Introduction: Painting Miniatures

By The Wonderful World of Me
About: Jack-of-all trades, master of some. I would probably be much more modest if it wasn't for these delusions of granduer that I suffer from.

One of the best features of tabletop gaming like Warhammer is that you get to personalize your army with how you paint your miniatures. The only limit is your imagination (see step 7).

For this IBLE I will be doing a simple paint job on an Orc Boy from Warhammer Fantasy.

This will be my entry in the Big and Small contest.

Step 1: Brushes and Paint

While you can technically paint a mini with just one brush, it would not be easy. You will want an assortment of brushes depending on what you are doing.

larger stiffer brushes for drybrushing, large softer brushes for applying main colors, small tapered brushes for fine detail painting.

I like to use acrylic paints for painting miniatures for several reasons.

There are tons of variety in the colors available.

The paint is fast drying making it easy to layer paints.

You can easily thin the paint down to use it as a wash (more on that later).

You can usually find the small containers on sale at the local craft store.

Pro tip: An old CD makes a great paint palette.

Step 2: Priming

As with anything else in life, with spray paint you get what you pay for. You can get a can of spray paint really cheap at Walmart, but I prefer to spend a little more to get a brand that I know will be a consistent quality that I have used in the past.

Working with miniatures, you want to use a paint that will not clump or obscure the detail sculpted into the miniature. You are better off making a few light passes to get the right coverage rather than one heavy pass that cause runs and drips or fill in all the sculpted detail of the miniatures.

My typical priming method is to stand up the miniatures and space them out so they aren't blocking each other from the paint. Paint the miniature front, then the back. Once the first coat dries I lay the miniatures down to paint the underside, front and back.

It is important to get a consistent complete coverage of the miniature so that further paint will adhere properly.

Step 3: Drybrushing

Drybrushing is a technique for using a contrasting paint to make details pop out visually.

Because the acrylic paint is a bit on the thin side, it will not completely cover the primer layer in one coat. By using a dark primer and then a light drybrush the top layers of paint will have darker shades in the recesses and lighter shades on the highpoints.

The easiest way I have found to apply drybrushing to a miniature is to get a little bit of paint on the brush and wipe almost all of it off the brush on the palette. I will usually test the paint on my finger before applying it to the minature. Once you have a light enough amount of paint on your brush it is time to drybrush the miniature. slowly bring the brush towards the miniature with a rapid back and forth motion. As soon as the brush starts to make contact with the miniature you will see the details begin to really pop out visually. Now you just need to go over the whole miniature, front, back, top, bottom. You are done with the first miniature... now you get to drybrush the rest of the squad of miniatures.. have fun.

Step 4: Main Colors

Once all the drybrushing is done it is time to move onto applying the colors to the miniature.

For this Orc I went with a dark green skin color and then Drybrushed the skin with a lighter shade of green to help make the details pop.

I used a dark brown for the clothes and the wood handle of the axe. I thought his outfit looked too much like coveralls when it was all the same color so I painted the pants a lighter shade of brown.

Step 5: Details

Now it is time for details.

The blades of his weapons were painted metallic steel color and then detailed with metallic copper on the rivets. The edge of the blades get trimmed with red for bloodstains.

Mouth and eyes got painted red.

Teeth and nails got painted white.

Earrings get painted titanium gold.

Metal plates on the armor got painted metallic steel and then fine details on the plates got painted metallic copper to make it stand out.

Boots and side pouch got painted black so they stand out visually.

Base gets a coat of green paint. (I will have to get more flock to finish the base)

Finally to finish, I thinned down a bit of black paint with water to make a wash and then I applied it over the miniature. Since the wash is very thin is fills in the very fine detail cracks and crevices to add that additional layer of shading that takes the miniature to the next level of detail.

Step 6: Now Do It Again .... a Whole Lot

Now I get to do it 29 more times to finish the squads.

Step 7: Before You Know It, You Made an Army

Here are just a few of my miniatures from my Warhammer 40K Chaos Space Marine army to show some of the variety you can have in your army.

Dreadnaught dedicated to Nurgle

Dreadnaught dedicated to Khorne

Abaddon the Despoiler and Uriah Jacobus (converted to the cause of chaos MUH HA HA HA)

Assorted Chaos Space Marines in different paint jobs to designate different squads

chaos raptor

Khorne Berserker and a Khorne BEEserker :)

Big and Small Contest

Runner Up in the
Big and Small Contest