Tips for an old hand please! Primers, varnish and old paints!

[neonlights]

Hi all,

I\'ve first got into painting GW minis in \'92. Never played the games, just collected the minis cos I thought they were so amazing. Got to a pretty good standard (if I do say so myself!) but then by 2000 I just kind of stopped painting - for 2 reasons, lack of time and the GW range seemed to be getting a bit stale to me. Being the corporate behemoth, kinda swamped out the competition ya know? I vaguely knew there were other mini companies but they weren\'t easy to come by!

Anyways, it got to a stage where I\'d lost interest, and it was taking me 1 month to do just one mini that I was satisfied with, and by the end was only doing 1 a year!

Just a week ago, I was channel hopping on ebay and was astonised to find a whole section(!) devoted to war games and stuff. A bit more surfing around and suddenly I\'ve come across this site and a whole load of others all devoted to minis! For me, it\'s almost as though all this just sprang up overnight and have had a big bright light thrust into my face!

I have to say, some of the stuff here is awesome - incredible - lost for words! Let\'s just say enough to make me wanna pick up a brush and start again! Rackham, Vallejo, NMM, just thinking about the possibilities makes me dizzy. Although, I think I\'ll just use some of my old paints and minis to see if I\'ve still got the touch!

Well it\'s been 5 years, and when I last painted, i was doing some stuff that, after reading some of your posts, have got me thinking I\'ve been doing it all wrong at the time. Ok so here\'s a few questions which I would appreciate if anyone could shed some light on:

Primers: I\'ve always only ever used GW skull white (from the paint pot), thinned and directly onto the metal before I start and never had any problems. I see a lot of talk about using spray primers being better. I there a downside to just using several coats of normal paint? I \'ve seen some of you use brush on primer, is that alcohol based? How is it different from normal arcylic paint?

Varnish: As i don\'t game with my models, I never varnished them when finished painting. Is it still recommended to varnish even if you don\'t handle them much? Does the paint dull or flake off over time if not varnished? (they haven\'t on my models yet!)

GW Paints: yes it\'s been some time since I last used them, some of them are a little thick clumpy (but not dried), do you think just stirring it up furiously will be ok, or better off to get a new set? (give me a reason to get some vallejos!)

thanks for the inspiration!:bouncy:

 

[marineboy]

Hi, neonlights!

Good to see you and welcome to this world!

Look, the hords should be loggin on in a couple of hours, so be prepared. I\'ll leave most of the answering to the more experienced, my best piece of advice is just to begin. Otherwise:

1.) I prime by brush. Thinned GW Chaos Black for dark figures, Skull White for light figures, sometimes doing both in different fields on the mini (black where dark colors will go, light where flesh/light colors are)

2.) Varnish. However little you handle your figures, you\'ll harm the paint. Also, matt varnish will tone down the shine of applied inks, evening out the sheen.

3.) I use GW paint, but will be replaing them with Vallejo, if only for the cool squeeze bottles. It\'ll make dosing and mixing easier.

Lastly, you may want to ask specific questions about the mechanics of painting on the Painting and Conversions forum. You\'ll may find it easier to drum up a discussion about ..whatever having to do with painting and conversions... over there.

Welcome, good luck and see you around!

 

[Wolf_Fang]

i use spray primer goes on nice and even and applies easily!... for clear coat i use a matte and for paints gw (thats all i can get here)


welcome to the forums!

 

[tidoco2222]

Welcome to the forums and indeed to Cmon.

Primers, I generally spray but that is because I cant stand brush undercoating like you I\'ve been painting for a long time and for me that works best. I don\'t think that there are any benefits either way it is just what you like best.

Varnishing is a good idea no matter how often you touch your minis as it is better to be safe than sorry and todays paints do not seem as durable as they used to be.

Replace your old paints as you will find that alot of the tones have changed and if you run out mid mini you will find it hard to get the right match (trust me it happened to me).

Lastly as already mentioned join in in the forums and read the articles here as there is some fantastic advice to be had. I hope you enjoy it here it is a great community and I look forward to seeing posts from you soon.

 

[praetorian0_1]

I echo the sentiments about varnish- give them a shot, but always top them off with testors dullcoat in my books. It takes the \"glow you can see from orbit\" off the mini and fixes a lot of things
Welcome:bouncy:

 

[Drake Farstrider]

Welcome to the insane asylum.

Varnish them, if you can get it use Testors Dull coate.

I spray prime because I don\'t have the patients to brush prime. Although I am going to give brush on priming more of a go.

I would agree about getting new paints. Vallejo\'s are one of the best, and I heard the new Reaper Master Series are good too.

And remember have fun.

 

[tooshy]

Woohoo...

...another adict *cough* erm, I mean model painter! Welcome to CMON - it\'s a bit like Hotel California - you will never leave

I always use spray primer. It goes on nice and thin and very even. However, if I have to tidy up a model after priming \'cos I missed a mould line, then I touch up with Smelly Primer etc as it\'s easier to pick out a small area.

BUY NEW PAINTS!! I too had a long hiatus from painting and still have hoardes of GW paint but...... I bought Vallejo paints and they are great. I echo the comments about new colours etc especially if you want to try your hand ad NMM etc

In the good old days, I used gloss varnish even though I didn\'t game with my figs. However, for Christmas I was bought some Testors Dull Coate and have never looked back. It gives a lovely flat, matte finish and as someone said earlier, it brings the whole model together.

Hope the above helps and once, again welcome to the funny farm :duh: :duh:

 

[neonlights]

Thanks for all the advice! Am already putting together a list of paints to get.

As for varnishing, well, looks like it\'ll be several weekends of varnishing old minis for me!

 

[marineboy]

Lock and load, neonlights, lock and load...

 

[Equus]

Welcome to the forums, and welcome back to the habit. I was pretty much in the same boat as you: painted a while back...wandered out of the hobby...came back and said \"what are all these acronyms about?\"

For by two pennies:

Primer - Whatever works with you. People get good results with both, as long as you are practiced with it. I\'m only now venturing into brush-on primer because I\'m fed up with waiting for the two weeks or so of the right humidity and temperature in this neck of the woods.

Varnish - I know some garage kit painters stay away from sealing their statues, but in my experience, it is better safe than sorry.

Paints - If they\'re a little clumpy, it is probably a good idea to replace them. If you can shake the bejeebus out of them and they work, great, but I have some pots that just will not work to the right consistency, so maybe the acrylic medium is off or something. With only a VERY small handful of exceptions, I like the paints out of the newer ranges better anyway.

And I\'ll also echo Drake and say have fun. ^_^

 

[MarkusTay]

Welcome to the Asylum

Hello... my name is Neonlights... and I\'m.. a minipainter.

HI NEONLIGHTS!

lol:bouncy:lol

Sure, you can quit for awhile, but one day you\'ll pick up another mini. You\'ll say \"I\'ll just paint this one\". That how it starts. Then you\'ll want to paint another, and another, soon you\'ll be trying new techniques. You\'ll be looking for new suppliers. It will start to consume your whole life... but who cares?
It\'s fun!

I\'m pretty new here too, and I\'ve also just gotten back into it after a 5+yr hiatus. My paints were pretty awful, \'cause I had them in my attic; 0º in winter and about 140º in the summer. Some were savable after mixing a little water in, but I notice the metalics couldn\'t be raised from the dead. What I did was use them until I replaced them all, buying 2 or 3 bottles each week. It was less painful that way. Now I have the whole Citadel line. I like some of the Vallejo and reg. Reaper, with a couple of Tamiya mixed in for special effects. I just started using the new Reaper Master Series and I love the results so far; I might just start using them instead of the GW stuff.
I would reccomend using Dullcote, but if you plan on posting your stuff here (and we certainly hope you do), then I would also suggest taking pics BEFORE coating. I only use Dullcote, and if you look at my gallery you\'ll see everything has way to much shine. Only in pics, mind you, they look fine RW.
Lastly, I use both spraying and brush for priming. If I\'m doing a bunch, like for an army, then spraying is definately they way to go. If I\'m just going to do one, then I prefer brushing because it\'s the first step in getting familiar with the intricacies of the model. I only brush white, but I spray black (for dark/evil/undead), reddish brown (for mostly-skin models, white (for elves and other light palettes), and Grey (for neutral figures, like townsfolk). I\'ve heard of a two-tone spray priming technique on here, and I going to try that out on my next fig.

Life is an adventure, so grab your minis by the lead and start slingin\' the paint, pilgrim.

 

[vincegamer]

Welcome, and by your comments I see you\'ve read a LOT of posts before posting, Kudos.

Primers- I brush on Armory Gray primer if I\'m doing an individual mini or something I must do during the winter when I can\'t go outside. I like the spray primer because I can do 20 minis at a time when the weather is nice, though I find the spray always roughens the texture. If you do not use primer, the risk you run is that a) you will drop a mini and the paint will chip off in a big piece or b) if your paint is too watered down, it will not cling to the tops and will pool too much in the crevices. So primer is not strictly \"necessary\" but it is highly recommended.

Varnish- I always photo before varnishing, and many of my minis I\'ve never gotten round to varnishing at all. Varnish is basically an invisible force-field keeping things from hitting the delicate layer of paint. It\'s not necessary if your stuff is just going to sit on a shelf, but if you have to handle them, even for dusting, it\'s a good idea to protect the surfaces. Same if you travel with them in foam - they will rub ever so slightly and without varnish, paint can come off.

GW paints - you can thin them with distilled water or an acrylic medium and then put an agitator (glass ball e.g.) in the pot then shake it like mad or stick it on a paint-shaker (I use Riobi\'s) for a minute. I\'ve revived many old paints to like-new consistency (and old nail polish) but not metalics. Something about the metal flakes doesn\'t allow them to recover. However, if money is not an issue you will probably find Vallejos are better quality than the old Citadels - but you\'ll still want that paint shaker.

 

[neonlights]

Paint shakers, never knew they sold stuff like that - but sounds like a good idea! It\'ll save me wearing out my arm shaking those pots! I like the idea of glass beads, I have some left over milliput balls - never knew what to do with the left over bits, so I made small balls, looks like they might come in handy now!

I just bought some green stuff from a GW store, having read lots about it. I think they\'ve got the name wrong, should be called gold stuff, or gold dust cos it\'s expensive! I was expecting a pack the size of milliput or something, not just 2 lousy strips! Does it last long? how can you afford to base minis with that stuff?! And i thought super fine milliput was expensive!
Hope it\'s as good as I\'ve heard!

Already gathering together some new brushes and tools too (now that I have a bit more of the other green stuff!). Hmm, it\'s already getting to my head and I haven\'t even put brush to metal yet!

 

[vincegamer]

If you aren\'t doing detailed sculpting, greenstuff isn\'t the most economic bit. Go to your local hardware store in the plumbing section. They should have any number of 2-part epoxy putties for various uses. If your basing just rough rocks or the like, just buy the cheapest. They all work the same: 2 colored putties that harden when combined and left to rest a certain time. Some take longer to harden, some come out smoother or rougher or whatever.
Much cheaper than greenstuff. GS is really for sculpting detailed minis.