I’ve been sculpting and painting for a while in the large scale collectible space for some time now and its only recently I started to get into miniatures. The 40k universe has me hooked. I’m not an expert but I wanted to share some techniques that I think will help both new and veterans in the hobby based on the little experience that I have using my latest project as an example:
Creature Caster’s “King of Ruin” as a proxy for “Great Unclean One”
#1 Gather Reference Photos
Regardless of the medium, it is important for an artist to gather references before they even actually start to do their work. It serves as an inspiration and as a guide to make your work a lot more believable.
Reference images used
I selected an analogous color scheme and did a rough paint up in Photoshop to visualise how the colors might look together in the final paint.
#2 Don’t Buy Expensive Tools
Despite what the internet and influencers tell you, don’t buy expensive supplies to paint your miniatures. You’ll be surprised how much you can get out of dollar or thrift store supplies. I’ve found cheap and non-specific supplies to get the job done equally as well. Specific hobby tools and supplies are usually overpriced and not necessary. I only use three types of brushes for this project…a detailing brush, a medium-sized brush and a flat brush for dry brushing. I’m using mostly acrylic inks and some old oil paints I had left over. The only spray paint I used here are for the priming and sealing of the final paint. No airbrush in sight.
Most of the tools used for this project
#3 Learn Some Basic Color Theory & Mixing
For me, this is one of the most powerful and budget friendly arsenal a hobby painter can have. Even knowing just the basics of color mixing such as what do you get when you mix basic colors like red and yellow or yellow and blue? And then you can learn how you can affect the tone of the colors by adding a bit of white or black. This will really open up your skill set and you won’t need to have all the different shades for the different models that you intend to build.
#4 Use Black/Dark Base Colors For Painting Metal
It’s always good to start with a black/dark base color for any metallic paints. Then apply the actual metal color by dry brushing the metal color on top and finishing with oil washes to bring out the sculpted details.
Black base coat for metallic paints
#5 Sometimes Less Is More
I see a lot of painters painting a lot of details and making use of too many colors on just one character. There needs to be a balance between the areas with details and areas which are simpler to create a good aesthetic look. Basically when there is a good balance in the contrasting elements does an artwork truly shine. So you don’t have to put details in every millimetre of the model.
Ass shot for the ages
#6 Build Your Mental Library
The ability to mix colors you want will come with time but you can always experiment with different colors and shades to grow your own mental library. Eventually it will become intuitive. I always teach my students to develop their skill set rather than worry about what expensive tools they need to get. This applies to both traditional and digital mediums. Understanding the fundamentals will take you a lot further than any number of paints and tools you can buy. Michelangelo didn’t get famous because he used a particular brand of paint or chisel.
Color mixing
#7 Reuse What You Can
I only use leftover plastic containers and lids to mix paint. If you are new to the hobby, before you go out buying supplies, you may have some items already in your home that you can re-use. Simplicity and ease of use is the key here.
Using leftover plastic container as color palette
#8 Learn From Other Art Forms
I was emphasizing the importance of real life photo references since nature provides some of the best references you can find as an artist. However, you can also get ideas and inspiration from other forms of art such as makeup effects for film and TV. I have been binging on The Walking Dead recently. Despite what you think of the later seasons of the show, the makeup effects are mostly great. It gave me some ideas for rotting flesh and colors that I could use for my army.
The Walking Dead makeup FX is a great inspiration for Death Guard
#9 Be Strategic About Layering
Oil washes are not necessarily applied everywhere on the model. While they can help to unify the colors at the end of the painting process, sometimes they can be used sparingly and selectively in certain areas. The cool thing about washes is that they inherit and change depending on the underlying base color so the effect is different in different areas.
Applying washes selectively
#10 Why So Serious?
Keep it simple, don’t sweat about being precise, and enjoy the hobby! Hope it helps!
Paint minis and smile like this dude
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