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So essentially I've been painting for a while but have never dedicated myself to actually improving, that I want to change. I need the dakka expertise, tips, hints, tricks, anything to do with painting or modelling, something along the lines of "water down your paints so you can do more than one coat, gives you a much better and even result" I was told this after years of just slapping paint on and having been watering my paints ever since, but do you put water in the pot itself? help me dakka, you all know more than I

For quick effective bones.
Bleached bone
Devlan mud was
Bleached bone Highlight
Skull White Highlight.
Also if the paint is to thick, water the pot. It you need it thinner for something special, thin it on the brush by sticking it in water.
Do not loose track of green stuff. store it in a cool place or wonky things happen.
Also. Dont model in your underwear or a shirt you like

.....*slowly looks down at pristine white shirt...and loaded paintbrush about to be used* that was close.

A. Get rid of mold lines and flash.
B. Wash your minis before you prime. (gets rid of the mold release agent)
C. Prime everything. Yes even resin and finecast.
D. Use synthetic brushes for metalics. ( the mica in the metal paint will ruin natural hairs over time).
E. Use a pallete and do not paint right from the pot.
F. Thin your paint with water. Many coats is better than one big ugly one.
G. When priming white, give it a light wash of sepia or brown to shade the mini first. (this speeds up the process when using white undercoat)
H. Try a wet pallete.
I. Use a gloss sealer and then a matte sealer for minis you plan on gaming with. Makes it VERY hard to chip the paint.
J. Drybrushing is a useful tool but it can become a crutch. Do your best to practice layering, blending, and highlighting.
K. Washes are your friend. Use them.
L. Even friends can overstay their welcome. Devlan mud is not liquid talent.
M. Do not paint an army one mini at a time!
N. Learn to weather your tanks. It is easier than it looks and tanks look better with a gently used look!
O. Get a color wheel when picking paint schemes. Know a colors compliments and what clashes.
P. A limited pallete of color can make an army look unified. Too many colors and your army looks like a pack of Skittles!
Q. Simple green is a new painters friend. Don't be afraid to dunk and start over.
R. Keep distractions away. Put away the video /computer games, TV, etc. Music, on the other hand can help you focus.
S. keep the paint out of the ferrule! (the metal part where the brush attaches to the handle) This will make your brushes last longer.
T. Airbrushes are worth it... Base coating does not have to be a chore.
U. Watch tutorials from great painters. Les Bursley www.awesomepaintjob.com has some great stuff posted for free on YouTube. (you are my hero Les!)
V. When painting red keep in mind that Blood Red should be your highlight color and you should start as deep as possible. If you start with Blood Red as a base coat your model will look pink or orange.
W. practice practice practice.
X. Start a P&M blog! It will help keep you motivated.
Y. Black armies are easy to paint to a rough tabletop quality but deceptively hard to paint to display quality without looking grey.
Z. If you have a color that is notoriously weak at covering, use a foundation base coat to help it along. E.g. Blazing Orange: Macharius Solar Orange, Bad Moon Yellow: Tausept Ochre, Shining Gold: Khemri Brown, Snakebite Leather: Calthan Brown.


Is that good? I could go on....

oh please do, these are all awesome tips

Use the "Search" function, located top left of each sub-forum....type things in it like;

Painting Tips
Blending
Priming
Pinning
Brushes
Airbrush
ect...

You will find a plethora of threads and questions with dozens of posts that seem to come up weekly answering this very question.

Ashton

1. Always paint a practice model before you paint a whole army of the same kind. Work out your paint scheme then before you paint a whole army and figure out you don't like it.
2. Paint in a well lit location.
3. Use quality equipment. I.E..brushes, paint, etc... You will be happier in the long run.
4. Clean your brushes regularly.
5. In all the time you spend on any hobby, please don't forget to shower. The people that you play with will thank you.

The thinning your paintes with water one is key for me.

THIN YOUR PAINTS

Also get a lot of practice. Buy some cheap/crap models and use those to practice. If you never painted before and do not know what you are capable of, I would not suggest buying a bunch of DKoK and trying from there. Get some mantic or something

@ Rabid Ferret - dude you are epic, a perfectly simple but very helpful run down for little painting tricks, thank you very much.

I can read about techniques till the cows come home , but the little painting tricks are much harder too find and i have noticed that they make a world of difference.

2 things i would like to add and i am sure these are duuuh obvious to many of you but it made all the difference to me as i'm not a veteran painter and hopefully they can help other folk too.

1: Don't overload your brush - keep only a little amount of paint on it on the tip. yeah you will have to paint more but it's easier to control and easier to apply and gets in all the tricky spots without bleeding over or splodging.

2: Use different angles with your brush - try using the sides of it instead of the tip or use it like a needle and go straight down. i have found that for highlighting instead of dry brushing to catch the edges you can get a really accurate highlight by using the side of your brush gently and if you use it like a pin with a good wash/thinned paint, you will get into cracks without splodging over or filling them up so there is no shading (using tip 1 as well)

Talking about figure prep; removing flash and mold lines,etc. it is also important to use the right glue on multi part kits.

Styrene (plastic) figures should always be glued together with a liquid styrene adhesive (Revell Contacta for example). It works by melting the mating surfaces slightly and you get an excellent bond when it sets. If you get too much on the figure, DO NOT wipe it up. Blot any excess with the edge of a tissue and let the rest dry. No harm done!

Metal and resin minis should be assembled using a good brand name, gap filling cyanoacrylate adhesive. (super glue). Pinning may be necessary on heavy parts but the super glue does a great job holding it all together.

Remember to wash the mini after assembly and before painting. This gets rid of any mold release agent and oil from your fingers.

For blending techniques use saliva on the blender brush instead of water.

Rabid Ferret wrote:
L. Even friends can overstay their welcome. Devlan mud is not liquid talent.

HERESY!

Always undercoat (I personally choose black)
If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well (don't rush your models!)
Don't airbrush outside on windy days

When enraptured with the excitement and progress of a new project that is making excellent headway, keep a watch handy or set an alarm that will remind you that it's time to eat.

Rogues Gambit wrote:@ Rabid Ferret - dude you are epic, a perfectly simple but very helpful run down for little painting tricks, thank you very much.

Why thank you!

Phototoxin wrote:

Rabid Ferret wrote:
L. Even friends can overstay their welcome. Devlan mud is not liquid talent.

HERESY!

LOL... dude. Scrolled down and totally spat out my coffee laughing.

guyperson5 wrote:Always
Don't airbrush outside on windy days

Also hilarious... especially don't do this if you use Windex for an airbrush medium.

'Magic Wash'.

1 Part Pascoe's Long Life (what I found in Coles, Aus) OR Pledge One Go : 4 Parts water.

Great for thinning, instead of that 'blotchiness' you see if you thin just a little too much like with regular water, this retains the water together so you can paint very smooth and even coats. It also gives it a better colour, as water is naturally transparent and this can show through in the paint, whereas this turns the liquid into a milky colour (imagine dropping food dye into water, versus into milk, the milk one would look more solid due to an opaque background).

1 Bottle will last you your whole painting life, just be sure to use a dropper or something to apply to your paints (AKA don't dip your paint brush with paint on it into the mini-container like I did!)

To add to the literal washing part: If you don't wash it (like I didn't for some practice LotR minis), you will see the paint act as if it was water, and it won't retain on the mini, resulting in paint wasted as you would have to apply liberal coating.

Also, quick trees: $2.50 for 30 pipe cleaner rods at 30cm length, twist a few together, glue/tape some newspaper to it for some mass, then wrap in paper mache, as opposed to libreral use of sticky tape for unnaturally thin trees (well in Australia they'd actually be unnaturally THICK, but I just assume american forests anyway).

I've used 'Pledge One Go' for a gloss varnish. It's TOUGH!

It's also brilliant for cleaning scratches or fogging from super glue off clear styrene plastic parts. Just dip the part in it and put it somewhere dust free to drip dry.

It's called 'Future Floor Wax' in the USA.

this is awesome guys, i've found, for painting a large army at least, take out one colour and then fill in that colour on each of the models....means you cant focus on one model but means everything gets done faster

hey, really kinda new at the whole painting thing, what exactly is drybrushing?

to my knowledge its when you get paint on the brush, then get shot of it onto tissue, then paint when brush is basically dry, am I wrong?
Thanks in advance, this has been tonnes o' help

Could have quite an interesting book just made from lists of tips from expert painters. Id buy it!

hedgehoghappy wrote:hey, really kinda new at the whole painting thing, what exactly is drybrushing?

to my knowledge its when you get paint on the brush, then get shot of it onto tissue, then paint when brush is basically dry, am I wrong?
Thanks in advance, this has been tonnes o' help

Yes, your basically right. Here a youtube video for you showing it in action.

If you don't thin your paints, thin them.

If you thin them... thin them out some more.

Get a wet palette.

Use good brushes.

Many times when people are unhappy with their painting, it is a result of using thick paints, and/or crappy brushes.

Eliminate the simple procedural or equipment problems, so you can concentrate on the technique and control.

OH oh, another big one

Do a tonne of research, on paint jobs, painting techniques and just generally what stuff looks like (in the real world that is) as it will help you immeasurably when it comes to painting your minis, how to do rusted metal etc etc