Painting Miniatures FAQ
A guide to the painting of miniature figures, this document is presented to help the inexperienced miniatures painter get a grasp of the basics.
Painters, both old and new alike, are always on the lookout for hints and tips to improve their technique. Check out this FAQ for ideas on how to start painting, or even improve upon your current painting skills.
If you want to add to this FAQ or simply tell others the techniques that you use, then there is a section in the Forum for discussing Painting & Modelling.
NOTICE
Some of this document is Copyright (c) 1995 by Brenda Klein and reproduced here under the terms of that copyright, "Use and copying of this information is permitted, so long as the following conditions are met: no fees or renumeration are charged for use, copies, or access to this information beyond the Internet. This copyright notice is included intact."
Most answers given were collected from months of discussion on faqs.org miniatures painting guide forum and represent the experiences and tips of a great many people. The rest of the answers have been compiled from hours and hours of experimentation and practice. Many answers are not absolute. Painting is an art and in art there are few absolutes.
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How do I get started painting?
Get some paint, brushes, miniatures, and a space to do your work. There is no `secret formula' involved, and despite all the advice and information you'll get from this FAQ and other sources, the best method of painting is the one that works for you. If you prefer one type of paint to another, that's great. Painting is a hobby, not an exact science. Pick and choose, practice, relax, and enjoy yourself. Take advice only if you feel right about it. Be patient with yourself. Most painters have a box of the stuff they learned on, or have removed old paint and redone several of their miniatures. Good painting's a skill. Remember: PRACTICE. Try different materials and techniques. Don't take anyone else's word for it unless you're sure - and the practice will do you good.
What other equipment do I need?
Not much. Something to hold your water/solvent (two of them if you're working with metallics, one for the regular paint and one for the metallic - keeps flecks out of the other stuff, and change often to keep from muddying your colours), a palette of some sort (a ceramic tile, old plate, even the plastic bubble from a large miniature or two. One good suggestion is the plastic lid from a large margarine tub or the like covered with foil. When done, strip the foil off and discard.
Tip
GOOD LIGHTING. Against a window is ideal, if not a good overhead light or adjustable lamp is a must.
VENTILATION! Enamel paints and thinners give off noxious fumes, whether you can smell them or not, and unless you like having headaches, you'll want lots of space, open windows, even a fan or two.
Paper towels or napkins - some for blotting your brushes on and some extras for the inevitable spill or splatter. Time - never enough of that so learn to paint bits at a time (also good so that one layer can dry before you put on another).
The above are the needed things. Below are optional:
- A magnifying glass - useful for seeing fine detail. [A tip from Coyt D Watters which might be useful: "I started using a magifying visor (jewelers) which gives me 2x and flips up out of the way. Gee what a difference! Now I can easily detail those little things like dart feathers, buttons, and laces. My 0 brush looks about 5" around though. They are a little expensive, but a good quality one can be purchased from Micro-Mark for under $20. And, because it's on my head, I don't have to move around to get a good clear view, nor is a magnifying glass in the way of my brushes."]
- An X-acto blade can be helpful
- Tweezers can be invaluable if you'll be gluing
- Files and emery boards are used to remove sprue, mold lines, and anything else you don't want.
- Nail scissors get into places larger ones can't.
As you get more practiced you'll start finding other things to use in your painting pursuits (such as toothpicks and small brushes), so you'll acquire your own personal array in time.
How do I prepare my minitures?
BEFORE APPLYING PRIMER you will need to clean up any bad lines on the miniature (use a small file, X-acto knife, or emery board), making sure you get rid of the bump under the base, if your miniature has a self-molded base (sandpaper is excellent for this), then WASH it in a little soap and water. Various substances are used on miniatures to make them come free of the mold, as well as the fact that hand oils get on the miniature as it's handled, and these will interfere with paint adhesion unless cleaned off. Now, use a little white glue and glue the miniature to a base of cardboard, cork, wood strip, popsicle stick, ruler, plastic bottle cap... Anything you can safely handle without touching the figure. This assures that you can handle the miniature during the painting process without touching wet paint.
Yes. Primer not only assures for good paint adhesion, but it also brings up detail more starkly than on an unprimed miniature. painters generally seem to agree that a spray primer is best, and the primers specifically formulated for miniatures are better at retaining detail.
Many department stores and most home improvement centers carry spray primer at much lower cost than hobby and other specialty shops.
Methods of applying primer are spraying and brushing on. If you're using a brush-on primer, make certain it flows well without being too thin and use a semi-large brush to brush over your miniature from top to bottom.
If you're spraying, set up a large box enclosed on three sides in which to place your miniatures for priming. This will keep the paint from going everywhere and also tends to give a better coat. Make sure you have good ventilation, outdoors or in a window or set up a fan. Spray paint is nasty.
- Be sure you shake the paint well before use. Shake during use, too.
- Spray the figures with a `good' stream of spray. You do this by starting the spray before it hits the figs and stopping the spray after it hits the figs. The spray that comes out of the can when you first start spraying and when you stop spraying is incomplete -- it has too much or too little paint, and/or too much or too little carrier. One method is to put the figs out on newspaper and start spraying the newspaper to one side of the figs, when the spray has been coming out for a half-second or so, pass the spray over the figs, and when the spray has passed over the figs, stop. This assures that only properly mixed paint is falling on the figs. It takes longer and wastes some paint, but the finish is worth it.
- Keep the can as upright as possible, and keep the nozzle about 10 inches from the figs. Any closer and it's too hard to control the amount of paint on the figs. Any further and the paint starts to dry before it hits the figs.
Finally, always make sure you get the underside recesses of the miniature as well. Spray upward and at an angle and make passes from all sides to assure coverage.
A thousand answers exist for this one. The best advice available seems to be use what you prefer. White primer makes colours go on brighter and is best for anything on which you want that effect. Black primer gives good shadows and is commonly used to base military figures. Gray is rather neutral allowing for brighter light colours and decent shading. The best tip so far is to experiement and see what you like. Also, some painters prime in black and then drybrush raised areas in white before painting. This allows for the depth of the darker shade but gives the lighter base for the brighter colors.
What's the first step after priming?
Pick the colours you want for the major areas (jackets, trousers, skin etc.) and paint them on in layers. Think of dressing the miniature. You aren't going for massive detail just now, you're only setting each area's base colour. Make certain the paint goes on smoothly and remember to paint from top to bottom. Once you have this part done, it's time for detailing. This is achieved by many different techniques such as drybrushing, washing, shading, and highlighting.
What are shading, washing, drybrushing, highlighting and glazing?
These are techniques to give a little more realism to your miniatures.
Shading and highlighting give the illusion that there is light shining upon the figure. Shading details the folds and shadows and highlighting picks out the brighter, better lit areas. Washing, glazing, outlining and blending are all methods of shading.
Drybrushing is a highlighting method, as is simply accentuating the high spots with a bit of paint a bit lighter than the base.
Glazing is done with inks, as can be washing and outlining.
Outlining is simply picking out the line between two seperate parts of the miniature (i.e. sleeve and arm) and painting or inking in a fine line of either black or a darkened shade of the base in order to bring out the division between the two sections.
Blending is rather difficult and takes much practice. To blend one changes the tone of the paint as it crosses the surface of any non-detailed section. Darker shades are laid into any depressions and carefully thinned and blended into the surrounding areas using a damp brush. (This is NOT a technique for beginners. Again, try it and see if you want to practice the technique or not.)
If you're using acrylics, you can pick up several TONING MEDIUMs, which alter the brightness of the paint without the headache of black. Mixing the toning medium with your paint you can make progressively darker shades.
Use a slower on acrylic colours. This slows them from drying
Nick Fogelson: "The way I always do blending is to put a smudge of the two end colors in a strip, separated about 1.5 inches. I then use a slightly moist brush to mix them together into a spectrum. The colors near the original smudge will be closer to that color, the colors in the middle should be fairly even mixes of the two. You then have a nearly infinite palette of color to use. You can do a nice blend with only 5 or so shades that looks really good unless you magnify it. Alternatively: Say you want to go up red to yellow. Paint the entire area yellow. Put a block of watery red on the top. Slowly draw a moist brush down the area, drawing the red pigment with it. If you're patient, this method will bring the best results."
Washing comes before drybrushing. Take a shade darker than your base color and dilute it until it's about the consistency of milk. Now, brush it across, gently. It'll flow into folds and crevasses. Makes cloth look real good. Remember, you can always add wash, so start light and work your way up. Don't be afraid to wash, then darken and wash again, until you've reached the effect you like. Wash yellows with yellow-orange or yellow-brown, flesh with light brown, white with bluish-white or gray. Experiment, only you can set your style.
It seems that once in a while, even though the inks and washes have been mixed properly, they end up drying, not in the low spots like they should, but on the high contours. It has something to do with the density of the wash and the slickness of the surface; on matte surfaces the effect is more prominent than on glossy surfaces. It happens because a pool of wash in a recess starts to dry from the edges, then the rest of the paint in the wash adheres to the already dry paint, producing a ring of paint around the recess. There are four methods that can help solve the problem:
- Add a small amount of rubbing alcohol to the wash. It lowers the surface tension, and dries faster. This may be a drawback for some painters.
- Add a little dishwashing detergent to the wash. It helps the wash stick better.
- Use small amounts of wash, allowing each to dry before applying the next. Blow gently on the wash after applying, from the top, to keep the pools in the recesses where they belong. If the wash is thin enough, it'll dry with a minimum of blowing.
- Mix a new wash, thicker. It might work better, being thick enough to keep from creeping, or maybe with just little different density.
First off, drybrushing is most effective when used with a colour a shade or two lighter than the base. White drybrushed over black primer also makes for a very good painting base. Take your desired colour and an old brush, as drybrushing wears brushes out and tears them up. Dip it into the paint until the tip is saturated, then blot on a paper towel until no paint can be seen on a dark brush, or a light one looks pretty clean. Take the brush and gently draw it along the raised parts you want highlighted. A little paint will stay on the highest edges and give great depth.
Many painters like to highlight in stages, lightening the shade a little with each level. This can be either overkill and a pain or an excellent technique for brightening and preserving detail. Practice yourself and decide.
Drybrushing is the best method of highlighting any large area or area with repetetive detail. For faces, hands, buckles and the like, highlighting can be achieved by taking a slightly lighter shade of the base (mixed with white or a lighter tone) and going along the raised areas lightly. A fine brushpoint is required, as is a steady hand. For faces highlight the chin, nose, and cheeks. For hands go along the backs and each finger. For other detail, pick the spots that should show up best and give them the lightest highlights. It's common to highlight twice, each time getting lighter in tone and finer in line. A bit of blending is required to keep things looking natural, but this blending is easier than the large-surface technique. Simply keep a damp brush handy and brush very lightly toward the darker areas. Again, this technique takes practice, but is worth the effort when the miniature is completed.
What are inks, should I use them, and if so, how?
Inks are just that, semi-transparent tones that can be used to add colour and shading to a miniature. If you wish to go beyond the range of paints, you might wish to try working with them. Unless using for outlining, inks should always be thinned slightly for glazing and rather a lot for washing. A milk-like consistency is best for washing (or even thinner, since you can always wash again if more is needed) and about 50-50 ink and water is best for glazing. If you do not get the inks that are specially formulated for miniatures, then make sure you get pigmented inks and not transparent ones. Pigmented inks, especially brown, work much better for a wash than the transparent ones. For shading white, there is a really good ink color called "Payne's Grey" which is a kind of blue-grey. It does a much better job than black when washing white or very light tans and greys.
Recommended also are Windsor & Newton inks.
Inks are best used as washes, for outlining, and as glazes. When washing with inks on a matt surface (or on any other, actually), a gentle blowing of air from the top to the bottom of the miniature helps keep the ink from drying back up into the raised areas.
Glazing is done with inks. In this technique, a slightly darker tone than the base is thinned and then brushed over the entire surface and allowed to dry. Glazing brings out a richness of colour not possible with paint alone. Glazing should be done after highlighting and shading and tends to bring up detail of these well.
This depends entirely on what you're using the miniature for. If it's a display model, then you can get fancy. If it's for military gaming, you'll want a durable, realistic look. Standard materials for bases are the plastic bases or slottabases that many companies now supply with their products and sell seperately, pennies or flat washers, cardboard (not recommended - bends too easily), tiles, wood, sheet metal, matt board (available at art supply stores), and magnetic strips (often bonded to one of the above materials). The general rule, of course, is the more use the miniature gets, the stronger the base material should be.
What's the best stuff to cover bases with?
Again, a matter of how natural-looking and/or durable you want the base to be. For foilage, the hands-down favourite material is the model railroader's groundcovering. Woodland Scenics has an excellent selection and it's inexpensive (particularly when you figure that the small bags of the stuff can do 100 miniature bases or more). Electrostatic grass is a useful and realistic looking finish. A product called Basetex, from Colour Party Paints, comes in various colours and is available in the UK. Other materials that can be used are sand, sifted clay cat litter (not the scoopable stuff), aquarium bottom material, or sawdust.
First, paint the base a neutral-type or natural colour. When it dries, take an old brush (or a cheap watercolour brush) and paint a 50/50 mix of white glue and water over the surface you want to cover. Painting the glue on gives more precise coverage than simply squirting it on. The base covering material may be applied either by having it in a tray about 1/4" deep and dipping the glue-covered bases into it or by shaking a spoonful over the wet glue. Give it an hour or so to dry and shake the miniature over the container holding the rest of the base covering. If needed, just dab the bare spots with a little more glue and reapply the covering. Mix different colours or drybrush for an irregular look, if wanted.
Apply details, like rocks and the like (also available from model railroad suppliers) by dipping into the glue and setting in place with tweezers.
It's handy to keep a dry brush nearby while you're doing this, and if you get flock on wrong areas, flick it off with the second brush. Old red-sable brushes will work for painting the glue on, but they're kind of soft and they can be hard to get the glue right where you want it. Try using nylon brushes, they're stiffer. Paint the base before flocking.
Whatever specific method you choose, try to do the same thing to all the models in an army, and at least the same thing to all the models in a unit. A simple unit with neatly done bases often looks better than a well-painted unit with sloppy or completely unpainted bases.
There are several substances which will work, outlined below. Other than the top two, they're in no particular order.
- Pine Sol for a 24-hour soak then brush off remaining paint with a soft toothbrush. Works great on metal.
- Chameleon model paint stipper from Custom Hobbyist, Inc. found in model railroad shops. Sort of expensive, but _reusable_, water soluable, and really fast.
- Floquil/Polly S Dio-Sol. Also purportedly dissolves glue. Won't harm your plastic as much as Pine Sol, but reportedly loses detail due to the amount of scrubbing necessary for the recesses.
- Sainsbury's home brand pine disinfectant (UK). It actually gives pine oil as one of it's ingredients.
- Acetone nail polish remover. Smells, peels skin, melts plastic, takes paint off metal like a champ.
- Isopropyl alcohol, the stronger the better. Lab grade, if you can get it. This seems to be the safest product for use on plastic miniatures, and also the most universally available. It takes off acrylic paints in almost no time, but reportedly doesn't do as good a job in crevices as Pine Sol does. As for oil-based paints... after several days of soaking, renewing the solution, scrubbing... the figurine tested still had a good portion of its paint on, mainly on the zones that cannot be accessed with a toothbrush.
- Bix Paint Stripper. Buy the sprayable, rather than the jelly mix. It smells bad, is volatile, and will go after your skin if you forget your gloves. It will remove enamel paint with minimal scrubbing, and does a pretty good job on acrylic. It WILL eat plastic, so don't even think about putting your plastic figures in it.
As you can see, there are a lot of products that will remove paint. Most are caustic so you are best using a non-caustic product. Pine oil cleaner will remove any type of paint (acrylic, oil-based, Rust-O-Leum, fingernail polish, etc.) from miniatures with no loss of detail, no caustic residue, and no hazardous fumes. It's safe for metal miniatures and will not dissolve the glue holding parts together. Pine-Sol is the best brand, as it's 19.9% pine oil, but any percentage over 5% pine oil will strip paint (it just requires a longer soak in the less-powerful cleaners).
For plastic miniatures, Pine Sol in a 50-50 solution with water, else isopropyl alcohol is your best bet. Dettol, a product from the UK, seems to work as the US Pine-Sol does.
Simply place the miniature in a container which will allow full coverage, pour in enough pine oil cleaner to cover, and let it soak for 24 hours or more. The longer the soak, the better the stripping. If you're doing multiple miniatures, it's best to soak them seperately, if possible. Once the paint starts to dissolve, it causes a sliminess that can get on the others.
After the soaking, take an old toothbrush (dry) and scrub. A soft bristled toothbrush is best, however using soft then stiff will get most everything without special work. The finest details are kept, the paint comes off easily, and the smell doesn't try to knock you out. If some paint remains stubborn, another soak will do the trick. (The tip of a toothpick is also good for crevasse-cleaning as are standard pipecleaners.) Do wear gloves if you're skin-conscious.
NOTE: Many people have complained about the pine-cleaner soak darkening the metal of the miniature. Soak for 24 hours and scrub with a soft toothbrush then a stiff one until all the paint is removed. Then wash the soft brush clean and apply hand soap to the brush. Brush the miniature vigorously for about 5 minutes. The lead should shine up as good as the fresh-from-the-package figures. So the `dark metal' syndrome can be taken care of, if it's important to you and you care to spend the time.
My miniature came in multiple parts, now what?
Get the smallest file you can find, a pair of scissors, and some glue. If it's a plastic miniature, you can use model cement or super glue, if it's metal use Zap-A-Gap, super glue, or any model formulated cryanoacrylate. On plastic, first clip in as close as possible with scissors (nail scissors are excellent) then file. On metal, carefully file the edges. The goal is to get the pieces to fit together as closely as possible. Once they do, clean them with soap and water to remove all shavings, dry, and glue. Hold for about twice as long as is recommended for the glue to set. The innovative miniaturist can come up with a great many ways to clamp, fasten, or hold parts together until everything's dry.
A little note, if you're working with super glue keep a wet teabag handy. If you spill super glue on your hands wipe it on the teabag and the teabag will absorb it - teabags are highly absorbant of chemicals.
Once the glue has dried, take an X-acto blade or razor blade and carefully clean off the excess glue, if any. A file or emery board will also do the trick. You'll have to wash the miniature again before primeing, to remove hand oils and glue remains. After you've gotten the basics of gluing your miniatures, the best stuff you can use is epoxy. It's permanent, filable, and works exceptionally well on miniatures that will get a lot of handling.
What kind of glue should I use?
The common miniaturists glue is Zap-A-Gap, available at nearly all stores which sell paints. It's thick, holds well on both metal and plastic, and fills gaps and cracks. Also of this type are a line of cryanoacrylates which come in various-coloured bottles, each coded to its type. Super glue is often used to join pieces; it dries brittle and if you drop the figure the join might snap. Its redeeming feature is speed of bonding. Epoxy is excellent for permanent bonding and building up areas when modifying. The bonds it makes don't break when jarred, and almost nothing will remove it once it has set . Epoxy also comes in different formulas for different materials. Duco cement is a good all-purpose bonding agent. White glue, such as Elmer's or Aleen's Tacky, is good for adhering paper and groundcovering to plastic and metal surfaces. White glue does fatigue, however, so if it is used, a sealing agent overall will help keep your pieces together.
Finest brush you can get, a steady hand, lots of patience, and good lighting. Fine detailing includes (but is by no means restricted to) faces, small clothing details, weapons, webbing, insignia, and similar detail. For many of these, some of the highlighting/washing/drybrushing tips above apply, for others a whole new range of techniques are necessary.
Two good methods:
a. Get the smallest brushes available, you can always cut them down to an even smaller size so that they have only a few hairs on them. These are very useful brushes. Also recommend for the very fine detail is that you set the figure up so you can use both hands to hold the paint brush as still as possible.
Another useful tool is a 0.13 mm spirograph ink pen, a couple of splodges of colour in the right place and you can pretty it up with the pen.
Some suggest not priming the miniature, then washing or drybrushing (or both) the bare metal, but to others this looks sloppy and unfinished. Besides, not much armour looks like lead, and lead certainly doesn't make good armour. Paint the armour a base-metal colour, usually gun-metal or one of the like tones, and let it dry. Don't be afraid to use bronze, or gild it, though. Then take a black wash (ink is excellent for this) and go over it carefully. Let that dry, then take either your original colour or a lighter shade and drybrush. Remember to use a seperate water/thinner for the brush you're working the metallics with, so as to not get flecks in the other colours.
In general I would choose gunmetal as the dark metal, oily steel as the lighter colour.
Be careful using inks with acrylic metallics. There is often a reaction between the two which give some nasty effects. At the very least allow the metallic to dry for 24 hours before adding inks. Some people have had only bad results from inking over acrylic metallics... Test it before you begin your masterpiece.
Can I use anything besides paint and ink for details?
Of course you can. The simplest are decals, which are sold by the sheet and have many different styles to choose from. Technical pens can be used for a lot of intricate work, as can fine tip permanent markers. There's a catch to the markers, though, they can bleed when overcoated. The solution is to rub a little bit of good old Elmer's white glue on the spot, just a bit, and rub it around till you cannot see it anymore. This stops the bleeding, without altering the finish in any noticable way.
An overcoat is a coat of clear paint that protects those colours you so carefully put onto your miniature. Even an unhandled figure will begin to dull after awhile, and one in regular use will lose its paint even faster from hand and carrying case friction. So you should put a protective coat over the miniature to make sure the paint remains unmarred.
Overcoats come in various types: gloss, matte, flat, and lusterless. Though four types are named, one company's matte is another's flat, flat and lusterless are often interchanged, and matte occasionally is labeled semi-gloss. When in doubt, test or ask.
Overcoats also come in two different applications, brush-on and spray. Spray is easier to use when you want a uniform coating, brush-on is good for when you only want certain parts covered.
Spraying overcoat on a miniature is much like spraying primer, though 3-5 coats is recommended for maximum protection. Remember to begin and end the spray beyond the miniature in order to get the cleanest application.
Gloss is just that, shiny. It is most usually used on cars and other items that should shine.
Semi-gloss (satin, sometimes called matte) is low-luster, and very durable on a figure that will be getting a lot of handling. Unfortunately, it tends to look artificial on humans.
Flat (also sometimes matte) is nearly without shine. It's a good all-around people coating, exceptional on animals, where it simulates fur's natural shine.
Lusterless is absolutely flat, it doesn't even look like it's there. It's perfect for people and cloth and anything else that should have no shine whatsoever. Several coats can be applied and it never shows. A good method of overcoating a human is to use a spray lusterless overcoat and put on 3-5 coats, then after the last coat is dry, use a brush-on matte or gloss to go back over all metallics, jewelry, eyes, lips, and anything else that should have a shine to it.
How do I keep paint from drying out?
Shake or stir them often, put plastic wrap between the cap and bottle on paints that come in glass jars. Acrylics reconstitute fairly well with the addition of water and a good stirring. Oil-based do same with thinner. Try and keep your paints in a place where temperature remains fairly stable. Users of both Polly S and Humbrol have had good results from storing their paint upside-down. The paint itself augments the seal and keeps all air out.