Ok, I have a few minutes, back to the tutorial.
Step Fourteen.
Painting the Bases.
Once the sand and glue has dried, you should turn the minis upside down and tap the base a bit to shake loose any excess sand. Then go round the edges and check that the sand is only on the top part of the base. As we're using movement trays for these guys, a layer of sand around the edges will make it difficult to fit them into the slot.
Once you're happy with that, get a dark brown and paint it all over the sand and around the edge of the base. You may want to add a tiny drop of water to help the paint flow between the sand more easily. Be careful as you go round the feet, but try to get the paint all the way up to the shoes. Let it dry before moving on to the next step.
Step Fifteen.
Skin.
This is where the mini starts to come to life. Go over all of the flesh areas with your flesh coloured paint, I usually use Heavy Skintone by Vallejo. If you feel it is a little to tanned, you can add a drop of light grey to make it paler, since most of these guys are from sunny Northern Europe.
Step Sixteen.
Skin Wash.
Once all the skin areas are dry, go over them with a flesh coloured wash. This brings out the detail and makes them look more like tiny people.
Step Seventeen.
Back to the Bases.
While you are waiting for all that skin wash to dry, you can go back to the bases for a quick layer. This is the closest thing to an actual painting technique in this tutorial. Pick out a lighter shade of brown/grey and put it on your pallet. Grab your roughest brush (don't use a good one for this step, if need be, buy a cheap kids brush from a 100 yen store) and dip it in the paint. Then, wipe the brush on the pallet until most of the paint is gone. Then, gently stroke the brush over the top layer of sand. The idea is to deposit the paint on the raised bits of sand without painting a large area. This takes a little practice, but don't worry about making mistakes, they can be covered up easily later. This technique is called Drybrushing and it is great for terrain and bases. It can be used for models as well, but requires some practice to get right.
Step Eighteen.
Eyes.
Feel free to skip this bit if you'd like. It's not necessary, but I like to do it. Once the flesh wash is dry, put a drop of white on your pallet and pick up your pointiest brush. Pick up a tiny drop of white on the end of your brush and then wipe a tiny, tiny bit off onto the pallet. The paint will usually form a bead on the end of your brush and you need to get rid of that. Then very carefully paint in the eyes on the mini. Take your time, clean your brush regularly and if you think the paint is drying out, put a fresh drop onto the pallet.
Step Nineteen.
Irises.
For this you either need a super pointy brush and a very steady hand OR you can cheat and use a very fine black marker pen. (You can get one called a Gundam Marker from the Joshin store, they come in several colours, but black is best). Very, very carefully put a black dot onto the eyeball of each mini.
Be careful where you put the dot and how big it is. Make sure that it reaches the top and bottom of the eye area. If it is surrounded by white, your minis will look like they are in a state of shock. Again, this isn't necessary if you don't want to do it.
Step Twenty.
Skin.
This step is just highlighting up the raised areas of skin on the mini. Use the same colour as you did for the first layer of skin and go over any raised areas, leaving some of the wash-shaded skin showing underneath. You want to put a layer over the nose, forehead, cheek bones, fingers and the back of the hands in most cases. This step also allows you to correct any eyes you made a mistake with.
Step Twenty One.
Hair.
Most of our Viking and Saxon warriors are hairy chaps, so let's do that part now. Pick out a few colours and paint the beards, moustaches and hair of each mini. Don't forget to see if there is any hair coming out the rear of the helmets.
Step Twenty Two.
Hair Wash.
No, not a new shampoo, a simple brown wash over the hair to give it some depth.
Step Twenty Three.
Flocking.
At this stage, the minis should be more or less done. Let them dry, completely. Once you are absolutely sure there is no wet paint on any part of the figure, it's time to break out the PVA glue again. You want to paint random blotches over the base of the mini, (covering up any areas you didn't like from Step Seventeen). Once you have covered roughly 50% or more of the base, dip it into some flock and push it around a little to get the flock onto the glue patches. Tap the model gently and set it aside in a box somewhere. Don't blow on it, the flock will go everywhere. (Word of warning, flock is REALLY painful if it goes in your eyes, trust me on this one). Give the glue a day to dry and then tap the base to shake any excess flock back into the packet. You may also want to get a brush and wipe any flock off the mini itself.
And that should do for now. I'll cover shields next time.
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450
