so I want to paint some miniatures...

For a few years now, I've been thinking about painting my FoD figures. Every other aspect of that game looks great, but those nicely sculpted minis look like gray blobs from across the table if the lighting is slightly dim. And now I'm on the verge of buying Space Hulk.

If possible, I like to do things myself, but I lack the dexterity to do small things well. And I sometimes get impatient and rush things. So I'm hoping to get by with an okay paint job on my figures, not something spectacular that I will be showing off at conventions. So I'm looking for tips on how I can paint these minis without long hours, do-overs, great effort excessive cost.

The Space Hulk figures start out in vivid plastic colors, so I'm wondering if it would look okay if I just inked the figures, then painted a few details on each figure, ideally with no more than one or two extra colors for each side. Maybe yellow insignias and steel blue for weapons for the Terminators, and I don't know what for the Gene Stealers. Since some of the Gene Stealer figures look like they include aspects of the ship structure, I may want to match that part to a common color used in the cardboard map sections. Anyway, after the paint, then I could spray the figures with a matte finish. Would that look okay? It seems like the red plastic of the Terminators is the right color for their armor anyway, so that's a lot of painting that I could skip. Then again, maybe the pieces would be sturdier if I did completely paint them.

Since the Fury of Dracula figures start out gray, I feel like they would need to be completely painted. So there I would need a primer, I guess, maybe in white? I'm hoping to do mostly monochromatic figures, matching colors with those used on the character cards, plus fleshtones where needed.

Can anybody give me some guidance?

Guide to Painting Miniatures

Also:
The Dip Method

I'm sort of the opposite of you. For some reason, I feel compelled to do stuff like this in the most difficult way possible. I've been painting the traditional way, without resorting to the dip method, and I'm starting to even regard use of washes and inks as a kind of cheat. Needless to say, it will take me forever to finish painting all the SPACE HULK minis.

I'm even thinking about getting the hobby drill and a vise so that I can hollow out the gun barrels.

For the bases, what kind of material would be appropriate for Space Hulk? Gray kitty litter painted to look metallic, to simulate debris and scrap metal? Or just paint the existing bases more of a matte gray?

Also, is there any prep work that I should do while the figures are still on the sprues? Like washing with a light detergent?

To put this in perspective, I recently cleaned up some rust on my old car. I washed it, sprayed some rust remover, let that dry overnight, then applied some quickset Bondo. I think I might have mixed the batch wrong, because that Bondo was drying too quickly while I was using it, so I got a rough texture. I don't own a power sander, so I just used sandpaper and a block, and still didn't get a nice smooth texture. Then I primed and spraypainted it anyway. And as usual, my painting ability was lacking, resulting in a little too much paint in places, which dripped down the side of the car. After drying, I sprayed a sealing coat on. The results are unimpressive, but look okay from several feet away.

So I'm not going to kid myself that I'm going to paint some great-looking miniatures. That's why I'm trying to get by with minimal efforts. I don't want my figures to just look like hunks of blue, red or gray plastic. But I also don't want them to look like my recent car work, blotchy and uneven. Is there anyway that I can get by with the default red of the space marines and just paint in a few of the details?

Yes, wash them with dish soap first before you prime them. It probably doesn't matter if you do this before or after you cut the sprue.

Some of the SPACE HULK bases have details on them (like skulls, busted flooring, or dead Terminator armor) so it doesn't make sense to glue anything else onto the bases for texture.

Most people are just painting Boltgun Metal, or some similar color, onto the base. Boltgun Metal is a dark gray with a dull metallic sheen.

For your first few goes, go with a dark base and then a heavy drybrush of the color you want, then again with a lighter highlight drybrush. Dipping with ink is more tricky and shouldn't be tried right away as it'll frustrate you and possibly stop you from finishing the job.

Chop up the sprues the figs came on, spray paint them silver or whatever and then glue them here and there on a glue base after painting the bases and dry brushing them as well.

When I eventually paint my terminators I'll probably try to emphasize a dirty construction yellow color more than the red they usually are just to make them more reminiscent of Ripley's loader in Aliens.

I'd prime them in dark brown and then go liberal with the yellow drybrush. They'll look really cool too. Add in some checkerboard caution patterns here and there and you're off.

I'm dipping but I am also doing a bit of dry brushing here and there, I think it looks particularly cool to do some silver on the black base. I did one figure with no basecoat (one thread at BGG mentioned it), the figure turned out OK, but was a bit darker than I wanted. I've been priming termies white, then doing the base color and details. Once I am "happy enough" - admittedly I am not terribly good at painting - I dip (actually painting on the finish and trying to keep from too much pooling).

I'm pretty pleased with the results. As I've gotten through more figures I do seem to be trying to get better and better detail. I just did the flame thrower dude tonight and did some black "letter scribles" on the banners all over him - it came out pretty decent.

Even my way it is taking forever for the termies, there is just so much damn detail. In fact, maybe I should drop my rating of the game because it is taking me so long to paint all the damn details on the super awesome figures! Hrm...

Anyhoo, I'm hoping the 'stealers take less time, you know, except for the onces with all the detail on the bases, and piles of skulls and stuff... Oy.

Oh - in case it wasn't mentioned here is a painting guide . I printed out the pages and am trying to more or less stick to the basic concepts laid out therein.

I did all of the FOD miniatures in one day.
The tricks are:

Prime in black.
Stare at your heroscape figures until you realise that crappy painjobs look good at a distance.
Stick to basic colors. Don't bother painting details. Eyes? What the hell for.
PAINT ON dip at the end.
In the morning they will look better.
Go play.

Be careful if you choose to use dip. I've never done it - I've been painting miniatures the hard way for twenty years - and although some of the results look spectacular, some of them look crap. And unlike paint, there's no "undo" feature.

i have now started to try the following recipe:

Prime in black
Base colour
Wash (ie ink already prepared, much easier in use than ink)
highlight/dry brush
add details

It helps to work outwards, ie lower layers of clothing/skin to outside clothing/armour/bandoliers/weapons etc.

The washes now available from GW (and probably other paint manufacturers as well) are good value for money and work much better than inks. They come in several colours. Devlan Mud seems the favourite amongst my mates.

Don't look at miniatures from too close up for a judgement of quality. Nobody does that. In fact, when painting units of miniatures (as wargamers do) too much detail actually becomes ugly.

MattDP wrote:

Be careful if you choose to use dip. I've never done it - I've been painting miniatures the hard way for twenty years - and although some of the results look spectacular, some of them look crap. And unlike paint, there's no "undo" feature.

I read somewhere or another that there was a method to strip it. I don't recall the details, it may have been just using mineral spirits which is what I use to clean the brush.

I think the thing is, there are 2 camps. I am on the edge of the Skels camp which is quick and acceptable for play painting. Then there are those who really enjoy painting and want (and are able to achieve) the fantastic results achieved with the "correct" methods.