Posted by eldritchfox on 2014-12-20 13:24:06

https://fumbbl.com/help:Miniatures

Posted by Christer on 2014-12-20 13:29:49

Although I'm not anywhere near the best painter in the world, a few tips:

1. Take your time with preparing the miniatures (cleaning up old lines etc). If the minis needed to be glued together, use green stuff to clean up the edges between the different pieces of the miniature.

2. Base coat the figures with black spray paint. I strongly recommend black, even for skeletons. It'll take a few more coats of paint to get them brighter, but lets you cut some corners when it comes to shading

3. Citadel (ie, GW) paints are very good, but last time I used them the pots they use aren't fully air sealed so paints will dry out over time (over a few months). Valejo paints work better for me, and are also high quality.

4. Get a set of decent brushes. Don't fuss too much about the absolutely smallest ones as you'll be surprised how much you'll end up using brushes that feel larger than the miniatures' arms. Remember that you'll only be using the outmost tip of the brush pretty much all the time.

5. Don't ever paint directly from the paint pot. Instead, take some paint out of it with the brush onto a palette of some kind (a small plate or whatever). Dilute the paint with (clean) water on the palette. This makes the paint thinner and doesn't cover as well (see next point).

6. Paint in multiple layers. Having a dliuted paint will help you get an even coat of paint, and at the same time allow you to do some level of highlighting almost automatically. Basically, with a paint that doesn't cover the layers below it, you can paint one layer, let it dry, paint another layer that's slightly smaller then the first one. This way you'll get a gradual transition from the background colour to the foreground.

7. Paint in batch. Paint the first layer of paint on (for example) the shoulder pad of the miniature, then set the mini aside and do the same part on the next one. Once you've done it on all miniatures, the paint will be dry on the first one and you'll be ready to paint the next layer. If you're exceptionally fast, use a lamp (or something semi-warm) to speed up the drying process. A couple of degrees warmer makes a big difference.

8. Clean and store your brushes well. Don't ever leave them brush side down in a pot of water, and make sure that when you put them away you shape the brush to a neutral shape (especially the tip), cap it with whatever cap it came with and store in a safe place.

For your first set of minis, don't expect an amazing result and be proud of your results! It's a really nice feeling to have a set of minis you painted yourself :)

That's about it from me I guess.. I'm sure others will have more tips and tricks (and surely they're all better painters than me :) )

Posted by mayhemzz22 on 2014-12-20 13:34:01

thanks, i have ordered a star player to practice on before i order the team, i will upload photos of my project :)

Posted by Rabe on 2014-12-20 18:07:59

Great stuff. I'll eventually start paining various miniatures as well and I am/was just as clueless. :-D

Posted by Cyrus-Havoc on 2014-12-20 20:02:37

On the thinning of paints if you live in a hard water area you may find distilled water to be better.

Posted by Sammler_der_Seelen on 2014-12-21 01:12:35

spubbba made good hints for painting whole teams in one of his last blogs,but the best is keep it simple.For me the best paints are vallejo colour,since im found them i paint with nothing other.to get some shades in easy mode you can use armypainter (its not cheap but a can is enough for whole armys )

Posted by DrDeath on 2014-12-21 14:15:09

Good luck with the painting and have fun! Good tips above, I'm at a similar stage, recently restarted painting after a 25-year break and have really enjoyed it. A few more tips:

1) Save additional brushes for two specific jobs, i) metallic paints and ii) dry-brushing. The first is necessary to stop flecks of metal paint showing up on other colours - never use this brush for non-metallic paints! Dry-brushing is a very handy technique for rough areas like chainmail or fur. Get a lighter colour on the brush then wipe it all off with kitchen paper, so that it won't lay paint on your hand (but there are still tiny particles on the brush!). Now whisk it quickly over your basecoated layer - it will pick out the highlights very nicely (would advise using an old brush for this, good technique but it does wreck brushes)

2) Black is the best undercoat for metal and dark areas, but for others I prefer a light grey primer. White and light colours are weaker and therefore work best over a lighter undercoat.

3) I'd thoroughly recommend Coat d'Arms paints too. The original Citadel paints were in fact Coat d'Arms, just with a different label. They do a wide rane, also undercoasts, varnishes, inks (good for shading), and textured paints (for bases such as rough grass or mud). If you originally used Citadel, you'll find many of these are identical to the old shades, and they're cheaper too. There are one or two conversion charts out there if you ever want to match old Citadel colours to current Coat d' Arms.

Most of all, have fun painting YOUR team, and then playing TT!

Posted by fidius on 2014-12-21 23:14:05

Christer's point about storing brushes carefully is very important, especially if you go many weeks (months) between sessions like I do. I actually dropped close to $20 (Cdn) on a Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable brush and was floored by the difference. They then recommended a brush cleaner (mine is a small pot of waxy stuff) which after you finish cleaning the brush you rinse and then leave some in the brush itself to help it keep its shape. Nothing more irritating than stray bristles getting in your way.