painting x wing miniatures - red squadron · painting x‐wing miniatures a tutorial by stewart...
TRANSCRIPT
Painting X‐Wing Miniatures
A tutorial by Stewart Sayer
Hang on a minute that’s no X‐Wing model?
Sure isn’t (just me showing off). But it brings me to a very valid question. Why do you
want to repaint your pre painted X‐Wing model?
Look at the guy above. He was handed to me undercoated black and before that he was
grey resin. So paint was a requirement. Those skulls...Oh those skulls, it took maybe 8 ‐12
hours in a week to paint just those skulls. I got into X‐Wing to avoid falling into the same
trap I fell into with Warhammer and Warmachine,spending more time painting than
playing. (Not a real drama for me as I really enjoy the painting and find the gaming fun but
a bit meh).
Here was a system that you could play through a game from unpacking to played and
packed up in a little over an hour and do it with some sweet looking pre painted minis.
What’s not to like. I’ve played more games in a day of X‐wing than I have ever played of
the other games I mentioned put together.
So why do I want to repaint what are in general very acceptable factory paint jobs. More
to the point why do you? And Why do I think this is question is important? Well let’s
answer it a couple of times.
Repaint reason 1.
I just unboxed my Decimator and the factory paintjob is a real let down. Or, I opened my
starter set and my X‐Wing has a grey canopy. WTF? Both happened to me. Actually I’m
sure the Decimator strikes most of us like that. So I need to do something about this. If
this is you a total repaint may not be necessary. The X‐wing was fixed in two minutes with
a permanent marker tech pen 0.01 size nib. The Deci I decided to do a full repaint. So
repairs to the factory job are perfectly acceptable as a reason to do some painting, but
maybe not a full repaint. Assess what is bugging you and work out how to fix that as
quickly as you can so you can get that ship back on the table.
Reason 2.
I really like that card art and want something like that. Or I want a custom painted ship on
the table. If this is you now we are really talking. This is what the hobby is about to me,
even though I got into X‐Wing to play. Cool Star Wars ships with cooler custom paint
sitting on my table. Oh Yeah. The odd compliment from people doesn’t hurt either. I may
lose but I’ll be pretty doing it. Not to mention feeling good about “I did that.”
Reason 3.
For me I’m doing it because I can. Oh and because people are insisting on paying me to do
it for them. Sure I’ll paint your Firespray, you can buy mine for me as payment.
If you do a reasonable job and your friends and other local gamers are willing to get you
to paint for them it can be a way of growing your collection.
Ok enough of that twaddle. Let’s see some real X‐Wing painting.
So starting from the top. You know why you want to repaint. It’s to make your mates go
ooh I like that. What next? Do I strip the existing paint?
My take on this is no. There really isn’t any need. I tried with the first one I repainted (a
Phantom). 24 hours in simple Green will nuke one of my paint jobs on most models. It
didn’t even loosen the factory job on that Phantom. Other options are isopropyl alcohol,
brake fluid, nail polish remover. All of which are time sensitive. Leave the mini in there
too long and it will come out looking like a melting soft serve. The factory job seems to me
to be a coloured primer followed by a wash of black, followed by blacking the windows
and painting some details. Only on my Ties does it look thick enough to have started to
obscure details and then only in small patches. So I wouldn’t bother. Keep your paints thin
and layer them up with 3‐4 coats and you should be all good. So instead of stripping give
your model a good careful wash in warm soapy water to get rid of any dust or finger oils
and then let it dry.
Priming?
If you leave the factory job alone it’s not necessary to prime at all just start painting over
the top.
Ah into the meat now...
The Paint Process.
For this section I’m hoping to keep it general but add some examples from my current
project the Andrasta repaint I’m doing for a mate. It’s going to cover the freehand on the
main hull and I’ll go into some specific detail of that. But don’t worry if freehand scares
you. Most of what I’ll say is just as applicable to painting up a ship without freehand. And
the rest will be worth knowing and may (hopefully) make you less afraid of the F word.
What to do first?
Look for inspiration. To make a good paint job you need to have a good picture of where
you are going. Either in your head or printed out and sat next to the model on your paint
table. So look at your Star Wars collection and hit up google. Look at other paint jobs on X‐
Wing minis. Look at fighter jets, Navy ships and models of both and start to gather some
reference for what you want your ship to look like. You want a rusted up Millennium
Falcon look at pictures of derelict earth moving equipment or rusty rubbish bins. Anything
that has the look you want, goes. But don’t cover your table in the stuff. Pick four or five
pictures that really work for you and have them handy and study them often.
Left: Inspiration for the Firespray engine bay (Courtesy of Rodent Mastermind), Right: My
own effort.
So to another example, an important part of painting the Firespray up as the Andrasta is
the Twi’Lek dancer on her side. My client graciously found me several pics of the girl in
question and I found another.
As you can see there are a couple of different interpretations of her. In discussion with the
client we decided on the PC game version (the two larger ones). Its more dynamic and
larger on the hull, both important considerations when considering what to paint. The
dynamism for the wow factor and the size because bigger is easier to get right. Not to
mention her placement on the PC version avoids some nasty panel lines on the model.
So getting up to the stage where I’m ready to paint her onto the ship.
My first step was to spray on a coat of light grey all over the ship. If you can access a dual
action airbrush of reasonable quality and can spend some time painting on paper or
canvas with it to get the hang of how they work, I highly recommend doing so. It makes it
so much easier and quicker to get your ship base coated and to erase the factory job. It
also does so with a minimum of paint meaning you are far less likely to end up obscuring
detail. I did a couple of greys on Andrasta, the wing hub and the main hull. The engine
area above was the started same as the main hull. Just to emphasise the importance of
reference. I forgot to have mine handy while doing the spray session and painted the
wrong panel on the front. You might see the darker grey below the cockpit halfway down.
It should have been on the next panel down if you look back at the ref.
For those who don’t have access to an airbrush. You will want your paint, some water and
a largish brush. I use a no. 2 for most of my painting but for a base coat like this something
bigger would be better. You may want some matte medium too.
A little digression, as thinning your paint is important. Why add medium? When we paint
a layer of paint onto the mini we are essentially coating it in a thin layer of coloured
plastic (unless you are using oils or enamels, but let’s not go there). The paint consists of
pigment particles (our colour), transport medium (water if we add it, but a little more
than that straight out of the pot) and binder. As the paint dries the transport medium
evaporates and the layer shrinks, pulling the molecules of binder closer together. As they
get close enough the binder molecules react with each other to form and build stable
molecules and these chain together to make the dried paint surface trapping the inert
pigment particles in the lattice as they do so. If we add straight water we add space
between the pigment particles which is good as it makes the paint more transparent and
enables us to create eye fooling effects like colour blends. But it also spaces out the binder
molecules. Adding too much water can cause the paint layer to become weak and brittle
because there aren’t enough binder molecules present to create a strong surface. To avoid
this it’s worth adding some matte medium to your thinning mix as well as water. That
way, your superb paint work won’t start rubbing off after a few games worth of handling.
Why thin your paint? Well we want a smooth even coat of paint that is thin but gives us a
solid colour. Painting straight from the pot with most paints will net you a pretty quick
solid colour coat of paint. But you also run the risk of putting it on too thick and obscuring
detail. (I thought about putting a pic of my first mini here but that would be plain
embarrassing). So we want to thin the paint and paint several coats so that we ‘just’ get
that solid colour happening. This way we get the colour but do so with the least amount of
paint possible and save our precious detail (important if we are painting over the factory
paint job). Thinning also gives you more control of the paint as thin paint makes the best
use of your fine pointed brush by sitting in rather than on the bristles and flowing off the
brush onto the surface of the model.
So how thin? Good question and it depends a little on the bottle of paint you are using.
My trick on the x‐wing models so far has been to use mostly Vallejo model air paints as
they are about the right consistency for base coating straight from the bottle. This is
because they are formulated for use in an airbrush straight. I have used thicker paint
though as you will see further on.
Here is some of the Artists acrylic I used for the Twi’lek straight from the bottle.
And diluted with some matte medium and water to around 2:1 Paint : water +medium.
Matte medium in the background.
See how in the first one I’ve dragged the brush through the paint and it forms a trail from
the puddle to the brush tip. In the second again I dragged the brush through but the paint
has run back into the pool due to surface tension. This is pretty good consistency for my
first layers on the Freehand. I’ll want it thinner later to make full use of the transparency
of the paint.
As a rough guide I’d start with 2 parts paint to 1 part thinner (I’d go 1:1 medium:water for
the thinner too). When you paint on a surface it should give a reasonable coverage but
look a little patchy after the first coat. Some paint will need more than thinning others
and some less. A new pot of a paint you use a lot may need more or less than the old one
did. Practice and you get a feel for it over time.
When painting your first coat try and keep the brush strokes all in one direction. Now you
should be picking up paint with the very tip of your brush and soaking up excess paint on a
bit of paper towel or lint free cloth. You should be able to easily make out the point of the
brush amongst the colour. On your next coat paint your strokes at 45 or 90 degrees to
direction of the last coat (it’s not always possible to do this but if it is its worth doing).
Rotating each time you do a new coat will help build up a solid coat more quickly and help
to get rid of any visible brush strokes.
So, here is the Firespraybase coated plus a little extra (below). The important thing is that
the main hull is ready for the freehanded Twi’Lek.
So a little more of a window into my thought process here;
First, I could shade the hull and do the panel lines before painting the freehand. It would
be a valid method to do so. But my thinking is if I did that the freehand would stand apart
from the rest of the paintjob and would need some work to make it look like it was
actually part of the hull’s paintjob. So I’m going to put it on the bare base coat and then
do the shading and lining over the top of it to sit it back into the rest of the work.
Second. Why the light grey base coat? Its a bit lighter than the references and with good
reason. Its far easier to make a light base coat darker, than it is to make a dark base coat
lighter. I never prime in black anymore for this reason. I use either white or grey and lean
toward white more often these days. I can always paint a dark base over areas that I want
to start dark. So the light grey is a choice to help with later stages and it will speed up the
work a great deal. One big exception to this is any areas that you plan to use metallic
paint on. Always base these areas in a dark colour. Brown for gold, Black for silver, red
brown for copper, orangey brown for bright brass (you get the picture). The colour behind
the metallic helps to hide any gaps between the metal flakes and gives the colour added
to the metallic more punch.
So what is next in working up our little freehand lady. Well I’m off to measure up the area
in question (that tiny bit marked in red). My drawing foo is weak. So I’ll be taking some
photos and hitting photo shop to make up a page of pics of the ref I want to use (1 of) and
the side of the model all as close to the right size as I can get them. Then I will be drawing
the little lady in question a few times.
My practice canvas:
How does this help? You aren’t going to draw her on the side are you? Well no. But
drawing her on the page gets me a feel for her scale and proportions as well as where she
is located in relation to some panel line land marks. It also gives me a feel for how to
proceed with the painting. My gut feel before the practice is that the best approach will
be to use my favourite flesh mixing base tone, Titan buff (a golden artists acrylic colour)
and block in the silhouette tidying up with the light grey of the hull. Then bring in the
green tint to the skin as I start shading her and defining the details. Followed finally by the
skimpy clothes and other darker details.
I’m off to practice...
All practiced up. Well almost enough to give it a go for real anyway. Some things to note
in the above picture. On the bottom left you can see where I sharpened the tip of my
0.5mm clutch pencil’s lead (multiple times) to help me get nice small lines. I’d like to say
crisp too, but they aren’t. Hopefully you can make out my scribbles and see how things
have changed between each one. Proportions in No.1 are rubbish, but improve a little bit,
with each iteration. I have also fiddled with the placement and size moving her up and
down and front to back a little to fit her in with the panels lines and try and get some
balance in there. Too far forward or back and the whole thing will look off. In No. 4 I’ve
exceeded the bounds I set for myself a little with the top hand. But I think I can get away
with it.
I didn’t take enough pics through the painting process to be honest but here are what I
have.
First stages of the silhouette, a couple of things to note. The Buff is still very patchy mostly
being a single coat. Some areas have had two so far. The other is the mistake I made. For
some reason I was convinced I’d painted the hull in VMA light grey so I started using that
for corrections. It was immediately obvious I had been wrong. Big problem? No not really.
I decided to persist with the Light Grey and clean it up with the VMA Pale Blue grey I had
actually used on the hull later. This allowed me to retain a very thin line of the darker
Light Grey which really helped her to pop. Moral every mistake is an opportunity if you
can just see it that way. Also very important in this pic, note the sponge thingy (some sort
of ladies hair accessory). It’s really important to have a stable way of holding the model at
the angle you need. My normal approach is a champagne cork or block of wood. But with
the Slave 1 and this particular part of it I needed to be able to lay it on the side. With this
sponge thing I could slip the wing into the hole in the middle and lay it on the table and
use my left hand to steady my right while working.
Hopefully you can see how this is looking compared to No.4 in the practice pic. I have to
admit this is effort no.2. The first time she was a little too far forward and the raised panel
near her knee was going to be a big problem so I moved her back. I’ve also added in the
head tails and refined the shape some more. Also you can see that the Buff is now much
smoother and more even having had 3‐4 coats all over by this stage. Keeping it thin (and
therefore a little rough) means that corrections are much easier to make. Once the outline
is getting settled then you can start adding more coats to even the job up all over.
So here I’ve started in on the detail, dividing the legs and adding the skimpy clothes. It
looks a real mess doesn’t it. Something to get your head around is that often a paintjob
will look awful for a long time, until you add that one extra stage and suddenly it will
come together. Trusting that you can make that happen is a big part of doing this
reasonably well. For those wondering what colours I’m using, I can’t actually remember.
It’s a grassy coloured green from the VMA line. For the shading I’ve added it to my taste to
the Buff (you can see this around her butt).
A slight divergence, what brush do you use for painting? Myself I like a Kolinsky Sable. I’ve
been using Raphael brushes for a while now because despite how I treat them they last
really well. I use No.1 or No.2 size from the standard round tip range mostly. That’s a big
brush for minis. It suits me for almost everything. (I am considering getting some cheaper,
larger ones for base coats for the future). I can for the most part paint any detail with that
size. It has the same fine tip as any of the 3/0, 10/0 or 000 sizes you might have been
thinking of, but a much larger paint reservoir. So for most things I can dip it in the palette
and paint quite a bit on the model before I have to go back. Where it doesn’t work is on
small details in hard to reach places because the size of the bristles can make it impossible
to see around them to where I want to paint. The other is for fine lines where too much
paint in the brush can result in too much flowing onto the model. So for this bit of
freehand I pulled out my miniature series size 1 which is similar in size to a 000 but has a
little more bulk in the bristles.
So pretty much just worked back and forth refining the details and adding the final
(almost) touches. For her face I added a little shading around the chin area to give the
impression that she has cheeks and then added tiny dots for eye sockets and the nose. Dip
only the very tip of the brush in the paint and then take most of what you pick up off on a
piece of paper towel or cloth.
You can make out on my thumb various shades of green mixed with buff, the green itself,
andthe Light Grey, the Pale Blue Grey I used for the hull and another darker grey. I
decided the light grey didn’t have enough punch so I went darker still and very carefully
outlined her in that. I retained a thin line of the light grey to soften the break between the
pale Blue Grey of the hull and the outline of the figure.
You should also note some issues with the figure. The rear head tail is too long (a mistake
I didn’t end up correcting). It should have been shorter and shaded to look as if it recedes
behind the head. And the lower of the two arms is looking too short. This was intentional
looking to use foreshortening and shading to make it look like it was behind her back
slightly allowing me to avoid a mess of panel lines where her hand is. Also the longer arm
looked like crap before I painted over it. An interesting point here is she has a green tinge
to her skin but it is a mirage as the brightest part is still pure Buff and only the green
tinged shading is tricking the eye. I thought that compared to the reference she wasn’t
green enough so I ran it by the customer. He liked that the green was paler than the
reference but wanted a bit more.
So onto the final shot. I’ve tweaked a few things here. I have glazed her all over with very
thinned down mix of green and buff and touched just the brightest areas with pure buff
after that, this was to give her a little more green tinge. I’ve painted in the panel lines over
the top and then obliterated part of her with some battle damage. This is because it was a
different day (the paint I’d used was tossed out) and the panel lines created a mess in that
area. So rather than trying to match paint colours and fix it I covered it over. The whole
area has also had a glaze of grey ink (Hull and icon). This helps tie the freehand in with the
surrounding hull. I also added some shading to the lower arm to complete the
foreshortening trick.
So I guess a summary is in order. This is maybe not the ‘How to guide’ some people are
after but I hope it gives an insight into my process. What are the important points?
Don’t be afraid to try. If you don’t have a crack you won’t ever get it done and you
might have to pay someone like me to do it for you. You can do it with a bit of
practice.
Thin your paints. You want a nice smooth even finish so that whatever you are
doing, freehand or highlight or whatever looks like part of the same surface as the
rest. Thick paint looks like thick paint (though I have seen a few people capable of
using it straight from the bottle and not getting the splodged on effect, they licked
their brushes a lot though).
Have some reference material handy so you can see what you are trying to
achieve. I mean I can’t draw to save myself but with a pic handy to copy I can
make a passable impression of drawing.
Plan and practice. I’m guilty of just picking up a great looking mini and getting
stuck in and then painting myself into a corner in the process. A little planning
goes a long way as does a little practice. Especially if you are tackling freehand.
Mistakes ‐ you will make them. If you are quick you can use a clean damp brush to
sop up the paint before it dries and then use a clean brush and some water to get
rid of any residue left behind. If not thin paints are your friend as you can just
paint a few coats over the top and erase it that way. When that fails think about
how the mistake can become a feature or be hidden beneath one.
You really don’t need steady hands. But you do need to take measures to stabilise
your model and your painting hand as much as possible. Steady hands will
develop over time. Just take your time and make sure to relax and breathe. Start
just adding small dots at a time. Paint away from the area you need to be right.
My strokes on the silhouette started at the outline and worked into the area I
knew would be completely covered by the Buff.
X‐Wing specific. You can get away with painting over the factory paint job. Don’t
risk your model with paint strippers.