Turning to the other side of the Atlantic, here are three Wraiths and a Werewolf from Khurasan Miniatures Fantasy 15mm range.
Here I’ve used my acrylic mat medium with a tint of black acrylic ink for the cloaks, and it worked well, so I’m getting to understand how this medium can work. The werewolf was a simple paint job where I’ve used Strong Tone wash on the darker parts of the fur and Soft Tone on the lighter parts.
Here are the 8 Elf Heroes from Alternative Armies Hordes of Things range, which I explained in a previous post how I had a serious case of varnish frosting. Linseed oil seems to have solved the problem. So since it’s dry, they can be used. I’ll wait a few months before proceeding with my solvent based varnish if required.
Here are 8 Halfling Swordsmen from Battle Valor Skirmish Pack. Battle Valor has a bit chunkier 15mm miniatures. Even bigger than 18mm minis sometimes. Thankfully these halflings, although bigger than my Irregular Miniatures and Splintered Light Miniatures halflings, they’re still shorter than my Demonworld dwarves, so they’re plausible. Maybe they have some Stoor or Fallohide blood in them!
What I enjoyed is that they come with separate shields, so even though I got two double poses, with a slight bending of the sword arms, different colour schemes and different shields, they don’t stand out as the same.
Now to the painting part, I’m not thrilled with them. My colour choices could have been better, but also I tried two new things which could have gone better.
First, I experimented replacing water as my thinner, with acrylic mate medium. This medium was quite thicker and although it reduced opacity, the flow of the paint was not what I wanted (note: I’m painting with art grade acrylics). It gave a thick texture which I didn’t like. So it’s not good for regular painting but it could work well for making washes (noted for future reference).
Secondly I decided to try a commercial wash and used the Strong Tone instead of my homemade PVA washes. I’m not very happy with the result. The flow was a bit gloppy and oily and I felt like I had less control. Also it gave an overall darker look even at rises not only at recesses. I will keep it as backup or for specific uses, but I’ll return to my recipe for routine use. I also have the Soft Tone wash that I intend to try, maybe this will have something more akin to my liking.
Here’s a handful of Ratmen Warriors from Splintered Light miniatures, sculpted by my favourite Ben Siens. I didn’t use the varnish-gone-bad with these, and only used my mate varnish, hence their metallic parts are a bit less shiny (I tend to varnish the metallic parts satin, so they retain some glossiness).
These will make a good addition to my existing Ratmen personalities and zealots.
Where’s part 67? I’ve had some issues with the miniatures of pt67 and pt68. More specifically varnish frosting. I’ve handled pt68 much better, hence they’re ready for photography before pt67, but let me explain.
What is varnish frosting? It’s a dreaded effect that causes varnish to dry in a semi opaque white colour instead of transparent clear.
Why does it happen? generally it happens mostly with spray can varnishes when they’re used in cold or humid weather.
I’m using a brush on water based varnish, so in my case the fault was entirely mine, and the most probable root cause quite different. I’ve been using this bottle of varnish for quite some time, and has almost emptied, and part of the remaining varnish at the bottom had started becoming dense.
I foolishly tried to salvage that part by adding some water, considering that it’s a water based varnish and also that I thin my varnish with water during application for a thin film layer.
This must have ruined some properties of the varnish by either changing the ratio, or reactivated only some part of the varnish ingredients, with some other substances changing in chemistry or evaporating altogether. I’ve come to this conclusion because I never had any issues with this particular varnish until then. And I verified it because it happened in the first set of minis (pt67) and when I used it again in this set.
How did I try to fix it? So at the elves of pt67, I was stressed when I noticed it, and started searching frantically online for a solution. Unfortunately I went with the first solution I found which was the use of a very thin layer of olive oil applied with a cotton bud. It worked! Frosting was like 80% removed! But… olive oil is a non drying oil. Meaning it will remain forever liquid, and go rancid. So I tried removing it, which was quite difficult because I already had applied static grass to the base of the miniatures. I removed most of it with warm water rinsing and carefully use of paper towels. After this, the miniatures had a matte semi frosted look, and some parts looked an tad bit oily. I put them aside and worked with my Hyenamen.
At the time, I wasn’t certain I had ruined the varnish, so I used it with the Hyenamen I got from Splintered Light. Ben Siens has crafted some excellent sculpts and it shows. Loved painting these, but after some time, unfortunately they had varnish frosting too.
This time I was ready to try something else. I considered my options, and although it wasn’t mentioned online, I decided to go ahead and try some clarified linseed oil that I had from my oil paints set. See, linseed oil dries hard. It cures by oxidation. It has some yellow tint, but doesn’t go bad, and it also provides an amount of protection because the layer is tough. So I applied a thin layer of linseed oil to the Hyenamen.
As you can see in my comparison photo above, the results are very good.
So afterwards, I went back to my not-salvaged-yet pt67 miniatures and after using some mineral spirits to further remove any olive oil residue, I applied a layer of my clarified linseed oil.
Linseed oil takes a few days, to several weeks (or even months!) to dry, so they’re not ready for photography yet.
A word of warning, is that after applying linseed oil, acrylics will no longer work on top of the oil layer. Maybe a thicker layer of oil paint if one wishes to paint on top. If you want to varnish, you’ll have to wait a few months and follow up with a non-water based varnish. I have a couple of these (it was a wrong purchase as these have smelly fumes – I thought was buying water based ones) and I may use them in the future. I have no worries though because my miniatures are protected from use as they’re varnishes already under the linseed oil layer.
So, without further ado, here’s my Splintered Light Hyenamen (or Gnolls).
Three more wood elf archers from Ral Partha Europe, Demonworld range, to complement my existing warband. I tried to paint the same colours as the rest of my warband, but I think I’m a bit off. I should write down my colour mixtures…
In the same concept as my extra skeletons, here are a couple Dark Elf Swordsmen from Ral Partha Europe, Demonworld range. I haven’t decided on the shield painting, so I’ve left it as plain steel for now.
Grinding through on my pre-IOSS lead of shame stockpile, I painted a couple of Demonworld Death Knights by Ral Partha Europe.
In general I try to have unique poses for my miniatures, and scrolling through the RPE webshop I found a couple single skeleton miniatures that were missing from the dozen-strong warband. In an effort for completeness, I got these ‘death knights’ just in time.
Can you paint miniatures with tube container paste acrylic paints? You absolutely can, and in this blog post I’ll explain how it works for me.
As to the why, the reasons are different for everyone. It can be the cost, the experiment, the skill set or something else entirely. This blog post isn’t meant to bash at commercial hobby paints. These are excellent tools for the job, and they have some advantages which I’ll explain at the end.
For me the initial reason for using heavy duty acrylics was commitment and budgeting. When I decided to delve again into miniatures painting a couple years ago, I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it, or put out any interesting results. So it was mostly a test for me, like questioning myself “should I paint miniatures?”. Since I was ambivalent, I went with the cheapest option available – dollar store acrylics – so if I failed, the cost would be the lowest possible.
Later on, as my painting skills with arts acrylics got better and better, and I enjoyed the end results, I found no reason to switch to hobby paints. Though I might do so in the future, for the reasons I’ll explain in the end.
In sort the pros of heavy duty acrylics are:
The cons are:
Now bear in mind that the cheapest options available (dollar store acrylics) may be lower quality as well, so I’d not use them as the pigment count may be lower and the lightfastness may be worse. I’d turn to an arts and crafts acrylics named brand from the local store instead.
Lightfasntness? Pigment count? What are these? I’ll add Colourfastness and Opacity to the terminology.
Lightfastness: is the ability of a pigment to withstand changes in colour when exposed to light. Since more than one pigment or combination of pigments can provide the same colour, sometimes a pigment may be less lightfast than another, and withstand time. It’s not necessarily a cheaper pigment, but the named arts brands usually have a Lightfastness rating on the package, so you know what you’re buying. Always aim for the best paints in terms of Lightfastness. You don’t want your miniatures to change colour.
Colourfastness: how much the pigment changes colour when dry as opposed to when still damp. Acrylic paints thinned with water tend to darken a lot, compared to acrylics thinned in a medium and even more compared to oil paints. That’s not a problem, just something to consider when painting, that your end result will be a little less vibrant than what you see during painting.
Pigment count: the amount of pigment particles per volume unit of the paint. Higher pigment count means higher quality paints and better coverage. That’s not something that’s listed in any package, just something to expect with better quality products. Acrylic inks have a lot higher pigment count than paints.
Opacity: How opaque & semi-opaque vs transparent & semi-transparent, a paint is. Arts and crafts paints of names brands also have this listed on their products. An opaque paint will cover the underlying colour more, whereas a transparent paint will show through the undercoat. This isn’t good or bad, but it’s useful information, to choose the right tool for the job. A transparent paint is good for glazing, while an opaque paint is good to give a nice undercoat. Also knowing the opacity beforehand helps you decide on how much thinning you might need when painting over zenithal or when glazing.
Many of the tips and techniques below also apply to hobby paints, but DIY experimenting is even more prominent when using arts acrylics.
Thin your paints! Yeah that rule which applies to miniatures painting, stands even more true for heavy duty acrylics. Unless you thin them, their paste nature will quickly cover any details your model has. I put a small glob of paint on my dry palette and drop a couple of drops of water. I don’t mix it. I just use a damp brush, and take paint from where the paint/water layers meet. I haven’t used a wet palette, or another acrylic medium than water, so I can’t give any tips to this.
Thin coats win against thick coat: Don’t try to skip steps by giving one thick coat against many thin coats, and don’t get frustrated when one thin coat of paint doesn’t work. Follow up with another thin coat and if necessary, another.
Mix your own paints: the beauty of arts acrylics is how you can mix them to create new colours. You can try several different combinations. I advise writing them down in case you want to follow up in the future. In general it’s easier to write down anything in parts.
Mixing acrylic inks: Acrylic inks have excellent coverage properties. I use them as is, or mix them with acrylic paints to get specific colours. Acrylic inks tend to have very high flow medium, so that will change how your final mixed paint behaves, depending on your mix ratios.
Mixing dilute PVA: PVA can act as a retarder medium, and will also increase the transparency of your paint, as when the water will dry out, there’s going to be a paint/PVA mix layer bound, and PVA is transparent. I use it for glazing and washes. A 50/50 PVA/water ratio is a good starting point but YMMV as the consistency of PVA glues is all over the place between brands.
Mixing dilute dish soap: about 1 drop of dish soap in a glass of water is more than enough to create a a high flowing medium that will go in crevices. Beware though, don’t agitate the mix or you’re gonna get much unwanted bubbles.
Mixing your own washes: a very small glob of paint, 20 drops of water, and a big glob of PVA. You want the mix to be transparent, but not runny.
As to the painting itself there are lots of different styles and techniques, and experimenting is good, but once you find a style that you like, I suggest sticking with it for a while, until you’re good at it, before jumping to the next wagon. The main reason, is that getting good, is a two-fold advantage, first, you output nicer results, but also you paint faster, and can bring more minis to the table. By painting faster this isn’t only the actual hands on work, but the planning. Knowing beforehand what steps you’re going to follow to get the end result, really speeds up the process. Also spend sometime to decide on the colour you will use.
The steps that comprise the style of my choice (kind reminder that I paint in 15mm-18mm scale mostly) are as follows:
One issue I first encountered when painting with arts acrylics was that there are no dedicated specific colour paints, such as goblin green or feldgrau or bone white. Instead you have titanium white, cadmium yellow or lamp black. That makes it a necessity to mix your own paints, and also to understand that when doing so, along with the colour changes in hue, there are changes in saturation, opacity and coverage. Therefore it’s not always a 50/50 mix, but some experimenting is required.
Nevertheless, here’s how I do some common colour mixtures. I suffer from partial colour blindness, so take these recipes with a grain of salt.
Flesh: Mixing burnt sienna with white, can give you a nice flesh colour ranging from pale white to tan depending on the ratios. I should expand my range to include more flesh colours, and I’m thinking that burnt umber may be a good basis for the mixture to be used for darker skin tones.
Leather: I usually go with burnt sienna for mid-leather and burnt umber for dark-leather. I may go with yellow ochre for a tan/beige leather. Mid-tones between them can be achieved by mixing the respective colours.
Yellows: The all elusive colour. Painting yellow is tough, because the colour has terrible coverage. The best solution I found so far is two-fold. Use of acrylic inks (at least the yellow colour) for higher pigment count, and if you can accept to lose some vibrancy, mix primary yellow with titanium white. To return some vibrancy, a yellow only coat may be followed. Because inks tend to have a high flow, I need to mix them with paints, or the bright, vibrant yellow will be more pronounced in the crevaces and it will give an unrealistic look where the high spots are darker than the low ones (the opposite of a wash).
Reds: An undercoat of pink, (mix of red with white) followed by a coat of red (similar to the yellows above), usually works.
White: I’ve heard people had issues with white coverage using hobby paints. Well, titanium white has great coverage, so this shouldn’t be an issue.
Blues/Greens: I had no issue with them whatsoever, they seem to work fine as is.
Metallics: I tend to do metallics, thinned in the same manner as the rest of the paints, and when applied over the zenithal, they give this faux metal look. Alternatively I may simply drybrush them lightly, taking care not to hit other parts of the miniature. I’ve done some sort of gunmetal, by mixing the tiniest bit of black with silver, and thinning with water/PVA.
Basing the miniatures is a different part altogether, but I find that based miniatures look 50-100% better than unbased ones. In 15mm most miniatures come in integral bases so depending on how much time one wants to spend, there is a variety of techniques. In general I tend not to bother with pitcher’s mound. I like to apply major texturing before priming the miniature, so that I can apply primer to the base as well, and get the paint to stick afterwards.
Desert basing: Speckle painted beige/tan is great for desert bases. Adding small areas with sand and a couple of rocks. I drybrush with yellow ochre and wash the base with burnt sienna.
Swamp basing: Speckled for a uniform look, and painted dark green. Followed up with crackle medium and beige paint.
Generic basing: Apply superglue to the base and sprinkle with baking soda. Adding a few very small sand grains to the mix of the baking soda will give more variety to the mix. I wanted an old-school look so I painted green and drybrushed yellow ochre. I’m not a huge fan of the end result, and recently I started using static grass with great results.
Varnish: I use my miniatures for playing games, so I varnish them. I tend to varnish the metallic parts satin or gloss, and the rest of the miniature matte, so that metallic parts stand out. I apply water based brush-on varnish, which again, needs thin coats. Varnishing removes some detail, so it’s important not to apply a thick coat and ruin all the hard work.
It certainly is possible to paint miniatures with arts acrylics, as it is possible to paint them with oil paints (did this as an experiment), enamel paints (used to paint with them in the ’90s) and lacquers (never tried it). Depending on the skill of the painter and their acquaintence with the choice of paints and their techniques the results can be great. The choice of paint type is not a limiting factor to the end result. Learning how to use each paint type is the requirement.
It is easier to buy a particular model which comes with instructions on which hobby paints to use. No need to start worrying if you got the colours right, or the right sequence of steps. You get the instructions, you get the supplies, and you can start painting them right away, and expect a similar result to the manufacturer. Certainly easier for the beginner.
However, the cost of using arts acrylics can be a lot lower, if you can afford to put the extra time needed to learn how the paint behaves. You will not get to copy the same colour mix as a manufactured model (especially if you’re partially colour blind like me), but if that’s not what you’re after, then the cost will be certainly easier for the beginner. Overall the cost to something relates to money and time, so there’s a balance. Personally I find that the time spent painting (including learning to paint) is hobby time that I enjoy.
After two years of painting over 400 miniatures with arts acrylics, I can say that I’m still learning. I really enjoy it and I will keep painting with them. I must admit though, that I’ve been eyeing contrast paints (and the upcoming speed paints). I am thinking of combining them with a starting spray primer and a final quickshade varnish to reduce my painting steps from 5 to 3. I’m really curious for new painting techniques and eager to continue experimenting, as I’m also eyeing acrylic paint media (flow aids, retarders, glazing, thinners). Having a bigger toolset, will lead to a bigger skillset, and hopefully, more interesting paint results.
Hi,
This is a great primer, thanks for putting it together. As a tightwad I’m really interested in how cheaply I can paint.
Do you have any recommendations for brands you’ve had success with?
Great stuff,
Hambut
This is the set of a handful Rad Zombies from the Alternative Armies Loud Ninja Games range. I painted them in more conventional flesh and bone colours, so that they can double as some sort of flesh abominations in typical fantasy, and they won’t be limited at Sci-fi tables.
Hambut are discussing. 
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
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