Basic painting

Painting
Basics

This is the page
that I will try and describe how I apply my undercoats and base colours.



<a href="#U">Undercoat</a>



<a href="#BC">Base
Colors</a>

<a NAME="U"></a>Undercoat:
For me to be able to get the best results on my miniatures, I need to make
sure that I start with a good undercoat. Different people use different
colours for undercoats, but I have found that if you want your figures
to really stand out from the tabletop, then a white undercoat is essential.
Black can be good if you want your models to look more dark and sinister,
but I like brightness in my miniatures, so I have stuck with white all
the way through.
If you start
by giving your models a good undercoat, the rest of your painting time
is going to be well spent. Bad undercoats make models look messy, and you
may aswell have not bothered to put one on. So what makes a good undercoat?
Well, to me there are two things that you need to be aware of. The first
is to make sure that the undercoat is as solid as possible. By this I mean
that none of the miniature should be showing through the paint, be it plastic
or metal. If your undercoat is too thin, it will create blemishes in your
colours that are added later. To get the best results with undercoats,
I would recommend your miniatures be sprayed, because it will leave the
undercoat uniform and smooth.
This leads me
into the second thing you should take note of, and that is the thickness
and texture of the undercoat. If you do choose to spray on your undercoat,
then make sure that you apply the paint evenly to all areas. Mounting the
miniatures on a piece of card can help a lot, as you can turn it while
spraying, without touching the wet paint. Make sure that you spray in a
well ventilated area, as not to breathe in any fumes from the spray can.
It is best to spray undecoats in two goes. The first one doesn't need to
cover the figure completely in a solid colour. Let this one dry, then apply
another coat to finish the job. Two thin sprays are better than one big
one, as you can control the amount of paint you are putting on a lot easier.
So bare in mind that each layer of paint you put on a miniature is going
to decrease the amount of detail on it. If you apply one big spray, you
may go overboard and blot out this detail, but with two small coats, you
are going to be able to keep the paint smooth, flat, and uniform, keeping
the detail visible.
If, on the otherhand
you choose to brush on your undercoat, then as well as watching how much
paint you put on and how uniform it is, you should also be careful not
to 'work' the paint. Basically, 'working' the paint means to play with
it while it's drying. I find that Skull White can get a bit chalky at times
while painting, so the best remedy is to add a few of drops of clean water
to the pot and then give it a shake (preferably with the lid closed). This
way, when you come to undercoat your miniatures, the paint can be applied
evenly and smoothly to all the areas, without drying while you are still
painting it. If the paint starts to dry while you are still applying it,
you will end up with either brushstrokes in the paint or lumps of goo on
your miniature, or both.
Below are two
pictures of a Space Marine. The one on the left has an undercoat that is
not unifom/solid. You can see the blemishes in it. When colours are put
on top of this the blemishes may show through. The one on the right however
is unform/solid and any colour put on top of it will be solid also.









So, in summary,
try to go with spraying on your undercoats, rather than brushing them on
for best results. But if you do choose to brush, then be careful while
painting it.
<a href="#top">Top</a>

<a NAME="BC"></a>Base
Colours: So now you
are ready to apply the first lot of colours to your miniature. I will go
into more detail in each race on specific pages, but here I will just say
that your base colours are the primary colours that you want your figure
to be painted in. Again, you need to make sure that your paint application
is smooth, solid and uniform and most essentially, neat. The more you get
colours overlapping onto the wrong areas, the more you'll have to clean
up by painting over again, and this can get very messy. So if you have
applied a good basecoat, then you shouldn't have to much trouble with getting
good base colours. I prefer, mostly, to apply base colours in one go, but
sometimes, if the pigment in the paint is not very strong, I would have
to result to two, maybe three coats. But when I do this, I need to make
sure that each coat is as thin as possible, as not to obscure any deatil.
Below is the same Space Marine with a couple of base colours added.


What colours
should you use? Well, whatever the paint scheme is that I am using at the
time, I make sure that each is a mid-tone of what I want the end result
to be. Why a midtone? Because it will then prepare your model for the shading
and highlighting stages of the painting scheme. This is explained in more
detail on the appropriate pages. So with the Space Marine above, I have
chosen Ultramarines Blue and Sunburst Yellow as two different base colours.
So when I want to add depth to the figure, I can then add Blue Wash (see
Shading
for more information) to the helmet and Orange Wash to the chest eagle.
From there I can use lighter tones of blue and yellow to highlight up.
So as I have said, I like to use a mid-tone for my base colours. You may
like to do the same.