Discover our how-to tutorial guides for everything from painting and modeling to storing miniatures for games like Warhammer and more!
Parker from D-Minus One here, A friend of mine at the store was looking to get some models painted up for an upcoming battle report that he’s doing for his own gaming club’s publication. He wanted to continue to use the SS Panzergrenadier list out of “Nuts” that was so successful for him in the tourney, […]
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Crazy Dave from No Turtles Allowed here. With the release of the 6th Edition Chaos Codex, I have been jazzed up to redo my World Eaters army.I first became a convert to Chaos back in 3rd edition. This was back with the original Chaos Codex release in 3rd. Before any Chapter Approved articles or any […]
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Hey guys, Rage of Khorne here from The Order of Chaos gaming club, looking to walk you through one of my first Sons of Horus models for my upcoming pre-heresy campaign (more on that in future articles). The tools I used were fairly simple and included: -Files -Plastic Glue -Super Glue -Green Putty -Assorted Bitz […]
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Games Workshop has released a cool new Codex and tons of great new models for the Dark Angels both in multi-part sets and in the Dark Vengeance Warhammer 40,000 starter set.This article will focus on decorating ideas for the generic Space Marine models that are also used in Dark Angels armies to give them the […]
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This article features a technique that turns ordinary looking plastic bases into simulated weathered brick. The actual hobby work shown in this article was done by a friend of mine named, Dave. I think it looks terrific and I hope you will as well.I noticed him working on this a few weeks ago while painting […]
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I haven’t seen a revolution in miniatures painting like this since the early 2000’s when Vallejo came along an made us all realize that there were better paints out there than just Citadel. Heck, for me, this even blows away the introduction of washes by GW in early 2007 (Well mostly because I was already making my […]
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Hello all! My name is Thomas, and today I am going to talk about taking a conversion idea and making it a reality. Many people have come to me about how I constantly make such cool looking models. I always tell them, its starts with an idea. Sometimes it takes a while to get that […]
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Greetings fellow wargamers! In so far as I know, I am the only person on ebay selling parasites of mortrex right now. Problem is without any competition on the market, buyers don’t have anything to choose from. Competition breeds demand. So what did I do? I had to figure out a way to compete with […]
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Proper basing Flames of War miniatures is one of the most important steps toward getting your army to look good on the tabletop. There are many talented, award-winning painters out there whose bases are superb, but I have come to a series of techniques that gets good-looking results in a very short time.After you have […]
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In the wake of my recent posts about my Heldrake here on Spikey Bits and on a popular Warhammer forum I’ve been asked if I have a tutorial for painting nebulae like I did on some of my recent Chaos Space Marine projects.Pictures like the one at below and at this NASA link have inspired […]
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Hi everyone. For my first post on Spikey Bits, I’d just like to give some background. First, I am not a top-level painter by any means, especially compared to the great artistry we see on this site every day.That said, I enjoy painting to the highest level I can, given the constraints of my time […]
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Hey it’s Moron, writing again. Here to solve a big problem with simple fix, the wobbly flier… I’ve gotten the Caestus Assault Ram from Forgeworld, awesome model, and fun rules, but this thing is a hefty chunk of resin. The flying stand can barely hold it up, and it is so wobbly, I get scared every time […]
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Maggy M here with the follow-up to my first photographing miniatures article a few weeks ago.Now that we’ve discussed the primary piece of equipment that will be the key to great miniature photography, the camera, there are a few more items of importance as well. Tripod There are a lot of different types available but a mini, or flexible […]
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Hello everyone, my name is Jack, and I’ve been an alcoholic- Er I mean hobbyist, for the better part of eleven or twelve years now. I’m not even sure anymore.Like you, I’ve got a serious problem with plastic toy soldiers. I need more of them. Especially because I’m a chaos player and they’re suddenly 13 […]
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What’s big and mean and green all over? No, this is not a snappy pun, it’s our custom converted Gargantuan Squiggoth of course!!!!We’ve done our fair share of squiggoths over the years, including this insane Rock Band squiggoth for a most appreciative client. Regardless of which we learned one thing . . . people love squiggoths! Squiggoths are always […]
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Hey there, I’m a new writer so I figured I’d introduce myself first. I go by the name Moron, you might have seen me around on some other websites and forums.I have been playing tabletop games on and off for 8 years and I love this hobby. I like everything about it, the painting, modeling, […]
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Welcome to a new segment here on Spikey Bits called Back to Basics, and is authored by international Golden Demon competitor Volomir!Maybe some of his Golden Demon talent will rub off on all of us though his articles!Anyways lets give him a warm Spikey Bits welcome! -MBG Hello Spikey Bits! Let me introduce myself. My name is Rafael Garcia, a.k.a. […]
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Caleb from White Metal Games put this conversion guide together for all those Warmasters out there suffering from a lack of equipment courtesy of Games Workshop.A few weeks ago we sold our first commissioned 40k army. It was a 1500 point list and it was a blind bid. By blind bid I mean we boasted we could do any […]
Read MorePainting Warhammer miniatures is all part of the fun of the hobby! However, sometimes getting paint on those gray models can sometimes be a bit of a hurdle. So, here’s how to paint Warhammer miniatures, the tutorials you need, and plenty of inspiration. Plus, playing with painted armies just makes the game so much better, and if you’re going to a tournament, everything must be painted.
Whether you’re painting your thousandth mini and are just looking for some new tips or are painting your first Warhammer miniature, you can always keep learning. That’s one of the coolest parts of the hobby that you can see your progress in a very visual way, and playing games with fully painted armies is hugely appealing.
Over the years, there have also been huge improvements in the techniques, paints, and products. Most notably, airbrushing Warhammer miniatures have started to take over the painting scene, and it has a pretty steep learning curve. Still, when you start to understand it, airbrushing makes painting much faster and better.
Acrylic paints are the most commonly used for painting Warhammer miniatures, 3D printed miniatures, historical figures, and any RPG models. However, there are a ton of companies out there that make paint specifically for miniatures. Here are some of the best and why to pick what.
If you want to see all the paints tested against one another, check out a full comparison here.
If you’re playing Warhammer 40k, the Necrons take the top spot as the easiest to paint as they are just mainly metal and can be drybrushed silver for the majority of the paint job. For AoS, Stormcast Eternals are the easiest, as they are almost all armor, meaning no faces (generally), and the paint schemes are very simple.
The easiest way is to start putting paint on models. However, this is where test models come in. The best thing to do is buy some models you don’t care about too much, then you can test your paint schemes, what paints you like, etc… on those and not worry about how they come out.
We recommend finding a tutorial with the exact paint scheme you want for your models and trying to replicate exactly what you see. Eventually, you will be able to branch out but try to just copy what you see until you have the techniques down.
The first thing you want is good lighting! We recommend getting some lamps that can give you good light and get two of them so they don’t cast shadows on your models. After that, it’s best to decide on your paint scheme before you put any paint on the mini.
You decide the primary colors you want everything to be, making it easier to just fill them in. Then, the next thing you need to do is prime the miniature, there are a few ways to go about it, but you can paint on the primer, but using a spray can is generally the easiest way.
Then you can get into the painting; you want to start with your basecoat (the darker and primary colors of your paint scheme). Once you have the main colors blocked in, you can either use a wash paint or start highlighting. If you want to learn how to paint your first Warhammer miniature, check out an easy-to-follow tutorial here.
It’s not really hard, as painting is part of the hobby, and even if your miniatures don’t win any painting competitions, it’s all about putting paint on those gray models! With the insane number of tutorials out there, you can learn quite quickly how to get better and get those models on the table!
