Painting Miniatures

[VertDeLion]

Hey guys, I found some really nice unpainted miniatures (products, wizkids.com/unpainted) primed with Vallejo (whatever that means) and this will be my first time coloring them in myself. Now, I don't have much in the way of fine brushes and tools to paint fine details, and I'm hoping I won't have to cash out a great deal to make them look nice. I DO have a set of Staedtler triplus fineliners and I was wondering if they'd do the trick, and how would I best seal them in so they don't smudge? Thanks

[Quoxis]

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/THIN_YOUR_PAINTS

[CaptainSarathai]

Warhammer player here.
You can't exactly use the fine-liners. Go buy brushes, and paints.

You can hit a craft store and get cheap-o packs of fine brushes without much cost. Do they hold up as nicely as other brushes? Uh... maybe?? Honestly, as long as you care for them properly, they should hold up well enough.
Personally, I suck on my brushes a bit when I paint. It's a fast and easy way to get them formed back into a point. Clean the brush, draw it through your lips, dip it in the paint. I also clip away any obstinate strays.
--

As far as paint, there's really good stuff from Vallejo, P3, GW and Tamiya. Tamiya is mostly for vehicle models though, and lacks a lot of selection in the flesh/organic/colorful department.
You want to stay away from enamel paint. It just doesn't look as good, and you need harsh chemicals to clean your brush. It will also never come off the model, should you ever wish to sell/strip/repaint the mini. Use acrylic! P3 and GW are 100% acrylic, Vallejo might(?) have some enamel in their range.
---

When you paint, you want to paint thin layers. Thinner layers of paint dry faster, and don't obscure detail. They also look nice and smooth and don't show brush strokes.
Typically, I use a "wet pallette" but if I'm in a hurry (or you're new to this) I'll use a sheet of aluminum foil. Put a few drops of paint on the foil, and work from there. Never paint straight from the bottle!
Add a few drops of water to the paint, and whenever you clean your brush between colors, dip it back into some clean water before dipping into the paint.
----

For actual painting tips to make your stuff look good:
Start at the lowest point of detail, and work up. For example, if you are a painting a knight, they have bare hands, some leather pants and tunic sleeves, then their armor, and they have a sash over their breastplate. Paint the skin layer first, and then the pants and tunic. Then paint the armor, and paint the sash last.
It's easier to work "skin-out" like this, because there's less likelihood that you'll slop paint over a raised area while working inside the nooks and crannies of a model. You can be a little messy this way - need to paint brown pants between a narrow gap in the armor? Just get in there, you can paint over any "splash" when you paint the armor.

Another tip is to learn how to wash and dry-brush.
A wash is very watery paint. When you paint it on, it flows into all the lowest points of the model - into cracks and creases and folds. This adds shadow, and keeps your model from look "flat". It also helps pick out details, like lines in the face, scales, chain links on armor, etc.
The two best washes are from GW. Buy 'Nuln Oil', which is black. Use this over any silver/steel metals, and cold, dark colors like blue, purple, and grey.
'Agrax Earthshade' is a green/brown color, and is used for literally everything else. Skin, cloth, yellow metals like gold and copper, just - everything. It makes everything look a little less clean, a little more worn and lived in, but it's the best all-purpose shader there ever was.

The second technique is dry-brushing. This is the opposite of using a wash. Using your normal colors, don't thin them out with a few drops of water. Instead, get some on your brush and then wipe most of it off on a paper towel.
The idea is to pull the brush very lightly over any edges and raised details. This helps highlight your models, and pulls up any detail that stands up over the rest. This can "pop" the chains in chainmail, wrinkles in fabric, bolts and rivets, and the nose, brow, and cheekbones of a face.
Typically, you'll want to either use a lighter shade of the color you are dry-brushing over, but it's better to just add white to the original color.

Use together, you should have 3-4 layers on every color that you paint. If you're painting a blue sleeve for example,
1. paint the whole sleeve blue.
2. wash it with Nuln Oil to deepen the shadows in the folds.
3. dry-brush it with the same blue from step one, to clean up the higher points of the folds
4. do an even lighter and faster dry-brush with a light blue, to bring out the peaks of the folds

Some people skip step 3, especially if the wash didn't darken the entire part.

It sounds like a lot, but shading and dry-brushing really does elevate the quality of your painted models. There are lots of tutorials online for how to paint miniatures and do all of this stuff.
Well painted miniatures are so much fun at a table. It's one thing that your players will actually notice and compliment you on!

[N810]

I usually send people to this site if they have never painted before.
http://www.how-to-paint-miniatures.com/miniature_painting_getting_started.html
Lots of good stuff here, with easy to follow language, and pictures.

[Pr6i6e6st]

I bought a fee minis from heroforge and painted them. It was my first time and I'm far from a professional. My hands shake as if I had Parkinson's some days and I'm part colour blind. But my players were pretty impressed.

I washed them gently with a soft bristled tooth brush and just a touch of water. Then I got some paints from the store. They're pretty cheap really. They came in individual tubes, and I found a few good metallic colours that I felt made them pop better than other acrylic paints I could find at the time. Brushes were even cheaper. I found all my stuff at Walmart for under 10 bucks. I then painstakingly held the figures milimeters from my eyes and hoped to the gods my hands would move with precision, giving a few extra layers as I went along. Then finished with an acrylic varnish to make sure they didn't chip too easily.

Definitely not as good as the professional ones but I'm happy with the results none the less. Here's some pics if you want to see

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/16730430_10158175319605621_8810464666940431645_n.j pg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=46dbed4695bb0a690ddf9ac350a45296&oe=59749F3C

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/16807216_10158175319885621_9187455171535530502_n.j pg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=850e706cdd282dc4c50ca4c9938bb2b3&oe=598684C5

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/16730515_10158175319795621_6527496865624576999_n.j pg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=47bb374234d2c0ce24d70c43f376568c&oe=59BC446F

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/16711719_10158175320040621_818375712622387239_n.jp g?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=8192613d41cf74f502b5682a5bd93d6a&oe=59B8894C

[Jophiel]

Thanks for all the great tips, CaptainSarathai and those who posted links. I'm about to take the dive on a Hero Forge mini myself (can't find a female halfling bard that looks decent, much less one that makes me half as happy as my HF model (https://www.heroforge.com/load_config=387329)) and haven't painted a figure since I painted my HeroQuest pieces back in 1992.

[N810]

Ps. here's some of my D&D miniatures.
http://www.lustria-online.com/attachments/dnd-001-jpg.20192/
http://www.lustria-online.com/attachments/dnd-003-jpg.20193/

and why not... some Star Wars minis since it's may 4th and all.
http://www.lustria-online.com/attachments/luke-vs-vader-002-jpg.28915/

Edit: see if the direct url's work.

[Jophiel]

Your images don't work (no link or images show).

[Laserlight]

Friend of mine told this tale" "I pulled out the captain and put him on the table. I'd spent hours painting him, using three brushes at the same time to blend the colors, outlining the details, getting everything just so. Everyone said 'That looks wonderful!' and I felt great. Then I pulled out the rest of the platoon--I'd speed-painted them, 30 guys in maybe half an hour--and put them on the table. And everyone said "Those look wonderful!" and I felt like an idiot. Once the minis were on the tabletop and people were looking at them from three feet away, all the details got lost."

I sometimes use a micron pen for eyes, lips, or tattoos, but usually an undercoat, topcoat and wash will do. For a wash, I use inks, not paints--GW makes inks in the colors CaptainSarathai mentioned. Sometimes I add a dot (less than a drop) of dish soap to get it to flow better, but if you do that, watch out for bubbles.

One key point to painting well is, get good minis; the quality of the sculpt makes a difference in how easy it is to do a good paint job. I like Reaper Bones.

[VertDeLion]

Thanks for all the tips guys~
I know about general detail painting based on my cosplay experience, im just terrible with fine detail with brushes so i was hoping there was another way around it,but i guess ill just suck it up and get tiny brushes.

[ZorroGames]

Thanks for all the tips guys~
I know about general detail painting based on my cosplay experience, im just terrible with fine detail with brushes so i was hoping there was another way around it,but i guess ill just suck it up and get tiny brushes.
The people I hire to paint mine suggest it is a good tip properly maintained much more than a tiny brush. Seems to work for them.

My painting broadly resembles house painting... sigh.

[Theodoxus]

I bought a fee minis from heroforge and painted them. It was my first time and I'm far from a professional. My hands shake as if I had Parkinson's some days and I'm part colour blind. But my players were pretty impressed.

I washed them gently with a soft bristled tooth brush and just a touch of water. Then I got some paints from the store. They're pretty cheap really. They came in individual tubes, and I found a few good metallic colours that I felt made them pop better than other acrylic paints I could find at the time. Brushes were even cheaper. I found all my stuff at Walmart for under 10 bucks. I then painstakingly held the figures milimeters from my eyes and hoped to the gods my hands would move with precision, giving a few extra layers as I went along. Then finished with an acrylic varnish to make sure they didn't chip too easily.

Definitely not as good as the professional ones but I'm happy with the results none the less. Here's some pics if you want to see

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/16730430_10158175319605621_8810464666940431645_n.j pg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=46dbed4695bb0a690ddf9ac350a45296&oe=59749F3C

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/16807216_10158175319885621_9187455171535530502_n.j pg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=850e706cdd282dc4c50ca4c9938bb2b3&oe=598684C5

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/16730515_10158175319795621_6527496865624576999_n.j pg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=47bb374234d2c0ce24d70c43f376568c&oe=59BC446F

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/16711719_10158175320040621_818375712622387239_n.jp g?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=8192613d41cf74f502b5682a5bd93d6a&oe=59B8894C

Hey Pr6i6e6st, I've been looking at getting HF figures for my beloved characters, but I'm not sure which quality of material to get them in. I'm in about the same shape, physically as you are - your paint jobs look a lot like my former ones... can you say which material you picked for the HF figures?

[Telok]

On thing I've done is use cat whiskers. They shed them and you'll find them on the couch or something. I've used the base from decent detail dotting and you can trim them at any stiffness you like, the fine ends are actually not that great at holding paint. Plus it's a renewable resource.

[Pr6i6e6st]

Hey Pr6i6e6st, I've been looking at getting HF figures for my beloved characters, but I'm not sure which quality of material to get them in. I'm in about the same shape, physically as you are - your paint jobs look a lot like my former ones... can you say which material you picked for the HF figures?

Just the nylon one as I am cheap lol.

So, the stuff will absorb your paint. You want to do it little by little and maybe 2 or 3 layers to get it to not look faded.

Only problem I had was the antler on the winged dragonborn's helmet broke in the mail since it's so small and dainty. I could have sent it back and got it replaced but I'm lazy and put a couple layers of superglue on it. It thickened it up but it's so small you can't really tell.

The tieflings are supposed to have tiny horns just barely hidden by their hair or head ornaments. But it ended up you can't see them at all. Some other tiny details were less visible but painting kind of brought them out, as well as the pre wash with a toothbrush (soft bristles, damp, not wet).

[Ninja_Prawn]

Thanks for all the tips guys~
I know about general detail painting based on my cosplay experience, im just terrible with fine detail with brushes so i was hoping there was another way around it,but i guess ill just suck it up and get tiny brushes.

Yeah, I'd second 'getting some nice brushes' as a thing to do. There are some things you just can't do with a larger brush.

I used to do 40k, way back when, and I loved my tiny brushes. When I first started (at, like, age 10), I just used whatever brushes and slapped the paint on like, well, a 10-year old. The older and better I got, the more I realised the importance of finer, higher-quality brushes until, by the time I quit 10 years later, the fattest brush in my set (excluding drybrushes) was what Citadel called a 'fine detail' brush (probably showing my age a bit there :smallfrown:).

Other tips for fine detail painting:

Be more aggressive with shading and highlights than you would on larger-scale objects. A mini doesn't cast shadows on itself like a large-scale model does, so you have to provide the shadows for yourself.
Avoid yellow altogether. It just does not work on miniatures.
Don't neglect the bases. If you paint them with watered-down PVA, dunk them in sand, paint the sand and then do an ink wash of the sand, the whole model will look 1,000 times better than if you just leave them blank.
If you really want to impress your fellow players, get good at non-metallic metal.

[Jophiel]

Hey Pr6i6e6st, I've been looking at getting HF figures for my beloved characters, but I'm not sure which quality of material to get them in.
Most people recommend the high quality material ($30) which is apparently leaps and bounds better than their initial material selection. Good detail and relatively durable -- much more durable than the $15 nylon anyway. On the website it shows as 3/5 stars for durability but I think that's mainly because the metal ones (steel/brass) get the higher rankings. You still want to treat the high quality plastic carefully but the nylon is supposedly very fragile.

[Galadhrim]

Most people recommend the high quality material ($30) which is apparently leaps and bounds better than their initial material selection. Good detail and relatively durable -- much more durable than the $15 nylon anyway. On the website it shows as 3/5 stars for durability but I think that's mainly because the metal ones (steel/brass) get the higher rankings. You still want to treat the high quality plastic carefully but the nylon is supposedly very fragile.

If you are wanting some find detail, one of the easiest things I have done is to get an LED head magnifier. I got mine off of amazon for $9.75. It has a bright LED light and a x10 magnification that you can wear on your head like a visor. My painting improved dramatically with the good lighting and a little bit of magnification.

https://www.amazon.com/SE-MH1047L-2-Illuminated-Multi-Magnifier/dp/B011O336YI/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1493995360&sr=8-5&keywords=se+mh1047l+illuminated+multi-power+led+head+magnifier

[Jophiel]

Coincidentally, I bought this just last night: https://www.sciplus.com/p/LED-MAGNIFYING-EYEGLASSES_48542

[Galadhrim]

Coincidentally, I bought this just last night: https://www.sciplus.com/p/LED-MAGNIFYING-EYEGLASSES_48542

I bought a similar pair before the ones I posted above but the only being able to focus one eye and the closeness required made them really difficult for me to use. I had much better luck with the other type.

[N810]

In my experience a decent desk lamp (preferably with a daylight quality bulb)
will improve your painting better than some fancy Winsor/Newton brush.
Especially when you are first starting out.

[CaptainSarathai]

A tip for those with shaky hands:
Mount your mini to a cork. If it's light enough, use blue-tac. If it's metal, pin it with wire or just glue it down. You can get a good, solid "death grip" on the cork. I find that a good grip usually steadies my hands.
If your brush-hand is shaking, cup a tennis ball and keep it rested on the table. You can work, pretty much, with everything down on the table.
Your back will likely hurt though, because you'll be bending down to the table rather than bringing the work to your face. Get a higher table or lower chair, if it bothers you.

[Pr6i6e6st]

A tip for those with shaky hands:
Mount your mini to a cork. If it's light enough, use blue-tac. If it's metal, pin it with wire or just glue it down. You can get a good, solid "death grip" on the cork. I find that a good grip usually steadies my hands.
If your brush-hand is shaking, cup a tennis ball and keep it rested on the table. You can work, pretty much, with everything down on the table.
Your back will likely hurt though, because you'll be bending down to the table rather than bringing the work to your face. Get a higher table or lower chair, if it bothers you.

I'll have to remember this if I do up the ones from the adventure board games.

[N810]

I find that if you hold your mini in one had and you brush in the other
AND you have you hands touching, like one resting on the other,
this tends to cancel out the shakiness, as they will now shake in the same directions.

[LordCdrMilitant]

Not D&D minis, but:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-aa1xFwfMIXk/WIzjH6MB_WI/AAAAAAAAElQ/mXgxKoBk__wDWfAcUb3RNfA8rWT20hthgCJoC/w530-h318-p-rw/20170128_122259.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r8zz2dYABHk/WBGbgU_mbwI/AAAAAAAADq8/AkJANnKmT74MGrITq3Mr377CaaQjvCDIACJoC/w530-h318-p-rw/16%2B-%2B1


Celestine and her ablative wounds were done first with a fairly thin basecoat of gold while they were on the sprue, unassembled. I painted the red cloth, black hair, etc, while they were on the sprue then I assembled them. They I went over them with another coat of gold with a fairly wide [in the scheme of those I use for modelling] brush. I used a tiny brush, to do the lighter gold trip along the edges of her armour, and her eyes. The trip on the wings was done with red, then a extremely thin red, then an extremely thin black, to make 3 discrete, "splattery" regions on the feather tips. The lettering was done last with a fine brush, before I attached the model to the base.


The Sabre is a lot smaller than Celestine. As you can see, my hand was much less stead and I used a wider brush for the outline work, and now that I'm looking at it under close up, it doesn't look quite as nice. The chassis was painted independent of the turret, but I frequently fit the turret onto the chassis to ensure the stripes line up. The camo stripes were done by marking the outlines of them with a medium brush, then filling them in with a wide brush. Blue tape masks don't work that well, but one of my friends suggested postit note masks, and his stuff turns out okay, so I might want to try that method.

For large surfaces, where the brush strikes may become visible, go over it again with a very thin coat and perpendicular strokes.

One of the keys, I find that works out really well is painting the parts while they're still on the sprue as much as you can, then touching them up during assembly and going over again afterwords.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Not D&D minis, but:

Darling, your pictures aren't working. It's a shame, because Saint Celestine is one of the best minis GW has ever made. It's always nice to see a well-painted one.

[LordCdrMilitant]

Darling, your pictures aren't working. It's a shame, because Saint Celestine is one of the best minis GW has ever made. It's always nice to see a well-painted one.

That she is. I need to letter her purity seals and put a wash on her wings to give some contrast to the feathers.

I'm not sure how to make the images work, though.

Anyway, though the point was that I paint before I assemble, and it works out really well, I think. Pictures are pretty much showing off.

The nice thing about painting before assembling is that you can get in and paint the tires on tank road wheels, and areas underneath turret bustles that would be otherwise inaccessible, and the likes.

The proprietor of the local LGS has suggested a sealant coat for the metal figures, to prevent the paint from chipping, but it dulls the metallics, so I just fix the rims of the Exorcist pipes on a monthly basis. Paint chipping from metal models is a bit of a problem, and happens fairly commonly.

To be more helpful to the OP though, you'll definitely need brushes. I have four, one fine one, one medium one, one wider one, and one that I cut all but a handful bristles away from that I use for lettering. My friend, who does painting on commission, has like 20. I've never had a problem with paint on plastics smearing or chipping, so sealing them is pretty unnecessary.

One of the guys at the LGS uses metallic sharpies for the brass on his daemons, and I would never have known if he didn't tell us, so you can try that too.

[Jophiel]

Hey Pr6i6e6st, I've been looking at getting HF figures for my beloved characters, but I'm not sure which quality of material to get them in. I'm in about the same shape, physically as you are - your paint jobs look a lot like my former ones... can you say which material you picked for the HF figures?
I just received my Hero Forge figure today and snapped some photos (http://imgur.com/a/PfbTn) to show the detail on the high quality plastic. This is the figure off (https://www.heroforge.com/load_config=456303) the HF site. Going to paint her but wanted to get some shots before hand.


I bought a similar pair before the ones I posted above but the only being able to focus one eye and the closeness required made them really difficult for me to use. I had much better luck with the other type.
You're right. I received them and they seem as though they'd be almost impossible to use. At least they weren't expensive.