Paint Thinning Video

I said I would, and here is your wonderful host...

So there you have it. How to thin your paints. Happy Painting!

Painting Tips: Thinning your paints

Every one has done it. You have opened that paint pot, dipped your brush in, put it to model, and all the detail just disappears under a nice thick layer of paint, and you panic. I do it regularly, think I only need a spot, and then mess my model up.

What are the benefits of thinning your paints? You will not lose any detail in a model with correctly thinned paints, no matter how many times you have to go over the area. The paint will also dry a lot smoother, and there will be no brush strokes in the paint.

So what do you do to think your paints?

Method 1: Basically, you need a palette, a brush some water and the paint. Get some paint on your brush, and put it on the palette. Then using CLEAN (cannot stress that enough) water, use add it to the paint off the brush. Generally, one brush of paint to two brushed of water is where I want to be personally. Play around to get your own ratio. We are looking for paint the consistency of single cream, maybe a bit more watery that that.

Method 2: Go out to your local model shop, and see if they sell Vallejo Game Colour Thinner. This is basically a acrylic medium, and comes in a wonderful dropper bottle. Put your paint on a palette, add one drop of thinner, mix, add more if needed. Still looking for the single cream consistency, and usually (for me at least) 1 paintbrush of paint is thinned by 2 drops of thinner.

Now clean your brush before you start to paint, to get off excess paint, as any excess will defeat the point of watering down the paint. Before you put brush to model, wipe off excess paint on some kitchen towel.

You will notice that the paint may need another coat to get a good, solid covering on the model. This is OK, in fact wanted. 5 thin coats of paint is much better than 1 thick coat of paint. Yes it pushes painting time up, but also the paint dries a lot quicker like this, and you can see the colours emerge, and you have a lot more control over the paint.

One more method I sometimes use, especially with GW paints, is to thin down the whole pot at once, so you can paint out of the pot. Be careful with this, you don't really want to over thin the paint, as you can still use a palette/thinner later. I have used this on quite a few of my GW paints, they last longer and I don’t need to waste time thinning every colour every time I want to use them.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I did take some but they really did nothing. I will make a video over the next day or so to show consistencies.

Painting Miniatures: Paintbrushes

Painting miniatures is a skill that can be learnt. Of course it helps if you have an artistic flair, but it is one of those skills that CAN be learnt, and learning how to do it well takes a different amount of time for everyone.

One of the main stumbling blocks that I myself came across was paintbrushes, and which one to use and when. I have been through many brushes of almost every size, and have come to the conclusion that I need 3, no more and no less. I think this will apply to most people who just paint for the tabletop and themselves. If you are painting for competition or display purposes, all the sizes will have a purpose, but for the average gamer/painter, I believe that you only need 3.

So which ones? Well, I have a size 000, for detailing, a size 1 for everything else, and a old Games Workshop large dry-brush for, well, dry-brushing. I paint everything from large aircraft to the smallest Grot with these brushes.

The size 1 I use for just about everything. Get a brush that will always come to a good point (personally I use Winsor and Newton, expensive granted, but ALWAYS come back to a point.) With a brush with a good point, no matter what size it is, you will always be able to do detail, and be able to switch in and out of doing large areas, such as armour, back into doing wristbands and necklaces with ease.

The 000 is used for those hard to reach areas and other things, like eyes and gun scopes. That’s all that’s used for, don’t even think to use one of these for flat surfaces, you will get brush marks and be there painting for a long time.

The large dry brush I use is defiantly at the end of its useful life. Any large stiff bristle brush will do the job for dry brushing though, even other brushes that don’t keep the tip can be used for dry brushing, as it kills brushes fast.

The most important aspect however, I practising with a size 1 brush. The size of it at first may seem prohibitive, making you think that it could never be used for detail, but when you get used to using just the tip of the brush with different pressures, you will be amazed at what can be achieved with such a large brush.

Practice, practice, practice. Paint to your best standard you can, and other times just go out and buy a cheap model and just paint. Don’t care too much what you do to this model, keep it fun. Get good brush control and the rest will come.

Painting a Ork Dakkajet

So I painted a Ork Dakkajet this weekend. I have wanted to paint one of these since GW released the model, so decided what the hell, lets do it. And was I glad that I did, this was a fun model to paint!

So from the beginning, here is how it comes out of the box:

Only three sprue’s, but these are packed with fun little bits of detail and items on them. All was cast well, no problems there.

Putting it together was a breeze, but watch those wing supports! I put them on upside down to begin with, which gave me a headscratch moment when I tried to connect the exhausts.

As I have found with most GW instructions for models, its best to use these as a example of how to put these models together, not the be all and end all. A little experimentation can yield some simple yet nice conversions straight out of the box.

It took about 45 minutes to put it together to this stage.

Note the pilot and weapons are not built at the moment, this allows for easier painting of the main aircraft.

I under-coated it with Tamiya Grey Primer, then put a base coat of Humbrol Crimson down over the top.

After that, I just had fun with this model. I used a variety of different techniques to get the battle damage in place, and played around for around 3 hours until I liked it. (One note, Humbrol crimson spray is a pain to paint over. It has a very gloss finish, and shows up every brush stroke on top of it. Lesson learnt, next test will be with a coat of matt varnish over the top before painting.)

Like I said, I had some real fun painting this, and it is going into the commissions folder to show people what I can do. For now, this is on ebay. Go and check it out if you want, maybe you might even want it, I don't know. More of these can be painted, so if you want a squadron painting, head over to facebook.com/farlandsgames and drop me a message!

Paint Planning

As I sit here waiting for my copy of the new Warhammer 40000, I decided to have a little chat about planning when painting.

Why is it important to have a plan and stick to it?

Most of the miniatures that we paint all have some sort of regimental cohesion, such as Ultramarines being blue and gold, Blood Angels being red, yellow and orange, and Imperial Guard mostly being greys and greens. I am guilty myself of starting a army project, finishing it, and all the models look different, down to the actual main colour being different. This has come from a lack of planning, using different colours, and results in a disjointed look to the army.

How have I got around this?

Basically now I make a list at the beginning of each project. I write a rough idea of each stage of the paint job, what colours go where, even down to the time taken for each stage. I then take a look at what paints I have. If I have less than half a pot/bottle left, I go out and get a new pot/bottle. I do this as there is a variation between each pot of paint, some being stronger colour, some being weaker, even within the colour range. I hate starting, running out, and getting a new pot that is darker or lighter. Here we go to a earlier point, it breaks the cohesion of the army.

I then paint a test model, just to see if the list I have written works, and I make amendments to it as I go. It becomes the final list, what I work to on every model.

I usually paint in batches of 10, keeping the models moving like a conveyor belt. Base coat all of them, and by the time I have completed model 10, model 1 is dry enough to be worked on again. I have found this also helps cohesion within the squad, and keeps them looking even.

So we get all the models in each squad looking the same colour wise, and all the models in the army are the same colour wise. In my eyes, it makes a much better impression when people see it, and looks better on the table.

Give it a try, make a list of the stages that need to be done, and stick to it. You might be surprised!

Series 7? Why not!

I have been on a quest for a long time to find a superior paintbrush for my miniature painting. I have used Italeri, Citadel and Vallejo brushes prior to getting the Winsor and Newtons.

Out of them three, Citadel brushes were the best of the lot, but still something was lacking. I don't know if I had bad luck, but I could never keep a point on a Citadel brush. I look after my equipment, but after about 6 hours, the point was gone, usually split, which made almost anything really difficult to achieve.

I had wanted some series 7's for a long time, but could not justify the money to buy them, as they are really quite expensive for a paintbrush. But when I decided to try and take my painting full time, I thought it about time to get some. And boy was I glad I did.

Forget the cost. That is irrelevant. These brushes will not make you paint better, but they will allow you to paint better.

Note the italics there. With a brush of this standard, you never battle the brush. It always does what you want, and will always come back to a point, even after splaying the bristles on a down stroke, it always comes to a point. This means you can now concentrate harder on getting the paint exactly where you want it to be every time. Which is what will make you paint better.

I think the confidence boost of holding a £10+ paintbrush also has something to do with it, and they also look awesome. Buy some brush soap, look after them, and they will look after you for a long time to come.

These have been the biggest leap in my painting since I learnt how to thin my paints properly.

Remember, these brushes will not make you paint better, but they will allow you to paint better.

Buy some. You will not regret it.