Painting My Way Part One

We left you last time at undercoating the model, so while it's drying you might want to crack open that mandatory book on historical uniforms. This is so that you can plan what paints will be at the forefront of your collection for easy reach, and so that you don't get laughed at by your historically aware friends and colleagues. Take a look at the largest color you'll have to paint on the uniform, which is usually the shirt or jacket. This is the color you should do first.

If you remember what I said last time about spray paint, it applies equally well to a coat of color. A thin coat that shows a little of the primer is better than a thick coat that shows little of the detail. Two or three thin coats over an especially large area is a good way to reduce mistakes and keep things smooth. Using acrylics is great for this because a tiny bit of water will thin down the paint nicely. If you do prefer a single coat, be very careful and neat, which is a sound overall suggestion. Remember to wash the brush after every color, or after working with one for twenty minutes or so. This is to keep the colors from contaminating each other and the acrylic from drying on the brush.

After this first coat you can leave it as the base color and proceed to the other areas of the figure. This looks flat but it's also fast. For a bit more depth, you could shade the miniature which consists of taking a very watery brushful of black or a darker version of the color and apply it neatly to the area. (If you want to just use black as your shading color, you might just want to wait until you've got all the base colors down.) You want it to be a little less flowing than water so that it only settles in the low areas, and if you use inks for shading be aware that it sometimes leaves a stained look on the entire area it was applied on.

You can skip to adding detail from here like Mr. Editor, or you can try being brave and highlight the figure. Find or mix a color lighter than the base and get it on your brush. Take a used cloth, napkin, or whatever and wipe off most of the paint. Then draw the brush lightly across the surface. If you do it right, it should lighten the raised areas on the figure and the lighter color shouldn't look out of place. This procedure takes practice and some color judging skills to get right, but a good shading effect goes a long way in making a figure look good.

Also important in making a figure or regiment of figures look good, is detail, most often the all important gold buttons and tassels. If you primed the figure black, which is what you want to do with most figures, painting uniform details usually entails painting the area of detail white (black for metal) and then painting over that with a light color. Of course, this isn't always the case, but red and yellow paint has an annoying tendency to be weak over dark colors, and white occasionally needs to have a few thin coats to look pristine. As this is usually the last step of the actual painting, be extremely neat with this step. It's not much fun trying to remix and reapply the right color.

One detail that is often left out is the eye. Many generals feel that their army is too large to paint on the eyes, but it is an easy procedure. First, paint the eye socket black, then white with just a black outline left, and finally a black point in the middle of the white. Make sure this last point at least touches the top and bottom of the black outline, or it will look like the trooper is staring. The final finishing touch before using the varnish is flocking the base. Flock should be easy to find at a railroad or hobby store, but if you can't find any or your troops are involved in desert warfare, use some sand. If your game system of choice doesn't include any necessary base sizes, gluing the figure to a penny or small washer will do nicely. After the glue is dry, water down some white glue (the consistency is largely personal preference) and apply it with a cheap brush to the base, being careful not to get any on the figure.

Now dip the figure's base into the container of flock for a moment, and then shake the miniature a little to get rid of any loose flock. Sometimes fine flock might leave patches of bare material behind, especially if the glue was very thinned down, so check the base and repair any bald areas.

Lastly, to keep from having the figure's paint job ruined after a couple of games, a coat or three of varnish is in order. Any kind of varnish spray designed for paint will do, so you have a choice of three kinds; gloss, semi-gloss, and matte. As the name implies, gloss varnish will make the miniature shiny, but is the most durable type. Matte is relatively shine free and is the least protective, while semi-gloss is a good mix of both. The choice is up to personal taste, but with matte varnishes, apply at least two coats. Again, you want to apply the coats judiciously as they will obscure detail as badly as paint will if put on too thickly.

That is about it, as far as advice goes. Details on how to achieve desired results must be handled individually as each person's style varies wildly, even when everyone gets the same instructions. Experimentation is the key to becoming a better figure painter, so don't be surprised if your first miniatures look a bit under par. And if all else fails, keep it neat and simple.