Thin your paints
Add water a drop at a time until it flows like milk; two thin coats beat one thick.
For basecoats and layers, add water a drop at a time until the paint flows smoothly and leaves no ridges, about like whole milk, and wipe the excess off on the palette edge before touching the model. Two thin coats look better than one thick one. Do not thin washes, one-coat shading paints or drybrush paint: use those as they come. Allow about double the drying time in a cold or damp room; a fan speeds it up. Never put a hair dryer on glue, texture paste or a wet wash.
Basecoat
The first solid coat of an area's main colour.
Fill each big area with thinned paint in smooth strokes that follow the shape, working from the deepest areas outward (skin and under-layers before cloaks and outer armour). On scenery you can be loose at the edges, because the wash and drybrush hide them; on a figure, keep inside the lines. Pale colours over a dark primer need 3–4 thin coats, or a grey or white undercoat on that area first.
Spray priming
Short passes from 20–30 cm, turning the piece; light coats, every side.
Warm the can in warm (not hot) water, and shake it for two minutes after the ball starts to rattle. Spray from 20–30 cm away in short passes that start and end off the model, turning it so every side, including underneath, gets a light, even coat; two light coats beat one heavy one. Avoid cold, damp days, which leave a dusty or frosted finish. Let the primer dry for about an hour before you brush paint on; when grey and white spray coats follow, spray them after 20–30 minutes instead.
Recoat window
Spray the next primer within an hour, or wait until tomorrow.
Zenithal
Black, then grey from 45° all round, then white from above-and-around: a light map painted onto the model.
Over the black primer, spray mid grey from about 45° above, walking all the way round the model, so everything that faces up or out turns grey while the undersides stay black. Then spray white from about 30–45° above, in short bursts, again walking all the way round. Every top, upper edge and raised texture goes bright white, and so does the upper third to half of every wall and side: each side fades from white at the top, through grey, to black at its foot. Black stays only in deep recesses, cracks, under arches and on undersides. White sprayed only from straight overhead lands on the tops alone and leaves the walls dark; if the grey or white reaches the undersides, the effect is lost. On a filament print, light from above catches every layer line on domes and slopes, so filler-prime and sand those first.
Drybrush
Wipe nearly all paint off; flick across raised detail so only edges catch it.
Load an old flat or round brush, wipe almost all the paint off on a paper towel until it barely marks the towel, then brush quickly and lightly across the raised detail, not along it, so only the edges catch colour. Build up with several light passes, and finish with a paler pass on just the top edges. Drybrush rough texture (stone, bark, fur, hair, chainmail, ground), never faces or smooth cloth.
Wash
Very thin dark paint that runs into recesses; wick puddles off flat areas.
Brush a wash over a whole area and let it run into every recess, then wick off puddles on flat areas with a clean, barely damp brush. Do one section at a time and do not touch it while it dries (30–60 minutes), or it leaves rings. A wash over a very dark basecoat barely shows, so wash mid tones, not near-blacks.
Recess shade
Wash placed only in the creases with a pointed brush.
Instead of covering everything, run the wash only into the creases: under belts, around buttons, in the deep folds, and in the eye sockets and under the nose and lip. Use a pointed brush. It keeps the raised areas clean and bright, which matters on faces and light cloth.
Wick
Touch a clean damp brush to a puddle to soak it up.
Layer
Repaint the raised parts in the base colour, then a smaller area lighter.
Repaint the raised parts of an area in its base colour, then a smaller area of a lighter tone, leaving the darker wash showing in the recesses. Keep the paint thin, use the side of the brush on folds and muscles, and think about where the light comes from (usually above).
Edge highlight
Side of the brush, pale colour, sharpest edges only.
Run the side of a pointed brush, lightly loaded with normal-consistency paint in a pale version of the colour, along the sharpest edges only: blade edges, plate rims, cloak hems, the tops of folds. Thin lines on a few edges look better than thick lines on all of them.
Glaze
Paint thinned until see-through, to tint without hiding what is underneath.
A glaze is paint thinned until it is nearly see-through, brushed over an area to tint it without hiding what is underneath. Use it to shift the colour of 10–20% of the stones or planks, to warm a cheek, or to smooth a rough highlight, and let each coat dry before the next.
Colour tint (over zenithal)
A glaze over the black, grey and white undercoat, so the light shows through.
Over a light-from-above undercoat, brush a coloured wash or well-thinned paint over the whole area so the black, grey and white beneath show through as shadow and light. Use thin coats, let each one dry, and add a second coat only where you want a stronger colour. On big flat surfaces wipe off the excess, because puddles dry as rings.
Wet blend · go further
Blend two colours while both are still wet on the model.
Stipple
Dab with the brush tip; no strokes.
Sponge weathering
Dab paint from a sponge, mostly blotted off, onto edges and corners.
Tear a small piece of coarse sponge, dab it in paint, dab most of it off on a paper towel, and press it lightly where wear would happen: edges, corners, lower parts. Go from dark to bright (dark brown, then rust orange, then a few bright specks), and stop before it covers more than it shows. On figures and tiny parts, stipple with the tip of an old brush instead.
Metallics
Own brush and water; two thin coats; dark wash; bright metal edge.
Stir metallic paint well and apply two thin coats with its own brush and water pot, because the metal flakes get into everything. Shade it with a dark wash, then pick out the edges with a brighter metal. Matt varnish dulls metal, so you can brush a little gloss or satin varnish back onto the metal at the very end.
Glow ramp
Dark to bright to near-white toward the hottest point; each layer smaller.
Paint a glowing part as light, not as a material: deep orange over the whole area, then orange, then yellow on a smaller area towards the hottest point, and a dot or line of near-white where it is hottest. Each layer covers less than the one before; a magic glow follows the same ramp in its own colour, from deep to near-white. As a late step, glaze thinned orange onto the nearby surfaces that face the glow (a hand, an anvil, the ground), strongest close to the source and fading with distance, and keep the rest of the piece darker so the glow has something to contrast with. Never put metallic paint, verdigris or a metal highlight over a glowing area.
Pick out
Paint one small detail in its own colour.
Texture paste
Gritty paste for the base; let it set before priming.
If the base is flat, brush on white glue or texture paste and sprinkle sand and a few small stones, then let it dry for a few hours, ideally overnight, before you prime, so the primer locks it all down. Keep the texture off the feet and the edge of the base.
One-coat paint
A shading paint flowed on once; do not brush it out.
Shake the bottle hard. Over a white, grey or light-from-above undercoat, flow one generous coat over the area and let it settle into the recesses by itself. Do not brush it out thin or go back into it as it dries; wick away any pools with a clean, damp brush. Work one area at a time, keep it off the neighbouring areas, use a hard palette rather than a wet one, and avoid it on big smooth panels, where it streaks. Let it dry for 30 minutes before you highlight over it.
Matt / gloss varnish
Matt seals everything; gloss only where things are wet: eyes, gems, ice.
Once the paint has dried for a few hours, ideally overnight, seal the piece with matt varnish in light coats: spray from 20–30 cm outdoors on a dry, mild day (not cold, not humid), or brush it on thinly. Brush the gloss spots on half an hour after the matt, only where something should shine wet: eyes, gems, water, ice, blood.
More techniques
Picking a brush
Use the biggest brush that fits the area. That means a cheap flat or round (size 4 or more) for scenery basecoats and washes, a size 1–2 round with a good point for most figure work, a size 0 only for eyes, dots and the finest edges, and an old or splayed brush kept just for drybrushing. A brush that holds a sharp point when wet matters more than a tiny one.
Getting a print ready
Remove the supports, clean the print and let it dry fully before priming. Resin and filament prints need different care, so follow the step for your printer below. Glue on any separate parts before priming so the primer seals the joins.
Getting a resin print ready
Wearing nitrile gloves, wash the print in isopropyl alcohol (IPA), or in water if the resin is water-washable, until it is no longer sticky. Let the alcohol dry off for at least 30 minutes (a fan helps), snip the supports off while the print is still slightly soft, and then post-cure it under UV: if it is still tacky after curing, wash it again rather than curing longer. Sand the support scars wet, never dry, because resin dust is harmful to breathe. Do not use a filler primer, because it fills the fine detail.
Getting a filament print ready
Snip off the supports and the brim, trim strings and blobs with a hobby knife, and file the support scars flush. Sand the marks on smooth surfaces only. Leave textured stone, bark and ground alone: the texture hides the layer lines, and sanding destroys it. On large smooth areas a filler primer, sanded once dry (220 grit, then 400), removes layer lines.
Brush-on primer (no spray can)
Brush a thin brush-on primer, or black paint with a little white glue mixed in for foam and other porous terrain, over the whole piece with a soft brush, working it into the recesses. Two thin coats are better than one thick one, and you should let it dry for an hour.
Drybrushed light (the speed method's underpaint)
Over the black primer, drybrush mid grey heavily over the whole model so every raised surface goes grey and only the deep recesses stay black. Then drybrush white lightly, only on the top edges and upward-facing surfaces. Cheap craft paint is fine, and an old soft brush leaves less scratchy texture.
Basecoating small parts
Use a pointed brush with only a little paint on the tip, brace your hands against each other or the table, and pull the paint along the part rather than dabbing. Do the deepest parts first and the parts that stick out last, and fix slips with the neighbouring colour once they are dry.
Faces and skin
After the skin is basecoated and shaded, re-layer the skin colour on the forehead, nose, cheekbones, chin and knuckles, leaving the shade in the eye sockets, under the nose and lip, and along the hairline. Then add a small amount of a lighter tone on the very top points. Three tones read clearly at table distance; a thin warm or red glaze on the cheeks and lips adds life.
Eyes
Paint each eye socket dark brown, then a small off-white line or dot for the eyeball, then a dark dot in the middle for the pupil, with both pupils looking the same way. Tidy the lids with the skin colour, and do all this before the final skin highlights. Use your finest brush with very little paint and expect a couple of tries; at 28–32 mm a neat dark line is fine too.
Gems and lenses
Paint the gem in a dark version of its colour, put a lighter tone in the lower half (the side away from the light), and add one tiny white dot in the upper corner nearest the light. A dot of gloss varnish at the very end makes it read as glass or stone.
Blood, slime and wet things
Mix the colour (deep red for blood, green for slime) with gloss varnish instead of water, so it stays strong and shiny, and apply it in small amounts where it would drip or splash. Less always looks more real.
Tidying up
Once the paint is dry, paint over slips with the colour that should be there, using a small brush and thin paint, two coats if needed. Tidying is part of the job, not a sign of failure.
Verdigris
Thin a turquoise or blue-green paint heavily with water and let it run into the recesses and around rivets on brass, bronze or copper, with a few streaks running down from them. Real verdigris collects where water sits, so keep it to the low and sheltered parts.
Grime and streaks
Brush a thinned brown or black wash down vertical surfaces from under ledges, windows and rivets, then soften the bottom of each streak with a clean, damp brush. Add a little brown wash around the base of walls, where dirt would gather.
Moss and lichen
Stipple dark green into the lowest, shadiest crevices and joins, then a smaller amount of yellow-green on top of it. For lichen, dab a few pale grey-green spots on the upper stones.
Ground, tufts and grass
Glue tufts, static grass or scatter on after varnishing, over the cured matt coat (spray varnish frosts them), pressing them into small blobs of white glue or superglue. Put more at the edges and against rocks than in the open. A few clumps look natural; a full carpet hides the work. Static grass and grass tufts are green: on snow, frost or ice use white snow tufts or snow flock instead. Leave white glue overnight before you tip the piece or brush off loose grass, and don't breathe in static-grass fibres.
Base rim
Paint the edge of the base one neat, solid colour, usually black or a very dark brown, in two thin coats. It frames the figure and hides every slip from the ground.