The Painting Basics, What you need to know

[wyrmling_x]

Alright, since I know this is going to come up from time to time, I figure I'd cover it now and save myself the headache later.

Painting 101:

This is a quick run-down of what you need to do in order to prepare for and initiate miniature painting.

Preparation:

- always pin larger models to ensure solidity
- for a stronger hold when gluing, place a small piece or "kernel" of styrofoam (polystyrene/insulation foam) in between the two pieces being glued with superglue - the glue will melt the foam, and when dry will form a super-hard bond
- use Greenstuff (or some other putty/filler) to fill cracks - nothing ruins a good paintjob like unsightly gaps between parts
- always clean miniatures with soap and water before painting to remove skin oils and casting residue left by the manufacturer
- determine a colour scheme - darker colours will usually call for a black primer, while lighter colours call for a white primer - make the call based on your style
- finally prime or "undercoat" miniatures with spray primer for best results (real primer provides a better "stick" surface for paint, as well as being more durable than just priming with paint)

Painting:

- depending on what colour primer you used (commonly black or white) and what colour scheme you've picked, start painting the largest area first with your primary colour
- always keep your brush wet, and after you have a bit of paint on the brush (only ever dip the tip in, never to the ferrule) dip the tip of the brush in water. This is to ensure a thin, smooth spread of paint. Paint that is too thick is unsightly, harder to work with and covers detail if thick enough.
- paint in the major colours before working on highlighting, shading and detail.

Stripping:

Sometimes (often) you are unsatisfied with a paintjob. You'll notice this more often if you're just learning to paint, and you look back on what you painted just weeks, even days before.

Plastic - brake fluid is the essential ingredient in stripping plastic. Unlike most other methods, there is no danger of melting the plastic, and it does quite a nice job.

Metal - Pine-sol is the cleaner of champions when it comes to stripping metal miniatures.

* * * * *

Hopefully that will answer any general questions you have regarding painting and the set-up prior to painting. If you have anything to add, or questions to ask, feel free. Eventually I'll get around to writing a full article on painting, from the basics to more advanced techniques. For now, though, this should answer basic questions.

[Trogdor]

If there is anything I can emphasize, it is water down your paints!!! Multiple thin layers look so much better than a single globby nasty coat. The next thing that has really helped me is the "Magic Wash". I might actually do an entire article on it since I love it so much. Great basics. I hope to see a gallery of ibiblical proportions spring up filled with pics of amazing models! Were we just going to have the gallery in this thread or somewhere else Wyrmling_X?

[wyrmling_x]

I suppose we haven't really discussed the gallery much, have we? We could have a redirect thread in this forum, perhaps leading to a gallery on the main site.

[Ratrek]

I would also like to point out that when using brake fluid wear gloves. The stuff is extremely poisonious as well as carcenogenic (or however you spell it) aka cancer causing.

Use it but be careful mates.

[Trogdor]

D'oh, well good thing I haven't been drinking it.....today.... *sets down a glass of viscous fluid behind him and wipes his mouth*. I know that stuff will take the paint right off your car so yeah...watch out. When stripping stuff, invariably there are little flecks of crap stuck in the cracks and crevases. Anyone know a good way to get that out without having to take your Xacto knife and chisel each and eveyone one of the those buggers outta there? I have a stiff brush, but it doesn't get all the way down there. Even tried a toothbrush. Or does that not happen at all with Pine-Sol? (I've been using brake fluid on both metal and plastic)

[wyrmling_x]

I've found brake fluid to be largely ineffective on metal minis. The bits of paint are almost completely removed when using Pine-sol, and after I scrub the mini with a toothbrush (yes, they're quite handy), it should be totally clean. If not, I break out the dental tools (Trogdor, you should have plenty of those! ) to clean the nooks and crannies.

[Trogdor]

I'm starting to collect all sorts of crazy little probes and scrapers. I'll try pine-sol next time on the metal. The brake fulid has taken off 98% of the paint, but in some of the deepest cracks and stuff is where the little flakes hide. So out comes the x-acto and we being scraping. They scream at me to stop, but if you srape enough of them out, they stop screaming.

[Ratrek]

I use pinesol on metal models all the time, straight pinesol as well. Live the mini set 24-48 hours then run it under hot water and get it a light scrubbing with a tooth brush. All the paint (even in the small hard to get at places) should come off.

Brakefulid is better for plastic of half pinesol/half water as pinesol will melt a plastic mini. Fairly quickly too I might add.

[JarLoz]

Brake fluid is cool, and Pine Sol is all good, but the champion of paint removal from metal miniatures is acetone. Put your miniature in a glass jar, pour acetone so that the miniature is completely obscured, screw the lid close. After few hours, take the miniature out from the jar, and the paint comes off with gentle scrubbing. And you can even use the same acetone over and over again!

Well, those are the good points. There are the bad points:

-Smells horrible, and kills brain cells like you wouldn't believe. Only use outside or in very well ventilated places. Do not use it to get high, it just gets you a horrible headache.
-It won't kill you right away if you drink it, but it doesn't do any good for you either. Do not try to make "intresting cocktails" out of it. (This means YOU, Trogdor!)
-Do not dip your hands in it. Small splashes are not bad, as it dissolves very quickly in air. Use tweezers to take miniatures out of the stuff.

So, if you don't want to wait twenty-four-hours for you miniatures, and are not afraid of bit of fumes, acetone is your friend.

[Trogdor]

Hmmm, I'll try that. Is it safe to use on plstics though? I have some plastic things that need some stripping and I soaked them for a month (no kidding, I forgot about them) in brake fluid. Some of the paint came off, but not easily and there is still a lot on there. What's the best plastic safe stripping stuff you've used?

[JarLoz]

Well, if you dip plastic models in acetone, you'll end up with with a pile of grey goo. Not recommended.

I've used Pine Sol with plastic models. It dries up your hands a bit, but as it basicly is just heavy duty soap it shouldn't be as hazardous to your health as acetone is. (Atleast the stuff they sell here in Finland) You should first try first with some plastic bitz though.

Plastic models are usually very hard cookies to strip, as the best stripping stuffs (acetone and paint stripping jelly) melt them, and the ones that don't melt them are not so effective. When stripping plastic models, don't even try to aim for perfectly clean finish, just clean enough that you can put a new basecoat without obscuring detail.

[Wayfarer]

I usually try to make my first post on a new board one with content so here goes.

On the subject of stripping paint I find with metal models that mineral spirits work very well in an extremely short amount of time. I've yet to test this on multi part metal models though because I have a fealing it might weaken or destroy glued joints. It melts plastics in an instant as well so never use it on them, unless you do it in a controlled fashion for boils etc... This is a harsh chemical though so you need to take precautions such as having proper ventilation and limited contact with skin as it is an irritant.

As far as general painting tips, I find that there are two methods for painting a model, painting high to low, and painting low to high. What I mean by this is that you paint skin before armor because it is easier to mess up while "reaching" past the armor to the skin and so higher areas should be painted last in case of mistakes. This can be annoying though because messing up while painting the raised areas can leave you with a low spot that may be difficult to touch up. The converse of this is to paint high raised areas first and then "reach in" to get the lower spots. The reasoning here is that if you make mistakes, the high spots can be easily reached to touch them up.

Also, paint lighter colors first. It is a lot easier to make a light area dark than making a dark area light. Planning ahead for mistakes makes painting a ton easier because if you are anything like me, you make mistakes no matter how hard you concentrate. Hey, it happens.

I'd also like to mention a few things about brushes.
-clean them often!
-reshape the point after cleaning them and store them upright or at least on their sides.
-GW sells some okay brushes that work well for mixing paint and laying on undercoats but for details you should invest in better brushes. Synthetics (white nylon bristles) and red sable (reddish brown) are two types that work well.

Maybe it's just me but it seems like GW brushes flay out after an hour or so of use, has anyone else had this problem or am I just unlucky?

Also, has anyone here used Reaper master paints or Vallejo? I've used Citadel color, Testors, and some other model paints and so far GW paints are the best (albiet a bit grainy). I'd love some input on the other miniature made paints out there.

[gjnoronh]

First off welcome Wayfarer - I'm no longer the newest person to this forum!

Thanks for such a great first post.

Stripping minis - one of my favorite topics.

Pine Sol is in my experience the safest of the options.

I use an old glass jar drop things in for 24-48 hours and then scrub with an old toothbrush in a sink. It's effective and I've found fairly safe. Going on the shorter duration is often useful for plastic models.

I remove the bases from the minis as they are more likely to be weakened/break by the process.

-Gary N

[Trogdor]

To answer your question Wayfarer, I have used Citadel paints, Reaper pro paints, and Vallejo. I like the Citadel ones (GW paints) the best myself. The Vallejo ones are much talked about and some really good people swear by them. Straight from the bottle they are crap. You must water them down and mix a flow enhancer in them to make them work well, but when you do that they work really well. I have a set of Vallejo flesh colors (much better shades than what GW has) and a set of 4-5 different grays that I use. Some people like the dropper bottle so you use less on your pallete. I don't use a pallate a whole lot as I water down the paint in the bottle to the consistency that I like to use it at. That saves me a lot of time and you don't waste any paint on your pallete at all. Painting things takes me long enough as it is so anything that helps save time is what I'll do.

And a big welcome to you. Hope to see some of your stuff in the gallery!

[Kuro, Pitlord]

So how would you get paint off a model thats half plastic half metal?

Or cant that be done?