And It Begins with The Story...

So, after a hiatus away from writing this due to my computer taking a dive into the bowels of the underworld never to return, I have finally been able to afford a new one. It was a bit of an adventure and I've picked up a new hobby along the way: building my own computers. Now this was kind of scary, I hadn't opened up and played around in a computer in quite some time except to throw in some RAM and a CD burner a couple of years ago. I didn't know all the new tech or all the new names, terms, or what any of it meant... but I knew I could save a lot of money if I built it myself, and it would be like I wanted it when I was done. It has occurred to me that my experience wouldn't be dissimilar to some of you who may be following my articles.

Someone who knew a lot more about all of the new hardware helped line me up and send me down the path of discovery with a few cautions and a lot of encouragement. I was shown the basics, how to avoid some common mistakes, and how it was really a lot easier than I thought it might be. Now I'm sitting besides my new gaming beast, minus all the bright lights and stickers that so remind me of those crappy little Fast and the Furious wannabe cars on the roads. Its simple to look at but has the roar of a muscle car under the hood. I'm hoping this is where we will be with these miniatures. If you will pardon my meandering prose, and to prolong a metaphor... this is where we start tuning the motor and really knocking down our quarter-mile times.

Now That It's Painted, What Do I Do?

Well, like most things that you paint, you have to put a finishing coat on your completed miniature. A car gets some clear coat, and that's pretty much what the miniature gets. The same companies that make paint and primer also make varnish, so I won't nauseate you with any more lists, but let's talk about the two basic types of varnish: gloss and matte.

Gloss varnish is, well, glossy. Its shiny when it dries and makes your model gleam. Depending on what you're painting, this may be the perfect solution. Gloss varnish works great on anything that you want to show gleaming metal, or icky slime, or anything that you might think needs some shininess to it. In addition, gloss varnish is stronger than matte varnish, and will hold up better to wear.

Matte varnish is a dull varnish, perfect for miniatures in cloth, mostly naked (unless oiled up, I guess), or wearing pretty much anything you do not want to be shiny. That's really the only difference. And, as I mentioned, its a bit less durable than gloss. Its not going to rub off in the first five seconds of handling it, its just more likely to eventually rub off with continued handling. Overall, I tend to use matte because it fits my models better, but it all depends.

You have one other option. Use both gloss and matte varnish. This is obviously going to cost you a bit more, but I've known several people who use this method. You can spray or brush on gloss varnish first, wait for it to dry, then spray or brush the matte varnish on top of it. Thus you get both the protection of gloss and the duller surface of matte. Using a combination of spray and brush on also works, if you are so inclined. A good example of this would be a knight in shining armor that has a bare face or wears cloth on top of it. Use gloss on the metal parts and matte on the cloth parts, protecting both, and giving the right texture to their surfaces. Works pretty well, honestly, but obviously involves the use of some brush on varnishes. Brush on varnishes, by the way, are not anywhere near as problematic as brush on primers, and I use them very often for spot fixes and uses as I just described.

Advanced Painting, 201, Sort Of ...

Let me say that painting champions with world-wide recognition use this technique. Its a valid technique that can give you beautiful results. Done well, it can be responsible for really great paint jobs that are nearly a mystery to the eye and can cause the actual oohs and aaahs of many. I've taught it to people who've become Golden Daemon winners at Games Day competitions using exactly what I've shown them. They did all the work, I just showed them a path, and they obviously got a lot better than me.

So, what's this wonder method? Well, its called "layering." Does it sound fancy? It isn't. Its base-coating again, applied differently. Don't be disappointed, more than a few experts in many fields have said, "advanced anything is just the basics applied well." Keep that in mind as we go in this short journey. There is not a lot to tell you on this technique. The technique consists of applying layers of paint one on top of another in increasing or decreasing shades of color.

Let's start with a simple example and move into a more complicated one. This is purely a conceptual example. Take something flat and easy like half of a kite shield. We'll go from right to left, where the edge of the shield is to the right. Paint the entire space dark blue. Add a little white to the blue, and paint everything except the very edge of the shield. Add a touch more white and paint everything except the edge and a tiny bit more to the left. Add a tiny bit more, and paint everything a bit more left of the last line you made. Go on doing exactly this until you reach the center of the shield, where it should be quite a few shades lighter than the edge. In essence, you're making color gradually change over a given distance. Making the increments very gradual fools the eye into thinking its smooth. If you make the color changes more dramatic the change will become more obvious, but can still trick the eye. Using relatively thin paint for each successive layer keeps things from getting too thick and actually aids the trick because of its relatively diffuse color.The color seeps into the previous layer a little, making it look more blended.

To use this in a more advanced manner, let's paint a glowing sword. Let's assume a white primer coat. Paint on your base coat of darker shade of red. Next, adding a little bright orange, we paint everything this lighter shade except for two lines to either side of the center of the blade. We still paint the center of the blade this lighter shade, just leave two lines of the darker color to either side to give it some feel for changes of depth in power. Add some more orange and paint each section again just inside of the last area you painted, making sure to make that transition happen. With a sword, color changes have to be relatively quick due to the small space you are given. Start using yellow to add to the color and make for lighter shades of color to make successive layers smaller and smaller to show the color change. Going back to a previous technique, lightly glaze the entire sword with orange ink, perhaps glaze the darker area with red or magenta. Go back and layer some more color into it to make bigger or smaller changes in color or to add some snaking energy tendrils and that sort of thing. Use the glazes to tie the colors together better, or just control the layers more specifically. This is going to take time to learn.

If you really think on this, its all just a matter of doing your base coats again, but more tightly and with greater control. So keep at it, experiment, try it on more things. Its all about the brush control at this point. The entire point to layering is to make changes in color and shade in a more controlled manner. Once you learn this skill, which looks excellent and does not take extraordinary skill to acquire, you can move on to actually blending paint together. The principle is basically the same, its just a different technique. We'll probably cover that in a much later article.

Strategy of Painting

I mentioned in the conclusion of last article that I'd talk about the order in which you paint things as to avoid some pitfalls. Really, you're going to have to determine that from miniature to miniature, but there are some basic guidelines that should make things go more smoothly.

1. Paint the messy stuff first, the detail stuff second. Get all your big drybrushing out of the way before most anything else. That way you're not drybrushing right into a detailed bit after you just spent an hour layering an area just to mess it up by drybrushing some chainmail and getting the paint onto layered area. The same goes for doing washes. Nothing worse than washing something to have it drip into another area of the model.

2. Inside to outside. Paint all that hidden bits and recesses before moving to all the outside stuff. Its easier to cover paint that accidentally hit something while you were reaching into the armpit of a model than to fix it after you put a lot of work into that area.

3. Hold the miniature by the base or attach the base to something. Nothing worse than perfectly executing a some painting to only ruin it with your fingers smudging it around or putting a print into it.

Kit-Bashing, aka Chop-Shop Time!

This is what we can refer to as "converting 101." The general idea is that you cut off what you don't want, and you attach something from another miniature that you do want. The easiest of these is arm or even weapon swaps. Want that cool axe from MorBadder Chopsalot to be wielded by Roy "The Boring Sword" Rottinger? That's the sort of thing we're going to touch on. For this, we'll need tools. We have already talked about the hobby knife, files, superglue and a pin vise; but let's talk about, a micro-saw and kneadadite putty.

A micro-saw is just like it sounds, a small saw. It comes in a few different forms, but basically its a handle and a saw blade. Usually, the saw blade is replaceable. That is the one you want, so if you wear it out or break it, you can just buy another blade. Make sure to get one with a comfortable handle, the blade itself does not need to be really long. It helps to have some length, obviously, since you will be sawing this thing back and forth, but don't overdo it unless you just really want to. A shorter blade has more rigidity, which is good, you don't want it to bind too easily or be flexing around. Most saw blades come with a reinforced spine to accommodate. The only negative to this is if you're sawing something very thick, in which case you have a whole other issue anyway. You local hobby shop should have one, otherwise there are various online shops that carry it as well. We'll use this tool to cut things off that are beyond the normal scope of the knife or clippers.

Kneadadite putty comes in many forms. There are companies that sell it as "the green stuff," which is probably going to be the one you want. Depending on your source, prices will vary. You don't need much unless you're going to start sculpting with the stuff, and it also makes a handy tool to fix piping, which is why it was originally developed. Any place that sells miniatures will usually have the stuff, if not, most online miniature stores do. When you see "greens" of a miniature, that's what you're looking it. There are other variations that come white or brown. Skip the white, its not very good for this sort of thing, and the brown is supposed to be much harder when it dries. You should be able to get a small strip of it for around $10. It comes in either a strip with a blue side and a yellow side, or it can come as two separate cylinders. Either way is fine, I prefer the separate cylinders so that there is no chance of mixing. The blue is the hardener, the yellow is the base material. They are mixed together, typically in even proportion, until it is green... thus, "green stuff." We will be using this to fill in gaps or to help stick two parts together at times.

Now, having all these tools, we can get on with it. We'll start with something that uses both of our new tools. Let's do an arm swap. This usually works best between two similar miniatures of similar proportion. As an example, I want to cut the arm off of Male Dwarf w/ Axe to put on Male Dwarf with Crossbow. Typically, the arm is a bit thick to be cutting with a hobby knife. You can do it, but it involves a lot of effort and the potential for a lot of accidents. The arm is just too thick. Using the clippers will gaurantee that it doesn't come off cleanly, and will probably distort the arm.

Instead, we will use the micro-saw. Basic use and safety will include:

1. Hold the miniature by the main portion, not by the piece you're cutting off. Hold it firmly.
2. Keep your body parts away from the saw. To the side of the blade is better than in front or back and especially under.
3. If the saw starts to bind, just slow it down, apply lighter pressure, and continue. If this doesn't work, pull the part away a little bit.

One you get the part off, clean up all the burs and extra bits that might be left over. File the edges near the cut clean. Then repeat the same procedure to remove the same part off of the receiving model. Using the pinning technique from article #2 to reinforce this join. If the parts don't go together quite right or have a little gap, we go to using the putty.

Mix the two parts together thoroughly or it won't work very well. Typically, I twist the two halves together and then start kneading it out, spreading it and mixing it right back in with itself until it has a nice and consistent color throughout. Using a little water on your hands will prevent it from sticking to you. At this point, it should be pretty sticky. You don't need much, so cut off as little as possible. Pull off a little piece of it and stick it in the gap until it fills it. Pack it in there with your fingers or a tool if you need to. Put a little in the pin holes as well while you're at it. Press the two pieces back together to check its new fit. If it gushes out a little, don't worry, just spread the putty out into any remaining space to fill it and scrape off any you don't need. If it isn't perfect, don't worry about it. Let the superglue and the putty dry. Putty typically takes quite some time to dry, it should say on the package how long it takes to fully cure. Once it cures, you can cut off any excess or even file it off. Presto, you have now converted a miniature.

This same technique can be used for just about anything. You don't necessarily need to use the putty or even the pinning. The pinning is just to make the join stronger, the putty is just to fill in any gaps and help both pieces to have surfaces to join at. This simple method of cutting off something from one miniature, or just taking the part if its already a separate piece, and putting it on another is the basis of the conversion idea of "kit-bashing." The term is more relevant from the perspective of taking larger model kits like tanks and cars and such, and exchanging parts between them.

And Here We Move on to Some New Subjects

All right, so we've covered how to assemble and paint your own miniature. We've covered how to do some basic modifications to a miniature to make it more your own. We've even covered an "advanced" painting method. Now you can make your own miniature, your character, in a variety of flavors and styles. I would love it if some of you would send me a character miniature you've painted, especially if its one of your first ones! I hope, by writing this, that I've done some good for someone, and I'd love to see the fruits of your labor. Just take a picture of what you've made, and PM me here at rpg.net, my user name is Remjin. I know how hard it can be to show your first works, but don't be shy. I'll try to include some of the best ones in a future article, as I believe I may have figured out how to put images in the articles.

In the next article, I'd like to start talking about populating the table with other items to make your table look like what might be going on. I'll be talking about various items that can be bought to populate your table, keeping in mind that we're trying to stay on a pretty tight budget. We'll go from some published items all the way down to things you can buy just about anywhere, and try to keep it to lunch money kind of stuff. We'll also start talking about how to build your own, easily and inexpensively. It should be a fun article, and it will make your tabletop experiences at your games that much more fun! Oh, and as one reader brought up, I'll also talk about some basic strategies for bringing this to the table without any one person having to shoulder the entire burden. So, until then, I'll see you next time!