Need painting help, a few questions.

[Cpt_NinjaPants]

Hi all, i am more or less a painting noob, i've been doing it badly for a little while and i need to ask a few questions.

1. HOW THE F'ING H*LL Do you paint white, yellow, and bright colors???? When ever i do it, i just get extremely uneven areas, while some areas are completly uncovered by paint. It's like using pure water as paint.

2. How do i paint in 'dim' colors, it's hard to explain what i mean here. But i'll try my best.When ever i paint say black, it comes out extremely glossy, flahy and stuff, and it looks like it's really think when it's not. How do i make it look well, more normal.

3. How do i drybrush...Well..?

4. What is highlighting? How do i highlight?

I could post pictures, but their'd be no reason, you wont get anything but a out of focus blurry black spot on the images... AKA Crappy Camera, even when set on 'upclose'

[Oberst Hajj]

There will be a painting class (http://www.gamershavenco.com/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=15&day=2007-3-15)at the Haven on the 14th of this month. If you click on that link, you can sign up for it. It is free of charge. Now I'll try to briefly answer some of your questions....

1. Use a white primer when you know you will be painting large amounts of bright colors. If you use a dark or black primer, you can still get clean colors, but they will look much duller. For painting all colors, including black, you have to get the consistency of the paint correct. Make sure you really shake/mix up your paints. Next, place a few drops of water on your pallet. For your pallet, a 4 inch white tile works very well or you can use one of the wet pallets (ask Rob about ordering one of those if there are none in the store). Place a few drops of the paint you will be using close to the water drops. Now, load up your brush with paint and slightly dip it into the water drops. On a clean spot of your pallet, work the paint and water you just put on your brush until it has the consistency of skim milk. Once you get the consistency, or thickness, of the paint correct, it will go much smoother. Bright and light colors will of course take multiple layers to cover well. Just allow each layer to dry for a few minutes before applying the next one.

2. This sounds like you are either painting stuff on way to thick or you might be using the wrong paints. What brand paints do you use?

3. Dry brushing is pretty easy. Load you brush with paint, then on a dry paper towel, "scrub" nearly all of the paint out of the brush. It'll take practice to know how much paint to leave in for the effect you are trying to achieve. With almost all the paint out of the brush, scrub your brush over the area you want to dry brush. The direction you brush the paint on will effect how it looks as well as how much paint you left in the brush. Different shapes and coarseness of brushes will also change the effect it gives. Never use one of your good brushes to dry brush with...it will ruin it. They make brush designed for dry brushing, I recommend getting one or two. The guys at the store can help you out with that.

4. Highlighting is just adding lighter shades of your base color on an area of the mini that is raised or you want to appear as raised. Adding shadows and highlights helps to create the 3D feel of the mini.

Hope this helps some. You might look at getting a How to Paint book at the store as well. I know GW has a nice one out the Rob carries. Books are a great way to get ahead of the steep initial learning curve of mini painting.

[Cpt_NinjaPants]

I'm using GW paint, and i don't put very much on the brush...

[PURGATUS]

Warning: long winded...

It just sounds like you have too much paint on the mini. Although you're not loadin up your brush with paint, you're going too heavy on the layers of paint on the miniature specifically. First off, we live in a dry area of the country, and paint tends to thicken faster here than when I paint at sea level. Thinner paint will help alleviate this problem. Go over the mini emphasising a nice thin smooth layer (as opposed to straight coverage). This will take several layers...

Another important thing to consider is the opacity of the paint. When you try to paint white over black (for instance) it'll take a TON of layers using the method described above. What many experienced painters do is use a more opaque color to provide a "segway" to the lighter color, if you absolutely must paint white on top of black. This is done in two different ways:
1. mix a lighter opaque color (bleached bone in this example) with white, paint it over the black, then paint the white after all o that dries.
2. paint the intermediate color on straight up (bleached bone in this example) and THEN paint white.
I like using technique 2 for several reasons. It's quicker than mixing, I hate mixing colors and avoid it whenever possible--so it's easier to reproduce my work in the future, and most importantly, it allows me to use my dramatic highlighting technique. THAT technique I will cover at the painting class this thursday.

If you come to the class I can show ya how to employ these simple techniques... should only take a sec. As opposed to boring you on the forums :)

as far as the gloss effect, it'll go away when you matte the mini...

[Cpt_NinjaPants]

Alright, i might sign up for the class, i duno if i'd be able to make it tho.

[Cpt_NinjaPants]

On a side note, is it easier/better to assemble and paint, or paint then assemble?

[lambobolt]

depends on what you are assembling. If you are talking about your the new chaos warriors, they are not that bad to assemble and then paint them whole. one lesson learned that i found the hard way is to also think about how you are gonna base them before you prime them, because you may find that you need to base them and then prime the base and the figure at the same time. that saves tons of time later on trying to paint the base black, especially if you are going with a chaos wastes type base.
however, i have seen some people paint the new chaos warriors separately, the body and the cloak. comes to preference really. these models are not that bad to paint in one piece after assembly. some of the older chaos models were hard to paint once assembled because the arms and weapons got in th way of trying to paint the body.
the painting clinic is a great way to learn some of the basic and middle-advanced techniques. esepcially for chaos. once you have learned dry brushing and basic blending, you can paint the chaos warriors to a very good table top standard. and there is not that much flesh, and chaos warriors normally have that dark color, so priming them black makes it much easier. to get your bright colors that you want for tzeench, paint the black primer with white first, then paint the yellow on the white to make it stand out.
there are several really good painters that show up on warhammer wed ngihts too, so you can always ask some of them for basic techniques. my 9-year old should be comng this wed and painting some of his lord of the rings figures, so i can show you the basic dry brush technique on his models, then on thursday you can jump in and learn some of the more advanced painting techniques.

[ColGreeley]

I always put the fig together, and then decorate the base how I want, before I primer the whole thing. Makes it eaiser to paint the base later.

[Cpt_NinjaPants]

Well i primed a entire squad while on the sprue, cuse looking as a assembled chaos model, behind his legs and inner part of his cape look like they will he h*ll to paint, and his sheild if put on before painting.

Also, even tho i am doing Tzeentch, as he is the changer of ways, i don't plan on them being all..Bright and stuff..