Painting My Way

Painting A miniature (my way)
I'm often asked how I paint my miniatures, so I
wrote this article to briefly give you an idea how I go about it.
Generally, it usually takes more than 20 hours to achieve the result I
want. If you're looking for a quick way to paint miniatures, then I can't
recommend this to you.
All paints are GW Citadel Colours.
1.Preparation

Before painting, I spray white primer even over
the figure, followed by a light spray of Gunze Limited Mr. Super Clear, which is
a matt varnish. I find this improves the binding of colour to the primer
later.
When the primer layer is dry, I mask of the edges
of the base, followed by filling the hollow plastic slotta base with epoxy putty
(ie Milliput/Kneadatite). I try to position the putty to compensate for
any unbalance in the centre of gravity of the model.

I've chosen for this article a Warhammer Fantasy Chaos Sorceror, mainly because
it's fairly easy to obtain anywhere. Because the model comes in three
parts (the whole right arm, the main body and the left hand), I temporarily
assemble the model with a bit of Super Glue, drilling and pinning the various
parts with a pin vice and brass wire. The right arm is not stock, it's
swapped in from another model (it was missing from the blister!

After the primer dries, if there's any exposed metal, I brush on some Smelly
Primer to cover it up. It's the same shade white, so there's no visible
difference.
2.Painting
2-1 Black lining
Right,
time to start. But where? I always start with the face.

First, I use a process called Black Lining. This is different from
inkwashing in that you only apply the dark paint to areas of shade so as to make
transitions prominent. I used a Woody Fit from Bunseido, a 10/0 camel hair brush
and in my opinion is the best brush for precision work for anything under 600
Yen. Even though cheaper brushes may be had here for around 200 Yen, they
don't last beyond one model; the current brush I'm using here has been used on
5.

I used Imperial Purple as a foundation colour for the chainmail, instead of the
normal black/silver drybrush.


2-2 Layering

I painted the helmet using the Near Metal
Metallic (NMM) style. The transition is Chaos Black->Shadow Grey ->
Space Wolves Grey. First, I mixed 1 part Shadow Grey to Chaos Black for
the base coat, thinning the overall mix by a roughly equal volume of
water. At this stage, any mistakes are easily corrected by immediately
daubing with water, there's no real damage done since we've just begun.

Next we add a bit more Shadow Grey, just dipping about 1/3 of the brush's
bristles in, then dipping it into the diluted Shadow Grey/Chaos Black mix,
gradually painting on highlights until the lightest point in the middle of the
helmet. The compound mixture is regularly diluted with a drop or two of
water, since it'll be drying on your palette while you're doing this. The
trick to smooth layering is to always make sure that the colour mix is dilute
enough. There are 4 layers here, with the darkest being Shadow Grey
only. Finally the last highlight is added with Space Wolves Grey mixed
with a bit of white, carefully painted down the centre of the helmet.

I do the horns next, starting with a black foundation. Next is the
first highlight of Black + Bestial Brown + Rotting Flesh, gradually lightening
up the layers by mixing in more Rotting Flesh. There are fewer layers here
to create a greater contrast on the sharp edges of the spikes and ridges of the
horns.

The mask was painted with Snakebite Leather (and conveniently covering up any
accidental paint). From a base of Snakebite Leather + Leprous Brown, small
amounts of Badmoon Yellow were added. Next a layer of Leprous Brown +
Badmoon Yellow was applied with a final layer of Badmoon Yellow + White for the
hard edges and raised areas.[pagebreak]

Next is the chainmail. First comes a base of Nauseating Blue.
Hawk Turquoise is mixed in, with Hawk Turquoise alone eventually. This is
followed by Badmoon Yellow, Jade Green and finally Vile Green with a bit of
white for the final highlight.

The midsection of the model. Less time is spent here than the face
since relatively less attention is given to this area by a viewer.
Starting from an inked blackline, Scab Red forms the foundation, highlighted
with Blood Red, and finally with a small quantity of Blood Red and Badmoon
Yellow. I chose to paint the pants as silk, so used White mixed with Blood
Red as the final highlight rather than Badmoon Yellow to simulate the tightness
of the material on muscle. The embossed Chaos symbol is given a
Snakebite Leather foundation, with a Leprous Brown + Badmoon Yellow highlight,
with a little white mixed in for the edges. Note that for fine detail like
this, if a metallic paint is used instead, precision is necessary since the
metallic flakes in the paint can make the surface quite rough, painting over a
mistake may not sufficiently smooth it over.[pagebreak]The shoulder strap is painted
with a base of Bestial Brown, then Vermin Brown and Fiery Orange is added to the
highlights.

The belt and shoulder pad is painted in a similar way to the helmet, but this
time with a bit of Ultramarines Blue added to the Shadow Grey + Spacewolves Grey
mix. For the shoulderpad, more Spacewolves Grey is added to areas where
light would theoretically fall. Repeated over many layers, this creates an
effect of "shining" plates.

The scrolls on the belt are given a base of Bubonic Brown Leprous Brown
as a foundation, mixed with Rotting Flesh for the highlights, finally ending
with Bronzed Flesh with a bit of white for the scroll on the right. Since
they're not hard, shiny objects, there's no need to highlight edges too
strongly.

Liche Purple mixed up with Tentacle Pink goes on the tabard.

How do you highlight black? I usually use Shadow Grey, but since it's
already been used on the armor I'll try something else, in this case Jade Green,
with about 4 to 5 layers, slightly more than normal. The leather
decoration on the boots is painted with a Snakebite Leather worked up with
Badmoon Yellow, with the edges highlighted additionally with a bit of white.
[pagebreak]

The skull amulet on the shoulder pad is painted with a foundation of
Snakebite Leather worked up with Bronzed Flesh, and finally with White mixed in.

This is more or less the last bit, the swords. As you can see from the
photograph, the right hand sword is painted with a foundation of black, worked
up with Shadow Grey and white, with a final sheen on the tip of the sword
painted in Tentacle Pink.Finally, the left sword. First the rune of the sword is
painted with the Ultramarine Blue and highlighted with IceBlue mixed in, with a
final Ice Blue highlight. Because this
sword is parallel, close attention is paid to the direction
of the light spot.
Since the sword in the right hand is emphasized, and also not to have too many
color schemes repeated, this sword is painted Black and layered up with
Ultramarine Blue, then Space Wolves Grey.We're nearly done. Just going
over the various raised rivets, the basing and spraying of the protective
coat. My way of painting mostly requires time and patience. It's not
really very difficult, and I invite you to try it, the final results are very
rewarding.