Colour scheme

How-to notes

Texturing the base (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.

Spray priming. 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.

Zenithal (light from above). 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.

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.

Thinning paint. 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.

Tinting with washes and glazes. 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.

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.

All-over wash. 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.

Edge highlighting. 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.

Recess shading. 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.

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.

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.

Drybrushing. 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.

Varnishing. 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.

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.