Techniques on Board with Paint

Base Coating

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:35:34 +0000

Application of the first solid layer of color over a primed miniature, establishing the flat, opaque color for each part before any shading or highlighting begins.

Dry Brushing

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:35:34 +0000

A rough technique used to add simple highlights to raised surfaces. While imprecise, this technique is great for speed painting and for adding detail to highly textured surfaces like hair and fur. This is one of the first techniques beginners will add to their painting arsenal.

Eyes

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:35:34 +0000

Painting a miniature’s eyes - normally just a few dots at tabletop scale, but disproportionately important since they’re often the first place a viewer looks. Thin paint with flow improver is your friend here, but you can also achieve some success using micron-tipped ink pens available from art supply stores.

Layering

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:35:34 +0000

Building up highlights (or shadows) by mixing progressively lighter (or darker) paint into the base color and applying it as thin, opaque layers over a smaller and smaller area each pass. Experimenting with different tones, as well as brightness, can help you give your miniature character. Feel free to experiment!

Object Source Lighting (OSL)

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:35:34 +0000

Priming

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:35:34 +0000

Before any paint touches the miniature, it is usually a good idea to apply a primer. I almost always use an airbrush or spray can, but brush-on primers exist, and I’ll sometimes use them in a pinch. Primers provide a surface that your paint will stick to better than the bare plastic and give you more control over the paint job.

Stippling

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:35:34 +0000

I use “stippling” to refer to any technique that uses a brush to apply a “texture” to the miniature. This can be small dots, hash marks, or lines. It can be great on hair, old leather, or for simulating mud and grime.

Washing & Shading

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:35:34 +0000

Glazing

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 23:35:24 +0000

Applying very thinned down paint or ink in translucent layers. This can tint a base color and can be built up over several layers to create ultra-smooth gradients (if you take the time). This technique shows up often in OSL, NMM, and for applying weathering and other effects. It also lets you subtly shift your colors to add visual interest.

Airbrushing

Sun, 12 May 2024 23:17:02 +0000

Applying paint with an airbrush instead of a brush. I use this primarily for priming and for covering large areas with color quickly.

Edge Highlighting

Sun, 12 May 2024 23:17:02 +0000

Applying bright lines of color along the sharp edges of surfaces to improve readability and emphasize visual separation. A crucial part of painting NMM and many other lighting effects, as well as the “‘Eavy Metal” style of painting commonly featured on Games Workshop products.

Non-Metallic Metal (NMM)

Mon, 06 May 2024 17:21:22 +0000

Freehand

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 23:40:33 +0000

Painting a design directly onto the model by hand — heraldry, patterns, tattoos, symbols, or lettering. Go slowly, use flow improver, and be prepared to paint over it and start over if it doesn’t turn out exactly right.

Wet Blending

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 14:00:20 +0000

This is where we do it like Bob Ross do - wet on wet. Put two or more colors of paint on the miniature, and use a brush to blend them together before they dry. While oil paints are built for this, acrylics make it a bit more challenging due to the drying time. Either work fast or use retarder or glaze medium. Remember, there are no mistakes…only happy little accidents.

Dark Lining

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:01:37 +0000

Painting thin, controlled lines of a dark color (often black) into recesses and along the borders between two colors — like armor plates, clothing folds, weapon edges — to deepen shadows and make each shape read clearly from a distance. I usually use ink or paint thinned with flow improver to achieve good control over the results.

Mold Line Removal

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:01:37 +0000

Miniatures, unless they’re 3D-printed, come out of molds, and thus often have unwanted bits of material that manifest as unsightly lines around the edges of the miniatures. You want to remove these before painting (if possible) to get the cleanest results possible. Priming the miniature first can help make them easier to see. We remove these with knives, files, or sandpaper.

Slap-Chop

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 06:02:18 +0000

It’s a bit of an overloaded term, but you can use it to describe any speed-painting process that consists of, at its core, the following steps:

A dark base coat (or prime).
A bright, heavy zenithal highlight or drybrushing.
Application of contrast paints (or Army Painter Speedpaints or other thin, highly pigmented formulations).
An optional step of traditional highlighting (e.g. layering or glazing).

This gets you a pretty decent result in a short amount of time.

Resin Casting

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 23:43:57 +0000

Need to copy a miniature? Make a silicone mold of your subject then cast a copy using some epoxy resin!

Cel Shading

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 02:11:14 +0000

A graphic, high-contrast shading style that mimics traditional hand-drawn (“cel”) animation, rather than realistic light. Shading is done with hard edges, or not at all, and dark lining is used to provide visual separation. Opaque base coats are critical for this technique.

Non-Metallic Metal (NMM)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

NMM refers to using regular non-metallic paint to make a surface appear reflective, like it is made of metal. Take a look at a metal surface in any comic book or a Renaissance painting to see what I mean. This technique can be time-consuming, but can often provide much more satisfying results than simply using metallic paints.

Object Source Lighting (OSL)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Our paint doesn’t emit light, but we can fake it with OSL to simulate light being emitted from an object that you either paint as part of the miniature, or to imply a light source “off screen”. The key is often to make sure you paint the highlights so they point towards the light source, while ensuring the non-illuminated surfaces are in darker shadows than usual - the contrast is what sells the idea.

Washing & Shading

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Flowing a heavily thinned, ink-like paint (i.e. a “wash”) over a base-coated model and letting capillary action pull it into recesses, folds, and crevices, where it dries darker and deepens the shadows automatically. I almost exclusively use Citadel Shade paints for this since it’s quick and easy, but you can do this with most paints by thinning them down and adding glaze medium and flow improver.

This is likely one of the first techniques a beginner will learn and it nets amazing results, seeming to make details materialize out of nowhere! As you get experience, you’ll likely apply washes in more targeted ways to achieve specific effects.