Never Painted Before

[Heff]

Inks are your friend but take some practice. washes of ink can really give an otherwise dull figure a lift.
A wash of brown ink on Caucasian flesh works wonders, you have to practice thinning it though

in terms of paint its not about adding black to shade and white to highlight

shade white with blue for a clean look.
shade red with brown, chestnut works well, highlight with orange (if you highlight with white you get a horrid pink colour)
greens get blue in the folds and yellow highlight
black highlight with blue
yellow shades with orange and highlights with paler yellow or white (the rule proving exception)

Had been painting for several years before I found a little table with the above.

I undercoat white cos it gives a cleaner colour but its a question of taste try both.

[Powerhausen]

Generally speaking, you can highlight pretty much by mixing offwhite (such as GWs Bleached Bone) into the base colour. It usually gives a much more natural finish than mixing with plain white. The only exception is red, which is kinda tricky. If you mix white into the red, you'll get pink, which looks pretty bad. Instead, when highlighting red, mix in yellows or oranges.

Inks works pretty much like washes but the pigmentation is much stronger, so the end result can look blotchy pretty fast. Also, they're a lot shinier than paint. I'd repeat my recommendation for GWs line of washes. I know GW gets a lot of flak for their hobby products, but honestly, they're not that bad (only a bit expensive). However, their washes are a top notch product.

It's the internet, so you'll get a lot of advice and a lot of it will be contradictory. Don't try to do everything at once.

[Punk_in_Drublic]

In addition to Powerhausens excellent point for point guide (Which should be stickied, IMO), I'd like to add the following -

There are two main points when it comes to success and failure in the beginning. Colour choice and neatness.

Decide on a colour scheme before you start, or paint a test model to see how it looks if you're gonna paint up a whole team.
Pick a limited palette.
Use two contrasting colours. Find a colour wheel and choose two colours opposite of eachother, or go for the classic "football look" with one strong colour, contrasted with white.
Use one or two neutral colours for unimportant detalis (leather traps, boots, pouces, hair etc)
In my opinon a good choice of colours is far more important to the end result than actual paiting prowess.

Paint your minitaures like you would do a paint by numers drawing, trying to achieve as neat a finish as possible. It doesn't matter if you mess it a bit up when you start, you can always go back and touch up any mistakes as described by Powerhausen, but in the end you should try to avoid colours bleading into eachother or just partly cover the area they're suppose to cover.

I'd echo Powerhausens advise regarding using GW wahses in the beginning. Be sure you paint the miniatures neatly and get a good coverage of paint (two thin layers is better than one thick layer), then use the washes where appropriately and marvel at your great acheivement!

Good luck, and be sure to post pictures.

[gonzolo]

The way i started painting led to the following things that I'd suggest:

Get a fine detail brush and use it A LOT!!! If you're trying to paint detail and you're new to it then having a small brush is a must. When you get better you'll find yourself using it less and less, to the point where you're using it for fine detail only.

To paint ANYTHING: Apply a base colour, drybrush with a slightly light colour (optional - follow this with a VERY DRY DRYBRUSH of a slightly lighter colour) then apply a thinned down wash.

Can't be arsed buying washes? Just thing down a bit of paint to the point where it can be used as a wash. Not ideal but it'll get the job done.

The results won't be brilliant, but you WILL learn by doing and improve as time goes on. Those are just the best tips I think you could have if you're just starting out.

[Norse]

nope


he was a canadian hade great white north in his location

I think you mean Urb.. jeez he was talented - haven't heard from him in a while though...

[JDub]

So I am starting to look into buying brushes. What size and kind of brushes do I need? Like what size is good for base coats, fine detail, etc. What kind and size of brush for washes and dry brushing.

[Powerhausen]

Okay, brushes.

First off, choosing a brush manufacturer. Often, people give the GW brushes an undeserved amount of critisism. However, GW hobby products (and this goes for their brushes as well) are generally of quite good quality. I've had GW brushes I've been very happy with in the past. However, they are quite expensive, and you can find just as good brushes at an arts and crafts store for a lower price. Then again, you gotta go through a lot of brushes for the price difference to be noticeable. So, to sum up: It's hard to go wrong with GW brushes, but if you're not completely happy and/or want to save a buck, it can pay off to look around. Also, people will inevitablty start bragging about their Windsor & Newton Series 7 brushes in a thread like this. Good brushes, but I feel you only need the best when you're really serious about miniature painting. I'm an above average painter, and I never bothered.

Secondly, what sizes to get. Brush sizes come in numbers; the larger the number, the larger the brush. As we're painting small things here, we'll deal with the lower end of the scale, typically maybe size 3 and lower. As brush sizes gets really small, the size is counted in zeroes. So you'll have a size 2 brush, then a size 1, then 0, then 00 (or 2/0), and finally 000 (or 3/0, the smallest brush size I've seen). As I thing I said in my previous post, it's more important that a brush keeps a good point, than how small it is. I'd much rather have a good size 1 than a poorly kept size 00.

GW lables their brushes in easy to understand terms, so I'll use those primarily.

First off, you'll need your most important brush: The basecoat brush. This is the one you use for 80% of your painting. In the art store, a basecoat brush is pretty much a size 1 brush. This is used for the legwork of the painting process: Basecoating, washing, and highlighting.

Secondly, you'll want detail brushes. GW has two sizes, and I'd recommend getting both. The standard detail brush (which is a 00 brush, really) is used for most finer detail, such as belts, knuckle dusters, faceguards, and so on. You use it pretty much as a basecoating brush where the basecoat brush is a bit too unwieldy, so you'll also do highlighting work with it in areas with lots of small detail, like faces. The fine detail brush I use very rarely, but it's good to have handy for the really small details, such as belt buckles, studs, and even eyes if you're feeling gutsy.

Finally, if you want to try out the drybrushing techniques I described earlier, you'll want a drybrush. Drybrushing is a very rough technique that is prone to ruin a normal brush pretty quickly. Luckily, GW makes some good purpose made brushes. I use their large drybrush for pretty much all my drybrush work. I've tried flat drybrushes in the past and I know some people swear by them, but for me, the large round GW drybrush is the way to go. It's got short, stiff bristles making it very good for the job.

Generally speaking though, choice of brushes and ways to use them is very individual. Don't be afraid to try different brands, materials (just stay away from the synthetics!), and sizes.

Finally, some words on brush maintenance. The most common cause of brush death is the tip splitting, that is, paint residue inside the bristles causes the hairs to split in two different tips, which pretty much ruins it. To prevent this, don't dip the brush too deep in the paint. Wash the brush regularly during painting, and especially well after painting. I often wash my brushes under running lukewarm water after painting, to make sure I get the paint out. When a brush eventually gets ruined (either by splitting, or just because the tip frays up too much), don't throw it away. Instead, use it to apply glue and similar, so you don't have to ruin your good brushes on it.

[someone2040]

Powerhausen gives very good advice. Pretty much agree with everything he has said so far.
I've never had any issues with GW paints. Being too thick, is definately better than being so thin that you can't get decent coverage at all. You can always thin paints with water (and should thin paints with water on a pallet).

GW may be a bit expensive, but they do very good quality stuff on their hobby side of things. Foundation Paints and the Washes are seriously ace. I use foundation paints all the time. After a basecoat, foundation paint is my next step. It's a lot easier to put red onto red after all.

Generally for good tabletop quality (I do it on a lot of my figures), you only need a few steps.

Undercoat.
Base Coat - Usually a foundation. Or put down a foundation, then go over it with your base coat.
Wash
Re-Apply Base coat as a first highlight.
You can then add as many more highlights as you want. Some colours will probably need more to stand out properly. Other colours you can get away with.

And really, that's all you need to do. Don't need to be Golden Daemon standards to look good on the playing field.

[Heff]

what powerhausen said. I would add that you can downgrade the larger brushes to drybrushing when they get a bit rough. It will seriously muller them but it works. Also if you have a small person who wants to paint DO NOT let them use your brushes. buy them their own so that they dont mess yours up. My sons became my dry brushes when he lost interest. (after half a figure, it took him that long to muller it completely)

[JDub]

What about painting something like the ball? Do you just simply paint it brown (and what color brown)? Or you you dry brush or use some kind of wash? And the same thing if I wanted to do something like black boots or pants how do I do that? Just paint it Chaos Black or do you use some type of wash etc.

[Hasdrubal]

What about painting something like the ball? Do you just simply paint it brown (and what color brown)? Or you you dry brush or use some kind of wash? And the same thing if I wanted to do something like black boots or pants how do I do that? Just paint it Chaos Black or do you use some type of wash etc.

For the ball, I've found that GW's Vomit Brown gives a nice orange-brownish color. Shade it quickly with a diluted Devlan Mud wash (also GW) and you're good to go.

Black is one of the most difficult colors to paint. Several easy ways to go:
- apply a black basecoat. Full stop. Looks OK.
- apply a black basecoat, then apply a layer of gloss varnish (Vallejo's is very good). THe gloss will reflect light and gives a good-looking black-leather look.
- Start with a mid-grey color, apply a thinned black wash (GW Badab Black for instance) to define the recessed. After it's dry, re-apply straight Badab Black to the areas you want to further shade.

[Grumbledook]

I got some w&n series 7 for cheaper than GW prices

I won't even pretend to be a good mini painter but they hold their shape far better

shop around online and you should find somewhere in your country that sells them

[Grandma Wendy]

The first thing you need to know is that you must buy all of your paint, miniatures and painting supplies from me.

You must use the colors I tell you to on your miniatures and you must have them completely painted before you are allowed to pay me for the privilege of using them.

Thirdly, if you use supplies or miniatures from any other company I will confiscate your models, games and paints and make you wish you were never born.

Happy gaming.