Painting Miniatures
Hal O'Connell
copy of the article), posted an excellent discussion on painting miniatures.
Whomever it was, thank you. The techniques described help create realistic
effects and bring the character being painted to life.
I thought I would post a followup article of sorts to provide some new
information on painting miniatures which might elude many hobbyists.
The first is that Citadel has published an illustrated guidebook to painting
figures. Most of the information is a repeat of the article mentioned above,
and the advertising for Citadel products is rather shameless, but the
illustrations are helpful and the cost is bearable (a buck and a half CDN).
The second piece of information is meant to expand the number of
alternatives when looking for paints, inks and materials to be used in
painting figures. To be terse DON'T LIMIT YOURSELF TO STORES WHICH DO MOST
OF THEIR BUSINESS SELLING FRP MATERIALS AND FIGURES.
These stores also sell the various paints (and I recommend acrylic paints, I
used to be an oil/enamel user, but not anymore), in particular the Citadel
kits (wickedly expensive) and the the Ral Partha paints. They sell cheap to
medium cheap brushes and epoxy as well.
However, a lot of artist supply stores and crafts stores sell similar paints
(frequently *much* cheaper), good drawing inks (Winsor-Newton doesn't *just*
make brushes, they make all kinds of supplies) and great brushes. The cost
for some pigments is high, but the tubes last a long time. And you can
pick up acrylic water-based paints in small pots intended for kids at
marvelous prices (32 colours for $10.00). The quantity is small but will
last at least 100 figures.
Art and paint supply stores also sell media for acrylics which allow you
more time for the paint to be workable, and they sell spray cans of
water-based acrylic gloss coats and varnish. And they sell the best damn
acrylic metallic paints I have ever seen, also made by Winsor Newton.
Just don't even attempt to explain to the clerk you want them to paint lead
figurines. You'll probably be the first person to ever mention the subject
to them (unless you hit the same stores I already have) and they will either
be totally ignorant on the subject or they will tell you that their paints
won't work on metal figures.
Baloney. The acrylic paints used for (shudder) tole painting on wood work
quite well on miniatures. The paints designed for ceramics-only tend to work
poorly. With a little luck you can stock up a huge number of colours for
at a good price, be able to afford a little more on high quality brushes,
and get better looking figures.
Three final tips when painting figures:
1. Glue them to a support you can hold while painting them. This has
been said before but it's worth repeating. I use old wine corks. I have
a board set up with a few nails sticking out that I impale the corks on
while the paint dries. Works great. Glue an old ceramic tile on the board
for a palette.
2. If you want to use a custom mix of colour, especially on a large figure
like a dragon, using a medium designed for acrylic paints (rather than
water) for thinning preserves the colour of the paint, it doesn't wash it
out. And it keeps the paint in a workable state for a longer period.
3. If you have access to a set of drafting or technical pens they are very
useful for detail work such as the pupils of eyes, buttons, blacked out
teeth (gives orcs and fighters that real mean look) and other very fine
work. You can use the high quality inks in the pens for very fine colour
details. These pens are expensive, but they do a good job if you can't
handle a 5x0 sable brush with the tiniest dab of paint.
I would interested in exchanging painting techniques and tips with anyone
else out there. Drop me some mail.
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Hal O'Connell COGNOS Incorporated P.O. Box 9707
Voice: (613) 738-1338 x5933 FAX: (613) 738-0002 3755 Riverside Drive
UUCP: ha...@cognos.uucp || uunet!watmath!sce!cognos!halo Ottawa, Ontario
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