Starting to Paint Mini's

[Shapermc]

I need mucho mucho help with this. I am no artist, but I just started a new PnP group that uses Mini's, and I am use to just like die or markers representing characters (or even none at all). These little things are like crack and I am in dire straits.

Well I bought about 10 - 15 minis of all types and man is this difficult. They were all in a $0.50 (US) pile except for the one that I selected to be my Cleric of Illmater and about 4 goblins. Well I also got all kinds of brushes that are like super small tips and I got acrylic paint and a little mixing tray. . .

I painted 2 goblins; the first one I had a hair brush and that was so hard to controll so I got nylon ones and that made it easier to do the details for the second one. Now I have had a few problems with this whole thing and I will list them all, but also any beginners tips/links/guides would also be very helpful.

1) I Have the hardest time with these tiny little goblin teeth/eyes. Should I use a finer brush (which I think that I got the finest one) or a magnifying glass or. . . .

2) There are just some areas that are really hard for me to get a brush into so I just go to a certain point so that I do not put the wrong color paint in the wrong place, but this ends up leaving little pewter areas showing. Should I be priming this, or just put a very light base coat on the whole thing that is like the skin color?

3) My very fine nylon brush is starting to curl a little at the tip. Is there any way to reverse/prevent it?

4) what is the best order to paint in? Like largest portions first (skin or armor which ever has the most surface area), or the details (like the belt or the little dagger on the calf)? Or does it not matter?

5) I know that I need to coat these in something because they are chipping a little bit. Any recomendations?

Thank you in advance for the responses. I am just looking at my mini's that are painted and know that they could be better. Like the skin tones are mainly just one color with the raised area looking a little lighter. I just know that can do better, and I want it to look really cool for my first one with out having to ask any of them. Thanks in advance

 

[Drakmar]

howdy.
welcome to the boards.. since you seem new.
lets see... my take

1) um..small brush good.. magnifying glass good if you need it. I find that I use a brush with like 3 or 4 strands left for eyes.

2) For hard to get to spots.. I tend to paint them with the surronding colour and them ink them with the same base colour (but a little bit darker).

3) Yup. rotate the brush every so often.. say every 6 or so strokes. that should stop it.

4)um. I tend to do the large areas.. then move on to the small areas.. unless the large area is black. (unless I have used a black undercoat)

5) yup. two things.. make sure you use a primer (like the Games Workshop ones) and then make sure you use a Matt Varnish. I find a couple of light coats protects them a fair bit.

I will post later today a link to some ladies site that is really useful and gives you a good role model.

 

[KnowTheToe]

1. Start Simple - Just get used to painting, do not try to shadow your first few figs. Practice getting the paint where you want it. With each fig try a new technique or detial.

2.. Thin your paints on a pallet, you can use anything plastic for your pallet .

3. http://paintingclinic.com

4. Look for examples of what you want, but still keep it simple
http://coolminiornot.com

 

[Gizzard]

3) My very fine nylon brush is starting to curl a little at the tip. Is there any way to reverse/prevent it?

Inexpensive brushes, especially nylon brushes tend to do this. I dont think you can really fix it. But, inexpensive brushes are fine while you are getting the hang of painting.

A lot of people recommend the Windsor Newton Series 7 brushes; my favorite brush after all these years is one of these. They are darn expensive though, so a bit of practice with brush-care goes a long way. Once you get past the point of wrecking brushes by getting paint in their bases and other bad things though, buy yourself a really nice brush. A good brush properly cared for will last forever and it will always be great to paint with.

2) There are just some areas that are really hard for me to get a brush into...

Do you use a wash of color for shading? I generally prime my stuff gray, this gives a good base for all paint to stick to. Once I've sketched out some of the rough colors, I will often give certain areas a dark wash to fill in the shadows. Washes are great for filling in places your brush cant get to. Another trick I use is to wash the whole figure black after priming. This fills in the shadows and crevices also, but it also brings out the detail. I see details that I might miss on a flat figure and am able to understand the figure better for painting.

5) I know that I need to coat these in something because they are chipping a little bit. Any recomendations?

I use Testors Dullcote. Glosscote is a bit more durable, but I havent perfected the technique of Glosscote + Dullcote that leaves the figure dull; I always get a SemiGlosscote result. ;-)

 

[Shapermc]

Ok like I said I am no artist so these questions are probably simple answers to almost anybody else here but they boggle my mind so please dont laugh at me

Inexpensive brushes, especially nylon brushes tend to do this. I dont think you can really fix it. But, inexpensive brushes are fine while you are getting the hang of painting.

A lot of people recommend the Windsor Newton Series 7 brushes; my favorite brush after all these years is one of these. They are darn expensive though, so a bit of practice with brush-care goes a long way. Once you get past the point of wrecking brushes by getting paint in their bases and other bad things though, buy yourself a really nice brush. A good brush properly cared for will last forever and it will always be great to paint with.

What is considered "inexpensive"? I spent like $3.50 us for a nylon brush with like 10 strands on it (for me that seems a bit expensive for that little of a brush. How much does this brush that you speak of run?

Do you use a wash of color for shading? I generally prime my stuff gray, this gives a good base for all paint to stick to. Once I've sketched out some of the rough colors, I will often give certain areas a dark wash to fill in the shadows. Washes are great for filling in places your brush cant get to. Another trick I use is to wash the whole figure black after priming. This fills in the shadows and crevices also, but it also brings out the detail. I see details that I might miss on a flat figure and am able to understand the figure better for painting.

What do you mean "wash". I understand how to like wash as in clean (like I wash my hands) but I think that you are refering to something quite different that is a very unknown concept to me

~~~~~~~~

Thank you for the welcome aboard package Drakmar. I am more of a lurker than anything so I will disapear into the shadows again once I have figured out how to paint these things

 

[Shapermc]

Ok I have been looking at the "Cool mini or Not" web site and realised that my mini's would right now score about a . . . 4 to 4.5

I have also been looking at the clinic, and there seems to be alot of good tips and what not, but I am still a bit sonfused about the whole "wash" thing? Is it to just add a sort of lighting effect? Do you just do it on certain areas, or the whole thing? and how thick do you apply it? What is the best kind of brush to apply it with? I wish that I could find pictures of mini's "pre-wash" and then "post-wash" to see what the effects that it does for it.

I should post pictures of my mini's here for helpful tips on them (and to see what they look like when they are blown up with a digital camera ). I think that this is going to consume much of my time in the near future. . .

 

[Guillaume]

Hey welcome to the boards.

If you feel confused about painting minis, don't worry. I've been doing it for a few years and I'm still baffled by my inability to get the results and precision that I read on the Net.

To answer your question, a wash is basically painting miniatures with a very thined paint (ie, it's got so much water to dilute it that it looks like skimmed milk) or with an ink. It is generally used for lighting effects. However, it does have the advantage to seep into the crevices of the miniature bringing out details that were not immediately obvious.

How to do a wash? Well, here is how I do it. Put a small amount of paint on your pallet (any colour will do, chose it depending on your design) and add water to it. Keep adding water until you reach the right consistency. Then, just apply the diluted paint to the area of the mini that you want to colour.

There have been a few sites mentionned on this thread to give you starting tips on painting minis. I would add the WOTC site. It ran a series of articles a while back about mini-painting. Here is the link: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/pp/pp20010607a

There also was this series : http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=minis/mi20010312i

Good luck,

Guillaume

 

[Shapermc]

Thanks for that link to the WoTC chainmail mini painting. It is quite helpful and even though a bit drawn out has some good starting info (even though some of the pictures are horrible).

I am hitting the hobby shop tonight to pick up some supplies and then I will try my hand at a new mini tonight. I dread asking for help at that hobby shop though because the owner is a bit essentric (you should ask my wife the story that he told her about the "Viking mini campeign" that he had). But I think that I have straight forward enough questions to keep him from going off topic

 

[Shapermc]

Ok after researching for about the last ohhhhh 6-8 hours on the topic the best general guide that I found was this Miniatures: On Your Own and Painting like a Pro for beginers. Then I would go to this site (The Clinic) for all the little questions on details once you feel like you got the basics down. Then if you are looking for examples of other work go to the http://coolminiornot.com/index.php site.

That last paragraph is for people like me who have questions from a beginners view point. I had to wade through all this stuff in a backwards order and all but I have clarifyed it for the newbie like me

 

[KnowTheToe]

The winston series 7 brushes are about $15 on average, less bristles/smaller size, the more expensive the brush.

Your wash should be mixed with water until it is slightly translucent. It is hard to tell you in writing because paint consistancies change. you will need to play with it until you like what you see. I recommend Vallejo paints if you can get them, they have a great consistancy and can be used without watering the down. Vallejo paints do not have amny of the warm browns and greens, but Games Workshop paints have awesome colors for both of those.

If you buy inks for your washes, they will still need to be diluted or you will wreck the paint you already put on the mini.