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Miniatures:
On Your Own
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:
Stage Three "Washing" is a technique in which you add thinned-down paint or ink to a figure to emphasize the deep parts -- effectively creating shadows where there really aren’t any. You can use either paint or ink, mixed with water. Ink is better, but in a pinch, paint will do. Begin by mixing brown ink or paint with water until it’s the consistency of very runny milk. Then paint it on all the flesh-toned areas of the barbarian. Suddenly, the muscle definition becomes much clearer! While you’re waiting for the flesh tones to dry, thin some black ink with water. Then, paint over the barbarian’s armor, armbands, and boots. While that’s drying, mix a little of your black ink with about three times as much red, until you have a nice, dark red. Add a bit more water, then paint this mix all over the barbarian’s cloak. The "cloth" parts of a miniature, especially cloaks, really bring out the value of washing; the deep parts are so deep, a lot of the wash collects there and enhances the illusion of folds.
Stage Four Next you’ll begin "drybrushing." The name comes from the fact that your paintbrush has very little paint on it -- essentially, you wipe most of the paint off the brush before you touch it to the miniature. The point of drybrushing is the opposite of (and complimentary to) washing: to emphasize the darkness of the deep parts by making the shallow parts lighter. The first lesson of drybrushing is "lightening." To make something lighter, you add white, right? But if you mix red with white, you get pink, which is NOT what you want for your barbarian. The secret of lightening red is to add orange, then lighten the mixture with white. Now, lightly drag your brush across the folds. Voila! The high parts are lighter, the low parts are darker. Adding white proves especially important when drybrushing the barbarian’s flesh. In Miniatures 101, I explained that flesh tone was essentially orange, white, red, and brown. Mixing in the white, you see that the paler your initial flesh tone coat was, the more white you have to add in to drybrush it. The barbarian could end up pretty pasty if you started too pale. You can correct this problem by completely remixing the flesh tone and painting it all over again. (Never hesitate to cover up old mistakes!) The second basic lesson of drybrushing is painting "against the grain." That is, if the folds of the cloak are vertical, you drag the paintbrush across horizontally. And vice versa. The third lesson is pressure: The more pressure you apply to the brush when drybrushing, the deeper the paint goes. So, adding another, lighter coat on top of your previous drybrushing gives you yet another layer. You can continue this as long as you like, though eventually, you’ll have pure white in a very thin line, which will look like a sharp crease. It’s a great effect for things with sharp edges, but not a rugged barbarian’s cloak.
Stage Five: Begin with painting coats of black on various small items: the belt, a leather strap across the barbarian’s thigh, the chains across both thighs, and the barbarian’s necklace. Smaller items like these tend to get lost against other colors unless you call attention to them by "outlining" them in black first. While that is drying, mix black paint with a little metallic paint, the overall result being a dark iron color. Paint the head of the barbarian’s axe this color rather than the pure "silver" of the metallic paint -- you can mix metallic colors with nonmetallics this way to get interesting effects. Go back and drybrush a little bit of unmixed silver over the chains on the barbarian’s legs. Paint the medallions on his necklace solid silver. Again, leave the black outline to help draw attention to these items. Painting the edge of the axe blade with unmixed silver simulates that the barbarian had recently sharpened his axe, exposing the brighter metal. Next, paint the base solid black. Once it is dry, drybrush the flagstones in various shades of gray. You can mix gray with brown, or blue, or red, for various effects. If you’re really ambitious, you can paint individual stones in different colors and shades. The next step is to paint the leather strap on the barbarian’s leg and the one holding his axe together. Because the color beneath the axe-strap was mostly black anyway, you don’t have to outline that area; just paint the strap brown (or red-brown, if you like). Finish up this stage by painting black the ten plates running down the center of the barbarian’s armor. Again, this is just "outlining." If you’re really ambitious, paint the little metal studs black as well, in preparation to paint each of them to look like part of studded leather. But wait! We haven’t painted the barbarian’s hair! Mix a very light gray, and paint the barbarian’s hair, beard, moustache, and eyebrows. As it dries, drybrush white over it. (Notice that hair is particularly easy to drybrush.) Remember, when you want to highlight white, you must start with something darker, then lighten it to white. Obviously, you can’t lighten pure white, any more than you can darken pure black.
Stage Six: We’re down to the fine detail work, now. Start by painting a small red spot on the bandage on the barbarian’s right arm. (Hey, he’s wearing a bandage for a reason!) When you drybrush the bandage with white, it gives the impression that the blood is soaking through the bandage. While you have the white paint out, drybrush the teeth on the barbarian’s necklace, using your smallest brush and very, very light strokes. The effect you create here is one of mostly white teeth with dark roots. This same technique works well on horns, claws, spines, and so on; you can vary the color slightly by adding yellow, brown, or whatever. Highlighting the axe involves a departure from the usual drybrushing method. To give the edges of the axe (the cutting edge, for example) a truly "sharp" look, you need a thin line of white. To accomplish this, get white paint on the bristles -- remembering to wipe most of it off -- then move the bristles sideways along the edge. That is, rather than stroking with the brush, you hold it at a right angle to the edge to be brushed, then slide the brush the whole length of the edge. Voila! A thin white line, with no drybrush marks. All the metal bits on the barbarian’s armor require that you paint the black plates silver, leaving the black outline for effect. Next, go over each little black dot with a smaller dot of silver. Since the silver stud on the silver plates won’t stand out, you might want to paint a black dot there as well, before you paint the silver stud that holds each plate in place. The final step is to paint the eyes. I’ve learned several tricks for painting eyes over the years, and which one I use depends on the quality of the miniature. In this case, we have a well-detailed miniature, so you can actually see the eye itself -- not just a crease where the eye would be. First, paint an almond shape in the eye sockets using brown paint. Nothing to it, really. Now the fun part: paint a thin white line right through this dark area. (When there’s little detail on the face, I generally just paint the area with a darker flesh tone, since that’s what the eyes would look like at a distance.) Obviously, for both steps, use your smallest brush. While the eyes are drying, think about "pupil placement." Ordinarily, putting a black dot in the middle of the eye works just fine. But what if the barbarian is looking at a smaller or larger foe? What if the foe is standing to the left or right? Painting a "half-dot" at the bottom of the white line simulates an eye looking down (or anger, depending on the facial expression), while painting the same half-dot at the top of the white line simulates looking up (or glowering). Painting the dot on one end of the white line or the other indicates that the figure is looking somewhere other than straight ahead. The real trick is getting both eyes to look the same direction! It’s easy to fix if you accidentally paint the pupils differently; just paint the white line again. But to do it right the first time requires a steady hand and lots of practice. That’s why it helps to have painted all those metal studs first: You used the same general technique, and if you can get the dot of silver on top of the stud without spreading it to the leather underneath, you’ve mastered the basic principle. And what do you know? The miniature is painted! As Brian mentions, regardless of your satisfaction with your own finished product, it is indeed a finished product! And it didn’t take days of painting, drying, repainting, and drying again. In total, it should have taken you less than four hours to give the barbarian a thorough paint job. Okay, so you may not win any awards -- yet. But your next figure will be a quantum leap in skill and experience!
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Stage
Zero
