Washes Are A Crutch: An Alternative Way How to Shade Miniatures

By Travis Pasch | February 6th, 2024 | Categories: How To Tutorial, painting miniatures, Tabletop Gaming News & Rumors, Videos

Goobertown Hobbies has a different way to shade miniatures other than just throwing a wash on them in this painting tutorial!

Goobertown Hobbies is a great content creator with interesting takes on the hobby. Whether it’s a collaboration with other YouTubers or a challenge for himself, he covers a broad range of topics. In this tutorial by Goobertown Hobbies, Brent shows an alternative way to shade miniatures. Instead of using washes, he suggests painting all the layers to show depth, which gives a cleaner and brighter model. He also gives tips on picking colors, where to shade, and how to highlight.

An Alternative Way How to Shade Miniatures: Goobertown Hobbies Tutorial

In this video, Brent shows how you can get better-looking miniatures by not using washes and actually painting all the layers to show depth.

Many people shade all of their models with things like Strong Tone and Nuln Oil, but this might actually be holding back your painting skill! So, he will start painting in the shades, which gives much more depth to the miniatures. To show the difference between the two styles, he printed out identical minis and painted them with a mid-tone. This all might seem daunting at first, but it’s actually really easy!

Picking Your Colors

Luckily, this part is pretty easy with most paint companies as most have triads built into their painting system. Such as the Reaper paints above, where you get ascending numbers.

For companies like Monument, which might not have exact triads, it’s still pretty easy due to the naming of the paints. You then start with the mid-tone as your base color; the darker color will be your shade, and the lighter color will be your highlight. You also don’t have to pick a triad; you can just pick three colors that are similar and you like.

Where to Shade

Shadows go where the sun doesn’t shine as much. So, pick a light source (generally, it is easy to pick light from directly above). This can seem daunting overall, but if you break it down shape by shape, it’s easy to decide where shadows would be. Anything below or angled down generally gets shaded, and above gets highlighted.

Then, for muscles, you generally want to shade the bottom of each muscle. Just remember, pick by individual pieces so it will be easier to break down. For faces, it can be tricky but try to imagine where the shade would be. Cloaks are easy, as you can pretty much shade anywhere there is a fold.

Keep in mind you don’t have to go with all the paints from one company. For the singer, he’s using Two Thin Coats, Army Painter, and Monument Hobbies. As long as you like how the colors match, just go with it! This method will take a little more time, but it will look better!

Don’t Sweat Too Much Over Every Line

When you look at a model, you see the general shape of the character and not where every single line is. So, don’t worry too much about everything being perfect. There are, fortunately, more right ways to do this than wrong.

How to Shade Miniatures- Panel Lining

If you have an area where you want something to be very dark, it’s easy to just throw black in it, just like the small armor creases and lines of the mini above.

Comparing the Methods

The paint method adds more contrast to the mini and gives a great look! However, washes still have their place, such as fur and bone. They do make things look dirtier, which can be great if you want to do that. One thing the painting method saves you time on is repainting mid-tones. Washes make everything darker, and then you have to come back and repaint parts of the mid-tone and then paint the highlights. With this method, you get a cleaner and brighter model. Plus, you don’t have to repaint your mid-tone. This gives you more control overall and is a great way to paint!

Lastly, you need to highlight, and if you can shade, you can highlight. Basically, do the opposite of the shading, where you highlight the highest points. You could work up more layers, but Brent did this model with just three tones, and it has a lot of contrast and looks good.

While washes still have their place, this method adds more contrast to the mini and gives a great look. If you’re interested in this method, be sure to check out the full video and subscribe to Goobertown Hobbies for more content.