Nowadays you can hardly open a new board game without it being packed with beautiful plastic miniatures. Epic monsters in your dungeon crawler, heroic warriors in historical simulations… even the modern version of Catan has a mini highwayman instead of the old-fashioned black pawn. Although these figures have of course been modeled with a lot of blood, sweat and tears by talented designers, it is up to you, the player, to provide the finishing touches to these works of art.
With this first tutorial I want to help the absolute beginner, who has yet to make his first brushstroke and doesn't know where to start, get started. Probably the first mini you want to paint is a hero or character that you get to work on yourself, so Aragorn from Fantasy Flight Games ' Journeys in Middle Earth seemed like a perfect example to start with. Don't have this game? No problem. You can use these techniques on any other human figure, realistic or fantasy, as long as you go for that woodsman vibe.
Don't I need a lot of stuff and paint, you might wonder? You can get as crazy as you want with this hobby, but for the first few tutorials I will only be working with the Army Painter Warpaints Starter Set . Here you will find 9 colors of paint (1 of which is metallic), a jar of Strong Tone Quickshade to give extra depth to your paint job and a brush. What else you need is not too bad:
A pot of clean tap water
Kitchen roll or tissues
Primer (this can be purchased here in handy spray cans)
A palette : this can be an old plate or a piece of hard plastic, but for keeping your paint wet for a long time I recommend this wet palette
Something to hold your mini with, for example an old pill bottle or a (champagne) cork with some kneaded eraser
We start the project by attaching the model to a holder. Make sure you use something that fits comfortably in your hand and is not too heavy (I like to take a bath myself and the bath foam caps are perfect for this, for example...). Put a wad of kneaded eraser on this and press your mini firmly onto it. Once you're sure that damn thing isn't going anywhere, we can move on.
In order for the paint to adhere properly to the plastic model, we need an underlayer of primer. This is available in all kinds of colors, but it is best for the novice painter to just go for black. If you forget to paint a part, it is still a nice piece of shadow. Only use spray cans of primer outside when it is completely dry. Also make sure that the air is not too humid, for example just after a rain shower, as this will damage the spray paint before it reaches your mini. Hit the mini from all sides with short sprays so that you don't get too much primer on the model and let it dry for quite some time when you're done. I understand that you want to start as quickly as possible, but 24 hours of drying time really ensures the best results.
When the primer is completely dry, we can start with the first colors. One piece of advice that applies to both novice and seasoned painters is that it is easiest to paint from the inside out. That is, start with the parts that are 'deeper' such as the skin, then the lower clothing, the clothing above that and so on. So we also start with the base of Aragorn's skin. I use The Army Painter Barbarian Flesh from the Army Painter Warpaints Starter Set. I always shake the bottles of paint well before putting a good drop on my palette. The paint itself is a bit too thick to just spread on the mini, so I add some water with my brush to stir the paint into a milky substance.
I clean my brush well before I start and make sure there is not too much paint in it before I color the parts with skin. It is always better to color within the lines, but don't be too afraid to make a few mistakes here and there. We'll just correct this later. Because the paint is diluted, the coverage will probably not be completely good after one coat. Once the first layer has dried sufficiently (I assume about 10 minutes) I can easily paint another layer on top to complete the coverage.
Once the Barbarian Flesh has dried nicely, I move on to Aragorn's hair. You can of course choose what hair color you give him, but I choose a dark brown color that consists of a mixture of The Army Painter Leather Brown and The Army Painter Black . You can of course play with the ratio a bit to make it darker or lighter. Don't make it too dark, as this will cause the hair to lose a lot of definition in later steps.
I continue from the inside out and mix a nice shade of green for the inner layer of clothing. I combine a little The Army Painter Greenskin to taste with Matt Black for a deep dark green color and paint the shirt and pants with it, without painting the edges. You can of course also go for pure Greenskin, but I think it would be better to make it a little darker for the atmosphere of the forest. Of course I also apply this color again in two thin layers.
For the cloak I use a little Greenskin again, but this time mixed with some Leather Brown to make a cool natural color green that might provide some shelter. Make sure you also paint the part between his legs that is visible from the front. Do I need to say that it is best to apply two thin layers?
You will find all kinds of leather pieces scattered throughout the mini. I first give all these pieces a base of two coats of pure Leather Brown. This includes the scabbard of the sword, the various belts and belts, his boots and the protectors on his wrists. We can make the higher details on these protectors and sword sheath a bit more interesting by mixing some The Army Painter Matt White into our Leather Brown. I carefully pick out the raised details with this lighter color, after which I can immediately correct any messed up spots with pure Leather Brown.
We are almost there! I mix a little Matt Black and Matt White together to make a light gray. I paint this on the edge of Aragorn's shirt and on the hilt of his sword. Once I'm done with this, I touch up the messed up edges on the shirt with my dark green mixture.
Now all that's left is the metal parts. These are pieces such as his sword, the dagger, the buckle of his cloak and the buckles on belts, boots and on his shirt. Shake your jar of The Army Painter Plate Mail Metal very well, as the metallic powder can sink considerably to the bottom after standing still for a long time. Dilute this with some water, but not as much as your other paint to prevent separation of the pigment. You will recognize this automatically if a kind of drop of transparent paint is created where the color kind of 'slips'.
Now that the mini is fully colored, there's only one thing left to do. Once the paint has had time to dry, I take The Army Painter Quickshade Strong Tone and, after shaking it well, I apply it over the entire model. You will notice that this is a very thin paint that automatically creeps into all the cracks and shadows. I spread the Quickshade over the mini with my brush and when I see large pools forming, I wipe the brush dry on the kitchen roll to suck away some of the liquid. This Quickshade has a slightly longer drying time than normal paint of about half an hour to an hour. A great time to tidy up your stuff, think about your next miniature, or of course to pick out a nice new game at De Games Vrienden .
Basically you are now done with your first thumbnail. Congratulations! I hope you found it a fun experience that is worth repeating. There are two more optional steps you could take to really give your miniature the finishing touch: You could touch up the colors that have become a bit dark due to the Quickshade with the normal color you used. This makes skin tones and other light colors in particular less 'dirty', but that is a choice you can make yourself. In addition, you can apply a layer of varnish to protect your miniature against scratches, dents and other misery. For general use, I recommend using a spray can of satin varnish, like this one . Just like the primer, only apply outdoors in dry and not too cold weather.
Hopefully see you soon in the next tutorial where we will tackle the next mini from Journeys in Middle Earth.
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