Airbrushing may be on the rise, but most hobbyists still use a paint brush exclusively. Check out these Top 3 tips for painting your miniatures by hand.
Airbrushes are able to pull off some crazy effects on minis and they definitely have their place. But at the end of the day, painting with a manual brush is still more popular hobby-wide. It’s much easier for a beginning hobbyist to drop $20 on some paint and a couple of brushes vs. $200+ on a compressor and airbrush. Check out some of these important tips that we recommend to anyone painting by hand.
Obviously, with the release of Citadel Contrast Color paints, paint brushing will change up a bit for the Warhammer hobby. Those techniques and styles are in a slew of other posts on the site.
#1 Decent Primer & Just the Right Amount
While this doesn’t necessarily have to do with painting with a manual brush, the most important part of painting your mini is choosing your primer. You don’t want to go with the cheap $3 can that you can grab at a place like Dollar General. But that also doesn’t mean you have to go with Citadel’s $17+ cans. While they are great, The Army Painter also has tons of colors to choose from.
Now that you’ve gotten your can of primer that’s designed for minis and everything else hobby related, make sure that you don’t try to prime your model outside while it’s too hot, too cold, or rainy. The small paint particles can really get messed up mid-air while they’re on the way to your mini.
Too hot and the paint will dry before it even hits your model creating a rough-bubbly effect. If it’s too damp outside, your paint could glob up and dry on your model incorrectly, making your mini lose detail in the process. Also, make sure that you keep your primer can back about 8-12″. You don’t want to spray the model at point-blank range but you also want the paint to make it to the mini.
#2 Watch Your Washes
Once you prime your model and get the color you want (which should be put on in thin coats), you’ll want to put on a wash. Washes fill the cracks and really bring out the details of the mini by a shading effect. With that said, you can’t just throw on a wash and let it dry. You have to take care of the model and watch it carefully as it dries.
Sometimes you’ll see the wash begin to settle in an area on your model that you don’t want it to. All you have to do to fix this is take a clean brush and move the paint around before it begins to dry. These washes can sometimes take 5-10 minutes to dry so you’ve got plenty of time to fix your mistakes. Just make sure that you check the low points of your model periodically as well. Because the wash is so thin and watery, gravity will naturally pull it down towards the lowest point of the model. If you aren’t careful, the wash could dry too thick in an area giving you an off-color from what you originally wanted. (it sounds like a lot of detail and work involved but it’s really not that bad).
#3 Grin & Bear The Edge Highlighting
Finally, we’ll be looking at one of the most neglected parts of miniature painting. This is the edge highlighting phase. Once you’ve got your model primed and shaded just the way you want, you’ll want to highlight the raised edges to really contrast from the shaded points. This is probably the most time-consuming phase that most painters get frustrated with and only do halfway.
To edge highlight, you’ll want to take a detail brush and use a paint that’s a bit brighter than the rest of the model but still has roughly the same color. Come in from a steep angle and get a very small amount of paint on the edge. You aren’t trying to glob the paint on here. We’re talking barely even touching the model. Looking at the Stormcast’s hammer, you can see the light blue highlight on all of the corners/raised edges. (Notice how thin the paint lines are). If you do this all over the model, you’ll be set back a few hours, however, each piece you do will look so much better when compared to the minis that don’t have that effect. It takes a bit of practice but will definitely serve you well in the future.
A Word on Contrast Paints
You might have heard about GW’s contrast paints and at the end of the day, it looks like they’re just a thick wash. You’ll want to put on a brighter neutral primer so that the color of the wash really stands out. In the mini painting world, there are a few colors that are notoriously hard to paint by hand where contrast paints may really shine. Those being:
- Pinks
- Yellows
- Whites
Normally, you’d have to apply thin coat after thin coat to get the color of the mini right while still keeping all of the detail of the mini relevant. The Contrast paints will be a huge help at capturing brighter colors quickly. However, we still think they won’t replace the traditional methods of painting like bases, layers, etc.
While we haven’t covered the whole gamut of painting with a manual brush, these are definitely some important phases that you should always practice. What’s your process of painting by hand? Do you put your wash on first? Or is it one of your final steps? How long does edge highlighting take you? 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.
