If you’re wanting to know how to get crisp armor plates without paint strokes and wash marks, check out these golden tips.
You might be a hobbyist that either A: doesn’t have access to an airbrush or B: you feel like you aren’t quite ready for one just yet. Either way, your army’s model line probably has units with armor plates and tanks that can be a headache to paint. Check out these tips to help you get some nice even coats in the color that you want. All by hand brush!
1. Pick a Primer close to the color of your Chapter/Faction
You might be tempted to paint a tank or two for your 40k army or even get your Titanicus models up to speed. But the risk of brush strokes is almost a certainty if you try to paint the model with a traditional brush. Thick paint and brush strokes are a flat surface’s worst nightmare.
However, the trick to getting nice even paint layers on a tank is to pick a primer that’s close to what your Chapter’s color is. For example, I used Mephiston Red for this Titan’s red armor plates and Corax White for the Titan’s brown armor plates. Which brings me to step 2.
2. Dry Brush Layers of the Color You Want
Directly over the primed armor plates, go straight to dry brushing. Pick the true color you want your model to be. For my Warlord, I primed it Mephiston red and then dry brushed it Khorne red. Remember, just try to choose a primer color similar to what you’re going for. Since you’ll be dry brushing everything, it should take multiple layers. Just take your time at this part. The reason you drybrush is to prevent any kind of visible paint strokes you would get from coating on watered-down base paints.
3. Pin Wash. DO NOT COAT THE ENTIRE MODEL
Washing over the entire model you just dry brushed is asking for horrific brush strokes to set in. Washes never want to behave on flat armor plates and will dry in a way you really don’t want it to. The next step is to pin wash around the edges of the armor.
The way you pin wash is to take a fine-tipped brush and dip it in whatever wash color you want. Then, lightly trace the entire outside surface of the model. You can see what I’m talking about in my Warhound above. This takes patience. You might need to do multiple layers/sessions of this but it’ll give you a crisp outcome.
4. Keep Practicing
The whole process takes some time and practice, but so does everything else in the hobby. This is the best method to use when it comes to painting armor plates and preventing obvious brush strokes. To review:
- Pick a primer close to the color you want
- Dry brush multiple layers of the actual color you want
- pin wash the outside edges of the plates
- profit
If you follow these steps, you’ll prevent your models from having those awkward brush lines and out-of-place wash smudging. However, if you think it’s time to take your hobby a step further and get an actual paintbrush set, we recommend some of these!
Have you tried painting your minis like this before? Have you developed your own personal method? Do you prefer to paint everything of yours by manual brush? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
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.
