Miniature Painting Quick Reference Guide
By Glenn Dean
1. General Hints
a. Work in a well-lighted area.
b. Use a work surface that allows you to rest both elbows on the surface for better control.
c. Glue the mini to a Popsicle stick or dowel to give you something to grasp.
d. Mix you paints on a palette.
e. Don’t get too much paint on your brush – avoid getting paint in the metal ferrule.
f. Thin you paint with water, as needed so it flows.
g. Never put new paint over wet paint.
2. Preparing the Miniature
a. Remove all burrs, flashing, and mould lines with an X-acto blade or file.
b. Assemble the miniature using cyanoacrylate or epoxy glue.
c. Glue to a base, if needed (1” washers make good, cheap bases, or get plastic ones).
d. Prime the mini with spray primer.
i. Use white primer for a brightly colored mini.
ii. Use black primer for a darker mini.
iii. Use white over black primer to help bring out contrasts.
3. Base coating
a. Decide what the color scheme to use for the mini.
b. Paint each area of the mini with a shade close to the final color of the miniature.
i. For heavily textured areas, like fur or hair, use a darker shade than the final result.
ii. For smooth areas, like skin or a cloak, use a medium shade.
iii. Chainmail can be painted black.
c. Don’t worry about a precise color; just get all the primer covered.
4. Shade and highlight (smooth areas)
a. Cover the base coast with a second coat as close to the final medium color of the miniature you can.
b. For each smooth area, mix up a shade slightly lighter, and one slightly darker, than the paint on the mini.
i. Highlight the high points on the mini with the lighter shades (forehead, cheekbones, exposed skin,
cloak high points, etc).
ii. Shade the recesses with the darker shade colors (creases in cloaks, bends in arms, cheeks, eye
areas, ears, etc).
c. The idea is to reinforce contrasts by bringing out high points and lowering shaded points.
5. Wash and drybrush (textured areas)
a. Washes
i. Mix up a thin amount of a dark shade of the area you want to cover (or use an artist’s ink).
Example – dark brown for fur.
ii. Spread the thin wash over the textured area, letting it run into the low points – this will shade the
low areas.
iii. Allow the wash to dry; repeat as necessary for greater effect.
b. Drybrush
i. Put a tiny bit of lighter-colored paint on your brush, wiping it off until it is almost dry (virtually
none comes off when you run it across a paper towel). Example: light brown or tan for fur.
ii. Pull the brush across the grain of the textures area, leaving behind a miniscule amount of paint
each time.
iii. Repeat using lighter and lighter shades, with less and less paint, to bring out the highlights.
iv. This technique can also be used on smoother areas to similar effect.
v. For chainmail, drybrush the black base coat with a metal color, working up to silver.
6. Final Details
a. Pick out key details by painting them first with black, then with the final color (jewelry, leather straps,
metal studs on studded leather).
b. Put touches like wounds, eyebrows, gems and jewels, symbols on shields, etc. on with a fine brush.
c. Paint teeth by drybrushing with white, yellow, or light grey over a pink, yellow, or red mouth color.
d. Paint the eyes
i. Paint the eye socket with a darker flesh shade.
ii. Place a black dot for the pupil, with a white dot to either side, or
iii. Paint a white line across the eye; place a black dot for the pupil.
7. Finishing
a. Prepare the base.
i. Brush the base with a mixture of white glue and water.
ii. While the glue is wet, spread the base with sand or flocking material.
iii. Paint or drybrush the sand/flock to achieve the color and effect you want.
iv. Add details (static grass, rocks, etc).
b. Clear coat
i. Spray a matte coat of clear over the entire mini.
ii. For a tougher coat, put a gloss clear coat first, followed by a matte coat.
iii. Pick out shiny details (gems, jewelry) with a bit of brush-on clear coat.
8. Equipment suggestions
a. Basic:
i. Number 0 brush
ii. Acrylic paints (at a minimum black, white, grey, brown, red, yellow, green, orange, blue, metal –
plus any specialty colors you want).
iii. Spray Primer (Krylon or the like is fine, black or white).
b. Advanced:
i. Number 1 brush, detail brushes in 3/0, 5/0, 10/0.
ii. Acrylic paints in various shades.
iii. Artist’s inks.
iv. Pin file and X-acto knife.
v. Cyanoacrylate glue
vi. Flocking and other basing material
vii. Spray clear paint (matte)
9. Paint mixing hints
a. Don’t add white or black to lighten or darken – use grey or brown shades.
b. Mix paint thick, then thin as needed with water.
c. Flesh tones can be made with a blend of white, orange, and brown.
d. Lighten reds by adding orange (not white).
10. Other sources
a. D20 Magazine Rack Painter’s Guild, http://www.d20zines.com
b. WOTC “Paint Like a Pro”, http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/pp/pp20010607a
c. Games Workshop, http://www.games-workshop.com/hobby/painting.htm
