How Do I Paint!?

[Mantastyle]

So I have researched and researched how to paint my brand new warmachine mercenaries and have run into a wall. I simply don't know how and in what scheme to paint my minis. I'm running Talion charter (the pirates) and I need a color scheme. After looking for so long I really would like someone to just tell me a good color combination and perhaps a tip or two on how to implement it. The only requirement is that it has to incorporate purple somehow. My painting skill is rather average. I'm inexperienced, but reasonably skilled in the simple painting techniques. Can someone offer a good scheme?

Thanks!
-Mantastyle

[Chronowraith]

I've stated this in a number of other places but the key to learning how to paint simply rests on one principle - practice.

If you have never put paint on a brush and painted miniatures for now, I'd just try and cover the basic principles of a base layer, simple highlights, and simple shading.

For paints, I highly recommend the P3 paints for most chromatics and I prefer the GW paints for metallics and supplementing those with some of the reaper metallics. That being said, try a few of each as well as the Vallejo colors and use whatever works best with your style.

For color scheme I'd pick one actual color and then, since you are going with pirates, I'd use a lot of browns, tans, and white/black. So if you know you want purple then pick that as your color and use tans, various browns, black/white to round everything else out. For characters add one or two more colors so they are easily distinguished from the crowd of press gangers and sea dogs.

As for how to actually paint, the basic process is in three steps;

1) base coat - block in your base colors on each section of the model. Make sure your paint is thin and this may take multiple coats. Multiple coats of thin paint is better than single coat of thick paint.

2)Shadows - the easiest method for doing this is to use something called a wash. several companies make their own washes but if you find a color you want as a shadow, simply water it down and it should work. Apply washes very conservatively. If you apply too much paint then the washes can pool and you'll be left with puddling marks.

3) Highlights - easiest method are simple line highlights. Pick the raised edges and paint a thin line line of a lighter color. Most people mix paints with white ut this technically isn't a good method since white creates desaturated colors.Still, for simplicity sake, you can easily use white and it will look fine.

[fuzzbuket]

frankly im fairly clueless about WM so i have no idea about what the modle looks like but heres some painty tips :D

colour scheme
bluey purple goes well with blues, whites, browns,. redish purple goes well with blacks reds, whites and browns

AVOID GREEN OR YELLOW UNLESS YOU WANT A LOAD OF CONTRAST!


MATERIALS
spray primer, black or grey is best for Table top quality
pallete: to mix paint!
GOOD brushes: whilst you cna get a zillion brushes out of asda for £2 they are useless, instead a good painting brush is what you need! humbrol, GW, reaper are all good brand, look for sable hair.
a sharp knife/scalpel : to clean mold lines
some blister foam (i will talk about this later!)
a good light source!


1) highlights are easy, for armour plates here is the simple way
basecoat the whole plate in the coulour
2) have a 3:1 mix of the coulour/white and apply it to the upper 1/3 of the armour
3) have a thin line of a 1:1 mix of the colour/whit along the top of the armour
4) if going for a 'dirty look' 'wash' the armor ( a wash is REALLY THIN PAINT gw's are quite good!)
5) shade the armour with a black wash in the lowest 1/3
6) DONE!
7) for extra realism take some blister foam dip it in black paint and wipe most of it off, then gently splodge it on the batterd areas: it is super easy and works a treat!
7) paint the insides of the black chips silver


for cloth have a smoother blend and less harsh shadows/ highlights
for metals just the metal then a few washes looks really good!
for skin base coat, wash, highlight the prominent areas and do thin black lies for the eyes!
for 'glowy bits' dont wash and highlight all the way up to pure white.

thanks for reading, hope this helps

-fuzz

[Artus]

I would also recommend having a look at Games Workshop book "How to Paint Citadel Miniatures" it is really great for learning techniques for new painters.

Cheers!

Artus