Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the painting of minis, from Ral Partha to Ralidium. In the news, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) will likely (and justifiably) strike, here's a starting point if you are interested in the dynamics of a broader anti-fascist General Strike, and the Twitter AI is obsessed with defending South African white supremacists.
As someone who paints a lot of miniatures, it was kind of fun to hear some novices talk about it.
About your tips:
- Paint handles are definitely a good thing. I myself just have a box of wooden cubes and put the models on there with double sided tape.
- You do not need a jewelers loupe. I have a table lamp that has a magnifying class built in, but I basically never use it. Details that are so fine you’d need that are really only for expert painters, and you only look at a model from a couple feet away and rarely hold it up to your eyeballs which would be necessary to see such details.
- Wet palettes are fine and I use one, but they aren’t really necessary. I also think Scott overstates their utility because while they keep your paint usable longer than a dry palette, that length is like 30 minutes or so and not hours.
Now some tips I would give for someone starting painting:
- Paint things you like and don’t force yourself to paint things because you think you need them. It’s supposed to be a hobby and not a chore. Any progress is good progress so there is no need for hurrying.
- Buy a good table lamp. It is invaluable to have good lighting while painting.
- Look up painting videos, particularly about the models you are painting. You can copy if you like, but it is more important to learn techniques from that and stuff like color balance and such.
- Get a dedicated container for your paint water. Something that is distinctly different from what you usually drink from so that you recognize it is different when you pick it up without looking, e.g. a plastic pudding cup or so instead of a ceramic mug or a glass.
- Citadel/Games Workshop makes a small tool for spreading texture paints. Surprisingly no manufacturer makes a similar tool as far as I am aware. It is basically a small spatula with a wide and and a thin end. I think it works a lot better to prod the paste around on bases than old paint brushes or similar.
I also think washes or drybrushing are definitely things you can do very early on and they actually help people produce decent models faster. Those techniques are also pretty easy.
Here are two videos I think are good beginner tutorials using Warhammer minis. The first is by Duncan Rhodes who is the former head painter at Games Workshop.
The second is by a hobbyist channel called Midwinter Minis which was the first video that really made me grok stuff about miniature painting and also cover stuff the above video doesn’t, such as assembly of the models and applying transfers.
I would also add, as someone who has spent a lot of time using one(I have a fancy colour-accurate one for inspecting pins and other merch), and also painting both models and minis, a jeweler’s loupe is a terrible option for that, way to close focal distance, too much magnification, you’ll be spending the whole time wishing you had three hands, and even if you did, you’d be constantly stumbling over your own metaphorical feet and literal fingers.
If you absolutely must, just get a decent magnifying visor, or one of those ring lamps with a big magnifying lens in the middle. If you’re truly bougie and don’t believe me, get Surgeon’s loupes, the ones they mount on glasses frames type things, they’re expensive, and also just unfit for purpose as a jeweler’s loupe, but they have better resale value, and they are fun for a bit when you first get them.
I find that it kinda depends. I’ve used a few, and right now, my favored one is one I printed myself, and painted a little rubber seal into using the rubber dip you can get for tool handles - it’ll keep wet paint wet for days. But, I’ve also had others that kept paint for maybe a day if it was cooler weather, and others where I’d be lucky if it kept things wet through a long lunch.
Very much so. I’ve got a printed one that’s basically a little platform with a toothed edge and a peg underneath, that press-fits into a skateboard bearing that’s press-fit into the handle. So I can spin it with my thumb, without adjusting my grip on the handle. Before that, I used wine corks with bamboo skewers pushed in the bottom of them.
Definitely backing up this one, signed, Joseph and his amazing technicolor dream teeth.
For once, I disagree. I won’t deny that type of tool is useful, but for literally half the price, I can get an entire set of palette knives that will last longer, will literally never wear down or break used for that purpose, will clean easier, and give a much wider variety of shapes and sizes. If you prefer the straight, pencil-like style, then you’re looking for either silicone or metal-tip clay sculpting tools.
The tip I’d add - if you find you’re into painting, get a cheap airbrush kit early, before you need it, and learn to use it. Get a decent compressor(With a tank), a cheap siphon feed brush, and a cheap gravity feed. By the time you find you actually need an airbrush to up your game, you’ll already know how to use one well, how to maintain one, and you’ll have already got the beginner mistakes out of your system before the point where they’ll truly frustrate you because you’ll feel like you’re going backwards.
Don’t get one of the tankless compressors(The airfeed is pulsed, which is extremely annoying with an airbrush, with it firing bursts of paint rather than a steady flow), and don’t get a Pancake compressor(they’re fucking noisy), just do a little research, look at your options for oil-free compressors, then get a generic AS-186 like literally everybody else does too, even most of the fancy brand-name ones are basically just AS-186s with logos silkscreened on.
The other? Think ahead on storage. Get a little storage crate with a lid to keep your painting shit together. Makes life way easier. I’ll post some pictures of my kit later on when I get some time to take them.