Painting

[ATC 1982]

Now after my train ride and lets just say I was listening to something on the way to Chicago. One of the main things I heard something dealing with painting this and that. Can you all please school on painting.

[Stormcaller]

That's akin to asking someone to help you master chess, I think. Painting miniatures is something that involves a lot of individual techniques, and then figuring out how to apply them best to get the result that you want. It's also one of those things where there are fast ways, and there are good ways, but there are no fast and good ways. You need to be ready to invest time to get the best results. It's no guarantee that the results will be spectacular (we all mess up now and again) but it gives you the chance to make it so.

Generally speaking painting consists several parts.

The first is preparation, and it involves using a number of hobby tools such as pin vises, hobby files, really sharp knives, and a pair of side-cutters (like tin snips but they leave one side of the cut flat, as opposed to more of a > shape). The molding process will often leave lines where the two halves of the mold join together, and if it's an older mold, there can be flash- which is just material that flowed between the halves of the mold and looks like thin sheet of plastic or metal hanging off. There might also be thicker pieces attached to small parts- these are identifiable as strange polyhedral shapes that might have letters or numbers carved into them, or just flat out block you from putting two pieces together. On some pieces you may also need to drill into both parts that will meet in a join, and insert a small length of metal rod; this helps strengthen the join. Other bits some people prefer to flat out replace with brass rod- this is most commonly the case with spear shafts or banner poles that bend easily. You might also need to use sculpting putty (colloquially referred to as 'green stuff' because it comes in two parts, yellow and blue, that you mix together before use, akin to epoxy; Privateer has their own 'grey stuff' that is white and black) in order to fill in gaps in joins. This can be a problem with metal models particularly because of the unpredictable way that metal shrinks as it cools in the mold.

Once you have everything cleaned and assembled (generally partially so that you can get to all areas on the figure), you can prime it. This is a simple matter of taking a piece into somewhere well ventilated and then spraying it with primer, usually white or black. You don't want to go too heavy on this as you'll lose detail- your best bet is to spray from about 12-18 inches away from the miniature, and use sweeping motions that start and end past the miniature. If you think of a pendulum, assume the mini is at straight down, and spray past it like that. This ensures you don't keep the spray targeted on it for too long. Generally you want to spray one side, wait a couple minutes, and then spray the other side, repeating as need be to get all sides. And make sure to shake up the can of primer enough.

The actual painting process is a matter of several techniques- more than I can get into here, but I'll hit the basics. Most of the time you want to start out with a mid-tone. Then you can apply your darker shades and highlights on top of that. Some people prefer to use other techniques, such as starting at the brightest and working downwards, or working from the darkest upwards. There's no one superior style, it's mostly a matter of taste and what you feel you do best.

Privateer's lines of paint are set up to be mixed together to form brighter and darker colors, so that you can get a gradient effect that looks natural- you can see what you're trying for if you aim a light at a wall in a dark room. Highlighting is where the light hits directly, and you work down to the edges where light doesn't reach and is left in shadow. Obviously you need to think about where this miniature is being lit from and keep that consistent across all areas of it. Most people assume the sun's at high noon for convenience. All you need to do is just shake up your paints, and mix them on a palette with a bit of water. Then take two colors and mix together, adding more of one or the other before applying it to the miniature. If you keep the gradient smooth enough, you can get it to look natural.

Here's a secret though: most of the time you'll be looking at these things from two feet or further away- the distance you are from the playing table when you're standing at it. At that distance your eyes will 'fill in the blanks' in the gradients a lot more, and generally smooth them out. That has upsides and downsides, as it can lose detail as easily as it hides mistakes. A miniature that's a carefully blended palette of many different browns turns into a brown blob on the tabletop. You need to know what you're going for when you paint, and understand that you might need to do things that seem garish from six inches away, yet look good at three feet.

Anyhow. There's three other techniques worth mentioning in this not-quite-basic primer: washes, edging, and dipping. Washes are simply paint that has a lot of water mixed into it, so it flows into the low areas and tends to concentrate the color there. Great for shading, but you want to make sure you don't let it pool up too much. You can use the corner of a paper towel or the tip of a dry brush to soak up excess. Otherwise when it dries you get a thick line of color at the edge of where the pool was. Edging is a matter of using the side of your brush to paint- this is best used on edges you want to highlight (hence the name). You can just draw the side of the brush down the edge so that only a small portion of it actually touches the miniature. This will get you a straight, thin line- much better than if you tried to paint it with the point of the brush. Finally, dipping. This is a somewhat controversial technique, but it's as close to a 'fast and good' method as exists. You lay down bright colors on a miniature, and then dip it (some people prefer to brush on, as it works better at the cost of extra time) into a wood stain. This acts as a wash over the whole thing, with the color of the stain tinting all the colors and flowing more heavily into the cracks and crevices. You have to make sure you get rid of the excess just as with a wash, but it can get you a unit that looks fairly decent on the tabletop fairly quickly.

And just because it's a chance to show off, here's a couple pictures of work I've done:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii7/stormcaller3801/Satyxis2.jpg
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii7/stormcaller3801/MarinerSkarre1.jpg
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii7/stormcaller3801/Battlegroup1.jpg
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii7/stormcaller3801/Mechanithralls1.jpg

[ATC 1982]

So do you have to repaint them after use or how does that work? I mean after you paint them once are you done with the process or is there another go at it?

[Stormcaller]

Generally speaking, you paint them once, add a coat of matte sealer, and you're done. Although there's the possibility of dunking them into a batch of Simple Green and scrubbing the paint off if you think they need to be redone, that's generally seen as something you reserve for paint jobs you're really not satisfied with or when you come up with a brilliant new idea and don't want to shell out for more minis.

This can also lead to having multiple armies that are all a single faction, with each army using a unique color scheme.

[ATC 1982]

what happens if you don't paint them and leave them plain due to no art skills? Does this effect the game and play or is this not allowed?

[Stormcaller]

That depends on whom you're playing against, really- but as far as the game is concerned and as far as most players are concerned, it doesn't matter so long as they can identify the miniature on the tabletop. So if you have, say, a Cygnaran light warjack glued to a base, but no arms on it, it would be difficult to tell what it was. That could cause problems, particularly if you have several of these. But so long as people can distinguish a Charger from a Lancer, they shouldn't mind.

There are specific official tournaments where you are expected to meet minimum painting standards, but those are called Hardcore tournaments for a reason. Even there the painting requirements are fairly low, however- a model that's been basecoated with flesh, faction color, and metal bits would meet it.

There are individuals who insist on their opponents having painted miniatures, on the basis that they take it personally if you don't bother to put in the effort. But these are rare cases and typically have caveats attached to that. And of course, you don't have to play those people.

I'd say that most people who play any miniatures game have armies that are partially painted- either they have a few miniatures completely done and the rest are bare metal, or they have a lot of miniatures that are all partially complete. It's a sort of tongue-in-cheek urban legend that if a miniatures hobbyist ever gets all of their miniatures fully painted, they'll die. Which tells you just how rare that feat is.

[ATC 1982]

I hope more people post there Warmachine stuff they painted as well. I would love to see the work of the Forum Members here.

[Einherjar]

The Brushthralls (http://blog.brushthralls.com/) have some good information on how to start the miniature painting hobby, plus they do some walkthroughs of painting each of the starter boxes in both Warmachine in Hordes. They cover the topic far better than I could, so I'd recommend starting there.

As far as my own painting goes, I did a write up on color choices for my armies on my blog:

Legion of Everblight - Frostfang Brood (http://www.dankelzahn.com/blog/2009/08/24/hordes-frostfang-brood/)
Protectorate of Menoth - The Vermillion Menofix (http://www.dankelzahn.com/blog/2006/11/21/warmachine-the-vermillion-menofix/)


I also have most of my painted miniatures up on Diminutive Denizens (http://www.dankelzahn.com/dd/index.php), my painted figure gallery. I'm a little behind but most of my older models have been uploaded. These are a few of my favorite Warmachine figures:

http://www.dankelzahn.com/dd/gallery/pp_wm_pom_idrianskirmishers/PP-WM-PoM-IdrianSkirmishers-Dankel_3.jpg (http://www.dankelzahn.com/dd/gallery/pp_wm_pom_idrianskirmishers/)

http://www.dankelzahn.com/dd/gallery/pp_wm_merc_gorman/PP-WM-Merc-Gorman-Dankel_1.jpg (http://www.dankelzahn.com/dd/gallery/pp_wm_merc_gorman/)

http://www.dankelzahn.com/dd/gallery/pp_wm_merc_aiyanaandholt/PP-WM-Merc-AiyanaAndHolt-Dankel_1.jpg (http://www.dankelzahn.com/dd/gallery/pp_wm_merc_aiyanaandholt/)

http://www.dankelzahn.com/dd/gallery/pp_wm_merc_alteiryss/PP-WM-Merc-AltEiryss-Dankel_1.jpg (http://www.dankelzahn.com/dd/gallery/pp_wm_merc_alteiryss/)

[ATC 1982]

So what was the longest time it took you to paint a piece and also the shortest time you painted a piece.

[Einherjar]

I've painted figures in a couple hours but that's usually only speed-painted RPG figs. Most of the single models in my army start around 8 hours and I've gone up around 25 or so for some big figures.

[absolute_d]

Some shots of the last piece I took a picture of. :P

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/absolute_d/Dlog/Hordes/NephalimSoldier06.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/absolute_d/Dlog/Hordes/NephalimSoldier04.jpg

He's been based since and is now on display in one of the local stores, I don't take many photos of my figs...but you can surf the 'Dlog' gallery for some of my others.

[ATC 1982]

So has anyone see figures that were like outlandish. What I mean is like having orange or purple people. Just some thing that is just out there in color that you would not normally see?

[InvaderZahn]

There is a guy on the Privateer Press Forums who has a hot pink Cryx army (with some conversions done). I think that's about as outlandish as you can get.

http://membres.lycos.fr/bibliozoroastre/images/warmachine/aireuneriton.jpg

http://membres.lycos.fr/zoroastre93/images/warmachine/jacqueslamort045.jpg

[kmack]

That's really beautiful work, Einherjar!

[kmack]

Wow - nice shading, absolute_d!

[ATC 1982]

Who ever did that neon pink did a good job with it. All the figures you guys have done just impress loads. I have no artistic ability and it is just amazing what you all do to these things.

[GcFlash]

I hope more people post there Warmachine stuff they painted as well. I would love to see the work of the Forum Members here.

Be careful what you wish for :D

Here is some links to my own stuff: Cryx (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=179426&st=0) army and Nomad (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=184939) warjack.

I am hardly the greatest painter and would hate to just toot my own trumpet so here are some of my favorite stuff by other people: Rob_Jedi's Pirates (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=125979); Jenova (http://www.jenova.dk/) (Her website is the easiest place to see them all); Solitaire 1 (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=181530&view=findpost&p=2702545) 2 (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=180309&view=findpost&p=2686825); Spiralingcadaver 1 (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=182038) 2 (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=181267).

Honestly there are soo many more, but just go and trawl the Modeling and Miniatures (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showforum=6) section of the forum.

[Skyydragonn]

what happens if you don't paint them and leave them plain due to no art skills? Does this effect the game and play or is this not allowed?



there are even methods for players who have little to no artist practice. The term "dipping" is a fairly common method of speed painting for players who just dont ahve time/ability or desire to paint thier models individually.
It involves paintint on the basic colors and then "dipping" the mini in a colored wood stain to achieve the shadows/highlights. While it will never produce the quality of handpainting it can produce some decent looking mini's.

As for "no art skills" its like any other skill, practice. When i started I couldn't paint a straight line for my life, Since then I did a buddies Khador army (500 pt mostly 'jacks) at his request, and was paid in several menoth models I wanted :) I've painted a full Menoth army and a small force of Cygnar (for my GF)
and I've grown to love the painting aspects almost as much as playing the game itself. If you ever decide to get into paiting I HIGHLY reccomend picking up the Privateer presses Formula P3 DVDs they show you everything form the simple basics up to applying advanced techniques in very simple ways. Well worth the pricetag :)

[ATC 1982]

When painting do you all use the prescribed P3 Paint's or use other painting methods?

[Einherjar]

Most people I know use a collection of paints - whatever they've accumulated over the years. I use some P3 and some Reaper Master Series paints but I prefer Games Workshop's metallics. I also still have a few Vallejo's I break out from time to time and even a few craft paints that I haven't replaced yet.

[Skyydragonn]

Most people I know use a collection of paints - whatever they've accumulated over the years. I use some P3 and some Reaper Master Series paints but I prefer Games Workshop's metallics. I also still have a few Vallejo's I break out from time to time and even a few craft paints that I haven't replaced yet.

the P3 sets are a good way to start but as you get better you'll find other brands that may have specific colors you prefer (example valejo metalics instead of P3)
or may just find that you prefer a differnt brand entirely.

[Carlos]

Wonderful paint work done by you mate..
Seems like you have spent a lot of your time and hard work for painting all these pieces..!!