Painting your models helps to tell the story taking place on the table top.

Make it stand out.

  • A hand holding a black miniature figure of a medieval or fantasy warrior with a helmet and armor, in front of a wooden box with various bottles of paint and some small painted miniatures.

    Base Coat

    It all begins with base coat. The attention you put into starting off your model right will help to ensure that your next stages go smoothly and affectively.

  • Close-up of a hand holding a painted miniature figure of a sci-fi character with a weapon, with a workspace in the background showing paint pots, miniature parts, and cork pieces.

    Flats

    By painting large areas of the model in a single color, you allow yourself to build in shadow and highlights in the next stages. These flat areas of color allow you to also go about using washes if you so wish.

  • A hand holding a miniature painted figure of a warrior with a skull helmet, surrounded by paint jars and modeling materials on a wooden work surface.

    Shadows and Highlights

    As you go about adding shadows and highlights to you model, you’ll find that it starts to add more depth to the figure and allow it to stand out.

    You’ll also find that these work best layered. Using thin coats, you can blend your shadows, flats, and highlights into one another.

  • A hand holding a miniature painted figure of a warrior or barbarian character with a weapon, in front of a tabletop workspace with model paints, brushes, and broken foam or cork pieces.

    Details

    Detailing allows you model to pop! By building up highlighted areas of the flat layer, you allow key parts of the model to stand out, drawing the viewers eye to the important parts of the figure.

Watch it all take place here!