Goblin-King wrote:My best results with painting HQ mummies is starting with a brown undercoat, then painstakingly painting each individual bandage bone-white.
Washes and drybrushing can get you so far, but for this particular model I find it just didn't cut it.
Also invest in a can of spraypaint for undercoating your minis. Trust me, it's worth it.
Recently I've started using brown rather than the traditional choices of white or black.
Brown goes well with almost everything. Skin, fur, clothes, bones etc...
I'll also go on record and say I'm finally fed up with GW paints. Some of them dry completely up within months!
You literally have to open each pot weekly and add a bit of water.
I have 15 year old pots that are still as liquid this day as the day I bought them. If they could make paint like that 15 years ago, why can't they today?
Reaper or Vallejo is the way to go.
I concur, except that I don't like the Game Color line from Vallejo much. They are too shiny and, I don't know, latex-y.
Everything else from Vallejo is top-notch, including specialty paints like the alcoholic metal paints.
Reaper Master and Pro Series are very good.
Plus, ScaleColour, Andrea Paints, Formula P3, hell, even Revell Acrylics.
There is so much out there, and the only Games Workshop/Citadel line worth anything is the Shade line. These are great.
For the undercoat Goblin-King is talking about, buy one little bottle of Vallejo Polyurethane Primer in a color you like.
As he says, a neutral tone can go with anything. Medium gray, brown, or olive green, for example.
Dampen your brush just a little - not wet! - take up the paint/primer and slather it on, trying to spread it evenly.
It levels itself out in recesses
and on top while drying. Let it sit for a day.
That's your first layer and the primer in one coat.
Alternatively, use Spray Cans from Army Painter or Vallejo. It can be black or white, but both are more difficult to paint over for a beginner.
From there, how you do what is a matter of taste and time.
Watch youtube-videos. A lot of them. For you, I suggest the "Miniature Painting 101" series from Miniwargamer Jay, the first 10 to 12 videos for now
and some "How to" videos from people like "The Apathetic Fish" or "MrWatchingPaintDry" or even "Lester Bursley Miniatures"
to see what they do when and a miniature painted from start to finish.