I post a lot about painting, but choosing and collecting the tools behind the craft can be just as interesting. Here is a run-down of the tools that make my miniatures look less dull. For those looking for help
building miniatures, I'll do a separate post about assembly tools and decals.
Brushes
Brushes are the vehicle for all your artistic endeavor with miniatures. They can also be really expensive! Most guides focus on what to do (and not do) with your brushes, so let me focus on how to buy them.
For starting painters, don't worry about having all the right brushes, and especially don't buy the expensive ones! Take your starter kit brushes, maybe a bigger one for dry brushing, and learn on them. Learn to draw the brush away from the point instead of stubbing it into corners. Learn to load up the brush less than halfway. Above all, wash it thoroughly and prevent paint from drying in the ferrule. You will screw it up eventually, and your beloved companion will split, and then you can bury them. Keep a few of these starter brushes around for applying washes. Here's a picture of some of my first brushes that have bent and split over time due to abuse. Time to retire them from detail work.
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| Time for retirement, old friends |
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| Keep your old crappy watercolor brushes for applying shades and washes |
You will hit your stride with the next set of brushes. Having graduated from the $10 twelve-pack of watercolor brushes, the world splits into synthetic and sable. Synthetic are just that: plastic bristles. And they wear over time mush faster than natural hair. Citadel just released their latest
STC set, but
The Army Painter brush set is probably the best value for your money. It comes with enough variety that you can learn what brushes are your favorite (and some editions come with a free sable brush, neat!). If you already have strong opinions or lack options at your local store, you may be able to find quality synthetics like this
Princeton Velvetouch Round 2 for a reasonable price at art stores that aren't expressly for nerds. Expect to pay about $6-8 per brush. And don't stress about getting the tiniest of brushes for the detail. The important part of detail work is holding a point and not how big the brush is! Even with better synthetics, you will gradually see bent tips as you use the brush. This is how synthetics wear, and it is totally normal. If you treat them right, your first synthetic should last a squad or 10 figures. You will know your brush skills are maturing when a fresh brush lasts a whole army.
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My standard kit
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| Curling bristles are normal, and they can get into tight corners! |
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| Standard drybrush kit |
Finally we come to the joyous pinnacle of your painting kit, the sable hair brushes. Yes, these brushes are made with actual animal hair. And they are superior in almost every way to synthetics, but their
price also puts them out of reach for most people. They hold their shape better when loaded up with paint, and their hairs hold more paint so you can cover more area without going back to the palette. You probably only need one sable brush to start. Grow your collection slowly, and they will last you forever. A note that the Kolinsky Sable is endangered in Siberia and import is difficult at best. So you're probably not getting real Kolinsky sable for
under $25 a brush. Here again,
Army Painter wins for having the right brushes for hobbyists. I inherited my Regiment brush, and it is still going strong after a decade of use by my father. By the time you're ready for your next sable brush, you will have enough experience to know if you want to go all-in on the Winsor & Newtons.
A few notes on storage: Try to keep the plastic tip covers for all your brushes. It's the easiest way to protect them from accidental damage in transit. If you find your collection growing and cannot bear to part with your new friends, make or buy a brush case in hard plastic (if you don't need to travel and know they will always be sitting up) or fabric like the one pictured below. I threw it together from duck cloth in about an hour on a sewing machine with basic measurements. Your local art supply or fabric store has
something similar for sale.
Citadel Colours App
Available for both
iOS and
Android, The Citadel Colour app helps me create and remember my color schemes. I can create projects, track my color inventory, and keep a shopping list of paints for the next time I hit the local game store. It comes loaded with a diverse palette, but it only offers the Citadel range from Games Workshop. If you use dropper bottles from
Vallejo or the new
Two Thin Coats range from Duncan Rhodes, you're out of luck. It also doesn't have cloud storage, so switching phones means transferring your inventory, projects, and history as well (my scheme images come from doing CYA in case I lose my phone). Notwithstanding, it has worked to keep me organized. I would love to know if there were some non-GW options available out there to cover the various paint brands I might use.
Storage for Paint
I paint at both my house and my SO's, so this 48-bottle nail polish organizer is perfect for carrying almost my entire collection of paint pots or droppers when I'm being indecisive. The important part of storage is being able to see the shade without having to look at the label. Having a clear storage system that can corral a large collection while keeping them visible is ideal. Injection-molded two-sided plastic carrying cases for nail polish go by
many brand names on Amazon, and they'll all run you about twenty-five bucks. I haven't found a better mobile solution than this, but I would also suggest similar nail polish storage for a workbench installation. Both tiered shelves and wall-mount nail polish racks are going to be way more affordable, and see-through, than any miniature-specific laser cut racks you might find at your local game store.
Painting Handle
Whether you buy
the Citadel handle or
print your own, These little contraptions keep your mitts off the details until they are sufficiently
primed sealed. This is doubly important with Contrast Paints as it can almost be rubbed off like chalk when applied in thin coats and handled with your bare hands. You can even temporarily glue a base to a larger miniature like a vehicle so it can be mounted on the painting handle. Get one. It's worth it.
The Wet Palette
I have used ceramic tiles and even tried Citadel's Palette Paper, but I will never go back now that I've started using a wet palette. The idea is simple: parchment floated atop a spongey pad allows water to pass from the wet pad, through the parchment, and into the paint. The paint doesn't bleed down into the pad, and instead stays hydrated as it dries from the top down. This flow retains water in your paint longer so it remains workable. But it also keeps your blends around longer without drying out, and it speeds up the "always thin your paints" advice that was key to so many of us making the leap from gloopy to gorgeous. Simply put, a wet palette will make getting paint onto models easier. Even if you have your doubts, you should give it a shot. And I'm going to show you how to do that as cheaply as possible.
This is one area where I have not graduated to a professional solution because I'm so satisfied with how my DIY palette is working. The key is getting a truly air tight container like this now-discontinued Snapware. All it needs is a shallow depth into which you can lay something absorbent (like paper towels) and top that with a layer of parchment. The shallow depth allows you to have a low angle of attack with your brush. You want this when rolling your brush or mixing paint around. The one I bought is deep, but the two-well insert can be removed with one well used as a wet palette and another used to hold the wiping cloth. The deep well is handy for transporting the paint itself.
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On sale, it was cheapest of my options
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| All layers visible (palette, folded paper towel pad, and parchment) |
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| All soaked up; you can see the water beading on the surface |
If you don't want to DIY it, there is a $10 wet palette on Amazon right now that couldn't be any worse than what you're painting on. The Army Painter palette is possibly the most widely known. It comes with a pad, sheets of their "special paper" that looks and feels like parchment, and brush storage.
Note: Since first publishing this, I obtained the
Red Grass Games palette and have been loving it. Whatever you choose, get to it! It will change how you paint forever.
Photos
Susan Sontag once wrote, “Today everything exists to end in a photograph.” And the pandemic has only heightened the importance of good pictures to show your friends why you can't come out hiking on a Sunday morning.
My main photo rig is a
photo tent lined with white polyester and a selection of backdrops that drape down the back in a long curve to remove seams from the finished picture. In the past, I have built photo tents out of PVC and cotton, or vellum pasted to a rough frame of furring strips. What really matters is the next part: I point as much direct light as possible at the walls of the tent in the hopes that it will diffuse through and evenly light my miniature from all possible angles.
For the camera, I will use a smartphone camera in a pinch, but I prefer a DLSR with a macro lens. This combo gives ultra-detailed shots for individual minis. Remove the macro for group shots, and make sure you are lining everyone up in your depth of field. There are
packs of lenses available for smartphones too. They work, and they are a whole lot cheaper than a new DSLR just so you can take pretty pictures of your knick knacks, but you do you!
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| "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! |
Oddments
Stop struggling with a yellow overhead light. Get a portable or installable full-spectrum lamp or bulb like an Ott Light or LED strip. If you haven't received your baby book update since Middle School, your grandmother's scrapbooking light is probably up for grabs! They are cheaper now than ever before, so buy one of your own rather than stealing hers. I combine the LED strip pictured below with a
Costco-bought Ott Lite that even has wireless charging built in.
Applying technical paints like snow and muck is 10x easier with a
sculpting tool. These also work with green stuff, so get a big pack of them and find just the right tool for those nooks and crannies. Moving around muck is also a good use for those small brushes you can no longer use but cannot bear to throw away.
Paint cups wit ribbed bottoms can be hell on your bristles, so go easy, Bob Ross. The wide bottom on the Citadel pot can help keep it from spilling pink paint onto the carpet of your room. Do that too much and your partner/landlord might get stabby.
Even if you aren't painting regularly on a tile anymore, a ceramic well palette can help mix larger batches of Contrast or Washes. Cover the palette with saran wrap and it will retain water like a wet palette.
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