May Oath and basic painting tips

No in depth discussion today, just work in progress pictures for my May Oath.  I also promised a friend I would take step by step pictures, but I kinda forgot (sorry Ari!), so I'll settle for talking about painting process. Again.

What a terrible picture

Preparation.  With a craft knife, sandpaper and/or file, remove any excess plastic or metal ("flash") from the figure.  Also smooth down any ridges ("mould lines") caused by the manufacturing process.  The easiest way to do this on a plastic model is to carefully scrape the edge of your knife blade along the line.  With metal miniatures, use a file.  If the miniature is resin, wash it in soapy water to remove any residue.

I left these arms off, they would get in the way.

If the miniature is in multiple parts, think about whether or not you want to assemble it fully before painting.  If putting it together is going to make some parts hard to reach with a brush, consider only partially assembling it, then attaching the rest (usually arms or weapons) midway through painting.

Pin-holes in the shoulders.

If the miniature is metal and its limbs are heavy or have small contact points, you might need to pin them to the body of the figure. Using a small hand drill, make a hole in the limb and the body at the point where they connect, then attach them together with superglue and a small piece of brass rod.  You shouldn't have to do this with plastic or resin figures.

You can see the brass rods in his shoulder sockets.

Undercoat. I've gone with a white spray primer.  White undercoats are good for making colors more vibrant, though you have to be make sure you paint every single part of the miniature - any spots left as white will stand out like a sore thumb.

One of my painting buddies' oaths.  White undercoats are also easier to photograph.

Black undercoats tend to be easier for beginners, as any missed spots are black, which suggests shadow, but it is harder to paint some colors (particularly yellow) over black.  A grey undercoat is supposed to be the best of both worlds, but I've never tried it.

Base coat.  Probably best to start with a medium shade of whatever color you're using, that way you can use washes to bring out the shadows and highlights to bring out edges and detail.  I have a habit of starting with a darker color than I probably should.  I've started with the grey on this Bashi Bazook.

Thin your paints on a palette (a spare piece of plastic will work) with water or medium, you should be aiming for roughly the consistency of milk.  The paint should flow smoothly from your brush and not run or pool or go clumpy.  At this stage, concentrate on smooth, even coverage.  Any mistakes can be fixed later.

The pinned arm is now fully attached, since it won't get in the way.

Washes, or "Shades".  Thin inks designed to flow into cracks and detailing on a miniature to suggest depth and shade.  They're extremely useful.  You can see how the black ink wash has bought out the detail on the grey areas.

DAT ASS

The orange armor was done in a slightly different way, with a base coat of a red-brown (you can see it on the plates around his knee), then a layer of orange on top of that, leaving the red showing in the recesses and at overlapping edges of armor plates.  An orange wash was then applied to accentuate the detailing.

That's it for the boring tutorial stuff, I'll talk about highlighting next week.

I'm testing Joekero Orange on the Bashi Bazook. So far it's not bad at all.

 Not as cute as the previous one, but I still love these little guys.