2019 has been a busy year! If you’ve taken your first steps into the hobby world, here are some things every new hobbyist should hear.
Coming from someone who’s been into the 40k/AoS scene for just over three years, here is what I think is some helpful tips and advice!
5 Things Every New Hobbyist Should Hear
Disclaimer: I am NOT a professional painter/hobbyist. My goal is to give some personal advice that may help the newer crowd, and these are just my go-to’s for a short amount of time in the hobby.
#1 Sprue Cleaning & Green Stuff
You may be excited to crack open the box with your new mini inside and slap it together. Personally, when I buy a new kit, I HAVE to put it together later that night or else it just bugs me. With that being said, take time with your models. Go the extra mile and make sure you clip off all the excess sprue chunks that may be on the model. Use green stuff to fill in the cracks on certain figures.
GW and other hobby companies do very well at hiding the seams of models. However, sometimes they still show up. Putting a little Green Stuff in the gap will take you thirty extra seconds. Do it before you start painting and you’ll thank me later.
Just for the record, Green Stuff is a putty-like material that you can use to fill in gaps or make custom add-ons to a model. It’s sticky and it dries very hard over time.
Editor’s note: For gap-filling, you may prefer Vallejo Plastic Putty; that is much better for filling gaps than Green Stuff.
#2 Don’t Cut Corners or be Afraid to Try New Techniques
When you first start painting your models, you may be tempted to cut corners. Look at it this way. You spend $50+ on a model that will serve you for years or even a lifetime. Don’t rush your work. Make sure you sit down whenever you’re not busy (so you don’t feel rushed) and thin your paints.
Thinning your paints does take longer when you’re actually putting it on the model, but you get a much cleaner look. Just throw on two thin coats and you’ll have rich color and still catch all the details within the model.
Once you slap a couple of coats of paint on, you may think “it’s good enough” but don’t stop. Don’t be afraid to use other techniques out there. A wash with some Agrax Earthshade and a quick drybrush to brighten up the areas where the light hits will do your models wonders.
#3 You Don’t Need an Airbrush to Make your Models Look Better
Don’t get me wrong, Airbrushing can make some beautiful minis and pull-off effects that aren’t quite possible for a regular hand-brush. But that doesn’t automatically mean that doing things by hand is inferior. If you’re new to the hobby, you shouldn’t feel like you have to get an expensive Airbrush/Compressor/etc. to get the models where you want. Truth be told, Airbrushing and painting by hand are two totally different techniques.
Keep things cheap when you first start and build a technique around your own paint style.
After just over three years of being heavily into the hobby, I still swear by the cheap pack of paintbrushes that you can get at Hobby Lobby. These are some of the paintbrushes out of my personal collection. There’s nothing attractive about any of these brushes, but they still get the job done just fine in most cases. It’s also still always a good idea to have a handful of nicer ones lying around to do special detail work. However, if you’re starting out, start cheap.
Now let’s take a look at the first model I ever painted compared to a model after one year of being in the hobby. (And yes, it was painted with those buster brushes).
One Year Later: First Painted Mini to the Latest
Yep. This is the first mini I ever painted and she’s a beauty. It’s a Flesh Tearers Tactical Marine in all his un-thinned glory! You better believe I didn’t thin my paints OR give him a wash. I also had no clue what dry brushing was at the time.
Now let’s take a look at a model that was painted one year later.
Everything about this mini was done by hand and by those paintbrushes in the picture above. Of course, this isn’t super high-quality professional work, but this goes to show that you can make any model look above tabletop quality with a little elbow grease and practice.
Just like we talked about before, I used Green Stuff to fill in the cracks and cleaned off the Sprue stubble. I threw a wash on the model and dry brushed the raised edges of its folds and muscles. Remember, don’t get discouraged if you’re brand new. Everybody has to start from square one and work up! Practice your technique and soon enough you’ll have minis that have a night/day difference from when you started.
Cover image by OCD creations
How long have you been in the hobby? What was the first model you’ve ever painted? Do you have tips for beginners as well? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group, and sign up to get your free hobby updates newsletter (with discount coupon codes) each morning as well!
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
