Teaching Miniature Painting Technique

Tom has two youngsters keen on painting their Warhammer figures, and he will be doing his army as well. So I thought I would give him some insights on how to paint, and then some strong suggestions on using the simplest techniques in order to get the most figures done with the least time.

I came loaded with brushes and figures, as Tom advised me that he had paint. I brought my fave colour, Rackham Bone, and tom had a little mix of GW Foundation Blue & Grey, Scortched Brown, Regal Blue, and Ice Blue.

The first lesson were the very basics. Keep the paint on the bottom third of the brush. Keep your paints water thinned. Have a rubbish transfer and mix brush to your pallet. Have a tissue box/ Kitchen paper roll around for cleaning and wiping. Clean water, mix water and bin in easy reach.  Clean your brushes well between each colour change. No warm water as it melts the wax in the ferrule. Shape your tip. Have an upside down brush in your wash water to 'rub' your bristles clean.

Then we got into the painting. How to load a colour and use one or two brush loads of water to thin it. How to mix a darker colour and then work towards lightness for highlighting.

I showed Tom how to drybrush, and how opacity affects highlighting.

The Regal blue did not want to apply nicely, so after a correction I showed Tom how to turn it into a wash.

At the end of the two hour session, Tom had the basics down pat, and using only the colours he had I showed him how to make and effective batch process to paint the Lizardmen and the Skinks.

Once he has these done, we will get him going on his Skaven, and then once the skills have developed, it might be time to get the High Elves painted.

Painting progress

Friday night fight was skipped this week as A. & I were seeing "Deep Blue Orchestra".

I have not been slack, far from it - I have had the painting urge strike. 30 Gretchin, 8 Orks and 16 Sarus Lizardmen have gone from plastic to waiting for basing. I was doing a couple of hours at the end of the night, perched in my usual spot behind the Teev while the others watch their programs, L. watching ABC3 until 8.30, and then more adult stuff once L. was in bed.

I was amused by the timing of the BOLS article on Army Painter quickshade, as I was prepping my Saurus for just that treatment when I read the article. If you like painting armies fast, it's a great article. My only alteration to that article - I always paint the dip on - less mess, less wastage.

My current project: Mixed Editions Lizardmen

In many GW army releases, their is the popular army, and the unpopular army. If you feel like collecting the unpopular army, you can get 'half sets' or 'double half sets' at a steep discount.

Warhammer a few editions ago released Brettonians and Lizardmen as the base armies. Well, knights in shining armour are popular, lizards less so. The pull of Liazrdmen is usually thos who love dinosaurs - there were no dinosaurs in the basic box. What were they thinking?

The net result was that people would buy the (then) $100 starter box, and would look for someone to grab the unwanted Lizards, usually for around $20. This neatly suited my "No more than $1 per model" philosophy, scoring 40 figures for that $20. I did this twice, and later supplemented this with an ebay '100 skinks for $20'
 bid, and a 10 Lizards for $5.

I later supplemented this with helping Agro win a Cancon bid buy chipping in for some fantasy components, scoring a much later edition Warhammer core troops box of Lizardmen for about $20.

Net result: 70 Sauraus Warriors and 120 skinks for $65

What has that got to do with Today? Well with the recent Warhammer Fantasy push that has happened recently, L want to play Lizardmen, so I am neatening up and completing all the old projects related to that army. The core box is being completed, with four full commands. Also many of the skinks (which in the old edition were all archers) are being converted into javileneers with shield, using paperclip javelins.

I have also made a few green stuff 'jungle swarms' and I many attempt to sculpt a few more of those before the green stuff I acquired recently ages poorly.

Net result - The basics of a Lizardmen army, $65 and some quite enjoyable hobby fidddle time.

The other cost: Carting it around a dozen sharehouses :)

The basics of painting

Jez's Black Orcs were assembled and undercoated, but showed no likelihood of getting any further. So we did a little pushing, and strongly suggested a painting session. Once underway, everyone else joined in. Jez didn't want his black orcs to be the first ones on the trial. So we did the basics first few passes on a tactical squad to show the very basic techniques.

The lessons were basics like brush care, brush loading, and keeping only the bottom third of the tip in contact with paint. The figures were already assembled and undercoated black. So first stop was drybrushing the figure bone, with Jez and I doing the squad. By this point Lach and Adelle were keen as well, so I started dishing out the jobs. Lachy was doing the green painting and brown inking on the bases, Adelle was doing the metallics (guns and swords) while Jez and I were on base coating things red. We got through the squad quickly, and then I did the details. It only took a little over an hour, and everyone had a job that suited their interest levels and skills.