Painting: Breaking Into The Hobby, Part 2
6 Minute Read
Nov 21 2010
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Hey folks, iPaint here with the second installment for my Painting: Breaking Into The Hobby guide. If you happen to be a late comer, you can find the first part of the guide here where I go over the necessary components for your work area. For this part of the guide, we will discuss all things related to paint, such as brushes, paints, washes, cleaning supplies, and a few other handy things. Let’s get stuck in, shall we?
Materials: What Do I Need To Start Painting My Miniatures?
This part of the guide will be entirely up to the individual painter, and I will offer my advice and preferences when necessary, but for all intents and purposes, please do not feel that this is the end-all, be-all of painting guides. There are dozens of paint manufacturers, brush manufacturers, wash manufacturers…the list goes on. I will simply say that I have chosen to include what I believe are the major players in the industry in terms of product availability, quality, and cost. There may be several companies I leave out, but that should not stop you from testing their products. Who knows, maybe there’s a little company out there with an excellent product that many of us have never heard about, but you have. Let us know!
Brushes
There are several companies that produce excellent quality paint brushes. The first few companies I can think of that market their products directly to wargamers are Army Painter, P3, and Reaper. From what I have heard, all three companies produce quality brushes at affordable costs. All three companies have a wide range of sizes and shapes, ranging from drybrushes to flat brushes to detail brushes. If you have a local gaming store that carries any of these ranges, I’d recommend asking around and gathering people’s opinions about them. Personally, I have not tried any of these companies’ brushes yet, but I have heard they’re quality product.
I have been buying my brushes from local art supplies stores around town. The variety and selection at these stores is unbelievable, and often times I’ll come out with brushes I never thought I’d need until I saw them and said, “Hey, that would be great for X mini.”
Once you’ve selected where you will be purchasing your brushes, you will want to know what sizes you will need. Now, I’d go ahead and tell you to try and get a wide variety of sizes, shapes, bristle types, and length, but for the budding painter, there are really only about four brushes you will use consistently as you start painting. They are:
– Fine detail, typically a 0 or 2/0 brush. This will be the brush you use to pick out small details on miniatures, such as buttons, eyes, stitching, etc.
– Detail/highlight, typically a 2. This brush will allow for easy highlights and basecoating smaller parts of miniatures, as well as providing a larger detail brush when needed.
– Basecoat brush, typically a 4. This brush will be your workhorse whenever you basecoat large portions of a model. It will also work as a drybrush when it begins to show signs of wear and tear.
– Drybrush, typically a flat or filbert brush of size 10 or 12. When you need large parts of a model drybrushed, this will be your go-to brush.
As you paint more, you will start adding brushes to your collection, and eventually you will have a brush for almost every occasion. But, we need to keep those brushes clean. The best brush cleaner I’ve found is called The Master’s Brush Cleaner and Preserver. It comes in a tan, squat cylindrical container and lasts forever if used properly. All you do is wet your rinsed-off brush after a paint session, wipe it a few times across the surface of the cleaner, and then wipe it gently on some clean tissue paper until your brush returns to a fine point. This is the best way to ensure your brushes remain in tip-top shape.
Paints
Where to begin, where to begin. The world of paints is massive, and there are several mediums a painter may choose to paint his miniatures. However, the most common form of paint when painting tabletop miniatures is acrylic, for several reasons. Acrylic is water-based, and water is an easy source to come by – you use it to clean your brushes to begin with. Acrylic is quite manipulative, and when thinned properly does not cover up details on miniatures. Acrylic paint is also the most readily available paint when you are first introduced into the wargamming hobby, being produced by Games Workshop, Privateer Press, Reaper, and Vallejo. These companies market their paints directly to the miniature wargamer, and for the most part they are quality paints.
I say that lightly, because I (and I’m sure you, too) have heard varying opinions on which paint is better. My opinion is thus: when you find a specific color of paint that works, use it. Never mind who makes it, or whether it’s the “in” paint to be using. My personal belief is that Vallejo and GW’s paints are about 50:50 hit or miss in terms of consistency and coverage. Some of their colors rock, while others are unbelievably fiddly. I have not tried P3 or Reaper yet, but I have heard good things about them. As I understand it, they are geared more towards the professional painters, as their paints are thinned more so than the Vallejo and Citadel ranges. GW’s Foundation paints, however, are ace, and are highly recommended when you are first starting out.
I am a firm believer that the hobby would not be where it is today without Humbrol, Revell, and Tamiya, but these paints are more suited towards the scale modelers, and less towards the hobby-minded wargamer. That’s not to say there isn’t some crossover, but for the most part, I would stick to the aforementioned acrylic paints suppliers.
I am also a big proponent of the craft paints found at your local hobby and arts & crafts stores. Plaid’s Apple Barrel Colors and Folk Art ranges, as well as Delta Ceramcoat, are all excellent acrylic paints, and you can often find them cheap and in a wide variety of colors.
So, a brief rundown of your paints: Choose an acrylic paint when at all possible, and choose the company that makes the best paint for the color you are going for.
Washes
As far as washes go, I will be brief and mention only a few companies that are making ready-to-use washes that work quite well. Games Workshop’s washes are excellent, but are limited in color choice. Vallejo also makes a nice range of washes, but again, the range of colors are limited. Awesome Paint Job and Army Painter both supply ready-to-use washes, or dips, that work quite well. For the more adventurous painters, there are a few methods you can find on the internet for mixing your own custom color inks and washes using matte medium and acrylic inks.
Palettes
When painting, it will be necessary to mix a few colors to produce a new one, or thin your paints to a certain consistency. Art supply stores carry several mixing palettes that work great for mixing paint. Also, there is the wet palette, which is a whole different beast, and something I have not yet tried (maybe another article down the road?). For the thrifty painter, bottle caps or plastic can lids make excellent mixing palettes that are cheap and easy to acquire.
Drying Cloth
Lastly, you will need some form of absorbent material to dry your brushes with. This can be as elaborate as a chamois or lint-free cloth, or as easy as a piece of tissue paper or paper towel. Pretty self-explanatory, but necessary nonetheless.
And with that, you’re now ready to start painting. So get those materials situated in a manner that’s easy to organize and comfortable for you to use, bust out your minis, and get painting!
~ Let me know if this guide has helped you by leaving a comment below. Thanks for looking, and happy painting everyone!
Author: Guest Columnist
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