|
You want Faster or Better? Painting miniatures is part of the hobby that we are involved in. There are two main schools of thought in Miniature painting. The first is the Gaming standard, which gets them done fairly quickly, but doesn't really make them look good. The second is the Artist's standard, which makes sure that each figure is painted very well, which generally results in a beautiful army that takes forever to actually complete. With the Gaming standard, you just want to get the models painted and not have them look awful if someone looks down at them from several feet away. You generally just use a few basic colors and perhaps a bit of drybrushing and maybe spot a couple of details. This is also where dipped armies come in (painted a basic color or two, then dipped in a tinted resin and shaken vigorously to get rid of the excess resin.) On the other hand, each Artist's standard miniature is designed to be picked up and inspected closely. In addition to the usual color choices, quite a few intermediate shades are chosen for highlights and shading, as well as a variety of details and, often, freehand flourishes, plus converted pieces. I remember one time, early on, when a certain Dark Angel player I knew was showing me his latest Tactical Marine. It was quite nice and looked good from very close. He told me proudly that it took him 8 hours to paint it. I remember thinking that it looked good, but not 8 hours of work good. Gamer's standard miniatures generally take something more like half an hour, sometimes even less. Maybe we can work it out? There are some intermediate options, however. One is to choose a fairly simple paint scheme, but use striking colors. This is what I used to do with my Dark Eldar. Quite frankly, they were not well-painted, but they did have a uniform look on the table and the Black and Chrome reinforced their high-tech badguy concept. It didn't take a long time, but it looked pretty good on the table top, and some conversions helped out the general appearance. Another option is to paint the bulk of your army to a "Gaming Standard" (very simple, 3 colors and based, that's all) then spend hours on your showpiece models, the leaders and special guys. Those are the models that most people want to look at when they view your army, so it makes sense to paint them better than the rank and file. Speaking of rank and file, in Fantasy, sometimes people will paint the first rank of a unit fairly well, then just paint the rest to a gaming standard, since most people will only see the first rank anyway. I have found a better way, however. A New Hope Actually, I have found a couple of better ways. First, I'll remind you of the pretty good way, which is what I have previously detailed. It gives you an army with a pretty good look. It'll probably get you some compliments, but it won't win any big appearance prizes. It'll be a lot better than the average army, though. As I have explained it previously, I'll skim over it a bit now. A Good Start Start by doing a basic trim of the models, smoothing out or cutting off any flash or mold lines. This needn't take long, just a minute or two for most models. Assemble and prime. (Note: Spray primer can be used, as long as you use short puffs rather than long sprays. If you can see individual paint flecks and the model dries almost instantly, you are doing it right.) Then apply your main base coat color. (Time saving tip: A spray can may be used here as well, with the same method. In fact, if it is a thick color such as Blood Red or one of the darker Greens, or Chaos Black, you may use it as both the primer and base coat.) Then paint your second color on selected parts, such as Armor vs Skin or Metal vs Cloth. Put some watered down white glue (PVA) on the base and dip it into a bag of flock to base it. You can paint over this or add a bit more glue after it dries for additional hold. Then you apply the wash. I can recommend Minwax Polyshades mixed with Mineral Spirits. It will make a good, dark wash with a brown or reddish color to it. The thicker you apply it, the shinier the final result will be. Paint this rather quickly over the whole model, trying not to spill any. Then go back and touch up any bits where you've put a little too much or not enough on. Finally, paint a few details (such as equipment or pouches or weapons) and you are done. The wash will pick out a lot of details for you and give you some shading, which goes a long way to making the model look good, and it is a very fast painting technique, giving you above-average results with less than average times.
Doing it without RE-doing it Now, this will give you an above-average looking army in a quick time, but it won't be winning you any big awards. I used to think that if you wanted to win the big awards, you'd have to start entirely from scratch and spend an hour or more on every model. This is particularly daunting if you already have an army painted to one standard, but you want it to look better. I have actually stripped the paint on my entire army before (it was a bit smaller then) and repainted it. This is pretty time-consuming and disheartening, however. My new idea, however, is to use the "Pretty Good" technique above as the basis for an improved paint scheme. It will give you a pretty good appearance rather quickly, letting you finish more models and get playing right off. The idea here is to use that as a springboard. The momentum from finishing models quickly will help keep you motivated to paint, which will make it easier to keep going. The trick is to not stop when you have finished the army (to the Pretty Good standard.) Once you've gotten the army to the Pretty Good standard, you then go back and make it better! Neatness Counts The first step is to go through and touch up any lines that aren't straight or what have you. Once you've corrected any errors, you can add some simple highlighting. With a dark wash over the whole model, the original shade you used can be your highlight. Paint the higher edges of the model with the original color (save for black, if you really want to highlight it, use a bit of graphite, like a pencil lead, or just a hint of grey.) Now let's put some edging around parts of it, particularly those parts that are flat or black, which will tend to have less highlighting. I would recommend Black or White for this, though other colors could work also. If the original color is dark, use White, if it is light, use Black. Just run the edge of the brush along the edge of the piece to give it a tiny, defining line and make it stand out more.
Dot the Eyes and Cross the Teeth? Your next step is to do the eyes and the teeth of the model. There are a number of methods for doing good eyes. One of the simpler ones involves putting a dot of white at each corner of the eye and a dot of black or some color in the middle. My only problem with this is that you can end up with your models looking crosseyed, plus it can take a while. If you put a dot of color on the eyeball, you can always go back and do the corners in white if you want to try that. As to the teeth, a very light touch, like a drybrush but with slightly more paint, is very effective for getting the slight ridges that generally form the teeth. (Note: this model had no eyes, but I did do the teeth, though the slight fuzziness makes it harder to tell in the above picture) Details, I need details! Next up, the details! Detail the details. That means that if you have, for example, a Black leather belt and pouches, you might paint the pouches brown in this step, to differentiate them from the belt. Alternately, you might leave them black, but put a dot or two of silver to denote a latch or something for the cover. Basically, split up the detail bits into more detailed pieces and give the model that extra bit of depth that isn't always immediately noticed, but goes a long way when people pick up the model and study it. You can even add details that weren't on the original model (like clasps on pouches or lines marking where an opening is.) (On this particular model, I had made the legs in a hurry and didn't have time to go back and improve the modeling of them, so I did a few things that fall into both this category and the next one to freehand some additional detail onto them.)
Now, how about some flourishes? These are things like transfers or freehand drawings or inscriptions, they might be extra iconography or symbols on armor or they might be tattoos on skin or carapace markings or whatever. You may reserve these for your character models, or you might include them on everything. (If you include them on everything, I'd recommend you keep them fairly simple and uniform so you don't go crazy!)
A man Outstanding in his field Finally, back to the base. You've made the rest of the model stand out, but it's standing out on that plain, flocked base. Add something to add to the realism and detail to the model. Maybe a clump of static grass and a few rocks. Maybe a skull or some shell casings. Perhaps a small mushroom or footprints, whatever you want, but make it interesting and vary it somewhat between your models. (That way, they look like they are all standing in the same field, but not on the same hill of that field!) If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |
