Miniature Painting by Mike Howell

for Planeswalker’s Magic Bag August 23, 2008

Preparing the Miniature:

Mold lines are the enemy. Nothing distracts from a well painted miniature like an obvious mold line. For
gaming miniatures make sure you remove mold lines visible from gaming angles. Don’t be reluctant to scrape and
repaint.
Pin pesky parts. If you think the mini might break apart at a certain point, it probably will. Pin now or regret it
later. Paperclips make great pins.
Think about obstructed areas. If you are going for high quality, make sure you don’t assemble the model so
that certain areas will be impossible to paint. Pinning things for gluing later can help with progressive assembly.
Figure out how to hold the miniature. Don’t touch the mini while you paint it! Either hold the base or
attaching the base to something if at all possible.
Learn the model by brush priming. Understanding the sculpt is key to a quality paint job. Slow, careful
brush priming is an easy way to prepare a model and learn the intricacies of it at the same time.

Before you Paint:

Have a plan… or don’t! If there’s a technique you want to try, research it! Find reference photos, look for
other minis painted that way, decide on a complementing color scheme, etc. Or just start painting and see where it
leads!
Pick a lighting direction. Painting is all about light and shadow. Deciding where the light is coming from will
help you figure out if a particular part of the mini is in shadow, and lighting direction is crucial for zenithal
highlighting.
Basing: before or after? This is a personal preference matter, but worth discussion. I prefer to base before
painting to ensure that the act of basing does not damage the paint job. Alternately, the model can be prepared with
pins and pinned to the basing after painting (especially for complex or scenic basing.) Also, gluing the model to the top
of the basing avoids “sunk in the dirt” syndrome.

Working with paint:

The Goal: Whether painting for quality or gaming, your goal should be smooth coverage. Training yourself to be
patient and follow some best practices will avoid bumpy and inconsistent coverage.
Mix your paint. Even after mixing in the bottle, mixing paint a bit on the palette can help smooth it out and avoid
lumps of hardened acrylic medium.
Thin your paint. I should put stars around this one. This is the #1 thing you can do to achieve high quality
painting. Different people have different cocktails of water, flow enhancers, acrylic mediums and even saliva (I’m an
admitted brush-licker.) Figure out what works for you, but thin your paint!
Control your brush load. Now that you’ve thinned your paint you’re trying to figure out how to stop it from
flowing into all the cracks of your model, aren’t you? The answer is brush load control. A small amount of paint on a
good brush can be applied to the areas you are painting, and should actually stay and dry there. If the paint is wicking
off the brush then you need to use smaller brush loads. Use a coffee filter to suck some paint off the brush if you need
to.
Use multiple thin coats. Here’s another “star subject.” You will not get good color in one coat. If you are then
your paint is probably too thick and will have texture after it dries. For really high quality pieces I use 10-20 coats of
paint for most areas, and 30-60 coats when I am highlighting an area as subtly as I can. Have patience and it will be
rewarded.
Use the right brush: Don’t buy a 20/0 brush or something with 3 hairs in it. They don’t work for acrylic
painting. Get a Kolinsky Sable brush, size 1, 0, or 00 (aka 2/0.) The brush needs to have enough body to hold the
thinned out paint for long enough to get it to the mini before it dries, and has a razor-fine point when wet. Winsor &
Newton Series 7 is my favorite.
Take care of your brush. The metal part of the brush is called the ferrule. Do not let paint get into the ferrule,
because that will cause the bristles to lose their alignment when the paint dries, which will make the brush lose its point
and fray. Clean your brush often while painting, even if you don’t change colors, in fairly clean water (not paint
sludge!)
Adding depth to your painting:
Beginning: washes, dry brushing. Getting away from the “flat” look can be a challenge for beginning
painters (it was for me!) A wash seeps into the cracks of the model to simulate shading, tinting the low spaces more
than the high spaces. Citadel’s, Reaper’s or Privateer Press’ line of washes are all great for no-fuss washes. Dry
brushing a lighter color than the base coat is handy for raised surfaces like hair or chainmail or hard edges like armor
plates. Make sure the brush is very almost completely dry and use varied direction to avoid the “dusty” look.
Intermediate: edge highlighting, fine detail, dark lining. Delineating / differentiating one area from
another on a mini goes a long way toward improving the look. Edge highlighting is an easy way to show delineation
between surfaces. Games Workshop’s ‘eavy Metal team uses this method a lot, and any army book / codex will have
good examples of it. Basically, just line any hard edges with a lighter color than the base. It gives a nice result for the
effort. Fine detail work (like buttons, straps, small freehand work) requires a good brush (see above) and a knowledge
of the model to actually know what you are painting. Pick out details and either highlight or dark line in such a way
that the surrounding area is different. Dark lining is the opposite of edge highlighting. Basically it is drawing a dark
link along the deep side of an edge to better emphasize that two things are meeting there. Details like buttons can be
dark lined again the surrounding area by touching them with a dot of wash and letting it flow to surround the button.
Advanced: zenithal highlighting, object sourced lighting. Unlike edge highlighting, zenithal
highlighting involves highlighting based on how much light would be hitting a given part of the model. A flat surface
reflects more light the more normal (or “flatter” you could say) it is to the light source. This can be challenging, and
requires you to simulate light direction very consistently. Zenithal highlighting with inconsistent light direction looks
very odd. Object sourced lighting is the simulation that an object is the source of some light, not just your main light
source. Use very thin coats of paint to tint the surfaces that would be illuminated, and remember that the source of the
light would be the brightest version of that color. An object glowing red can be represented as yellow or white with the
surfaces it is shining on looking more red and less yellow over distance.

Resources:
Cool Mini Or Not (http://coolminiornot.com) Large repository of painted mini pictures and great
friendly forums where members are glad to leave helpful feedback if you post your WIP (work in progress) photos.
There are also a large number of tutorials there written by world class painters.
Brush Thralls (http://brushthralls.com) Great tutorials for Privateer Press minis that show great foundation
techniques.
Demon Winner (http://demonwinner.free.fr) Repository of Golden Demon winning minis for many years
back. Pure inspiration.
Paintrix Miniatures (http://www.paintrix-miniatures.com/) The site of Jen Haley. Her articles
helped me a great deal when I first starting to improve my painting.

My Stuff:
Blog: (http://hakomike.blogspot.com) I post WIP pics sometimes, as well as link to other painters I like.
Portfolio: (http://coolminiornot.com/artist/hakomike) My painted minis on Cool Mini Or Not.

About me:
Mike Howell has been painting miniatures since 2004. He won a bronze Golden Demon in
Chicago in 2008 and has been awarded two other Golden Demon honorable mentions.
Commissions are available.

Email: 40kpainter@gmail.com (feel free to ask for painting advice)

This document posted at:

http://people.emich.edu/jhowell/painting/minipainting.pdf