I recently started painting and stuff like this has been a real problem for me in tutorial videos... most videos I find are all "okay, now get these 10 Citadel paints and these 5 Valejjo paints, and I'm gonna mix them together a little, and I'm gonna air brush these bits, and do these in sub-assemblies, and then I'm gonna glue them together, and then I'll take some bits I just have lying around and make a base, and then I'll grab a sponge and do some weathering, and ooh let's just add a little bit of drybrushing to make it look extra nice, and then thin down your layer paint "a little" to..." And I'm just sitting here with my 4 base paints, blinking and confused why this guy just took 15 steps to paint a basic soldier, and where he even got the idea that these should be the steps he's taking, and these are the colors he needs and DO I NEED AN AIRBRUSH, EVERYONE IS USING AN AIRBRUSH?! I've gotten kinda better at filtering out what I need to know and what I can do, but there's this huge gap between the basic Citadel tutorial videos that are super super basic, and like... anything else you can find around. I have yet to find a tutorial on how to like, mix colors. Every search I did just takes me to fancy stuff about wet blending and color theory, and I'm like "I just wanna make my red a bit darker, guys..."
Hi there! Do you know Midwinter Minis? They have great speedpainting videos. And almost no airbrush needed. Def check the channel out if you're new to the hobby for other tips.
@@sidtheragali1447 I have been watching some of their stuff, but thanks! And as you say, "almost" no air brush is kind of my issue! Speedpainting is another one of those things that comes up often; it's cool and has some nice tips for newbies, but it also comes with a lot of cutting corners... and it's kinda hard for me to judge, on my own, what corners are worth cutting. So that's a bit of a hurdle for someone new as well.
A lot of the YOU MUST ONLY USE AN AIRBRUSH!! stuff comes from scale modelers as you need such a perfect finish and the details are so easy to wipeout and big flat surfaces like wings show up brush marks like polished metal shows up fingerprints, Wargaming models are far more tolerant of being painted with a brush.
same...although i went overboard and got a stupid amount of paints and i still need a few that i forgot i wanted. Currently thinking of an air brush since it leave such a nice finish. But its been hard to just ignore all these cool techniques that make amazing models. But i do my best and just try to remember im new, and sadly my models wont look that amazing.
Having painted miniatures for 20 years, all I recommend to newer painters is to work on three main foundation techniques or processes: - Drybrushing (Textured surfaces/light over the initial prime) - Layering (Basecoat/highlight) - Attention to paint consistency If you just use those, you can churn out quick, neat and decent table-top quality minis. Oh, and people generally need to start using bigger brushes.
What exactly is the process of Layering? prime > darker base coat of a color > lighter layer of the same-ish color? With the purpose that you can still see a little of the base coat color come through?
@@RobertBerrier Bingo! The idea is to paint a smaller version of the shape with a lighter colour. I would say the main purpose of it is to build the dexterity of the process. Trying to do realistic shading off the bat can be frustrating and isn't really possible until you can control the paint, and know what to expect.
For me it's not the size of the brush that's important, it's how fine the very tip is. Teeny tiny little detail brushes can't hold very much paint, and are useless for blending. Also not all brushes are made the same. I find it important to invest in a quality real sable brush over the cheaper synthetic stuff. With proper maintenance, the tip will hold far longer. I find the Winsor and Newton series 7 size 1 watercolor brush a pretty good go to, Jack of all trade brush, for just about every infantry sized model.
I think this is one of my favorite channels for learning painting techniques and just general hobby knowledge because something about Uncle Atoms voice that lets me hear “you’re not quite there yet but keep trying” and not immediately think it’s condescending but actual constructive criticism. I hate posting pics of my models on Facebook groups because I’ll see people that do phenomenal work giving me praise and it comes across more like when a 5 year old shows off what they made in art class to a parent “That’s great champ” = well you’re trying and I guess that’s important
Oh, this video couldn't have come at a better time for me. I have just resumed painting minis after a long, long hiatus -I painted during my teens, but never persevered, and didn't improve much... I dropped it before college, and only recently decided to give it another go, as I crawl through my early 40's (as far as midlife crises go, this one feels kinda healthy!) I have been really dazzled by all the new techniques and materials -back in my day, it was all about washes and drybrush, period. Now you got your layering, your glazing, your wetblend, edge highlighting, underpainting, zenithal priming... it's a lot to take in! And of course, tons of tutorials available to dive into each of those! Since I have very limited talent, even less experience and even less free time, I have really appreciated the dose of reality... I should aim at getting my bearings, get some progress with the basics, and avoid going overboard with the fancy techniques -and related purchases!- until such time as I can really handle them. I'm looking forward to your video on "basic stuff"!
Eh I started painting minis about 2 years ago and I had very very little experience using a brush and like no experience using acrylic paint. I started just painting marines trying to get clean and good technique with highlights and some blending on the lenses and it sure was difficult and gross looking the first few marines but it didn't take long for those things I was consistently working on to get really good. I'd say about 6 months or so and I was really confident in the basics and started blending power swords or screens or capes which I worked on after that with a lot of success. Only a year later and I was making clean marines with small nicks and scratches of battle damage with nice blends where I needed them just because I was consistently working on those things. My goal was to get good at painting and not necessarily get an army on the table so maybe that's why I had more success. I honestly think you should just assess what you want to do and play it off that. If you want to just get an army on the table then yeah I'd hit the bare minimum to do so or if you wanted to become a decent painter I'd maybe put more emphasis on the learning and practicing different techniques area. Or if you're like me somewhere in the middle I just focused on the learning and techniques while also expanding what I considered the basics of mini painting
I really appreciate your approach to the beginner painter. I'm new to the hobby as in greener than the grass it's self. I've watched so many hours to painting videos however have no where near as many hours in painting. Your vids have given me some much needed confidence to just get on with it. Like you say I can hone my skills in time. I feel a real pressure to make a stunning mini when I've only just started, maybe a sign of the times but regardless i think we should just get on with it. Hone the skills with time and encourage those around us to put paint to plastic whilst praising our efforts. Having started mini painting for dnd and now 40k I will never again think of shaming a persons work, its difficult. With a little time I've seen it's actually quite easy to get decent results when not comparing to the work of professionals or others that have a ton of experience. So massive thankyou to you
I was originally so intimidated by wet blending that I never attempted it. But, in doing so, I learned that I like distinct color lines and it developed into a personal style that I like.
As a disabled new(ish) painter with mild Cerebral Palsy, and no art background I have found that trying to do Zenithal highlighting with a black, a grey and a white spray can of primer has helped me learn about light and shade quite a lot. It also provides an easier way to show what colours go where on the models. I also have used Army Painter quickwash over models until I get more confident with washes. I have found that my models look good enough to play games with, look better than grey plastic, and I am learning and enjoying a new skill. I hope this helps someone who is starting out.
The Best advice I ever received in years of painting was received last week. Focus on CONTRAST first, then BLENDING. A model with contrast and bad blending will look better from a foot away than an excellently blended model with poor contrast.
Thanks for this video "Uncle Atom." I am veteran painter of 30+ plus years and I found the conversations we should be having is, "Why are you painting. What 'sparks joy' for us in painting." If we are painting for gaming then high end techniques should be used sparingly. "Ain't no one got time for that," should be our mantra. If we want to be a competition painter then we should focus on quality, but as some one who has placed well in many competitions , I caution that this is a form of "Chasing the Dragon" and trying to hit a moving target while both painter and the target are moving . Of all the techniques I recommend is learning brush control and developing muscle memory are the two best things one can develop early on. Those two things have a high rate of return and can be done everyday.
Been playing with plastic/lead/resin/tin minis since 1988 (Dark Future), I can honestly count on one hand the number of minis I have highlighted. The main reason is more to do with time investment of a project and not lack of skill. I gravitate towards big forces, and prefer big games. I don't like playing with unpainted models, so for me a base colour, wash and a drybrush is a good level of investment to get them to a standard I am happy with. A lot of the more advanced techniques are great for showcase models and busts, but for say a basic grunt who is part of a 40 model strong unit... is it really worth spending the extra time? Painting for 7 hours a day, ha... I wish I had that luxury. Adult life sadly cuts into the available hobby time.
i think edge higelight overshadows the little brother of dry brush... in general i think dry brush don't get enough representation. like if you look at kirothTV knights and other units they look so much more amazing than any normal brush could do. dry brushing is a gift for the beginner and a tool for the pro
I am looking forward to your next video topic. My experience tends to go: 1. Build - not finding 100% of the mold lines - struggling with building Infinity metal mini's 2. Prime - under or over spraying - dusty or dripping - this step ruins my mini's 3. Base - thinned paint takes 2 or 3 coats - a bit too messy 4. Wash - whole model goes dark 5. Highlight - messy, stark transitions 6. Edge - Tron (as you say) What I need is more practice + one or two critical or essential tips for each step + the one thing to avoid. And finally, acceptance of less than perfection to reach 'done'. Thank you for all the years of great content.
In 1999 I was 9, and I think I had heard of those video game things and the one game I had was Banjo Kazooie. Now that was a great time sink for a 9 year old! Great message in this video Uncle Atom, it's so easy to be running in your head before you can actually walk. Considering my current painting level I'm looking forward to your next video about basic techniques to master!
I had a headstart thanks to amazing video from Goobertown Hobbies about painting for beginners, so my first minies weren't terrible, but it took me one year to paint a mini, that someone picks up and says: "Wow, that's really cool paintjob!" At first I only painted everything in the colour it supposed to be, shaded, and called it a day. Second, I learned how to do the step above, but clear, not messy. Third, I learned about edge highlighting, and it was a big step up. Fourth, I learned wet blending Fifth, I learned about colours, specifically, how to create interesting colour schemes, and that colour scheme can ruin a miniature, even if it is painted nicely. Sixth, I learned about holy trinity of 3 paints per detail, as follows - undetone, base colout, highlight. It is where I am now, I and these skills above allow me to make some good looking models, but I am far from being satisfied. Generally, with every new project that I undertake, I try to use every skill in my toolbox, and then add one more to the mix.
All this advice is applicable to life. I don’t find a lot of your videos terribly helpful but I may quote you with the walk crawl talk. Really you are so correct trying to go too far too fast you can hurt yourself and talent is a reflection of rehearsal of technique. I really enjoyed this talk.
My first year in the hobby I avoided edge highlights.. one model would take ages and as you describe just didn’t work. Now almost 3 years into it I’m a lot more quicker and get a far better finish. I’m currently edge highlighting all my armies that I never done before and it’s great to refresh my armies look and to see how Iv changed in my painting style.
I started painting after 5 years again. This channel gave me the motivation to do so. So I started painting and my God did I lost alot of techniques haha, after two months I am back at my old level. Wetblending, edge highlighting and even Zenithal undercoating are techniques I try to avoid at the moment. Drybrushing is my way to go it is a bit tricky at times but I am happy with the result. As it is mentioned in the video and in alot of others, practice makes perfect it is a journey. Keep up the good work Uncle!!!
I disagree about edge highlighting, I think it quite a basic technique that can go a long way to making minis look really good, but there's a difference between the 'eavy metal highlight every line which gets that tron look, and just picking out the most defined edges to make them look sharper and to help break up colour. Also I think drybrushing is good and easier in many cases, but there are times where it's actually harder, like if you have multiple colours you want to highlight in a tight area, and can often leave it with a sort of dusty look.
I agree, edge highlighting can be done quite well quite easily. I am not saying that people should stay away from drybrushing but I would say that people should be careful about becoming a onetrickpony that only ever drybrushes everything :)
I wholeheartedly agree with this. I started edge highlighting early in my paint career (I'm still early in my paint career since I only started 2 years ago), but it really brings your models to a next level, while being not that hard to do. Also I try not to go overboard with the highlights but just focus on specific details. But I still use a bit of dry brushing as well, especially for the bases.
You can say there edge highlighting has a kind of skill plateau to it. It is easy to pick up the basics, just highlighting a few areas of a model but then going to some of the more detailed highlighting it gets harder to do especially doing entire models. Then it kind of levels out that you're just improving in steady increments but you've learned a big chunk of it at that point.
This is why I love King Of Average, he just gives you basic tips to help your models looks good on the table top. I feel like too many channels on RUclips feel like a college level art university exam.
"Talent doesn't come until a long, long ways down the road." The way I say it is this: "There is _no such thing_ as 'Talent'. There is only *Skill.* Anyone can become skilled, with practice."
Focus on colour blocking and learning the proper applications of shades and washes is a great first step and either zenithal highlighting during a prime or dry brushing is a good first step. Also Necromunda is pretty fun. Its different from the tabletop game while still capturing the essence.of it.
Great video! I've definitely tried grasping for techniques beyond my skill level (still do) and it seems to generally do more harm than good as it burns me out and just causes disappointment. As for the Necromunda game, I'd like to see that. That sounds really fun. However, where you might want to start when streaming probably depends on your familiarity with the developers other game "Mordheim: City of the Damned". If you have played and understand the mechanics of that game you will already be familiar with the basics of how this game works and probably only need the first two missions to get familiar with the game. The game treats its story mode as a "learn as you go" tutorial and suggests you play that before you make your own gang but its a fairly long story. I think the most fun would be watching you build your own gang (maybe have its creating influenced by the twitch stream? up to you.) and go through the pseudo campaign system they have for custom gangs. Also, it might be good to play the game a bit before streaming anyway to make sure its something you enjoy. I like the game and its obvious the developers have a deep passion for the setting because the ambiance is perfectly Necromunda, but its not without its flaws and certainly deserves its mixed review status on steam at the moment.
I could t agree more. I’ve been painting minis and models for many years. With the time it takes to pull off a descent edge highlight, I don’t even bother. I still cannot pull off a decent wet blend. You can do so so much with drybrush and glazes.
In the last few months I've returned to Wargaming after about 25 years away. This video is a huge help. I love watching really skilled people perform their craft really well. But sometimes it's really hard not to get discouraged when your results aren't what you had in your head.
Another major thing that you really shouldn't be working on early on is non-metallic metals...that's something I've seen some people want to try and freak out for failing. There's a reason that a lot of starting kits include metallic paints. For edge highlighting, a lot of that depends upon what you're doing. One thing that it tends to be necessary for are weapons and the like. There's a very simple "cheat" option that a lot of people miss for it. Go for either the paint pens or even some of the fine tip sharpies. It seems stupid, but it tends to work extremely well for anyone starting out. At least if you can draw a relatively straight line on paper. Don't do it with a brush until you get better though, and only do it where it works.
I think having a solid, neat base coat is a great foundation. I kind of like how cartoony it can look. You can always add a wash or some select highlights later, but the base coat is good enough to leave it there until you have the motivation to do more.
Agreed. I rarely use a wash or layers, though I did when painting my knights chassis and legs. Armor panels are just the base coat. Did try to do a fancy heat bloom effect on the thermal lance though. Theres some layering of washes there.
Hey Uncle Atom, a very informative video as always and your videos in the past have had a major effect on my style of painting and mind set on the hobby so i can't thank you enough. You mentioned a while back, possible at the start of lock down, that you had been experimenting with some new glazes and you said you were going to to do a video on them, i apologise if this is not the case and that my imagination has been running rampant again, but if i'm correct i would still be very interested in seeing that video. Thank you again for taking the time to do these videos, like many others i really appreciate that you do this and keep churning out the gold!
Ha, just found your channel while searching for videos on airbrushes and miniature painting... I really dig your informative approach though. I feel like you tell it how it is, in your experience at least. Other channels have so much content & want to show you so many new techniques to try that you can get ahead of yourself without realizing it. I like that you have a little less-hippie/more-informative Bob Ross vibe going on... you’re very blunt as to what you can expect going into any of these topics with little-to-no background prior to, which is actually more informative than anything for anyone watching your channel looking to start wading into the hobby. Side note, in 1999 I was 11 years old. Tony Hawk Pro-Skater was a revolutionary development into video game physics engines. I think that was one of the first games that I could intuitively feel the change in momentum rising up comparatively to the increased velocity of going down. It has great sFX cues and a killer soundtrack as well, although Dave Mira’s Pro-BMX might have an edge up on it with Sublime on it, ha ha
Don’t forget make your army table ready and pleasing to your eye. That’s basically the best paint advice I can share with all you people who are wanting to get your feet wet. The whole purpose of this hobby is for the hobbyist to glue together and paint your army or armies. Dive in hit em with a brush and don’t be afraid to freehand a lot of happy mistakes will teach you tricks that pros cannot. If you learn by watching Sam and UA then by all means. Oh everyone has heard of painting Color wheels leave those wherever you see them. Color mixing or blending is basic if you ever played with crayons when you rubbed two colors together you made a new color paint works the same way.Dont be afraid. I started small I painted the opposing teams in a Blood Bowl box. I started to paint them with the two basic colors that Alabama and Auburn each are famous for and then I realized Orks have only a few colors they associate with and humans the sky’s the limit and that’s when I realized the creative margin of diversity. Start painting and don’t look back.
The thing that kept me from losing my mind with unfinished models and time it would take was painting a Nighthaunt model I got as a gift, even though I said to my friend; I stick to 40k. While painting, I forgot about the time and the model turned out pretty decent. I then decided to start basing my very first model as a distraction. Slapped some Stirland on it, then some Blizzard without much attention like screw it. This 'Nighthaunt' then turned out so good my friend decided to give me the rest of his nighthaunts straight from his Soul Wars box as a gift since the find they would have a better future in my hands than gathering dust at his. lol I painted them as well. There, I suddenly had a ready Warcry warband only missing Spirit Hosts.
I've bought myself a 2000 point army to get back into the hobby and as I progressed true roughly 60% of them I'm starting to enjoy painting 1 model at a time, the amount of details and trying out new things makes it a lot of fun. Yes it takes allot more time but getting better at it gives me a nice drive to test new things on the next model :) . I found that trying to wet blend on bloodletter swords is good practice but it takes a lot of time since it involves 4 different paints, the results are amazing tho. Have fun and keep on painting!
'99, I was 25. I also picked up Tony Hawk for the great nostalgia, now my 8 year old is all over it. I've also been playing a bit of Space marine on Steam and just picked up Underhive due to Midwinter Minis bit on it, interesting game, I haven't played it on tabletop before. Video gaming is distracting me from all the unpainted plastic I have to work on
The thing that people forget is that an army with one overpainted really great model and 99 unpainted ones will always look worse than an army with 100 ok painted models.
I agree, though I don't think having various paint quality is that bad as it kinda shows progress as a painter. But I agree, too much difference and it starts to stand out.
Totally with you Perigrin. You're speaking the truth here. Alexander, he said one overpainted and the other unpainted. Different quality painting is a different thing. But I do agree with you that it shows an evolution.
@@Oever117 Oh, it hurts when you finish the army, and the latest unit is so starkly contrasted to the first unit, haha. My Nighthaunt are a great example of this. You can almost track me tweaking and improving the "ghostly glow" effect I went for unit-by-unit.
Thanks for this video. An excellent topic for discussion. I 've been into modelling and painting since I was about seven, and I have used wet blending on only a few models where I needed to gradually shift from one colour to another on a only a couple specific areas. It is better to concentrate on neatness when you start out . Once you can achieve that you can attempt enhancing details with careful application of washes, then highlights. Drybrushing is your friend, but it is just one skill in the set and really isn't right for every situation. Edge highlighting is really popular, but it's just another technique to combine with the others, not and end-all, be-all. When it comes down to it, the "advanced" techniques, aren't all that necessary for a decent -looking, table ready army, IMO. Thanks again for this video, and If it matters, I was 32 in 1999, playing Battlefleet Gothic, still trying to get my head around the changes to 40k with the recently released 3rd edition. P.O.ed that I had to remove weapons from dozens of my models to make them useable for the new edition. I think I was painting Epic 40k as I had got that the previous year also, along with building scenery for all three games! Busy , busy busy! Unmarried, and childless, uh, work? Oh yeah, exterior trim carpenter!
Great topic. I’m a gamer rather than painter but I love a painted army and great scenery to bring it all together. I think that makes me a “get it on the table” painter of some 20 years. So what does that mean? Usually black undercoat A limited pallet of colours on the figure A good selection of mostly GW colours straight out of the pot with hardly any mixing Paint each colour once and try to limit touching up because of sloppiness Dry brushing for highlights Bronzed flesh and ink for the skin and highlight the brow/nose T. I never bother with eyes (I’ll only see them if my troops are fleeing!) A reliance on washes for shadowing Steel Legion for most bases A partial flock with summer grass and a bush/shrub/rock combo across the bases to bring them together Recently I’ve started consistent basing around the round GW sizes so I can cross-pollinate across armies. I’m not a competition player so it doesn’t matter to me if my Warmachine force is not on PP display bases. And that’s it, simples. So all my armies are painted then, right? Most are mostly painted which is why complexity just doesn’t work for me.
Sometimes just a good, clean, well done paint job is all you need for a model. I like to use a model or two to test a new technique. Still just focusing on the basics, filling in all the detail, priming models, basic colour theory, basic shading, dry brushing , and good brush control will get you good looking models. The later will be fundamental in every advanced method of painting you do.
"RUclips doesn't know where your skill level is" you just hit the nail on the head. That explains why I'm getting g so frustrated trying to learn all this stuff.
In the tattoo industry when we paint flash we do the spit shading technique, never thought to do that on my minis haha I’m still new to it all so I’m keeping it sweet and simple 💪🏼
I feel like as a beginner I could give some perceptive on some of the stuff mentioned here,not criticizing but just giving my take as a modern newbie. I've been painting models for about a month now and I've already gotten into wet blending and at least to me that technique was pretty easy to pick up at least decently well so that might be one of those things that depends entirely on the painter. OSL or Object source lighting however is one of those techniques that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole unless I'm using an airbrush,beginners like me might wanna look it up just to see what I'm talking about,but I'd recommend not trying it. I agree with your take on drybrushing,it's straight up just magic and extremely easy to do,so much so that I did it on my very first mini and it made it look so much better. Another really easy thing that will just magically make the miniature look like it's painted a lot better is zenithal priming. Just prime the mini as you normally would with black or gray and then shoot some white or gray primer directly from above the miniature,it's really easy and simple but really effective.
The problem with zenithal for beginners is that most of the time getting paint consistency down first is key. I myself have only been painting for two years and I consider myself a beginner still since I just can't find much time to paint. I just recently purchased an airbrush and have started zenithal priming, but I'm struggling with using the proper methods to preserve the undershade. I also found that I need to learn to undershade in different colors since my red paint looks like crap over my black zenithal.
Honestly I thought you were going to mention zenithal highlighting. I'm an old school player from early 90s I played for about 4 years and only started painting minatures again in December 2019 after going through a bad depression. My painting wasn't particularly great in the 90s but, I must say I'm enjoying using contrast paints and have got some nice results from a black undercoat then applying a wraithbone for te zenithals then a 2 layers 50/50 iyandan yellow / contrast medium for some imperial fists. it goes a dark greeny in the shadows and brighten up nicely with a dry brush. I don't recall edge highlighting from the 90s but I'm not going to give up my dry brushing any time soon. Though I will say to anyone using drybushing going in the same direction it looks a lot better I think. I always go top down so that vertical high point capture more paint. I know I've got a long long way before I can get any where near Sam Lenz' amazing work but, its still amazing watching him paint and explaining things as he goes.
I like a quote that Kow Yokayama sensei said to Linc sensei (paint on plastic channel). And it's "Just get it done". if you cannot wet blend try glazing, and as an earlier tip mentioned if you are not confident with edge highlighting, then drybrush. We should not be emberassed to cheat the look, what matters is we get the painting done along with practicing advanced skills on the side.
NMM probably deserves a mention as a "best avoided by beginners" technique, but I think wet-on-wet blending is a good thing to practice from the beginning.
When I highlight, I take the base color, add a touch of white and then run the side of my brush along the edge where two surfaces meet. It is enough to add some depth without being over the top like I see on some GW stuff.
If there is one skill to practice from the beginning it is brush control. Getting used to using a larger brush than you feel comfortable with will make you faster. Think of it this way, if you were taught speed-reading in school as a youngster imagine what you could now know. Thanks for sharing and please be safe!
7:20 GW's obsession with edge-highlighting has me all but completely despising the whole technique. For two reasons: It rarely ever looks good, let alone amazing. And they always describe it (and shading with washes) as if it were realistic, which for most materials it simply is not. If they were honest about it just being a way to make molded details pop to the human eye more, I wouldn't have to veritably fight a mental aversion to ever include it. (As for washes, there's a valid place for them, particularly to shade small details, but whenever I see one of their guides with a huge dark streak running along a fold in some sort of fabric in a way diametrically opposite to how lights and shadows actually fall, I can't help but cringe.) On the flip side, I'd love to get into wetblending, but it's so very, very daunting. 😓
With your mindset you'll ace wet blending, just have to push through the initial anxiety and go for it. Your first few attempts at anything new will always fall short of what you know you can do, but thats just why growth feels so good. Fear is the mind killer 👍
The thing that doesn't do it for me is, I see some lovely models painted with the technique from a distance and they can look great but when you get closer its all ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@@JupiKitten Aww, thank you. 😊 @Leman Russ Well, I don't watch them to learn any techniques, but to discover official paint schemes to potentially adapt for tempting models/armies. That said, to be fair, they have shown some more advanced techniques in their video guides for huge minis. And after the absolute nadir in quality when they were hyping their Contrast paints as a miracle cure to all your painting woes, they are now using them in a much more sensible/sophisticated way. Just for the record, for RPG models and display pieces, I combine fairly extensive use of layering with very selective use of washing and drybrushing (mostly for mail and fur), whereas for wargaming armies and terrain pieces I resort to much simpler combinations of washing, layering and drybrushing - close to GW's style, yet with crucial differences. Anyway, as for just going for it, you're totally right, of course. The question, though, is what sort of models to pick to practice. I've been pondering this for a couple of days now, but nothing has really changed since the first couple of minutes, as the Ghost Archipelago Snake-Men still strike me as a pretty ideal choice to practice wetblending on with my Vallejo paints - and are indeed the only one that I can think of. (Any other suggestions?) They have actually been tempting me for a while now. Only problem is, I don't really have any further use for them. Then again, they're cheap enough that this doesn't really matter much. And subsequently it also occurred to me that I haven't painted (or even built...) my warband of bouncing grots yet. One of the things Contrast paints are supposed to actually be good for is wetblending, and all of those models - but especially the various squigs - seem to me exceptionally well-suited to practice wetblending on. (Among other reasons, because screw-ups are less likely to stand out negatively.) I guess I should actually rewatch a couple of videos on the topic.
Talent is what you bring to the table when you're starting out (how quickly you pick up concepts and can start to use them correctly), skill is the ability you accumulate over time.
I really love your vids, great advise! Sadly i really can't follow that too much. I've started with Tau and painted them in Vior'la sept and the thing is, you kinda can't drybrush white (or at least i can't) so i had to resort to edge highlighting. And while it is quite ruff and some models look quite badly, i've kinda gotten the hang of it faster than i thought (took me the start collecting box i'd say). Having the proper technique really helps and you don't have to highlight everything, even only some parts, that might be highlighted easily by just using the side of the brush and the correct angle (which really isn't too hard) can go a long way in making the minis pop. As you said in the video, beginners don't have to worry about those techniques but if you don't have a problem with messing up and going back and forth dome times, then it can be really cool and rewarding!
I'd love to watch you play Necromunda and I'd like to see you from the start with the struggles and all. Also totally agree on the topic, seeing lots of people trying to take on all the skills at once and it frustrates them.
Wet blending add a bit of water with paint apply thin coats until reaching desired look(coats should look transparent ish). add a bit of white to original paint to increase intensity and repeat. a bit of black to original paint will also create you a good base color. White black and any color is all you need. For edge highlighting buy a small detail brush.
First time watching and got excited to see the “Made in WI” at the end (and all the punk bathroom vibes) Just started painting a few months ago. Thanks for letting me know I can stop freaking out about wet-blending. 😅
I'm trying to take a poll. I am new to mini painting and was curious to find out if you prefer to paint the mini disassembled or assembled. Some of the space marines look like they would be a pain to paint once they are put together. Thanks for the help.
The thing about wet blending is that you see people using several different shades of the same color, but if you are starting out, try just two or at most three colors. The first time I tried wet blending I used like, 5 different colors to paint this cool fiery gradient on a power sword which in the end it looked like one of those multicolored popsicles, It was funny, but certainly not cool, lol. Next I started painting the energy weapons of my necron kill team by blending just a lime yellow and a bright green and they ended up looking great!
GW's early 90's painting guide for beginners was a great place to start: 1. Prime 2. Base Color 3. Wash 4. Drybrush 5. Details and... done. Other than learning how to do a decent eye, this lets you crank out table top quality minis like crazy.
If I'm not at work I'll watch you play. in '99 I was 24 years old and still in the Air Force, and only knew about Warhammer as the game the kid in my dorm who never took a shower played, so had no interest. To go back then and be able to learn to play...
The only time I wet blend is when I accidentally paint over an area I dry brushed with another colour. I will take the two colours I used for the dry brush, blend them together, and correct the mistake. Taking just one of the colours will often stick out very harshly. Taking both colours blended, it usually barely shows.
I know this may sound funny at first but its very true. I play guitar as well as paint 40k. On the guitar.... it does not need to be complicated to be bad ass. I can play some bad ass riffs with just one finger. Same with painting. You can do some really good painting with just 4 colors and no "master" techniques. Point is... complicated doesn't mean awesome.
I like your style and your videos of course! I got in the hobby and started painting two and a half years ago and now I start to see a lot of improvement mainly because I started to comprehent and apply the basic technics (thin bases, layering and drybrushing) better and smoothly and not by adding more advanced technics such as edge highlighting. Although I really try to edge highlight some models like captains etc and more often than not successfully, I avoid it for a squad of ten models because I find it tiring and frustrating! But what helped me a lot is airbrushing. I started airbrushing 5 months ago and helped a lot with priming, thin basecoating and layering. I found out that I can handle better an airbrush from a plain brush and paint better with it. What is your opinion on airbrushing, sometimes it feels like cheating in comparison with painting with a plain brush! Thanks for reading my long comment😀 I will try to keep them shorter!
To summarize: Don't rush yourself into advanced techniques like Wet Blending and Edge Highlighting. I also think OSL amd NMM can be quite punishing for the beginner painter with average skills. These may be considered related to Wet Blensing though.
I'd add for drybrush, get a dollar store makeup brush & just practice a lot with a spare mini or backpack. Definitely skip anything from awesome mini painters doing a lot of display painting. If you're starting out & hear edge highlights, OSL (object source lighting) or non-metallic metals just save it for later. Just start off with blocking starting colors, shade/highlights, varnish and have fun with your minis & take photos.
I bought minis for the first time this July. I already own an airbrush and colours for it, because I've been doing masks for almost 5 years now. I'm really not into building my own army and just into painting one off models with strange paint schemes and try new techniques. Also I discovered i could take my expensive airbrush paint and mix it with cheap acrylic paint to make it dry enough for dry brushing which looks as cool as airbrushing and takes a lot less to clean up :D I really like the hobby for the small, manageable challenges
See, the thing with edge highlighting is, _everyone_ no matter how long they have been painting, gets poor results at first. As with any skill, it comes through practice. But once you get the hang of consistent pressure and even strokes and the right consistency of paint, it's actually a very _easy_ way to get fantastic results! And the longer you put off learning it, the longer you'll have to do it the hard way. Drybrushing is a great alternative (especially with the makeup brushes) but it will only take you so far. And the great thing with edge highlighting is that it fools the eye into perceiving the color and tone of the entire surface differently. You don't get that with drybrushing. Not saying it's something a new painter needs to learn - neatness and a smooth coat are the most important things there - but the sooner you take the leap and try, the sooner you'll get better results than you could from _years_ of drybrushing.
Edge highlighting is a weird subject for me; I feel like it suits certain things better than others. As an example, on something fairly reflective (like metal armor) I think it definitely helps sell the illusion that its metal and to some degree adds a bit of realism, though the caveat is if its done well. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing a mini where some grabbed the absolute lightest color they had (usually white for non-metallic surfaces and a bright silver for all metallic surface which I'll touch on in moment) and applied edge highlighting right over the base coat. This idea that all you need to do is edge highlight and you can skip everything else makes for a look that's definitely not aesthetically pleasing (at least not to me) and looks very much like the armor from Tron. The other big pet peeve I have is just using a bright silver metallic color over everything (I did say I was going to come back to it); never once in my life have I seen any non-white metal (gold, copper, bronze brass) that glints like silver or steel along edges and high points. I understand mixing in a silver/steel color to ramp up highlights but just throwing a solid line of silver/steel paint on a surface that's supposed to be gold/copper/bronze/brass just ruins it for me.
Yeah lets see you handle the perils of the underhive, Uncle A. , happy to watch you have a go at necromunda as I too am wandering around Hive bowel trying to find some archeotech :)
What beginner techniques that helped me were: prime black, solid base coat, wash, then dry brush. Now that I am more experienced I still really only do these same steps but differently with better results. Now I prime black then hit it with a zenithal highlight, base coat, wash the recesses, highlight layer, then selectively dry brush. It’s fast and gets me to a standard I’m proud of. Edit: I was 9 in 1999 and an also enjoying THPS hoping online free skate and private matches come soon I just want to skate with my friends with out breaking these old bones.
For some reason I found this surprisingly useful, I am not a great painter and want my little toy plastic dudes to look decently painted on the table as quick as possible - I don't find painting that enjoyable - mostly because I have so much to paint I think. Not tried wet blending and probably wont. Edge highlighting I have done but in pictures you cant tell, I must be doing it too thin ? But any thicker will become a hot mess, so dry brushing is a better option - Good video Uncle A - Would like to see you play Necromjnda from the start - but have no idea when I would fit in watching your twitch. Its on the list, its just a long list ;)
I recently started painting and stuff like this has been a real problem for me in tutorial videos... most videos I find are all "okay, now get these 10 Citadel paints and these 5 Valejjo paints, and I'm gonna mix them together a little, and I'm gonna air brush these bits, and do these in sub-assemblies, and then I'm gonna glue them together, and then I'll take some bits I just have lying around and make a base, and then I'll grab a sponge and do some weathering, and ooh let's just add a little bit of drybrushing to make it look extra nice, and then thin down your layer paint "a little" to..." And I'm just sitting here with my 4 base paints, blinking and confused why this guy just took 15 steps to paint a basic soldier, and where he even got the idea that these should be the steps he's taking, and these are the colors he needs and DO I NEED AN AIRBRUSH, EVERYONE IS USING AN AIRBRUSH?!
I've gotten kinda better at filtering out what I need to know and what I can do, but there's this huge gap between the basic Citadel tutorial videos that are super super basic, and like... anything else you can find around.
I have yet to find a tutorial on how to like, mix colors. Every search I did just takes me to fancy stuff about wet blending and color theory, and I'm like "I just wanna make my red a bit darker, guys..."
Hi there! Do you know Midwinter Minis? They have great speedpainting videos. And almost no airbrush needed. Def check the channel out if you're new to the hobby for other tips.
@@sidtheragali1447 I have been watching some of their stuff, but thanks!
And as you say, "almost" no air brush is kind of my issue!
Speedpainting is another one of those things that comes up often; it's cool and has some nice tips for newbies, but it also comes with a lot of cutting corners... and it's kinda hard for me to judge, on my own, what corners are worth cutting. So that's a bit of a hurdle for someone new as well.
that was a good read! very funny as a newby myself
A lot of the YOU MUST ONLY USE AN AIRBRUSH!! stuff comes from scale modelers as you need such a perfect finish and the details are so easy to wipeout and big flat surfaces like wings show up brush marks like polished metal shows up fingerprints, Wargaming models are far more tolerant of being painted with a brush.
same...although i went overboard and got a stupid amount of paints and i still need a few that i forgot i wanted. Currently thinking of an air brush since it leave such a nice finish. But its been hard to just ignore all these cool techniques that make amazing models. But i do my best and just try to remember im new, and sadly my models wont look that amazing.
Having painted miniatures for 20 years, all I recommend to newer painters is to work on three main foundation techniques or processes:
- Drybrushing (Textured surfaces/light over the initial prime)
- Layering (Basecoat/highlight)
- Attention to paint consistency
If you just use those, you can churn out quick, neat and decent table-top quality minis. Oh, and people generally need to start using bigger brushes.
What exactly is the process of Layering? prime > darker base coat of a color > lighter layer of the same-ish color? With the purpose that you can still see a little of the base coat color come through?
@@RobertBerrier Bingo! The idea is to paint a smaller version of the shape with a lighter colour. I would say the main purpose of it is to build the dexterity of the process.
Trying to do realistic shading off the bat can be frustrating and isn't really possible until you can control the paint, and know what to expect.
@@PatrickVS101 cool! thanks!
For me it's not the size of the brush that's important, it's how fine the very tip is.
Teeny tiny little detail brushes can't hold very much paint, and are useless for blending. Also not all brushes are made the same. I find it important to invest in a quality real sable brush over the cheaper synthetic stuff. With proper maintenance, the tip will hold far longer.
I find the Winsor and Newton series 7 size 1 watercolor brush a pretty good go to, Jack of all trade brush, for just about every infantry sized model.
Only thing I'd add is wash/ink. People don't call washes talent in a bottle for nothing!
I think this is one of my favorite channels for learning painting techniques and just general hobby knowledge because something about Uncle Atoms voice that lets me hear “you’re not quite there yet but keep trying” and not immediately think it’s condescending but actual constructive criticism. I hate posting pics of my models on Facebook groups because I’ll see people that do phenomenal work giving me praise and it comes across more like when a 5 year old shows off what they made in art class to a parent “That’s great champ” = well you’re trying and I guess that’s important
I just finished painting my first army today (chaos space marines) and I'm proud of what I did even if it's not that advanced
Congratulations mate welcome to the bonus VP club. How many points are you at
You've beaten most already, congrats! I'm just starting out really and I keep freaking out about painting my models but I'm jst going for it.
Oh, this video couldn't have come at a better time for me. I have just resumed painting minis after a long, long hiatus -I painted during my teens, but never persevered, and didn't improve much... I dropped it before college, and only recently decided to give it another go, as I crawl through my early 40's (as far as midlife crises go, this one feels kinda healthy!)
I have been really dazzled by all the new techniques and materials -back in my day, it was all about washes and drybrush, period. Now you got your layering, your glazing, your wetblend, edge highlighting, underpainting, zenithal priming... it's a lot to take in! And of course, tons of tutorials available to dive into each of those!
Since I have very limited talent, even less experience and even less free time, I have really appreciated the dose of reality... I should aim at getting my bearings, get some progress with the basics, and avoid going overboard with the fancy techniques -and related purchases!- until such time as I can really handle them. I'm looking forward to your video on "basic stuff"!
Eh I started painting minis about 2 years ago and I had very very little experience using a brush and like no experience using acrylic paint. I started just painting marines trying to get clean and good technique with highlights and some blending on the lenses and it sure was difficult and gross looking the first few marines but it didn't take long for those things I was consistently working on to get really good. I'd say about 6 months or so and I was really confident in the basics and started blending power swords or screens or capes which I worked on after that with a lot of success. Only a year later and I was making clean marines with small nicks and scratches of battle damage with nice blends where I needed them just because I was consistently working on those things. My goal was to get good at painting and not necessarily get an army on the table so maybe that's why I had more success. I honestly think you should just assess what you want to do and play it off that. If you want to just get an army on the table then yeah I'd hit the bare minimum to do so or if you wanted to become a decent painter I'd maybe put more emphasis on the learning and practicing different techniques area. Or if you're like me somewhere in the middle I just focused on the learning and techniques while also expanding what I considered the basics of mini painting
oh you know I'd watch some necromunda uncles.
Necromuncles. *nods*
@@rathowyn *nods solemnly*
Who else read that in Brent's voice?
I really appreciate your approach to the beginner painter. I'm new to the hobby as in greener than the grass it's self. I've watched so many hours to painting videos however have no where near as many hours in painting. Your vids have given me some much needed confidence to just get on with it. Like you say I can hone my skills in time. I feel a real pressure to make a stunning mini when I've only just started, maybe a sign of the times but regardless i think we should just get on with it. Hone the skills with time and encourage those around us to put paint to plastic whilst praising our efforts. Having started mini painting for dnd and now 40k I will never again think of shaming a persons work, its difficult. With a little time I've seen it's actually quite easy to get decent results when not comparing to the work of professionals or others that have a ton of experience. So massive thankyou to you
I was originally so intimidated by wet blending that I never attempted it.
But, in doing so, I learned that I like distinct color lines and it developed into a personal style that I like.
Wet blending isn't necessary as long as you can make good use of creating wash consistencies in your paints.
As a disabled new(ish) painter with mild Cerebral Palsy, and no art background I have found that trying to do Zenithal highlighting with a black, a grey and a white spray can of primer has helped me learn about light and shade quite a lot. It also provides an easier way to show what colours go where on the models.
I also have used Army Painter quickwash over models until I get more confident with washes. I have found that my models look good enough to play games with, look better than grey plastic, and I am learning and enjoying a new skill.
I hope this helps someone who is starting out.
The Best advice I ever received in years of painting was received last week. Focus on CONTRAST first, then BLENDING. A model with contrast and bad blending will look better from a foot away than an excellently blended model with poor contrast.
Thanks for this video "Uncle Atom." I am veteran painter of 30+ plus years and I found the conversations we should be having is, "Why are you painting. What 'sparks joy' for us in painting." If we are painting for gaming then high end techniques should be used sparingly. "Ain't no one got time for that," should be our mantra. If we want to be a competition painter then we should focus on quality, but as some one who has placed well in many competitions , I caution that this is a form of "Chasing the Dragon" and trying to hit a moving target while both painter and the target are moving . Of all the techniques I recommend is learning brush control and developing muscle memory are the two best things one can develop early on. Those two things have a high rate of return and can be done everyday.
You're very good at what you do. Your videos are very often interesting, with a "no nonsense" tone very much appreciated. Cheers!
Yes to following you into the Underhive on Twitch 👍
Been playing with plastic/lead/resin/tin minis since 1988 (Dark Future), I can honestly count on one hand the number of minis I have highlighted. The main reason is more to do with time investment of a project and not lack of skill. I gravitate towards big forces, and prefer big games. I don't like playing with unpainted models, so for me a base colour, wash and a drybrush is a good level of investment to get them to a standard I am happy with.
A lot of the more advanced techniques are great for showcase models and busts, but for say a basic grunt who is part of a 40 model strong unit... is it really worth spending the extra time?
Painting for 7 hours a day, ha... I wish I had that luxury. Adult life sadly cuts into the available hobby time.
i think edge higelight overshadows the little brother of dry brush... in general i think dry brush don't get enough representation. like if you look at kirothTV knights and other units they look so much more amazing than any normal brush could do. dry brushing is a gift for the beginner and a tool for the pro
Absolutely. I feel like drybrushing is looked down on as a technique, but it can be really effective.
I am looking forward to your next video topic. My experience tends to go:
1. Build - not finding 100% of the mold lines - struggling with building Infinity metal mini's
2. Prime - under or over spraying - dusty or dripping - this step ruins my mini's
3. Base - thinned paint takes 2 or 3 coats - a bit too messy
4. Wash - whole model goes dark
5. Highlight - messy, stark transitions
6. Edge - Tron (as you say)
What I need is more practice + one or two critical or essential tips for each step + the one thing to avoid. And finally, acceptance of less than perfection to reach 'done'.
Thank you for all the years of great content.
In 1999 I was 9, and I think I had heard of those video game things and the one game I had was Banjo Kazooie. Now that was a great time sink for a 9 year old! Great message in this video Uncle Atom, it's so easy to be running in your head before you can actually walk. Considering my current painting level I'm looking forward to your next video about basic techniques to master!
I had a headstart thanks to amazing video from Goobertown Hobbies about painting for beginners, so my first minies weren't terrible, but it took me one year to paint a mini, that someone picks up and says: "Wow, that's really cool paintjob!"
At first I only painted everything in the colour it supposed to be, shaded, and called it a day.
Second, I learned how to do the step above, but clear, not messy.
Third, I learned about edge highlighting, and it was a big step up.
Fourth, I learned wet blending
Fifth, I learned about colours, specifically, how to create interesting colour schemes, and that colour scheme can ruin a miniature, even if it is painted nicely.
Sixth, I learned about holy trinity of 3 paints per detail, as follows - undetone, base colout, highlight.
It is where I am now, I and these skills above allow me to make some good looking models, but I am far from being satisfied. Generally, with every new project that I undertake, I try to use every skill in my toolbox, and then add one more to the mix.
Watching Goobertown has the added benefit of reducing stress levels too. Brent just seems so chill.
Most important mini gaming technique? Insomnia, so you can be the first to Uncle Atom's 3 am uploads...
Or night shift at work!
@Perttu Haimakainen This. :D
Truth.
8am for me, just in time for work...
12 he graveyard shift for me.
All this advice is applicable to life. I don’t find a lot of your videos terribly helpful but I may quote you with the walk crawl talk. Really you are so correct trying to go too far too fast you can hurt yourself and talent is a reflection of rehearsal of technique. I really enjoyed this talk.
Painting my minis at 3 am and up pops Uncle Atom. A good way to push me through my umpteenth bloodreaver
My first year in the hobby I avoided edge highlights.. one model would take ages and as you describe just didn’t work.
Now almost 3 years into it I’m a lot more quicker and get a far better finish.
I’m currently edge highlighting all my armies that I never done before and it’s great to refresh my armies look and to see how Iv changed in my painting style.
I started painting after 5 years again. This channel gave me the motivation to do so. So I started painting and my God did I lost alot of techniques haha, after two months I am back at my old level. Wetblending, edge highlighting and even Zenithal undercoating are techniques I try to avoid at the moment. Drybrushing is my way to go it is a bit tricky at times but I am happy with the result. As it is mentioned in the video and in alot of others, practice makes perfect it is a journey. Keep up the good work Uncle!!!
I disagree about edge highlighting, I think it quite a basic technique that can go a long way to making minis look really good, but there's a difference between the 'eavy metal highlight every line which gets that tron look, and just picking out the most defined edges to make them look sharper and to help break up colour. Also I think drybrushing is good and easier in many cases, but there are times where it's actually harder, like if you have multiple colours you want to highlight in a tight area, and can often leave it with a sort of dusty look.
I agree, edge highlighting can be done quite well quite easily. I am not saying that people should stay away from drybrushing but I would say that people should be careful about becoming a onetrickpony that only ever drybrushes everything :)
I wholeheartedly agree with this. I started edge highlighting early in my paint career (I'm still early in my paint career since I only started 2 years ago), but it really brings your models to a next level, while being not that hard to do. Also I try not to go overboard with the highlights but just focus on specific details. But I still use a bit of dry brushing as well, especially for the bases.
You can say there edge highlighting has a kind of skill plateau to it. It is easy to pick up the basics, just highlighting a few areas of a model but then going to some of the more detailed highlighting it gets harder to do especially doing entire models. Then it kind of levels out that you're just improving in steady increments but you've learned a big chunk of it at that point.
Thank you for your great content. As a newbie, your videos have helped me no end!
This is why I love King Of Average, he just gives you basic tips to help your models looks good on the table top. I feel like too many channels on RUclips feel like a college level art university exam.
Thanks Atom, it's good to have a reality check every now and then especially as a passionate new painter.
"Talent doesn't come until a long, long ways down the road."
The way I say it is this: "There is _no such thing_ as 'Talent'. There is only *Skill.* Anyone can become skilled, with practice."
I love the Atlas! My very first mini was an old lead Maurader.
Focus on colour blocking and learning the proper applications of shades and washes is a great first step and either zenithal highlighting during a prime or dry brushing is a good first step.
Also Necromunda is pretty fun. Its different from the tabletop game while still capturing the essence.of it.
Hey! Necromunda sounds great! I was 35 in 1999... ;-)
Great video! I've definitely tried grasping for techniques beyond my skill level (still do) and it seems to generally do more harm than good as it burns me out and just causes disappointment.
As for the Necromunda game, I'd like to see that. That sounds really fun. However, where you might want to start when streaming probably depends on your familiarity with the developers other game "Mordheim: City of the Damned". If you have played and understand the mechanics of that game you will already be familiar with the basics of how this game works and probably only need the first two missions to get familiar with the game. The game treats its story mode as a "learn as you go" tutorial and suggests you play that before you make your own gang but its a fairly long story. I think the most fun would be watching you build your own gang (maybe have its creating influenced by the twitch stream? up to you.) and go through the pseudo campaign system they have for custom gangs.
Also, it might be good to play the game a bit before streaming anyway to make sure its something you enjoy. I like the game and its obvious the developers have a deep passion for the setting because the ambiance is perfectly Necromunda, but its not without its flaws and certainly deserves its mixed review status on steam at the moment.
I could t agree more. I’ve been painting minis and models for many years. With the time it takes to pull off a descent edge highlight, I don’t even bother. I still cannot pull off a decent wet blend. You can do so so much with drybrush and glazes.
In the last few months I've returned to Wargaming after about 25 years away. This video is a huge help. I love watching really skilled people perform their craft really well. But sometimes it's really hard not to get discouraged when your results aren't what you had in your head.
Another major thing that you really shouldn't be working on early on is non-metallic metals...that's something I've seen some people want to try and freak out for failing. There's a reason that a lot of starting kits include metallic paints.
For edge highlighting, a lot of that depends upon what you're doing. One thing that it tends to be necessary for are weapons and the like. There's a very simple "cheat" option that a lot of people miss for it. Go for either the paint pens or even some of the fine tip sharpies. It seems stupid, but it tends to work extremely well for anyone starting out. At least if you can draw a relatively straight line on paper. Don't do it with a brush until you get better though, and only do it where it works.
Painting for me is like coloring with crayons. Stay in the lines and I'm good.
Lines?? What are those? Is it tasty?
I think having a solid, neat base coat is a great foundation. I kind of like how cartoony it can look. You can always add a wash or some select highlights later, but the base coat is good enough to leave it there until you have the motivation to do more.
Agreed. I rarely use a wash or layers, though I did when painting my knights chassis and legs. Armor panels are just the base coat. Did try to do a fancy heat bloom effect on the thermal lance though. Theres some layering of washes there.
Yet, I'm still overpainting the lines...
Hey Uncle Atom, a very informative video as always and your videos in the past have had a major effect on my style of painting and mind set on the hobby so i can't thank you enough.
You mentioned a while back, possible at the start of lock down, that you had been experimenting with some new glazes and you said you were going to to do a video on them, i apologise if this is not the case and that my imagination has been running rampant again, but if i'm correct i would still be very interested in seeing that video.
Thank you again for taking the time to do these videos, like many others i really appreciate that you do this and keep churning out the gold!
Ha, just found your channel while searching for videos on airbrushes and miniature painting... I really dig your informative approach though. I feel like you tell it how it is, in your experience at least. Other channels have so much content & want to show you so many new techniques to try that you can get ahead of yourself without realizing it. I like that you have a little less-hippie/more-informative Bob Ross vibe going on... you’re very blunt as to what you can expect going into any of these topics with little-to-no background prior to, which is actually more informative than anything for anyone watching your channel looking to start wading into the hobby.
Side note, in 1999 I was 11 years old. Tony Hawk Pro-Skater was a revolutionary development into video game physics engines. I think that was one of the first games that I could intuitively feel the change in momentum rising up comparatively to the increased velocity of going down. It has great sFX cues and a killer soundtrack as well, although Dave Mira’s Pro-BMX might have an edge up on it with Sublime on it, ha ha
Great video! I've been painting for many years, and I still skip most advanced techniques in favor of getting stuff done :)
Don’t forget make your army table ready and pleasing to your eye. That’s basically the best paint advice I can share with all you people who are wanting to get your feet wet. The whole purpose of this hobby is for the hobbyist to glue together and paint your army or armies. Dive in hit em with a brush and don’t be afraid to freehand a lot of happy mistakes will teach you tricks that pros cannot. If you learn by watching Sam and UA then by all means. Oh everyone has heard of painting Color wheels leave those wherever you see them. Color mixing or blending is basic if you ever played with crayons when you rubbed two colors together you made a new color paint works the same way.Dont be afraid. I started small I painted the opposing teams in a Blood Bowl box. I started to paint them with the two basic colors that Alabama and Auburn each are famous for and then I realized Orks have only a few colors they associate with and humans the sky’s the limit and that’s when I realized the creative margin of diversity. Start painting and don’t look back.
The thing that kept me from losing my mind with unfinished models and time it would take was painting a Nighthaunt model I got as a gift, even though I said to my friend; I stick to 40k.
While painting, I forgot about the time and the model turned out pretty decent. I then decided to start basing my very first model as a distraction.
Slapped some Stirland on it, then some Blizzard without much attention like screw it. This 'Nighthaunt' then turned out so good my friend decided to give me the rest of his nighthaunts straight from his Soul Wars box as a gift since the find they would have a better future in my hands than gathering dust at his. lol
I painted them as well. There, I suddenly had a ready Warcry warband only missing Spirit Hosts.
I've bought myself a 2000 point army to get back into the hobby and as I progressed true roughly 60% of them I'm starting to enjoy painting 1 model at a time, the amount of details and trying out new things makes it a lot of fun. Yes it takes allot more time but getting better at it gives me a nice drive to test new things on the next model :) . I found that trying to wet blend on bloodletter swords is good practice but it takes a lot of time since it involves 4 different paints, the results are amazing tho. Have fun and keep on painting!
'99, I was 25. I also picked up Tony Hawk for the great nostalgia, now my 8 year old is all over it. I've also been playing a bit of Space marine on Steam and just picked up Underhive due to Midwinter Minis bit on it, interesting game, I haven't played it on tabletop before. Video gaming is distracting me from all the unpainted plastic I have to work on
Congratulations to your hair on reaching Fez level conditions ready during the process of recording this video. It really grew into the new role well.
The thing that people forget is that an army with one overpainted really great model and 99 unpainted ones will always look worse than an army with 100 ok painted models.
And the 5ft rule
I agree, though I don't think having various paint quality is that bad as it kinda shows progress as a painter. But I agree, too much difference and it starts to stand out.
Totally with you Perigrin. You're speaking the truth here. Alexander, he said one overpainted and the other unpainted. Different quality painting is a different thing. But I do agree with you that it shows an evolution.
The best paint job is one that is finished.
@@Oever117 Oh, it hurts when you finish the army, and the latest unit is so starkly contrasted to the first unit, haha.
My Nighthaunt are a great example of this. You can almost track me tweaking and improving the "ghostly glow" effect I went for unit-by-unit.
Thanks for this video. An excellent topic for discussion. I 've been into modelling and painting since I was about seven, and I have used wet blending on only a few models where I needed to gradually shift from one colour to another on a only a couple specific areas. It is better to concentrate on neatness when you start out . Once you can achieve that you can attempt enhancing details with careful application of washes, then highlights. Drybrushing is your friend, but it is just one skill in the set and really isn't right for every situation. Edge highlighting is really popular, but it's just another technique to combine with the others, not and end-all, be-all. When it comes down to it, the "advanced" techniques, aren't all that necessary for a decent -looking, table ready army, IMO.
Thanks again for this video, and If it matters, I was 32 in 1999, playing Battlefleet Gothic, still trying to get my head around the changes to 40k with the recently released 3rd edition. P.O.ed that I had to remove weapons from dozens of my models to make them useable for the new edition. I think I was painting Epic 40k as I had got that the previous year also, along with building scenery for all three games! Busy , busy busy! Unmarried, and childless, uh, work? Oh yeah, exterior trim carpenter!
Great topic. I’m a gamer rather than painter but I love a painted army and great scenery to bring it all together. I think that makes me a “get it on the table” painter of some 20 years. So what does that mean?
Usually black undercoat
A limited pallet of colours on the figure
A good selection of mostly GW colours straight out of the pot with hardly any mixing
Paint each colour once and try to limit touching up because of sloppiness
Dry brushing for highlights
Bronzed flesh and ink for the skin and highlight the brow/nose T. I never bother with eyes (I’ll only see them if my troops are fleeing!)
A reliance on washes for shadowing
Steel Legion for most bases
A partial flock with summer grass and a bush/shrub/rock combo across the bases to bring them together
Recently I’ve started consistent basing around the round GW sizes so I can cross-pollinate across armies. I’m not a competition player so it doesn’t matter to me if my Warmachine force is not on PP display bases.
And that’s it, simples.
So all my armies are painted then, right? Most are mostly painted which is why complexity just doesn’t work for me.
Yes I would like to see you play Necromunda, hopefully from the start. By the way I was 41 in 1999 you young whippersnapper.
Sometimes just a good, clean, well done paint job is all you need for a model. I like to use a model or two to test a new technique. Still just focusing on the basics, filling in all the detail, priming models, basic colour theory, basic shading, dry brushing , and good brush control will get you good looking models. The later will be fundamental in every advanced method of painting you do.
"RUclips doesn't know where your skill level is" you just hit the nail on the head. That explains why I'm getting g so frustrated trying to learn all this stuff.
In the tattoo industry when we paint flash we do the spit shading technique, never thought to do that on my minis haha I’m still new to it all so I’m keeping it sweet and simple 💪🏼
I feel like as a beginner I could give some perceptive on some of the stuff mentioned here,not criticizing but just giving my take as a modern newbie. I've been painting models for about a month now and I've already gotten into wet blending and at least to me that technique was pretty easy to pick up at least decently well so that might be one of those things that depends entirely on the painter. OSL or Object source lighting however is one of those techniques that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole unless I'm using an airbrush,beginners like me might wanna look it up just to see what I'm talking about,but I'd recommend not trying it.
I agree with your take on drybrushing,it's straight up just magic and extremely easy to do,so much so that I did it on my very first mini and it made it look so much better. Another really easy thing that will just magically make the miniature look like it's painted a lot better is zenithal priming. Just prime the mini as you normally would with black or gray and then shoot some white or gray primer directly from above the miniature,it's really easy and simple but really effective.
The problem with zenithal for beginners is that most of the time getting paint consistency down first is key. I myself have only been painting for two years and I consider myself a beginner still since I just can't find much time to paint. I just recently purchased an airbrush and have started zenithal priming, but I'm struggling with using the proper methods to preserve the undershade. I also found that I need to learn to undershade in different colors since my red paint looks like crap over my black zenithal.
Honestly I thought you were going to mention zenithal highlighting. I'm an old school player from early 90s I played for about 4 years and only started painting minatures again in December 2019 after going through a bad depression. My painting wasn't particularly great in the 90s but, I must say I'm enjoying using contrast paints and have got some nice results from a black undercoat then applying a wraithbone for te zenithals then a 2 layers 50/50 iyandan yellow / contrast medium for some imperial fists. it goes a dark greeny in the shadows and brighten up nicely with a dry brush. I don't recall edge highlighting from the 90s but I'm not going to give up my dry brushing any time soon. Though I will say to anyone using drybushing going in the same direction it looks a lot better I think. I always go top down so that vertical high point capture more paint. I know I've got a long long way before I can get any where near Sam Lenz' amazing work but, its still amazing watching him paint and explaining things as he goes.
OMG Thank you! So much stress swept away! My god I feel way much better about painting now used to always worry about edge highlighting...
I like a quote that Kow Yokayama sensei said to Linc sensei (paint on plastic channel). And it's "Just get it done". if you cannot wet blend try glazing, and as an earlier tip mentioned if you are not confident with edge highlighting, then drybrush. We should not be emberassed to cheat the look, what matters is we get the painting done along with practicing advanced skills on the side.
My Deathwatch armour is an Eshin Grey drybrush over the black... Job done!
NMM probably deserves a mention as a "best avoided by beginners" technique, but I think wet-on-wet blending is a good thing to practice from the beginning.
When I highlight, I take the base color, add a touch of white and then run the side of my brush along the edge where two surfaces meet. It is enough to add some depth without being over the top like I see on some GW stuff.
If there is one skill to practice from the beginning it is brush control. Getting used to using a larger brush than you feel comfortable with will make you faster. Think of it this way, if you were taught speed-reading in school as a youngster imagine what you could now know. Thanks for sharing and please be safe!
7:20 GW's obsession with edge-highlighting has me all but completely despising the whole technique. For two reasons: It rarely ever looks good, let alone amazing. And they always describe it (and shading with washes) as if it were realistic, which for most materials it simply is not. If they were honest about it just being a way to make molded details pop to the human eye more, I wouldn't have to veritably fight a mental aversion to ever include it. (As for washes, there's a valid place for them, particularly to shade small details, but whenever I see one of their guides with a huge dark streak running along a fold in some sort of fabric in a way diametrically opposite to how lights and shadows actually fall, I can't help but cringe.) On the flip side, I'd love to get into wetblending, but it's so very, very daunting. 😓
With your mindset you'll ace wet blending, just have to push through the initial anxiety and go for it. Your first few attempts at anything new will always fall short of what you know you can do, but thats just why growth feels so good. Fear is the mind killer 👍
The thing that doesn't do it for me is, I see some lovely models painted with the technique from a distance and they can look great but when you get closer its all ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've started doing edge highlights on vehicles so it does not look as flat, but I never like the look on my infantry models.
@@JupiKitten Aww, thank you. 😊
@Leman Russ Well, I don't watch them to learn any techniques, but to discover official paint schemes to potentially adapt for tempting models/armies. That said, to be fair, they have shown some more advanced techniques in their video guides for huge minis. And after the absolute nadir in quality when they were hyping their Contrast paints as a miracle cure to all your painting woes, they are now using them in a much more sensible/sophisticated way.
Just for the record, for RPG models and display pieces, I combine fairly extensive use of layering with very selective use of washing and drybrushing (mostly for mail and fur), whereas for wargaming armies and terrain pieces I resort to much simpler combinations of washing, layering and drybrushing - close to GW's style, yet with crucial differences.
Anyway, as for just going for it, you're totally right, of course. The question, though, is what sort of models to pick to practice. I've been pondering this for a couple of days now, but nothing has really changed since the first couple of minutes, as the Ghost Archipelago Snake-Men still strike me as a pretty ideal choice to practice wetblending on with my Vallejo paints - and are indeed the only one that I can think of. (Any other suggestions?) They have actually been tempting me for a while now. Only problem is, I don't really have any further use for them. Then again, they're cheap enough that this doesn't really matter much. And subsequently it also occurred to me that I haven't painted (or even built...) my warband of bouncing grots yet. One of the things Contrast paints are supposed to actually be good for is wetblending, and all of those models - but especially the various squigs - seem to me exceptionally well-suited to practice wetblending on. (Among other reasons, because screw-ups are less likely to stand out negatively.) I guess I should actually rewatch a couple of videos on the topic.
Awesome video. I wish someone would have pointed me towards dry brushing vs. wet highlights much sooner. Learned that one the hard way.
Out of context Atom QOTD: "Get it real wet down there."
Dry brushing is the first technique I learned. I was taught to start in the deep spots, and dry brush my way to the high spots.
Talent is what you bring to the table when you're starting out (how quickly you pick up concepts and can start to use them correctly), skill is the ability you accumulate over time.
I really love your vids, great advise!
Sadly i really can't follow that too much. I've started with Tau and painted them in Vior'la sept and the thing is, you kinda can't drybrush white (or at least i can't) so i had to resort to edge highlighting. And while it is quite ruff and some models look quite badly, i've kinda gotten the hang of it faster than i thought (took me the start collecting box i'd say).
Having the proper technique really helps and you don't have to highlight everything, even only some parts, that might be highlighted easily by just using the side of the brush and the correct angle (which really isn't too hard) can go a long way in making the minis pop.
As you said in the video, beginners don't have to worry about those techniques but if you don't have a problem with messing up and going back and forth dome times, then it can be really cool and rewarding!
I graduated in 1999.
Good video! There's a saying that I think applies here: perfect is the enemy of the good.
5 years old in '99. Five more to go till I started the hobby.
I laughed way more than I should at the Tron reference. XD
I'd love to watch you play Necromunda and I'd like to see you from the start with the struggles and all. Also totally agree on the topic, seeing lots of people trying to take on all the skills at once and it frustrates them.
I dont understand, it's the middle of the night but for some reason you are more important than sleep.
Wet blending add a bit of water with paint apply thin coats until reaching desired look(coats should look transparent ish). add a bit of white to original paint to increase intensity and repeat. a bit of black to original paint will also create you a good base color.
White black and any color is all you need.
For edge highlighting buy a small detail brush.
Nice! 4:30 Am on a friday ready for uncle atom's upload
Great advise, some times you can overwealm yourselve, and dissapoint. Just baby steps,, its here to enjoy, and will be here for ever......
First time watching and got excited to see the “Made in WI” at the end (and all the punk bathroom vibes) Just started painting a few months ago. Thanks for letting me know I can stop freaking out about wet-blending. 😅
I'm trying to take a poll. I am new to mini painting and was curious to find out if you prefer to paint the mini disassembled or assembled. Some of the space marines look like they would be a pain to paint once they are put together. Thanks for the help.
The thing about wet blending is that you see people using several different shades of the same color, but if you are starting out, try just two or at most three colors. The first time I tried wet blending I used like, 5 different colors to paint this cool fiery gradient on a power sword which in the end it looked like one of those multicolored popsicles, It was funny, but certainly not cool, lol. Next I started painting the energy weapons of my necron kill team by blending just a lime yellow and a bright green and they ended up looking great!
GW's early 90's painting guide for beginners was a great place to start:
1. Prime
2. Base Color
3. Wash
4. Drybrush
5. Details
and... done.
Other than learning how to do a decent eye, this lets you crank out table top quality minis like crazy.
Sound advice. I started priming with zenithal priming...but prefer normal black or white undercoat.
I switched to used make up brushes for drybrushing based on this tip and omg game changer. Such a simple solve.
If I'm not at work I'll watch you play. in '99 I was 24 years old and still in the Air Force, and only knew about Warhammer as the game the kid in my dorm who never took a shower played, so had no interest. To go back then and be able to learn to play...
The only time I wet blend is when I accidentally paint over an area I dry brushed with another colour. I will take the two colours I used for the dry brush, blend them together, and correct the mistake. Taking just one of the colours will often stick out very harshly. Taking both colours blended, it usually barely shows.
I know this may sound funny at first but its very true. I play guitar as well as paint 40k. On the guitar.... it does not need to be complicated to be bad ass. I can play some bad ass riffs with just one finger. Same with painting. You can do some really good painting with just 4 colors and no "master" techniques. Point is... complicated doesn't mean awesome.
I like your style and your videos of course! I got in the hobby and started painting two and a half years ago and now I start to see a lot of improvement mainly because I started to comprehent and apply the basic technics (thin bases, layering and drybrushing) better and smoothly and not by adding more advanced technics such as edge highlighting. Although I really try to edge highlight some models like captains etc and more often than not successfully, I avoid it for a squad of ten models because I find it tiring and frustrating! But what helped me a lot is airbrushing. I started airbrushing 5 months ago and helped a lot with priming, thin basecoating and layering. I found out that I can handle better an airbrush from a plain brush and paint better with it. What is your opinion on airbrushing, sometimes it feels like cheating in comparison with painting with a plain brush!
Thanks for reading my long comment😀 I will try to keep them shorter!
To summarize: Don't rush yourself into advanced techniques like Wet Blending and Edge Highlighting.
I also think OSL amd NMM can be quite punishing for the beginner painter with average skills. These may be considered related to Wet Blensing though.
I'd add for drybrush, get a dollar store makeup brush & just practice a lot with a spare mini or backpack.
Definitely skip anything from awesome mini painters doing a lot of display painting. If you're starting out & hear edge highlights, OSL (object source lighting) or non-metallic metals just save it for later.
Just start off with blocking starting colors, shade/highlights, varnish and have fun with your minis & take photos.
I bought minis for the first time this July. I already own an airbrush and colours for it, because I've been doing masks for almost 5 years now.
I'm really not into building my own army and just into painting one off models with strange paint schemes and try new techniques. Also I discovered i could take my expensive airbrush paint and mix it with cheap acrylic paint to make it dry enough for dry brushing which looks as cool as airbrushing and takes a lot less to clean up :D
I really like the hobby for the small, manageable challenges
Very good video and advice, very much looking forward to the next video on this.
Ooh! I am excited for your video for next week. I been painting for a few years now, but I still feel like a beginner.
I was 29 in 1999, so kinda youngish. Yea I would watch you play Necromanda from the start. Sounds fun
Damn, now I'm looking for a monkey army to field.
Jokaero Spam used to be a meme army in 40K 6th Edition. It was stupid powerful, but also completely useless.
Were you not paying attention? He wasn't talking about a monkey army, he was talking about a ROBOT monkey army! Which is WAAYYYYYY cooler
See, the thing with edge highlighting is, _everyone_ no matter how long they have been painting, gets poor results at first. As with any skill, it comes through practice. But once you get the hang of consistent pressure and even strokes and the right consistency of paint, it's actually a very _easy_ way to get fantastic results! And the longer you put off learning it, the longer you'll have to do it the hard way. Drybrushing is a great alternative (especially with the makeup brushes) but it will only take you so far. And the great thing with edge highlighting is that it fools the eye into perceiving the color and tone of the entire surface differently. You don't get that with drybrushing.
Not saying it's something a new painter needs to learn - neatness and a smooth coat are the most important things there - but the sooner you take the leap and try, the sooner you'll get better results than you could from _years_ of drybrushing.
Edge highlighting is a weird subject for me; I feel like it suits certain things better than others. As an example, on something fairly reflective (like metal armor) I think it definitely helps sell the illusion that its metal and to some degree adds a bit of realism, though the caveat is if its done well. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing a mini where some grabbed the absolute lightest color they had (usually white for non-metallic surfaces and a bright silver for all metallic surface which I'll touch on in moment) and applied edge highlighting right over the base coat. This idea that all you need to do is edge highlight and you can skip everything else makes for a look that's definitely not aesthetically pleasing (at least not to me) and looks very much like the armor from Tron. The other big pet peeve I have is just using a bright silver metallic color over everything (I did say I was going to come back to it); never once in my life have I seen any non-white metal (gold, copper, bronze brass) that glints like silver or steel along edges and high points. I understand mixing in a silver/steel color to ramp up highlights but just throwing a solid line of silver/steel paint on a surface that's supposed to be gold/copper/bronze/brass just ruins it for me.
Yeah lets see you handle the perils of the underhive, Uncle A. , happy to watch you have a go at necromunda as I too am wandering around Hive bowel trying to find some archeotech :)
Great advice, Uncle Atom! Bring back the Fez!!
What beginner techniques that helped me were: prime black, solid base coat, wash, then dry brush. Now that I am more experienced I still really only do these same steps but differently with better results. Now I prime black then hit it with a zenithal highlight, base coat, wash the recesses, highlight layer, then selectively dry brush. It’s fast and gets me to a standard I’m proud of.
Edit: I was 9 in 1999 and an also enjoying THPS hoping online free skate and private matches come soon I just want to skate with my friends with out breaking these old bones.
Would be nice to se you play underhive on twitch, so i can se if its wirth buying! 😉 Only problem is time difference, because i live in sweden. 😊
For some reason I found this surprisingly useful, I am not a great painter and want my little toy plastic dudes to look decently painted on the table as quick as possible - I don't find painting that enjoyable - mostly because I have so much to paint I think. Not tried wet blending and probably wont. Edge highlighting I have done but in pictures you cant tell, I must be doing it too thin ? But any thicker will become a hot mess, so dry brushing is a better option - Good video Uncle A - Would like to see you play Necromjnda from the start - but have no idea when I would fit in watching your twitch. Its on the list, its just a long list ;)
I was just searching for the international symbol for going online, and I found it here. Thank you!
Indeed sir, it would be great to see Necromunda being played. But don't forget about the Cat Police!!