-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
beginning mini painter needs tips!
- Thread starter mooby
- Start date
Judas
First Post
A good spray primer. GW's spray paint is expensive at about $8 a can, but the paint particles are very small and allow for good coating. The drawback to the smaller particles, is that the paint chips off VERY easily.
Good Brushes. I typically go down to the local crafts store and get a few good detail brushes, 18-00.
uh, PAINT!. The bottles for the GW paints absolutly suck! Plus you can get inconsistent coloring between batches of the same color. But griping aside I usually use GW paints because that's all the local shops sell anymore around here. Reaper has thier own line of paints, but nobody around here carries them. Reaper also puts agitators in the paint bottles so it makes for better mixing.
A cup or tiny tupperware bowl for water.
Small pieces of cardboard like the back of a mini blisterpack, for removing excess paint for dry brushing, or mixing paint for your own color.
Paper towels for helping brushes to dry after cleaning.
Good Brushes. I typically go down to the local crafts store and get a few good detail brushes, 18-00.
uh, PAINT!. The bottles for the GW paints absolutly suck! Plus you can get inconsistent coloring between batches of the same color. But griping aside I usually use GW paints because that's all the local shops sell anymore around here. Reaper has thier own line of paints, but nobody around here carries them. Reaper also puts agitators in the paint bottles so it makes for better mixing.
A cup or tiny tupperware bowl for water.
Small pieces of cardboard like the back of a mini blisterpack, for removing excess paint for dry brushing, or mixing paint for your own color.
Paper towels for helping brushes to dry after cleaning.
kengar
First Post
Judas covered the basics already so I won't repeat what's been said.
Vallejo paints are excellent, though a bit more expensive.
Also, you may want to check out this article from WOTC's archive.
Good Luck.
Vallejo paints are excellent, though a bit more expensive.
Also, you may want to check out this article from WOTC's archive.
Good Luck.
All the above advice is very good. When I first started painting I used the WOTC painting articles printed in Dragon Magazine as a tutorial and they were very helpful. Another good site is the Reaper Forums. There is some real talent on those boards (not to imply there isnt any talent here) who are always ready to help out a new painter.
Decado
Decado
tenkawa_akito
First Post
From the other side of the fence on painting, I come from the do it as cheap as possible angle. First, I work primarily in craft acrylics. you can pick them up at walmart for around 50 cents and they offer a wide variety (head over to Michael's, MJ Designs or Hobby Lobby) and I grab two varieties of brushes, wide flat brushes for painting my base coat on, and detail brushes for everything else. From there, I grab a cup of water, some toilet paper or a paper towl (whatever's closer), and coat the mini in a white base coat. I prefer white over grey colored primers because I feel it produces a brighter finished product. Your primer will set your overall shade of the mini. Then I apply my skin color next, usually using a premixed flesh color. I hate having to go back and touch up a mini that's had the nose or knuckles flaked off over time, only to find i mixed that color a long time ago and don't have it anymore.
It just takes time and pantience to learn to get the small details, but you'll get it down after a while. One thing I started doing many many years ago was painting the eyes with the end of a sharpened toothpick. It can be thin enough to blot a small dot of paint perfectly into the recesses of the eyes. I finish it off with a clear coat seal to assure that paint won't flake off too easily. The best clear coat I found was a Ral Partha product, but since that company is gone, I can't find it anymore.
Now of course, this is just my personal technique that I've formed over the years. I've been painting minis for about 7 years or so now, and I'm comfortable with what I do. The main idea, is find what you feel is comfortable. I just used what supplies were on hand and made the best with it. One thing I don't do that many mini painters do do is brown wash or blackwash the figurine to darken recessed lines. I just paint into them directly and produce a less refined look, but my figure also doesn't end up darker overall. Here's a pic of a completed figurine of mine
It just takes time and pantience to learn to get the small details, but you'll get it down after a while. One thing I started doing many many years ago was painting the eyes with the end of a sharpened toothpick. It can be thin enough to blot a small dot of paint perfectly into the recesses of the eyes. I finish it off with a clear coat seal to assure that paint won't flake off too easily. The best clear coat I found was a Ral Partha product, but since that company is gone, I can't find it anymore.
Now of course, this is just my personal technique that I've formed over the years. I've been painting minis for about 7 years or so now, and I'm comfortable with what I do. The main idea, is find what you feel is comfortable. I just used what supplies were on hand and made the best with it. One thing I don't do that many mini painters do do is brown wash or blackwash the figurine to darken recessed lines. I just paint into them directly and produce a less refined look, but my figure also doesn't end up darker overall. Here's a pic of a completed figurine of mine
Attachments
You could still balck line to rather than wash the figure which will also help. I did that with my Bandit/Barbarian figure in the blue armor. It created a striking scale mail.
I have posted him in another post.
You can also see a very basic color scheme with no washes at all on my knight with the Runeblade. I did drybrush to highlight on him.
Runebladed Knight pic in this thread....
Tenkawa your mini's look great. I have also used a pin rather than a toothpick to paint the eyes pupil at times in the past but now i use a very fine brush or a pen to do it. Your right about the white primer as that brings out the brightness in a figures paint and a black/brown will be good for earthier tones.
Enjoy,
Darius
I have posted him in another post.
You can also see a very basic color scheme with no washes at all on my knight with the Runeblade. I did drybrush to highlight on him.
Runebladed Knight pic in this thread....
Tenkawa your mini's look great. I have also used a pin rather than a toothpick to paint the eyes pupil at times in the past but now i use a very fine brush or a pen to do it. Your right about the white primer as that brings out the brightness in a figures paint and a black/brown will be good for earthier tones.
Enjoy,
Darius
The other older post.
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39871
Also wanted to add that a cheaper alternative to the Reaper or GW base coats is to get the primer at an auto parts store. They are more durable than the other paints and cost about half as much. Also the best finish for me has been a dullcoat I found at the Harware store that is used on ovens. It is no longer available so I have been using both GW and the Armory dullcoats. I think that Testors 'Dullcoat' was always more consistant and more durable than either GW's or Armory's finishes. I will changing back as soon as the other two cans are used up.
Some people have told me that they use a combination of gloss coat spray and dullcoat to finish their mini's and that they put 3 dull coats to every 1 gloss coat. It is always up to you what you prefer.
Darius
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39871
Also wanted to add that a cheaper alternative to the Reaper or GW base coats is to get the primer at an auto parts store. They are more durable than the other paints and cost about half as much. Also the best finish for me has been a dullcoat I found at the Harware store that is used on ovens. It is no longer available so I have been using both GW and the Armory dullcoats. I think that Testors 'Dullcoat' was always more consistant and more durable than either GW's or Armory's finishes. I will changing back as soon as the other two cans are used up.
Some people have told me that they use a combination of gloss coat spray and dullcoat to finish their mini's and that they put 3 dull coats to every 1 gloss coat. It is always up to you what you prefer.
Darius
Last edited:
Judas
First Post
Just to add to the Primer comments, yes you can use automotive primer, like Krylon. It is more durable, BUT the paint particles in it are larger. I've had small details muted, and in some cases hidden by primer. If you have a large fig like a giant, I would say use the auto primer. But if you have a standard fig, it's well worth the $8 for GW primer, so your details don't disappear. The Krylon Flat Clear is a good finisher.
Eben
First Post
To the "as cheap as possible" painters: DIP
The following link gives a technique that will allow you to get great results with a minimum of effort. Essentially you block in all the colors and then dip your mini in a dark stain, shake or clean of excess stain et voila. Worth a try.
http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/guides/paintingstains.html
The following link gives a technique that will allow you to get great results with a minimum of effort. Essentially you block in all the colors and then dip your mini in a dark stain, shake or clean of excess stain et voila. Worth a try.
http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/guides/paintingstains.html
