D&D 5E Say “No!” to white miniatures

Say “No!” to white miniatures

Shared this with SlyFlourish on Twitter a day ago and it seemed like a lot of people were interested in the process so I figured I’d share with you guys too.

I have all 3 sets of Bones minis that will take a lifetime to paint but I hate fielding white minis. To save myself some time but still be able to field decent minis, I stared using Liquitex Grey Gesso (or any grey miniature primer; I like gesso because I don’t have to be careful with it or thin it so it’s faster) to prime my minis and slapping a Citadel Nuln Oil wash on the for shading. These are the first two steps I take before fully painting. The nuln oil brings out the details making it easier to paint. A bonus though is that with just these two steps, I could field pretty decent looking minis on the map.

Here’s a set I got ready for my upcoming SKT session while making dinner, eating and working out. Took all about an hour more or less using a blow dryer on the cool setting with medium power.

Those look nice. I will say this: I find it easier to paint a white mini dark than a dark mini white.

I have a pile of miniatures and no painting skill. Even something simple like this would be an improvement. Do you have any advice or guides to do something simple like what you've done?

guachi said:

I have a pile of miniatures and no painting skill. Even something simple like this would be an improvement. Do you have any advice or guides to do something simple like what you've done?

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This is actually really, really simple. Telling you, it’s DM life-changing your simple. The reason I use Gesso is because it’s fool-proof. You don’t have to thin with water or carefully apply in measure coats or anything like that.

1. Just get Liquitex Grey Gesso from Michael’s and Citadel Nuln Oil wash from your FLGS.

2. Dip your brush into the gesso and just start covering your mini until it’s not white anymore. Don’t worry if it starts to look gobby or you can see the details anymore. As the moisture starts to evaporate, the gesso acts like shrink wrap and just wraps around the minis details. Fool proof.

3. Let it dry. I’m impatient and I do a whole bunch at a time so I just blow dry them.

4. Shake up your bottle of Citadel Nuln Oil well and dip your brush in, take off the excess with the neat little thing that’s built into the cap and then brush on your mini. Nuln Oil has a consistency that flows into the recessed areas of the mini so it shaded the details and flows to lower areas. You can also use your brush to move the pigment towards areas you think should be darker or shaded. Nothin fancy about the technique. Just push it where you kinda want it and move on. When it dries, it’ll look cool.

Caveat, with these two steps, the minis will look cool and be prepped for when you want to fully paint them. The coating will hold for a while but will eventually rub off with a lot of handling or if your rough with your miniatures since there’s no varnish coat to seal it. You could brush on a matte varnish if you want to keep the minis like this or if they start to wear, you can easily get a toothbrush or bristle brush and wash/brush off the mini back to white.

I like metal. I would buy these.

What a nice effect!

I kickstarted the most recent Bone's kickstarter. Serious considering your technique.

Question - when you want to paint a mini that has been prepped in this way, do you remove the paint or do any additional prep? Normally I would paint the main colors on the white mini, dry, do some dry brushing, dry and then dip in Quick Shade by Army Painter. Dry again and then spray on Army Painter anti-shine varnish.

My one concern with your appraoch is that it would be difficult to do a good job painting them further as you'd be painting over already shaded minis.

Geeknamese said:

4. Shake up your bottle of Citadel Nuln Oil well and dip your brush in, take off the excess with the neat little thing that’s built into the cap and then brush on your mini. Nuln Oil has a consistency that flows into the recessed areas of the mini so it shaded the details and flows to lower areas. You can also use your brush to move the pigment towards areas you think should be darker or shaded. Nothin fancy about the technique. Just push it where you kinda want it and move on. When it dries, it’ll look cool.

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Do you think dipping in Army Painter Quick Shade would work as well? Would save me money as I already have a lot of Quick Shade. Also, dipping the mini into the can rather than brushing it on would save a lot of time.

I've never used Nuln Oil, so I'm not sure how it compares.

MNblockhead said:

What a nice effect!

I kickstarted the most recent Bone's kickstarter. Serious considering your technique.

Question - when you want to paint a mini that has been prepped in this way, do you remove the paint or do any additional prep? Normally I would paint the main colors on the white mini, dry, do some dry brushing, dry and then dip in Quick Shade by Army Painter. Dry again and then spray on Army Painter anti-shine varnish.

My one concern with your appraoch is that it would be difficult to do a good job painting them further as you'd be painting over already shaded minis.

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A base coat would cover the shading unless it’s a really light or translucent color. Also, most of the pigment from the wash would be sitting in areas that you would expect to be shaded anyways. See below, a recent mini I painted for one of my new-to-DnD players.

MNblockhead said:

Do you think dipping in Army Painter Quick Shade would work as well? Would save me money as I already have a lot of Quick Shade. Also, dipping the mini into the can rather than brushing it on would save a lot of time.

I've never used Nuln Oil, so I'm not sure how it compares.

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From what I remember Quick Shade is like a premixed version of Army Painter Strong Tone. I use Strong Tone diluted to sometimes wash a whole mini to bring cohesion to all the different colors with that tone wash. Not sure if Quick Shade is dark enough to shade the grey primer...if it is, it should look pretty cool giving your mini a sepia tinted shaded look. I don’t dip my minis only because I like more control with a brush to move the wash pigments around.

I just wanted to add one quick suggestion. If you want to paint miniatures that have been prepared like in the OP, you can do so just using washes and no real paints. Once you have that shaded look, simply splash brown wash on the leather, skin tone wash on the skin etc. It all just falls where it should and is thin enough that it keeps the shading from the preparation work. I painted over 100 goblins doing that. It was very quick indeed. Though I did start with a white base, not grey,