Painting Your Army
There are many
ways to paint a miniatures army, there are many sites on the internet
about painting wargaming figures. There are also many talented artists
doing it... this author is not among them. However, here is a basic
technique I use to paint my armies to a 'wargaming standard' (good
enough to deploy to the tabletop but not good enough to win any awards
for painting prowess).
Once you have the miniatures, you'll need to get out the
paintbrushes, paint, and....what? You don't have that stuff? Okay, no
problem. Here's the low-down on the basic supplies.
Paintbrushes : You can get paintbrushes
of varying gauges very inexpensively in the craft section of your local
Wal-Mart or K-Mart. You should get at least three of them. One should
have a very fine tip (a 5-0 or 10-0), one should have a medium-sized tip
(a 3-0 or 2-0) and the last
one should be fairly large (a 0 or 1). You can usually find a set of brushes
in theses sizes for a
few dollars that will serve your purpose nicely. Hair bristles are
preferable to nylon and worth the extra dollar or two they will cost.
The hold and apply the paint better. You will also want a largish brush
for dry brushing. Once a brush is used for dry brushing, it is useless
for anything else. Use an old brush if you can.
There are a few things that you should remember when working with
brushes. The better you treat your brushes, the longer they'll last and
the better the results you can get with them. They're also not the
cheapest items in the world. You don't want to replace them every time
you sit down to paint!
The following is a list of do's and don'ts to keep in mind – both as
you work and when it's time to clean up:
Do...
- Clean your brushes with cool, clean water and a little bit of
hand soap after each use.
- Reshape the brush tips to a fine point with your fingers after
cleaning your brushes.
- Store your brushes with the bristles facing up and put the
plastic bristle covers back on if you still have them. Most painters
store them bristle-side up in their water container, but you can buy
brush boxes at art stores for your more expensive or treasured
brushes.
Don't...
- Clean your brushes with hot water. This act will cause the
ferrule to expand and loosen the bristles.
- Allow paint accumulation around the base of the bristles at the
ferrule. As the paint cakes around the ferrule, the bristles will be
forced outward. This damage means that you will never be able to
collect the bristles into a fine point again, thus ruining the
brush.
- Stir your paint with a new or fine detail brush. Repeated use of
the brush in this manner will ruin it and cost you money to replace.
Use an old brush or mixing stick instead.
Paint : Acrylic paints are your best
choice. You can pick up paints in the craft section of Wal-Mart or
K-Mart for minimum price. But be warned, these brands are usually
mediocre. If you want quality, you'd be best advised to get Citadel or
Ral Partha brand of paints. They can be found at pretty much any
gaming/hobby store.
It's always a good idea to start each painting session
with a container of clean water. Tiny pieces of lint and dust sometimes
find a home on the surface of your water, and if you don't change it,
you run the risk of mixing this dirt directly into your paint when you
add water to it.
Also, make sure to empty and refill you water container
throughout your painting session to keep your paints from becoming
muddy. This step is especially important with metallic paints, as these
have tiny flakes of aluminum suspended in the acrylic medium. These
flakes dirty the water quickly and might even transfer to your flat
colors. You should always clean out your water container after working
with metallic paints. A great way to eliminate this problem completely
is to use two separate water containers, one for flat colors and the
other for metallic colors.
Paper Towels or Rags:
Paper towels and rags are a necessity. No matter how fastidious you are,
there's always a chance that you'll topple a container of paint or knock
over your water container. It's inevitable. Keep a roll of paper towels
on had at all times. If you feel bad about being wasteful, use rags
instead. Aside from cleaning up the odd spill, these items have another
very important use: to dry damp brushes and to wipe away excess paint
for dry brushing.
Table Cover: If you
are planning to do all of your painting at the dinning room table (or
any nice table for that matter), it's a wise idea to protect the surface
from stray paint and water damage. A thick layer of old newspaper will
do admirably to cover your table before any painting session. Consider
taping the newspaper down to the surface so it won't slide while you
paint. As an aside, if your painting table was situated over a nice
carpet, it would be smart to cover the rug up as well.
Artificial Light Source:
If you paint during the evening, it's best to invest in a good desk lamp
with a retractable arm and hood. While painting during the day in
direct, natural sunlight is best, you might not have that luxury due to
work or other engagements. Color-adjusted, "daylight" bulbs can help you
simulate sunlight for your workspace. Daylight bulbs can be purchased at
art and craft stores. Florescent bulbs are a good stand-in if you can't
track down a daylight bulb. Normal incandescent light bulbs, or "yellow"
bulbs, are the worst for painting as they tint everything with yellow
light that distorts your color perception.
Primer : This is applied to miniatures
before you paint them. It helps hold the color and prevents a lot of
chipping. You can get by with white, gray or black spray-primer from the
home supply section of Wal-Mart. Just make sure to get "flat" primer
rather than "enamel". If possible, buy the actual miniature primer found
at most gaming/hobby stores.
Overcoat : Overcoat is a clear finish
applied to miniatures after they are painted. This protects chipping.
You can use hairspray in a pinch, but it's a good idea to pick up the
stuff found at most gaming/hobby stores.
X-Acto knife : These babies are great
for trimming off excess flash (the annoying metal shavings still
attached to a miniature, also known as mold lines).
Flat Cutter: If you have a pile
of plastic sprues in front of you, a pair of clippers is about to become
your best friend. This handy item will help you to dissect a sprue in
mere minutes. It's certainly feasible to use a hobby knife to free
models from a sprue, but why? Clippers make the task way easy. Also, you
can use them to snip off tabs and other offending bitz from a metal
model before trimming it with a hobby knife. You can get a decent pair
at Radio Shack for about US$4.
Pin Vice: There's only so much
that superglue can do, folks. Some larger metal models require a
technique called "pinning" if you want them to stay assembled for more
than 15 seconds. Here enters the pin vise.
The pin vise is a small handheld drill with drill bits of various
circumferences. Why drill holes in a model you ask? Simple: to pin
pieces together and create a solid fit once glue is applied to the join.
A properly pinned model will survive just about any knock or fall that
it might experience in the course of its entire life.
A Quick "How to" on Pinning Your Models: Drill a hole in one
of the two pieces to be pinned. Don't drill too deep! Now, create a
small "pin" by clipping from a paper clip or thin brass rod. Insert this
pin into the freshly drilled hole. Line up the piece to be pinned and
drill another hole for the other end of the pin. The new hole will need
to line up with the original, so do this very carefully (consider
putting a dab of paint on the end of the pin, line it up, and press down
slightly to mark the place for the other hole). Trim the pin and drill
into the model as necessary so that the pieces and pin join together
snugly. Finally, glue the whole shebang together. Done!
Pliers: Pliers make your life as
a hobbyist just that much easier. Pliers are great for bending arms into
a new position or twisting a model's tab so that it fits into a slotted
base. Trying to accomplish these feats with your fingers alone is quite
difficult, so use pliers! When building terrain, pliers are necessary to
reshape metal tubing or wire. There are plenty of other uses for pliers
that'll come to you when they are necessary, like yanking off a shield
you accidentally glued to your paint station or table. I got my pliers
at the local dollar store for... $1. I've had these pliers for about 3
years now.
Hobby Saw: The hobby saw is not a
very common tool for a hobbyist to own. In fact, most modelers can get
by without ever owning one. The main draw of the hobby saw is the
ability to hack thick metal models in half for complex conversion
projects. This way, nothing can stand in the way of your intense hobby
ambition. In addition to the hobby saw, you will probably want to dig up
a sturdy desk vise to hold the items in place while you saw away. I use
mine only occasionally, I picked it up at a dollar store for $2, it has
served me well for a number of years now.
Tweezers: Tweezers make up for
the fact that fingers are big and clumsy when it comes to dealing with
items on a 28-mm scale. They can complete tasks that require the precise
positioning of objects. Decals owe their life to tweezers! Outside of
decals, tweezers are essential for gluing delicate items in place.
Affixing teeny tiny pieces of wargear, embedded arrows, and small detail
gubbinz to your models are just a few such examples of tweezer use.
Don't skimp on your tweezers. I have tried to get by on cheap tweezers,
its not worth it. I spent $6 on a good pair of angled tweezers and have
never regretted it. Just be careful not to let your tweezers get super
glue on them or they are toast.
Files: Files come in lots of
shapes, grades, and sizes, but they all serve a pretty uniform purpose:
to file stuff. Okay, seriously, files are the best way to eliminate mold
lines and flash from your models. A hobby knife will do the trick for
the most part, but a well selected file can smooth out that helmet or
arm perfectly. In terms of terrain projects, larger files are essential
for achieving your modeling goals. In addition to metal files, I have
found emery boards (used by ladies to groom their fingernails) work very
well for filing plastic figures and you get a stack of them for less
than $1. If a file gets gunked up with glue, its useless. The nice part
about emery boards is they are cheap enough to be disposable.
Sculpting Tool: The sculpting
tool is built for, well, sculpting. Epoxy putty doesn't just shape
itself you know. The tool has a knife-like edge on one end and a flat
rounded tip on the other. This hunk of metal, a steady hand, and your
imagination are all you need to create all sorts of hobby brilliance.
You could sculpt a totally new face, add tentacles to a model, or build
a completely new piece of equipment. As for simpler tasks, epoxy putty
can be forced into gaps and then smoother over with the sculpting tool.
Michael's or any other craft store will have these in their pottery
section for about $2 a piece. I am not much of a sculptor, but I do use
it to force green stuff into the gaps when building figures.
Superglue: Perfect for gluing together
multi-pieced miniatures.
Painting
Well, you got the supplies....so now what?
Simple. Time to get painting. Naturally, not everyone is an award
winning miniatures painter. But that's okay. With a little effort and a
few pointers (provided below) you'll be cranking out incredible looking
miniatures in no time.
Follow these basic steps and you're off and running.
Step One: Undercoating
Use the spray primer to give the miniature an undercoat. As mentioned
earlier, the primer gives the paint something to stick to and also makes
the colors appear more vibrant.
It's usually best to use one of three colors of primer; flat white,
flat gray or flat black. If you plan to paint your miniature in
primarily bright colors, then white primer would be preferable.
Likewise, black primer is the best choice for darker colors and gray is
kind of a happy medium.
When spraying the primer, be extremely careful not to apply it
excessively thick. This will obscure much of the miniature's details.
One way to keep this from happening is to hold the spray can back from
the miniature by at least 18 inches.
Step Two: Base Coat
Start with the skin areas of the miniature and work your way outward.
For example, if you're painting a fantasy warrior in chain armor, it's a
good idea to do the exposed skin such as the face, hands or whatever
first. Then, move on to the armor.
Don't worry too much about goof-ups here. They can always be fixed
after you get the entire miniature base coated.
Step Three: The Details
You'll need to get out your finest brush to do this part, since you'll
be painting all the itty-bitty tidbits on the miniature. Teeth, eyes,
buttons, jewelry, and any other tiny parts on the miniature you can
find. At first, this step looks kinda tedious, but you'll find it to be
much easier than it looks.
Step Four: Drybrushing
This is a fast and simple way to represent highlights. Use a lighter
shade of the base color and dip a fairly large brush into it.
Drybrushing is very hard on brushes, so use old ones where possible.
Wipe most of the paint from the brush, leaving only a slight bit left on
it. Now rapidly draw the brush over the area you're highlighting, back
and forth. The high velocity of the brush leaves the pigment deposited
only on the raised areas. This, my friend, gives the illusion of
highlighting....and it's super easy to pull off.
For even more realism, prepare yet a lighter shade of the base color
and repeat the process. Keep doing this, progressing to a lighter shade
each go-around. Again, multiple drybrushing isn't necessary, but it does
improve the way the miniature looks.
This step is where your miniature stops looking like a chunk of bland
metal (or plastic) and begins to take on a life of it's own (just make
sure to hide the chips and dip. Miniatures are known to have enormous
appetites you know).
Step Five: Washing
No, no, no....this has nothing to do with soap. But it does have alot to
do with giving your miniature a professional appearance. And guess what?
It's a breeze to pull off.
Washing is a technique used to represent shadows. In many ways, this
is the exact opposite of drybrushing. First you need to prepare a darker
shade of the base color being washed. Pour some of that color onto a
pallette (a ceramic plate or tile will suffice) and dilute it with
water, until you get a consistency similar to milk. Feel free to
experiment with different consistencies, but I personally find the
"milk" example to be most suitable. But I digress.
Once you get the right mix, the wash is applied to the entire area
being shaded. The watery paint will fall into the cracks and crevasses
of the miniature, creating a very realistic shadow-like effect. If your
mix was a tad too thick, you should take a tissue or Q-tip and dab the
raised areas to remove excess paint.
Step Six: Basing
The last bit of painting you'll be doing is fixing up the base. The
simplest method is to slap on a coat of brown or green paint and call it
a day.
But if you really want to make your miniature look outstanding,
here's an easy technique you can use.
First off, use a ruined brush or tooth pick to apply white glue
(Elmer's Glue for example) to the base (but not the sides). Now, dip the
base into a container of sand or salt. The material with adhere to the
base immediately.
Once the glue has dried sufficiently, paint the base a brown or
green, depending on your taste. Then, all you need to do is drybrush it
and voila! A kick ass base!
Step Seven: Overcoating
In this final step, all you need to do is spray overcoat on the
completed miniature. As mentioned earlier in the article, you can use
the special miniature-overcoat or hairspray. This step goes a long way
toward preserving your impressive paint-job from the usual wear and tear
miniatures go through on gaming night.
A Few Additional Tips
It's time for me to let you in on a few additional little pieces of advice.
When painting metallic colors onto a miniature, go over the area first
with a special undercoating of paint (black is best for this). You see,
the white (and to a much lesser degree, gray) often shows through the
paint, making it look muttled and patchy.
Yellows and light browns also look patchy on white primer. Use pale
browns under yellows and dark browns under light browns.
If a miniature is a multi-part model, it's a good idea to paint
everything before gluing it all together.
When painting entire units, you may find it faster and less taxing to
use what is commonly called "the assembly-line method". This technique
is based around the concept of painting each identical area on all of
the miniatures before moving on to another area. For example, say you're
painting a unit of ten Orks. Paint the exposed skin on all of the Orks.
Once that task is completed, paint their pants, and so forth. You'll be
amazed at how fast you can finish a squad or regiment using this method.
Purchase a miniatures case for your army. This will keep them from
getting dinged up between games. If you don't have access to a
miniatures case, then go out and purchase a gun case with egg
carton-like interior padding. I can just hear your parents freaking out
now.
A great way to do eyes is to first concoct a slightly watered-down mix
of black and brown paint. Apply the mix to the area around the eyes (but
watch out, it tends to run). Let it dry. Then, paint a horizontal white
strip across where the eyes are supposed to be. Again, wait for it to
dry. Once it has dried, dip your finest brush into your black paint and
wipe off a little of the excess. Very carefully make a vertical line on
the white strip. Ta-Da!
THE SCENERY
They say an army only looks as good as the battlefield it fights on.
Well, this may be true, but you don't have to possess a ton of talent or
experience to come up with great looking tabletop terrain. All it takes
is a small amount of know-how and an active imagination.
I can hear a few of you groaning already. But fear not. You can whip
up some ultra-quick scenery with virtually no effort at all.
In fact, you'll find two sets of tips for creating quick scenery. The
first set is aimed at the player who really has no interest in modeling
terrain. The other list of suggestions is geared toward the player who
wants to construct a battlefield that is impressive, yet quick to put
together. For those of you who want more detailed methods of scenery
creation, well....that's another article (or five) entirely. I could
fill up a large book with that sort of thing (I have no life).
The No-Effort Way
For a playing surface, drape an old brown or green blanket across the
dining room table or sprawl it out on the floor.
Use different color construction paper to represent ponds, rivers,
roads, areas of woods and such. Just cut to the desired shape and you're
ready to rock.
Go out in the garden or drive-way and snag some rocks. These make
excellent cover for troops and smaller rocks (read : gravel) can be used
to represent rough terrain.
Cracker boxes, coffee cans, and other similar containers can be
utilized as impromptu buildings. All you need to do is draw where the
doors and windows are.
Books make nice hills. Try putting the smaller books on top of the
larger ones to create a levelling effect.
For walls and fences, cut out long strips of cardboard. Stand them up
by placing a rock (or other heavy object) on each side of it to hold the
wall in place.
The More Detailed Way
For a playing surface, buy a big piece of felt at a fabric store. Drape
it over a table or spread it out on the floor. Alternatively, you can go
to a model railroad shoppe and pick up a textured sheet of "ground" (for
lack of a better term).
To create hills, go out and purchase am 8' by 4' sheet of 1" thick
styrofoam at the local lumber yard or home improvement store. Cut out
the desired shape with an exact-o knife. Once the base hill is finished
being cut, cut another, smaller piece out. Use white glue (super glue
melts styrofoam) to attach the smaller piece to the top of the larger
one. This creates a step-like effect which is very useful for hills in
tabletop wargames, if a bit unrealistic. If you wish, you can create another smaller
piece and glue it atop the second piece and so on. Paint the hill an
appropriate color...but do not use spray primer...it also melts
styrofoam.
Woods can easily be done by cutting appropriate colored felt into
irregular shapes to represent the boundaries of the forest. Now, you'll
need trees. You can purchase trees rather cheaply at model railroad
store. I favor winter battlefields, so I get my trees from the dollar
store Christmas village section (usually between Thanksgiving and New
Years, I can get 3-6 ready to use trees for $1) Place your trees
on the irregular pieces of felt and you've just finished a forest.
Creating a visually pleasing building can require some effort. The
most basic method is to use your basic containers (as mentioned in "The
No-Effort way"). But instead of merely leaving it as is, go all out and
add a bunch of details to it. Cut out the doors and windows, paint it,
throw in a few other customization bits and you're building is ready to
hit the tabletop. For the more ambitious modeller, you can construct a
building from scratch, using cardboard or foam-core (a piece of thin
styrofoam sandwiched by two pieces of thin cardboard---found at certain
art supply stores). I like to pick up a bird house for $2-5 (depending
on size), and painting it up and kitting it out with windows and door
pieces (to hide the bird hole). It looks like a million bucks and no one
piece has ever cost me more than $10 total.
Walls can be created by cutting out long strips of cardboard and
painting it a suitable color. Cut out triangular bracings to glue to the
bottom portion of the wall to keep it standing. A cool little idea is to
cut small rectangular pieces of thin (cereal box) cardboard and gluing
them onto the wall randomly. This makes it take on the appearance of a
wall made of big bricks.
Rivers can truly enhance a battlefield when done right. To construct
a river, cut out strips of light cardboard or heavy posterboard. If
you're creating this for use with a 25-28mm scale game, then the strips
should ideally be 12" long and 3-7" wide. Make sure the ends are the
same width so that they match up easily when laid out end to end. Once
you have a decent amount of strips, use a white primer on them. Then
paint them blue (or whatever color you wish actually). Finally, use a
large old paintbrush to slap on a thin coat of white glue to the whole
surface. This will dry clear, giving the river a watery look. For added
coolness place gravel, aquarium rocks or kittly litter along the edges
to create banks. I will confess, I went all out for my rivers, I spend
about $70 for a modeled and painted resin river/lake set.
Rocks indeed make splendid terrain. And hey...you can't get more
realistic looking boulders than rocks!
Ponds, pools or lakes can be done in a similar fashion as for rivers. |
