Smooth transition of colors to paint miniatures. Personal experience painting miniatures

I'll start from afar.

As a board gamer with some experience, a fan of Eurogames, who, moreover, often suffered from analysis paralysis, I never thought that I would paint miniatures. I dreamed of playing out like clockwork in Puerto Rico, Glory to Rome, New Era, Castles of Burgundy and so on and so forth. And the miniatures are painted by these ... wargeeeemers that armies collect, measure with rulers and all that. It turns out not. It turns out that the world, like its parts, is not divided into black and white. Discovery of the century!

No, it's still not quite far. In the fall of 2015, a certain Andrey S., being my friend and part-time one of the few owners of the game Kingdom Death: Monster in Russia, even the first edition, introduced me to it. Since then, almost all of our meetings, table camps, parties and even a couple of evenings in the Tabletop Simulator have sat over a 16 * 22 cell field, throwing cubes and gurgling joyfully when the next survivor lost his head. Literally, of course. But what about the Euro-games, paralysis of analysis, and that's it? Yes, it's there, too, in a way. But it doesn't hurt to lose your head as a result of dice rolls! A game with miniatures, which in general are not needed for the game, except for aesthetics and atmosphere (we, for example, played with colored meeples, because it is better to distinguish them on the field and take them to camps). Who suddenly became interested -.

In November 2016, when the game was released on Kickstarter in edition 1.5, I was already mentally prepared to get my copy. Expensive pleasure came out, but then I suddenly realized! Kingdom Death is a hobbyist's paradise! Buying a game for that much money that has so many miniatures of high enough quality to play meeples? What if gluing miniatures and painting is interesting? No wonder so many people are into it.

I waited a year, in the winter of 2017 I received the coveted box. Eeeee…. Rushed! Yes, coloring is fun. Playing with your own hand-painted miniatures is very pleasant. Whatever one may say, some pluses. The only negative is where to find enough time for all this ... heh ... Okay, enough foreplay. Get to the point!

I won’t talk about painting techniques, because I myself haven’t mastered any yet. Yes, there are plenty of articles on the subject. I'll tell you about my personal experience, that is, how it is in general - to start painting miniatures.

Step 1. Model for assembly.

The first thing I did was go to the store and buy Tamiya plastic glue, a craft knife, and a cutting mat.

Collecting 4 survivors and a couple of monsters. Interesting, exciting!

Step 2. Brush test or the unfortunate gnome.

My wife used to deal with dolls, so some paint brushes remained, but something (almost all, in fact) had to be bribed. She worked with squirrel brushes, so she settled on squirrel and synthetics, round brushes in sizes 0-1-2 and a couple of flat ones. The nearest art store had a choice between Rubleff and DaVinci brushes, the latter are much more expensive, so they took Rubleff. We also bought acrylic white primer in a jar. the soil in the can, they say, is very smelly and there is really nowhere for them to work.

Why is soil needed? It creates a dense layer on the miniature, on which the paint lies better than on plastic, i.e. covers better. White primer from a can is tinted with acrylic paint in any color.

I visited Alegris - this is the official Games Workshop dealer, bought a couple of metallics, primary colors (black, white, red, blue, yellow, green, brown) and a couple of stains - black and sepia. Paint brand - Citadel.

The first candidate for mockery was a dwarf from Warhammer. I did not dilute the paint (then it seemed to me that it was already slightly thick), I used a piece of paper wrapper from a chocolate bar as a palette. I painted it like a coloring book in order to understand how it is. Unless he added a spill, though in the process it turned out that the spill, blurted out with crooked hands on a silver metallic, perfectly tints it. And undiluted paint, if put in several layers to correct the consequences of unplanned tinting, blurs the detail .... In general, the unfortunate gnome was painted completely without any idea, in some random colors.

A wash is a highly diluted paint that flows into deep areas and creates a shadow effect there. In any case, this is its main application. You can make it yourself or buy ready-made in a jar, but some other chemistry has been added to the jar for greater fluidity.

Observations and conclusions:

Acrylic paint (especially undiluted, ha!) dries extremely quickly.

The squirrel brush is very flexible and painting small details with it is a real torment.

It would be desirable to get a bright light.

Step 3. Curved ends or a sad goblin.

To begin with, I solve issues of paramount importance. I buy synthetic brushes, because. they are dense and elastic, it is much more pleasant to paint small details with them than with a squirrel. I study the Internet for a wet palette and collect it from improvised materials. I take a small plastic container for food, put a rag folded in several layers there, fill it with water, and a piece of baking paper on top. Ready! And into the whirlpool of creativity with a table lamp at the ready!

A wet palette is needed so that the paint on the palette dries more slowly. Moreover, it can be put in the refrigerator, and the paint will not dry for several days. This is very convenient for diluted paints, because. it will not be easy to get the same shade again.

I mix white primer with black paint, I get a gray primer. I'm priming a not yet very sad goblin. I apply the primer with a flat synthetic brush, trying to lightly fill in small details.

I put on base colors. Green skin, brown wood, robe… blue?! I don’t have blue, so I mix blue with white.

Base colors serve as the basis for darkening areas that should be dark and highlighting protruding parts.

I shed the shadows, trying not to spill too much on the base colors. As I now know, she tints them in a darker shade, but I don’t need it. It remains to highlight the speaker and draw the details. I find a paint mixing table in the guide to roughly understand what needs to be mixed with what. And I see that by simple manipulations you can get a purple color! Then let the goblin's robes be purple! I repaint, re-spill.

I mix paints for highlighting. This is usually done with lighter tones of the base color. And the paint needs to be diluted a little more ... But a little more - how is it? The proportions are there, but it is difficult to keep the proportions with Citadel paints. Unlike some other manufacturers (Vallejo, for example) that use jars with spouts from which you can drop a drop of paint and measure out the proportions of water, Citadel cans draw paint with a brush. In general, I breed somehow ...

Fine work begins, and then it turns out that the tip of my brush began to bend. No, of course, I was rather rude to her, heavily dipped it into the water and rubbed it on the jar, washing off the paint ... But just like that right away! Have you ever tried to paint the fletches of arrows on a 28mm miniature with a curved tip brush and shaky hands? Do not try better, save a lot of nerves. The goblin suddenly became sad... With grief, I make highlights in half. At the very end, I decide - why not make the final highlight with a dry brush technique? At this point, the goblin was completely upset. Well, what about me? Let him go sad, since he wants to.

Observations and conclusions:

For mixing paints on a wet palette, it is better to take a brush with a soft bristle. Synthetics are quite tough and quickly rub wet baking paper, resulting in small scraps of paper getting into the paint, and then onto the miniature.

Synthetics are also not good, at least not yet. I read the Internet, I buy brushes from the column, the manufacturer is Rubleff.

Step 4 Death, beginning or Girl in green.

I keep improving my inventory. The first upgrade went to a tray with a wet palette - instead of a wet rag, which, due to its softness, helps to wipe the paper from above, I got a piece of floral brick. It's smooth, hard enough, cuts to the shape of a tray, holds water pretty well, and stays wet on top for quite some time. And then you can pour water over it again.

I buy a convenient LED lamp on a flexible leg. I go to Alegris again for paints and buy quite a few shades of grey, white and brown. I already have a rough idea of ​​what I want to do with my first KDM miniature.

The primer, as usual, is tinted gray, but I don’t like this cold dark gray, so I add a little brown, it makes the color more natural. I glue the miniature on the base and primer. In general, the design of bases is a separate big topic, I won’t touch it for now. There are some in the kit - and okay.

The base is such a stand on which the miniature stands steadily on the table. The bases are included with the game, and they look like a floor of stone faces, just like in the story.

The miniature will be used in the game, and, according to my idea, should have a color code so that it differs from other similar miniatures. Practice has shown that miniatures are best distinguished on the field by color, and not by poses, by weapons, or even by the color of the stand.

I put on base colors. The first KDM miniature is green! So, green leather armor, skin the color of skin, a sword the color of light bone, let the hair be brown. In the process, it turns out that light shades do not cover the dark gray ground quite well. For the skin, I used the Scale 75 paint from the set for skin tones, which Andrey S. kindly gave me, and as it turned out, it is not very suitable for applying the base color.

Paints base and layer. At Citadel has paints for a variety of purposes. In particular, base is better for applying base colors, and layer is less opaque, so it's better for highlights and shadows.

Next, I pour the shadows, highlight. Since I never bought shades of green, I mix green with white in different proportions to get two shades - a little lighter than the base and much lighter. For the bone sword, I have a plan (I peeped in one of the short Citadel painting videos) - to tint it by pouring from a light tip to a dark base. I try - it works! In the process of painting this miniature, I completely abandoned synthetics in favor of the column.

With the dilution of paint with water is still unclear. You dilute “strongly” - the paint hangs on the brush as a drop. They say that you need to wipe off excess paint on a cloth so that this does not happen. You wipe it - almost no paint gets to the miniature. In general, by trial and error, I gradually move to the finish line.

I paint the base black, pour a good black wash so that there are no bright spots left and with a dry brush I go over the faces from above so that the details show through.

Step 5 Death, started to turn or Dangerous in red.

You know what? Tightens, how! I ordered a paint organizer, the chaos on the table is starting to annoy, although I have Total 30 jars. A mini lightbox is coming, miniature photos should be much better. Some materials for the design of the bases are coming (more on that later). And this is just the beginning… On the one hand, it’s a pity that there is little free time, and on the other hand, maybe this is good?!?

I glued this uncle first, with such a dangerous inclination of the head that I could hardly put the collar on him afterwards. He will wear red.

First, a dark gray primer. By the way, acrylic primer from a can mixed with paint dries very quickly. After about 20 minutes you can paint.

Then base colors. Gray fabric, red leather armor (I wonder where the survivors in this strange world get skin dyes from?), light, light brown fur and hair, knives in the color of light bone.

Then I poured the appropriate colors - sepia for skin and fur, black for fabric, I don’t have dark red for armor, so I pour purple.

I start painting highlights. Since I already know that the wash tints to a darker shade, I carefully correct too strong highlights with a small amount of wash. By the way, the spill does not give a very pleasant shine, perhaps it will go away after the final coating with a matte transparent varnish. I haven't used varnish yet.

Varnish is needed in order to fix the paint on the miniature. From active influences on the miniature, the paint can peel off, especially on thin protruding parts.

I paint the knives according to a proven scheme, gradually darkening the bone with a sepia wash and adding brown at the end. I'm still not good at diluting paint and picking it up with a brush, and most likely won't be for a long time to come. Sometimes a lot of liquid paint remains on the brush and on the miniature it collects in a drop. If this drop fast if not removed, it will not be very good, you will have to bring the color back, and with crooked hands, everything that is around usually suffers from this. I tried to paint the eyes, but to no avail, I had to paint them back. In general, by trial and error, I get something that somehow satisfies me. What can I say, I even like it. But the main thing is that you like it yourself!

The most important thing in all painting methods is to understand just one thing. The whole is not just the sum of its parts.

Each technique, no matter how cool the result it gives, is worth nothing if used only by itself. Don't get hung up on always using the same washes or a dry brush, no matter how much you like them - use as many as possible and combine for maximum effect.

Drybrush and overbrush.

Some of you will already start to cringe at these names. In general, most mink-dye people consider drybrush almost a curse word.

And on the one hand, they can be understood - many do not use these techniques very diligently and correctly, creating an aura of “techniques for lazy beginners” for them. And then, having more or less mastered the skill of painting, they also begin to get out “I painted without drybrush, finally I don’t crawl with this shit”.

Pf.

Drybrush or dry brush- This is one of the simplest tricks.

The bottom line - take a little slightly diluted paint on the brush, and remove most of it ( on a separate napkin or wiping on a palette). The remains are applied to the mink with rather rough movements, literally “wiped off” along the edges and surfaces.

What is good about the method is that it is really simple, and it is rather difficult to “smear the excess” in it - everything is very easy to control and you can always stop in time.

What's bad is that it is rather monotonous, and if you use only it, all your minks will look the same.

Overbrush- the same dry brush, by and large. The only difference is that the paint is not removed from the brush on a palette or a napkin, but directly smeared.

This is already a bit more difficult, because you can spread too much. On the other hand, this method can replace the application of base coats if the minka is dark and in black ground.

The difference in general is this: the overbrush fills the gaps, has more pronounced strokes and at the same time comes out more opaque, and the drybrush is smeared mainly only at the edges with protruding parts, and along the way, the previous layers shine through more

In order for these techniques to have the right to life, they must be used with a bunch of different colors, combined with each other and other methods, and ink or washes must be applied on top to darken.

If you choose only one painting technique that gives a good result quickly and even with crooked hands...

This is spills.

Spills can paint a miniature inhumanly quickly. My record is 23 minutes per model.

Twenty-three minutes, Carl!

If you are a beginner or just want to paint normally and quickly "on the table" - master the spills.

LIKBEZ AND TERMS

The word "pouring" refers to either shades and glazes - special types of paint (more liquid and transparent), or various "pouring techniques" of painting.

To avoid confusion, I will say this:

• Shades and Glazes- This is a special type of paint that is usually used for pouring equipment. At GW, they will be called that, shade and glaze. Shades from other manufacturers are usually called wash.
• "Pouring"- This is one of the "pouring techniques" of painting.

First, I will tell you what shades / glazes are needed, which ones to take first, and how to dilute them.

Then we will analyze the "pouring techniques": Pouring, Shading, Shading and Lining. For each technique, I will tell you how to do it, how it looks in examples, and in what situations to apply it.

And at the end of the article I will show examples of works painted mainly with pouring techniques.

WHAT DO YOU NEED

“We need more gold.

Shades and Glazes

I use GW shade and glaze. I really like: the colors are good, fit perfectly.

• Most needed: black (Nuln Oil), blue (Drakenhof Nightshade), brown (Agrax Earthshade)
• Often needed: blue-green (Coelia Greenshade), sepia (Seraphim Sepia), red-brown (Reikland Fleshshade), swamp (Athonia Camoshade), purple (Druchii Violet)
• rarely needed: Red (Carroburg Crimson), Yellow (Cassandora Yellow), Green (Biel-Tan Green), Orange (Fuegan Orange), and all Glazes (Lamenters Yellow, Waywatcher Green, Guilliman Blue, Bloodletter)

Pouring techniques can be used not only with shades and glazes, but also with ordinary paints. To do this, paints need to be heavily diluted and / or mixed with mediums.

However, regular paints diluted to a shade/glaze consistency behave differently than real shades and glazes. They spread, lay down in spots and puddles.

If you paint on the table and do not pretend to be an artist, forget about this hemorrhoids from the very beginning. Just buy GW shades and glazes and sleep well. They are much more convenient for pouring techniques than diluted paints.

Medium

Shades and glazes most often need to be diluted, and not with water, but with a medium. Medium is a colorless liquid that makes dye more transparent, almost without changing the density, fluidity and surface tension. I use GW Lahmian Medium:

If you dilute the paint with water, then it will behave differently on the model: it will spread and dry out in puddles (the pigment settles along the edges of the spot). If diluted with a medium, the paint will be easier to control, and it will dry evenly, not in puddles.

Medium is now your "Water 2.0", you need a lot of it, if possible, buy 2-3 cans at once.

That's enough for a gamer. If you want to experiment, buy Vallech's Matt Medium and Gloss Medium, play around with them too. I sometimes find a use for them.

brushes

Drip techniques don't kill brushes (unlike drybrushing, for example), so no extra brushes are needed. Use the usual ones that you paint with. Most often "1" and "0" are sufficient, if you paint large models then probably "2" will come in handy.

The airbrush is not suitable for pouring techniques. If the shades are sprayed, they lay down in an even thin layer, darken the surface, and such a shadow is not obtained in the recesses of the relief.

TECHNIQUE 1: ROLLING
difficulty - low

Classic tech. First, paint the surface in the base color with regular paint (as opaque as possible, for GW this is Base / Foundation). Now pouring: take a lot of shade on the brush and spread over the entire surface. The paint will basically flow into the recesses, draw the relief, and tint the entire surface.

Shade dries slowly. Immediately after you have generously filled the surface with shade, you can redistribute it with a damp brush, remove stains or unnecessary accumulations. If poured - you can collect the excess with a brush.

If you have chosen the base color correctly and put the spill correctly, you are done. You don't need to illuminate. This is the fastest painting technique, for which you don’t even have to be careful.

If you messed up when you painted the base colors, climbed somewhere, smeared it, the spill will endure everything, soften your mistakes.

Take a lighter base color. In order to get a normal wash result, you need to use a light base color (basecoat), on top of which you put the shade. Lighter than what you usually use. If you take the average color as the base color, the miniature will turn out very dark. If before that you painted with layering from dark to light, you will have to rebuild your brains (at first it’s unusual, it seems that you made a mistake with the base color, but then it turns out fine).

light ground. If you are mainly going to paint with washes, prime in a light color (white, light beige, light gray).

Dilute. You can put the shade undiluted, straight from the can. It's faster, but looks messy. If you are not in a hurry - mix the shade with the medium (about half), and put 2-3 layers. If the mixture of shade and medium is too thick, you can add a drop of water.

Let dry. Wait until the layer is completely dry before applying the next one. Otherwise, you will tear off a piece of a layer that has not dried up, and it will be very difficult to fix it.

* Pre-pouring. If you are priming the miniature with a light primer (white, light gray, beige), then it is useful to go over the entire miniature with a diluted dark shade. Such a spill will draw the relief, and all the details will be clearly visible to you. It will be easier to paint.

* Pouring on the ground. A completely cheating option is to prime in such a color that you don’t need to put the base color on part of the miniature. Just pour the primer with the shade of the desired color, and say "done".

* Illumination spill. A more complicated version of the technique is to first lighten the surface with ordinary layering (layers), and then shed it. The spill will connect the layers, soften sharp transitions.

So, using washes you can: outline the relief after priming (to make it more convenient to paint), completely paint the model (on light ground or on light base colors), soften the transitions during foliation and quickly shade the recesses.

TECHNIQUE 2: SHADING
difficulty is high

The option is more difficult. Dilute the shade with medium, thinner, 1:4 - 1:8 approximately. Apply this almost transparent mixture not to the entire surface, but only to the place that needs to be shaded. Shade on the brush should be quite a bit, at the tip.

One layer is usually not enough. Apply 2-3-4 layers until the shadow is dark enough. Make brush strokes so that each new layer is a little "overlapped", then the border between the layers will be blurry, you will get a relatively smooth transition.

Read the article if you want to get into this technique better. There I analyze the face in detail, with the names of the colors and explanations of exactly where I put the shadows.

All the same rules: lighter base color, dilute properly, and let the previous layer dry before laying the next one.

Shading can be done "almost a blend" without having great painting skills and high precision in working with a brush.

TECHNIQUE 3: TONING (glazing / glazing)
difficulty is high

Toning is not a spill at all, the meaning of the technique is different. If the spill darkens the surface and draws a relief, then the toning changes the shade. You won't need any technology to play games.

First application - color effects: blush on cheeks or nose, skin tones, color highlights/shadows on armor.

Take a glaze and dilute it heavily with a medium, 1:6 or more. Take a little bit of this gloss on the brush, and run the brush over the napkin. Almost all of the glaze will remain on the napkin, and the brush will only be slightly moistened with the remnants of the glaze. With this wet brush, make strokes where you need to tone. You will probably need 2-3 layers.

If you do not dump excess paint on a napkin, then instead of soft toning, you will get a sloppy stain.

The second application is restore color: if you lightened the surface too much and it turned out to be whitish, faded, then toning will restore the color and beat the extra highlights.

To restore the color, dilute the glaze not so much, 1:2 - 1:6, and this time you do not need to wipe the brush on a napkin. Just take a small amount of glitter on the brush and apply it all over the surface. There should not be a lot of glare on the brush, otherwise you risk not tinting, but inflicting spots.

Toning is "cheap blending". Toning softens the transitions between the layers below it.

TECHNIQUE 4: LINING
difficulty - medium

Lining is the drawing of deepening lines or joints between surfaces. With a steady hand, lining can be done with ordinary paints, but the technique is easier to perform with shades.

Lining visually separates the areas in the miniature, making it easier to view. Lining hides inaccuracies in painting: if you slightly “climbed” with a neighboring color somewhere, the shade will settle into the junction of areas and hide the error.

Take a thin brush (zero or one with a good sharp tip) a little shade. Gently draw the tip of the brush along the indentation line or along the junction between surfaces.

A little shade on the brush. Shade on the brush should not be enough, otherwise you will flood. It is better to draw a line little by little, and add paint to the brush as needed.

Paint with the tip of the brush. When pouring or shading, you can slightly press the brush so that it flattens slightly on the surface of the miniature. You can’t do this when lining: if you smudge the shade, you won’t get a thin line. Therefore - lead along the deepening only with the tip of the brush.

Don't dilute. Use an undiluted shade for lining. Otherwise, you are tormented several times to carefully draw a thin line.

WORK EXAMPLES

Several works where the washes are 70-90% of the painting technique. Each one was painted very quickly, without pretensions to quality, just detachments for the table.

Shaswastiya Detachment: 23 minutes per model. Everything except light sources is painted with base colors, without layering.

Hassassin Squad: 43 minutes per model. Everything except light sources and visors is painted over with base colors or even over ground, without layering.

Saito Togan: 2 hours. Mostly spills on white ground, except for armor and katana.

SUMMARY

Irrigation is the fastest and easiest painting technique. With some practice, you can paint a large squad / small army in a day or two.

If you're a beginner: a wash will hide your mistakes and won't require you to be very precise with your brush. If now you paint worse than the examples at the end of this article, take on the spills. Painting in the photo is very simple and fast, you can do it with spills too.

If you are more experienced: take shading, toning and lining. These are the techniques that I was given a level up in quality. All of them are "cheap blending", they greatly increase the quality of painting, but not very difficult.

Good coloring!
Dmitry Bogdanov

P.S.

Newbies - is everything clear? Have questions?

Experienced - what else can you tell me about spills?

WRITE A COUPLE OF LINES IN THE COMMENTS!

Buying miniatures for playing Warhammer, you have the opportunity not only to assemble your army, but also to breathe life into it, just by adding colors. We agree that this activity seems quite difficult, especially for beginners, but we can assure you, everything is not as scary as you think. Like any job, painting miniatures requires some preparation, perseverance and concentration. Be prepared to spend several hours at this activity, diligently drawing thin lines and sometimes creating individual, unique images.
If you are still interested in this pastime, the miniatures are already waiting, and the brushes are ready for battle, then Uncle Orc will tell you how to start painting miniatures.
The Games Workshop company, releasing models, also provides all the necessary materials for their transformation. Citadel paints are available in a wide range of colors and are specifically designed for painting miniatures.

This exciting process includes several consecutive steps. You should start working with a thumbnail with . The Citadel series has spray paints that are used specifically for priming miniatures. They are usually black or white in color. Your choice directly depends on what painting technique you use and what color your model will be. Note that it is also convenient to prime with an airbrush, where you can control the air flow, which means that the primer layer will lay down more evenly.
Without departing from the topic, we immediately note what is the difference between white and black primer. White is most often used by professionals due to the fact that it is much more difficult to apply paint on such a background, this requires more training and accuracy, since all applied colors become brighter and more saturated. But, with such a primer, it is much easier to create a blending effect (light flare effect). The main thing to remember is that white primer used when the final result is a light or bright thumbnail.
dark primer used by artists who aim to paint as many models as possible. We immediately note the main advantage of such a primer - it immediately serves as the darkest color on your miniature, and also creates a shadow effect. Best suited for those models that should be dark in the end result.

After the miniatures are primed and the primer is dry, it's time for the second stage - applying paint.
What colors you need depends on the model you are going to paint, or on your imagination if you do not want to follow the template suggested on the package. To do this, GW produce a series of base paints, which are designed for mass painting of miniatures and have such a consistency that when applied to a model, the layer lies evenly and does not shine through. They are great for painting over dark primers (black or grey). Such a ruler includes colors familiar from the school drawing course: black (), red (), white (), green (), blue (), brown () and gold (). Having these paints, you can already vary the color shades according to your own desire.

After the base colors have dried, it's time to apply. This is a special paint that is very similar to ink and is intended, as the name suggests, to be spilled onto miniatures. This is necessary in order to fill in the hollows on the model with color, thus creating shadows. It is rather difficult to predict how the spill will fall, therefore, in order to remove the excess after it has been applied, Uncle Orc recommends that you first apply varnish over the paint and let it dry thoroughly. Thus, the pouring algorithm looks like this:
1. Lacquer is applied to the painted model. We let him dry.
2. The spill is applied. Not lingering on flat surfaces, it flows into the cracks, where it needs to be.
3. We remove the excess until the spill is dry. This is important to do right away, because. after drying, it becomes polished and becomes like paint, it will be difficult to get rid of it.
Voila! Your miniature, with shadow effect, looks more voluminous and realistic! After complete drying, the spill ceases to dissolve with water, so you can safely apply other colors on top of it without fear that they will mix.
So, a small summary from Uncle Orc. To paint miniatures you will need:

• the primer is black or white, depending on your skills, the technique you are going to use and whether the miniature itself is light or dark;
• a set of basic paints of the Citadel Base line (an excellent alternative to paint from GW is paint);
• pouring.

Please note that wherever paints on the same basis are mixed (for example, all acrylic ones), so that the colors are not distorted, it is necessary to first apply a layer of varnish, or initially use paints on a different basis. This is necessary so that the bottom layer does not get wet from the water and does not merge with the top.
In the next article, we will take a closer look at drawing techniques that will help you in painting your miniatures! In the meantime, Uncle Orc wishes everyone creative inspiration!

Last week I decided to do something never seen before - to paint miniatures. From the outside, it probably doesn't look like anything special. But in fact, for me, this is a significant event. As a person who did not understand anything at all in drawing and received fives at school solely for diligence, I was sure that I would not succeed. But practice has shown that I worried in vain.

So, after reading a lot of advice, on Friday I went to the store for the necessary supplies. I was going to buy a primer, varnish and brushes. My friends promised to give me paints for free.

I chose black primer. This color was found in all articles and painting instructions, so I had no doubts. In some places, white and gray were mentioned, but the vast majority of authors spoke about black. I bought it. Lacquer I took matte, because. I read somewhere that if you take a glossy one, the miniatures will become "sweaty" because of the shine. Varnish and primer have become the most expensive purchases - each bottle costs a little over 300 rubles.

I took several brushes: 00, 0 and 2 and some other. I found the "Black River" in the window, but they seemed very scary. Therefore, I took the brushes of the Gallery brand, which cost a little more, 40-50 rubles each. I also bought myself a palette (60 rubles) and a paint thinner (40 rubles). In total, about 900 rubles were spent on purchases.

Then I went to friends for paints. I was given about ten cans of Decola glossy acrylic paint, as well as several tubes of metallic paint. I was a little upset, because. I would like to get matte, but, as you know, bleach with cottage cheese goes for free 🙂 I probably had all the necessary colors at my disposal: orange, red, green, blue, purple, gray, brown, black. Plus "metallics": silver, bronze, copper, gold.

Arriving home, I began to figure out how to prime the figures. The first thing I did was throw a test batch of the Flamethrower and Ultralisk into a bowl of water diluted with cleaning agent. Everywhere it says that the miniatures need to be degreased, and I chose the easiest way.

Then I took one of the parcel boxes, and I cut off the lid from it and cut out the front side. It turned out a device for the primer: I planned to put the figures inside, and then spray them with paint from a bottle. In order not to breed a stink in the house, he went out into the entrance.

I put an ultralisk, a flamethrower and a prosssian caterpillar in the box and turned on the camera. And my comrade saw100500 grabbed the balloon and began to puff at the figurines, having previously chatted it for about a minute. It seemed to me that he did not comply with the recommended distance of 20-30 cm, but, as it turned out, there is nothing wrong with that.

The primer, by the way, really stinks. Even by the second batch, when we primed the infantryman and the hydralisk, we thought about cotton-gauze bandages. Although, then, I just moved with the box to the balcony. It turned out to be much more convenient there - and you can open the window to get rid of the smell, and there is more corny light.

The next day, the miniatures were dry, and I took up the brush. It would probably be worth looking at pictures of the painted figurines online first, but I didn't. I decided to paint the first one myself, as I come up with it, I will paint it.

My first figurine was Jim Raynor's Faction Flamethrower. It was originally red, so I started painting it red. And immediately encountered an incomprehensible phenomenon. The paint applied to the primer was not very good. I don't even know what's the matter. Maybe I got some wrong paints or I chose the wrong primer. Or, for example, he took the wrong brush (00), but the red color did not fully fall on the miniature. Every time I swept the brush, the black background of the primer would show through. No matter how I tried to re-paint over particularly difficult areas, nothing came of it. The figure showed through in places black, and I just decided not to pay attention to it. I painted the gas cylinders gray and painted the visor with the same color.

Then I immediately took up the infantryman. I also painted it red, experiencing the same problems with the primer showing through. Then I painted the rifle in the hands of an infantryman in gray. He also painted the visor of the helmet and, for beauty, put more dots on the knee pads and on the back of the spacesuit. I put the finished miniatures in the same box and varnished them. The process is about the same as with the primer, only the bottle is different.

For my taste, the first miniatures came out pretty mediocre. Because of the protruding black color, they turned out to be dirty. But still, I was satisfied with my work. After all, when you put an original figure and a painted one side by side, you look and compare “before” and “after”, you understand that the painted one is better, even if the coloring is not perfect.

The second party for me was the protoss: "caterpillar" and dragoons. They were originally orange, so I started painting them orange. Started with a caterpillar. The paint lay down on her worse than ever. Black spots constantly appeared from under the orange color. I painted, painted, painted, painted and painted, but it didn’t get any better. The figurine looked terrible. The same thing happened with the dragoon. It turned out dirty orange, spotted and completely ugly.

After the figures dried, I tried to paint them again. This time the color lay down better, the black became smaller, but it still showed through. Then I let the miniatures dry again, and then painted them a third time. Now the caterpillar has turned out more or less. When I put blue spots on her (I saw the same ones somewhere in the pictures on the net), she began to look not so shameful. But the dragoon could not be painted normally, alas. So he remained dirty.

In the third step, I undertook to paint the ultralisk and hydralisk. Ultralisk was surprisingly easy for me. I was worried in advance that it would turn out like a protoss, but the brown and purple paint lay on it surprisingly well. Probably, the whole point is that they are quite dark, and if the black substrate shows through somewhere, then it is not so noticeable. In addition to brown (torso) and purple (carapace on head and back), I also used a metallic color to paint the tusks.

Then I took up the hydrasilk. I painted him in the same colors: brown torso, purple shell inserts and metal fangs-limbs. For beauty, I put more red dots-eyes and smeared with metallic paint where the jaw should be. The hydralisk turned out very well, but, unfortunately, it came out a bit dark. I would like it to be lighter, otherwise the brown and purple colors almost merge.

After that, I painted several infantrymen and flamethrowers with a conveyor. I used the same colors as before, they were painted easily.

The next step was painting the ghosts. These miniatures are quite small, but this did not prevent them from being painted normally. I painted the uniform red, covered the suit and arms with gray, but did not touch the rifle behind my shoulders, it remained black.

Then I painted vehicles: goliaths, tanks and vultures. And ran into problems again. Goliaths came out still nothing, because. I painted them gray and only made the cockpit and inserts red, but I painted the motorcycle necks and tanks red-gray and they turned out to be very dirty, like the protoss dragoons. I tried to paint with a second layer, but something did not work out for me. As a result, of course, the miniatures look good, but very sloppy.

Here are my first results: 5 infantry, 2 flamethrowers, 2 ghosts, 2 vultures, 2 tanks, 2 goliaths, 1 hydralisk, 1 ultralisk, 1 dragoon, 1 caterpillar. There are 19 figurines in total. I painted them for a short time, in total I probably spent two or three hours. A perfectly acceptable time. True, the results are not very good. I give infantry and hydralisk a C, ultralisk a four minus (because it turned out too dark), and a caterpillar and goliaths a three minus. But dragoons, tanks and vultures - alas, deserve only "pairs". They are too dirty.

Now, a few questions for the experts.

I degreased in soapy water only the first two miniatures. The rest was primed like this. In my opinion, there are no differences. Is it okay if I and the rest of the figures do not “bath”?

I painted the miniatures with a brush 00. Is this normal? Maybe it would be better to use another one?

Finally, the most important question: how to make sure that the paint lays down in an even layer, and the primer does not show through from under it? And then, out of grief, I thought about priming the protoss with orange.

One more question - how to paint "flying" figures? They are on stands that cannot be removed (glued). So far, I have only thought of wrapping the coasters with paper from below, and after priming, remove it. Maybe there are other options?

In general, I realized that painting is not difficult at all. I think in the foreseeable future I will paint Raynor's army, and then I will think, or I will finish with figures from starcraft or go to Memoirs.

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