Tools

Currently, I use acrylics, a mix of Liquitex and Maimeri. I purchased the Maimeri acrylics for landscape painting but tend to use them for miniatures now especially since I discovered the joys of using yellow ochre. When I purchase new tubes, I tend to fall back on Liquitex because they are easier to find. I use water or inexpensive vodka as a thinner. Vodka is best because it does not cause the paint to bead up the way that water does. The only thing to keep in mind is that vodka dries up quickly so when not in use, the jar or cup of vodka should be covered.

I still use enamels as well, Testor black and Testor white spray cans for priming and Testor silver, flat black, gold, and brass for metallic parts on figures. I find that metallic colors tend to jump out especially when the figures are primed black. Thinners are toxic but necessary as any paint acrylic or enamel left in a brush will destroy it.

Just a note that I do not paint soft plastic figures. Soft plastic figures are not as durable as metal and the paint schemes are even less durable. The figures are very inexpensive, though, and demand to be used. When I do use them, I prefer figures made of colored plastic suitable for the army in question. Italeri’s silver plastic and HAT’s light tan and gray are not really my taste unless I can find two sides that can be distinguished by those colors. Metal figures scuff and wear but the paint job more usually stays in place even with years of abuse. I am currently seeing how well hard plastic figures like those manufactured by Wargames Factory and Perry Miniatures hold up.

Not surprisingly, brushes for miniatures need to be small. Brushes are classified in various ways, most commonly by the shape of the brush (I go with rounds), paint type (I use watercolor brushes which have a shorter handle), bristle type (synthetic for me because it is cheap and durable, manufacturer (I use a lot but tend to gravitate towards Robert Simmons and Winsor & Newton), and size. Size is listed by number from huge brushes like no. 24 down to small like no. 0. Brushes smaller than no. 0 have more zeros the smaller they are. My smallest brushes are no. 00000. These are good for very fine details. Larger brushes like nos. 1 and 2 work well covering larger areas. Usually, I start applying paint with the largest brush that seems reasonable and work my way down to the smaller brushes for details. Smallest are usually employed for faces and various straps, belts, buttons, and buckles.

I used to buy brushes in local stores. This worked well when I lived in a moderately large city. In my current location, the few stores that sell brushes offer a much more limited selection with very few brushes smaller than no. 00. Many brands that I would like to try are not available at all while the brushes on the shelf sometimes show signs of mistreatment. Because of this, I have more and more used Internet suppliers as a source for brushes. It is the one instance where I seldom buy things locally anymore. The supplier I have turned to most is Dick Blick. While I have had problems with some orders, the brushes invariably arrive in pristine state. Their wide selection guarantees that I am able to find the brush I want.

Both enamels and acrylics, the two most common paint types used for miniatures are very fast drying. Brushes must be cleaned often and thoroughly during a painting session in whatever thinner is recommended for the paint in use to avoid having paint dry on the bristles of the brush and ruin it. It is especially important to keep paint away from the brush ferrule, the metal band that holds the bristles in place. Paint in this area is particularly hard to get out. The best way to avoid this is to only dip the tip of the brush in the paint. Also avoid letting the brush rest in in a jar or cup of thinner as the pressure on the bristles will cause them to bend and again ruin the brush. I usually store all the brushes in a cup with the bristles at the top.

One tool that should be mentioned which so far I have used only on vehicles is the paint pen made my Tamiya for use with plastic model robot kits. In Asia, anime models are big business and there are stores devoted to little else than the sale of plastic robots. The pens come in a variety of colors and are a nice simple approach to add shading to long thin seams on vehicles. I have used gray and black. The gray is nicer in that it is less emphatic but at this stage, I practice with both.

A note on spray paint quality: the only spray paint I have found that gives consistent results on a variety of surfaces is Testor. Maybe I am prejudiced. Krylon offers great colors and some interesting ranges but I am never quite sure whether or not the paint will dry to a glossy or flat finish even though I only purchase flat finish paints. Ever helpful under such circumstances is Testor Dullcote which seems to have improved over the years and seems able to take the gloss off most paint.

Acrylic paints are fragile. A quick glance at some of the old and not so old figures on this site will show some damage to the paint job. Even the gentlest handling can rub off paint as fragile as acrylic. Enamels are much more durable but even enamels can wear away. Because of this, I usually use some spray-on matte varnish for acrylics. I have heard that it will dull colors but I would prefer to dull the color than lose the entire paint job. There are a variety of these varnishes available and their use (as well as the use of any of the other sprays or any carbon based thinner other than vodka) mandates the use of a respirator. I recall breathing in an overdose of paint thinner as a kid. It is a good thing to avoid.

Finally, I mix everything on paper palette pads. Clean up is as easy as tearing off the top sheet of the pad. These come in various types, some waxy like the Dick Blick pads, some not so much. I prefer enough resistance to prevent the paints from bleeding into the paper but not so slippery that it impacts mixing. Keep in mind, acrylics dry very quickly so it is important not to use too much at a time. I keep a toothpick and Q-Tip on hand for mixing things and two large pliers for opening recalcitrant tubes and jars.

Figures are usually painted in bulk. The number I paint at any one time could range from one to several dozen or even as few as 1 or 2. The models are prepared by first removing mold lines by scraping with an Xacto knife or filing with a jeweler’s file. After the mold lines are removed, I spray the figures with enamel paint either white or black though I have seen gray used as well. White makes colors look very bright while black lends more depth and brings out metallic colors better. Once the enamel dries, painting begins.

A favorite passage of mine from the AB Figures site:

Shading and Highlighting

Shading and highlighting on miniature figures involves the use of paint to reproduce the shadowing produced by a light source shining on a figure. Light like other things such as water and fire does not look the same on a miniature as it does on a full size figure. The shadows are not as strong and this gives the broad areas of color on a miniature a washed out appearance. Shading involves using darker tones of paint to reproduce the shadows that would appear on the full size figure, highlighting the lighter tones.

Shading and highlighting are a matter of taste. Many painters do not bother with it and prefer to have nothing to do with it while others make considerable use of it. From my own point of view, the larger the figure, the less ought to be used. But since I do not paint very large figures, I always employ it. The Dallimore book as well as most of the Games Workshop books suggest shading and highlighting. Of course in the end it is a question of however you prefer the figures to look.

The use of shadows and highlights is a subject that always annoyed my father. Curiously, he introduced me to the idea when I was a plucky little kid, I purchased one of the original Aurora Frankensten model kits and my father painted it. I asked him why he had painted streaks of blue on the arms of the figure and he explained these were shadows in the folds of the fabric. Nevertheless, he disliked shading on miniature figures. When I painted a series of semi-round figures with no shading, he praised the work while some friends of his who thought of themselves as skilled painters suggested I had made a considerable mistake. I would say that I do not feel that shading and highlighting enhance figures that are clearly toy-like. But when you paint figures, you are the boss so you decide.

The way in which shading is usually approached is to use a darker or deeper version of a color for recessed areas and for highlighting, a lighter version of the color on raised areas or areas naturally exposed to an overhead sun. A frequent approach is to use wash and dry brush. A wash is a diluted mix of paint. When it is applied to a figure, the pigment settles into recesses of the miniature. This works best on a white primed surface. Dry brushing involves using a brush with only a small undiluted amount of paint and lightly brushing it across the surface of the figure so the only the raised portions of the miniature pick up any paint. Using these two techniques or at least recognizing the impact of thinning a paint or not helps considerably in getting reasonable finishes.

A word of warning: the detail on these miniatures is often very fine. Applying a good thick coat of paint will eliminate that detail in a stroke. One of the beauties of washes and highlights is that you will in the case of a wash be applying paint in a thin enough coat to avoid this while highlights are applied only on raised surfaces.