For many gamers, one of the more fun activities of the hobby is painting miniatures. After all, if we didn’t paint them, then we would be fielding squadrons of gray plastic against hordes of equally gray plastic. Not very exciting. You will also find that all game manufacturers, clubs, and shops will require a fully painted army before you can enter any tournaments.When it comes to Dungeons & Dragons and o🌼ther RPGs, getting to the end of a dangerous quest and facing a gray stone troll (unless the stone is monotone plastic gray) isn’t much fun either.
Painting minis should be an enjoyable part of the hobby, but it needn’t cost an arm and a leg! Gౠamers of limited artistic ability needn’t worry either, many of the hobby paint ranges available have been designed to make life easy. Join us now, as we take a look at how to get into painting miniatures for tabletop ꦜgames.
Before We Start
A word of warning before we begin. Painting miniatures should be a safe and enjoyable experience for all. Younger painters should have supervision from a responsible adult at all times. Sharp knives and tools should be used in the preparation of models prior to painting a🌌nd while all hobby paint should be non-toxic, it's probably not a great idea to test this! Teaching kids how to use tools respectfully is an important life skill and will help avoid injury now and in the future.
What You Need
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If you have ever walked into your local games stores and looked at the paint rack you may have come away feeling overwhelmed. Some paint ranges have hundreds of different colors available, not to mention the myriad of paint brushes available. You will be glad to hear that you don’t need every♒ color or brush available to get going. If you are careful and choose your first purchases well, you will have a solid foundation upon which to build later.
Paintbrushes
ღFor your first purchases look at buying a set of brushes, these will contain the essential sizes and types to get started. You can worry about upgrading to higher quality ones later as your skills improve. Ideally, you will be looking for a fine detail brush, a small/medium brush for base coats and layers, and a drybrush. The artists amongst you will think in brush sizes, so a 00 for fine details, 0 or 1 for base coats and layers, and a cheap size 1 yꦚou don’t mind destroying for dry brushing.
Other Tools
Model preparation is highly recommended if you are looking for the finest paint jobs. A good set o🐼f side/sprue cutters will last you a lifetime if treated well and will give you a clean cut when removing parts from the sprue. An X-Acto/hobby knife will also come in handy; use it to carefully remove any extra plastic from part edges. Fine grit sand paper (300 - 600+) can be used to smooth out flashing, the slither of plastic where the two halves of a mold joined. A pro-tip is to use disposable nail files found in the cosmetics isle. Grab an old cup or jar for rinse water and a cheap palette for your paint (never paint straight from the pot). Don’t forget paper towel… just in case. To hold your models while painting you can use some poster tack and a cork from a wine bottle or better stilꦅl, buy some painting handles.
As most models come in kit form you will need some glue to hold bits together. As we are working with polystyrene plastic there is special glue available which forms a chemical bond (think welded) between the parts. This will be available at the same stores yoꦚu buy your minis from. It will be labeled ‘plastic glue’, ‘polystyrene glue’, or similar.
Model Preparation
First, we need to remove the plastic parts from the 🤡sprue. Using your side cutters,ജ place the flat side against the model and snip. You should have a fairly flat cut, now use some sandpaper to smooth it flat. Inspect the piece for mold lines and repeat where necessary. Do this for all parts of the model as you work with them. Any large or difficult blobs of plastic can be cut using an X-Acto blade, be careful not to injure yourself.
The model is now ready to be glued together. Carefully apply glue to the edges of one piece. Lining up the two parts push them together. The bond should be quick but be carefཧul not to get the glue on your fingers. Allow time for the glue to fully cure before continuing. Give the model a quick looking over and follow the above procedure to remove excess glue once cured. Finally, with a damp bit of paper towel wipe down the model to remove dust and plastic particles. You are now ready to undercoat.
Undercoating
An important step, and often missed by new painters, is to undercoat your models. All paint ranges will have an undercoat specially formulated to grab onto the plastic. Apply a thin coat (or two if necessary) before you move on, failure to do so could end up with your paint rubbing🀅 off or flaking as it may not stick to the plastic well enough.
Choosing Your Colors
The days of old where the only paint choice was enamels and lacquers are long gone. Acrylics are our friends and should be used all the time. Brands li🍸ke Citadel, Vallejo, and Army Painter all use water-based acrylics.
If you are new to painting an army you will be glad to hear that there is usually a paint scheme you can follow. These will list the recommended paints to use. You don’t have to stick to this, a similar shade/tone will often work just as well. and you can darken/lighten yཧour paints with black/white.
There are however some essential paints to own. A decent white and black should always be in your kit, you can lighten anಌd darken 🐈other paints and there is no way to mix others to achieve these colors. The same could be said for vibrant primaries: red, blue, and yellow - grab these as well.
Congratulations! You now have everything you need to start painting. In the next part, we’ll start painting our first mini. Don’t get too hung up on the paints, tools💧, and techniques. You don’t need to buy everything in one go; there is nothing wrong with buying what you need for a specific project. Slowly building your toolbox and paint selection is what most of us have done. Remember, painting is supposed to be fun.
Sources: - Air Force Medical Service