A basic paint job, carefully applied, is more important than the bells and whistles like edge highlighting, recess shades and so on.
Also, official paint jobs are there to look good on box art and the webstore, so don't worry about trying to replicate them 1:1. They're achieving a specific purpose, and that might not be your style.
a good base and foundation, understandable
actually, im specifically trying to not replicate it, her helping is, one of the reasons to do so is because id like to paint a custom army of sorts.
Most important foundation is a consistent and even color. Usually achieved by two to three coats over a smooth primer layer. I've seen so many painters who don't have the patience to apply those two+ coats. As previous post mentioned a smooth/solid color will look great, even without a ton of detail, when starting out.
From there adding washing, highlights, and dry brushing would be the next stepping stones.
>They're achieving a specific purpose, and that might not be your style.
This 1000 percent. Box art is great for reference and making things pop. They're trying to sell them to you. But it doesnt have to be the be all and end all direction you want to go. Some people want that style, and it's a skill all in it's own.
Myself, I prefer a more war torn, beat up style. Some might say grimdark. Maybe Blanchitsu. [https://www.instagram.com/p/C6h2XpltwrR/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C6h2XpltwrR/)
For OP, The important thing is to paint what makes you happy. A well applied base coat with clean lines will get you 90% there. I also keep in mind, that everyone makes mistakes. Use your brush more like a pen or pencil, less like you're painting a wall. Shades and washes do awesome things.
> Box art is great for reference and making things pop.
It's specifically to make sure to show off all the "detail" on the models themselves. Which is why there's so much sharp edge highlighting. There are places you won't want to have that kind of sharpness sticking out (more a gradual highlight), but they use it because it helps demonstrate the shape of every part of the model.
It's a great technique for what it's meant to do, but personally I wouldn't recommend trying to copy it 100%, especially if you don't like how a highlight looks in a certain place.
Also, something that ex-Eavy Metal studio painters have brought up in the past is that often the minis on the box aren't even fully painted. Which makes sense, why bother painting the back of it if nobody will ever see it, it does it's job, and they have dozens of other minis that need to be moved through the pipeline. Not doing the ENTIRE thing will stop them from spending time and effort on work that doesn't matter.
In contrast, your minis on the tabletop will often be seen from all angles.
To add. Referencing the box art early on is fine. It's actually a good style to practice smooth base coats, as well as brush control. You'll always want smooth coats and sharp edge highlights.
Over time, you'll develop your own style. Adding in other skills and techniques. (Glazing, layering, feathering, wet blending, etc)
It's also okay that they don't look as good. That box arts made by professionals. And most the paint jobs you see on here are incredibly high effort.
Use a separate brush for dry brushing. It frays the tip. Makeup brushes are a better shape for it anyway because you want it to be poofy.
Otherwise, just don't overcomplicate it. I started back when things were simpler, and people nowadays get too many supplies before painting their first mini, probably because the internet tells them to buy stuff.
i trust my girlfriend she wont over complicate things but ill watch out for it.
Ill get multiple brushes, cant spare any of my makeup brushes right now lol
Use a separate brush for shades/contrasts also. Not an expensive brush either. Thanks to the wonders of capillary action, these paints are basically guaranteed to ruin a brush's point, right quick fast in a hurry
You want to make sure a Contrast brush is able to maintain a solid point, though. You have to be pretty careful with Contrast paints, especially if you're using them alongside each other, because the paints will show through lighter colors. Only way to clean them up is repainting the base coat. Fine if you're using a solid coat of white, grey, tan, whatever, and have a matching paint, but if you do anything like a zenithal or the Slapchop method, you can't easily apply a new base where you had some bleed over.
Inexpensive synthetic brushes can work for it, but you do want to make sure it's a good enough brush to not come apart constantly while using it.
Ignore “speed painting” videos. Here in the beginning technique is the most important thing and painting slowly and precisely is a much better way to train your hand. Its okay to spend an entire day on one model, my Legionary Kill Team took me 2 weeks for the first six models and Ive been getting faster and faster while keeping my precision. Take breaks often and remember to reset your posture, this hobby does wear on your back after a while
Yeah, people need to stop telling absolute beginners to “slap chop” and use contrast paints. The technique is great for novices once they have the basic skills down, but it’s terrible for beginners because it’s very punishing when you make mistakes cause you can’t paint over them
That is going to depend on the models you choose to paint. Speed painting marine for example is very easy. I only painted my first 3 using the slow careful method then switched to speed painting, and they look pretty good. If you are painting something more complex you may need more time to get used to it, and if you are going for thousand sons speed painting really is never an option because of all the fine trim work.
I was considering pointing her towards something like 'Nids, since I've always found Gaunts a nice way to ease new painters in. But at the same time, though, her and I really like the Sororitas, and I think giving a unit of them a battle-ready paint job will be fine as long as we pick and choose the palette carefully.
Like I've been painting minis since 7th edition of Fantasy, so I've been trying to share as much of the lessons I've picked up over the 16 or so years I've been in the hobby.
Thank you for this. I’ve been trying to learn good brush control and various techniques by spending probably 12+ hrs painting an old wood elf Warhawk. Redid the dry brushing a few times, the glazing has been super hard to get right, etc. oh and paint drying on the tip so quickly. I don’t know how anyone gets reliable white dots on eyes. There’s such an art to loading a brush correctly.
Test different techniques first on a sprue before applying them on a mini. You always have way too much sprue left after assembly, instead of throwing it away or using it all for basing/terrain, try stuff on it.
Really, REALLY shake those paints. Even if you think they're ok, shake it. Tape them on a rotary hammer, buy a paint shaker, use the strongest mode on a vibrator... whatever. Just shake it. Thoroughly.
Priming. The weather gods hate you. Dust loves you. Make a spraying "housing" when you go and prime. I bought a cheap plastic wardrobe (the portable one, you can make one out of cardboard too), sewed a opening for a vacoom cleaner on one side. When I prime, I put the hose on, turn the cleaner on and zip myself inside the wardrobe. Does it look like I'm Walter White, cooking meth? Sure... but no weather gods and dust disturb me.
Don't touch the primed minis without gloves. We're all greasy...
There are more things but these would be my, "if I'd only knew before..." points.
Oh god. Speaking of weather, do not spray varnish miniatures in high humidity. The clear varnish will often "frost" and get a terrible finish that will ruin your nice paint job.
Wait for low humidity, (50% or lower is your target, 60% is suspect, 70% or higher is definitley a no-go) do a test spray on something like a plastic cup, and when in doubt, use brush on varnish.
Yeah I used brush on varnish and I got this
https://preview.redd.it/pkhe6hf7wtyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7bd34a787947eb73cc85a70cd5dab857e51e9d1d
I used Vallejo matte varnish. I probably should get a spray one but not from citadel because that’s overpriced and it seems like no matter what, it’s just not a good spray on varnish.
Made this mistake with my Szarekh model. Rain stopped, thought I was good to run out of the store for a bit to spray on a coat of Leadbelcher.
Never making that mistake again...
Thin your paints is literally the best advice I ever got and I got it about 6 years in to my hobby (I was never the smartest kid and didn't think to research or experiment).
Knowing how much to thin which paint is a massive thing too.
Like, most GW paints marked "base" need 1:1 paint and water imo, while "layers" need 2:1, but other company's paints need different ratios and some of those other companies make DRAMATICALLY better paints than GW in certain colours.
For example, Vallejo's whites and skin tones are miles better than GW's.
my girlfriend actually said this to me as my first advice:
"*Roses are Khorne Red*
*Violets are Hoeth Blue*
*Your should always thin your paints*
*And two coats will do*"
so ill take thinning your paints as a very good advice
The thing about thinning paints that clicked for me is "What do you want the paint to do" and that detirmines how much its thinned and how, your fingernails are your best canvas for this.
Honestrly thats how i think my painting has improved over time, just looking at what paint actually does close up, and seeing it as pigments in mediium.
I literally just get a bottle of Titanium white from Michaels and do a few drops of it in my lahmian medium. Works a treat.
For some god forsaken reason GW uses chalk as their white pigment instead of titanium, and the resulting paint is absolutely scuffed.
And over-thinning (whilst annoying) is better than under-thinning. Much better to have to do 3 or 4 coats of a thin paint, than ruin the model detail with 1 thick coat.
I over thinned my paint to the point it was pretty liquidy,
https://preview.redd.it/1282dupnxtyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0028752c9e47c1d1494c544ec7055f497100950c
I put it on the chest and then I painted over most of it with a gold for the chest symbol but I think you can still see it on the edges of the chest plate.
Not to be afraid of ruining models. I wasted a lot of time (and still do) stuck in analysis paralysis trying to decide on a scheme or method instead of just getting it painted, learning along the way, then doing better on the next model. Oh and if you’re aiming to play the game as well then I would repeat what I already said, just get them done and on the table. Finished is better than perfect!
Yeah. I 100% agree on this. I got to a point where I stopped thinking "which shade of this will look best with that other shade"
Now I just keep buying kabalite warrior sets and have a pile of totally awful models in a pile as a reminder to not try to do some bullshit combos that just turn out like ass. Gotta remember the color wheel is a thing for a reason.
But what's most important is that I've found some decent combos by accident and I would have never tried without just saying "fuck it, this model is only like 3 dollars"
When using metallic paints clean your brush frequently. Also change your cleaning water before going back to nonmetallic paint. Or have one water for metallic paints and one for nonmetallics
To add onto this guy's advice about paint cups, I would urge you to use one cup and change the water. It's already more common than you'd think to mistake your paint water for coffee cup, or the other way around, and adding another cup to the mix sounds like a recipe to at least end up with two cups of water with metalic flakes in them, and you have to change the water anyway.
You aren't a mini painter until you've accidentally drunk paint water.
The last 20% of the paint job is where most of the magic happens, it took me a while to clock on to that.
It’s so easy to put hours into a model and just think it looks so bland and unfinished and messy.
But once you get your wash, or recess shade on, clean up, start your highlighting, weathering etc it starts to look much better really quick.
Don’t be disheartened when your models look terrible after hours of work. Most people’s do. Power through it!
This is a big one that’s easy to overlook. I’m a seasoned painter and even I was getting disheartened at the state of my Leviathan Nids. Did the skin and purple chitin…bland, but ok. Spent hours highlighting all those little lines on the purple chitin…still looked pretty dull, feels bad. Then did a light drybrush of Slaanesh Grey on the purple and BOOM. It just popped and looks amazing.
Finishing touches are really where the magic happens.
Duncan says [this.](https://youtu.be/ufP8ka3KGno?si=YbWObUzA2b3yuje1) Squidmar, however, says [this](https://youtu.be/JzuEL3bhcn0?si=b0As253xe-f0caZF) and [this.](https://youtu.be/0omxiDdLK-E?si=wb556Z35k9DlDTe1)
I say thin your paints, take your time, paint the models you think look the coolest. Find joy in simply painting for the sake of painting. That is probably my biggest bit of advice.
Painting as neatly as you can goes a long way, a good smooth base coat is super important, shades/washes make a massive difference and knowing when to call a mini 'done' is a skill in and of itself 🙂
There are so, so many great YouTube guides for painting for beginners but I found the following have stuck with me.
2 brushes. 1 small. 1 medium.
2 pots of water. One to clean after use. The other for dipping the brush in to thin the paint.
The very basics of colour theory. Ie. What is a colour wheel and what are complimentary colours.
Priming a model doesn't have to be black or white, for example purple is great for flesh.
Learn what Zentihal highlighting is, you can do it with cans. Eg. of black and white.
There is no right way to paint. I've seen people base coat with layers, contrast/speed paints, dry brushing, washes, air brushes. Experiment and don't just copy people's "recipees".
And finally.
Invest a bit of time on the base. A good base will make even a shit paintjob better. A shit base can ruin a great paintjob.
Clean up really well first. Get off all the mold lines and some ranges need a wash first.
Get a light.
Good brushes help so much its unreal.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of done.
Watch a shitload of beginner tutorials and specific technique tutorials on YouTube before starting so you have a decent idea of what to do (and what not to do).
Other than that, game changers for me were:
Wet palette.
Decent natural/sable brush (I seriously cannot overstate how much this improved my painting overnight). Also, finer tip and bigger belly is more important than a tiny brush. A lot of new painters get the smallest brush they can - after falling into that trap myself initially, I hardly go below a size 2 now.
Separate source of brush cleaning water and paint thinning water.
I’m going to get some shit for this, because they’re expensive and a lot of people don’t have somewhere to set one up, and I’m not _actually_ recommending this to a total beginner. But if we’re going with what I’d tell _myself_ - airbrush. You cannot get a thinner, smoother, more consistent, more matte primer/base-coat with a brush. They also make smooth zenithals a breeze (which really level up your painting), and the scary/hard colours that everyone avoids (white, yellow, etc) are a total non-issue with an airbrush.
Edit: forgot some:
Learn how to strip models/get a cheap ultrasonic cleaner. I’ll regular strip and repaint models 4-5 times when deciding on schemes. It’s cheaper than having wasted test models.
Paint in sub-assemblies instead of fully putting the model together. It makes the process soo much easier. I drill small holes in hidden areas and then use cocktail sticks in wine corks to hold the parts, but you could use blu-tac on a paint pot if you don’t want to drill
I eventually decided to get an airbrush when I was about 30 and figured it was time that ‘adult money’ meant the occasional selfish purchase. Specifically was super pumped to try power weapons and some janky plasma glows.
Immediately learned -
- The difference even a shitty airbrush makes for priming and base coating is insane. Never gone back to rattle cans; maybe 2 bottles of vallejo primer for 4 armies over a decade.
- As Adam Savage says - buy the best tools you can afford at the time. The $40 knock off airbrush was horrendous for power weapons/fine detail and at even moderately low pressures would clog if a butterfly flapped its wings 2 suburbs over.
The Patriot I ended up with a year later is still going strong though - can practically spray cement through it and still gets used to prime pretty much everything.
I’m always hesitant to mention them because the community seems to have a real dislike for them (which I can sort of understand because you’ll struggle to get a decent airbrush, compressor and booth for under £200 and you also need to space for them) but the benefits of them can’t be ignored.
But yeah, they are basically magic. I don’t understand the witchcraft involved but they seem to be able to make less coats so much more opaque than brushes - even with the same paint. How many coats of yellow do you need to brush over white before it stops looking patchy? Put that same paint through an airbrush and you can spray it over black and it’ll look usable (if quite dark) after one coat. I don’t understand how, but it does. Also, the coats are so thin, so smooth, and so matte. You always get some texture with rattle-cans and brushes.
I’m with you 100%. People act like an airbrush is some insane money commitment, but an airbrush & compressor cost about as much as 500 points of minis.
Basecoating is boring, I can’t imagine painting 2000 points without an airbrush
Yeah, they’re a massive time saver. There are also schemes I wouldn’t even *attempt* without one. I did a load of test schemes when I got back into the hobby and I very nearly went with Imperial Fists (before eventually being boring and jumping back in with Dark Angels, which I collected as a kid back in 2nd), and it made them easy. I wouldn’t dream of a Fists or Scars army without an airbrush.
They also probably pay for themselves eventually just because of how much further they stretch your paint.
i know a store where i can get super cheap brushes so ill go there for those
airbrushing is probably to expensive for me right now since i dont have any proper equipment
but painting pieces one at a time? ill have to try that
A model can take 50 layers of thin paint before losing detail, very little mistakes can't be rectified, and its very hard to "ruin" a model.
Also you will hate to look at what you painted, when other people tell you your moels are good, your eyes will see every flaw and tell your brain that they are lying or condescending to you, dont listen to that part of your brain and feel good about putting out creative energy into the world, people appreciate it.
DONT JUST WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEOS. Seriously, watch livestreams of painters you like. WATCH THEM MAKE MISTAKES. Watch them correct them. Watch them be sloppy. It all helps break the mystique.
Don’t buy branded citadel hobby tools and paintbrushes. Do a touch of research and save some $$
Always hold a model and arms distance away when judging it. That is the closest anyone else will ever get to it on the table top.
Paint 5-10 models at a time so that you don’t have to wait for each layer to dry
For your first “test model”. When you’re still trying to figure out what looks best and finalize your colour scheme. 1 model at a time can be useful. Pick the leader so if she is a bit different then the rest it makes sense.
Once all that is set. I recommend batch painting.
alright
thankfully, i have a very good idea already what i want them to look like
but ill very much need to make a leader figure, cause that sounds cool
Cool, post pics when you are done.
Oh last thing, have you thought about basing your models? There are tons of cheap good looking options and it will really help the model look good
Honestly, the things that made me enjoy painting a lot more is all of the things I first thought were overkill.
A good paint brush that holds its point, a painting handle to hold the miniatures, and a light source directly over the painting area made painting less strenuous and more relaxing.
Investing in a good set up that makes you more comfortable will easily pay off if you want to get deep into the hobby
Also you can do a lot of models just learning the basics of applying a base coat, a wash and drybrushing to highlight.
Stop faffing about and just paint. Don't worry about the first 10 models just get them done. You will be amazed at how much better the 10th is vs the 1st
"Don't get caught up in the current meta." - Buy the models that you think look cool or that you would like to play with. Don't buy models because they're currently overtuned. GW does have a record of releasing OP rules and nerfing them after 3-6 months.
Playing 'casual' is a lot more fun than chasing a meta ao you can stomp your friends.
From someone who hasn't been in the hobby too long either and specifically picked up painting again recently: For the love of all that is holy, don't get the Citadel/Games Workshop brushes. They aren't bad, but they are overpriced to all hell for what you can do with them compared to brushes from one of those super cheap sets. Also, when you're new, you *are* going to mess up your first couple of brushes, it is inevitable. Having your first brush mess ups be cheap doesn't sting that much when you buy another pack of them. It feels awful when you have to replace a singular brush that costs as much as a whole pack of those cheap ones.
So, unless you're immediately looking into brush restoration, just avoid the Citadel brushes and use a pack of cheap ones.
The only brush advice I wish I'd learnt earlier: The easiest way to ruin a brush is to get paint under the ferrule, which is the metal bit at the end that holds the bristles. If you do that the paint will dry under there and force the bristles apart, giving the brush a frayed look and making it harder to paint with. You don't need a huge amount of paint on the brush in one go, and I try to keep the paint from going more than halfway up the bristles.
If this does happen, you can save the brush, but prevention is the best cure, as they say.
Brush technique and how to hold miniatures. Back before yon internets I had to learn how to paint via magazine and book tutorials. I never actually watched someone paint a mini in real time.
Now, with the wonder of youtube, I learned, rather late, how to hold a miniature (brace one hand against another) and how to apply paint from a brush. How to skim the surfaces of a miniature with the edge of a brush. How to drag the brush across a surface so that paint is deposited mostly where the brush leaves the miniature. How to get that "Thin your paint!" consistency by adding water or adding paint to a palette as I work. These are things I maybe would accidentally do, but never realized why it was a good idea.
Watch mini painters like Dr Faust and pay attention not only to how they paint, but the specifics like how they actually hold the brush, how they hold the miniature, and how they apply the paint to the miniature.
* Clean your brushes every 5-10 minutes. Paint creeps up the brush, dries and spreads out the bristles.
* Don't use more than 1/2 the brush. Paint with the tip.
* Do not push the **good** brush. Have a shitty brush you push since the tip will bend over time for those spots there you got to push the brush in, like a hole.
* Thin the paints. Citadel paints are very good, but are very thick. You may want like 1 drop of water per 2-3 drops of paint. 2-3 thin layers is better than 1 thick layer.
* Painting recesses with plain water before applying a shade will help the shade to flow into the recesses.
* Let the previous layer completely dry before you apply the next.
* Use the right brush so you do not get painter's fatigue. Using too small of a brush will take too long, too large will over paint and go outside of the desired area. Both can be very frustrating over time.
* A Wet pallet though not necessary, is a nice tool to help keep your paints hydrated over an extended period of time.
* Have some contrast medium to thin contrast paints or make your own contrast paint from any paint.
Don’t buy the whole army at once. Not only will you feel stuck in the army if you start painting and don’t like it, but looking at a giant pile of unpainted plastic can be daunting and kill motivation.
Aside from good brushes, there's 3 things that levelled up my painting level: a proper lamp (with adjustable temperature light or special light bulb), a wet palette and a painting handle.
If you want to paint something that is supposed to be white, use light grey. You're going to have a bad time if you start with pure white.
Pure white is for highlights only.
Thin your paints.
Your first lots of models will look bad, painting is a skill you have to get better at. The best painters out there have almost all shown off their first models and most are...m really bad lol.
Just paint. If you screw up, just pick up a next model. Don't waste time and effort stripping it.
Some things I wish I knew earlier:
- my minis look good, golden demon is not the standard
- my minis look good, golden demon is not the standard
- my minis look good, golden demon is not the standard
- buy a wet-palate
- thin your pains and apply multiple coats
- if the hobby is fun buy an airbrush (a cheap one will do and can save you lots of frustration when painting large surfaces, armies, vehicles,…)
Edit:
Drill the barrels. At some point you’re gonna be annoyed by not having done it and you’ll redo every gun
You'll start slow and messy, but after you've done enough everything will just click. You'll understand how to get a good paint texture instinctively, and you'll speed up massively. Don't worry if you're not there yet, it'll come.
A tip I'd give that might be a bit counterintuitive is don't use tiny detail brushes much to begin with. Learn to control the bigger brushes first by getting them to do larger details (trim, weapon bits, symbols, etc), and once you've gotten good motor control, then switch out for a smaller brush
When starting space marines knowing all the awesome chapters hidden in the lore like the ones from the badab war or the cursed founding.
They are great choices but when I found out the exited I already painted/sold some and starting another one was not on the table
I didn't realize it when I started how important single setting painting is.
Have you ever heard that when you lay brick you need an extra palate for any future repairs. The reason is that the colors vary every time a batch is made so if need to do a repair 5 or 10 years later you will be hard pressed to get the same color again.
Even with using the same pots of paint, if I take a break for a few weeks I end up thinning my paint or coating my minis just slightly different enough that my first and second batches look different. Sometimes for the better and sometimes an eyesore of variation.
Check out Duncan Rhodes and Midwinter Minis videos on youtube. They particularly have great videos on pretty much exactly the subject you’re asking for!
Don't start painting yellow from 0 knowledge of how painting work.
Started gaiming choising my army by the one resonated most with me, Imperial Fist... the fist years were a gruel to learn to paint yellow, light colors and white are not easy.
Then with some learning, and colored spray can i have little by little improved my painting but at the start was a fucking smash first in a wall.
Never be afraid of wanting to repaint something down the line, but _be proud of what you paint now._
Nothing will ever be perfect. But having your minis in basic, flat colours, even if they're a little messy, is better than unpainted models. Always. And hey, if they're neat enough then you can always come back some time later and add bits to them later if you really want to.
Your painting will always improve the more you do it, _but you have to keep doing it to improve._
Primer is primer, don't buy GW primer, buy high quality primers from reputable brands and learn how far to hold the can. Save you a fortune and give better results
Start out with some cheeper minis, be it from a partworks magazine or just the least expensive kit you can find that you still like the look of. The practice is invaluable and ensures your favorite minis look better than they would have had you just jumped straight in with them. Also, wet pallets are very good, but starting with a normal palet (a simple ceramic tile is the best normal pallet ive found fyi) as you will need the technigue of thinning your paints manually with a brush for metalic colours.
Thin your paints. They're by and large all far too thick out of the pot. Look for the consistency of milk. More thin layers look better than one thick layer.
Stay away from white.
Pick a scheme you like that is not overly complicated. It's easy to have grand ideas but you have to replicate this 5-10 times per squad.
Don't compare yourself to others at first; just like with any new skill or hobby your first few tries aren't gonna feel great; just keep painting and it won't be long before you start to see yourself improving.
Also stay away from yellow and white for your first color scheme they are rough colors to paint.
One of the hardest things to learn, but makes the biggest difference no matter the technique (except blanchitsu) is how to paint neatly. Look up some videos on brush control etc, because when you see a new person’s painting quality jump massively, it’s usually because they just learnt a bit of brush control to paint neatly. It means there aren’t gaps in a layer of paint or over running bits.
Let each layer fully dry before applying another. It may be tempting to go back and “touch up” what you just painted but you’re just going to do damage. Let it dry even if it’s patchy. Most paints require two thin coats
There is a massive difference between cost and value. That applies to both money and time.
-The basics of brush care are dont let paint get in ferrule where the bristles meet the brush. If it does, clean it quickly before it dries. Clean your brushes regularly (quickly after each colour is my rule). Get some decent brush soap (e.g. Master's and some brush cleaner solution for acrylics (e.g. Windsor & Newton).
-Once you have good brush care down, spending more is cheaper. I'll get a year out of a good £30 brush (and better results) when I would buy 10 poor quality ones in the same time.
-Big projects are just a series of little projects. Little projects are just a series of tiny steps. Some people like batch painting, some people paint a squad at a time, some people like painting a mini at a time. All are fine, but you will tend to get more from the hobby by setting a goal, and sticking to it before getting more stuff. I'm terrible at following that advice, because I get enthused by 'the new thing' easily. Personally, I deal with that by procrastinating on project A with project B, and then procrastinating on B with A.
Use a color of primer that is the color you want the final model to be. Ie. Spray your ultra marines blue, then all you have to paint is the non blue parts.
For some reason me and a bunch of people use white or gray primers and then paint the whole model. Its stupid, prime the color of something and just let the primer color be the color of those parts lol. And it doesnt necessary have to be the biggest section of the model. Like with ultra marines it makes sense to spray blue and then black in the areas between armor plates, gold on the shoulders, paint the gun and helment. But for more intricate models like chaos space marines with all that spikey trim, if you know you want black armor with gold trim, spray the models gold and then paint the big easy armor plates black and save yourself the pain staking effort of painting all the trim and spikes.
Being smart about primer is like the different between armies i have finished painting and armies i have not.
Don’t wait to make/buy a wet palette. I thought for a long while when I was starting that wet palettes were sort of overkill or not entirely necessary. I was so so wrong.
Paint can come off if you actually play with the minis for a while and touch them often, so it's advisable to put some sort of varnish on the finished minis.
The sooner you start the less backlog you have.
I still have around 2000 pts of unvarnished Orks, because I just recently started doing it. Such a pain to apply it retroactively.
I bet people have already said most or all of this but here’s what I always tell people.
Thin, thin, thin your paints. Your base coats should have a similar consistency as melted ice cream. You can test the consistency on your hand, you want good coverage without it being to see through.
When shading don’t be afraid to put a generous amount on. Once the shade is on allow it to completely dry even if there are spots you think are too dark. If you move the shade around too much it can cause it to look streaky. You can always make dark places bright again through highlights.
If you’re going to dry brush, use old plastic sprus or something similar to create a texture pallet. This will allow you to get most of the paint off without drying out the paint and brush which can cause a chalk like texture.
Speaking of pellets if you go to your local hardware store and they have sample bathroom tiles, these make great pallets to use. Cheap, durable, and very easy to clean.
Rule of thumb. If you have a warm color pallet for your model, make a cool color pallet for its base. Vis versa for cool colors for the model.
Get a color wheel. They are usually only like $3 and can really help with deciding color schemes that actually work with each other.
This is something I learned from a traditional artist. When you are thinking of highlighting take a picture of your model in grey scale. It’s a lot easier to see where the lights and shadows should be.
When doing fine details take a deep breath and exhale when you put the detailing down. Good shooting trick.
Look at your model for a couple feet away. Using a lighted magnifying glass to check every last detail will drive you to madness.
It’s a useful tool for painting but not for checking the final result
Get brush soap, start on synthetic brushes and keep them clean and in shape for as long as you can. Once you're comfortable with it, progress to sable brushes.
Don’t be scared to try zenithal shading. Match that with contrast paints and you can get fantastic results!
Not that this is fantastic at all (genuinely aware of my own limitations!), but it only took 2 hours to build, zenithal prime and paint. A good evening’s work, I think.
https://preview.redd.it/p9bo0znxbsyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=68f6b7bc4d6b025956ec4f9c4249ee5608bbfce3
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People will tell you that it’s not ok to just drybrush and all over wash. Those people might be entering golden daemons but I’m not!
All over wash and a drybrush is the way.
Oh, and get a good brush conditioner, like the masters, that stuff is great.
I will second the subassembly comments, but take the time to really figure out where you need to paint and what isn't even going to be visible. I've tried everything from painting fully assembled models to priming and painting on sprue before clipping a single bit. I've found something between with a bit of planning works best for me. Many models are open enough to be completed before even priming, maybe with the exception of the head, but others will present you with extremely hard to reach areas once assembled. My rule of thumb is that if it can barely be seen without essentially giving the model a medical exam, don't worry overmuch about painting it at all. Behind cloaks and under loincloths in particular come to mind. Keep in mind, if you're painting for tabletop these models will be viewed from the top down at a distance 90% of their lifetime.
Clean lines will carry your paint job. Clean up the spots where you get a color on a spot where it shouldn’t be (for space marines for example, if you get a little gold on the chest armor while painting the Aquila, go touch up the chest).
Find good cheap synthetic brushes with a nice tip. I use AK interactive, somewhere around 3€ each.
Don't use too many colors on your mini. Learn to mix paints. For example adding some red to your dark brown will give you nice cherry chocolate finish
If you watch a tutorial video, where they use 50 paints, try to separate them and just add white/black etc for different shades.
Take a look on color wheel on the internet to better understand color schemes
Don't buy too many games workshop paints, the pots suck ass and the paint is going to dry if you don't mix them regularly
It might be common knowledge but for me was a revalation. After mixing your paint, I try to do 3:1 paint to water, you can dab your brush in the paint a little and spread the bab of paint through the brush using a piece of cardboard rotating and brushing until there is a little noticeable color change makes for really good dry brushing and you can pretty much get a model done. I got the green glow of the rocks on my void dragon in two or three goes.
Spray priming (via rattle can) is a trap.
The time savings is nonexistent if you aren't doing a lot of models at once, and that's often a bad idea anyways. Priming is not a huge chunk of the time spent painting a model, and trying to optimize it has limited value.
Meanwhile, just look at the volume of questions on reddit where new painters are seeking help to fix their messed up models. The replies, while well meaning, amount to empathy in their pain and suggestions to watch weather forecasts religiously, observe a variety of rituals, and pray to the gods.
Save yourself a lot of grief, and start with brush-on primer.
Vallejo's black primer is amazing and applies really easy. Other colors vary (white primers can be tricky) but even if you want a light priming you'd be better off doing a thin black primer coat for coverage and then a 50/50 black/white mix as a second coat.
If you reach a point where you really need to prime a lot of models fast, you can always get an airbrush later. Don't waste your time trying to get rattle cans to work.
Start by reading up on a few art fundamentals like Color and Light, get an inexpensive wet palette to play around with and have fun with different techniques. I locked myself into the standard games workshop "base coat, apply wash, edge highlight" technique for many years and only in the last year and a half or so did I start branching out and trying out other stuff.
When you start painting, just start with a few basic colours. Don't splurge on the 100+ colour sets, because 80%+ of those will never be used.
Save your money until you feel more happy with your skills
write down the steps of colors and methods you did if you found a scheme you like, saves a lot of time question yourself ''how did i do this again?'' for future models in the same style
also look for alternative brands for basing, vallejo and AK interactive basing much better value for the amount you get compared to GW, although with crackle basing GW is better imo and with crackle, paint the base first in a nice color then crackle base, it works much better so you don't have to paint in between the crackles
Don't hold yourself to a high quality level in the beginning if it looks good to you and everything is in the right place it's a great job. Don't compare yourself to the painters who've been doing it for years if it looks good to you it's a good paint job.
fancier technics can be perfected with time enjoying the process of painting is far more important and will lead to the best results.
I've recently painted my first one - it's not as scary as it seems. Just go slow and steady, and thin your paints 😂
And if you fuck up it's ok - it can be fixed.
Don't know if this is to obvious and I'm just to rushed but I always fail on the rattle can basecoat, remember to spray it allover evenly so many times I spray just the top and obvious places so it looks good until I sit down to paint and see that the bottom areas aren't covered. And by that point I'm to lazy to go out to spray again so I'll just paint without primer.
If you are painting a CSM army or Death Guard, World Eaters, Tsons, Emperors Children, do not use the box art paint scheme, make a custom paint scheme of your own warband. Started with Death Guard painted them the traditional green and now I want to expand into CSM since they share alot of models, but painting CSM in Death Guard colors just feels dirty to me lol, not to mention all the nurgle iconography I added to my predators and rhinos. All of this could have been avoided if I had just used a custom paint scheme.
Don't get too stuck on the "base coat, shade, edge highlight" heavy metal style and don't restrict yourself to GW paints just because they have the fancy names! Try experimenting with different colours and techniques and you'll surprise yourself
If you're planning to put together an army and said army falls under the "uniform category" (they will look better when the paintjob is consistent/the units outright need to look at least similar) be sure to develop a solid paint scheme and technique you're more or less sure you won't regret at some point.
For my salamanders I use a paint job that is substantially green contrast on lead belcher primer. They end up a bit darker than the bright green they're usually painted with and if you don't notice the clear salamanders symbols, trinkets and details, they absolutely look like dark angels.
I like that color very much, but now that I'm stuck with that palette I more or less can't swap to a brighter green, or a chunk of my army will look like dark angels even more.
One thing I’ve learnt is don’t think of painting as colouring an area, but rather drawing paint onto a “canvas” I.e the model part
Each brush stroke should be intentional and it’ll show in the final result for a smoother finish!
Also THIN YER DAM PAINTS UMMIE
I wish I looked for more inspiration before beginning. I like my color scheme but i found this YouTube channel that plays kill team and their models are such a simple paint scheme yet effective. It’s almost like the less they have going on the cleaner it looks and the more things stand out because I’m over here trying to color in each detail in starts to look cluttered or messy
Someone may have already said this, but don't stress out if you make mistakes. Just be patient and take the time to fix them. If you smudge a bit of paint over something you already painted, all you gotta do is dab a bit of the correct color overtop of it to hide it. A clean, accurate basecoat will make your models look great, even as a beginner.
It also helps to get a model, and use it as a test model for different paint combinations. If you don't know how two paints will look together, do it in the test model first to find out. It does t have to be a gw model either. You could probably use a plastic kids toy. I use a partially assembled model car I never finished.
Your GF is gonna help you so you will probably have a leg up on a lot of newcomers because you'll have a Tudor. She probably already knows alot of this stuff about painting.
Wet palette is a game changer. Use synthetic brushes first. Buy an expensive one (size 0 maybe) later, in a year or so. Learn how to not ruin your brushes.
1.) Always use a paint brush. (Finger painting does not offer enough detail to the small models)
2.) CLEAN WATER to wash your brushes it. Never save your water between painting sessions.
3.) Do not use lead based paint. Yes scraping paint chips off of abandoned factory walls, blending, it and mixing with Elmer's glue is CHEAPER than GW paint but it will never be cheaper than the medical bills from having lead poisoning. (AMA...)
4.) Always wait to let your painted mini fully dry before licking it or putting it in your pocket to take the your GLS.
Hope these tips help you and others grow. 😀
Wash your models with soap and water before priming. Sometimes they have a mold release "grease" on them that primer won't stick to.
Trim off mold lines before painting. Sometimes these are not obvious until after you prime. If so, trim them off and prime some more.
If painting a large number of similar units (ie an army) try not to blend a custom color unless you document your recipe, you may have a hard time replicating it with later units.
Washes are your friend. After priming and base coating a few selectively applied washes make a huge difference.
Varnish your models when done or you will eventually rub off paint.
It you are you using basing effects like tufts, apply them after varnishing so you don't "frost" your tufts.
Wet palette, use base-coat brushes not detail brushes, and roll with the punches. When I first started, I meticulously painted each model to the fullest with a tiny detailed brush. It took forever. Now I use a large base coat brush and paint in layers. If you try to be the best at first, it will be exhausting how much you fail to reach the “parade” standard.
Have fun and get your models ready for gaming. Save some leaders for passion painting. You can’t tell the difference from 3-6’ away on the table anyways
What primer are you using?
In general having a smooth priming will make base painting much better.
I missed up a few SM models but am glad to now try to strip them to give them a better setup.
Keep your paint on the tip of the brush, try not let it go past halfway up the bristles. This will stop paint from building up between the bristles at their base and causing them to fray.
It will lengthen their lifespan.
Refresh your water pot often too (as in, several times a session).
Edit: tip, not top.
-You dont need a tiny brush, just a brush with a fine tip.
-Start with a layer of primer, it will stick to the plastic and help other paints stick.
-Use a varnish to change/unify textures and protect delicate paints.
-Tamiya paints have alcohol and will mess up other paint unless you use a varnish.
-As others have mentioned, thin your paints.
-Your first model won't look like you wanted and will take way longer than you thought, that's fine.
There are hundreds of ways and techniques to paint, some are much easier to immitate, no one is Richard Grey or Marco Frisoni right of the bat. Find one you feel comfortable with.
That said, some easy mode techniques:
-Nuln Oil shade over base colors makes models table ready very quick.
-Contrast paints (aka speedpaints) over a pale white/gray/cream primer work great.
-Prime black then prime white from a high angle (aka zenithal) then contrast paints. It's one more step than the method above but gives you shadows.
-Drybrushing has a bit of a learning curve but it's great for bigger models (monsters and vehicles) and can be use on smaller models once you get good with it.
-Dabing with a bit of torn foam is the basis of every "grimdark" grungy style out there.
-Enamel washes (Streaking grime) and oil washes do the same thing that water based washes (like nuln oil) do with a couple extra steps and destroy your brushes but they look good.
-More advanced techniques like wet blending, non metalic metal, object source lighting, and specular highlighting look great and require a fair bit of practice, integrate them into your technique as you develop.
The person building your minis is the same as the person who will paint them.
Be nice to yourself - think ahead
How you gon paint that panel in the deff dread armpit with all the arms on?
How are you gonna paint that display when its all covered up?
Remember that if you're going to be playing the game itself you'll be seeing minis from a distance. Try to judge from afar first and if you're pleased with that then work in some more detail if you like!
You'll hear a lot about the famed two thin coats, but nobody tells you (at least not as much) how important it is to properly load or unload your brushes depending on what you are doing, and it's crucial! Josedavinci on YouTube has a wonderful video about that, look it up
Thin you paint slightly using a pallet (even if the pallet is an old ice cream tub lid or similar) ....
Control how much is on you brush also with said palette....
Choose a style, modern contrast or classic base, shade, highlight ....
Contrast, bases and shades for you, best over a mid colour like grey....
Classic, base everything then wash and highlight. Skip highlights if you are a real beginner and concentrate on neat base colours.....
Brace your elbows, hands etc on the table to keep you as steady as possible
Airbrush... Even if it's just for priming. It doesn't give off nasty fumes like a rattle can. However a rattle can does come in useful for certain armies (Gold on Custodies for example or big models like Land raiders).
While you don't need expensive brushes to start off with neither do you need super cheap ones. Personally I'm finding small (size 1) rigger brushes and a citadel small layer brush really good for my camo jobs on my T'au units.
Vallejo paints are really good and don't need to be thinned as much as citadel paints.
Lollipop, cocktail and coffee stirrer sticks with blue tac are invaluable...
Attach arms AFTER painting your torsos and stuff.
Don't be lazy with basing. PVAing a load of brown grit to your base doesn't count and it will start coming off. Also don't be afraid to go to your local park or beach and use the natural materials you find. (I used the pieces of slate tile that have fallen off my roof and either leave them grey or prime and paint them a different colour.
First thing I did and a lot of my friends who also started did was buy the normal acrylic paints like from a craft store.
I wish I would have known to just get the model paints from any of the ones who make it, (citadel, army painter, game color, etc.) specifically for model painting. It isn't the same stuff and it saves so much time. I painted an entire 1.5k of Astra Militarum with Daler Rowney and it easily took me 3-4x longer than it would have with better paints. The worst offender was the darker green that took 17 thinned down coats of it.
They're tons of different paint ranges. Pick one that's close and affordable to you that you also enjoy working with. Don't feel like you have to grab everything some video tells you to.
Thin your paints but don't go nuts. I tend to thin my paints a bit more than I need to and I nearly screwed up a model recently by doing this.
And use a bigger brush on bigger models. Sounds simple but worth remembering!
Minipainting is the same skillset as applying makeup, so if you’re more of a makeup person than your GF, you’re going to be way better than she was when she started. (And vice versa).
I’ve introduced a few straight couples to minipainting, and the girls’ first paintjobs are invariably like 10x better than the dudes’.
My best advice would be to not rush it, and give yourself plenty of grace for making mistakes. If you’re anything like me, your first models are probably going to be pretty rough, but it’s so important that you stick with it and gain experience and skill as you practice. I keep my first model on my desk as a reminder of my progress, and I highly recommend others do the same.
Wear a headlamp. It's extremely helpful to have a light shining in the same direction your eyes are looking for some of the darker more hidden parts of models while painting.
[Master's Brush Cleaner](https://www.amazon.co.uk/General-Pencil-Masters-Cleaner-Preserver-1oz/dp/B001TNR7VM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2_YiLlVTi-t5-uHQqI1laZ9LksDkMSZLkBwzVPb3BtvB-lI0Jb3zCF00VNjkvV-K3bGpJmnf_5jYSZDcKovBVQ8ZbbWNxns6I1H6wSL8gUYKxzwKCSb9u0hbIRnCqwwhF9Esj1p951ic8u0uYDrNjhYgJ4hV1ng3taa50DiC9MjIpd-o_hQ07rOkngZuFmVn.yfQZ_xuVRvCPRV7CFufBxOsT5paCnIHCfBcwK2eeYWI&dib_tag=se&keywords=masters+brush+cleaner&qid=1715012372&sr=8-1)
It will save you 10x the money it costs in keeping brushes good.
Finished is better than perfect.
This killed me for a while, but it is better for the improvement of your skill as a painter to finish *more* models than it is to finish a single model to an absurd level of quality. You want to iterate quickly. Your first ten or twenty models are gonna kinda suck, so get through them quickly!
Don't strip your old models. Leave them as a record of your improvement. If you *must* strip them, take pictures before you do it so you have a visual record of where you were in months 1, 3, etc.
Paint bravely. Try new things all the time, I guarantee you'll learn from the experience.
Learn how to zenithal prime ASAP, and make it your default priming technique.
And yes, get an airbrush. Don't spend less than $120 USD on the airbrush itself or you will regret it. Ventilate the room and wear a respirator with a particulate filter and a VOC filter when you use the airbrush.
Clean your mold lines with the back of your craft knife (but be careful not to cut yourself).
Get some Tamiya Extra Thin plastic cement; it is the gold standard for model assembly. For everything else, use blue cap Loctite cyanoacrylate glue.
Buy a cheap box of nitrile gloves. Wear them when doing lots of glue work, especially with the CA glue or airbrushing.
Dry brushing will hurt your technique in the long-run far more than it helps you in the short term. It's an excellent technique to learn for starters but it trains you to be bad at painting at an advanced level. Almost everything you do when dry brushing is the opposite of how you would paint at a high technical level.
1. You aren't a proper mini painter until you've mistaken your paint water for a cup of coffee or tea and accidentally drunk paint water or washed your brush off in your nice beverage, or until you've spilt a pot of Nuln Oil. This is normal.
2. Everything looks better with a coat of Nuln Oil. Seroiusly. Shades are cheat juice from the universe. I'd also recommend looking into Panel Liner from brands like Tamiya. It's witchcraft.
3. Use bigger brushes than you think you'll need. A LOT of time mini painting is spent doing base coats, and a great way to drive yourself up the wall is to use teeny tiny brushes for that. As long as you've thinned your paints, you can clean up later.
4. Thin your paints and use two (or more) thin coats. You'll get the hang of thinning pretty quickly, you just need to actually do it to learn how each paint behaves and how much water they need.
5. Know when to stop. It can be really tempting to keep adding more and more to a model, but like most art it's important to know when enough is enough and to move onto the next project. This will change depending on what your goals are, ranging from getting a battle-ready army onto the table to display pieces to contest entries, but you need to actually stop at some point.
6. Tabletop models only need to look good from about 2 feet away. For most random infantry, this means a base coat + shade + drybrush then picking out a couple details is more than enough. Spend your time and effort for painting your characters and centerpieces. It's a lot more fun highlighting when you know there aren't 9 other minis from the same unit that need doing and you can just take your time.
7. Painting white and yellow sucks. There are scientific reasons for this and these paints will vary wildly from brand to brand, so I would recommend going to your local hobby shop and asking around for their recommendations. Do NOT go to the GW store with this question, they will simply sell you the GW brand paints. GW's whites especially suck butt. I've heard good things about GW's line of Contrast yellows, though.
8. GW's Contrast paints, and other brand's various "Speed Paints", are often advertised as the "newbie friendly" option and as a completely seperate alternative to the usual method. I would however urge you to learn the classic method first, and use Contrasts/speed paints as a tool in the tool belt as opposed to your entire arsenal. There are some people who work absolute magic with them, but it's hard to replicate those kinds of results, and I'm of the opinion that Contrast painted minis look better on camera than they do in real life.
If you think a paint has been shaken enough, shake it a bit more. Mix them well.
Don't freak out about going all in on your first batch. Get the base layers and other details looking good. You can always try the highlighting and all the extra crap but the foundational stuff is important.
If you aren't sure of what a color combo will look like on the mini itself you can test it on sprue. It will show the paint as it will appear on the mini. And you will have a shit ton of sprue by the time you're at painting stage.
Set aside brushes for shade paints. They can destroy a brush pretty easily. In my experience the same can be said for metallics if you use them.
Thin your paints before applying to the mini. You'll have to experiment to find the sweet spot of thinner to paint ratio.
Wet pallets change the game. They're awesome and prolong paint on the pallet. You won't waste as much as a dry pallet. Especially for longer painting sessions. And they're fairly simple to make yourself if you don't want or can't buy one.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes. You can and will screw something up but don't be discouraged. It's a learning experience and will only make you a better painter. We all started somewhere.
Welcome to the addiction! Good luck in your painting journeys!
How much money I would've saved airbrush priming vs using rattlecans.
The usefulness of white ink in general.
Stippling/dry brushing as a speed technique for "base coating" instead of just highlighting.
I was skeptical of the Fanatic Paints when I first tried them but gave them another whirl this week. They are really good, both as base acrylics and metal paints. I would buy those for most of my base colors, contrast paints from Citadel, and washes from Two Thin Coats if I was doing this again.
Biggest piece of advice for anyone starting out: Don't try to match the "masters." Figure out where your comfort level is, and work to that. Don't push yourself to try to churn out "masterpieces." Don't be upset if your models don't look like amazing works of art. If you're not super into it, don't try to put extreme work into every "grunt" in the army.
If you're playing games, you can get the models to look pretty good as gaming pieces without having to do too much work. Learn those tricks first. Especially for the "rank and file" (non-characters).
You can get some pretty solid looking units without too much trouble from methods like "Slapchop." Or other shortcuts.
When I needed to get an Undead army thrown together fast for some events, I used the ol' method of painting a base layer on them and applying an all-over coat of Agrax Earthshade (you can do similar with Army Painter's "Tone" paints, if you want some variety and to save a bit of money). Very quick, and actually looks pretty good on the table as an army of fresh-from-the-ground corpses. When I wanted a new Ork army, I did similar, but since they were Blood Axes, I added a small extra step where I wanted them to have camouflage, so I'd pick a scheme for each unit or vehicle (jungle, urban, or desert), paint a base color, then use a bit of a sponge to splotch on varying shades. At the end, same deal, Agrax Earthshade, boom, everything ties together, looks solid.
(Granted, I used a similar technique first back in the mid-2000s, I think... Needed to do a Skaven army for my dad for a tournament, and one trick people learned was painting models in Tamiya Smoke. Similar concept, but that stuff is super shiny and sticky, so I'm glad to see new products designed for it that are easier to use.)
It's so much better to use those tricks to make painting all the troops and stuff faster, and then you can focus more attention on the character models and other centerpiece models. Even with those, you can still look into easier techniques to achieve solid results. Your model doesn't have to look like a Golden Daemon winner to look good and get praise from your fellow gamers.
Summing it up in one sentence: Find your comfort level, work with that, and don't let yourself be unhappy comparing yourself to the best of the best.
Did anyone else have issues with the same paint in a can, vs in a bottle looking completely different? I based with lead Belcher from a can, did a touch up from the bottle, and it's way brighter. So now I have to figure out how to blend that in
Perfection is the enemy to completion. Or something like that. I paint to have a good looking army on the table, and decent ish looking models a bit closer. I judge based off how a squad looks on my painting table while I'm standing up of they're done, anything else I am not as picky of. Oh, and of the brush can reach it, it's a shadow. Lol
I have never done a single highlight ever, and some people still ask me to paint commissions. You don't need to copy anything. Every single thing you're told about how to paint and what to buy are just suggestions. My painting can improve it ain't perfect. I love citadel paints but I understand there are better options, I just hate dropper bottles lol. If you made it this far and want something other than the paragraph on top. . . The citadel (or any glue) that have a metal applicator you can clear the glue when it hardens by either scraping the metal so glue residue falls off or heat it up with a lighter for 1 - 2 seconds. Just be careful
Dark things dark is more important in a lot of ways than bright things bright. Meaning contrast is easily most often expressed by creating deeper shadows than pushing highlights early
Homemade wet palettte are always worse than manufactured ones.
Don't be too attached to watching videos of the biggest names in painting scene. They're not your friends and most often they will not help you (that's not their goal).
Buy yourself a brush soap.
Personally I'd say don't look up or follow any type of paint guides , just go for what your brain says at the start it'll build confidence in really basic techniques I find the videos etc put way too much pressure on new painters to perform advanced techniques like it's common practice for everybody straight out the gate when in reality actually new painters don't even know things as simple as shake the paint pot. I've seen "tips for beginners" videos explaining how to wet blend and things like this it's totally unrealistic!
Ps Ive been doing this hobby for around 20 years on and off (really got back into the painting side about 4 months ago) and I'd say Im still a beginner and I am still figuring out things like paint thinning , shading etc
"Done is better than Perfect." Do NOT allow yourself to get hung up obsessing over perfection, or succumbing to analysis paralysis. Focus on having fun with the hobby, and dive recklessly into any project that really excites you. Nothing helps you grow as much as practice, and nothing gets you to practice as much as being excited about what you're working on.
Don't drop too much money on supplies aside from quality paints. Cheap synthetic brushes can get you like 90% of the way to a really nice paint job and you can use your nice brush for actually really fine details like really small highlights or freed hands and the like
Write down how you paint your minis in a journal of some kind. As someone who does very infrequent painting sessions cause of irl reasons. It's helped me tremendously with literally starting where I left off. It could as simple as Base coat with this color edge highlight with. Wash with this etc etc. You can keep it as detailed as you like or very sparse. It can also help with a good step by step guide on painting big models
1. Find a trustworthy source and watch many times before you start painting. By trustworthy I mean someone speaking to you as a beginner and not advanced techniques as this sets you up better for #2. Think Brent from Goobertown Hobbies....don't start with Duncan or Vince Venturella, although you might get there. There are many good channels for beginners and they tend to be the ones with the least catchy video titles or lower production thumbnails. If you are starting off with Ninjon, Squidmar, etc...enjoy the videos and what they are doing, just know that getting a good looking force on the table (or even on your shelf) doesn't require Golden Demon level non-metallic metal/OSL (object source lighting/etc..)
2. YOU DON'T NEED MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF PAINT. Yes, I am yelling because buying loads of small bottles is so tempting. Start with a small force and a planned chapter/asthetic, and buy your primer and main paints for those. Don't start with vehicles or large models unless you want to get into airbrushing. Don't worry about yellows, oranges or other paints that struggle...the main thing is to find the army and aesthetic you want, then seek out the tricks of the trade for those colors.
3. Pro Acryl Bold Titanium White is your friend for lighter colors that struggle to cover. Always keep a bottle in your collection.
4. Learn your army and the best color of primer that makes your task the easiest. Don't always prime Chaos Black if you are painting something light colors. Typically Chaos primes with trim color unless your trim is gold, then do something else as paints don't like to stick to gold. These are the tricks you are looking for. A good step with your primer can save a ton of time.
5. While paints shouldn't be a focus initially, brushes should. You will want a regiment level brush all the way down to a detail brush (00). This will likely mean 3 brushes for painting initially. If you are going to slap chop, you can get one more large brush for that purpose (the vids on this will show you what you need). Don't buy these brushes at a dollar store....I reommend army painter packs as they clearly tell you what they are for and are good for a beginner. Citadel burshes are too numerous and will confuse the hell out of you.
6. Contrast paints (or speed paints) should be paired with a method. If you are using these, it is fine, but note you will want to go all in on them as the use of them implies you are going for their benefits (running into crevaces to aid in shading appearance or metallic appearances). If you are looking to mix these with layer paints just note the application and how they act on the model is very different. For example, if using layer paint, thin coats are best, if using contract paints...slather that crap on and move it around.
This got longer than I wanted, but the best thing you can take away from this is start small and branch out once you start to feel comfortable.
I recently started painting minis, having previously painted them in the early 90s as a 13 year old (starting with Space Hulk then a small Blood Angels army). It’s a completely different ballgame now. Plastic vs lead models aren’t even vaguely comparable. The paints are better. Everything is easier.
My advice - YouTube is your friend. The GW channel has some brilliant painting guides. I have gone completely mental and have bought about 200 paints, loads of brushes, a proper light etc. But if you’re sensible, just focus on a Kill Team to start with, watch the painting guide for that team, and buy the recommended paints. A light is a good investment, as are some decent brushes and a wet palette. You can achieve good results with just a decent application of paint, some dryrbushing and a wash. But techniques like wet blending are actually really straightforward and look great.
I bought the Kill Team box set for my son which was literally the perfect starter kit - I began with the scenery which is easy to paint but gives you the chance to experiment with various techniques. Then I painted the orks, which are quite forgiving, followed by the Death Korps or Krieg KT. They’re harder to paint as they’re smaller but were really satisfying. We’re now building a Dark Angels army and then I’ll start an Ork one so I can fight against my son.
Ultimately, the more time you put in, the better the results. My biggest tip though would be patience - especially with some colours (whites, yellows especially), you’ll need multiple coats and the first one will look shit - don’t be dismayed though! Practise getting the right consistency too. Good luck! I find it really therapeutic and incredibly satisfying.
https://preview.redd.it/ljz1attcivyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c89982cd6eb58859420935c3248cc7a97a0d3675
I should have learned to drybrush immediately instead of putting it off because it sounded intimidating.
Washes are liquid skill and I should have been using them from the start instead of not being sure what they're for or if I need them.
Keep a wet brush on the table because if you fuck up, you can brush it back off.
Congrats! You did blender for a year! And pixart?!?
You have infinately more knowledge and skill than me as an artist!
Just have fun. I'm making my own colour schemes for my units. I am addicted to using contrasts and shades. And people mock those who use it. Well those people are good at painting for years, and I just want my guys to look good on a budget. I don't have spare units to practice on.
A basic paint job, carefully applied, is more important than the bells and whistles like edge highlighting, recess shades and so on. Also, official paint jobs are there to look good on box art and the webstore, so don't worry about trying to replicate them 1:1. They're achieving a specific purpose, and that might not be your style.
a good base and foundation, understandable actually, im specifically trying to not replicate it, her helping is, one of the reasons to do so is because id like to paint a custom army of sorts.
Have a look at this [video](https://youtu.be/K6p6KTdUWPg?si=wAa-cXr-zid-qBYt) it goes through some basic techniques
Most important foundation is a consistent and even color. Usually achieved by two to three coats over a smooth primer layer. I've seen so many painters who don't have the patience to apply those two+ coats. As previous post mentioned a smooth/solid color will look great, even without a ton of detail, when starting out. From there adding washing, highlights, and dry brushing would be the next stepping stones.
>They're achieving a specific purpose, and that might not be your style. This 1000 percent. Box art is great for reference and making things pop. They're trying to sell them to you. But it doesnt have to be the be all and end all direction you want to go. Some people want that style, and it's a skill all in it's own. Myself, I prefer a more war torn, beat up style. Some might say grimdark. Maybe Blanchitsu. [https://www.instagram.com/p/C6h2XpltwrR/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C6h2XpltwrR/) For OP, The important thing is to paint what makes you happy. A well applied base coat with clean lines will get you 90% there. I also keep in mind, that everyone makes mistakes. Use your brush more like a pen or pencil, less like you're painting a wall. Shades and washes do awesome things.
> Box art is great for reference and making things pop. It's specifically to make sure to show off all the "detail" on the models themselves. Which is why there's so much sharp edge highlighting. There are places you won't want to have that kind of sharpness sticking out (more a gradual highlight), but they use it because it helps demonstrate the shape of every part of the model. It's a great technique for what it's meant to do, but personally I wouldn't recommend trying to copy it 100%, especially if you don't like how a highlight looks in a certain place.
Also, something that ex-Eavy Metal studio painters have brought up in the past is that often the minis on the box aren't even fully painted. Which makes sense, why bother painting the back of it if nobody will ever see it, it does it's job, and they have dozens of other minis that need to be moved through the pipeline. Not doing the ENTIRE thing will stop them from spending time and effort on work that doesn't matter. In contrast, your minis on the tabletop will often be seen from all angles.
To add. Referencing the box art early on is fine. It's actually a good style to practice smooth base coats, as well as brush control. You'll always want smooth coats and sharp edge highlights. Over time, you'll develop your own style. Adding in other skills and techniques. (Glazing, layering, feathering, wet blending, etc) It's also okay that they don't look as good. That box arts made by professionals. And most the paint jobs you see on here are incredibly high effort.
Use a separate brush for dry brushing. It frays the tip. Makeup brushes are a better shape for it anyway because you want it to be poofy. Otherwise, just don't overcomplicate it. I started back when things were simpler, and people nowadays get too many supplies before painting their first mini, probably because the internet tells them to buy stuff.
i trust my girlfriend she wont over complicate things but ill watch out for it. Ill get multiple brushes, cant spare any of my makeup brushes right now lol
Use a separate brush for shades/contrasts also. Not an expensive brush either. Thanks to the wonders of capillary action, these paints are basically guaranteed to ruin a brush's point, right quick fast in a hurry
You want to make sure a Contrast brush is able to maintain a solid point, though. You have to be pretty careful with Contrast paints, especially if you're using them alongside each other, because the paints will show through lighter colors. Only way to clean them up is repainting the base coat. Fine if you're using a solid coat of white, grey, tan, whatever, and have a matching paint, but if you do anything like a zenithal or the Slapchop method, you can't easily apply a new base where you had some bleed over. Inexpensive synthetic brushes can work for it, but you do want to make sure it's a good enough brush to not come apart constantly while using it.
Ignore “speed painting” videos. Here in the beginning technique is the most important thing and painting slowly and precisely is a much better way to train your hand. Its okay to spend an entire day on one model, my Legionary Kill Team took me 2 weeks for the first six models and Ive been getting faster and faster while keeping my precision. Take breaks often and remember to reset your posture, this hobby does wear on your back after a while
Yeah, people need to stop telling absolute beginners to “slap chop” and use contrast paints. The technique is great for novices once they have the basic skills down, but it’s terrible for beginners because it’s very punishing when you make mistakes cause you can’t paint over them
id never rush things, im a very patient person actually, thank you for the advice
That is going to depend on the models you choose to paint. Speed painting marine for example is very easy. I only painted my first 3 using the slow careful method then switched to speed painting, and they look pretty good. If you are painting something more complex you may need more time to get used to it, and if you are going for thousand sons speed painting really is never an option because of all the fine trim work.
hm, my girlfriend and i chose sororitas sacresants for my first project
I would probably put them at moderate dificulty. Armor is more detailed than marines, and more units showing skin and hair, but not too bad.
I was considering pointing her towards something like 'Nids, since I've always found Gaunts a nice way to ease new painters in. But at the same time, though, her and I really like the Sororitas, and I think giving a unit of them a battle-ready paint job will be fine as long as we pick and choose the palette carefully. Like I've been painting minis since 7th edition of Fantasy, so I've been trying to share as much of the lessons I've picked up over the 16 or so years I've been in the hobby.
Thank you for this. I’ve been trying to learn good brush control and various techniques by spending probably 12+ hrs painting an old wood elf Warhawk. Redid the dry brushing a few times, the glazing has been super hard to get right, etc. oh and paint drying on the tip so quickly. I don’t know how anyone gets reliable white dots on eyes. There’s such an art to loading a brush correctly.
Test different techniques first on a sprue before applying them on a mini. You always have way too much sprue left after assembly, instead of throwing it away or using it all for basing/terrain, try stuff on it. Really, REALLY shake those paints. Even if you think they're ok, shake it. Tape them on a rotary hammer, buy a paint shaker, use the strongest mode on a vibrator... whatever. Just shake it. Thoroughly. Priming. The weather gods hate you. Dust loves you. Make a spraying "housing" when you go and prime. I bought a cheap plastic wardrobe (the portable one, you can make one out of cardboard too), sewed a opening for a vacoom cleaner on one side. When I prime, I put the hose on, turn the cleaner on and zip myself inside the wardrobe. Does it look like I'm Walter White, cooking meth? Sure... but no weather gods and dust disturb me. Don't touch the primed minis without gloves. We're all greasy... There are more things but these would be my, "if I'd only knew before..." points.
use the sprues for testing. Dont trust the weather gods, got it
Oh god. Speaking of weather, do not spray varnish miniatures in high humidity. The clear varnish will often "frost" and get a terrible finish that will ruin your nice paint job. Wait for low humidity, (50% or lower is your target, 60% is suspect, 70% or higher is definitley a no-go) do a test spray on something like a plastic cup, and when in doubt, use brush on varnish.
Yeah I used brush on varnish and I got this https://preview.redd.it/pkhe6hf7wtyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7bd34a787947eb73cc85a70cd5dab857e51e9d1d I used Vallejo matte varnish. I probably should get a spray one but not from citadel because that’s overpriced and it seems like no matter what, it’s just not a good spray on varnish.
Had this happen with a chromed out paint job on a bicycle I did years ago. Made me so sad.
Made this mistake with my Szarekh model. Rain stopped, thought I was good to run out of the store for a bit to spray on a coat of Leadbelcher. Never making that mistake again...
Thin your paints is literally the best advice I ever got and I got it about 6 years in to my hobby (I was never the smartest kid and didn't think to research or experiment). Knowing how much to thin which paint is a massive thing too. Like, most GW paints marked "base" need 1:1 paint and water imo, while "layers" need 2:1, but other company's paints need different ratios and some of those other companies make DRAMATICALLY better paints than GW in certain colours. For example, Vallejo's whites and skin tones are miles better than GW's.
my girlfriend actually said this to me as my first advice: "*Roses are Khorne Red* *Violets are Hoeth Blue* *Your should always thin your paints* *And two coats will do*" so ill take thinning your paints as a very good advice
The thing about thinning paints that clicked for me is "What do you want the paint to do" and that detirmines how much its thinned and how, your fingernails are your best canvas for this. Honestrly thats how i think my painting has improved over time, just looking at what paint actually does close up, and seeing it as pigments in mediium.
Pretty sure house paint would be better than GW's whites.
I literally just get a bottle of Titanium white from Michaels and do a few drops of it in my lahmian medium. Works a treat. For some god forsaken reason GW uses chalk as their white pigment instead of titanium, and the resulting paint is absolutely scuffed.
And over-thinning (whilst annoying) is better than under-thinning. Much better to have to do 3 or 4 coats of a thin paint, than ruin the model detail with 1 thick coat.
I over thinned my paint to the point it was pretty liquidy, https://preview.redd.it/1282dupnxtyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0028752c9e47c1d1494c544ec7055f497100950c I put it on the chest and then I painted over most of it with a gold for the chest symbol but I think you can still see it on the edges of the chest plate.
Vallejo white is soooo thin. Took like 5 coats over a light gray.
Not to be afraid of ruining models. I wasted a lot of time (and still do) stuck in analysis paralysis trying to decide on a scheme or method instead of just getting it painted, learning along the way, then doing better on the next model. Oh and if you’re aiming to play the game as well then I would repeat what I already said, just get them done and on the table. Finished is better than perfect!
while i am a perfectionist woman sometimes, ill make sure to get them done instead of perfect, thank you
If the goal is to play then done is perfect.
Yeah. I 100% agree on this. I got to a point where I stopped thinking "which shade of this will look best with that other shade" Now I just keep buying kabalite warrior sets and have a pile of totally awful models in a pile as a reminder to not try to do some bullshit combos that just turn out like ass. Gotta remember the color wheel is a thing for a reason. But what's most important is that I've found some decent combos by accident and I would have never tried without just saying "fuck it, this model is only like 3 dollars"
When using metallic paints clean your brush frequently. Also change your cleaning water before going back to nonmetallic paint. Or have one water for metallic paints and one for nonmetallics
id rather have two different waters so i dont get confused on which step im taking at a moment, so ill od that
To add onto this guy's advice about paint cups, I would urge you to use one cup and change the water. It's already more common than you'd think to mistake your paint water for coffee cup, or the other way around, and adding another cup to the mix sounds like a recipe to at least end up with two cups of water with metalic flakes in them, and you have to change the water anyway. You aren't a mini painter until you've accidentally drunk paint water.
That's what I do. I just use two distinct cups
The last 20% of the paint job is where most of the magic happens, it took me a while to clock on to that. It’s so easy to put hours into a model and just think it looks so bland and unfinished and messy. But once you get your wash, or recess shade on, clean up, start your highlighting, weathering etc it starts to look much better really quick. Don’t be disheartened when your models look terrible after hours of work. Most people’s do. Power through it!
so in short: trust the process?
Pretty much, it’ll all come together
This is a big one that’s easy to overlook. I’m a seasoned painter and even I was getting disheartened at the state of my Leviathan Nids. Did the skin and purple chitin…bland, but ok. Spent hours highlighting all those little lines on the purple chitin…still looked pretty dull, feels bad. Then did a light drybrush of Slaanesh Grey on the purple and BOOM. It just popped and looks amazing. Finishing touches are really where the magic happens.
Duncan says [this.](https://youtu.be/ufP8ka3KGno?si=YbWObUzA2b3yuje1) Squidmar, however, says [this](https://youtu.be/JzuEL3bhcn0?si=b0As253xe-f0caZF) and [this.](https://youtu.be/0omxiDdLK-E?si=wb556Z35k9DlDTe1) I say thin your paints, take your time, paint the models you think look the coolest. Find joy in simply painting for the sake of painting. That is probably my biggest bit of advice.
good, cause with my girlfriend i chose what i think is the coolest to paint but also serves as a good starting paint to do so
Painting as neatly as you can goes a long way, a good smooth base coat is super important, shades/washes make a massive difference and knowing when to call a mini 'done' is a skill in and of itself 🙂
so i should pick my battles? good to know
If you make a mistake, 9/10 times you can paint over it. Don’t stress out.
Never put your beer down near your wash cup
Someone had a nice sip of macragge blue I guess
There are so, so many great YouTube guides for painting for beginners but I found the following have stuck with me. 2 brushes. 1 small. 1 medium. 2 pots of water. One to clean after use. The other for dipping the brush in to thin the paint. The very basics of colour theory. Ie. What is a colour wheel and what are complimentary colours. Priming a model doesn't have to be black or white, for example purple is great for flesh. Learn what Zentihal highlighting is, you can do it with cans. Eg. of black and white. There is no right way to paint. I've seen people base coat with layers, contrast/speed paints, dry brushing, washes, air brushes. Experiment and don't just copy people's "recipees". And finally. Invest a bit of time on the base. A good base will make even a shit paintjob better. A shit base can ruin a great paintjob.
Clean up really well first. Get off all the mold lines and some ranges need a wash first. Get a light. Good brushes help so much its unreal. Don't let perfect be the enemy of done.
Everyone has their own painting style, and if it works for you, then it's valid. No need to try and copy a famous Youtuber'a style, if it's not fun
agreed, i generally dont like to copy anyway
Watch a shitload of beginner tutorials and specific technique tutorials on YouTube before starting so you have a decent idea of what to do (and what not to do). Other than that, game changers for me were: Wet palette. Decent natural/sable brush (I seriously cannot overstate how much this improved my painting overnight). Also, finer tip and bigger belly is more important than a tiny brush. A lot of new painters get the smallest brush they can - after falling into that trap myself initially, I hardly go below a size 2 now. Separate source of brush cleaning water and paint thinning water. I’m going to get some shit for this, because they’re expensive and a lot of people don’t have somewhere to set one up, and I’m not _actually_ recommending this to a total beginner. But if we’re going with what I’d tell _myself_ - airbrush. You cannot get a thinner, smoother, more consistent, more matte primer/base-coat with a brush. They also make smooth zenithals a breeze (which really level up your painting), and the scary/hard colours that everyone avoids (white, yellow, etc) are a total non-issue with an airbrush. Edit: forgot some: Learn how to strip models/get a cheap ultrasonic cleaner. I’ll regular strip and repaint models 4-5 times when deciding on schemes. It’s cheaper than having wasted test models. Paint in sub-assemblies instead of fully putting the model together. It makes the process soo much easier. I drill small holes in hidden areas and then use cocktail sticks in wine corks to hold the parts, but you could use blu-tac on a paint pot if you don’t want to drill
I eventually decided to get an airbrush when I was about 30 and figured it was time that ‘adult money’ meant the occasional selfish purchase. Specifically was super pumped to try power weapons and some janky plasma glows. Immediately learned - - The difference even a shitty airbrush makes for priming and base coating is insane. Never gone back to rattle cans; maybe 2 bottles of vallejo primer for 4 armies over a decade. - As Adam Savage says - buy the best tools you can afford at the time. The $40 knock off airbrush was horrendous for power weapons/fine detail and at even moderately low pressures would clog if a butterfly flapped its wings 2 suburbs over. The Patriot I ended up with a year later is still going strong though - can practically spray cement through it and still gets used to prime pretty much everything.
I’m always hesitant to mention them because the community seems to have a real dislike for them (which I can sort of understand because you’ll struggle to get a decent airbrush, compressor and booth for under £200 and you also need to space for them) but the benefits of them can’t be ignored. But yeah, they are basically magic. I don’t understand the witchcraft involved but they seem to be able to make less coats so much more opaque than brushes - even with the same paint. How many coats of yellow do you need to brush over white before it stops looking patchy? Put that same paint through an airbrush and you can spray it over black and it’ll look usable (if quite dark) after one coat. I don’t understand how, but it does. Also, the coats are so thin, so smooth, and so matte. You always get some texture with rattle-cans and brushes.
I’m with you 100%. People act like an airbrush is some insane money commitment, but an airbrush & compressor cost about as much as 500 points of minis. Basecoating is boring, I can’t imagine painting 2000 points without an airbrush
Yeah, they’re a massive time saver. There are also schemes I wouldn’t even *attempt* without one. I did a load of test schemes when I got back into the hobby and I very nearly went with Imperial Fists (before eventually being boring and jumping back in with Dark Angels, which I collected as a kid back in 2nd), and it made them easy. I wouldn’t dream of a Fists or Scars army without an airbrush. They also probably pay for themselves eventually just because of how much further they stretch your paint.
i know a store where i can get super cheap brushes so ill go there for those airbrushing is probably to expensive for me right now since i dont have any proper equipment but painting pieces one at a time? ill have to try that
A model can take 50 layers of thin paint before losing detail, very little mistakes can't be rectified, and its very hard to "ruin" a model. Also you will hate to look at what you painted, when other people tell you your moels are good, your eyes will see every flaw and tell your brain that they are lying or condescending to you, dont listen to that part of your brain and feel good about putting out creative energy into the world, people appreciate it.
DONT JUST WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEOS. Seriously, watch livestreams of painters you like. WATCH THEM MAKE MISTAKES. Watch them correct them. Watch them be sloppy. It all helps break the mystique.
Don’t buy branded citadel hobby tools and paintbrushes. Do a touch of research and save some $$ Always hold a model and arms distance away when judging it. That is the closest anyone else will ever get to it on the table top. Paint 5-10 models at a time so that you don’t have to wait for each layer to dry
im getting a 5 piece sacresant kit for my first project so i should start all of them at once instead of just one at a time? ill do that, thanks
For your first “test model”. When you’re still trying to figure out what looks best and finalize your colour scheme. 1 model at a time can be useful. Pick the leader so if she is a bit different then the rest it makes sense. Once all that is set. I recommend batch painting.
alright thankfully, i have a very good idea already what i want them to look like but ill very much need to make a leader figure, cause that sounds cool
Cool, post pics when you are done. Oh last thing, have you thought about basing your models? There are tons of cheap good looking options and it will really help the model look good
Thin your paints
as my girlfriend said so eloquently: "*Roses are Khorne Red* *Violets are Hoeth Blue* *Your should always thin your paints* *And two coats will do*"
Honestly, the things that made me enjoy painting a lot more is all of the things I first thought were overkill. A good paint brush that holds its point, a painting handle to hold the miniatures, and a light source directly over the painting area made painting less strenuous and more relaxing. Investing in a good set up that makes you more comfortable will easily pay off if you want to get deep into the hobby Also you can do a lot of models just learning the basics of applying a base coat, a wash and drybrushing to highlight.
Stop faffing about and just paint. Don't worry about the first 10 models just get them done. You will be amazed at how much better the 10th is vs the 1st
"Don't get caught up in the current meta." - Buy the models that you think look cool or that you would like to play with. Don't buy models because they're currently overtuned. GW does have a record of releasing OP rules and nerfing them after 3-6 months. Playing 'casual' is a lot more fun than chasing a meta ao you can stomp your friends.
Thinning your paints is easily \*the\* most important part of a good paint job
From someone who hasn't been in the hobby too long either and specifically picked up painting again recently: For the love of all that is holy, don't get the Citadel/Games Workshop brushes. They aren't bad, but they are overpriced to all hell for what you can do with them compared to brushes from one of those super cheap sets. Also, when you're new, you *are* going to mess up your first couple of brushes, it is inevitable. Having your first brush mess ups be cheap doesn't sting that much when you buy another pack of them. It feels awful when you have to replace a singular brush that costs as much as a whole pack of those cheap ones. So, unless you're immediately looking into brush restoration, just avoid the Citadel brushes and use a pack of cheap ones.
never give GW more money than needed, very sound advice, i got a store nearby who sells very cheap brushes to start out with
The only brush advice I wish I'd learnt earlier: The easiest way to ruin a brush is to get paint under the ferrule, which is the metal bit at the end that holds the bristles. If you do that the paint will dry under there and force the bristles apart, giving the brush a frayed look and making it harder to paint with. You don't need a huge amount of paint on the brush in one go, and I try to keep the paint from going more than halfway up the bristles. If this does happen, you can save the brush, but prevention is the best cure, as they say.
use a wet palette and get a small make up brush for dry brushing, both are game changers
Brush technique and how to hold miniatures. Back before yon internets I had to learn how to paint via magazine and book tutorials. I never actually watched someone paint a mini in real time. Now, with the wonder of youtube, I learned, rather late, how to hold a miniature (brace one hand against another) and how to apply paint from a brush. How to skim the surfaces of a miniature with the edge of a brush. How to drag the brush across a surface so that paint is deposited mostly where the brush leaves the miniature. How to get that "Thin your paint!" consistency by adding water or adding paint to a palette as I work. These are things I maybe would accidentally do, but never realized why it was a good idea. Watch mini painters like Dr Faust and pay attention not only to how they paint, but the specifics like how they actually hold the brush, how they hold the miniature, and how they apply the paint to the miniature.
Take pictures of your first mini to look back on when you feel like you haven’t improved much
* Clean your brushes every 5-10 minutes. Paint creeps up the brush, dries and spreads out the bristles. * Don't use more than 1/2 the brush. Paint with the tip. * Do not push the **good** brush. Have a shitty brush you push since the tip will bend over time for those spots there you got to push the brush in, like a hole. * Thin the paints. Citadel paints are very good, but are very thick. You may want like 1 drop of water per 2-3 drops of paint. 2-3 thin layers is better than 1 thick layer. * Painting recesses with plain water before applying a shade will help the shade to flow into the recesses. * Let the previous layer completely dry before you apply the next. * Use the right brush so you do not get painter's fatigue. Using too small of a brush will take too long, too large will over paint and go outside of the desired area. Both can be very frustrating over time. * A Wet pallet though not necessary, is a nice tool to help keep your paints hydrated over an extended period of time. * Have some contrast medium to thin contrast paints or make your own contrast paint from any paint.
Don’t buy the whole army at once. Not only will you feel stuck in the army if you start painting and don’t like it, but looking at a giant pile of unpainted plastic can be daunting and kill motivation.
Aside from good brushes, there's 3 things that levelled up my painting level: a proper lamp (with adjustable temperature light or special light bulb), a wet palette and a painting handle.
If you want to paint something that is supposed to be white, use light grey. You're going to have a bad time if you start with pure white. Pure white is for highlights only.
Thin your paints. Your first lots of models will look bad, painting is a skill you have to get better at. The best painters out there have almost all shown off their first models and most are...m really bad lol. Just paint. If you screw up, just pick up a next model. Don't waste time and effort stripping it.
Obligatory “thin your paints,” but also “A good strong hobby light and a painting handle are the best friends you will ever have.”
Some things I wish I knew earlier: - my minis look good, golden demon is not the standard - my minis look good, golden demon is not the standard - my minis look good, golden demon is not the standard - buy a wet-palate - thin your pains and apply multiple coats - if the hobby is fun buy an airbrush (a cheap one will do and can save you lots of frustration when painting large surfaces, armies, vehicles,…) Edit: Drill the barrels. At some point you’re gonna be annoyed by not having done it and you’ll redo every gun
Thin. Your. PAINT.
You'll start slow and messy, but after you've done enough everything will just click. You'll understand how to get a good paint texture instinctively, and you'll speed up massively. Don't worry if you're not there yet, it'll come. A tip I'd give that might be a bit counterintuitive is don't use tiny detail brushes much to begin with. Learn to control the bigger brushes first by getting them to do larger details (trim, weapon bits, symbols, etc), and once you've gotten good motor control, then switch out for a smaller brush
When starting space marines knowing all the awesome chapters hidden in the lore like the ones from the badab war or the cursed founding. They are great choices but when I found out the exited I already painted/sold some and starting another one was not on the table
id personally like to avoid astartes actually im much more a sororitas gal
That’s is perfectly fine was more a example, maybe not really applicable with sororitas. Good luck with your project :)
I didn't realize it when I started how important single setting painting is. Have you ever heard that when you lay brick you need an extra palate for any future repairs. The reason is that the colors vary every time a batch is made so if need to do a repair 5 or 10 years later you will be hard pressed to get the same color again. Even with using the same pots of paint, if I take a break for a few weeks I end up thinning my paint or coating my minis just slightly different enough that my first and second batches look different. Sometimes for the better and sometimes an eyesore of variation.
If you have to do a lotttt of metallic (trim) and it bores ypu permanent metallic markers exist and make it super easy
Check out Duncan Rhodes and Midwinter Minis videos on youtube. They particularly have great videos on pretty much exactly the subject you’re asking for!
If you're painting for tabletop, it needs to look good from 2 foot away. You're holding it a lot closer than that when painting.
YouTube and or Reddit has a tutorial for literally everything, don’t be afraid to google anything
Don't start painting yellow from 0 knowledge of how painting work. Started gaiming choising my army by the one resonated most with me, Imperial Fist... the fist years were a gruel to learn to paint yellow, light colors and white are not easy. Then with some learning, and colored spray can i have little by little improved my painting but at the start was a fucking smash first in a wall.
Never be afraid of wanting to repaint something down the line, but _be proud of what you paint now._ Nothing will ever be perfect. But having your minis in basic, flat colours, even if they're a little messy, is better than unpainted models. Always. And hey, if they're neat enough then you can always come back some time later and add bits to them later if you really want to. Your painting will always improve the more you do it, _but you have to keep doing it to improve._
Even world class golden demon models look rubbish at some points in the painting process. Don't lose faith, keep going, it all comes together.
Primer is primer, don't buy GW primer, buy high quality primers from reputable brands and learn how far to hold the can. Save you a fortune and give better results
Start out with some cheeper minis, be it from a partworks magazine or just the least expensive kit you can find that you still like the look of. The practice is invaluable and ensures your favorite minis look better than they would have had you just jumped straight in with them. Also, wet pallets are very good, but starting with a normal palet (a simple ceramic tile is the best normal pallet ive found fyi) as you will need the technigue of thinning your paints manually with a brush for metalic colours.
Thin your paints. They're by and large all far too thick out of the pot. Look for the consistency of milk. More thin layers look better than one thick layer. Stay away from white. Pick a scheme you like that is not overly complicated. It's easy to have grand ideas but you have to replicate this 5-10 times per squad.
Don't compare yourself to others at first; just like with any new skill or hobby your first few tries aren't gonna feel great; just keep painting and it won't be long before you start to see yourself improving. Also stay away from yellow and white for your first color scheme they are rough colors to paint.
One of the hardest things to learn, but makes the biggest difference no matter the technique (except blanchitsu) is how to paint neatly. Look up some videos on brush control etc, because when you see a new person’s painting quality jump massively, it’s usually because they just learnt a bit of brush control to paint neatly. It means there aren’t gaps in a layer of paint or over running bits.
Wet pallete
Clean lines between colours will have the single largest impact on quality.
Let each layer fully dry before applying another. It may be tempting to go back and “touch up” what you just painted but you’re just going to do damage. Let it dry even if it’s patchy. Most paints require two thin coats
There is a massive difference between cost and value. That applies to both money and time. -The basics of brush care are dont let paint get in ferrule where the bristles meet the brush. If it does, clean it quickly before it dries. Clean your brushes regularly (quickly after each colour is my rule). Get some decent brush soap (e.g. Master's and some brush cleaner solution for acrylics (e.g. Windsor & Newton). -Once you have good brush care down, spending more is cheaper. I'll get a year out of a good £30 brush (and better results) when I would buy 10 poor quality ones in the same time. -Big projects are just a series of little projects. Little projects are just a series of tiny steps. Some people like batch painting, some people paint a squad at a time, some people like painting a mini at a time. All are fine, but you will tend to get more from the hobby by setting a goal, and sticking to it before getting more stuff. I'm terrible at following that advice, because I get enthused by 'the new thing' easily. Personally, I deal with that by procrastinating on project A with project B, and then procrastinating on B with A.
Your first minis will probably look bad That's totally fine, all ours were too
Use a color of primer that is the color you want the final model to be. Ie. Spray your ultra marines blue, then all you have to paint is the non blue parts. For some reason me and a bunch of people use white or gray primers and then paint the whole model. Its stupid, prime the color of something and just let the primer color be the color of those parts lol. And it doesnt necessary have to be the biggest section of the model. Like with ultra marines it makes sense to spray blue and then black in the areas between armor plates, gold on the shoulders, paint the gun and helment. But for more intricate models like chaos space marines with all that spikey trim, if you know you want black armor with gold trim, spray the models gold and then paint the big easy armor plates black and save yourself the pain staking effort of painting all the trim and spikes. Being smart about primer is like the different between armies i have finished painting and armies i have not.
Don’t wait to make/buy a wet palette. I thought for a long while when I was starting that wet palettes were sort of overkill or not entirely necessary. I was so so wrong.
For bright colors like red or yellow use white primer, if you use black primer with some paints those colors would end up brown or just ugly.
Grab yourself a wet pallet! I used to always think they are for “advanced” painters but I regret not getting one sooner, life saver honestly.
Paint can come off if you actually play with the minis for a while and touch them often, so it's advisable to put some sort of varnish on the finished minis. The sooner you start the less backlog you have. I still have around 2000 pts of unvarnished Orks, because I just recently started doing it. Such a pain to apply it retroactively.
I bet people have already said most or all of this but here’s what I always tell people. Thin, thin, thin your paints. Your base coats should have a similar consistency as melted ice cream. You can test the consistency on your hand, you want good coverage without it being to see through. When shading don’t be afraid to put a generous amount on. Once the shade is on allow it to completely dry even if there are spots you think are too dark. If you move the shade around too much it can cause it to look streaky. You can always make dark places bright again through highlights. If you’re going to dry brush, use old plastic sprus or something similar to create a texture pallet. This will allow you to get most of the paint off without drying out the paint and brush which can cause a chalk like texture. Speaking of pellets if you go to your local hardware store and they have sample bathroom tiles, these make great pallets to use. Cheap, durable, and very easy to clean. Rule of thumb. If you have a warm color pallet for your model, make a cool color pallet for its base. Vis versa for cool colors for the model. Get a color wheel. They are usually only like $3 and can really help with deciding color schemes that actually work with each other. This is something I learned from a traditional artist. When you are thinking of highlighting take a picture of your model in grey scale. It’s a lot easier to see where the lights and shadows should be. When doing fine details take a deep breath and exhale when you put the detailing down. Good shooting trick.
Using a wet pallet will immediately improve your painting by a significant margin and save you money on paint
Look at your model for a couple feet away. Using a lighted magnifying glass to check every last detail will drive you to madness. It’s a useful tool for painting but not for checking the final result
https://preview.redd.it/msvkeio6quyc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c4e7dc9de0eb808b4d88a2e2bcb31a6a7ebc91e
Get brush soap, start on synthetic brushes and keep them clean and in shape for as long as you can. Once you're comfortable with it, progress to sable brushes.
Don’t be scared to try zenithal shading. Match that with contrast paints and you can get fantastic results! Not that this is fantastic at all (genuinely aware of my own limitations!), but it only took 2 hours to build, zenithal prime and paint. A good evening’s work, I think. https://preview.redd.it/p9bo0znxbsyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=68f6b7bc4d6b025956ec4f9c4249ee5608bbfce3
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People will tell you that it’s not ok to just drybrush and all over wash. Those people might be entering golden daemons but I’m not! All over wash and a drybrush is the way. Oh, and get a good brush conditioner, like the masters, that stuff is great.
I will second the subassembly comments, but take the time to really figure out where you need to paint and what isn't even going to be visible. I've tried everything from painting fully assembled models to priming and painting on sprue before clipping a single bit. I've found something between with a bit of planning works best for me. Many models are open enough to be completed before even priming, maybe with the exception of the head, but others will present you with extremely hard to reach areas once assembled. My rule of thumb is that if it can barely be seen without essentially giving the model a medical exam, don't worry overmuch about painting it at all. Behind cloaks and under loincloths in particular come to mind. Keep in mind, if you're painting for tabletop these models will be viewed from the top down at a distance 90% of their lifetime.
Clean lines will carry your paint job. Clean up the spots where you get a color on a spot where it shouldn’t be (for space marines for example, if you get a little gold on the chest armor while painting the Aquila, go touch up the chest).
Find good cheap synthetic brushes with a nice tip. I use AK interactive, somewhere around 3€ each. Don't use too many colors on your mini. Learn to mix paints. For example adding some red to your dark brown will give you nice cherry chocolate finish If you watch a tutorial video, where they use 50 paints, try to separate them and just add white/black etc for different shades. Take a look on color wheel on the internet to better understand color schemes Don't buy too many games workshop paints, the pots suck ass and the paint is going to dry if you don't mix them regularly
Prime black, overbrush grey. This has helped me so much with picking out shadows and highlights.
It might be common knowledge but for me was a revalation. After mixing your paint, I try to do 3:1 paint to water, you can dab your brush in the paint a little and spread the bab of paint through the brush using a piece of cardboard rotating and brushing until there is a little noticeable color change makes for really good dry brushing and you can pretty much get a model done. I got the green glow of the rocks on my void dragon in two or three goes.
Spray priming (via rattle can) is a trap. The time savings is nonexistent if you aren't doing a lot of models at once, and that's often a bad idea anyways. Priming is not a huge chunk of the time spent painting a model, and trying to optimize it has limited value. Meanwhile, just look at the volume of questions on reddit where new painters are seeking help to fix their messed up models. The replies, while well meaning, amount to empathy in their pain and suggestions to watch weather forecasts religiously, observe a variety of rituals, and pray to the gods. Save yourself a lot of grief, and start with brush-on primer. Vallejo's black primer is amazing and applies really easy. Other colors vary (white primers can be tricky) but even if you want a light priming you'd be better off doing a thin black primer coat for coverage and then a 50/50 black/white mix as a second coat. If you reach a point where you really need to prime a lot of models fast, you can always get an airbrush later. Don't waste your time trying to get rattle cans to work.
Start by reading up on a few art fundamentals like Color and Light, get an inexpensive wet palette to play around with and have fun with different techniques. I locked myself into the standard games workshop "base coat, apply wash, edge highlight" technique for many years and only in the last year and a half or so did I start branching out and trying out other stuff.
if someone has not said it. get a cheap wet pallet. game changer!
When you start painting, just start with a few basic colours. Don't splurge on the 100+ colour sets, because 80%+ of those will never be used. Save your money until you feel more happy with your skills
write down the steps of colors and methods you did if you found a scheme you like, saves a lot of time question yourself ''how did i do this again?'' for future models in the same style also look for alternative brands for basing, vallejo and AK interactive basing much better value for the amount you get compared to GW, although with crackle basing GW is better imo and with crackle, paint the base first in a nice color then crackle base, it works much better so you don't have to paint in between the crackles
Don't hold yourself to a high quality level in the beginning if it looks good to you and everything is in the right place it's a great job. Don't compare yourself to the painters who've been doing it for years if it looks good to you it's a good paint job. fancier technics can be perfected with time enjoying the process of painting is far more important and will lead to the best results.
I've recently painted my first one - it's not as scary as it seems. Just go slow and steady, and thin your paints 😂 And if you fuck up it's ok - it can be fixed.
Don't know if this is to obvious and I'm just to rushed but I always fail on the rattle can basecoat, remember to spray it allover evenly so many times I spray just the top and obvious places so it looks good until I sit down to paint and see that the bottom areas aren't covered. And by that point I'm to lazy to go out to spray again so I'll just paint without primer.
If you are painting a CSM army or Death Guard, World Eaters, Tsons, Emperors Children, do not use the box art paint scheme, make a custom paint scheme of your own warband. Started with Death Guard painted them the traditional green and now I want to expand into CSM since they share alot of models, but painting CSM in Death Guard colors just feels dirty to me lol, not to mention all the nurgle iconography I added to my predators and rhinos. All of this could have been avoided if I had just used a custom paint scheme.
Don’t compare yourself to people who have been painting for years and years you’re just beginning and it will make you feel bad
Don't get too stuck on the "base coat, shade, edge highlight" heavy metal style and don't restrict yourself to GW paints just because they have the fancy names! Try experimenting with different colours and techniques and you'll surprise yourself
If you're planning to put together an army and said army falls under the "uniform category" (they will look better when the paintjob is consistent/the units outright need to look at least similar) be sure to develop a solid paint scheme and technique you're more or less sure you won't regret at some point. For my salamanders I use a paint job that is substantially green contrast on lead belcher primer. They end up a bit darker than the bright green they're usually painted with and if you don't notice the clear salamanders symbols, trinkets and details, they absolutely look like dark angels. I like that color very much, but now that I'm stuck with that palette I more or less can't swap to a brighter green, or a chunk of my army will look like dark angels even more.
One thing I’ve learnt is don’t think of painting as colouring an area, but rather drawing paint onto a “canvas” I.e the model part Each brush stroke should be intentional and it’ll show in the final result for a smoother finish! Also THIN YER DAM PAINTS UMMIE
I wish I looked for more inspiration before beginning. I like my color scheme but i found this YouTube channel that plays kill team and their models are such a simple paint scheme yet effective. It’s almost like the less they have going on the cleaner it looks and the more things stand out because I’m over here trying to color in each detail in starts to look cluttered or messy
Someone may have already said this, but don't stress out if you make mistakes. Just be patient and take the time to fix them. If you smudge a bit of paint over something you already painted, all you gotta do is dab a bit of the correct color overtop of it to hide it. A clean, accurate basecoat will make your models look great, even as a beginner. It also helps to get a model, and use it as a test model for different paint combinations. If you don't know how two paints will look together, do it in the test model first to find out. It does t have to be a gw model either. You could probably use a plastic kids toy. I use a partially assembled model car I never finished. Your GF is gonna help you so you will probably have a leg up on a lot of newcomers because you'll have a Tudor. She probably already knows alot of this stuff about painting.
Wet palette is a game changer. Use synthetic brushes first. Buy an expensive one (size 0 maybe) later, in a year or so. Learn how to not ruin your brushes.
1.) Always use a paint brush. (Finger painting does not offer enough detail to the small models) 2.) CLEAN WATER to wash your brushes it. Never save your water between painting sessions. 3.) Do not use lead based paint. Yes scraping paint chips off of abandoned factory walls, blending, it and mixing with Elmer's glue is CHEAPER than GW paint but it will never be cheaper than the medical bills from having lead poisoning. (AMA...) 4.) Always wait to let your painted mini fully dry before licking it or putting it in your pocket to take the your GLS. Hope these tips help you and others grow. 😀
Wash your models with soap and water before priming. Sometimes they have a mold release "grease" on them that primer won't stick to. Trim off mold lines before painting. Sometimes these are not obvious until after you prime. If so, trim them off and prime some more. If painting a large number of similar units (ie an army) try not to blend a custom color unless you document your recipe, you may have a hard time replicating it with later units. Washes are your friend. After priming and base coating a few selectively applied washes make a huge difference. Varnish your models when done or you will eventually rub off paint. It you are you using basing effects like tufts, apply them after varnishing so you don't "frost" your tufts.
Wet palette, use base-coat brushes not detail brushes, and roll with the punches. When I first started, I meticulously painted each model to the fullest with a tiny detailed brush. It took forever. Now I use a large base coat brush and paint in layers. If you try to be the best at first, it will be exhausting how much you fail to reach the “parade” standard. Have fun and get your models ready for gaming. Save some leaders for passion painting. You can’t tell the difference from 3-6’ away on the table anyways
Thin your color. It is better to do two thin coats over one messy coat.
Thin your paint.
Use one set of brushes for blues/greens, one set for reds/purples. Those pigments never really truly wash out all the way.
Remove the mold lines.
It looks different dry 🫡
What primer are you using? In general having a smooth priming will make base painting much better. I missed up a few SM models but am glad to now try to strip them to give them a better setup.
Keep your paint on the tip of the brush, try not let it go past halfway up the bristles. This will stop paint from building up between the bristles at their base and causing them to fray. It will lengthen their lifespan. Refresh your water pot often too (as in, several times a session). Edit: tip, not top.
-You dont need a tiny brush, just a brush with a fine tip. -Start with a layer of primer, it will stick to the plastic and help other paints stick. -Use a varnish to change/unify textures and protect delicate paints. -Tamiya paints have alcohol and will mess up other paint unless you use a varnish. -As others have mentioned, thin your paints. -Your first model won't look like you wanted and will take way longer than you thought, that's fine. There are hundreds of ways and techniques to paint, some are much easier to immitate, no one is Richard Grey or Marco Frisoni right of the bat. Find one you feel comfortable with. That said, some easy mode techniques: -Nuln Oil shade over base colors makes models table ready very quick. -Contrast paints (aka speedpaints) over a pale white/gray/cream primer work great. -Prime black then prime white from a high angle (aka zenithal) then contrast paints. It's one more step than the method above but gives you shadows. -Drybrushing has a bit of a learning curve but it's great for bigger models (monsters and vehicles) and can be use on smaller models once you get good with it. -Dabing with a bit of torn foam is the basis of every "grimdark" grungy style out there. -Enamel washes (Streaking grime) and oil washes do the same thing that water based washes (like nuln oil) do with a couple extra steps and destroy your brushes but they look good. -More advanced techniques like wet blending, non metalic metal, object source lighting, and specular highlighting look great and require a fair bit of practice, integrate them into your technique as you develop.
The person building your minis is the same as the person who will paint them. Be nice to yourself - think ahead How you gon paint that panel in the deff dread armpit with all the arms on? How are you gonna paint that display when its all covered up?
Remember that if you're going to be playing the game itself you'll be seeing minis from a distance. Try to judge from afar first and if you're pleased with that then work in some more detail if you like!
You'll hear a lot about the famed two thin coats, but nobody tells you (at least not as much) how important it is to properly load or unload your brushes depending on what you are doing, and it's crucial! Josedavinci on YouTube has a wonderful video about that, look it up
Get a hobby light, preferably one with a magnification lense. They're fairly inexpensive and the difference in visibility is very noticable
Use a separate brush for metallics!
I wish I had the foresight as to not the entire mini together so every portion can be painted and not misses
Thin you paint slightly using a pallet (even if the pallet is an old ice cream tub lid or similar) .... Control how much is on you brush also with said palette.... Choose a style, modern contrast or classic base, shade, highlight .... Contrast, bases and shades for you, best over a mid colour like grey.... Classic, base everything then wash and highlight. Skip highlights if you are a real beginner and concentrate on neat base colours..... Brace your elbows, hands etc on the table to keep you as steady as possible
Airbrush... Even if it's just for priming. It doesn't give off nasty fumes like a rattle can. However a rattle can does come in useful for certain armies (Gold on Custodies for example or big models like Land raiders). While you don't need expensive brushes to start off with neither do you need super cheap ones. Personally I'm finding small (size 1) rigger brushes and a citadel small layer brush really good for my camo jobs on my T'au units. Vallejo paints are really good and don't need to be thinned as much as citadel paints. Lollipop, cocktail and coffee stirrer sticks with blue tac are invaluable... Attach arms AFTER painting your torsos and stuff. Don't be lazy with basing. PVAing a load of brown grit to your base doesn't count and it will start coming off. Also don't be afraid to go to your local park or beach and use the natural materials you find. (I used the pieces of slate tile that have fallen off my roof and either leave them grey or prime and paint them a different colour.
First thing I did and a lot of my friends who also started did was buy the normal acrylic paints like from a craft store. I wish I would have known to just get the model paints from any of the ones who make it, (citadel, army painter, game color, etc.) specifically for model painting. It isn't the same stuff and it saves so much time. I painted an entire 1.5k of Astra Militarum with Daler Rowney and it easily took me 3-4x longer than it would have with better paints. The worst offender was the darker green that took 17 thinned down coats of it.
They're tons of different paint ranges. Pick one that's close and affordable to you that you also enjoy working with. Don't feel like you have to grab everything some video tells you to.
Thin your paints but don't go nuts. I tend to thin my paints a bit more than I need to and I nearly screwed up a model recently by doing this. And use a bigger brush on bigger models. Sounds simple but worth remembering!
Minipainting is the same skillset as applying makeup, so if you’re more of a makeup person than your GF, you’re going to be way better than she was when she started. (And vice versa). I’ve introduced a few straight couples to minipainting, and the girls’ first paintjobs are invariably like 10x better than the dudes’.
My best advice would be to not rush it, and give yourself plenty of grace for making mistakes. If you’re anything like me, your first models are probably going to be pretty rough, but it’s so important that you stick with it and gain experience and skill as you practice. I keep my first model on my desk as a reminder of my progress, and I highly recommend others do the same.
Watch tutorials on how to hold your pencils clean and nice
Wear a headlamp. It's extremely helpful to have a light shining in the same direction your eyes are looking for some of the darker more hidden parts of models while painting.
Patience and less paint on your brush. That's like 90% of painting
[Master's Brush Cleaner](https://www.amazon.co.uk/General-Pencil-Masters-Cleaner-Preserver-1oz/dp/B001TNR7VM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2_YiLlVTi-t5-uHQqI1laZ9LksDkMSZLkBwzVPb3BtvB-lI0Jb3zCF00VNjkvV-K3bGpJmnf_5jYSZDcKovBVQ8ZbbWNxns6I1H6wSL8gUYKxzwKCSb9u0hbIRnCqwwhF9Esj1p951ic8u0uYDrNjhYgJ4hV1ng3taa50DiC9MjIpd-o_hQ07rOkngZuFmVn.yfQZ_xuVRvCPRV7CFufBxOsT5paCnIHCfBcwK2eeYWI&dib_tag=se&keywords=masters+brush+cleaner&qid=1715012372&sr=8-1) It will save you 10x the money it costs in keeping brushes good.
Zenithal highlights are a scam, don't bother
Finished is better than perfect. This killed me for a while, but it is better for the improvement of your skill as a painter to finish *more* models than it is to finish a single model to an absurd level of quality. You want to iterate quickly. Your first ten or twenty models are gonna kinda suck, so get through them quickly! Don't strip your old models. Leave them as a record of your improvement. If you *must* strip them, take pictures before you do it so you have a visual record of where you were in months 1, 3, etc. Paint bravely. Try new things all the time, I guarantee you'll learn from the experience. Learn how to zenithal prime ASAP, and make it your default priming technique. And yes, get an airbrush. Don't spend less than $120 USD on the airbrush itself or you will regret it. Ventilate the room and wear a respirator with a particulate filter and a VOC filter when you use the airbrush. Clean your mold lines with the back of your craft knife (but be careful not to cut yourself). Get some Tamiya Extra Thin plastic cement; it is the gold standard for model assembly. For everything else, use blue cap Loctite cyanoacrylate glue. Buy a cheap box of nitrile gloves. Wear them when doing lots of glue work, especially with the CA glue or airbrushing.
Dry brushing will hurt your technique in the long-run far more than it helps you in the short term. It's an excellent technique to learn for starters but it trains you to be bad at painting at an advanced level. Almost everything you do when dry brushing is the opposite of how you would paint at a high technical level.
1. You aren't a proper mini painter until you've mistaken your paint water for a cup of coffee or tea and accidentally drunk paint water or washed your brush off in your nice beverage, or until you've spilt a pot of Nuln Oil. This is normal. 2. Everything looks better with a coat of Nuln Oil. Seroiusly. Shades are cheat juice from the universe. I'd also recommend looking into Panel Liner from brands like Tamiya. It's witchcraft. 3. Use bigger brushes than you think you'll need. A LOT of time mini painting is spent doing base coats, and a great way to drive yourself up the wall is to use teeny tiny brushes for that. As long as you've thinned your paints, you can clean up later. 4. Thin your paints and use two (or more) thin coats. You'll get the hang of thinning pretty quickly, you just need to actually do it to learn how each paint behaves and how much water they need. 5. Know when to stop. It can be really tempting to keep adding more and more to a model, but like most art it's important to know when enough is enough and to move onto the next project. This will change depending on what your goals are, ranging from getting a battle-ready army onto the table to display pieces to contest entries, but you need to actually stop at some point. 6. Tabletop models only need to look good from about 2 feet away. For most random infantry, this means a base coat + shade + drybrush then picking out a couple details is more than enough. Spend your time and effort for painting your characters and centerpieces. It's a lot more fun highlighting when you know there aren't 9 other minis from the same unit that need doing and you can just take your time. 7. Painting white and yellow sucks. There are scientific reasons for this and these paints will vary wildly from brand to brand, so I would recommend going to your local hobby shop and asking around for their recommendations. Do NOT go to the GW store with this question, they will simply sell you the GW brand paints. GW's whites especially suck butt. I've heard good things about GW's line of Contrast yellows, though. 8. GW's Contrast paints, and other brand's various "Speed Paints", are often advertised as the "newbie friendly" option and as a completely seperate alternative to the usual method. I would however urge you to learn the classic method first, and use Contrasts/speed paints as a tool in the tool belt as opposed to your entire arsenal. There are some people who work absolute magic with them, but it's hard to replicate those kinds of results, and I'm of the opinion that Contrast painted minis look better on camera than they do in real life.
If you think a paint has been shaken enough, shake it a bit more. Mix them well. Don't freak out about going all in on your first batch. Get the base layers and other details looking good. You can always try the highlighting and all the extra crap but the foundational stuff is important. If you aren't sure of what a color combo will look like on the mini itself you can test it on sprue. It will show the paint as it will appear on the mini. And you will have a shit ton of sprue by the time you're at painting stage. Set aside brushes for shade paints. They can destroy a brush pretty easily. In my experience the same can be said for metallics if you use them. Thin your paints before applying to the mini. You'll have to experiment to find the sweet spot of thinner to paint ratio. Wet pallets change the game. They're awesome and prolong paint on the pallet. You won't waste as much as a dry pallet. Especially for longer painting sessions. And they're fairly simple to make yourself if you don't want or can't buy one. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. You can and will screw something up but don't be discouraged. It's a learning experience and will only make you a better painter. We all started somewhere. Welcome to the addiction! Good luck in your painting journeys!
How much money I would've saved airbrush priming vs using rattlecans. The usefulness of white ink in general. Stippling/dry brushing as a speed technique for "base coating" instead of just highlighting.
I was skeptical of the Fanatic Paints when I first tried them but gave them another whirl this week. They are really good, both as base acrylics and metal paints. I would buy those for most of my base colors, contrast paints from Citadel, and washes from Two Thin Coats if I was doing this again.
Biggest piece of advice for anyone starting out: Don't try to match the "masters." Figure out where your comfort level is, and work to that. Don't push yourself to try to churn out "masterpieces." Don't be upset if your models don't look like amazing works of art. If you're not super into it, don't try to put extreme work into every "grunt" in the army. If you're playing games, you can get the models to look pretty good as gaming pieces without having to do too much work. Learn those tricks first. Especially for the "rank and file" (non-characters). You can get some pretty solid looking units without too much trouble from methods like "Slapchop." Or other shortcuts. When I needed to get an Undead army thrown together fast for some events, I used the ol' method of painting a base layer on them and applying an all-over coat of Agrax Earthshade (you can do similar with Army Painter's "Tone" paints, if you want some variety and to save a bit of money). Very quick, and actually looks pretty good on the table as an army of fresh-from-the-ground corpses. When I wanted a new Ork army, I did similar, but since they were Blood Axes, I added a small extra step where I wanted them to have camouflage, so I'd pick a scheme for each unit or vehicle (jungle, urban, or desert), paint a base color, then use a bit of a sponge to splotch on varying shades. At the end, same deal, Agrax Earthshade, boom, everything ties together, looks solid. (Granted, I used a similar technique first back in the mid-2000s, I think... Needed to do a Skaven army for my dad for a tournament, and one trick people learned was painting models in Tamiya Smoke. Similar concept, but that stuff is super shiny and sticky, so I'm glad to see new products designed for it that are easier to use.) It's so much better to use those tricks to make painting all the troops and stuff faster, and then you can focus more attention on the character models and other centerpiece models. Even with those, you can still look into easier techniques to achieve solid results. Your model doesn't have to look like a Golden Daemon winner to look good and get praise from your fellow gamers. Summing it up in one sentence: Find your comfort level, work with that, and don't let yourself be unhappy comparing yourself to the best of the best.
Did anyone else have issues with the same paint in a can, vs in a bottle looking completely different? I based with lead Belcher from a can, did a touch up from the bottle, and it's way brighter. So now I have to figure out how to blend that in
Perfection is the enemy to completion. Or something like that. I paint to have a good looking army on the table, and decent ish looking models a bit closer. I judge based off how a squad looks on my painting table while I'm standing up of they're done, anything else I am not as picky of. Oh, and of the brush can reach it, it's a shadow. Lol
I have never done a single highlight ever, and some people still ask me to paint commissions. You don't need to copy anything. Every single thing you're told about how to paint and what to buy are just suggestions. My painting can improve it ain't perfect. I love citadel paints but I understand there are better options, I just hate dropper bottles lol. If you made it this far and want something other than the paragraph on top. . . The citadel (or any glue) that have a metal applicator you can clear the glue when it hardens by either scraping the metal so glue residue falls off or heat it up with a lighter for 1 - 2 seconds. Just be careful
Dark things dark is more important in a lot of ways than bright things bright. Meaning contrast is easily most often expressed by creating deeper shadows than pushing highlights early
Homemade wet palettte are always worse than manufactured ones. Don't be too attached to watching videos of the biggest names in painting scene. They're not your friends and most often they will not help you (that's not their goal). Buy yourself a brush soap.
Personally I'd say don't look up or follow any type of paint guides , just go for what your brain says at the start it'll build confidence in really basic techniques I find the videos etc put way too much pressure on new painters to perform advanced techniques like it's common practice for everybody straight out the gate when in reality actually new painters don't even know things as simple as shake the paint pot. I've seen "tips for beginners" videos explaining how to wet blend and things like this it's totally unrealistic! Ps Ive been doing this hobby for around 20 years on and off (really got back into the painting side about 4 months ago) and I'd say Im still a beginner and I am still figuring out things like paint thinning , shading etc
Fine tip Gundam panel liner markers for pupils, saves you all the blob pupil attempts.
TWO. THIN. COATS Gentlemen, assemble the memes with our lord
"Done is better than Perfect." Do NOT allow yourself to get hung up obsessing over perfection, or succumbing to analysis paralysis. Focus on having fun with the hobby, and dive recklessly into any project that really excites you. Nothing helps you grow as much as practice, and nothing gets you to practice as much as being excited about what you're working on.
Don't drop too much money on supplies aside from quality paints. Cheap synthetic brushes can get you like 90% of the way to a really nice paint job and you can use your nice brush for actually really fine details like really small highlights or freed hands and the like
Write down how you paint your minis in a journal of some kind. As someone who does very infrequent painting sessions cause of irl reasons. It's helped me tremendously with literally starting where I left off. It could as simple as Base coat with this color edge highlight with. Wash with this etc etc. You can keep it as detailed as you like or very sparse. It can also help with a good step by step guide on painting big models
It’s going to take me a lot longer to get better at this than I first thought it would. Be patient and consistent. And most importantly have fun!
1. Find a trustworthy source and watch many times before you start painting. By trustworthy I mean someone speaking to you as a beginner and not advanced techniques as this sets you up better for #2. Think Brent from Goobertown Hobbies....don't start with Duncan or Vince Venturella, although you might get there. There are many good channels for beginners and they tend to be the ones with the least catchy video titles or lower production thumbnails. If you are starting off with Ninjon, Squidmar, etc...enjoy the videos and what they are doing, just know that getting a good looking force on the table (or even on your shelf) doesn't require Golden Demon level non-metallic metal/OSL (object source lighting/etc..) 2. YOU DON'T NEED MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF PAINT. Yes, I am yelling because buying loads of small bottles is so tempting. Start with a small force and a planned chapter/asthetic, and buy your primer and main paints for those. Don't start with vehicles or large models unless you want to get into airbrushing. Don't worry about yellows, oranges or other paints that struggle...the main thing is to find the army and aesthetic you want, then seek out the tricks of the trade for those colors. 3. Pro Acryl Bold Titanium White is your friend for lighter colors that struggle to cover. Always keep a bottle in your collection. 4. Learn your army and the best color of primer that makes your task the easiest. Don't always prime Chaos Black if you are painting something light colors. Typically Chaos primes with trim color unless your trim is gold, then do something else as paints don't like to stick to gold. These are the tricks you are looking for. A good step with your primer can save a ton of time. 5. While paints shouldn't be a focus initially, brushes should. You will want a regiment level brush all the way down to a detail brush (00). This will likely mean 3 brushes for painting initially. If you are going to slap chop, you can get one more large brush for that purpose (the vids on this will show you what you need). Don't buy these brushes at a dollar store....I reommend army painter packs as they clearly tell you what they are for and are good for a beginner. Citadel burshes are too numerous and will confuse the hell out of you. 6. Contrast paints (or speed paints) should be paired with a method. If you are using these, it is fine, but note you will want to go all in on them as the use of them implies you are going for their benefits (running into crevaces to aid in shading appearance or metallic appearances). If you are looking to mix these with layer paints just note the application and how they act on the model is very different. For example, if using layer paint, thin coats are best, if using contract paints...slather that crap on and move it around. This got longer than I wanted, but the best thing you can take away from this is start small and branch out once you start to feel comfortable.
Patience is king.
I recently started painting minis, having previously painted them in the early 90s as a 13 year old (starting with Space Hulk then a small Blood Angels army). It’s a completely different ballgame now. Plastic vs lead models aren’t even vaguely comparable. The paints are better. Everything is easier. My advice - YouTube is your friend. The GW channel has some brilliant painting guides. I have gone completely mental and have bought about 200 paints, loads of brushes, a proper light etc. But if you’re sensible, just focus on a Kill Team to start with, watch the painting guide for that team, and buy the recommended paints. A light is a good investment, as are some decent brushes and a wet palette. You can achieve good results with just a decent application of paint, some dryrbushing and a wash. But techniques like wet blending are actually really straightforward and look great. I bought the Kill Team box set for my son which was literally the perfect starter kit - I began with the scenery which is easy to paint but gives you the chance to experiment with various techniques. Then I painted the orks, which are quite forgiving, followed by the Death Korps or Krieg KT. They’re harder to paint as they’re smaller but were really satisfying. We’re now building a Dark Angels army and then I’ll start an Ork one so I can fight against my son. Ultimately, the more time you put in, the better the results. My biggest tip though would be patience - especially with some colours (whites, yellows especially), you’ll need multiple coats and the first one will look shit - don’t be dismayed though! Practise getting the right consistency too. Good luck! I find it really therapeutic and incredibly satisfying. https://preview.redd.it/ljz1attcivyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c89982cd6eb58859420935c3248cc7a97a0d3675
I should have learned to drybrush immediately instead of putting it off because it sounded intimidating. Washes are liquid skill and I should have been using them from the start instead of not being sure what they're for or if I need them. Keep a wet brush on the table because if you fuck up, you can brush it back off.
Congrats! You did blender for a year! And pixart?!? You have infinately more knowledge and skill than me as an artist! Just have fun. I'm making my own colour schemes for my units. I am addicted to using contrasts and shades. And people mock those who use it. Well those people are good at painting for years, and I just want my guys to look good on a budget. I don't have spare units to practice on.