{"id":84816,"date":"2025-02-28T14:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigbossbattle.com\/?p=84816"},"modified":"2025-04-01T12:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T11:34:07","slug":"guide-painting-miniatures-novices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigbossbattle.com\/guide-painting-miniatures-novices\/","title":{"rendered":"The B3 Guide to Painting Miniatures – for Complete Novices"},"content":{"rendered":"
Today, we\u2019re going to write about something a little bit different to usual. We cover a lot of miniature board games here, but you may have noticed that it\u2019s been a long time since any of those games had painted models. Well, that\u2019s hopefully going to change \u2014 because I\u2019ve started painting and I\u2019d like you to go on the journey with me.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Full disclosure, I am a complete novice painter. I did pick up a brush about twenty five years ago, but back then we didn\u2019t have YouTube or any other reliable guide to work from, and it\u2019s fair to say that my efforts were nothing short of disastrous. Now, I\u2019ve got all the gear, a little bit of an idea, and I\u2019ve been watching videos like crazy.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In this article, I\u2019ll initially cover some of the basic concepts to help you get to a basic standard \u2014 more or less where I am. My hope for this article is that people come here with absolutely no idea how to paint, what to paint or perhaps even what to get started with \u2014 and I want you to leave with the confidence to dive straight in. Grey plastic miniatures can look OK in small numbers, but even a basic paint job will elevate your games to the next level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll share with you the techniques that I\u2019ve been using for applying base coats, in some cases with an additional \u201czenithal\u201d or \u201cslap chop\u201d highlight on the base coat, and then how I\u2019ve used contrast paints, speed paints and washes to get to a decent standard. None of my models look fantastic, but I want to show you them \u201cwarts and all\u201d in the hopes that you\u2019ll agree that they do at least look better than plain ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

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As my painting journey continues, I am planning to add specific \u201cLet\u2019s Paint\u201d articles to the site, with links in an index below. You can always come back here to see what I\u2019ve been painting, and if I add new skills or methods to my skill set, I\u2019ll also share them here under new sub-headings. With all that said, let\u2019s dive in and start talking about painting:<\/span><\/p>\n

Choosing the Right Equipment:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Whilst there has always been a level of artistry to choosing the right materials for your painting project, the market now is broader and more confusing than ever. Citadel Colour remains the market leader, but The Army Painter is now a recognised and leading brand. Others like Humbrol and Vallejo (who I remember from painting airplane models in the 1980\u2019s) are still around, with offerings for both solid colours and speed (or contrast) paints, washes and metallics. Brushes are now available for pennies from Amazon, but vary wildly in terms of quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Battletech<\/p>\n

Personally, I think you can start with a small box set, such as <\/span>this one<\/span><\/a> from The Army Painter in collaboration with <\/span>Battletech<\/span><\/i>. Buying a box set can save you up to 40% on the individual price of paints, so the key thing is just to find colours that will suit what you want to paint. Most sets come with a decent range of colours, and will often include a primer, multiple speed paints and then some acrylic paints and washes to finish off your models. This set includes one medium paint brush of good quality, and I augmented this with a cheap pack from Amazon that included a couple of dry brushes and then small and very small detail brushes.<\/span><\/p>\n

After this, I visited both Warhammer and a couple of friendly local game stores to grab some specific colours, as well as rattle cans with grey, white and black primer spray. A comment on this is that you just need a basic plastic primer \u2014 and generic paint (not produced by any modelling supplier) will generally be cheaper and work just as well. My primer sprays are mostly sourced from a local auto spares supplier.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Picking the Right Models<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This might seem like an obvious one, but if you\u2019re a novice painter, don\u2019t choose to start your journey with small, complicated and fiddly models that could leave you feeling frustrated because you can\u2019t get a good outcome. The first models I chose were from a game called Super Fantasy Brawl, which happens to include some very large models with quite a cartoonish style.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Larger models give the painter more margin for error, and allow use of a larger paintbrush. You\u2019ll also find that big models work better with speedpaints \u2014 which will very likely be your go-to product when you start your journey. In my specific example, because of the cartoonish features of the model, I also found that there were relatively few details that challenged me. The one exception to this is that larger models usually \u201crequire\u201d painted eyes, which is a challenge for the novice. Bright, single colours (like luminous green or red eyes for example) can help on monster or supernatural models, but for humans you\u2019ll just have to practice until you feel comfortable with the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Another good choice for your first few projects is to choose something with lowish detail that you\u2019ll see on the board in bulk. For example, I\u2019m also painting a lot of <\/span>Zombicide <\/span><\/i>miniatures, and whilst these are small, the details are quite basic and the number of models you\u2019ll see on the board is high \u2014 so mistakes can go unnoticed. Zombies are always a good option, but so too are rank and file troops that all share the same basic uniform detail \u2014 this approach is known as \u201cbatch painting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Priming and Dry Brushing<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

When you are ready to start painting, you need to prepare your models by priming them. This involves applying one or more thin layers of basic paint which adheres to the plastic and then allows further layers of paint to stick properly. The paint you prime your model in will dictate some of your future decisions and have a profound effect on the final outcome. Dark primers look good in cracks and low points (shadow) but are harder to paint over, whilst bright colours require more finesse as you apply additional layers, but result in a brighter model.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Miniature<\/p>\n

One technique to help get the best of both worlds \u2014 especially on larger models or those that you really want to stand out \u2014 is zenithal (or slap chop) highlighting. This is a two to three step process where you will start with a dark colour (like black or dark grey) all over the model, and then you\u2019ll use dry-brushing to bring lightness to the higher points of the model. With the first coat done (usually via spray can), you\u2019ll take a very dry, often thickly bristled brush and wipe most of the paint off \u2014 then you\u2019ll just very lightly catch the model on all of the raised surfaces in light grey or white.<\/span><\/p>\n

Typically, I do this in black for the base coat, then I\u2019ll use grey for the first dry brush \u2014 catching almost all large surfaces and not worrying too much about whether I catch the underside of the model (where things might be in shade), but being careful to avoid deep recesses. Then I\u2019ll repeat the process with white \u2014 this time only catching the extreme high points of the model, the face, any exposed skin and anything that might later be painted in a very light colour.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Speed and Contrast Paints\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

A relatively modern innovation, speed and contrast paints didn\u2019t exist when I first painted models as a teenager. They work differently to your standard base and layer paints and are designed to give you a \u201cone coat finish\u201d on most parts of a miniature. This doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t layer on top of them or apply highlights, but for models painted in bulk (like zombies or rank and file soldiers) you may not need to.<\/span><\/p>\n

When choosing these paints, you need to consider your colour choice very carefully. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve found a single one that actually looks like the colour on the outside of the bottle, and it might be a good idea to stick a white label on each one, and just paint a thin stripe of paint so that you can see how it will come up. That said, these paints are designed to run into the cracks of your model to create contrast \u2014 hence the name \u2014 and so you\u2019ll always find that hi<\/span>gh points of the model will be lighter in colour than low points and recesses where the paint settles.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Speed and contrast paints are superb tools for the novice painter because they allow you to get great coverage whilst also adding the effect of both shading and highlighting layers in a single coat. They work really well on textured parts of the model such as fur, and work far less well on large, flat spaces like breastplates or panels. I don\u2019t have any major preference between Army Painter or Citadel as a brand here, and I use both on my models interchangeably based on whatever colours I prefer at the time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Base Coats, Layering and Washes<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Whether you use speed paints or not, you are going to need to deal with base paints and layers at some point. Base paints are typically flat, solid colours that you use to cover a fairly large area \u2014 perhaps the first shade of darkish blue in a pair of jeans, or a dark green on a camouflage suit. Layers are the paints that you apply afterwards \u2014 often lighter and usually only to part of the area you covered in base coat \u2014 to create texture and interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Middle
Grass tufts make any model look better.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A typical approach (let\u2019s talk about those jeans again) would be to paint the area in dark blue, wait for it to dry and then paint over the highest points (like the thighs, calves and possibly the bottom) in a lighter blue \u2014 avoiding any recessed areas or the \u201cunderside\u201d of the model. You may then do a further, even lighter layer, or a very, very light touch of white with a dry brush to highlight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve got an effect that you\u2019re happy with, you will usually want to apply a wash to tie it all together. In this example, you\u2019ll now have solid dark blue jeans with lighter blue high points and a bit of highlighting. It will look OK, but may be a bit unnatural \u2014 to finalise the look, you might use a blue wash (which is a really thin, watery paint) across the whole area. This will join the colours together, but will also run into the deep recesses and off the higher points \u2014 a bit like the speed paint we already discussed. Working with layers in this way is more complex than a single coat of speed paint, but as you get better at painting, the potential for a fantastic outcome is much higher.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In addition to these articles, we\u2019re also going to start doing some specific \u201c<\/span>Let\u2019s Paint<\/span><\/i>\u201d articles, where we choose a game and paint it, then write about the experience in more detail to help you in your own efforts. These articles will be listed below:<\/span><\/p>\n