My Painting Method
My Painting Style and Method
One of the things I like to read when browsing through other gamers websites is how the paint their figures. Most people develop their own style and preferred method, but I am always interested in new ideas. Here is my process:
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Clean the figure with an Exacto knife and small file if necessary.
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Wash figure is a bit of soapy water if figure if I think it is dirty or has something on it that may be bad for the paint. Dry the figure and then dip in rubbing alcohol and let dry. I don’t do this for every figure, but sometimes a figure can get dusty, have old paint on it or have a bit of metal corrosion. The alcohol is a way of getting rid of any water residue.
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Mount the figure on a thick base or a nail with white glue.
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Prime the with white spray primer, not white spray paint as it is thicker than the primer. I use armory white primer, but there are a lot of choices here.
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I use a tri-color method with Reaper acrylics in the eye dropper bottles. I will paint the entire figure in the base (dark) colors. I include the eye brows and whites of the eyes in this.
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I then wash the figure with a 50-50 mixture of Wonder Wash Original and floor wax. I have the Wonder Wash to bite the paint to much at full strength, so the floor wax not only dilutes the mixture but adds flow to the wash so it settles into the creases of the figure better. I slop it on with a brush but make sure there are on puddles of the wash on the figure.
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The wash leaves the figure glossy, so now I spray the figure with Testors’ Dullcotte spray. The Dullcotte is a good base to paint on while the glossy wash is not.
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I then will start with the flesh applying the flesh color then the highlight flesh color.
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The steps are repeated for all other colors.
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Once the figure has all the 3 colors done, I will normally Dullcotte the figure again.
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Next glue on the weapon if necessary. For spears and such I use floral wire. It is easy to cut and shape and is very cheap. I used to use brass but is much harder and difficult to work with. Also, should you bump the brass spear it will not bend but will likely just pop off. The floral wire will give and likely not pop off. It can easily be bent back and holds its shape better then lead. The weapon is painted and any touch up done. I use crazy glue for this and the shield.
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The shield if necessary is painted (the inside and rim) and glued on. Any touch up is doena nd any highlighting is done on the inside of the shield. The face of the shield is done last. Typically when painting a unit, I will keep the shields simple and will either use a decal for the design or sit down and do all the shields in one step after the unit is complete. I find it too hard to do the shields individually and keep momentum up to finish the unit. Any standard painting is done at this point.
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I will base and flock the figure now, but sometimes depending on the shield and pose I will base and flock the figure before I attaché the weapons and shield. I use a soup of various scenic materials attached with white glue. After the white glue dries, I dip the base in a very running mix of white glue. This seals the material to the base and prevents the material from dropping off. Some grass is applied on top of this to finish the base off.
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The figure is given a final spray of Dullcotte and we are done!
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Put the figures together as a unit and admire! Then have a cold one, and get to work on the next unit…
This is my typical method for 28/25mm figures. For 15mm, it is essentially the same, though often I will not use 3 colors for everything. I try not to get to wrapped up in getting every figure perfect, as it will slow down the process. You have to remember the figures will be grouped together in a unit and the individual details will not be as noticeable. Concentrate on characters and command elements that will stand out, but go for speed on the bulk of the troops. I tell myself that I can always go back some day and touch things up unit by unit. I use acryilics for all my painting. I use decent quality brushes with good points. I use 5/0, 3/0, and 0 typically. I am hard on brushes, so that is why I don’t buy the more expensive brands.