[Miniatures] Painting tips and progress reports (with pics!)

[Blackhawk]

Pictures always look awful. Even those shots, which are fairly small, are about three times the size of he actual miniature, and under near-perfect lighting. You never actually see them that way when you're gaming.

[Boudreaux]

Heh, I always have the same reaction. I paint minis and think they look pretty good. Then I take photos, pull them up on my PC, and think "holy hell, that looks like ass." Taking a good photo of a mini is almost as difficult as painting it in the first place.

[Blackhawk]

That's why some painting techniques have evolved specifically to make photos look better, even if they make the actual miniature look worse.

[TiLT]

Sorry about spamming this thread with miniature pictures these last few days, but I need to show these things off to keep me motivated.

Finished another one right now, and this one's pretty different. It's got no base, and I didn't see much point in highlighting it. It could have been the simplest paint job ever, but I took it one step further and did freehand painting of the pattern on the snake's back. It's not part of the mini, but something I painted on my own. In hindsight I'm not perfectly happy with the color choices, but eh! If anyone complaints, I'll just say it's this way because of magic. That's the advantage of fantasy.

[Blackhawk]

A wizard did it.

That one's really, really good, and the color choices are fine.

If you did want to shade something like that, one option is just to give the 'shadowed' areas an extra coat or two of wash. It deepens the color without the craziness that would be doing each scale individually.

[TiLT]

I actually did two thinned layers of dark colors on the underside of the snake before even doing the shading, just to give it some manual depth that the shade itself wouldn't be able to do.

[baelthazar]

You guys make my stuff look like a child did it! Awesome jobs! I am getting better and I'm not too concerned with being perfect, just being acceptable for me. I would like to find a way to prevent the wash I use from making all of my minis look "dirty," but I tried to pre-wash before painting and found that did not work.

Blackhawk, one question on base coat philosophy - since you were going to do that Gnoll so dark, why did you base coat in white rather than black? I'm wondering about your thoughts on that. I started only using white and liked the results, but with my Zombiecide zombies and Descent minis I am using black and really liking the effect.

[Blackhawk]

Blackhawk, one question on base coat philosophy - since you were going to do that Gnoll so dark, why did you base coat in white rather than black? I'm wondering about your thoughts on that. I started only using white and liked the results, but with my Zombiecide zombies and Descent minis I am using black and really liking the effect.

Personal preference, mostly, and I do prime in black occasionally.

I prefer to start bright and work my way down to deeper shadows instead of starting dark and working my way up. Both methods work and give very similar results. Painting over white tends to give brighter colors, ideal if you're doing, for instance, heraldry. Painting over black tends to give sharper contrast - the dwarf on the previous page I primed black, as my player wanted silver with gold trim, so I needed a fairly dark silver. I also find that black tends to make it hard to see detail. I don't have perfect eyes, so that does make a difference.

There are other alternatives. Some people prime gray. Some people prime in colors. One method I've heard of, but haven't tried, is to prime black, then follow up with a very light misting of white to give the advantages of black, but make the detail visible.

[Isgrimnur]

Metal base plate with brake assemblies installed, cockpit finished and installed, rear dual exhaust installed.

I think in the future, I will stay away from brush application of flat paint on anything of significant size.

[TiLT]

You guys make my stuff look like a child did it! Awesome jobs! I am getting better and I'm not too concerned with being perfect, just being acceptable for me. I would like to find a way to prevent the wash I use from making all of my minis look "dirty," but I tried to pre-wash before painting and found that did not work.

Try a brighter wash? As mentioned earlier, I used a bright shade for the fur on my gnoll, and it worked great. Didn't make the fur look dirty (the dry brushing later did that), and didn't create all that strong contrasts. I suspect you'd need to both thin your wash considerably as well as add some flow controller to reduce the dirty look from the darker colors, but I don't think you can eliminate it completely. I find that shades darken my miniatures overall, but I plan for this and use highlighting to bring back the intended color.

[baelthazar]

Thanks Blackhawk and TiLT, for your answers!

Yeah, I sometimes go back and "touch up" after the wash. I use the Les's Magic Wash recipe I found and I really like how it works, but the black ink it uses certainly will leave some darkening. It works really well for zombies and monsters but less appealing for people and metals. I have thought about using a brown wash, but my experiments with that came out sort of terrible. It is, admittedly, less of a problem when I base coat with black.

[Blackhawk]

Blackhawk, one question on base coat philosophy - since you were going to do that Gnoll so dark,

You know, looking at it again, it really does look darker than it is in person. I really need to find a better way of lighting miniatures for photography. Just pointing my lamp at them doesn't seem to be enough.

[Isgrimnur]

DIY Light Tent

[TiLT]

I just use a clean sheet of paper as background, leaning it up against an object so that it curves and remains invisible to the camera. Then I put a regular desk lamp a little above and in the front, and take a picture with my cell phone using the HDR setting, which makes it more uniformly bright. Finally I go into a picture editor to crop and adjust color levels. Otherwise my pictures would end up pretty yellow.

[Blackhawk]

I just use a clean sheet of paper as background, leaning it up against an object so that it curves and remains invisible to the camera. Then I put a regular desk lamp a little above and in the front, and take a picture with my cell phone using the HDR setting, which makes it more uniformly bright. Finally I go into a picture editor to crop and adjust color levels. Otherwise my pictures would end up pretty yellow.

That's almost exactly my process, too, save that I use my digital camera rather than a cell phone.

[hepcat]

I'm going to need to review this entire thread soon as I'm about to take the plunge and start painting up some minis in the near future. I certainly appreciate all the contributions!

[GreenGoo]

Amazing.

[TiLT]

Remember, all of my images in this thread are clickable for larger versions!

I've got three more minis fully painted. Showing off two right now, but the third will have to wait until the varnish has dried so I can finish its base.

First off, a dwarf and his glorious beard. I mean, look at it! I love how I managed to make it look fiery.


An Iron Golem, painted in all metallics (except the eyes and the base). The original miniature is actually called Stone Golem, but I decided to go metal with it as it fit the style pretty well. This miniature is part of the Reaper Bones Kickstarter btw, though the one I used is the original metal one.

[Boudreaux]

Those are really nice. The golem is fantastic, really like the shading/highlighting on it.

[hepcat]

I stopped in my FLGS yesterday on my way home from work yesterday (they shut down our offices early due to the storm) and the two owners were in the store. They're both huge warmachine/ex-Warhammer guys and they're what I would consider professional level miniature painters.

I asked them to put together a starter kit for me consisting of paints and supplies. 62 bucks later I walked out with 3 new brushes, a wash, 4 layers, 2 bases and a dry (and a blister pack of Guild Guards to practice on). All citadel paints, by the way. Hopefully that's all I'll need for the Malifaux starter I just bought.

Sheesh this can be expensive.

[TiLT]

I stopped in my FLGS yesterday on my way home from work yesterday (they shut down our offices early due to the storm) and the two owners were in the store. They're both huge warmachine/ex-Warhammer guys and they're what I would consider professional level miniature painters.

I asked them to put together a starter kit for me consisting of paints and supplies. 62 bucks later I walked out with 3 new brushes, a wash, 4 layers, 2 bases and a dry (and a blister pack of Guild Guards to practice on). All citadel paints, by the way. Hopefully that's all I'll need for the Malifaux starter I just bought.

Sheesh this can be expensive.

Heh, you're telling us! I've got 58 bottles of various paints and relevant liquids (such as flow improver, varnish, etc.), and that doesn't even include the 24 bottles coming to me as part of the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. Worst of all, each of those colors are unique, either in color or in properties. I also got a wide variety of brushes, tools and basing materials. Then again, I committed completely to this project, and I've got the disposable income to support my bad habits.

I'm looking forward to see what you'll come up with. If you're anything like me, you'll feel dread before even applying the first brush stroke. That unpainted model is so filled with potential, and for every part you add color to, you remove some of that potential and reduce it to one single choice, one that often doesn't look quite as good as you had imagined. Still, the satisfaction of seeing the model come together is immense.

By the way, I'm not seeing any primer in that list of things you got. Do the bases count as primer?

Also, Citadel stuff is overpriced for what you get. If you're going to get more stuff, I'd look into other brands, such as Reaper. Having said that, I have plenty of Citadel stuff myself (brushes and shades mostly). It's all about what you need.

[silverjon]

It's cheaper than smoking.

Like other craft hobbies (scrapbooking, anyone?) much of the initial cost is in getting set up so you have enough materials to actually start a project. As long as you're ultimately using things from your stash instead of just hoarding them, you're probably fine.

[hepcat]

Apparently you either can't, or it's very difficult to, get aerosol paints in the city of Chicago. Thankfully, the guys at the game store (who I consider friends after years of patronage and hanging out with at conventions more than a few times) gave me some half used black primer on the way out of the store as they were out of it and waiting on some.

I'm more anxious to play Malifaux than paint, to be honest. Such a neat game system. However, I would rather learn to paint and do these myself than pay someone outrageous amounts of money to do it for me (or, conversely, take advantage of friends to do it for free). I used to paint minis when I was in high school. Maybe I'll end up finding the hobby relaxes me again.

[TiLT]

Maybe I'll end up finding the hobby relaxes me again.

I'm surprised at how quickly time flies when I'm painting. I'll paint for what I think might have been an hour, only to realize that four have passed.

[TiLT]

Aaaand here's the final mini for now, the werewolf:





It's the first mini I've tried varnishing, and I noticed after taking the pictures that it's still too glossy, even after spraying it with matte varnish. I might have to give it another coat of matte, but I'm afraid of the snow effect that these sprays cause in too thick layers. At least this thing is protected against wear and tear now.

I've now painted all the different kinds of Bones I bought after the Reaper Kickstarter. I still need to paint the remaining gnoll, but at least I've done one of them. I should take a break from all the painting now so I don't get burned out, so I think I'll pack up my gear until I receive my shipment in late March or early April. More progress reports will follow then.

[coopasonic]

How about I send you my reaper kickstarter stuff and you paint them and send them back? While you are at it, could you paint my zombicide minis... also all the zombicide season 2 minis and expansion and whatnot? I won't have them for a bit, but I imagine you will be busy with the reaper stuff for a while.

Thanks!

[TiLT]

How about I send you my reaper kickstarter stuff and you paint them and send them back? While you are at it, could you paint my zombicide minis... also all the zombicide season 2 minis and expansion and whatnot? I won't have them for a bit, but I imagine you will be busy with the reaper stuff for a while.

Thanks!

Hah, if only it was lack of miniatures that stopped me now. I've got half a million minis left to paint if I want to, but I know that if I push too hard now, I won't have any motivation left when the Kickstarter rewards arrive.

[coopasonic]

My kids already love art (inexplicably). If I play my cards right, I may get free mini painters out of it! Why have I not thought of this before.

I still have no idea what I'll do with the Reaper stuff or why I pledged (y'know other than peer pressure).

[TiLT]

One thing I just realized didn't show up very well in my pictures is the relative scale of the minis. Since I'm packing away my stuff now anyway, I decided to take a final "group shot" of the minis I painted in this batch. (click to see bigger version)



The werewolf, dwarf, troll and gnoll are all from Reaper Bones, available today. None of them are part of the Kickstarter.
The golem and snake are also Reaper miniatures, but not part of Bones, and thus made out of metal.
The Chaos Warriors are from Warhammer Fantasy Battle by Games Workshop. They sure look at lot cooler than the Chaos Warrior minis I have from good old Hero Quest.
The human hunter I have no idea where is from. It's made from a kind of blue/green metal that was hard to prime. I bought it many years ago from my FLGS, and I forget which series it's from. It may be Reaper, but it doesn't seem to be their style. It certainly felt very old-school to work with, and it's easy to see in this picture that it's not designed in the same way as more modern miniatures.

If I didn't already know which of these are metal and which are plastic, I'd never figure it out by looking at the picture.

By the way, I stopped at 3 coats of matte varnish over the gloss varnish for the dwarf, werewolf and golem. The rest are only covered with one coat of matte and no gloss. Even with 3 coats, the gloss still shines through in places. I don't know how I'll deal with this problem in the future.

[Blackhawk]

Reaper, Ral Partha and several others always sign the bottom of their bases.

The only thing that 'sticks' from the archer is that the base is very much in the style of Mithril Miniatures, and I've seen some of their stuff that style of hat.

[TiLT]

Reaper, Ral Partha and several others always sign the bottom of their bases.

The only thing that 'sticks' from the archer is that the base is very much in the style of Mithril Miniatures, and I've seen some of their stuff that style of hat.

Doh, why didn't I think of that?

It's indeed a Mithril miniature. Nicely spotted.

[Blackhawk]

Then the reason it was probably so hard to prime was that Mithril pre-primed their miniatures with a gray primer. You may have been priming over a decade+ old primer.

[TiLT]

Huh, good thing it didn't lose any detail then. I've got another one of the same style, only holding an axe instead of a bow. That's all I've got from that range. Considering how tricky the first one was to paint (lots of tiny details), I'm not looking forward to repeating it with the second one. I like that the two minis are rather understated compared to most minis though. Looking at the Reaper range, you'd think 9 out of 10 heroes dual wield or are dressed in outlandish suits of armor or robes. Makes for impressive and easily recognizable minis, but can look a bit silly.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, Mithril did the Middle Earth line, and most of them were very realistically designed.

[TiLT]

Middle-earth, eh? You just reminded me how and when (roughly) I got those two miniatures. My parents gave them to me as a present, along with the Middle-earth Roleplaying Game, when I was like 15 or so. Holy crap, I've had these minis for nearly 20 years!

[Blackhawk]

And they seem to be Mithril Miniatures M90A and M90B, from the Mirkwood line of Middle Earth miniatures, sold in a pack called 'Woodmen.'



Another possibility for the color and difficulty priming is that these were made in 1989, when miniatures were pure lead. I checked a couple of Mithril pieces I have from the same year - lead. The switch to pewter didn't come until the early to mid 90s, and the rise of resin until a few years later. Twenty year old lead tends to oxidize pretty severely, which can prevent paint from sticking.

If you decide to paint his friend, you might just want to strip it first. Easy-Off oven cleaner is what I use, although I have no idea if it is available under that name up there in Skyrim. The relevant active ingredient is sodium hydroxide, however, which is common, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. Toss the piece into a jar, spray the cleaner all over it, wait an hour, and toothbrush it off. It should strip the paint, the primer, and the oxidation and make the piece factory-fresh, but you'd have to leave it in there for days before it would affect the metal itself. Wash it with dish soap and prime like normal.

This, by the way, is how I go about stripping any miniature I need the paint off of. It works perfectly, even for 25 year-old enamels. Just don't do it with plastic of (presumably) Bones.

[TiLT]

I actually did submerge them in brush cleaner for an hour or so, followed by hot water and a toothbrush, but it made no difference. Strong stuff may indeed be needed. Not that it was much of a problem with the one mini I painted. Apart from having to make two passes of primer, the paint seemed to stick well.

[baelthazar]

Aaaand here's the final mini for now, the werewolf:
It's the first mini I've tried varnishing, and I noticed after taking the pictures that it's still too glossy, even after spraying it with matte varnish. I might have to give it another coat of matte, but I'm afraid of the snow effect that these sprays cause in too thick layers. At least this thing is protected against wear and tear now.

TiLT, my suggestions regarding varnish is to not use the spray on variety and to grab some paint-on varnish ASAP. Yes, it adds some extra time and steps, but spray-on varnish is difficult to use and tends to be temperature and humidity dependent. Worse, you run the risk of getting "snow" on your model - shake the can for like five minutes. As an aside, spray varnish is highly toxic (it is the propellent and drying solution that is bad for you, not the varnish), so try to use a mask if you must spray.

Liquitex sells glossy and matte brush-on varnishes that are acceptable, although I prefer the very hard to find (unless you are in Europe) Vallejo varnish. I typically paint two coats of glossy for protection, then one coat of matte to remove the shine (you can do one glossy and two matte, if you prefer).

Varnish is a must for me. It makes the mini feels smooth, like plastic, and it brings out some of the shading and detail. I hate brushing on the varnish, because you need a thin layer and you have to watch for bubbles or overflow, but the results at the end are superior to spray-on.

And whatever you do, don't use the Games Workshop sprays. If you have to, Testor's Dullcote works alright, but it too finicky for my tastes.

[Blackhawk]

I use Testor's dullcote for most of my work, but on specific pieces I'll use a Vallejo brush-on. The dwarf I painted earlier, for instance, I'll use brush-on, as I don't want the armor dullcoted, but don't want the face shiny.

[TiLT]

Aaaand here's the final mini for now, the werewolf:
It's the first mini I've tried varnishing, and I noticed after taking the pictures that it's still too glossy, even after spraying it with matte varnish. I might have to give it another coat of matte, but I'm afraid of the snow effect that these sprays cause in too thick layers. At least this thing is protected against wear and tear now.

TiLT, my suggestions regarding varnish is to not use the spray on variety and to grab some paint-on varnish ASAP. Yes, it adds some extra time and steps, but spray-on varnish is difficult to use and tends to be temperature and humidity dependent. Worse, you run the risk of getting "snow" on your model - shake the can for like five minutes. As an aside, spray varnish is highly toxic (it is the propellent and drying solution that is bad for you, not the varnish), so try to use a mask if you must spray.

Liquitex sells glossy and matte brush-on varnishes that are acceptable, although I prefer the very hard to find (unless you are in Europe) Vallejo varnish. I typically paint two coats of glossy for protection, then one coat of matte to remove the shine (you can do one glossy and two matte, if you prefer).

Varnish is a must for me. It makes the mini feels smooth, like plastic, and it brings out some of the shading and detail. I hate brushing on the varnish, because you need a thin layer and you have to watch for bubbles or overflow, but the results at the end are superior to spray-on.

And whatever you do, don't use the Games Workshop sprays. If you have to, Testor's Dullcote works alright, but it too finicky for my tastes.

Heh, I already do most of what you said. I use brush-on varnish for the gloss layer, and spray for the matte layer. The latter is the Army Painter can, which is highly regarded by those who use it right (as in shake it much longer than you might think it needs). Even three coats of matte didn't cause any "snow" for me, so I think I'm doing it right. I'm also wearing a mask and gloves while working with the spray, and I ventilate the room thoroughly immediately after the spraying (if I did it at the same time, I'd increase the risk of artifacts).

At the moment I'm using the Citadel 'Ardcoat for the gloss varnish, but I'll replace it with the Reaper variant when I get it in April. 'Ardcoat is unproblematic despite being a Citadel product, at least according to the discussions I could find about the matter online. As you say, it's the spray products you need to watch out for, and there Army Painter has done a good job. In fact, even if I only used 'Ardcoat on three of the minis in the picture above, I used the Army Painter matte spray on all of them, and it turned out very well.

I might end up using brush-on matte varnish in the end, if such a thing exists. I'm finding myself slightly annoyed that the matte spray doesn't reach all the glossy areas properly, even if I spray from all kinds of different directions. It's not a huge problem, and it could probably also be solved if I use the gloss varnish less on the inaccessible areas and more on the ones that are exposed to fingers. It's something I'll figure out over time, I suppose.