D&D Miniatures - Mini-Me (Part #1)

Miniatures 101: On Your Own

Instructor JD Wiker offers tips for your own painting adventures!

Stage Zero

I recommend the barbarian miniature for beginning painters because it features each of the different kinds of texture: cloth, metal, stone, flesh (or hide), hair (or fur), and wood. These are all slightly different, and require a slightly different technique to paint. (It also helps that it doesn’t need to be assembled before you start painting it.)

First, carefully shave off all the "flash" (the extraneous bits of metal left from the molding process), using an X-Acto knife. Then, use a needle file (a really narrow type of file) to smooth out the remaining rough spots. Follow that up with a somewhat larger file, to make sure the bottom of the base was even.

The final step of preparation is to cover the miniature with black primer and follow it up with a quick "dusting" of white primer. The point of priming is to give the color paint something to stick to. I use the black and white combination because white makes for a brighter end product than black -- but plain white doesn’t bring out the detail as well. The combination helps to identify the individual components of the miniature, which is one of the first things we talked about in the class. Each layer of primer takes only about five minutes to dry.

Stage One

Begin painting by laying down base coats. Essentially, that means putting on enough paint that you can’t see the white underneath. The color should be more or less the same color you ultimately want for the miniature: red for the cloak, brown for the leather armor and boots, and also brown for the flesh tone. Use a Number One brush (or standard brush). Leave most of the small parts unpainted for now -- these are for later stages.

Stage Two

Finally, go over the brown flesh tone with something lighter. I discovered a while back that you can simulate Caucasian flesh tones pretty well by mixing white paint, orange paint, red paint, and brown paint -- mostly white and orange. Red and brown give you either a ruddy or tanned look, but too much of either creates either pink or plum -- not exactly the color you want for a rugged barbarian. Of course, you can simply buy flesh-toned paint, but it’s always good to know how the paint companies mix those colors, and how to adjust that color to something darker or ruddier. Use a different Number One brush for mixing paint.

Brush Care Tips

As you’re selecting your brushes and painting, keep this advice in mind:

Buy your brushes at a hobby store rather than an art store.
Don’t get paint down in the metal sleeve of the brush (called the ferrule).
Clean the brush in cold water after using.
Avoid grinding the bristles into the side or bottom of your water container. (If you’re not careful, the bristles will start pointing out in all directions, which makes detail painting impossible.)
Don’t leave a brush sitting in the water -- that will warp the bristles and ruin the brush.

When Wizards of the Coast announced it was hosting a series of miniatures painting classes for employees, I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve always appreciated the artistry of the painted figures I’ve seen at conventions, but have never taken brush to metal. So it was with the jittery enthusiasm of a kid on the first day of school that I arrived at Miniatures 101: Preparing, Priming, and First Coats.

I should pause here to state that my lack of skill in the visual arts field is legendary. Penmanship was always my worst subject, and to this day I can’t draw or paint a straight line without a ruler (and I’ve only got a 50/50 shot when I do use one). A summer job as a housepainter after college ended (after several spilled buckets, splattered floors, and patchy walls) with an

amicable but firm termination; I "just wasn’t getting it," my soon-to-be ex-boss put it to me. So as I took my seat at class, I held few illusions as to the likelihood of my achieving anything remotely artistic.

My pessimism was rewarded as my classmates arrived. To my left was John, who was taking the classes "to work on the fine details." He’d obviously been painting for years. On my right was Lisa, who casually tossed out insider phrases like "kit-bashing." I was sandwiched between two ringers. I was doomed.

Our instructor took the floor. JD Wiker, RPG designer and co-author of Dragon Magazine’s "Role Models" column, set my mind at ease from the start. He presented our tools: 4 brushes, 6 bottles of paint, a glass of water, a paper plate, a paper towel, and a piece of blank newsprint as our painting surface. (Still stuck on images of grade school, I waited for JD to hand out paint smocks. None appeared.) Our subject: the barbarian from Wizards of the Coast’s Silver Anniversary miniatures set. JD had graciously trimmed off the excess flashing, sprayed each figure black, and then dusted each fig with a light coat of white. We were ready to dive in.

Our first rule ran counter to every dinner-table etiquette lesson I had ever gotten: Keep your elbows on the table! Not only does it help to steady your hands and arms; it also puts the figure at eye level, reducing the need to hunch over the table. It felt awkward at first, but by the end of the hour the posture felt natural.

We started with a simple coat of red on the cape, followed by a base coat of brown for the barbarian’s flesh and armor. This was simple enough, and worries about stray splatters were dismissed thusly by our wise instructor: "The great thing out painting miniatures is that if you get paint somewhere you didn’t want it, you just paint over it." And paint over it I did, several times. A splotch of red on his leg, then a streak of brown on the cape as I fixed the leg, then another unwanted dot of red on his elbow as I patched the cape. Aaaaarrrggh!

Then came the first test of true precision: After a quick lesson in color mixing, we were told to paint "the high parts" of the barbarian’s flesh in flesh tones. This was not, JD assured us, a final coat by any stretch, but rather merely the second layer of many that would give our figs a realistic skin color. So I dabbed and dripped along until the end of class.

The end of class ?!? I was just getting the hang of this painting gig, and now I’d have to wait for the next class to continue my progress? Oh well.

And most importantly, that I’m not as big a messy Marvin as I thought. I escaped with nary a drop on my clothes. Not bad for a first-timer.

Check back next week and see how my barbarian is faring. Next up is Miniatures 102: Inking and Drybrushing. See ya then!