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.

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.

Glazing (tints and variation). 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.