Painting tips?

[CaptainNeatoman]

Hey guys-

I have recently begun buying up the quest packs I never got back in the HQ glory days (I only had Kellar's Keep back then) and I would like to start painting my figures. I painted the ones from my original game box when I was a kid, but I used whatever acrylic paint and crappy brush was lying around the house (not to mention the fact that I was 10 and not an artist) and they look terrible, so I'm hoping for a few pointers before I embark on any new mission to touch up my tiny friends.

For those of you who are relatively happy with your paint jobs, what type of paint did you use? What was your process like regarding undercoats or airbushing, etc.?

I would really like to do it up right.

Thanks!
-Steve

[Tott]

try looking here http://coolminiornot.com/article

LOTS of good articles here!

[el_flesh]

Does anyone know how to remove Acrylic paints? I know that for Testor's enamel paints, you just put them in a pastic tub and spray "EasyOff" Oven Cleaner on them, check them every 10 mins or so by rubbing with an old rag.

But what about Acrylic?

[ndsandman]

I just read somewhere on the web, using Simple Green and a brush to remove paint jobs.
The trouble is I am not sure if it was for Acylic paints or not.
Simple Green is somewhat of a common cleaner, it has many applications, I cleaned out my fins of my house central air conditioner, a great degreaser too.
I will google Simple Green and paint removing, and post a link if I find one to post.

[Ethica]

For those of you who are relatively happy with your paint jobs, what type of paint did you use? What was your process like regarding undercoats or airbushing, etc.?

I use citadel acrylic paint. I undercoat with acrylic white aerosol.

I use a 000 brush which is the smallest I could find and it's still tricky to do decent eyes (maybe it's just my shakes).

I sit and think hard about a colour scheme before embarking on the paint job (sometimes I change my mind and repaint halfway through). I try not to use more than 2 complimentary colours in addition to silver, black, brown and skin.

Start with the areas that are hardest to reach and work outwards. spend a while tidying up where different colours meet.

I undercoat weapons and chainmail areas in black then drybrush the silver on top.

On some areas I add highlights usually cloaks, but most of the time I don't bother.

I do everything a little lighter than I want it to be, so that finally I can go over the whole thing in a black inkwash, this really brings up the detail. If you have a full set of colour inks you can ink each area seperately, I don't bother though.

Finally I spray with a matt varnish to protect them.

That's my painting guide.

[CaptainNeatoman]

Thanks, everyone! I will be posting pictures of my first attempts soon. I think they're coming out pretty good. El_flesh, try soaking them in Pine Sol for a few hours, then brushing them with a soft toothbrush. I found that tip elsewhere on the web and it worked perfectly for me with no damage to the plastic.

[CaptainNeatoman]

Okay, so I have notoriously shaky hands, and I'm really new at this, but here are my attempts at painting my heroes using the suggestions here and elsewhere on the net. I only spent a few bucks on some acrylics at the local arts and crafts store, rather than paying through the nose for official Citadel stuff, but I do have a can of varnish on its way here from Citadel to mitigate wear and tear. Personally, I am happy with the way these turned out. Even though they look pretty sloppy in these extreme close-ups (and now that I've seen them this way, I will be fixing some of the obvious color spillovers), they look a lot better when you're holding them in your hand because they're tiny. I actually did the monsters first, but I don't have pictures of them yet.

For the heroes I started with a base coat of white spray paint and finished with a black wash, per Ethica's suggestion. (I didn't feel like buying a legit "ink wash" so I mixed up a wash out of paint and water.) I think it worked pretty good. The monsters I did with basically the opposite technique, starting with a black base coat, painting darker than I wanted the final product to be, and then drybrushing the highlights. I'll post some pics of those later - I'm pretty happy with those results too.