Share painting techniques

Aiyah, other quality the same. As long as they are not cheap la. If a person comes up to me and says "paint this army for me". Then the paint job depends on how much he pays me. If he el-cheapo then of course la he cannot complain about quality. A guy's got to eat and paint ain't free.LOL

Haha... so who is this el-cheapo you referring to?


I rather paint my own stuff... maybe i should paint for bucks too... poor...

Of course la i won't say who. They are still my customers ma. Only Jase and a few knows my situation. So they don't try to cutthroat me.

Well bro, overall I'm happy with the paint job that's also why I ended up with so many models ><

Need more jobs later!!

Ok edited... not sure if edited enough... fingers cross

heee... now that i think of it i think i know who this el-cheapo is. Yeah i agree, some people thinks that it is easy to paint, and that our time is worth peanuts. Especially with conversion works and sculpting...

oh well... you get what you paid for la... haha...

But here i seriously encourage people to paint or at least experience painting. It is a very fun hobby. (I don't mean to put down Sotong Saitan's business. So "Please Do Not Delete This Post") I am just asking people to give painting a chance, and if they really don't like it or have no time, know that there are always merc painters around for you.

I also encourage people to paint their own models.

I can only endure painting the same models 3 times. Im just the alternative.

yeah! i tried painting for other people... the attention to detail and the constant need to consistent quality kills me...

For me it is doing a favour + getting paid, will only do it for people i respect or people i am trying to help. The money helps la... but the separation is painful... especially if the guy don't play with the things i painted... then i sad.

But if they see lots of table time... i am happy.

Well I must say this is an interesting turn of events...

Well what I can comment i that is that ppl have thier own reason to start collective miniatures. Some ppl dont give 2 cents for painting so thats why they commision it to others well some find painting them miniature more exicting that they throw awat the game aspect of the hobby.

As 4 me, my primary motivation is the painting aspect but I fully embrace the gaming too. So to each to its own. Btw, any of you guys experiment with creating thier own washes? (the wood stain idea is very interesting)

The wood stain i use is WATER base (very important if you don't want a mess) It is too think to use right out of the bottle, and the pigmentation is too strong. So i watered it down with some water and satin varnish.

I only uses it to get details out. And as an experiment in creating stone effects. I am very happy with the effect, they are very very strong colours, and they tend to go in to the lines and details. BUT! they are THICK! so if you apply too much you run the risk of filling up the details... yeah... can also do the shaky thing, but i just apply with a brush...

I also have self mixed black wash, it is just simple Paint + Water + Varnish + a drop of washing detergent (seriously, a puny drop).

I use to have a bottle of Red+Black, Blue+Black and Brown+Black... but have since finished and am too lazy to mix up a new batch.


I don't do a over coat of wash anymore, now i apply them in a more controlled manner, letting it seep in to crevices, and are generally a darker tone of the main colour i use.

Am goign to experiment the stain on some of Jesse models soon... muahahahaha...


I love to experiment with many different painting method...

For me, I have no time, space and undisturbed space/time. If i start to paint, which happened recently, my son wants to do the same. And being acrylic paint, it's not that good for youngsters, so i'm forced to outsource for now.

The interest is to paint myself eventually, but for the moment, i would rather concertrate on actually playing the game.

But all the methods posted here is interesting, each have their own style/flair for painting, so eventually i'll do it..

Zhuala wrote:from what it understand, undercoat also determine the theme of your model. if the model is an evil char. go for black if good white..

Basically what you said. If you want a darker theme go with a black undercoat. If you want a bright theme overall then go with white. Even PP uses black undercoat from what I can see in the forcebook/rulebooks.

For me it really comes down to the colour scheme of your models. When I painted my Phoenix I went with a black undercoat as I wanted to follow the paint guide in the forcebook. It definitely work but the phoenix's shoulder pads alone has about 14-15 layers of paint on it. As mentioned this will definitely turn new painters off. Rather for a new painters I would recommend a white undercoat then a normal white coat followed by something offwhite for shading followed by white highlights. You will get the same effect if not the same depth.

In your case zhuala I think black is a decent option as you went for a more grimy version of cygnar. However if you wanted them all shiny and spotless white would have worked out better for you as you wouldnt need as much layers.

The key to painting as many on here have stress is in the layers. The more you layer the more depth your model will have and it will pop out more in general.

Try it out with your Cygnus (the goose emblem or what ever it is on your jack). I suggest mixing brown with the yellow for a darker yellow and progressively make it lighter. Once you get a hang of that then the rest will get easy. Also download a colour pallete of the web. Im sure I remember seeing one on coolminiornot.com at some point. That will help as well. Finally if you need advise feel free to ask specific questions on this forum or any other such forum as well. As most painters will tell you most of their coolest techniques were achieved by "accident" rather than deliberate. Most of the intricacies of painting were discovered by trial and error for those of us without a bachelors in art For example I only recently learnt that to line a beige colour the best colour to use is brown rather than black. I mean the black isnt bad but brown is in a totally different class.

BTW I still consider myself an extremely amateur painter and am in no way as qualified as some of the painters on this forums but I hope whatever limited knowledge that I might have will help you. Also for a "beginner" painter yourself you have done an amazing job with your models. I wish I had that much skill when I first started.

hmmm.. the colour wheel. very useful

I use to follow that strictly, only complementary colours, contrasting colours for things i want to stand out.

But recently after looking at Rackam stuff... damn! those people are blending green in to red! and it looks AWESOME! so i follows...

I prefer undercoating with white, then base coat with either brown or grey, leaving out black for metallic colours.

Brown base coat brings out "hot" colours more with fewer coats. Grey for "cool" colours. These coats don't even have to be uniform and tidy as well. It just have to be enough to bring the colours out easier.

(e.g: hot colours: red, orange, olive green, yellow, etc.)
(e.g: cool colours: any shade of blue, white, viridian-ish green, etc.)

Cold: Blue Green Shades
Hot: Red Yellow Shades

What about purple then? Purple can go both ways, just have to see if it is closer to the Red spectrum or Blue. I personally love Purple. I belief my first bottle of paint was purple (worm purple or Warlock purple... can't remember). But purple is not easy to highlight or shade....

i dabble with purple for my friend's cryx army. I can suggest you can use paynes grey for shading (you might want to lighten it up) coz of it dark blueish grey. As for highlight maybe this is a noob method but i gradually mix my purple batch with a bit of red and the final highlight mix with off-white (linen is good). Any tips on doing weathered horns or skulls?

DemoNSquiD wrote:I also encourage people to paint their own models.

I can only endure painting the same models 3 times. Im just the alternative.

Don't worry bro at most I make u paint once on each model in WM/H still working on it.

Wahh... all words here, how to understand. its a painting thread so let's see some pictures boys!

YEARGH i second the picture request.

Zhula.... you sounds like a pro le? dual tone blending... not easy eh... good job! I will try it ouy.

walau don't say pro lah, i only like to experiment these things trial and error. for picture i like the idea of a painting dairy that show the step you did, maybe when im confident enough or free i should start one

Yup I would like to see some nice minis

As for now I believe currently I got most painted model and I only say 1 word "Sotong"

lol page four of painting thread with zero pics..

If you guys are really showing 'techniques'. I would say record it on video and post it on youtube. Seeing a fully painted mini doesnt show justice as to how you manage to do the painting. Unless you really show step by step... but that's too many photos man. Show technique!! Post in youtube!!

sh*t my college just blocked youtube 5 minutes ago lol!!!!!!!