Your P&M tip for the day?

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**StarDrop**

Don't forget about the gravity. Especially when you are doing washes on your model. Keep your model in it's natural pose, so the wash can flow 'down'.

**JoshInJapan**

I second the tip for keeping your brush water and your drink in different places.

My tip: get up early and paint while the rest of the house is sleeping. You're fresher and you can work with no distractions.

**Matthew**

JoshInJapan wrote:
I second the tip for keeping your brush water and your drink in different places.

My tip: get up early and paint while the rest of the house is sleeping. You're fresher and you can work with no distractions.

This also applies to painting late at night when everyones asleep

**Buttery Commissar**

JoshInJapan wrote:
I second the tip for keeping your brush water and your drink in different places.

I have the bright red Reaper C.U.P freebie thing that say on it "Don't drink paint water".
Nothing in my house looks like that cup. It's massive and plastic.
My partner has somehow been fooled by it.

Usually I use water dishes instead of cups, so I never have this problem. Sigh.

**JoshInJapan**

Matthew wrote:
JoshInJapan wrote:
I second the tip for keeping your brush water and your drink in different places.

My tip: get up early and paint while the rest of the house is sleeping. You're fresher and you can work with no distractions.

This also applies to painting late at night when everyones asleep

I work 8-to-5, so late nights aren't an option most days. Painting first thing is a nice way for early risers to start their day, I think.

**mockingbirduk**

Buttery Commissar wrote:
JoshInJapan wrote:
I second the tip for keeping your brush water and your drink in different places.
I have the bright red Reaper C.U.P freebie thing that say on it "Don't drink paint water".
Nothing in my house looks like that cup. It's massive and plastic.
My partner has somehow been fooled by it.

Usually I use water dishes instead of cups, so I never have this problem. Sigh.

For a while chewing gum was sold in the UK in little round pots with a flip-top lid. Those make an excellent evaporation-reducing and drinking-avoidance paint water holders. then you just need to stop washing brushes in tea.

**Paradigm**

A kind of obvious one, but if you don't know how to do something, research it! In this day and age the Internet is flooded with tutorials, ranging from real-tive videos to written step-by-steps and across all levels of skill and detail; a quick search, read and plan before you sit down to paint can be immeasurably handy and save you hours of trial and error.

As with any other type of research, find the way that suits you best (actually following a tutorial as it plays, watching it done, reading and memorising ect) and use that.

**Minimachine**

Another tip is to refresh your brush regularly. Dipping the tip in water or additive and adding more paint will keep things flowing along the tip but higher up in the belly of the brush paint may have already dried, affecting its' performance.

Rinsing out the brush completely, drying it, then loading it with paint from scratch is something I like to do every minute or two. I find the smaller the brush the more often it needs it, and it also depends on the task I'm performing as with something like basecoating I can usually get away with painting most of a miniature before refreshing.

To avoid this you can add drying retarder to the paint, but I find it tends to thicken my mixes in a way I don't like.

**goblinzz**

Try and have at least one fun project you just pick away at occasionally while slogging through the main army. For example I had picked away at a unit of mega nobz while I was painting up a huge blob of Kommandos. Right now I'm painting a little model Tug Boat (phrasing...) in between doing my IG army. Keeps you sane to have a little fun project that doesn't make you feel like you're smashing your head into the wall.

**Nevelon**

goblinzz wrote:
Try and have at least one fun project you just pick away at occasionally while slogging through the main army. For example I had picked away at a unit of mega nobz while I was painting up a huge blob of Kommandos. Right now I'm painting a little model Tug Boat (phrasing...) in between doing my IG army. Keeps you sane to have a little fun project that doesn't make you feel like you're smashing your head into the wall.

On the flip side, if you have a project you you don’t want to do, but need to do for the game (Drop pods, I’m looking at you) don’t let it scare you away from the paint bench. Chip away at it while working on more entertaining things. I found that when I had a large vehicle as the only thing in progress, I’d read, play computer games, etc; anything but paint. But if I was working on a squad of guys at the same time, everything would get done.

**Matthew**

A pot of paint never dies. It starts like a nice base coat paint, or a highlight paint. When it starts drying up, use it as a drybrushing paint. When that becomes impossible, add water, now it's a shade. When the shade runs out, it may finally rest...

... or be used as scenery.

**Buttery Commissar**

Thought today:
The Dettol paint-stripper's secret saviour (other than gloves): hand cream. You'll thank me later when your fingers don't crumble to pieces in the morning.

**Buttery Commissar**

Today's thought: The brush giveth, the brush taketh away...
One of the first things I ever learned way how to use a wet clean brush to wick away freshly applied paint if I slipped. I thought it was bunkum. Why would I need that? I'd just strip the model..

Nowadays I realise that it's a very very useful thing to learn early on.

**Matthew**

Hold on, can you just use a wet brush for that? Thaaaaaank youuuuuu.

**kb_lock**

Yeah panic brushes made such a difference to my painting. Much less fear.

The difference that masters of any profession have is the ability to recover from mistakes

My tip would be to try every method. Painting up this ork, i immediately thought of airbrushing the skin, then asking Jaunine about it he was using only a brush. Made me realise I've been avoiding my brush, and that i shouldn't be.

**Buttery Commissar**

Yeah, the only thing I tend to airbrush rather than brush as a first choice is white.
It's hard to get consistent coverage with pure white, so I dig it out.

Maybe I'm the opposite and avoid the airbrush.

**kb_lock**

I only use the airbrush for whites, blacks, yellows, reds, blues, and any shades between them.

It's funny though, i used to thin my paints, but would always get away with 2 coats, now i can do 5 coats without worrying about it. That many coats used to demoralize me for some reason

**Buttery Commissar**

I still get a bit worried that I'm doing it wrong if it takes more than two.

Right now I'm working over green with flesh tones and reds, it's... Interesting... I'll say that.

**Zogg**

Don't put your box of knife blades in the same drawer as a bunch of rare-earth magnets. Ouchy.

**Buttery Commissar**

Oh my God. Just looking at it hurts.

**Bluedorian**

First look, i thought that was a bad chainsword kitbash...........

**Buttery Commissar**

Try and keep brush strokes in the same direction across an area. Especially when using multiple layers. Took me a long time to appreciate how useful this is.

**thegreatchimp**

If you're making something out of greenstuff, or any other modelling putty, you'll usually have some left over. So once you've roughy moulded the object you're sculpting, and are waiting for it to firm up a bit, take the leftovers and make small bits of scenery. I've made a load of frest plants like this. Stick a blob of green stuff on a piece of wire, and shape it, and you have mushroom. Flatten it and cut to shape and you have a leaf. Roll it into little balls, and you have piles of animal poop. I'm not kidding I did actually make some poop from green stuff.

**kb_lock**

Nice tip, i used instant mold to press mold the hobbit wood panels, i jam extra green stuff into them - makes skulls and stuff

**Paradigm**

thegreatchimp wrote:
If you're making something out of greenstuff, or any other modelling putty, you'll usually have some left over. So once you've roughy moulded the object you're sculpting, and are waiting for it to firm up a bit, take the leftovers and make small bits of scenery. I've made a load of frest plants like this. Stick a blob of green stuff on a piece of wire, and shape it, and you have mushroom. Flatten it and cut to shape and you have a leaf. Roll it into little balls, and you have piles of animal poop. I'm not kidding I did actually make some poop from green stuff.

To which I'd add a great way to make textured bases. Take some GS (leftovers are ideal) and roll it out over a base, then take something with the desired texture and press it in. Patterned or decorative buttons are great for this, and you can get all kinds of textures.

**Buttery Commissar**

I have a little collection of green stuff bunnies. Until now I thought that was a good use.

**Matthew**

Also, if you have any left over GS, press moulds are always fun

**Buttery Commissar**

Thin your paints.

Same figure, different painters.

**Buttery Commissar**

To further illustrate:

Unfortunately if I try and do it in one post, my iPhone just ups 2 of the same image.

**Dr H**

I make tentacles with my left over putty.

and for my tip I'll stick with the obvious (for those that know me):

Don't throw out your sprue. Make use of it in conversions, scratch-builds, and just for little details.
It's made from the same stuff that your models are made from and so sticks with the same glue.

I'll copy this from a previous thread about sprue use:

Dr H wrote:
Did someone mention sprue? I definitely heard "sprue"...

What do I use sprue for? Everything I can.

A hut:

Spoiler:

Everything between the mud on the base (dried paint on a CD) and the metal plates of the roof (card) is made of sprue. That includes all the "wood", the plants/flowers, a ladder and it's hook, the table, the bench, and the bottles on the table.
The tutorial for the whole build is here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/545398.page#5935106

I've also carved hands, swords and many other small pieces out of sprue:

Spoiler:

For larger things, you can glue pieces of sprue together with poly' cement.

You can also use pieces stuck together to quickly bulk out a shape before covering in GS (or equivalent putty).
I did this for the nose on my Wave Serpent:

Spoiler:

You can use wedges of sprue for re-posing models. Glue in with cement and then cut/sand down. Saves on putty and creates a stronger join:

Spoiler:

Two pieces, stuck back to back and a third round piece of sprue were used for the mines on this model's base:

Spoiler:

And the support structure for the dozer blade on this tank is largely sprue:

Spoiler:

The electrical boxes on the Tryanid's back, the back of the Ork's chair, The computer monitor the 'nid is looking at, the details on the ceiling and front, and many other small parts etc, are all sprue here...

Spoiler:

It's my "go to" material of choice when modelling.

Don't throw out your sprue.