My supa' Painting Technique....

I won't tackle much of the basic painting techniques (you can check out the "Cool blogs" at the right side of this page for reference), but I'll provide you my own personal style of prepping a mini for painting and painting. This is not a "must do", but this is just how I do it.

First of all, after removing the mini from its sprue, I always soak it in dish washing soap and water to remove any oil residue and to ensure that the primer will have a strong bond with the surface then let it dry. I then clean the mini using different tools such as needle files, exacto knife or cutter, and sand paper making sure to remove those production mold lines and to smooth-en the surface; a smooth surface is very important especially if you be using the "juicing/glazing" technique that I'll be discussing later.

proper use of a cutter or an exacto knife when removing mold lines

exacto knife

needle files

After removing all those pesky mold lines and assembling the mini, it's now time to paint. But first you need to know the tools that I use for painting:

Painting materials:

**Remember these are just tools and my personal preference, skill and proper use is still important**                                         

1. Brushes - I currently use kolinsky sable brushes with different sizes for different applications. I mainly use #1 or #2 (depends on the brand; for 28mm to 54mm miniature) for general use. I use the larger brushes for large surface area and the smaller ones for small details. 

2. Air Brush - I use my single action airbrush for priming and base coating, while I use my double action for detailing, and applying base shadows and highlights.

3. Wet palette - The general purpose of the wet palette is to keep your paints wet longer through the process of "osmosis" (please... I was absent when this was discussed in our science class). The wet palette consist of an absorbent materiel (tissue paper, shammy towel)that can be soaked in water and a semi-permeable membrane such as baking paper.

4. Paints - Acrylics are mostly used for miniature painting, as mostly are water-based and easy to use.

5. Water container - I keep 2 sets of water container - one for cleaning the brush, while the other is used to dilute paints (some use distilled water for diluting their paints).

6. Tissue - This is basically for wiping off of excess paints in your brush. 

7. Brush soap - This is used to thoroughly clean the brush after use. This also removes the dried paints that is in the ferrule of the brush. Most brush soaps help maintain the natural oils in your brushes especially on sable brushes.

**Proper lighting of your room is also important.

Painting your mini:

1. After all those hours spent removing mold lines and assembling your models, it is now time to prime your models. Before acquiring an air brush, I used "Bosny" flat black for priming my models. But now, I use Vallejo primer in my airbrush. Primer is very important, as it ensures that your paint will have a strong bond to the surface of the mini when applied. I prefer to prime my models white (it's up to you what color you use, as long as you're comfortable with it).

2. Once the primer is dry (I hasten the drying process using a hair dryer), I usually base coat the mini using an airbrush. My base color is usually the mid-color of the model. Then I use my airbrush again to apply the first and second shadows. Then I move on to the next color, masking unwanted parts using liquid mask, masking tape, or blue tac. After all of those process, I then spray the mini with matt varnish and leave it to dry overnight.

Juicing/Glazing

3. I then paint the model using "juicing/glazing" technique with a brush to enhance the shadow and the highlight. Basically, this technique uses translucent paints so that it produces a gradual transition from shadows to highlights. I dilute the paint with a glazing medium from Vallejo to avoid breaking of the pigments when thinned. I don't have any exact ratio for diluting my paint for juicing, but you can check the picture below the opacity of the paint I apply:

I then dip my brush into the paint and wipe off the excess on a tissue paper. You would know if you have the exact amount of paint on your brush is when if you apply it onto the surface of the mini, you would see that it would dry in seconds(5-10 seconds if properly applied). After doing your shadows or your highlights,make sure you also glaze it with your mid-tone color for smoother transition.

This technique requires a lot of layers before you can see the gradual transition effect.

4. After you get the hang of diluting your paint for glazing, time for you to know how I apply it on the mini. At the picture below, you would notice that I stroke the brush sideways. The stroke should end where the darkest or lightest part of the mini if you're painting shadows or highlights respectively. It would require patience and practice for this technique if you want to master it. 

If I were to apply the shadow on the encircled part of the picture above,
the direction of my brush stroke would be towards the darkest part following the arrow.

 5. Once I finished painting everything, I then top coat the mini with a gloss varnish then let it dry overnight. And then, I spray matte varnish to the mini to make sure that the paint won't fade nor get chipped off easily.

Sample of my mini using this process

If you want to learn more, we will be holding some painting jam which will be announce on PWG and Tautauhan forums. Thanks for reading.