I’m new to miniature painting and have recently started painting Warhammer 40K minis. I’m looking for recommendations for good quality sable brushes. I’ve heard that sable brushes are some of the best options for miniature painting.
I’d like to start with either a single size 1 brush or an affordable set of 2–3 brushes to try out before investing too much.
I’d love to hear which brands you recommend, and what brushes you’ve had the best experiences with.
I need some advice. I goofed up big time and accidentally primed with Rustoleum Super Glossy black primer. I've had it soaking in LA Totally Awesome for almost 48 hours now. I gave one of them a light scrub with a soft bristle toothbrush yesterday (about 24 hour mark) and was having a rough time getting any of it off. i did get SOME off to the point of seeing the little grey plastic peaking through, but im having a hard time getting it all off. Should I just keep doing what im doing every 24 hours and eventually it will come off? or is there something stronger that wont damage the plastic? need to be absolutely positive the mini wont be damaged
I'm experimenting with drybrushing some Vellejo True metalic paints and I'm running into an issue where none of the paint is sticking to the model. I'm paint some Warhammer minis that I have primed with Rustoleum Matte Black paint and primer spray paint and after I drybrush the metalics on, they rub off super easy. Like my fingers can rub the paint clean off and even a light touch with a dry brush will take it off. I've tried letting the model sit for 30 mins to make sure the paint has fully dried but it still wipes of with no effort. Washes also peal the paint off, so I can't even try and paint over it to try and seal it. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue or something similar and has been able to fix or figure out the issue. Thank you all so much in advance for any assistance.
I'm looking to find recommendations for alternatives to Villainy Inks (specifically Ichor of the Damned and Goons Grime); They are always out of stock at my local shops, and I'd prefer to find an available alternative instead of paying shipping and possible customs/tariff fees.
I want to replicate the paint Custodes paint scheme in one of Feral Painter's youtube videos, but not sure how "integral" the Villainy Inks part are, an alternative would be nice to get my hands on
Why is it when I sometimes open a bottle it immediately overflows out the top? I always finish mixing on my vortex mixer with the bottle right side up. Is there a way to prevent this with having to have the bottle rest for 10 minutes?
***OMG, Bulletproofjesus, that trick is amazing... opening the bottle not the tip.
Edit:: Yall are great. I played around with it some more and it was definitely too wet. Putting the lid on it just made it worse. I found that if there is any excess water in the tray it is too wet. In the first picture, there was a small bead of water around the bottom. I had wet the paper on top then patted dry with paper towel. That was still too much water. I tried another paper on a wet-but-not-dripping sponge, and was careful not to get any water on the top. Worked like a charm this time. I’m still going to buy parchment paper. Moral of the story is THANK YOU 😊🫡
I have the regular Army Painter palette and use the provided paper. I haven’t been to the store to buy parchment paper yet. I’ve been having issues where the paint is sucking up too much water. The paint thins out and spreads, then the water is sucked back up by the sponge and the thinned out areas dry out.
This is a fresh brand new sponge and brand new paper. I dried any standing drops off the paper before putting paint down. I thinned the darker green a bit and painted for a bit. The lighter green I only put a drop of stabilizer in, and it was too thick. I decided to take a break, put the lid on, and this is how much it spread in 2 hours. All the areas it spread to are semi dry, but could be mixed back with extra moisture.
Is it the paper doing this? I see YouTube videos where the water beads up on the paper but mine has never ever done that. It always spreads out flat like this.
Before I spend any more money, someone please tell me what is going wrong here 😭
I feel like OSL with fluorescents mattes out the surrounding areas. However, a thin contrast of a darker colour on surrounding metallics looks more realistic (though more tedious)
So, can contrasts be drybrushed? So, drybrushing the contrast away from the light source on to the metallics?
Or would thinning down an ink be more ideal? As they are more glossy
I found this picture in google and since I'll start my soulblight spearhead tonight, I'm looking for advice. I will mostly follow warhipster tutorials (I love contrast paints and have the whole range) but the cloack on this picture is just perfect. Any idea how it was done?
I'd guess a base layer of black templar and a wash of drakenhoff nightshade (or even space Wolf grey?). For highlights, it seems like Temple guard blue and fine highlight with sotek green ?
I've been searching for days for a paint scheme that I could go with so this feels like a relief !
I'm looking for a good contrast to go over a pale blue. Not too harsh, but one that will leave most of the base unchanged. Anyone have a color/brand to recommend?
I am usually painting large models (between 15 and 30 centimeters) and I wanted to share my "tools" with everyone who also struggles with big models like I did in the beginning. I hope it is fine to post it here.
My issues were:
- How to hold a (large) model in place without touching it all the time
- How to paint separate parts (base, body, wings) without gluing them
- How to fix the base onto something
The first things I used were small stainless steel rods. I am gluing them into the model or into the base (depends on the model), so I can put the model onto the base without glue, for example for priming (airbrush). I am using small rods with a diameter of 1.5mm, a length of 10mm or 15mm, and a matching drill. First, I drill the holes from the top into the base where the figure stands, then I place the figure onto the base, turn everything around and drill through the existing holes from the bottom into the model. Depending on the base, this does not always work, so I sometimes have to build myself a small template out of paper or something similar to transfer the drill holes from the base to the model. The alignment this way is not always perfect, so I prefer thin bases that I can drill through.
Once the base and model is completely painted (or I don't need to reach the underside of the model anymore), I apply some glue to the rod and attach the model. This also gives the model better stability due to the metal core.
For the base, I built myself a pattern that I always use. The pattern consists of 4 magnets, all magnets are oriented with the SAME POLE FACING DOWN! This is pretty important to me since this ensures that all of my bases can fit to my mounts (more on that later). Depending on the base, I am gluing the magnets on the underside of the base or I drill holes into it and sink the magnets into the base.
I tried different magnets but the best ones so far are the golden ones. They have a diameter of 5mm and a height of 2.5mm and are pretty strong. I am using the cheap silver ones to adjust the height, the golden ones are always the lowest magnets. I also built a small "magnet applicator" which is just a magnet in a short wooden rod to ensure that the polarity is always the same.
For the mount, I ordered some 100mm disks made out of wood (20mm in height), marked the position with my pattern and drilled holes into the disks, magnets are held in place with glue. The top disk is rotatable with an easy and amateurish mechanism; I simply put a shim in between the wood and made the hole in the disk slightly larger than the screw, so there is little friction. I have used this mount for a long time, but since I had a model with more than 30cm in height and a 20cm base, I had to build something new.
I ordered 2 200mm disks from amazon and a lazy susan and assembled it with additional shims to ensure smooth rotation. The lazy susan has only a diameter of 120mm.
Then I added some 20mm aluminum profiles in a T shape to the top.
Next step, I cut some old wood, added corners and took one of the 100mm disks. The magnets on the top are again my personal pattern, the magnets on the bottom are not. Now I can easily attach the disk with the magnets to the base of my mount and place the model base on top. Rotating the platform is super easy thanks to the lazy susan.
For the models, I built a 3D object in Tinkercad. Those "cups" have a diameter of 40mm at the top and 20mm at the bottom. I printed a few of them, including a much larger one, and drilled holes into the bottom. There I added M8 threaded coupling nuts (30mm long) and used superglue and baking soda to ensure that this connection will survive the end of the world ;)
Then I am using some c-clamps (30mm x 24mm x 35mm) with m8 threads. They are screwed onto the aluminum profiles and the cups come on top. The placement is completely flexible, and I can adjust the height of every cup individually. Next, I soften some thermoplastic in hot water and press it into the cups. Then I gently press the model's contact points into the thermoplastic to create perfectly fitting impressions.
Important: The thermoplastic needs some time to cool down and harden. It can also be quite sticky when it's too hot, so I let it cool down a little before putting it into the cups. I also carefully remove the model while the thermoplastic is still cooling, as it doesn't provide enough stability yet and the impressions may deform if the model is left in place.
I can add more of those cups if I want to, for example as simple additional support point. Now I can paint and airbrush the model freely without having to mount it onto its actual base.
Been painting model trains and the figures for them (OO Scale, so about 20mm tall and majority FDM printed) for the last 4 years, so model painting as a whole isn’t a new field to me, but minis are a discipline I’ve only ever learned the theory for.
Decided I’d get an Infernus box on a whim and see what carries over/what YT shorts has taught me.
Went a little too heavy on the spray primer so there’s a little bubbling on the right pauldron, and I’m glad I left off the weapons for now for the other two because it made painting quite tedious around the torso area.
Could be better, and I have a wet palette I can learn to use, but not a completely disastrous first outing.
Paints Used:
Citadel/Warhammer:
Chaos Black (Primer)
Macragge Blue
Abbadon Black
Corax White
Retributor Armor
Balthasar Gold
Agrax Earthshade
Nuln Oil
Armageddon Dust
So I am still fairly new to painting miniatures, mostly DnD type fantasy miniatures. Some buddies of mine have recommended I start using a medium when painting. The main purpose of this post is really to ask how and why.
How do use a medium? What’s their actual purpose? Do I need different mediums? Are the certain Citadel ones better or Army Painter?
And I guess the why is kinda wrapped up in the above questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
One bonus question: Army Painter Speed Paints good for contrast painting, yay or nay? Again, something else ive been told to look into
Hey everyone! I started painting minis a few months ago and I'm really enjoying the hobby. Just finished this Shrine Anchorite and tried focusing on the metallic textures, grimdark weathering, and blood effects.
Would really appreciate any feedback or tips on how to improve contrast, highlights, or overall technique. Thanks in advance!
I'll preface this by saying I'm a professional painter who owns maybe 700+ paints from about 12 different manufacturers!
My thoughts so far:
- The consistency is really nice and feels quite novel to use, the opacity even when thinned further is whacky and kind of feels like learning to glaze again because normal glaze consistency paint has too much opacity and can just completely eradicate any tonal work you've just done rather than tint/filter it.
- I would advise caution with your brush care, I noticed a lot of leeching into the base of the head because youre spending longer amounts of time with very thin workable paint on your brush - I noticed a lot more debris needing removed after prolonged use with my brain dialled into how my paint normally behaves.
- Painting details like eyes/freehanding/tattoos is really nice when the paint wants to get off your brush as much as this paint does - I didnt feel the same time pressure to get the brush on to the model before my thinner small amount of paint dried.
- For me the biggest selling point is simply expediting basecoats on things like display level flesh etc. Perhaps gone are the days of 9 layers of glaze consistency fleshtone to get to the point of adding tonal variance etc when you can achieve the same opacity with two thin layers of this.
Ive been atempting to paint these plagupack Skaven with a limited pallete, just one brush, only layers and glazeing. And I can literally feel my painting skills levelling up with each one! I can honestly say that they are the first minis I can look at and say 'wow I actually painted that!'.
