Welcome to Miniature painting for beginners part 2, if you have read part 1 yet I would suggest you check it out HERE!
In this article I would like to give you some tips to help your paint look the best and last the longest so you can squeeze every penny from your paint. This article is about paint and some of the tools I use that you can make yourself with things you find around the house.
Mixing your paint!:
Bottle agitator
When you purchase new dropper bottle of paint, you’re going to learn that they are hard to shake and mix up because the paint has settled. When you get that new bottle of paint, the first thing you do is put an agitator in it. I put two BBs (small ball bearings for air guns) in my bottles. Other companies sell glass beads, but really you can use anything that will fit in the neck of the bottle and has a little weight. When you take your cap off, you’ll notice you can get your nail under the tip and pull it out. That is where you put the agitator. Once you put everything together you can give it a good shake.
Getting a palette ready for your paint:
A palette is where you place your paint so you can use it. Palettes can either be wet or dry, but I want to show you how to make a wet palette to help extend the life of your paints.
1. Get a Styrofoam or plastic tray from a package of uncooked meat and wash it out!
2. Take two paper towels and fold them to fit the bottom of the tray
3. Cut a piece of wax paper to fit on top of the paper towel
4. Dampen the paper towel
5. Place your wax paper on top of the paper towel and push it down a little
Now you can place a couple of drops of paint on the wax paper and it will not dry out even hours later.
Pouring your paint:
As I pointed out in my intro to miniature painting, paint is expensive. The easiest way to get the most out of it is to not use too much, but you still want to make sure you have the mini covered. So how much paint should you use? I don’t place more than 2-3 drops on the palette at a time. You can always put out more paint when you need it, but you can’t put paint back in the bottle once it’s out.
Prepping the paint:
Paint is a little thick when it comes out of the bottle, and that’s ok. However, you’ll want thinner coats on the model than that thick paint will give you. Since these are acrylic paints, they can be thinned down with water. You don’t want to use too much, or your paint will lose surface tension and won’t coat properly. There’s no real formula for this, but you’ll need to wet your brush and mix it with the paint on your palette. Everyone has a consistency they like their paints to have when they’re working on models. I prefer it to be like whole milk. You can experiment and find out what works best for you.
Click here for Part 3.