Painting Tips For New And Old Painters

[Vycos]

Some Painting tips for new painters.

First tip - Get to know the paints
To master the fine art of miniature Painting you must of course practice a lot. No one is born a good miniature painter. There are so much information that you need to know, understand and learn by yourself to even get the basic skills. First of all you need to get an understanding of the nature of the citadel paints. What happens if you apply sunburst yellow on black? The result is of course disaster if you want a clear yellow finish. To know how the paints react with each other is very important and allot of new painters learn this the hard way. One good way to learn the paints is to paint a lot of different models with different colour schemes. The best way to learn about the paints is to face your fear when it comes with experimenting with colours. Mixing paints with each other and with water. This knowledge is very important when you pick what spray undercoat you should apply on the model.

Here is a simple rundown on what type of undercoat is best suited for which colour. The result is a clear colour on the surface.

Yellow to red and flesh = white undercoat

Green, Blue, metal = black undercoat

I would also give a word of warning when it comes to Ink colours. The original state of Ink is not really the state you should use it in. You have to carefully mix it with water to get the most out of inks. I see a lot of nice looking minis totally destroyed by a layer of ink.

Second tip – Take it easy
Painting is all about precision and precision is hard to learn when you are in a hurry. Most ppl that is starting a new army or perhaps their first are often in a hurry to paint it up, it’s a quite natural thing I guess. I think a lot of ppl regret that they speed paint when the entire army is done, I have some units in my Ultramarine army that I actually think about throwing away to replace them with new models just because I don’t like the paint job. Well, what I´m getting to here is that you will never be sorry that you took the appropriate time on every model to paint it as nice as you could. Speed comes when you have mastered the basic understanding of how to paint your troops. I think I spend about 45 minutes on a basic Ultramarine trooper. I spend about 2.5 hours on a GK Trooper because I have not mastered all the techniques yet, I´m getting closer all the time though. Remember that this is an expensive hobby you are putting expensive paint on your expensive models Give it the time it deserves.

Third tip – Where to put highlights and shades
It does not matter how steady you are on your hand, how good hand eye coordination you have or how well you can mix paints if you don’t know where to put the highlights. A popular place to highlight is edges of everything. But how do you highlight areas that are bulky and lack edges like flesh, animal skin, clothing or the likes. This is where the differences of the good and the bad painter are shown. If you have absolutely now clue where to apply highlights I suggest you take a close look to how GW´s master class painting team does. Collect a bunch of pictures of models that you think they have done a good paintjob. Then try to figure out how they where thinking. I suggest you start how to paint flesh/skin. Take different areas like the face, arms and hands.

Try to answer questions like these by looking at the paint job.
What colours did they use and why?
Why did they highlight/shade that area and not that one?
Have they based the paint job of how the light fall on the figure or have they used other methods of deciding where to put the lighter paint?

All I can say is good luck with this one.

Fourth tip – The importance of Tone
If a model is well painted the tone is invisible. What do I mean with tone then? Well for example if a very dark painted Dreadnought painted in dark metal covered with rust and dirt have a bright red coloured Gasoline can tied to it somewhere. Guess what part of the miniature gets the first attention when someone is looking at it. Is it the very well done rust and dirt work that took about 1 hour of experimenting with 8 different colours or is it the bright red Can? The can wins the attention here. The same goes for all other objects and details that stick out to much thanks of a tone conflict. I suggest you think through what tone you are painting your minis. Details are what make miniatures feel alive though, sometimes a detail painted in a totally different tone can be just what you need. Just think it through though.


Final word before you run of the your paint set and beloved minis. Remember that becoming a good painter takes time. Always try to do better then you did your last miniature. I also suggest that you try to get a good Figure painting culture in your gaming group, Try to approve the standard all the time. Paint together with your group, its both fun, social and you can learn a lot of things from each other.

Good luck


V.

[The_Killer]

I havnt painted my Tau to well and Im going to repaint ecause Ive found a good colour scheme. Is there a way to get the excisting paint off?

[ndf9876]

10 years ago when I started painting these models, there was no online help or anything, and about the only acryllic paints you could get were the Citadel ones! Am just getting back into the hobby after a 5-year break and just wanted to say, it's really great that there's such a massive community I've found where everyone's really helpful.

I'm not planning to get back into the game (says he!) just the painting, as I love the space marine models (I had a whole army of them about 6 years ago!). I only wish I had some photos but alas digital photography didn't exist back than! I remember all my Eldar as well, I painted something called Kaia Mensha Khaine...ah, memories...!

I'm painting an Imperial Fist captain at the moment (just because I like the model and the 'fluff' behind the chapter, from reading a novel called 'Space Marine') and it's taken me a week, and I'm still not done!

Apart from saying a big hello (sorry for going on!!) I wanted to ask if anyone knew what colours I could get the aerosol sprays in - I know there is a GW black one, a white one and a varnish - any others!

Cheers in advance for any help guys - its good to be back in the hobby :-)

[Phobos]

The Killer: You are pretty much stuck with the colour, unfortunately. You could try soaking the miniatures in coke overnight and then scrubbing the paint off with a toothbrush, though. ( Yes, your standard Coca Cola in a bottle. Useful stuff, due to the weak phosphoric acid in it, if you leave a manky old coin in some overnight when you take it out the next day it will be shiny and new looking.)

ndf9876: http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/st...&orignav=300810

[Brother Bob]

Well, good job with this, Vycos, especially the tone paragraph. Just the other day I saw a WFB Chaos Lord, excellent paint job, but my eyes were instantly drawn to his axe, because his non-metallic metal paint job was totally out of sync with the rest of the model.

I'd say this is even worth a spot as an article on the main page.

[Phreedh]

Errr... are wa talking plastics or metal models here? I'm not too familiar with Tau...

For metal miniatures, I'd suggest chemicaly pure acetone... There's also acetone with oils in it, but oils are a no-no with miniatures as they cover the whole mini in a thin film of oil which will mess up any primering attempts. There are alot of other things you can use though. Citadel primer comes of really good with acetone though, I've used it on several models and the best thing is that it's readily available in just about any grocery store here in Sweden.

For plastic miniatures, there are not as many options as most things powerful enough to dissolve the paint will also damage the plastic miniature itself. Many people swear by break fluid, I've never tried it though - but from the opinions I've heard I'd say it's the best choice. Just be careful and try it with one mini first, to make sure it doesn't mess up your mini!

I'm pretty sure a glass of coke will do nothing about the paint, and any paint removed would come from the scrubbing.

For any method above, you'll have to soak the mini for a while. Also, don't over crowd the container in which you do the soaking. If you're using acetone, do it in a glass jar or metal container. It's possible to re-use acetone for a batch or two. Brush the models with an old tooth brush. First do it with a little acetone in the brush (just dip it in the soaking container), and then do it under running water to rinse off the acetone and peelings. Finally dip the model in hot water with dishwashing liquid in it, to remove any chemical residues etc. Don't know how important this is, I don't really think it's needed after soaking something in pure acetone - but do it to be on the safe side.

Same procedure for the break fluid, but be sure to rinse it with water and soap at the end.

And Vycos, sorry about the thread jacking. Excellent post and sound tips!

/Phreedh

[Vycos]

Brother Bob
Thanks a lot Brother BoB! Kind words i must say. I think I will have to rewright it abit if it was to be main page article quality though. The idea was to post a more teoretical post about how to approve ones painting.

The_Killer
Removing paint from plastic minis is realy hard.. I have never succeded. Try The_Inquisitors method it might work well, though if you have varnished your figs i wound suggest you to buy new ones or try to paint over if the first colours are not to thick. Good luck.


For you who are interested in my work i have posted some minis on coolminiornot

Wraithguard

Old Fleshhound

Warlock

Justicar

and remember..

[Gray Wolf]

Brake Fluid.

[logan grimmnar]

white spirit for metal minatures