So you’re working in metal? Excellent! It’s just so much better than plastic, the details are sharper… the figures are heavier… arms and axes are more durable… I mean if you’re going to spend hours painting these figures, why start with flimsy, wimpy plastic?

REQUIRED TOOLS

All right, so what do you need? First, you need clippers to do the big trimming. Second you need files, one round and one flat-edged (a triangle file is perfect btw). Third, get yourself a Dremel! These little bastards kick ass! For metal you can even crack out some rubbing compound, but be careful with it.  While rubbing compound is optional, you definitely need cotton pads and micro-drill bits. You also need the all-important chunk of Styrofoam, alligator clips, paperclips and glue.

FIXING THE METAL 

First, you need to remove all the risers and vents, which stand out of the mold like bits of spaghetti. Risers are the thick bits where the metal was initially injected and then allow the casting to pull in more metal from the sprue as the casting dried. Vents are from thin channels drilled into the original molds to allow air to escape as the mold was filled, to ensure the mold was fully topped up, they injected a little extra metal and because of that, you get these thin strings popping out of the figure, almost like hair. Long story short: risers and vents were necessary but are now annoying, so trim them off and grind away!

Next, you have the seam lines. Metal models are produced from rubber molds that consist of two halves, which means they often end up with a line running all the way around the metal piece where the two mold halves join. You also have bigger, square bits called flashing where the two halves didn’t hold together tight and some metal spews out, you should cut those off too and file them smooth.  If you don’t want the final, painted figure to have seams (and you don’t) you need to spend some time filing them down. If you have a real smooth surface to fix up, you should buff with some rubbing compound and your Dremel at the very end, but be gentle!

Finally, you’ve got your orange peal, which is the absolute, most annoying thing to fix. All these figures are poured in rubber molds, those molds break down over time, which is understandable since they’re being pumped full of molten metal over and over. As the surface breaks down, you get this ugly, orange peal surface on the resulting figures where you should have smooth metal. The only answer is light filing followed by lots of Dremel buffing. I guarantee you won’t find every instance of orange peal on the bare metal since the metal is just too bright and shiny, but anything you miss will pop up the moment you prime the figure, which means you then get to return to buffing and then prime again, so be vigilant! If you leave the orange peal in place, your final paint will look amateurish.

FIXING HOW TO HOLD YOUR FIGURES

Now that your metal is clean, you need to consider how you’re going to be handling these pieces from now on since you can’t keep mashing them around with your fingers the way you’ve been doing so thus far. I also don’t recommend assembling your figures and putting them on a base and then using it has your handle. First, you can’t get your paintwork into armpits well. Second, the Dremel won’t have easy access to anything and will likely snap glued connections off. Third, the base is a big hunk of plastic that gets in the way of the brush.

Only amateurs assemble first, sorry. I get more complaints from people on YouTube about this than anything else, but it’s true. Assembling first is a shortcut, and the end product suffers.

First, the big pieces are easy. Your figures come with these flat bits to insert into bases, there’s probably a term for these strips of metal but I don’t know what it is. Just get some clips and clamp them on. Have some nails jammed into the side of your chunk of Styrofoam ready so when your done painting a piece, you just hang it up to dry. 

The little pieces are a pain in the ass. I showed how to do this with heated pins for plastic figures, but metal is a whole lot more work, but hey, all good things are worth a bit of investment! You need to first drill a hole into the metal with your Dremel. Of course pick a spot that won’t be painted, like the inside of an armpit or something. Then clip off a bit of paperclip and glue and jam it in the hole. As you can see in the video, you can snap off the drillbit, so where safety glasses. I know I don’t, I’m an idiot, do as I say, not as I do. Of course, you can now poke these guys into your magic chunk of Styrofoam whenever you need to put them down.

And with your pieces mounted, you’re done! Time to move onto priming…

Warhammer Basic Painting Tutorial

I’m assuming you’ve clipped your pieces off your sprue, pinned them and primed them by now. If not, we have a video blog explaining all of that available right here.

Picking your Colors

Okay, crack out Designer’s Guide to Color 4 that I explained in the tool blog here. Basically, you have over a thousand organized, color combinations to flip through so you can find some genius combos rather than have the same red/white, blue/gold and silver/black paintjobs everyone else does. So pick away!

Test Your Swatch

If you have the entire Games Workshop paint range, you likely have close on every color you might be interested in, though sometimes you might still have to mix a bit anyways. At any rate, always keep some of your sprue’s frame on hand, even prime it, so you can paint your basic colors in alongside each other just to make sure your paints match what you had in mind when you picked your palette out of the guide. Repainting a figure fills in the crevasses and ruins details, so make your mistake here where it doesn’t matter

The First Coat

The Games Workshop Foundation paints offer opacity in just one coat, but the regular paints don’t, so don’t try to slather on such a thick coat that you can skip a second layer, you’ll just make a runny mess. Use your blunt, larger brushes here.

The Second Layer

A VIDEO IS ON THE WAY, COME BACK SOON…

Leaving time for the first layer to dry, you apply your second so you’ll finish up with a nice, solid color paintjob. This is the time to make sure everything is perfect, so crack out the finer brushes.

Inks

Don’t get crazy! Dilute these guys if you want to do multiple layers. Overdoing the ink gives you sticky, shiny gunk inside every fold. The idea behind the ink is that it seeps into crevasses and magnifies details. Thankfully, they’ll also minimize imperfections along edges should they fall along a ridge, which they usually do.

Highlights

Yep, it’s time to drybrush: the solution to all the world’s problems. Games Workshop has figured out its paint range so every color has a highlight. You need to pick up some paint on your brush, then wipe most of it off on a bit of paper toweling, then brush over the figure’s higher bits. The brush will drop some paint lightly on the highest bits and naturally taper off, so it’s a perfect accent.

Varnish

First assemble your figure, then set to clearcoating it. To assemble, use regular Games Workshop glue for most of it and super glue for the weak bits. In this case, the weak point is the staff. Varnish helps protect your figure’s soft paint with slightly less soft water-based varnish. Games Workshop offers both a glossy and matte varnish. Really, you could use them, or you could just buy some water-based Varathane at a local hardware shop for much less. Don’t buy oil-based Varathane! It’s harder, but it well melt your paint! I recommend a satin actually, because glossy usually isn’t necessary and satin mixes into paints nicely. Set one medium-sized brush aside for clearcoating because it will gunk it up horribly. Apply in a couple coats.

Basing

A VIDEO IS ON THE WAY, COME BACK SOON…

All right, fast and dirty basing! Paint the base a nice brown, clearcoat the edge, then glue you figure on top, first gluing a tiny patch of plastic as a spacer under him. Sitting on the spacer raises the figure up so you can add some basing material and he ends up standing on top of it instead of him looking like his feet have been punched into the ground.

Put your basing compound in a little Tupperware container, actually keep it in there from now on. Next, take your figure and apply some glue to the exposed bits of the base. You then hold the figure by the head and dip him into the basing material, shake him around, and pull him out, covered. We did this fellah in grass only, usually you would use some rocks first, then dab a bit of glue in a couple strategic spots and dip the figure again.

You should now be the proud owner of a respectably painted figure.

Okay, let’s start with the stuff you’ll need: X-Acto blade, clippers, Spray Primer (white or black), a very stylish dishwashing glove, matches, needles (notpins), a luxurious chunk of Styrofoam, and a Dremel with polishing pads. If you have any questions about the tools, check out our tool blog here.

Cutting Pieces off the Sprue

First, you need to trim the pieces off the sprue. Use a sharp pair of clippers and clean up rough bits with the X-Acto. What you’ll have to look out for at this point are either spots you’ll be able to hide once the figure is assembled, like under feet or inside armpits, or leave a bit of a sprues riser on for our next step…

“Pinning”

The main reason people assemble before painting is because they can’t hold the little bits cleanly, but you can work around that, so get your matches and needles out. You want to light a match, heat the tip a needle, then jab the needle into a concealable spot on each piece of the figure. You need to be quick, and I’m a bit of a clutz and just drop the matches, but I guess an ashtray or saucer of water could prevent burning your house down if you don’t have cement floors where you’re working.

Once you’re done, you’ll have every bit of your figure impaled on a needle. You will now be able to hold the pieces cleanly and set them down by poking them into the Styrofoam.

Spraying

Put on the sexy glove and hold your pieces about 18” from the spray can. You’ll want to sue white primer for lighter figures and black for darker ones, though dark primer is good for novices since it hides a lot of painting mistake. Spray in clean shots and keep the can moving. If you stop at any point, you’ll filly in crevasses and make a runny mess.

If you’re really having trouble, don’t use the can to fill in the last gaps, it’s better just to touch them up with a brush rather than obliterate details with too much paint. I like to apply in two really light layers so I just barely cover the plastic by the end of the second spray.

Dremel Time!

Now it’s time to crack out the Dremel and a polishing pad. Since the patina of a spray can’s micro droplets has very little in common with whatever you’re painting, we’re going to buff it out. I suggest you stick to just a bare cotton pad, which is what I do. You can use a pad impregnated with some rubbing compound, or get a little jar of rubbing compound to apply to the pad, but it’s not necessary and can lead to damage. If you keep the Dremel’s speed within reason, this is perfectly safe.

What you want to do is run the pad over the primed surface until it goes from matte to shine. It’s easy on the flat bits, but try to work the edge of the pad into the crevasses or else you’ll lose detail.

And there you should have it! You should now have pristine pieces ready for paintwork.

Okay, this blog probably would have been better entitled “Basic Tools with Bonuses,” especially when it comes to the Dremel, but what’s done is done. So let’s go through the items…

Paints

Listen, I like the full paint set. Unfortunately, if you add up all the contents of the set, it’s only worth $232, though the set costs $250. While $18 for the case isn’t unreasonable, I really think Games Workshop should have worked a bit of a discount into the set. I mean you’re buying enough! It does keep my life in order though, there’s a tray to dry brushes on as well as a compartment big enough for all my foundation paints. Also, I never find myself sitting at my desk at 11PM wishing I had just a couple drops of a less common color for a highlight.

For the record, I hate that these are all acrylic paints. I know oil based paints need thinner, which is noxious, but acrylic paints are just so damned soft! The “’Ard Coat” varnish is latex-(water)-based, so it doesn’t offer much protection either. I like to mix some varnish in with the water I dilute the paints with to harden them up slightly, but it still doesn’t do much. I tried to coat a Space Marine in oil-based varnish and the paint melted on me, so that’s not much of an option either.

The Holy Tile

Kitchen tiles are great surfaces to mix your paints on, and once they’re cruddy, just throw them out! They’re only 99 cents after all. If you want something a little more luxurious, get a ceramic mixing tray with a plastic cover, then you can cover your paints up and they won’t dry out on you. Plastic trays are the cheapest, but I’m pretty much married to the ceramic surface now. Of course, my el-cheapo pictured tray is plastic. When you’re in a pinch, use the lid off a yogurt container. The container itself is perfect for holding water and when you’re done, you can just chuck everything out.

Designer’s Guide to Color 4

Anybody can match blue and gold or red and white, but what about a faded orange and brown with a deep blue? This book shows you over a thousand color combinations categorized by tone, just flip through it and you’ll find some incredible combos. You can find it for sale on Amazon (for the Americans) and Chapters (for the Canadians) at the two links below…

http://www.amazon.com/Designers-Guide-Color-Colo/dp/087701681X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200499034&sr=8-2

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Designers-Guide-to-Color-4-IKUYOSHI-SHIBUKAWA/9780877016816-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527designer%2527s+guide+to+color+4%2527

Foundation Paints

Have black paint for dark figures and white paint for bright ones. In truth, you can get great dark figures from a white paint foundation but applying judicious layers of ink. I like that best, but it’s time consuming. Spray cans themselves are limiting in that you can get spatter and tiny blobs, but using an airbrush is a hell of a lot more work. Also, get one of those grandma dishwashing gloves to keep your holding hand clean while spraying.

Styrofoam, Matches and Needles

My priming video will explain this fully, but a lot of figures, once assembled, are near impossible to paint properly. You end up with spaces deep inside the fold of a cloak etc. Also, a lot of more conventional figures benefit from painting the head separately so you get a clean edge between their neck and jaw, and there’s always the edge between a Space Marines crest and boltgun. Painting the pieces separately can be difficult since you can hold them properly or put them down to dry. So you heat a pin, jab it in a spot you’ll eventually be gluing. Then when you put a piece down to dry, you poke it into the Styrofoam. As I said before, we have a priming video on the way where I properly demonstrate this.

Glue

Games Workshop glue is good and invisible, but some figures really benefit from tougher super glue, so keep some on hand for staffs and outstretched arms. If it looks like gravity might be an issue, use the stronger glue. Some knockoff Krazy Glue dries white, but it’s easy to touch up afterwards, even so, it’s better to break out five bucks and buy the real stuff.

X-Acto Blade

Buy ten blades right away! If you don’t, you won’t be able to resist using a dull blade and you’ll get garbage results. Also, the case they’ll come in will have a little slot you slip used blades into, so you won’t have dangerous garbage bags. Also, blades can vary slightly in quality, but it’s not worth buying anything other than the cheapest available, and the handles are all the same, so definitely buy the cheapest and ignore that stupid $15 Games Workshop one.

Clippers

Forget the Games Workshop ones. First, the last generation ones weren’t very good. Second, the new ones are overpriced. Get a nice sharp pair from a hardware store and borrow the cutting stone from the kitchen to sharpen them up now and then. Again, ignore that stupid $15 Games Workshop clippers.

All Those Other Tools…

Don’t buy the $120 Games Workshop Tool Set! The parts are only worth $100 and the X-acto blade and clippers are incredibly overpriced. You can easily save another $20 bucks there, so you could save $40, and that’s if you still want everything, which you won’t…

Okay, onto the saw: I don’t have one. Modders might want one. The new Games Workshop one is meant to waste very little plastic, but it’s $22. Sorry, you’re on you own.

Onto the vice: again, I don’t have one, but I would check out prices at hobby shops and online before plunking down for the Games workshop one. I end up switching pieces so often I don’t see the point. I imaging people who assemble before painting would like one.

As for the files: $12 for three Games Workshop files seems like a good deal, especially if you work on metal figures, but then again, you can buy hobby files for $2.50 individually. Also, you only need two, a round one and a triangle one.

Finally, the toolkit: it’s stupid. I like the paint set because those paint can get confused easily. These tools don’t have that problem. In fact, most people would have enough space in their paint set to fit everything. If not there, get a nice metal toolbox for $20.

Dremel

The Dremel is definitely a more advanced sort of tool, but once you pick one up, you’ll be hooked! They’re pretty inexpensive, especially if you pick one up on sale. For attachments, definitely get the super tiny drill set and cotton polishers. You can also try out some polishing pads impregnated with rubbing compound, or even a little tub of rubbing compound, but be careful with that stuff! Also, cutting discs can kick ass, but I’m too afraid to them.

You can’t go too wrong buying a Dremel, someday you’ll use one on something.

Lighting

I’m not sure this is really a painting tool, but strong lighting is critical! Do your figures in dim light and you’ll have a cruddy result. Since I’ve always had them, I use my photography lamps with big fluorescent bulbs in them, but a directional desk lamp will do the trick. Also, a spare, warm lamp can help bake your paint dry.