24 replies to this topic

[mvincent]

So now you're going to have hundreds of Kickstarter miniatures, but don't like to paint. What can you do to get them painted quickly and easily? Here are some starting ideas, but I'd like the community's assistance:

- Spraypaint them a base color (acrylic, matte, non-enamel, fairly bright since the dip will darken them):
- - - Flesh: zombies, pirates, anyone showing a lot of skin,
- - - Green: swamp things, marilith, medusa, goblins, Cthulhu
- - - Black: anything you plan to drybrush - dungeon dressing, anyone in metal armor, NOVA, IMEF Marines, Dark elves (skip the dip step below and instead drybrush grey or metallic)
- - - Brown: Owlbear, griffon, vermin, Chronoscope, Townsfolk, animals, rust monster, kobolds, anyone wearing leather
- - - Leave white: skeletons, mummies, cloud giants
- Add an additional paint color if desired. Use colored sharpies to add a few details to small areas. Metallic sharpies (often used for marking wine bottles) could be used for weapons and small metal bits
- Dip them in MinWax Polyshades Satin Tudor (360)
- Superglue them to these bases (or Litko, GW, Wargames foundry or Wooden Circles).

[ObsidianCrane]

Unless you are using an airbrush I strongly recommend against spray painting Bones based on my recent experiences.

I suggest breaking out craft paint an using a large brush to get a broad base colour then using a 0 (with a good point) to get the details painted on. If you want to get fancy, before you paint the details line all the details with black or a very dark brown.

Then dip as you describe and base them on any of the products you mention.

You might want to hit them with some sort of clear matt varnish after dipping.

This should give solid tabletop standard miniatures.

[kericmason]

Not all spray paints work well with bones models (people have had poor results with some primers, where they stay sticky), and I haven't tried using minwax polyshades on an unpainted bones model either, so leaving the skeletons and mummies uncoated before dipping might not stick well.

Are you trying to do this cheap in addition to fast? Or is speed the only concern?

If you want to stay cheap, get several large cheap brushes for your base coats, and use normal acrylic miniature paint. Paint the skeletons and mummies white.

I've never used sharpies to paint details, to be honest I think they wouldn't be good at it because the tips are inflexible, so couldn't navigate the details well. Colouring a sword with a sharpie would be fairly easy, but navigating the intersections between clothing, skin, armour, and hair, could get nightmarish.

Getting a decent brush, and a small number of colours (which could include colours you used on your speedy base coats) would probably be close in speed, and give a better and less frustrating result.

A glue gun tends to be a bit lumpy, and I've not tried it on my bones models, but super glue is really fast at attaching bones models to bases, and does a great job.

The polyshades tudor is my favourite of the line for dipping. The models I've used it on look great. If you haven't done much dipping before, got to the army painter website, and read their article on how to do it, and what issues can come up. It'll speed up the learning/experimentation.

Eric

[mvincent]

Not all spray paints work well with bones models (people have had poor results with some primers, where they stay sticky), and I haven't tried using minwax polyshades on an unpainted bones model either

Reaper has stated the Bones are "Ready to Paint: Out of the box, these incredible figures take paint without priming". I'd like to know more about what spraypaints work though.

Are you trying to do this cheap in addition to fast?

Ease is my prime concern. Even before the kickstarter, many of my fellow gamers (who enjoy painting) had hordes of unpainted miniatures. I just want something useable that I know I can make happen. Base coating by hand doesn't seem to fit that bill.

I've never used sharpies to paint details

I've had good luck with them for making quick modifcations.

navigating the intersections between clothing, skin, armour, and hair, could get nightmarish.

I was hoping the Dip would cover up those parts.

A glue gun tends to be a bit lumpy, and I've not tried it on my bones models, but super glue is really fast

I've used a hot glue gun a lot for rebasing and quick modifications. It's quick, easy and convenient, but some materials don't stay connected very long.

If you haven't done much dipping before, got to the army painter website, and read their article on how to do it

Thanks for the tips!

[TheAuldGrump]

I have used Army Painter colored primers with no problems.

I might suggest taking a look at the Army Painter Painting Guide. Most of the techniques can be used with Reaper paints, aside from the colored primers and the dip.

Using a dip makes painting a whole lot faster, easier, and messier.... I still prefer the standard method, but I was able to paint 300 zombies in under a week using colored primers and the dip method. If fast and easy is what you want, it works.

The Auld Grump - Minwax Chestnut works well as a dip. I make my own dip using Future floor polish.

[estrus]

I'm a huge fan of washes/dips. Les' Wash basics was a game changer for me:
http://www.awesomepa...sources.recipes

[ced1106]

More time, better results, not as much work as regular painting:

1. Spray prime black or equivalent.
2. Dry brush white prime, avoiding weapons and armor.
3. Dry brush armor and weapons in metal.
4. Block in base coat colors.
5. Wash in Army Painter Strong Ink.

Step 4 is your longest step. BUT you save time because the black primer has shaded your miniature, while the white prime keeps you from having to put craploads of layers of paint on your miniatures. All the other steps can be done quickly, or at least while brain-dead.

+1 to Auld and estrus, tho.

[smokingwreckage]

The Army Painter dips were recommended by a friend, and their spray paints are acrylics so shouldn't melt the plastic. They have a lime green that'd do for zombies, and off white that'd do really well for skellies. They have a green for orc flesh too. Go check 'em out.

Now those spray acrylics are expensive, so alternatives from my experience:

Skellies method 1: paint bone, dip or wash brown-black, like Vallejo Smoke, Reaper Brown Liner, Army Painter Strong Shader. You'll need to mix the wash properly for the first two! That means getting some flow improver or flow medium. A darker bone colour will look better than naked white, but whatever.

Skellies method 2: paint black, drybrush bone. Weapons paint black, drybrush GW/ CDA Chainmail.

Go for Reaper HD or GW Foundation or other dedicated "fast covering" paint. Vallejo Model Colour cover pretty damn fast too.

Another alternative is to base black, then quickly and lightly block in colour, but leave the crevices and hollows black, then dip or wash. The black basecoat disguises misses but also adds depth. This works for armoured, skeletal, or dark green orc models.

For plate armour, paint black then drybrush with GW or Coat d'arms Chainmail, then a light drybrush with silver, same companies. I say this because Reaper's metallics are nice but don't much like to be drybrushed. They will work for the fast colour method, or for paint and dip; use a mid-range silver, middle tone of a triad.

For bases, I'd superglue before I hot-glued. Pay some attention to basing, it really makes a fast job look finished.

Method one: paint green, cover in superglue, dip in static grass.

Method two: cover in superglue, dip in sand. When dry paint dull brown, drybrush dark cream. Add a spot or two of superglue and dip in static grass.

[Marsya]

If your fellow gamers like to paint host a paint night rather than a game night encourage everyone to speed paint taking less than 45 minutes a mini. In about 4 hours you'll at least have a small dent in the amount to paint and some fun while you do it.

[ferret]

Like others, I have had good results with the Army Painter Colour Primer on both plastic and metal figures. I would not recommend using Sharpies. They work OK for touch up and small areas, but on all the minis I have seen where someone used sharpies for the entire figure had very noticable streaking on larger areas. I suppose you could use paint to basecoat the larger areas and add details with the Sharpies, but I believe it would be easier to use a brush since the point on even the ultra fine Sharpies tends to spread out after some use.

[Edit: After thinking about how much fun it would be to speed paint some minis with the great Reaper quality and detail and how affordable Bones are, I added another Vampire to my pledge and swapped Sophie for the orcs. Now I'm REALLY looking forward to getting the minis in March and the joy slapping on paint without worrying about things like wet blending and getting eyes "just right"! Of course, I will also have a set to paint in a more deliberate mode.]

[smokingwreckage]

When you get comfortable with a brush, you'll find it works better than a sharpie for most things. The paint black, drybrush chainmail method is fast and easy, and requires less control than a sharpie.

[Exwilly]

here is a method(still will take a little extra time.) block in your main colors then use army painter quick shade(make sure you shake the mini after dipping it in the shade which gets excess shade off the miniature). shake it outside or in a cardboard box..

[ferret]

Another thought is to check around to see if there is someone that would like to paint the figures for you.

When I get frustrated with fussing with little details and with how slowly my painting is going, I will sometimes paint boardgame figures for a gamer that doesn't like to paint and is not picky about how well the figures are painted. I find that quickly turning out a few dozen figures makes me feel like I have actually accomplished something and gets me in a good mindset to go back to painting the more detailed minis. I suspect I might have abandoned painting long age but for those breaks. It works out quite well - the boardgamer gets painted figures (admittedly not to a very high standard) without investing time and money in painting and I get to paint figures without paying for them. There are probably other painters that do likewise.

[Halberkill]

Reaper has stated the Bones are "Ready to Paint: Out of the box, these incredible figures take paint without priming". I'd like to know more about what spraypaints work though.

Enamel paints can remain sticky on PVC, gloss enamels tend to have a greater chance of stickyness. Acrylic paints are good and it's what Reaper sells, GW sells some in a spray can, as do some others. Enamels can sometimes work if you first coat with acrylic.

Minwax works on most anything, though after it dries you may want to seal it.

Halber

[recruittons]

What shade of Minwax is good for shading without being overpowering? I've been using ebony (since I had it handy), but I find it can leave far too dark of spaces in tight corners.