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Erkki

Painting tabletop miniatures

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Since there are a lot of board game players here, I thought I'd ask -- has anyone tried painting board game miniatures? I have a couple of favourite games that have cool miniatures and I would love to have for example Cyclades monsters painted. And also the small plastic player units (ships, troops).

 

3ad54ed1ca992b62bf46cc14c631d174.jpg

 

Any hints on where to start? I don't have any materials or tools for this and the last time I held a brush smaller than the ones used for painting walls was probably when doing watercolors or something in school -- so I have no talent for this and kind of worry that I would just screw it up.

 

Also, I'm a bit red-green color blind, so maybe I shouldn't even attempt this? I could mix some colors of paint that would seem totally normal to me, but would be really weird for most people. I remember one day back in art class when I had drawn a guy with green hair while I was pretty sure I had picked brown :(

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I painted a miniature at a booth at PAX 3 years back and really enjoyed it. I went to a local Games Workshop and purchased a LotR orc paint set (http://www.collecttolkien.com/images/Figures/Figure%20Games%20Workshop%20LOTR%20Paint%20Set%20Box%202.jpg) and a few extra colors. There were enough tips in the included book to give me a good idea of what to do from there. I also had a few old pewter figures from the days when I had more time to play D&D so I painted a few of those. I ended up painting 8 figures or so and haven't been back to it in a while.

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There's two ways to approach painting baordgame mini's.

 

1.The traditional tabletop mini style

2. Paint them so they look like classier materials than they actually are (make plastic look like wood, marble, metal etc) this can work very nicely but actually needs pretty strong technique

 

Often the biggest problem with board game pieces it they often aren't designed to take normal mini acrylic paints. theres really no way to know untill you try though so i'd offer these tips

-always do a test on the underside of a piece

-soak plastic pieces in warm soapy water and give them a very light brush with a toothbrush to remove and invisible residue from the manufacture process. Electronic toothbrushes (used gently), and ultrasonic jewellery cleaner units are good for this too just don't use harsh solvent or leave them in a long time.

-use a good quality spray primer, don't ever use auto spray it has a horrible tendency to pool.

-brush wise & paint wise, vallejo are my favourite mix of price and quality for paints and small acrylic brushes though Games workshop have much improved in recent years, army painter do a good budget range & winsor & newton series 7 are the best of the best

 

here's a skaven ship i did a few years back for a GW game called Dreadfleet (its a more traditional tabletop mini than the ones you are talking about but still it not often i get to post about something i feel im legitimately good as so im gonna :D)

post-24580-0-40170700-1430433255_thumb.jpg

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That's really handsome and impressive.

 

tnx!

 

If Erkki wanted i could do a step by step of my process for working on BG pieces.

 

i've been thinking of doing the Minatures from the Spartacus boardgame for a while.

They would be quite a nice challenge for me since unlike tabletop wargamming stuff from games workshop etc since they don't really have a amazing amount of detail on the sculpt's themselves, so you really have to be careful with your painting to enhance that detail and not obscure it.

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Keep this thread going so one day I'll be motivated to paint the tons of miniatures I've been getting from all my Kickstarter board games.

 

Okay thanks!!!

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Yeah, that looks great Codicier!

 

I did some more googling on this and read (just a bit) about the painting process and it looks like there are a lot of complicated steps to get good results. And I realized that painting all the Cyclades player figures would be like a few months part-time work even for someone more experienced... Also, what if I fuck up just one of those things (I was gluing one slightly broken one back together and realized just how tiny they are). Would it be possible to get the colors off again if a horrible mistake is made?

 

On the other hand I saw some painted Cyclades pieces and they looked great, except the player color could be not that obvious any more on some when placed on the board. So another challenge may be to make the player color still dominate for people to identify the pieces from all angles.

 

Now I'm having doubts that maybe I like the idea of having the pieces painted, but maybe not so much the idea of spending months of actually painting them. I'll have to think about it some more before I start :)

 

[edit] Or maybe I should just paint a couple of the monsters, to get an idea how much I would like the process. The Kraken would be so much more impressive on the board when painted. Should I start with a less frequently used one for practice?

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Yeah, that looks great Codicier!

 

I did some more googling on this and read (just a bit) about the painting process and it looks like there are a lot of complicated steps to get good results. And I realized that painting all the Cyclades player figures would be like a few months part-time work even for someone more experienced... Also, what if I fuck up just one of those things (I was gluing one slightly broken one back together and realized just how tiny they are). Would it be possible to get the colors off again if a horrible mistake is made?

 

On the other hand I saw some painted Cyclades pieces and they looked great, except the player color could be not that obvious any more on some when placed on the board. So another challenge may be to make the player color still dominate for people to identify the pieces from all angles.

 

Now I'm having doubts that maybe I like the idea of having the pieces painted, but maybe not so much the idea of spending months of actually painting them. I'll have to think about it some more before I start :)

 

[edit] Or maybe I should just paint a couple of the monsters, to get an idea how much I would like the process. The Kraken would be so much more impressive on the board when painted. Should I start with a less frequently used one for practice?

 

 

Do you have any other board games with fewer pieces you could take on as your first project in place of Cyclades? I'd always advise someone doing this for the 1st time to pick a such a game because as with learning any new craft you want to give yourself nice easily completable goals at first. Once you feel more confident in your work flow taking on a big  project wont feel so intimidating.

 

The techniques used on those pictures you linked are all fairly simple ones (it looks like they have just used a simple dip/wash for shading) and could be done pretty quickly (& improved upon with only a small bit of effort if you so choose). All you need to get stuff done to that quality is to take good care with the prep, be neat and tidy with your brush work, and mix a wash/dip that has the right consistency for the scale your working with, all of which are things which are very doable. I feel like you should be able to get that sort of effect with just a bit of practice.

 

Going forward If you pick your first project out (Be it just the Cyclades monsters or some minis from a another game) I can take a moment to recommended basically everything you'd need to get good result

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Yeah, I could paint for example some of the ships of Merchants & Marauders. There are brown NPC ships that I tend to confuse with the red player's ships due to my color blindness. Painting just those would be actually useful, and I could also apply each flag's colors to them so the cardboard boards below them would become unnecessary.

 

20120419_merchantsmarauders4.jpg

 

Even better might be to start with the field generators of Alien Frontiers (the three larger thingies here):

 

update-5-rewards-alien-frontiers-upgrade

Those are relatively simple, there are just 3 and if I really mess up, I can order the pieces pictured above as a separate box without ruining the whole game.

 

I would really appreciate any advice and recommendations you can give. I don't even really know what kind of materials and tools I need to get to get started other than "some kind of paint" and "brushes".

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I think you can usually clean the paint off, if you use the right stuff? At least that's what people doing custom amiibos or whatever say.

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Yeah, I think I borrowed nail polish remover from my mom back when I was in to Warhammer to remove paint.

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Yeah, I think I borrowed nail polish remover from my mom back when I was in to Warhammer to remove paint.

Careful, depending on what the mini is made of, that can dissolve some kinds of plastic.

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Hey I recently received my first shipment of Kingdom Death: Monsters! I backed this originally with the intent to learn how to paint minis so I could make 'em look awesome. Also maybe try to cover up some of the gross female art, which is really bad. But I love the monster design so much I backed it anyway... at an embarrassingly high level......

 

Anyway now that I have this junk I don't even know where to start.

 

What sort of equipment do I need? Will it cost me an arm and a leg or is it relatively cheap?  If I fuck up, can I easily start from scratch? How do I take the pieces off the plastic grid thing?

 

Help!

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I got brushes (get variety of sizes) from AC Moores or something equivalent for cheap.

 

To cut off plastics from sprue get one of these

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=model+kit+cutters&rlz=1C1ASRM_enUS625US625&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=955&tbm=isch&imgil=2gznth_h5KXH_M%253A%253BdoGoZvXi_V_XWM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.aliexpress.com%25252Fstore%25252Fproduct%25252FTamiya-74001-Model-Kit-Craft-Tool-Side-Cutter-Pliers-Black-for-Plastic-New%25252F1020391_1875602492.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=2gznth_h5KXH_M%253A%252CdoGoZvXi_V_XWM%252C_&usg=__uSYOPLMgyMuC5U9hYbh5-zOR3Fo%3D&ved=0CC4QyjdqFQoTCOLOsJTLkcgCFQRwPgodtGkLEw&ei=mu0EVuKZJITg-QG0062YAQ#imgrc=2gznth_h5KXH_M%3A&usg=__uSYOPLMgyMuC5U9hYbh5-zOR3Fo%3D

 

Then get a small sharp knife (x acto) if you want perfectly clean pieces.

 

Clean and well lit desktop to operate on. You are good to go~!

 

As for fuck ups, well that depends on the fuck ups and your skill.  Some users can repair fuckups done on manufacture's side (lot of WH40k fans seem to be adapt at this as their kits are fucking horrible)... some like me always seem to cut off just little too much from the model :x

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Simple Green all purpose cleaner is perfect for removing paint from plastic figures because it won't damage them.

All of my fig painting knowledge is based on how to make a large number of figures look OK at an arms length quickly, which probably isn't what you're doing but look up dry brushing and dipping just in case!

Also, look up the Cool Mini or Not Ultimate Painting Guide. You can buy it for $10 but a Google search for the title will also deliver more nefarious means of acquiring it.

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Yeah ideally I'd like to do real details on my figures but realistically I know I've never done it before, so it'll probably end up being relatively simple.

 

I also have some CMON (so, good for your suggestion, maybe) games that I could more realistically paint without worrying about crazy detail because these Kingdom Death figures are insanely detailed, this phoenix, holy crap. Also Myth, I got a bunch of those minis, too.

 

...I apparently have a lot of games with minis, now that I think about it.

 

Anyway cool thanks I will look at this stuff.

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Hey I recently received my first shipment of Kingdom Death: Monsters! I backed this originally with the intent to learn how to paint minis so I could make 'em look awesome. Also maybe try to cover up some of the gross female art, which is really bad. But I love the monster design so much I backed it anyway... at an embarrassingly high level......

 

Anyway now that I have this junk I don't even know where to start.

 

What sort of equipment do I need? Will it cost me an arm and a leg or is it relatively cheap?  If I fuck up, can I easily start from scratch? How do I take the pieces off the plastic grid thing?

 

Help!

Painting minis can easily cost you several appendages if your not careful to watch the cost but it all depends what your prepared to pay, if it would be helpful i can post a picture of my painting equipment with a quick rundown of each part and how important i consider them

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Yeah, sure, go wild!

 

I'm probably gonna start pretty simple, paint some zombies for Zombicide, see how that goes.

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post-24580-0-25846400-1443274367_thumb.jpg

Ok staring clockwise from the top left

Brush soap: essential

If your brushes are in bad condition you work will suffer a good brush soap clears off acrylic far better than normal soap or detergent will, plus they will help keep the bristles I good condition. I'd put this as the number one peice of kit people skimp on but will save them money and improve their work I the long term.

Flow enhancer & Retarder: optional

These are both great when you are blending paints or working with glazes or washes where you want a very dilute low opacity paint.

The flow enhancers is the more important of the two since it can help even beginners get a far more even coat of paint

Paint varietys:

Vallejo & Citadel are my paints of choice.

Both these brands are very solid these days. I personally prefer vallejo it is closest out of the bottle to the consistency that should be used when painting and seems to have a nice strong pigment level and dries to a nice silk/matt effect unlike the more glossy citadel.

It's also very worth having washes for most of the primary & tertiary colours

"Technical" paints: optional extra

mimic weather effects like oxidation can also be very useful but you can normally achieve the same effect with a little work.

Weathering 'dust': optional extra

fills a similar role to the technical paints, i like tamiya's best

Artists inks: nearly essential

Artists acrylic inks typically have a very high pigment density and so are great for mixing colours, keeping a black and a white to hand makes mixing shadow or highlight versions of colours very easy

Wet pallet: essential

A wet pallet consists of any sealable waterproof container (here a old bit of take away Tupperware), a layer to hold the water (i use foam cut to fit the container but kitchen towel paper works fine to), and a semi water permeable paper that sits on top (baking paper, greasproof paper, & some types of artists pallet paper will all work).

The idea here is that you get the foam damp put the paper on top to use as a pallet, this should stop your colours drying out too fast and allow you to seal up the pallet at the end of a painting session and resume later without having to remix colours. The thing to be most careful about is the paper getting too damp and starting to come apart leaving small bits of paper in your paint.

Dentist tools: optional

Useful if you are doing any sculpting or repairs to miniatures with putty such as green stuff.

Pin hand Drill: nearly essential

Often it's necessary to 'pin' larger models together using copper wire where super glue alone would struggle to hold the miniature's weight.

Needle files: essential

Often even the best quality cast will have mould lines and flash around the edges, which can ruin a otherwise great paint job.

Brushes:

You get what you pay for & it's worth paying a decent amount, id advise a 1,0, & a 00 as a good starting selection with maybe a larger basecoat brush and a smaller 000 or 0000 for fine detail.

Windsor & Newton series 7: the gold standard of minute painting brushes but perhaps more expensive than needed unless you are very confident in your skills and need the precision they allow.

Vallejo & Citadel: once again both these produce good sable brushes (& once again i prefer vallejo) more than fine for pretty much anyone who's not painting to win awards.

Jewellers eye glass: optional

Can be great for dying very small details such as eyeballs or painting free hand patterns or images.

Wine cork: optional

Sometimes you won't want to be handling the miniatures while you paint them, maybe you want to put a wash over the whole thing or whatever. By attaching the mini to a old wine cork using either some bluetak (or the pin if you've used one) like it was a plint, you can hold it and turn it without smudgeing paint or getting your fingers dirty.

Spare paint pots: optional

if you are painting a whole army or squad you will want to be able to mix consistent colours to use through out. Also having at least one pipette/dropper to help get the paint and flow enhancer, retarder ratios correct is useful

I think that's it hopefully that's a good start for any thumb who's interested

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And now I know what I need to buy!

 

Thanks Codi, much appreciated. :D

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Codicier, do you use a primer to start? That's maybe the only thing I don't see in your excellent guide.

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Codicier, do you use a primer to start? That's maybe the only thing I don't see in your excellent guide.

I use vallejo model air primer together with a airbrush to do my priming, typically i will u do a two coat zenelith prime, using first a grey coat from beneath the model then a dusting of a fine white coat from above to create natural shadows to work with.

I'd recommend this grey/white combo in most situations as it both acts as a visual guide and brightens/darkens the paints you are working with without resorting to the harshness of black

In terms of spray primer in a can it's the usual suspects games workshop, vallejo, army painter

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Man I wish I had money right now so I could buy this equipment and get started. I hope my motivation doesn't run dry before that next paycheck.

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