Topic: Clean painting - guidelines

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A couple of years ago I was really rubbish at painting until I realised it's all about knowing "how" to paint, with that I mean method not skill.

I recon most beginners want to make their miniatures look clean (smooth colours without any overlapping layers of paint). Due to the fact that I don't have any natural painting talent I've been trying to perfect different methods to achieve this kind of result, clean but not golden daemon standard.

The following is a couple of pointers for beginners or soon to be painting fanatics out there 


* Patience: Painting is supposed to be fun and relaxing, if you are stressed or have something other than, say, Empire on your mind, do not paint until you can give the hobby your undivided attention. This will also help you get better painting results, trust me on this!

* Start of with the colour that will cover most of the miniature (or more than any other colour) and stick to it until it's finished. If you make mistakes don't worry. My models usually look like crap until the final touches, that's when I clean up my mistakes.

As a side note, go to your local GW store and check out the book called "how to paint citadel miniatures" and turn to page 77. As you can see the painter makes loads of mistakes by overlapping his brushstrokes over detail but cleans it up in the end. His models still look awesome.

* A clean basecoat: Make sure you start of with a good basecoat. If you're painting grey over black primer, paint a codex grey coat until you cover the black primer COMPLETELY. I can't emphasise this enough, the base coat determins how good and clean the end results will look. A common mistake is painting faces and skin colour by starting with a sloppy base coat thus getting very dirty and unatural looking faces.

* Use water: Always thin out your paint with water (drybrushing is an exeption). Make several thin brush strokes instead of 1 or 2 "thick" ones. This will help you achieve a smoother layer.


With these guidelines in mind you can't really go wrong. The only real way of getting better, though, is practice (I know it's boring to hear but that is the sad truth unfortunately). But first and foremost remember that your painting reflects the mood you're in while painting. So make sure you're having fun!

Feel free to post additional tips and tricks

[Matthew Taylor]

 If you make mistakes don't worry. My models usually look like crap until the final touches, that's when I clean up my mistakes.

As a side note, go to your local GW store and check out the book called "how to paint citadel miniatures" and turn to page 77. As you can see the painter makes loads of mistakes by overlapping his brushstrokes over detail but cleans it up in the end. His models still look awesome.

I can't agree with this more! I've only recently started painting again (after a 10 year gap) - I used to be pretty good, now I'm just average - but EVERY SINGLE figure I've ever painted has gone through a stage about 1/2 to 3/4's of teh way through where it just looked awful. Messy, uneven - but fight past this and you get some pleasing results.

Matthew

[Albrecht Hexenjaeger]

Conspicuous-ly on point, Sir! Ask the red shirts for painting advice too. Having been one, I did plenty of painting lessons and dolled out plenty of advice in my tenure. It was possible to teach anyone, even the most cement headed Little Billy's simple tricks for speed painting, basecoating with ink washes, and other stuff to maximize results with little effort. Store staff paint tons of models, and usually have crazy deadlines on them as well that the average person simply doesn't have. Without tricks, how would they get it all done?
 Many people starting out by painting this unit these colors, and that unit those colors, and it looks like the circus is coming to town. Some of the best advice I can offer beginners is to develop a strong color theme and basing technique. This goes a long way towards tying the army together, and looking good across the field, regardless of the quality of the finished product. It really just comes down to desire, patience, and application of paint. Some of the best painters I've known have no natural artisic ability at all, and vice versa, so nobody should ever get discouraged!