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Sep. 5th, 2014 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittydesadeGod help me, I've tripped and fallen back into the wonderful world of miniature painting. It might actually stick this time because it's a hobby I can do an hour or two of (unlike sewing), it's a hobby I've done long enough to be actually decent at it (unlike knitting) and confident at, and I have SO MANY UNPAINTED MINIS DEAR LORD. And evidently I have ended up encouraging a friend to start. Between this and every other thing, I'm just going to go ahead and set up a how-to series on this tag so you all can suffer through me learning and re-learning everything I ever knew or needed to know about mini painting.
SO. THE BASICS.
(Pictures to come after I've taken and uploaded them.)
Paint, Brushes, Minis. Duh, really. For paints, I recommend the Vallejo line primarily because it's served me well in the past, and it's the main line I use. I use the model color, other people use the game color, but the company in general is solid. Other highly recommended brands are Reaper's line and Games Workshop's. I'm sure there are others, but I haven't had personal experience with them.
Brushes... so far I've used Aidikolor, Reaper, and the cheap brushes you can get at WalMart. I haven't noticed a significant difference, but the one requirement is that you have an assortment of very tiny brushes. From 1 to 000. Some people swear by sable, others say it doesn't matter, I haven't noticed a significant difference either way, but try it and see for yourself.
Minis! Yeah, go nuts.
Primer, Sealer
Right now I have... oh, let's see. Games Workshop primer, Krylon primer, something I can't see the name of, and Testors Primer. I also have at least three kinds of sealer, only one of which (Testors) is of any kind I've ever heard associated with mini painting. You need an acrylic sealer and that's about it. They come in matte, semi-gloss, and gloss for starters, and primers come in several colors, but we'll get to that later.
Double-Sided Mounting Tape (and Mounting Things)
I use pill bottles at the moment, I've also used film canisters, bead canisters, eventually I might use some of these jewelry boxes I have lying around. You can get double sided mounting tape at most craft stores and most decently supplied big box or office supply stores; this gives you a way of temporarily mounting any flat bottomed mini to a base that you can then hold, manipulate, and don't have to worry about getting your fingerprints on the paint or dropping the damn thing, or what have you. If you do use pill bottles and have a heavy mini, you might want to weight the bottom; this is why capped bottles are useful for this kind of thing. But, hell, you can use blocks of wood.
Alligator Clips (and Mounting Things)
I haven't actually tried this yet but it seems like a reasonable things to do. You will need something to drill into your mounting block, and it will become a permanent mounting block, but pinning alligator clips to a mounting block helps with those pesky minis that just have a narrow strip of lead/pewter/metal for a base. I mean, yes, they're designed to slot into a base later, and be very versatile, but while you have to paint it it's a fucking pain in the ass.
Micron Pens
Because seriously. Why fuck around with tiny three-hair brushes when you can just micron on pupils? And certain levels of blacklining. And text. Really, micron pens are amazing.
Superglue/Epoxy
Sadly, not all minis come in one piece. Superglue helps. Epoxy helps too, if you're willing to sand down all the drippy bits.
Palette
Or in a pinch, a paper plate will do. Or even a plastic one if you're careful to wash it at the end of every session. I have one of those eggcup palettes, it does me fine.
A Place To Put Your Shit.
My painting radius is about the diameter of a card table, including the boxes of extra paints and tools underneath. NOT including the shitpiles of minis I haven't painted yet. But that's a whole other problem.
That's the basics, if you're not sure what you want to do, if you've got a handful of minis and you want to do it well but, eh, maybe you're not going to get that into it? That's what you need. Now, if you're getting really fancy, here's some other stuff you can use.
Files
I have a set of, I think they're diamond jewelry files? And a few other files I got from my grandfather in the inexplicable tool box of random. And some sandpaper, too, let's throw that in there. Basically, your minis are going to come with unwanted crap. Fleck, flash, slag, spall, whatever you want to call it. Seam lines in particular are annoying. Files will help you get rid of that shit. You'll probably want a variety of sizes, because sometimes you'll want to just sand a base till it's flat and sometimes you'll want to get in between the arm and the side, or the side and the weapon, and that's a really tiny space. They don't call them miniatures because they're life-sized.
X-Acto
I have an X-acto set lent/given by my boyfriend when I started this because he doesn't have the patience to paint and I do. If there's a large amount of unwanted metal, you can just cut it off. Minis are, sadly, relatively soft, and they do cut and bend easily. Which leads me to...
Dremel and Wire
I won't discuss pinning in too much detail here yet, because I haven't actually tried it. But there is a technique called pinning where you drill holes in the insides of the mini to join pieces with a pin to stop them from bending or breaking off. Once I start working on that and trying it, I'll let you know how it goes! Dremel and wire are how you do this, as I understand it. Or, you know, actual straight pins.
Flow Release/Thinner
Since we're working with acrylics, there are substances that make the acrylic paint spread over a greater area without diluting the color as much. Let me be clear: this is not the same as thinning with water. Thinning with water leads to something much closer to a wash, which is like a glaze, and none of these are the same kind of effect you get with a thinner/flow release. Acrylic thinner is what you want when you're working with thicker paints than you're used to, or if your paints have thickened some.
Retarder
This simply retards the clotting/drying process, allowing you to work with your paints longer. Especially useful when you're working with a set of mixed colors and you've got it just right and you want to finish it up before it all dries. I can't exaggerate how frustrating that is.
Wash/Ink/Glaze (Medium)
These are different kinds of color from the main acrylic paint, and they're used for different applications and techniques. Washes are used to create color effect, typically they do the opposite of layering or drybrushing on top of, they tend to get in crevices and very lightly stain surfaces. Inks are brilliant but slightly more transparent; so far the main use I've seen for them is blood or blood type effects. Glazes I haven't used yet, but that was recommended in creating bruise effects, and I imagine could also be used for tattoos, burns, that kind of skin effect. At any rate, if you look into more intermediate/advanced painting techniques, you'll run across these. You can generally either make your own wash/ink, or find a glaze medium or a thinner medium, or try both!
Colored Primer
I keep several colors of primer on hand, because I'm kind of a geek. The main use of primer, though, is to bring out your color and adhere it better to the metal, so your rule of thumb when selecting a primer should be what is least intrusive to the color scheme I want to use. Or to put it another way, what will bug you least if it shows up under the paint. Because unless you're very very good and very very practiced, it probably will. I use a light gray primer for most of my basic minis, a white for pastels or for non-metallic metal effects if there's a lot of that, because there's a lot of shine and white usually is what you use for shine. I use a black primer for minis that I want to be vivid, or "dark" in personality some way, meaning ominous, or if I think I might end up doing a lot of blacklining. For skeletons and zombies and things Games Workshop actually does make varying colors of bone to decaying flesh to sickly green primer. Whe I was doing a bunch of skeleton armies I got some of that, and it worked very well. These days I mostly stick to black-white-gray though.
Magnifying Glass/Clamp Light/Both
I actually do have a magnifier stand somewhere around... oh, there it is, on the radiator. Which shows you exactly how much I use it. I do use a clamp light sometimes at the edge of my table, if it's not too hot. Whatever you use you want to be able to see your mini clearly, and it should be well lit. preferably overhead unless you're painting on a specific light source. I don't use the magnifier stand, I think it was actually the boy's, because I can't reconcile the magnified image with how my hands are moving. I think it's just something you have to either get used to or start off using. But many people do find them useful. They also make magnifying goggles, I haven't tried those.
Simple Green (or rough equivalent)/Glass Jar/Rattyass Toothbrush
You will make mistakes. You will make mistakes. You will make mistakes. When you finally make too many mistakes and are ready to say FUCKIT STARTING OVER NOW, this is what you do. Take that piece of crap, dunk it in a small glass jar of simple green. Dunk several! Cover it. Let it/them sit and think about its/their sins for a couple days. Then take it out, rinse it off (you can reuse the simple green I expect, but I don't recommend it), and scrub it down with the rattyass toothbrush, which is usually just soft enough not to scar the mini and just stiff enough to get into all its nasty little crevices and get the paint out. Now, it will NOT be as nice and shiny as when you first got the mini, but it will take primer and paint again, and you can start over and learn from your mistakes. Or if you're me, you can do it three or four times before you give up, practice those techniques on something you care about less, and THEN try again.
That is a very incomplete list of shit you will need to start mini painting, and some people will argue that some stuff on the swanky list should be on the essentials list, or vice versa. And that's fine! As with everyone, your mileage will vary. But that's my starting list of shit I have lying around, and I'm reasonably sure I have most of what a journeywoman mini painter would use. So, okay, that's enough blather for one day. Give me a couple days and I'll start in on what you do before you start painting.
Like yoga. This is a hobby that will have you hunched over a very small thing with a very small brush for very long periods of time. Oh dear god my back.
SO. THE BASICS.
(Pictures to come after I've taken and uploaded them.)
Paint, Brushes, Minis. Duh, really. For paints, I recommend the Vallejo line primarily because it's served me well in the past, and it's the main line I use. I use the model color, other people use the game color, but the company in general is solid. Other highly recommended brands are Reaper's line and Games Workshop's. I'm sure there are others, but I haven't had personal experience with them.
Brushes... so far I've used Aidikolor, Reaper, and the cheap brushes you can get at WalMart. I haven't noticed a significant difference, but the one requirement is that you have an assortment of very tiny brushes. From 1 to 000. Some people swear by sable, others say it doesn't matter, I haven't noticed a significant difference either way, but try it and see for yourself.
Minis! Yeah, go nuts.
Primer, Sealer
Right now I have... oh, let's see. Games Workshop primer, Krylon primer, something I can't see the name of, and Testors Primer. I also have at least three kinds of sealer, only one of which (Testors) is of any kind I've ever heard associated with mini painting. You need an acrylic sealer and that's about it. They come in matte, semi-gloss, and gloss for starters, and primers come in several colors, but we'll get to that later.
Double-Sided Mounting Tape (and Mounting Things)
I use pill bottles at the moment, I've also used film canisters, bead canisters, eventually I might use some of these jewelry boxes I have lying around. You can get double sided mounting tape at most craft stores and most decently supplied big box or office supply stores; this gives you a way of temporarily mounting any flat bottomed mini to a base that you can then hold, manipulate, and don't have to worry about getting your fingerprints on the paint or dropping the damn thing, or what have you. If you do use pill bottles and have a heavy mini, you might want to weight the bottom; this is why capped bottles are useful for this kind of thing. But, hell, you can use blocks of wood.
Alligator Clips (and Mounting Things)
I haven't actually tried this yet but it seems like a reasonable things to do. You will need something to drill into your mounting block, and it will become a permanent mounting block, but pinning alligator clips to a mounting block helps with those pesky minis that just have a narrow strip of lead/pewter/metal for a base. I mean, yes, they're designed to slot into a base later, and be very versatile, but while you have to paint it it's a fucking pain in the ass.
Micron Pens
Because seriously. Why fuck around with tiny three-hair brushes when you can just micron on pupils? And certain levels of blacklining. And text. Really, micron pens are amazing.
Superglue/Epoxy
Sadly, not all minis come in one piece. Superglue helps. Epoxy helps too, if you're willing to sand down all the drippy bits.
Palette
Or in a pinch, a paper plate will do. Or even a plastic one if you're careful to wash it at the end of every session. I have one of those eggcup palettes, it does me fine.
A Place To Put Your Shit.
My painting radius is about the diameter of a card table, including the boxes of extra paints and tools underneath. NOT including the shitpiles of minis I haven't painted yet. But that's a whole other problem.
That's the basics, if you're not sure what you want to do, if you've got a handful of minis and you want to do it well but, eh, maybe you're not going to get that into it? That's what you need. Now, if you're getting really fancy, here's some other stuff you can use.
Files
I have a set of, I think they're diamond jewelry files? And a few other files I got from my grandfather in the inexplicable tool box of random. And some sandpaper, too, let's throw that in there. Basically, your minis are going to come with unwanted crap. Fleck, flash, slag, spall, whatever you want to call it. Seam lines in particular are annoying. Files will help you get rid of that shit. You'll probably want a variety of sizes, because sometimes you'll want to just sand a base till it's flat and sometimes you'll want to get in between the arm and the side, or the side and the weapon, and that's a really tiny space. They don't call them miniatures because they're life-sized.
X-Acto
I have an X-acto set lent/given by my boyfriend when I started this because he doesn't have the patience to paint and I do. If there's a large amount of unwanted metal, you can just cut it off. Minis are, sadly, relatively soft, and they do cut and bend easily. Which leads me to...
Dremel and Wire
I won't discuss pinning in too much detail here yet, because I haven't actually tried it. But there is a technique called pinning where you drill holes in the insides of the mini to join pieces with a pin to stop them from bending or breaking off. Once I start working on that and trying it, I'll let you know how it goes! Dremel and wire are how you do this, as I understand it. Or, you know, actual straight pins.
Flow Release/Thinner
Since we're working with acrylics, there are substances that make the acrylic paint spread over a greater area without diluting the color as much. Let me be clear: this is not the same as thinning with water. Thinning with water leads to something much closer to a wash, which is like a glaze, and none of these are the same kind of effect you get with a thinner/flow release. Acrylic thinner is what you want when you're working with thicker paints than you're used to, or if your paints have thickened some.
Retarder
This simply retards the clotting/drying process, allowing you to work with your paints longer. Especially useful when you're working with a set of mixed colors and you've got it just right and you want to finish it up before it all dries. I can't exaggerate how frustrating that is.
Wash/Ink/Glaze (Medium)
These are different kinds of color from the main acrylic paint, and they're used for different applications and techniques. Washes are used to create color effect, typically they do the opposite of layering or drybrushing on top of, they tend to get in crevices and very lightly stain surfaces. Inks are brilliant but slightly more transparent; so far the main use I've seen for them is blood or blood type effects. Glazes I haven't used yet, but that was recommended in creating bruise effects, and I imagine could also be used for tattoos, burns, that kind of skin effect. At any rate, if you look into more intermediate/advanced painting techniques, you'll run across these. You can generally either make your own wash/ink, or find a glaze medium or a thinner medium, or try both!
Colored Primer
I keep several colors of primer on hand, because I'm kind of a geek. The main use of primer, though, is to bring out your color and adhere it better to the metal, so your rule of thumb when selecting a primer should be what is least intrusive to the color scheme I want to use. Or to put it another way, what will bug you least if it shows up under the paint. Because unless you're very very good and very very practiced, it probably will. I use a light gray primer for most of my basic minis, a white for pastels or for non-metallic metal effects if there's a lot of that, because there's a lot of shine and white usually is what you use for shine. I use a black primer for minis that I want to be vivid, or "dark" in personality some way, meaning ominous, or if I think I might end up doing a lot of blacklining. For skeletons and zombies and things Games Workshop actually does make varying colors of bone to decaying flesh to sickly green primer. Whe I was doing a bunch of skeleton armies I got some of that, and it worked very well. These days I mostly stick to black-white-gray though.
Magnifying Glass/Clamp Light/Both
I actually do have a magnifier stand somewhere around... oh, there it is, on the radiator. Which shows you exactly how much I use it. I do use a clamp light sometimes at the edge of my table, if it's not too hot. Whatever you use you want to be able to see your mini clearly, and it should be well lit. preferably overhead unless you're painting on a specific light source. I don't use the magnifier stand, I think it was actually the boy's, because I can't reconcile the magnified image with how my hands are moving. I think it's just something you have to either get used to or start off using. But many people do find them useful. They also make magnifying goggles, I haven't tried those.
Simple Green (or rough equivalent)/Glass Jar/Rattyass Toothbrush
You will make mistakes. You will make mistakes. You will make mistakes. When you finally make too many mistakes and are ready to say FUCKIT STARTING OVER NOW, this is what you do. Take that piece of crap, dunk it in a small glass jar of simple green. Dunk several! Cover it. Let it/them sit and think about its/their sins for a couple days. Then take it out, rinse it off (you can reuse the simple green I expect, but I don't recommend it), and scrub it down with the rattyass toothbrush, which is usually just soft enough not to scar the mini and just stiff enough to get into all its nasty little crevices and get the paint out. Now, it will NOT be as nice and shiny as when you first got the mini, but it will take primer and paint again, and you can start over and learn from your mistakes. Or if you're me, you can do it three or four times before you give up, practice those techniques on something you care about less, and THEN try again.
That is a very incomplete list of shit you will need to start mini painting, and some people will argue that some stuff on the swanky list should be on the essentials list, or vice versa. And that's fine! As with everyone, your mileage will vary. But that's my starting list of shit I have lying around, and I'm reasonably sure I have most of what a journeywoman mini painter would use. So, okay, that's enough blather for one day. Give me a couple days and I'll start in on what you do before you start painting.
Like yoga. This is a hobby that will have you hunched over a very small thing with a very small brush for very long periods of time. Oh dear god my back.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-06 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-06 04:20 pm (UTC)Reaper Mini forums as it turns out has a whole pinned thread dedicated to compiling these!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-06 04:59 pm (UTC)