Cool Miniature Painting Techniques

Discover many cool miniature painting techniques

Once you've washed and drybrushed, outlining is an easy way of establishing the darkest shadows on a figure, as well as making a strong division between two bordering areas (i.e. between an arm and a torso, or between armor and flesh). Mix up a darker shade of the basecoat, even darker than your wash color was, and thin it down almost as much as the wash. You can use a little black paint to darken the outline color, but avoid using straight black to outline, as the look is very harsh and artificial. Take a 10/0 brush with the paint and run it along the seam between the two areas. While still wet, blend the paint a little into both areas.

Blending

This is the Rolls-Royce of miniature painting. A well-blended figure can look very striking on the gaming table or in your collection. Blending is not for everyone, however, as it takes patience, a steady hand, and lots of practice!! (Here's where your visor comes in real handy, too). This technique replaces the wash/drybrush method for painting most areas of a miniature.

Painting Metallics

Armor and other metallic surfaces are easy to achieve. Buy the best metallic paints you can find: I use Polly-S metallics, which are now available under the Polly-Scale line at modeling hobby stores. These paints coat very evenly and dry very smooth, making them ideal for washing over with inks and as undercoats for other metallic colors. I do use other brands of metallic paints, but most are too thin to be used as a basecoat: Citadel metallics and some craft paints fall into this category. A word of caution about craft paint metallics also: open up the bottle before you buy it and check the fineness of the metal flakes in the paint. The finer the flakes, the better, as thick flakes make the metal look grainy when it dries, rather than smooth.

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