Painting Tips and Tricks
Greetings,
There is several ways to paint a miniature (duh!) One could slap paint on it haphazardly and call it painted, which technically it is, or you can show some patience and skill. I use a technique that has been called layering on the minipainter egroup to build up highlights in succession (which is good for everything but fur, that I use drybrushing). Basically, one uses thinned paints to put down a slightly lighter color over a darker color. This gives the illusion of shadow and highlights on the miniatures surface. Guest painters tips and technique section some interesting tips that I would never have thought of. Now, stuff I've come up with... Painting Bone One thing I have received compliments about, is my way I do bone. Originally, I think I found a similar way in one of GW's painting guides. I've adopted my methods to this technique, and here it is for the world to share. 3 Step Bone. Taking pictures with a digital camera I've slapped together a quick setup on taking pictures with my digital camera Click here.. taking pictures with a digital camera Painting golds without using metallic paints Click HERE for a step by step on how I painted the gold on the Red Lioness. Complete with pictures in various pages of completion. Sam-man sez check it out! I've taken a couple pictures of when I painted Onyx. There is 3 pictures of him in various stages. Click here to go see. There is a short description on how I painted his gold without using metallic paints. HERE is a picture of the paints used to create the NMM gold as it sits on the palette. HERE is the paints I used to paint the Templars, on the palette again. Painting Metallics Jarrett posted this one the minipainter egroup. Works quite well. Check it out HERE this is the technique I used to paint Boris Mingla, Demon hunter A simple guide to adding static grass to bases of minis that says it all, click HERE to go check it out. The colors needed to paint reds, spread out on the palette. For lack of any other place to put it, HERE is a picture of the reds through yellow I use as it spreads across my palette. SKY EARTH NMM GOLD On the minipainter list I belong to, an excellent painter and all around great guy, Honza Skýpala, posted how he did a new gold NMM technique, which he calls, "Sky Earth NMM gold. He first tried it out on the new Confrontation figure, Razheem the Insensed. The model is brilliant. Since he is in the process of reshaping his web site, go HERE to go to his home page, then click on WARGAMING and look for his painting tips. Go HERE to see his mini on Coolminiornot. He wrote up quite the description on how he did it under the picture.
Mixing paint tip A very simple trick to help shake up your paints better. Take that piece of pewter, white metal, chunk of sprue that you've hacked off your mini, or base, or whatever and add it to your paint pots. Won't rust, won't discolor, and it will help mix up your paints faster. Thinning Paints Need a good medium to thin your paints in? Try future floor wax. What? you don't believe me? honestly, use that stuff that's for shining the kitchen floor. Its acrylic based which fits in with the water based acrylic paints I use. But, you need to water it down a bit. I have a little sealable cup on my bench that's 3 parts water, 1 part floor wax. The one really good effect this mix does, it stops those little water rings from forming when you use thinned paints. If you use inks, you know what I'm talking about. Available at any department store, like Kmart for around 5 bucks. I bought mine ages ago, shared some of it, and I still have a lifetime supply of the stuff. Another good investment is a paint extender. Winsor and Newton makes one, as does Ceramcoat and FolkArt. I used the Ceramcoat extender for a long time, used up that bottle, tried my Folkart, which worked well, and on my recent trip to the craft store, picked up a bottle of W&N flow aid. Dollar for dollar, the W&N is cheaper, since its a concentrate. It comes in a 5 oz bottle, cost 4 or 5 dollars, and needs to be mixed 1-2 parts extender to 20 parts water. It seems to me to be another lifetime supply. Brushes Here is a page showing close up pictures of my Vallejo and W&N series 7. I've added some comments about them under each picture. The brush selection is important. Use a poor brush, and no matter your skill, you can only achieve results to a certain level. Use a great brush, and your only limited to your skill. My preference is Winsor & Newtons series 7. But, an extremely good alternative is Vallejo's sable. They cost a less and are worth every penny. I have finally found the W&N's at Artist Alternatives (located in West Hartford, CT.) and on AlbinoRhinoHobbies.com. or Fantization.com These brushes just completely blow me away with their paint carrying capacity, the point they are able to maintain and how they work when I'm using them. I use a size 2 for painting large areas, and my size 1's for most of my work and the size 0's for detail work. I do have a size 000 I use just for eyes. But, if you plan on burning through miniatures, try armorys brush pack, size 0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0. I use them at times to put down paint in large areas, or on stuff I want to finish quick and messy.I don't recommend them for nice work, as they leave brush marks after awhile. Care. One must take good care of their brushes, since they will take care of you in the long run. There is several ways to clean your brushes, but this is my most popular way. loew corning makes these little brush cleaning pads, that look like a furry scrunge dish scrubber. These are submerged in a glass jar, with some mild detergent in it. After rinsing out my brush in a separate glass, and wiping the excess paint and water out on a paper towel, I run the brush over the surface of the pad, (in the jar, remember :-) and it really does help pull the paint out of the ferrule and bristles. Every once in awhile, the natural oils in the sables need to be replaced to help prolong the life of the brushes. I use my wife's hair conditioner. Just rub some into the bristles and then shape the brush, and let sit until you need the brush again. For a really good cleaning, Winsor and Newton make a product called "Brush Cleaner and Restorer" I let my brushes sit, suspended, overnight in this stuff, and anything resembling paint is removed, and the sables are given back a healthy dose of natural oils. A highly recommended product! Another tip for brush care. Donated by Mike Cooley "Straightening brush bristles:
Elmers glue, rub it into your brushes like your drybrushing with it and shape your brush to look like it should. Leave it like that for a few days then soak it in water to moisten the dried waterbased elmers glue and there's your newly refurbished/ straightened/fixed brush!
This is a great tip for those of us who like to by those neat-o 5-15 dollars professional brushes! Also you can leave the elmers glue in and just us the tip for freehanding little drawings on figures( hint hint Craig, I say the chicken leg )" OK, Mike, I haven't tried this myself, but he has. I'll stick to using hair conditioner ;-)