Collection of Painting Tips

Tips collected on my travels through the web and added together to give an insight into how different painters achieve what they do. There are tips for the following techniques:

Painting tips

Here's a couple of pictures of pictures of models and events.

How to paint white:

White - easiest is to start off with a white undercoat. For pure white just paint white over the undercoat. Remember to keep the white thinned because their is so much white oxide in the paint that it can get very grain very quickly. If painting up white from a black undercoat, or to give the white some tonal depth, then build up to white. For a neutral white build up using neutral greys like codex grey then fortress grey then white. For cooler whites build up from the blue tinted greys like shadow grey then space wolves grey then white. For warmer whites build up from the pale browns like desert yellow to bleached bone to white.

Toby - WAU

  1. Black undercoat
  2. Codex Grey
  3. Codex Grey mixed with Fortress Grey
  4. Skull White

Big_Red - WAU

You could start with a white undercoat, do a thin wash of space wolves grey or a very light blue (ice blue) and then drybrush with white until you're happy. That will give a "pure/untouched" white (sense of holiness etc that's good for Sisters). A grey undercoat i.e. codex grey, will give more of a "dirty" white.

Eden Bird (Reiksmarshall - WAU)

  1. White spray
  2. Bleached bone (Which can be watered down and painted fast in 2-3 coats)
  3. A thin wash of Chestnut Ink with a dash of black
  4. Highlight with Bone then Bone/Skull White

Dobbsy - WAU

  1. GW skull white
  2. Vallejo Sky Blue
  3. GW Electric blue for darker areas
  4. Highlighted w/a mix of the Sky and Electric

John Zammit (JZ - Ozgamers)

Specifically for Space Marines:

  1. Light undercoat white (some grey plastic is left in the deep recesses)
  2. Highlight white (the undercoat isn't quite white, especially with a light coat)
  3. Blackline sutures using a graphics pen
  4. Detail
  5. Gloss

How to paint yellow:

Geoff Tewierik (GT)

Use Vallejo paints, not GW as they don't have enough pigment in them.

John Zammit (JZ - Ozgamers)

Yellow - probably the thinnest of pigmented paints it's the hardest to work with. Either undercoat white and build up the yellows from the darker yellow tones to the lighter yellow tones, or if working from a black undercoat build up from the yellow-browns to the real yellows.

Bolognius Maximus - WAU

I start with a Fiery Orange coat over white primer, followed by Golden Orange, Sunburst Yellow, and finally Bad Moon Yellow.

Dave-Wa - WAU

White undercoat with golden yellow, yellow ink, then a coat of 3 parts yellow ink/ 1 part chesnut or flesh ink, highlight up golden yellow and sunburst yellow.

Tom (Budda - WAU)

  1. White undercoat
  2. Golden Yellow
  3. Sunburst Yellow Highlight
  4. Yellow Ink
  5. Cracks in the armour, Ink with Chestnut Ink

This turned out quite well, and for an even more severe highlight, use Sunburst mixed with some Skull White, for a real sharp finish.

Christopher Widenbar (Several Concerned Cricket - WAU)

Yellow from a black undercoat:

3-4 layers of nice thin Vomit Brown form a nice yellow-brown basecoat. From there highlight to taste really, the fella below is layered from 70/30 VB/Golden Yellow to 30/70 VB/GY to straight GY to 70/30 GY/Bad Moon Yellow with a final touch of 50/50 GY/BMY for the highest points.

How to paint Red:

John Zammit (JZ - Ozgamers)

Red - simply work up from the dark reds to the bright reds. Another easier method on a black undercoat is to paint layers of thinned red, with each new layer the colour will intensify. For that redder than red look finish off with straight red ink for the full pigment soaking experience, careful though it will be shiny (great for red gems)

How to paint Metallics:

John Zammit (JZ - Ozgamers)

Metallic armour - easy and effective, but always work from a black undercoat. For a neat look build up from the darker metals and highlight using the lighter metals. For a fast method, or for unsteady hands, paint with a lighter metal, then 50/50 ink/water wash, then re-highlight. Inks work particularly well with metals since the metal particles in the paint stop the dreaded "ink- wicking" effect. Try coloured inks over silvers, or brown inks over gold.

Painting Woodgrain:

Assaultguardsman - WAU

  1. Chaos black U/C
  2. Cover EVERYTHING (it will bite you in the ass, trust me) with scorched brown
  3. Heavy Drybrush with bestial brown
  4. Medium drybrush 70/30 bestial/bubonic brown
  5. Scorched brown wash

Repeat untill necessary, mixing greater portions of bubonic brown to lighten it to the desird shade. ALWAYS do the scorched brown wash. If you need to go lighter, build to a 70/30 buboicbrown/skull white drybrush, with less scorched washes. NOTTE: the last step in any wood should be a drybrush, not a wash, to prevent glistening and blotchiness.

Carters - WAU

Just use scorched brown as the base coat followed by bestial brown heavy drybrush, then follow that with a light drybrush of bleached bone (very light)

NMM Gold:

Kane Tucker (Ghetti on WAU)

Yes, NMM Gold, with no mixing what-so-ever!

Hard to believe, I know, but trust me. I was able to sneak in a few minutes to do a test on a new NMM version I'd been thinking about. Grabbed a fantasy orc warlord I had never got round to painting (Grimjaw I think?) and went to work.

The paints I used were: Bestial Brown, Vermin Brown, Leprous Brown, Golden Yellow, Skull White and Flesh Wash Ink.

  1. Apply a base colour of Bestial Brown. Bestial brown is great for coverage over black undercoats. Don't worry too much about getting into the recesses, actually, i recommend covering the total surface area you wish to have the NMM Gold on.
  2. A simple ink wash of Flesh Wash. This helps define the detail and shows you the exact places you should leave alone.
  3. Apply Vermin Brown to all the raised areas, leaving the recesses alone. Make sure you do not overload the brush!
  4. Apply Leprous Brown within the Vermin Brown areas above, emphasis should be kept to the raised areas, leaving a certain amount of Vermin Brown still showing at the edges. NB: Leprous Brown is now out of production, but most GW Stores have a cache hidden away some where, do yourself a favour and go out now, right now, and get some. A fantastic colour!
  5. Apply a highlight of Golden Yellow on the raised edges of the Leprous Brown, use a small amount of water to help blend it to the Leprous. It should be looking pretty good at the momment, the final touch is icing on the cake.
  6. 'Icing on the cake' time! With a very fine brush apply very small amounts of watered Skull White to particular raised points, where the light is most likely to catch.

    7. Viola, a very easy to apply and yet relatively effective NMM gold... by no means 'Sky-Earth' NMM, but still rather effective and nice to look at.