Show off your painted TTRPG / TTWG models!

So, me and my friend have been talking about splitting a Warmachine box. But I'm so worried that I'm gonna fuck up the painting. Does anyone have any tips for painting a mini for the first time?

edited 17th Jan '17 4:09:17 AM by Rosvo1

The best general advice I can give is to take your time, don't be intimidated by the model and keep things simple. The final part especially as I have seen people (including some of my friends) try to be too ambitious in their painting, mess up, get fed up and quit.

I'd also recommend Brushthralls. They have good tutorials on several Warmachine factions

1. Prime your models. Paint doesn't bond naturally to plastic; a layer of brush-on or spray primer will keep the two from separating easily. If they're metal, when you're finished painting, you may want to consider a layer of brush-on or spray varnish, such as GW's 'Ardcoat: metal is even harder to bond with, meaning that transporting it risks having it chip and lose paint if anything happens.
2. There are three main techniques. You don't need to master all three, or even necessarily use all three, but it couldn't hurt to know what they are.
   1. Highlighting is painting a thin line on raised parts or around edges: for example, on a grey cloak, you might use a white line along the crests of the ridges. Highlighting looks good, but there are times there will simply be too much detail to highlight everything without taking a lot of SAN checks - this is usually when you drybrush.
   2. Washes are a very thinned-down paint that naturally settles into the recesses: for example, a black wash on metallic paint will give it shadows and look a little oily, while repeated layers of black wash will give you a very dark metal. Washes work best on surfaces with a lot of detail - in 40K, for example, a wash over Ork metal (which is covered in rivets, seams, crudely nailed-on plates, battle damage and other crap) will generally look better than a wash over a Space Marine's shoulder pad (which is slightly curved and maybe has one small section picked out). You can either go for a broad application, or carefully brush it into the recesses. It can be a bit messy, so keep an eye on it and clean up when appropriate.
   3. Drybrushing is a technique where you wipe most of the paint off the brush and move it very quicly over the surface, causing it to stick to the raised areas: for example, you might have a darker metal for the base layer on some machinery, then drybrush a lighter metal over it because it's too complicated for highlighting to take less than a week. It can be messy, and unless you get a special brush for it, it can be hard on the bristles, so get a cheap one and use that.
3. Don't spend much of your painting time looking at other people's work. Comparing yourself to, for example, a Slayer Sword winner, will only end badly.
4. Treat your brushes with care, except your drybrush. Don't get the paint too far up the brush part; it'll get into the base of the bristles and make it shit. Wash excess paint off carefully.
5. Remember that paint is a 3D substance. If it's laid on too thick over a detail area, it may obscure it, and if you put too much onto a flat area, it'll need some work to flatten it.
6. If you're doing white or yellow...haha, that was a joke, don't do white or yellow, ever. They are absolute fucking nightmares to get right. If you have to, though, start from a white primer and use lots of thin layers. To get depth, use very small amounts of wash in the recesses or build up all the layers over another colour. With white, you can get different feels depending on the colour of the lower layer: a colder white (good for armour) can be achieved with grey or blue, while a browner base will give a warmer colour (good for fabrics). You can even achieve contrast with multiple elements by doing this: Gandalf the White, for example, could have a warm white for the fabrics and a cold white for the staff. All that said, though, my recommendation about sticking to not-those-colours except in small quantities stands.

edited 17th Jan '17 10:57:22 AM by CountDorku

Oh yes. White and Yellow are the two biggest pain in the ass colours to paint.

That being said a tip I got from my FLGS' owner: Painting Yellow Models (like Imperial Fists or Angry Marines) works well if you prime your models with yellow matte spraypaint (doesn't have to be primer). The matte makes it so there's enough "stick" for regular miniature paints to work on it.

Another colour people seem to have issues with is Red.

edited 17th Jan '17 11:07:31 AM by BlackSunNocturne

A good tip for doing whites is to do a light or medium-light gray as the basecoat, then a very light gray on top of that, and then put the white on as the final layer.

Count Dorku hit a lot of the points I was thinking about. For a beginner painter, I'd strongly recommend practicing drybrushing as your first highlighting technique, then move into actually painting edge highlights once you get good at it.

For supplies for a beginner, here's what I'd recommend:
- Some sort of dry palette...it can be something like GW's palette pads, a piece of smooth tile, or even a paper plate, just some flat surface for your paint. Wet palettes are preferable, but that's something for when you get some models under your belt and want to go more advanced.
- Five brushes: a small detail brush, a moderate detail brush, a mid-sized brush for doing basecoats, a brush for washes, and a small drybrush. Army Painter makes a decent line of workman-quality brushes; the red handled ones are worth looking into, especially the drybrush.
- Two coffee mugs for washing off your brushes in between paints, one for metallic paints and one for non-metallic. Label them thusly.
- Some sort of varnish...you will definitely want to preserve your paint jobs once you're done and that's the best way to go. If you want to do spray varnishes, Testors Glosscote and Dullcote are great. Vallejo makes matte, satin, and gloss varnishes that are made to either be brushed on or sprayed with an airbrush that are also really good.
- It's a good idea to stick your models to something that you can hold while painting instead of having to hold the model itself, even if it's by the unpainted base. Some poster tack on top of an empty pill bottle makes for a great model mount.

edited 17th Jan '17 4:12:07 PM by Willbyr

just watch all of Magos Rhodes videos on Warhammer TV

Yep. Duncan's daily tip videos are one of the best things GW's done in a long time, and his full tutorials are really helpful as well as long as you don't mind them having certain things be exactly the same in every one.

The latest instalment of my Chapter Colours project is a Tactical Marine from the White Scars Successor Chapter, the Marauders.

While I am a little disappointed at how messy the squad symbol came out, I am very happy with the freehand flaming sword for the Chapter symbol.

Looks good...you did a better job free-handing that stuff than I likely would've. Is this chapter's yellow darker than the Imperial Fists?

I really need to set up a light box somewhere, I'm getting tired of struggling to take good model photos.

edited 20th Jan '17 4:06:46 AM by Willbyr

Thanks. I actually tried to make the yellow a little lighter by using a white undercoat, rather than the black I use for the Fists, and using a bit more Yriel Yellow than I do for them. The official colours◊ do seem a little lighter than the Imperial Fists◊.

The Vindicare is done. Kinda kludged the mask...should've used some flow improver on the whites.

Looks very good The mask looks fine. How you did the ruins was particularly nice

edited 22nd Jan '17 12:04:04 PM by SebastianGray

The picture is a little dark but here is the Sly Marbo I painted. I do love the 'Made to Order' special edition series Games Workshop has been doing now and again recently.

I was never keen on that sculpt but you did a good job with it.

Won't be able to paint next week due to being out of the state on a training trip, so I'll get back to the Culexus when I can.

Thanks.

I tried something a bit different when I painted the Pit Fighter from the original version of Warhammer Quest: My first attempt at a non-Caucasian skintone.

Looks good, but I'd use a flat varnish on the skin...that glossy look is kinda off-putting.

He's clearly a Conan-esque fighter. All oiled up.

That being said, that's really good for a "first attempt" there Sebastian. What was the composition of paints for him?

edited 4th Feb '17 4:31:49 PM by BlackSunNocturne

...okay, I can't argue that. #wellplayed

Thanks both of you.

Yeah, that was more a case of "what I have on hand to protect a metal model that I have already almost dropped on a hard surface a couple of times" that what I wanted to use.

He's clearly a Conan-esque fighter. All oiled up.

I started with a black undercoat then used a basecoat of the old Citadel Foundation Paint Calthan Brown (the closest in the current Citadel range is Mournfang Brown I think). I then gave him a couple of layers of Agrax Earthshade followed by drybrushing the more raised areas with Gorthor Brown. I finished by giving the most rasied areas a light drybrush with Skrag Brown.

Ah, I see.

Side note: anyone got any recommendations on compositions for different skin tones using either P3 or Vallejo? 'cause that's what my FLGS stocks, because GW's is too damn expensive

Here's a compatibility chart between several GW paints and their equivalents in other brands. It's a helpful guide, but take it with a grain of salt and do some experimentation.

Here is the first Orc Limeman I have painted for the new Blood Bowl

Interesting...I like the white armor, it makes a good contrast to the Orc.