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#1 -lick your brushes, makes feathering and blending much smoother and easier.
#2 - keep a cuppa coffee nearby - some paints taste worse than others

 Januine wrote:
#1 -lick your brushes, makes feathering and blending much smoother and easier.
#2 - keep a cuppa coffee nearby - some paints taste worse than others

Lick it with paint on it. Yum...

I like the browns and blues the most. Grey.....not so much

I've never licked my brushes, just used paper and water. Occasionally brush soap.
Guess I'm not ingesting enough paint.

It's got vitamins and .....stuff in there.......maybe........ o.O

It's got what plants crave!

My tip for today: aim big. I wanted to do something for this months painting comp, and have that something be snipers. They have some terrain to go with them, but I don't want to make a diorama, I want to put them on my unpainted board with unpainted imperial city. Going to bash assemble the city tonight, and start throwing paint at the rest.

If you aim for the stars and miss, you might hit the moon.

Or something uplifting.

kb_lock wrote:


If you aim for the stars and miss, you might hit the moon.

Or something uplifting.

Woo! Enthusiasm! Yeah!

Nice to see this thread pop back up again, I shall have to think of something to add to it...

I read a post from someone here that said you shouldn't lick your brushes because of... cadmium poisoning? It gives your brushes a nice tip, but that sounds unpleasant.

The amount of cadmium would be so inconsequential, and if it wasn't you might get some sick super powers

kb_lock wrote:
The amount of cadmium would be so inconsequential, and if it wasn't you might get some sick super powers

I tried it once or twice. Tasted yucky. I think I'll stick with my water cup.

Just read all 13 pages and going back a few pages (and months!) to rivets, I tried everything and like tichy rivets the best. the .04 and .05 work well with IG vehicles. They are actual little tiny rivets so if you hate your self you can drill holes (the package say what size drill to use) to place them and as they are plastic, you don't have to use superglue with them (unless, of course, you're putting them on something that's not plastic). Or you can cut off the stems and just glue the domes on. Tichey also makes nuts and all kinds of other interesting stuff.

 Cleatus wrote:
I read a post from someone here that said you shouldn't lick your brushes because of... cadmium poisoning? It gives your brushes a nice tip, but that sounds unpleasant.

No, in this topic, it was that it almost murdered Tommie from Golem Studios due to bacterial contamination in the water.

 Januine wrote:
#1 -lick your brushes, makes feathering and blending much smoother and easier.
#2 - keep a cuppa coffee nearby - some paints taste worse than others

No, yucky.
No, I use it as paint water waaaaay too often >< ><

lol

My tip - if I hadn't already posted it - is pop washes and glues* into a smallish rubbermade or similiar type container when in use, take them out when you're done. That way, if (when!) you spill, it won't get all over your work, and in the case of the wash/ink, you can probably even save most of it.

I spill things way too often :(

*I mean the whole bottle! just leave them in the bowl/container while in use

I put a little bit of poster tac on the bottom of my glue bottles. They fall over much less often that way.

Always have a friend on standby, send a pick of s model and most of the time the comment or suggestion will save you time and money

I like your thinking!

Before you start any project, develop a plan and do your homework!


Wargaming inherently requires us to paint multiple models of same/similar sculpt and paint scheme. It's just a fact of creating a coherent army. A substantial amount of time and effort needs to be invested and it's often repetitive. This is both a challenge and and opportunity to learn because repetition equals practice. In my experience, it's easier to get through the current batch on my desk if I approach painting as an opportunity to become a better painter instead of just trying make an addition to my army. In this way, practicing painting is the point of the exercise and the completed models are just a pleasant side effect.

There are, of course, different reasons for painting models. Some may wish to win a Crystal Brush one day, others just need to get three colors on their army for an upcoming tournament, and some are are just getting started in the hobby and need to learn the basics.

If you want to become a competitive painter, decide which skills you really want to learn before starting. If you want to become an excellent figure painter, for example, spend extra time studying methods for painting faces, cloth, and armour that are realistically attainable based upon your current skill set and available tools. After each batch, assess your progress and decide if you're ready to move on to something more complicated. Research some more advanced techniques and apply them to your next squad. Repeat this process for each batch and don't allow yourself to limit your progress simply because the next unit won't exactly match the last. By the time you've completed your army, your growth as an artist will be clearly laid out before you.

If you're more a player than a painter, decide upon your color scheme and research speed painting techniques that others have used in advance. Find sources for things like colored spray primers and learn the finer points of assembly line painting. You're more likely to be ready for the upcoming tourney on time if you learn from other people's mistakes before you start. You'll also blow through the next newly-released unit much faster.

Finally, if you're brand new to the hobby and have no idea what you're doing, the best thing to do is to find a detailed tutorial for a paint scheme you like and, at least for a test model or two, follow it to the letter. This will give you a fairly small shopping list to limit your up-front costs. It will also allow you to gauge your own abilities at basic skills like thinning paint, washing, and brush control by comparing your results with the tutorial. Start with generic troop units because there will be lots of them for you to practice on. You can then work on slightly more advanced skills like blending and highlighting on your centerpiece units.

Whatever it is you want to accomplish, the old adage of "do your homework" will make the project infinitely easier and more rewarding. There are, of course, many free quality tutorials available on forums, youtube, google searches, and facebook discussions. If you want to learn the absolute best techniques, however, you will need to buy books or videos at some point. Most wargamers won't need to go that far, but there are excellent works available from Forgeworld, Angel Giraldez (Studio Giraldez), Michael Rinaldi (Ranaldi Studio Press / TankArt [My personal favorite!]), Mig Jimenez (FAQ2 / Ammo / MIG / AK Interactive), and many others.

Next time you run out of plastic glue, buy a can of methyl ethyl ketone. It's dirt cheap and is a wonderful plastic cement. I used to use Tamiya Extra this, so I just poor some MEK in there and use the brush. If you don't have a glass container to put in like that, maybe get a bottle of Tamiya and when you run out of that, get the MEK.

Both the MEK and Tamiya are 'hot' (the MEK more so) meaning the bite and quicker and usually stronger. Though if you need time to work ok something it may not be your best choice. A tiny amount will do you, and always remember your friend, capillary action.

Practice painting a little bit every day. Both my friends that play say they dislike painting because they aren't the greatest at it but in reality they could do all the techniques I do with no problem. base coat + wash + highlight, its not hard. in fact depending on the scheme you can skip the highlight if you want.

Its like the people that say they can only draw stick figures. No. But if you don't try you'll never figure out how good you really are.

Nobody likes playing against an army of gray statues on black stands. PAINT!

 Don Savik wrote:
Practice painting a little bit every day. Both my friends that play say they dislike painting because they aren't the greatest at it but in reality they could do all the techniques I do with no problem. base coat + wash + highlight, its not hard. in fact depending on the scheme you can skip the highlight if you want.

Its like the people that say they can only draw stick figures. No. But if you don't try you'll never figure out how good you really are.

Nobody likes playing against an army of gray statues on black stands. PAINT!

+1

I hate actually doing the paintwork, so I put some time into working out "shorthand" methods of getting 3 or so colours onto every model. Usually a case of spraying a black base, adding one primary colour to major areas, painting the gun and some bitz in leadbelcher or similar, maybe adding gold somewhere for bling, and then using an Army Painter quickshade to finish it off. Takes very little time, practically no effort, and looks great at arm's length.

Just don't use a magnifying glass, my skills aren't meant to stand up to scrutiny.

If you're looking for filler look at [url=http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=Bondo%C2%AE+Glazing+and+Spot+Putty%2C+4.5+ounce%2C+907]Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty
[/url] it's like $6 or $7 for a massive tube of the stuff and when applied you have very minimal shrinkage. It also sands pretty easily. It's designed for cars but works really nice on models. I like it better than Tamiya's putty and it's easier and cheaper than using green stuff for a lot of jobs.

While I'm not sure if this exact product is sold overseas, but there should be something similar serving the autobody market.

Here's something I shoulda known before but learned the hard way recently: for figures with a fair amount of skin showing, PAINT THE SKIN FIRST! You'll be glad you did. At least basecoat it. I basecoated my chaos cultists' clothing and weapons first and messed them up when I went to basecoat the skin. For something like a Space Marine, with little exposed skin, you can do it last. Oh well, now I can do future models right...

New pain/wash/varnish/technique?

Use it on three lengths of sprue with markings cut into them first, and wait 48 hours.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Here's something I shoulda known before but learned the hard way recently: for figures with a fair amount of skin showing, PAINT THE SKIN FIRST! You'll be glad you did. At least basecoat it. I basecoated my chaos cultists' clothing and weapons first and messed them up when I went to basecoat the skin. For something like a Space Marine, with little exposed skin, you can do it last. Oh well, now I can do future models right...

I agree.
My models tend to go:
Basing and terrain (most messy) > skin > everything else.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Here's something I shoulda known before but learned the hard way recently: for figures with a fair amount of skin showing, PAINT THE SKIN FIRST! You'll be glad you did. At least basecoat it. I basecoated my chaos cultists' clothing and weapons first and messed them up when I went to basecoat the skin. For something like a Space Marine, with little exposed skin, you can do it last. Oh well, now I can do future models right...

I picked up this technique 20+ years ago. It was in a painting guide that came in a box of Ral Partha minis. To this day, I paint models in layers, starting with skin, then going to clothes and armor, with weapons last. Great advice.

If you are like me and hate spray painting on primer try Liquitex black Gesso: http://www.liquitex.com/ColoredGesso/?terms=gesso

Don't thin it. Just paint it on THICK. Like if it was paint it would obscure all the detail. What happens is the gesso is self-leveling and will shrink down and not obscure any detail. Comes in grey and black but I've only tried the black. One bottle will last you forever.

Apply glue sparingly. This makes for a stronger bond and stops excess glue ruining details on the miniature. This is a widespread bad habit that many new hobbyists are prone to) If its still visible on the surface of the miniature after pressing the 2 parts together, then you're using too much.

 Selym wrote:
New pain/wash/varnish/technique?

Use it on three lengths of sprue with markings cut into them first, and wait 48 hours.

I will be using this, thanks!

I've always seen people use wine corks for painting models on, but mine were always prone to tipping (or feline'd) over. I was debating getting some of those like bigger, otherly shaped corks, but I had so many wine corks (I have a lot of wine drinking friends that now give me ALL their corks).

So in a moment of "Duh!" I realized I could hot-glue a square of cardboard to the bottom of the cork and BAM! No more tippy corks

 thegreatchimp wrote:
Apply glue sparingly. This makes for a stronger bond and stops excess glue ruining details on the miniature. This is a widespread bad habit that many new hobbyists are prone to) If its still visible on the surface of the miniature after pressing the 2 parts together, then you're using too much.

On the other hand, if you are using plastic glue, if your pieces aren't quite flush when dry fit and would leave a gap, put a bit more glue in and file off once it dries. Easy gap filler.