a good resource for this. Almost anything can go through an airbrush, Acrylics, Oils, Enamel, Lacquer, Tempera, but remember, you have to be consistent, with no graininess in the paint. You also have to clean oils out with paint thinner, and Lacquer can have dangerous fumes, so wear a mask and keep well ventilated.

As I said, anything can go through an airbrush with the right consistency. I know you’d like to take your fave paint and immediately run it through that sucka, but WAIT! The consistency for any paint for an airbrush should be that of milk. Not skim milk, which is too runny, nor of heavy cream, which is too thick. Milk is just right. I believe with regular acrylics, you must have a 50/50 mix. Just add whatever the paint is based on, so if it’s oil, add mineral spirits or paint thinner. If you want a semi-gloss paint that is the correct consistency already, a href =” http://www.createxcolors.com/Createx Colors is great. But check out Airbrush Action for more paint brands such as Testors and House of Kolor.

Getting Started

Now that you have your brush and paints, you’ll need these readily available supplies:

• A well ventilated room or back porch
• Airbrush Cleaner

• A Bucket of Water, shallow enough so that the airbrush can be submerged
• Practice Paper
• A Table, preferrable one that has been covered
• Good Lighting

Now, to start out, you hook the airbrush onto the compressor BEFORE you turn it on. Otherwise, it might start spewing air out already, then you have to deal with that and get the airbrush on at the same time. Next, the compressor needs a pressure value. Do NOT turn it on 100%, the airbrush will kick back like you wouldn’t believe! I tend to go with 20-40%, as you will want go over the surface more than once. Put some black in whatever orifice your airbrush needs for paint, and practice making a thin, even streak. If you are using a double action, pull all the way back and push the down, then as you are making the streak, push the trigger forward to make a streak to see how light you can get it :

The one on the left is what you’re going for. A nice, even streak of paint going from black to white. Again, this is computer rendered, so you might not get such a nice blend. Whenever you push the trigger down, the pent up pressure releases the paint faster, so you have to find how much bigger the beginning shot is as it is compared to the rest of the spray. In the middle, I have a common mistake: moving too close and too far away from the paper while spraying. You will need to learn to stay in one place, and try to resist the natural human motions of arcs, and try to paint as equally distance throughout the stroke. The right hand streak shows another mistake, spidering. This is caused by coming too close to the area of painting. You’ll need to back away and use a little less pressure if at all possible.

This is because if you keep your airbrush far away from what you are painting, you will get a bigger spray that is less opaque than at a closer distance. The spray can be thought of as an imaginary “cone” as it comes out of the airbrush. The image below shows what this should ideally look like. Again, close=darke and small stroke, far=lighter and bigger stroke. Like so many things, you will have to keep practicing to get used to the differences of you airbrush and it’s cone of spray.

Masking
Masking areas is important, because if an area is not masked, paint will get on it and make it look sloppy. Masking some areas can be done by using stencils. These stencils do not have to be your ordinary stencils that have an area cut out in the middle for a shape (what we artists call negative space), instead the stencil can be something put over the area and then sprayed, giving a glow effect. Here we see that effet on my signature:

If I had wanted to airbrush my name so it looked like the top image, I would have cut the area I wanted out of something and sprayed through it, Like spray painting numbers onto driveways, or whatever.

You are not limited to making and area have a sharp definition between the masked area and the spray. The image below shows what a corner of a piece of paper would look like if it were sprayed over. Notice, the left image as a more sharp defenition. That’s because it was probably very close to the area that was sprayed, on the other hand, the right image has been sprayed with the edge at a distance from the sprayed area. This makes for a less harsh definition, but remember if you try to do this with your own stencils, they must be firm so they do now move because of the air pressure coming out of the airbrush.

This is kinda like the cone of spray, too, the further the sencil is, the less it will be seen. This could be great if you want the image slightly blurry when you’re blending (next page, I promise) or if it woud just not look right with really sharp edges. Example: you’re painting a giant snake, and you want a cobra symbol on the back, how many cobra’s have really shaply defined patterns on thier backs?You can also use liquid mask or rubber cement to keep one area masked, though it will come out with these hard edges.. [Pagebreak]

Blending with the Airbrush

When blending with the airbrush, you must remember to ease up on the paint when going to another color or blending into the basecolor. Remember, too, airbrushes are wonder machines but they do not work miriacles. You must do your part in blending by changing the colors a bit. One good example is white on black or any dark background for that matter:

The problem with doing with on black can be seen on the right: a thick coat of white must be used, which is not really possible, as you must keep your paint consistent. How to solve this? The right image shows (in Photoshop anyways) that to make a smooth transition, you need to start out with a gray, and work your way up to white, remembering to let each coat dry. One good tip is to move the tigger back and forth, as this helps keep the brush clean and it also ensures the paint will dry quicker. Just remember to keep your distance, or spidering will ensue.

For an exercise, I think I will have you do an orb. Take a cicle stencil, or cut one out of cardboard or tape. Now, you can either work backwards, addind black to the darkest area or you can paint the whole thing black and paint with the white. Since I’m trying to get you to use different colors, I chose to show you the white on a black basecoat approach:

Pretty straight forward, right? Remember, this was obtained (yes, even in Photoshop) with grays. You can see the progression of grays, first a dark gray, then lighter and lighter until you are finally using white. The same would go for any color, say a yellow still looks too green on a blue background, use a little green before using pure yellow. Also, you might want to do several coats, which might work fine, too. Just do not be in such a hurry, it’s better to take your time than to have to go back and fix something you screwed up in a hurry.

Lightsource and Three Dimensions

Now, all of this practicing on 2D surfaces is important, so you know what you’re doing when you get to you $50 Predator Vinyls Kit. If you’re going to paint big kits, and if you’re a member of CMON, then I’ll assume that you know how to hihlight a model. You need to imagine a lightsource. Usually this is up in the sky, however sometimes a big kit might be holding a flashlight, they might be standing on lava, or is about to be run over by a car. Well, making a lightsource is simple: just spray your highlight from the angle you want with light pressure. The inner recesses of the model will keep it from getting too much paint. If you do this, remember to spray at an angle, as spraying head on will totally ignore the heights and depths of the model, and make a straight color. Practice, practice, practice, though. You’ll get it sooner if you practice. A good way of practicing this technique is to get a piece of paper, crumple it up, then fold it out again. Then, taking your color, spray near one of the edges of the paper, but not directly on top. If it works, you should have a crumpled pattern, if it didn’t work you have a straight color.

Cleaning Your Airbrush
So now, you’ve practiced the heck out of yourself, your tired, or maybe you want to continue, but the spray is not coming out but your paint is the right consistency. Well, your problem is a dirty airbrush. Even though the paint is thin, it will get built up over a long session. To ensure your investment lasts a long while, you’ll need to clean it. For steps one and two you’ll need to have pressure, so keep it connected, but by step 3 if you’re done, just unhook the airbrush and let the tank drain itself by making a snake out of the hose…

• Step 1: Spray Through

Remember that airbrush cleaner I told you and the water? this is where it comes in. If you are simply switching colors, you will need to rinse the airbrush through. Put a little clean and some water in the brush and spray hard, preferrably into the bucket where the wet spray will not ruin your work. Repeat this until there is no more color visible.

• Step 2: Spray Back

If you did step one and your spray came out inconsistent (it “clicked” in and out), the brush still has some dryed paint in it. To clean this, you’ll need to “Spray back”. This is done by placing your finger at the end of the nozzle, and forcing the cleaner out of where the paint should go. If placing your finger causes it to be poked, see the next step to take the needle back a bit. If you are using a removable cup or bottle, you must remove it before attempting this, and hold the hole for paint away from yourself, so as not to spatter your nice new Calvin Klien shirt. You can also spray backwards in the bucket of water. If the bubbles come regluarly, the brush it clean, if not procede on to……

• Step3: Cleaning the needle

If your spray is still uneven or grainy, congradulations, you have used the wrong consistency or have let the paint set too long. In this case, you’ll need to screw the cap off the end (I usually work with mine off anyways, it’s mostly decoration if paint doesn’t touch it). Now you’ll need to turn the needle stop cap about a quarter turn, but some may require you to take it all the way off. If you HAVE to take it off, put it somewhere where you can find it, cause I’m not getting you a new one, crybaby… The needle should slide right out when you pull on it. It’ll probably have some paint on it, this is what is causing the paint spray to come out wierd. Wipe the paint off and put the needle back in carefully, and then tighten it with the needle stop cap. If you’re spray is still wierd, there is one more step:

• Step 4: Cleaning the Nozzle and Total Dismantlement

Yes, the problem must be in the nozzle. This is another key area that gets gunked up with paint. The nozzle gaurd just comes off by screwing it off. If you have two nozzle gaurds, one small and one bigger, unscrew the bigger one which will take the smaller one with it. Pull the trigger (do not push, as you’ll get a black eye ..litterally) back and look at the nozzle. If it has a bit of paint around the hole where the needle enters, you’ll have to clean this. Usually, after a day of work, you do all these steps, but you do not put the needle or nozzle back. You do not have to clean the trigger, and remember they are a B!TCH to get in agian, so leave it. You only have to disassemble the nozzle gaurds, nozzle (if it is removable), needle and any extra cups or bottles. Put them in warm, soapy water if using water based colors, or paint thinner for oils, etc, etc….

Closing Remarks

All I am going to tell you is to KEEP PRACTICING!! Pactice makes all the difference. Don’t be afraid to try new things and ideas. There is no wrong way if you get a result you like. Again, lemme give you some links:

Airbrush Action Magazine
The source for a great buyer’s guide and brand names of paint. Also a great read as a mag.

How to Airbrush.Com
A good place with lots of how too’s. Not too keen on models yet, though…

Curry’s Airbrush and Compressor Lines
Another online guide, this manufacturer is for our Canadian friends….

Hobby Link Japan
Having trouble finding Sailor Moon in a Bikini? Then order direct from Japan, my friend!

As Always, comments and suggestions are welcome and can be messaged to me. And remember, what comes first? Saftey! Then, after that: Practice! Then, the Needle!

Reproduced with permission from Chrispy
Website

Recently, to see my black primed minis better, I drybrush Codex Grey over them, in which case you could skip the grey step, However I am mostly concentrating on the flesh, so paint som Dark Angels Green on all exposed flesh..

Next, drybrush some Snot Green on the flesh (For those of you who don’t know, Drybrushing is done by using a minimal amount of paint and brushing it off on a towel untill it seems no more paint is coming from it. For quick jobs like this and figuring out what is higher on a mini, this is great, otherwise you basically paint straight.)

Now, some Goblin Green (Duh!):

Now, here’s where the debate starts: Cartoony, GW style, or fleshy, realistic style? Personally, I believe GW’s Eavy Metal tem (No offense, guys…) makes them too bright, like that flesh could never exist on anthing living. If you prefer a more Goblin Green Look, use a small paintbrush, 10/00 at least to pick out the details. I, hoever, like a more fleshy, real look on orcs and goblins so I Highlighted some areas with Camo Green. If you wish to go for more highlights, use a little bit of Rotting flesh on some areas, which I also did, but maybe you can’t see it..

Now, for the metal: Again, if you’re painting hundreds of these, who cares about NMM? Wait… Haley, Bobby… don’t answer that… So, a drybrush of Boltgun Metal and a highlight of Chainmail, and you’re done!

A debate agian: How to make true black look black? Now, I used Vallejo Black Grey and keep adding a lighter grey. However, some Drybrushed Codex grey, followed by a highlight of Fortress Grey is fine. Also, I like to do my teeth and claws by first painting them black, then Codex grey to the base, and eventually working up to Ghostly Grey at the very tips.

NoW, All thats left is the small finishing touches. I Paint my eyes with Red Gore and Blood Red. I also picked out the hilt of the sword and studs with Shining Gold. You notice he has a bruised eye, all of my Gobbos do. Just brush some Warlock purple, and then highlight with Liche Purple, and there you go, One bruisedeye goblin. Hence the Bruised Eye Tribe. To make a long story short, their leader didn’t like being forced to work for the Bloo Skull Boyz, but the boss whacked all the leaders, who in turn whacked their sergeants for laughing at them, who whacked their soldiers for laughing, etc, etc.. ;D The bow was painted Enchanted Blue to offset this purple.

To finish it u, base it by painting the sides Goblin Green, or whatever color you want. Let me suggest you base your fig before you get into painting it… that way you do not mess it’s boots up, and if you want a dingy look, just drybrush your color of dirt/sand/soil/whatever on it’s bottom most peice of clothing. This is war, who else but the elves are going to keep their clothes immaculate? Well, there you go, my first and most likely, last article on painting. Now, go paint, or get done with painting, or think about painting, just do something!!!

1. Use good tools. Yes, you can paint with inexpensive brushes and craft paints but if you are looking for laser sharp accuracy, seamless blending and glass like finishes you will probably need to upgrade to high-quality paints designed for miniature painting, like Vallejos; and good-quality brushes.

Not every brush works for every job. Get yourself a variety of brushes from flats for blending over large smooth areas to spotters for tight work like eyes and those little fiddly bits that GW and Rackham are so fond of.

The exception to the high-priced tools: I use less expensive paints for basing and some undercoating – depends on the fig; and inexpensive brushes for just plain slopping on paints. Nothing will make a me cry faster than ruining the point on an $5.00 spotter painting a Garrity female mini’s hair. If you ever get to Model Hobbyist type shops, invest in those Q-tip like brushes. They come 10 to pack for under $2.00 and are great for getting paint into areas that would destroy a normal brush.

2. LIGHTS! Can’t say too much on this point other than without good light, it is impossible to see and accurately paint fine detail, judge your highlights, or your color. Highly recommended are the GE Reveal bulbs which provide a more natural light filtering out much of the yellow tint found with standard incandescents. Also swing arm desk lamps are great as you can move them around and get just the exact spot you need lit up like a christmas tree.

To avoid unpleasant surprises, it isn’t a bad idea as you’re painting to get up and walk around checking your work under varying lighting conditions. What may look fabu under your perfect lighting may later look like chit when you take it down to the local gaming store painting contest. Trust me, I know. ;p

3. Perfect paint. I have no idea where I picked this up but someone said the two most important things about painting are controlling the amount of liquidity of your paints – how wet – and controlling the amount of paint on your brush. I don’t have any formulas for how wet or how much, as it changes with circumstances. It is one of the things I always kept in mind though as I was trying to improve my painting, and it has helped immeasurably.

4. Patience. Painting is learnable and it takes time, practice and patience. Even painting a single figure is an exercise in patience. If you start to rush it, it’ll show. Again, trust me, I know. ;p

5. Color theory. Or get thee to a color wheel! You can find a good introduction to the use of color at Color Matters and there are a great many excellent books on color theory also. For most people though, a little online reading and a Color Wheel will be all you’ll need to really start putting together wonderful color combinations. You can find Color Wheels at most craft and art stores and they usually cost less than $5.00.

6. Feedback. Get feedback on your work if possible. Online: posting to the mini-painter group will usually net you one or two solid reviews and sometimes it results in a flurry of comments. I want to thank Craig Stocks and Holger Schmidt (if I have not spelled the names correctly.. huge aplogies!) for critical bits of advice on an early figure that have stood me in good stead for many more. Sites like cool mini or not can also be useful if you talk with people and ask for advice. Be warned though, while you may get some very useful advice, the anonimity of the system lends itself to people making thoughtless and sometimes downright cruel comments. Take it all with a grain of salt though… it is just more evidence that Bell Curve Theory is true.

If you can get real world feedback, even better. Pictures both help and hurt minis and there is nothing quite like seeing it up close and personal to get the real scoop. If you don’t know of any painters, try asking at local gaming stores if they might have painting nights or know of local painters that they might be able to put you in contact with.

7. Water. A lot of people ask me how I do my water bases. I use a product called Water Effects from Woodland Scenics. They make many excellent terrain supplies for Model Train enthusiasts that work equally well for miniature basing and gaming. The next time I do a water base, I will be sure to take some WIP pics and do a tutorial on how I work on them.

8. Pssst… they’re just toys. Relax, enjoy. Though it seems to frequently get lost in the struggle to do better and the competitivess of significant portions of the online community, when all is said and done.. miniatures are little metal toys.

1. Paint the face including aroound the eye with the basic fleshtone.

2. For male minis, monsters, or anything I want to give a darker, or more sinister look, a dryish wash of ink around the whole eye area.

3. With a 10/0 or 18/0 spotter brush cover the eye itself with a light touch of straight brown ink. For a dramatic outlined eye, cover the entire area inside the lids. For a softer look, hevier color to the top, lighter on the bottom.

4. Use a 10/0 spotter or 18/0 to lay in the white — oddly this is one place where slightly hooked brushes can be useful in that you can pick up your white just on that hook and lay it down into the eye with relative ease. It will give a thin to slightly wider natural looking fill to the socket without taking out the brown outline.

5. I usually use an 005 micron pen for the pupil though on exceptionally good days, I like to use ink for the pupil also as it is a bit softer than the pen.

6. While green and blue eyes with pupils are an accomplishment to do well, frequently the effect is lost on smaller (true 28 mm) minis as the colors are not high contrast enough to be seen at that size.

7. Pupils: rather than drawing a line down the middle of the eye, figure out where it makes sense for the mini to be looking and angle the pen in so you can lightly spot in the pupil. Think light touch up toward the underside of the upper eyelid and just lightly add a few taps in the same place from the pen. That will help avoid that kind of peculuar snake eye stripe that is so common with pen use.

8. Makeup: I rarely use make-up on my female minis’ eyelids. Why? Doesn’t make sense to me that most of them would be wearing it. While there is a historical basis for war paint (and even scanitlly clad warriors; it doesn’t extend to bright blue eyeshadow (usually accompanied by brightly rouged cheeks and HUGE red lips. Ewwwww. Can you say hooker warrior? Her most devestaing weapon is an STD.

On some minis though a hint of color on the eyelids fits well. In that case, by mixing the color with your flesh tone, it cuts the harshness and gives a more natural look.

9. Sans makeup, a bit of a brown wash to the eyelids and crease helps to brighten up the eye.

10. With or without makeup, you can add depth and a more natural look by adding a slight highlight at what would be the most prominient part of the eyelid (right over the pupil).

General: The biggest problem I have ever had with eyes has come from my white paint not being quite thin enough. It ‘s really difficult to get it placed perfectly if too thick, or too thin for that matter. And I prefer ink to paint for outlining as I find it a little easier to work with throughout the process and though I wouldn’t swear to it, I think it tends to soften up the white also by disolving a bit into the paint.

Looking at the figure you can see that most of the work is fitting the destroyer lord torso onto a TombSpyder body and the big trick here is getting rid of the Spyders shoulders.

This picture shows you which bits to cut off and what to keep. It would be much easier to slice the whole front end off but you want to keep that neck bit to sit the torso on top of (sounds a bit wrong way round but who’ll see what I mean). I used a razor-saw for this and used the edge of the TS carapace as a guide-

You have to be careful not to cut too deep as you then need to cut inwards at ninety degrees along the top of the neck until the shoulders are completely cut away. If the cut is a little untidy (mine was) then a bit of filing with a flat file should see you right. The filing doesn’t have to be super as a lot of this will be tucked away.

The next bit is to mount the plastic spine from the destroyer on the protruding neck. This takes some more matching up and judging to get right. Try and angle the spine (I’m talking about the lumbar bit that the actual torso sits on here- not the sticky out back bone bit that’s actually on their back) so that it tilts slightly forward. This will look a bit odd but when the body is rearing backwards it gives the Lord more height and makes him look more natural, rather than tilting backwards. I had to line this up by eye but the plastic is easier to work with so you shouldn’t have too much trouble here.

When you’ve got a good position for the spine then superglue it in place but leave the torso off for now. Now get the actual spine (now I mean the sticky out bit that glues onto the destroyers back) and fit it under the body with the thick end forward. You’re trying for a continuous spine effect connecting the upper body to the spyder body. Check this picture for a clearer explanation-

The purple out line shows the protruding neck from the TS body (see why it’s handy to leave it?), the red arrow points at the ‘lumbar spine’ that holds the torso up- it should fit nicely on top but don’t worry if it overhangs slightly. The green arrow is the destroyer spine glued underneath. Lastly the blue arrow is the ‘pelvis’ bit from the destroyer. I think this needs a bit of clipping to get into place but it works to hide some of the other construction.

When all these bits are in place most of the work is done (difficulty wise), and you can begin building the model. The destroyer lords body goes together as normal- I chose a phylactery (the wee scaraby thing on his arm) and a warscythe as this guy can be mayhem in CC (I also wanted to keep the staff of light for a walking Lord).

The TS body is also put together basically as normal but you need to pay some attention to the legs. Usually the legs are kind of closed in and they make the lord look a little static and boring. You’ll need to bend them outwards a little to get a more dynamic position- certainly with the first pair at any rate.

Even with this done the bulk of the body will be level and a bit boring. To get him rearing backwards and towering over other models you’ll have to alter the way the flying base fits into the model. To do this I filled the old socket with green stuff and smoothed it over (this is better done before the legs are glued into place. Next work out what angle you want the lord’s body to be at and carefully drill a new socket into the bottom of the figure. Because this will be at an angle it will almost certainly be going through part of one of the legs so you’ll have to glue them into place first. Make sure that you use a central enough position for the socket that the lord doesn’t over balance his base. I used a short flying base to keep him near the ground to increase the appearance of scuttling nastiness.

That’s pretty much it! Now you just need to paint him up. I used a sliver to gold colour scheme for my army with the different ranks in different colours- warriors- silver, immortals-bronze, lords-gold) I wanted the Tomb Lord to be obviously the most senior rank so he got a really dark gold colour. I didn’t want to make the entire figure gold, though as that might have been too much of an eyeful. He ended up with a gold torso blended back to the same aged, dark metal that I used on the other Tomb Spyders and a bronze underbelly to keep it dark but obviously different to the carapace.

I hope this has been helpful to you and that your new lords are soon wafer slicing whole terminator squads. Good luck!

Hawk58′s problem was a sword which he (or she) was trying to paint in SENMM. It kind of looked like this.

It looks ok, but the reflections just aren’t right. It’s very important with any complex shape to break it down into simpler ones, so ideally the sword should be divided like this.

Taking the red area first, Hawks58′s approach was pretty spot on, so I’ll leave this bit alone.

With the blue area, it’s important to consider what part of the surroundings the chrome is reflecting. In this case the shape of this part of the blade is concave, unlike the red part which was convex, so the blue part will be painted in the opposite way to the red part, the bottom edge of the area reflecting the sky, and the top the ground.

Just to illustrate this last point about the difference between convex (bending out) and concave (bending in) reflections, here is a small diagram.

Now, because the green area is basically the same as the blue area in shape, just smaller, we’ll finish it in the same way.

So there you have it. I must just point out however, that the angles of the horizon will be in direct relation to the angle the blade is to the ground, so it will change on a figure by figure basis.

Hope this helps

Reproduced with permission from Panza

You see, there are some times when a straight pointed brush can be a slight hindrance. I always found it tricky to paint the edges of armour without paint spilling into the recesses between the plates.

The BendyBrush (should I trademark this?) removes this problem by allowing me to apply paint with the part of the brush just below the tip, the tip pointing upward and away from the recess,

and leaving a soft edge to the paint that could not be achieved if I turned the brush around and tried to apply the paint with the tip of the brush facing the centre of the plate.

As a bonus, if I need to apply paint into any recesses, I can turn the brush around with the bendy tip pointing towards the groove, and apply a line without having to worry about the paint on the rest of the brush going onto the edges of the armour.

Recently, and with my painting techniques improving, I’ve also found that painting folds in fabric is a lot easier if you don’t have to worry about hard brush lines from the brush tip.

So, give it a try. Take a cheapish brush and put a bend in it, and you might find that it works for you.

Reproduced with permission from Panza