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Artists paints and epoxy for warhammer minis?


Stirlz

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Hey all! I'm thinking of diving into the world of miniature war gaming, and am an artist, so I was wondering how many of my current materials will work with miniatures. I've got a really solid collection of good acryla-goache paints that I plan on using, unless there's really some reason that the citadel paints are better suited for the job?

And then I was wondering if super sculpey or epoxies take well to these models? I suspect the heat required to bake sculpey will hurt the plastic of the base models,  but maybe not?

 

Thanks in advance!

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Hi!

Acrylic goaches could work quite nicely, but do make a test model to see if you can get thin enough coats with enough opacity. Opacity shouldn't be the issue with really good paints, but to keep fine detail, you need really thin coats and the binder could be too thick.

Citadel isn't the only paint vendor, and Vallejo is often recommended instead, especially when starting. Their paints are thinner and cheaper, but there isn't one vendor that makes perfect paints for every purpose, and choices between people could vary greatly.

I would recommend getting a few washes, they are the magic make look good water.

Epoxy putty like milliput or greenstuff is commonly used for minis, sculptey can be used for terrain or bases, but plastic off for the oven, of course (I also use air dried clay).

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Welcome! We always love to see more people in the hobby. 

I'm not familiar with sculpey, but epoxies work great for sculpting since they don't require heat to cool or shrink. My go to brands are Milliput and Green Stuff.

Baking will most definitely melt the miniatures. 

As for paints, nice artist paints will certainly work for miniatures. The real difference is likely the thickness of the medium used. Make sure you thin those paints to get nice smooth coats. 

As an artist you probably know more than I about paint brushes, but here's a tip I wish I learned earlier. Just because the miniature is small, your paintbrush shouldn't necessarily be small. As long as it can hold a fine tip, a large belly is generally preferred. 

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If you have oil paints, those work great too, on top of an acrylic undercoat.

I personally would not use Citadel if I was starting over because of the way they design their bottles. Other brands like Vallejo and Scale75 are about the same price point but have more ergonomic storage if you intend to thin your paints at all. Citadel’s pots get caked with dry paint easily.

If you wish to paint “true metallic metal” - ie paint with metal flakes - I hear Darkstar is amazing. 

Edited by Ggom
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I have used artist's acrylics a bit, and found that often (but not always) the binders are too thick. When thinned sufficiently for miniature painting, they lose opacity. Sculpey is good for terrain and scenery but I wouldn't use it on miniatures- green stuff (Kneadatite) is the go-to epoxy putty for sculpting, but I find it gets a little easier to work with when mixed with Milliput.

Personally, these are my go-to recommendations on paint brands:

-Vallejo Model Color for basic colors. They're cheap, they come in dropper bottles, they have a huge variety of colors, and they're widely available.

-Vallejo Metal Color for silver metallics. I'm still experimenting with other brands, but nothing else has come close.

-Scale75 for bronze/gold metallics. There's also Vallejo's Liquid Gold range, but those are alcohol-based so a little trickier to work with.

-Army Painter for washes. In my experience they produce better shading than the Citadel ones- stronger shading with less tinting of the surface.

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Best wishes on your journey  @Stirlz and welcome to this community. 

It's a fun hobby and super chill if you're in it just to paint. 

I had to Google your referenced type of paint but those look nice. With ther high pigments you'll definitely want to thin them down. 

As an artist myself I started off with cheap craft acrylics and when I upgraded to better quality paints it made all the difference. Traditionally I mostly user colored pencil and inks and have gravitated more to digital over ther years. What mediums are you using? 

One thing that I learned early on was just how different a 2d piece of paper is compared to a 3d model and how the creative flow of my mind had to work the steps out. 

Two part epoxies work great for sculpting  (examples being Green Stuff, Miliput, Magic Sculpt) but anything that needs heat to cure will also melt or deform the plastic or resin miniatures. 

Look into airbrushing if not already familiar with one. When working in 3d it is a HUGE time saver and can give beautiful results. It's not needed by any means but a very, very useful tool in the arsenal. I also feel it gives a smoother priming coat as compared to an aerosol can and better for the environment as well!

As @Catgut suggested, if you're going true metallics, Vallejo Metal Color are AMAZING metallic paints!! The best I've ever used yet. 

One last thing, has any particular model, faction, race caught your eye yet?

 

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Wow thanks for the warm welcome and loads of input! I'll be updating yall as soon as I decide on which models to start with and then find some money and time and then make it happen! Right now it's likely one of the kinds of dark elves, but there are so many strong contenders. 

Edited by Stirlz
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