ImpendingDuff is here with a tutorial on painting miniatures with shaky hands- check out the tips!
ImpendingDuff may be somewhat new here, but he’s actually been doing this for a while now. He does great painting tutorials and is definitely worth checking out.
This week he has a solid tutorial for anyone out there that likes painting miniatures but has shaky hands!
Edge highlighting can be super hard if you’re hands are shaking, so let’s see how to do it!
Painting Miniatures With Shaky Hands: Impending Duff Tutorial
He gets the shakes due to his blood sugar, someone actually gave him this tip a while back and he’s been using it for a long time. Here’s the mini we’re going to be using today and the easy part is hitting the side of the cloth, where it gets hard is something like the scales on the inner part of the loincloth.
So most of us, even with shaky hands, can do the big edges like that.
The Secret Sauce
When there is no hard edge, shaky hands make it really hard to just hold the brush and get a good highlight. To help, first, he comes in with a slightly thinned down paint, he’s using Pro Acryl Ivory for his.
Then, instead of just trying to pull your brush straight down, he stipples the paint on. This takes more time, but it will be very fine and look far better in the end. If you can’t hold a straight line, then stippling is where it’s at.
Again, it takes longer but will get you a better product in the end. You can see the difference in the picture above, the one on the right he tried to do by just pulling down, the one on the left he stippled it.
It Works on Smaller Stuff as Well
It works on really small stuff as well. He does the same thing with the scales and just stipples it down until it looks good. Just be sure to do this with a very sharp brush. This lets him get the sharpest highlight possible without much effort (just a little more time) and eliminates the shakiness, at least for him.
You can also see how it being a little more coarse can also actually add some texture to your models.
If you liked this feature, be sure to check out his channel for more great tutorials!
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
