PENDLESPEAR GAMING (Splatisphere)

Painting

Once your miniature is prepared, it's time to get some paint on it.

What you will need:

Primer

Acrylic Model Paint and Brushes

A cup of water

A piece of paper towel or an old rag

A drop sheet to protect your table (a couple of sheets of newspaper works well)

A well-lit painting area

Priming:

Priming a miniature gives the paint a better bond than just painting straight onto the metal with ordinary paint. You can buy both brush-on or spray-on primers, usually in either black or white. Which you use is up to you. White is often better if you use a lot of pale or bright colours. Black gives a much darker tone to the paint, and is better for deep colours and metallics.

I use a spray because it's quick and easy.

	Just give the model a single coat with the spray, trying to get it from all angles. It can help if you attach the miniature to a spray-can lid with a blob of blue-tac, to give you something to hold onto and turn the miniature as you spray. Let the primer dry, and then touch up any spots that the spray missed with a little black (or white, if you use a white spray) paint. Pick the largest areas of colour that you are going to have to paint, and paint those first. In this case, I'm using a predominantly green colour scheme, and so I started by painting all of the miniature's armour and clothing dark green.

	Start by rinsing your brush in a little water, then dry the excess water by wiping the brush on a cloth or paper towel. Dip the brush into the paint no more than halfway up the bristles (This prevents paint getting into the roots of the bristles, which will destroy your brush) and wipe off any excess paint on your paper towel. You should be able to clearly see the bristles, without obscuring blobs of paint. If your paint is thick and blobby, you can spoon a little out onto a palette (a ceramic tile or ice-cream container lid works wonderfully) and stir in a couple of drops of water to thin it down. Then paint on a smooth coat, trying to get into all the little nooks and crannies. Don't worry if it comes out a little streaky: You can let it dry, and then apply a second coat. This is better than trying to apply one heavy coat, as that can dry tend to obscure detail.

	I wanted this miniature's tunic to be a lighter shade than his armour, so when the first layer dried I applied a coat of a lighter green over the top, over all the exposed clothing. When applying a light colour over black, it is best to work down to it in this fashion, as it can take quite a few coats of lighter colours to get a smooth, even finish over the black.

	The next step is to coat the skin and hair in a medium brown. These will eventually be considerably lighter, but in the same manner as the green, you need to work down from dark to light.

	Next, I painted over the skin with a flesh colour. I've used a fairly light flesh here, as I intend to shade it later with a wash (Washes are explained on the next page).

	The hair comes next. I used a light sandy brown here, to give him that blond elf look.

	Time for some detail work. I picked out the belt, and armour trim in black, as well as touching up the boots and weapons where I had painted a little outside the lines.

	Next up, I painted the weapon blades with silver, and the hilts with bronze.

	And finally, the base. I've gone for a stony grey to match the stone floor of the Splatisphere, with the front face left black to show the miniature's facing direction. At this point, the miniature is ready for gaming... but if you're feeling adventurous, there are a few easy tricks that can make your miniature look better, which are explained on the next page.

Next: Adding Highlights and Shading