How to Stop Making Mistakes Painting Warhammer
This post is part of the Notts Hobbies 30 Day Army Painting Accelerator, Click here to get your free copy.
An important decision when painting an army is the order in which you paint each part of the model.
This can impact the time it takes to paint each model, as it is faster to paint larger areas or reduce the need for touch-ups.
Depending on the model, we will either paint the main colour of the model first or paint outward, from the torso to the outermost points.
Space Marines are a good example of a model where we paint the main colour first, then the other parts of the model.
As most of a Space Marine is armour, this is painted first in the example below, including highlights.
Then, the metallic parts of the model are painted, such as the aquila and rims of the shoulder pads, as well as other metallic parts.
In the third photo, the blacks and browns are blocked in, and finally, the eyes are painted.
The other order to paint models is from the innermost part of the model outwards (in to out)
The Skaven Clanrat below was painted this way due to the variety of textures on the model. The skin was painted first before the robes, as it’s below the fabric.
The reasoning behind this is that when the skin is painted, some paint may transfer to the robes, but this is painted over when the fabric is painted.
If the fabric is painted with minimal brush pressure, it should not touch the skin, as it is lower than the robes.
In the first image, the midtone was applied to the skin.
Then the robes were overbrushed and an off white drybrush was applied to all of the non-metallic areas.
In the third image a contrast paint was applied to the tail and eyes and a thinned down brown was applied to the belt and wooden shield.
A thinned paint and a speed paint were used in these areas, as they had been pre-shaded by the previous drybrush. This allowed us to be messier with the drybrush and remove the need to highlight these areas later in the painting process.
Finally, in the last photo, the metallics were basecoated and washed.
This post is part of the Notts Hobbies 30 Day Army Painting Accelerator, Click here to get your free copy.
Glossary
Basecoat – Applying a flat layer of colour over all of a surface
Drybrushing - a miniature painting technique where most of the paint is removed from the brush so it deposits paint on the raised surfaces of a model.
Highlight – painting the bright colours on raised parts of a model so they stand out.
Midtone – the mid point of a surface that isn’t highlights or shadows
Overbrushing - a miniature painting technique where some of the paint is removed from the brush so the paint isn’t deposited in the deepest parts of a model.
Touch Up – painting over a colour from a different part of a model