Why beginners (like me) should do the ST's first...

The probes are easy. It's like painting a wall. You can't really mess them up. The lesson to learn with them is how washes work really I think, and perhaps experience with metallics. It was a painless way to try drybrushing for the first time too.

The Storm Troopers though... You're going to learn a ton about paint thickness, preserving details on the miniature, what you need to paint yourself vs what a wash can pick out on smaller details... The most important thing you get from 9 straight stormies is precision though. Everyone I've talked to about starting this process says their hands aren't steady enough. Most of them are flat wrong about this I suspect, but the kind of precision needed to do this well takes practice. That's what you get with the storm troopers.

The RG's are going to teach you a lot about highlighting and use of color. They are pretty simple too. I think you're going to want decent precision before trying to paint their pole arms though (or around them with the red).

After that Tusken Raiders, EWebb, and Snowtroopers are good, as they are basically a more fine tuned version of the Stormtroopers.

Alright so here is my first ever attempt to paint a mini, spoilered for size. I apologize for the quality of the pictures as all I have is an iphone and I don't even really know how to work that camera I'd appreciate feedback and tips to help me with the next 3. On one I went pretty heavy with the black wash, 2 I went light and 3 was medium. I think 1 turned out the best 2 and to a lesser extent 3 are light on the black details. I also lost some specs during the ardcoat process from the brush on to the model, so I need to step up my brush care apparently. That was really frustrating as I couldn't get them off without taking paint with them. I think I need to invest into some sort of care package for the brushes that prevents them from being to dry.

I also found it hard to keep the bases consistent looking, they look very sloppy and the ardcoat got on them as well. Do you guys usually apply that to the base also?

Hi Frog, you must be GreenLantern2814 from BoardGameGeek. I think they look pretty nice considering they are your firsts. My suggestions for the next 3 are simple: Stay far away from that Testors cleaner. (In fact I would make sure to be completely rid of it by cleaning the brushes with dishwashing soap this one time before starting the next batch.) When painting, rinse your brush more often in the cup during painting so that paint doesn't have a chance to dry on it at any point.

Also, it was a good idea to apply the nuln oil selectively, but you can be more generous with it on the helmets because they have so many little features on them which we need to "pop out" with the help of the wash. Then, when bringing white back to the helmet be careful of it running into the crevices where the nuln oil sits. You can avoid this by, after loading the paint into the brush, wiping some of it onto a paper towel, so that it's almost dry (but not necessarily drybrush -dry, just dry enough so that the paint doesn't run everywhere when you touch the figure).

When loading paint into the brush try to avoid loading it all the way up to the ferrule (i.e. base of the hairs). It's hard to get out and not good when it dries in there. I know it's hard and sometimes impossible, but it's something you should strive to avoid.

See if your local art store sells this brush soap (I already linked this to you in BGG, but others in this thread might be interested). As you can read from the reviews it's supposed to help you clean your brushes in the future and also restore them if you've abused them too hard.

If you want to touch up these figures, you can simply paint over the varnish and after that varnish it again.

If after the next 3 you're still unhappy and looking for more advice, I would put the STs to the side for a moment and paint other figures, Droids and Royal Guards, maybe others if you feel like it. They will expand your painting knowledge and after those you are so much more experienced that you might know right away yourself how to improve the STs.

I will say I am completely unhappy with my first 9 ST's now. I love my probe droids and Royal guards though, and that's because of how much I learned for these videos and the practice on the ST's. I have since purchased Twin Shadows, Kayne Samos and the ST expansion. Those 8 ST's are some of the best minis I've done.

Awesome advice, thank you very much. And yes I am GL and FrogTrigger over there, I just realized now I was posting from the wrong account ha.

I do have access to that brush oil and was going to pick some up today. Another question, I have a size 0 and 2 Kolinsky sable brushes, should I be using a different brush for the nuln oil and/or ardcoat? Does it ruin my brushes to be slathering that on? I used just a regular synthetic brush last time as I was nervous about pushing those bristles around with it on my expensive brushes. But maybe that had an affect on how it was applied?

Sorry for the million questions but I do really appreciate all the feedback and help. Such a fun hobby I can't believe I have been missing out on.

I do have access to that brush oil and was going to pick some up today. Another question, I have a size 0 and 2 Kolinsky sable brushes, should I be using a different brush for the nuln oil and/or ardcoat? Does it ruin my brushes to be slathering that on? I used just a regular synthetic brush last time as I was nervous about pushing those bristles around with it on my expensive brushes. But maybe that had an affect on how it was applied?

If your wash-applying style is rough, sure, use your cheaper brushes for that. It's usually not super precision work. And use a cheaper one for the Ardcoat as well. I don't like the thought of having it drying on Kolinskys. I use cheaper brushes for washes and ardcoat because they don't need precision and not using expensive Kolinskys is the best way to preserve them. One technique that will really mess your brushes up is drybrushing (see ep2. probe droids) so for that be sure to have some cheap flat synthetic, or otherwise tough brush around. I also use cheap brushes for transferring and mixing paints. Basically anything that doesn't require the Kolinsky precision.

Ok so I was mixing up Drybrushing and applying the Nuln coat, I thought they were the same thing, my bad. I have to stop at the game store on the way home to get the brush cleaner/preserver so I will grab a few cheaper army painter brushes to use for my wash and ardcoat. And you are right about the ardcoat, I went over my brushes last night scraping paint and ardcoat off the ferrule. I think my biggest problem is as we've said not washing the brush enough between, I was generally just washing it to change colors, but definitely need to be more active with that. Thanks again for all the help this is really appreciated, hopefully I can return the favor at some point.

Edit: Just noticed the painting forum is back!! Hopefully I am responsible for this with my multiple threads going, lol.

Ahh and now it is pinned, right where it should be!! Hooray!

So I was going to start a topic here, like in X-Wing and Armada, to help those of us who don't paint to start.

No need

Thank you Sorastro!

This is the help I'm looking for.

Hmmm, wonder how this got moved and pinned.

"Chewie.. we're home!"

Sorastro, I heard your painting post made the Kessel Run in 14 parsecs!

Sorastro, I heard your painting post made the Kessel Run in 14 parsecs!

Twelve!

I've been getting behind in my following of this thread, partly because I broke my wrist playing football six weeks ago, so painting has been a bit slower and more painful, especially when I had a cast on. I mean, I didn't stop painting at all, I just found it a bit trickier. Sometimes you have to suffer for your art.

Anyway, here's Fenn. Go easy, I painted him with one working arm.

There are some scruffy areas, and as usual all I can see are the mistakes, but I do like how his face turned out. Sorastro gets credit for the skin tone choices, of course.

www.instagram.com/p/BGCE3lbLmk8/

I really like this figurine, even if it is actually not so used (cause of Desert restriction)

I am on batch two of my Storm Troopers, I've got two layers of white done so far. I've noticed that it is still coming out a bit blotchy though, will that fix with layer 3? I only did two layers on the other guys but they didn't look this blotchy after.

I definitely improved but still have further room for improvement obviously. I am finding it really hard to keep the detail after coat two, losing a lot of the ink that went into the cracks and crevasses. I also find it hard to do the entire figure with a number 0, but when I use my number 2 I run the risk of covering up a lot of the details.

I also find that my paint is a bit to runny, but if I don't water it down it dries up as I paint to slow What is the ideal mixture? One drop, two drops?

Frog, I dug up an old thread about the troubles people had with white. Perhaps this is helpful?

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/168136-freakin-stormtroopers/

Hrmm thanks very much, good link. Seems some flow improver might help with my problem. I am going to try one more coat with a bit less water in it tonight, then see what it looks like. I think my problem might be to watery of paint. Also in that thread they talk about doing the spray varnish then going over areas with the wash again, I think that might also be helpful for their look. I'll post some pics for further critique afterwards.

Hrmm thanks very much, good link. Seems some flow improver might help with my problem. I am going to try one more coat with a bit less water in it tonight, then see what it looks like. I think my problem might be to watery of paint. Also in that thread they talk about doing the spray varnish then going over areas with the wash again, I think that might also be helpful for their look. I'll post some pics for further critique afterwards.

When I highlight with white scar, I too have needed to use many coats. Single smooth brushstrokes will prevent some thinning/transparency. More often than not, my third coat is undiluted white scar (applied carefully and conservatively) or adding a small amount of ceramite white to my thinned white scar.

Lastly, these white inconsistencies on the stormtroopers will be less evident when they're on the tabletop. A good 'ardcoat will also smooth out the panels. The reflectivity does an good job of masking any thin highlighted areas.

Ok so I put on the third coat last night, I went with a much less diluted version of White Scar and I wasn't as liberal as usual, I just focused on high lighting the major areas like the mask, top of the helm, shoulders and then trying to smooth out the see through parts or brush strokes on the legs. No lacquer or ardcoat yet.

I will spoiler these for size but put my questions here so they aren't lost in the picture shuffle. Definitely a step up from my first batch, I realized now that I was to light on my wash the first time and I was just blanketing the figure instead of paying attention to the important details. I found that just having the video on loop while I painted a big help as it felt like Sorastro was right there reminding me of the important steps

So you can see there are a few spots where I messed up trying to leave shade on the legs in particular but accidentally getting white on there I couldn't dab off. The middle storm troopers right thigh is one example and the second picture is another example of where it went wrong on a shin, but the thigh above seems to have went according to plan. Just curious but how would you fix this? Should I go over it with some nuln oil and then highlight again with white scar after it dries? Or Ardcoat first then nuln oil and highlight? I am not expecting perfection on my second batch ever of painting minis, but I definitely want to learn as I go.

...So you can see there are a few spots where I messed up trying to leave shade on the legs in particular but accidentally getting white on there I couldn't dab off. The middle storm troopers right thigh is one example and the second picture is another example of where it went wrong on a shin, but the thigh above seems to have went according to plan. Just curious but how would you fix this? Should I go over it with some nuln oil and then highlight again with white scar after it dries? Or Ardcoat first then nuln oil and highlight? I am not expecting perfection on my second batch ever of painting minis, but I definitely want to learn as I go.

Superb work FrogTrigger! They really aren't easy but you're showing some terrific brush control. To answer your question about re-introducing some more shadow you could try simply thinning some Nuln Oil with medium and brushing it on to the areas you want to tone down. This could be done in a couple of layers if need be, and will probably be easier than re-shading and highlighting back up

Wow, FrogTrigger, now I'm actually impressed! These are very pleasant to look at. Very "clean" and "sharp". I like them very much!

That thigh is going to be tricky to fix. For best result I would simply do over that particular side of that thigh "ridge". So paint it white and clean again, then carefully re-apply the nuln oil. I think that would give the best result with no patchiness to it.

Hrmm maybe I just got a really good angle for this pic, lol. Thanks though guys you are to kind, I won't say how long it took me to do each one but it is a labor of love for sure. I will put this advice to good use and then post the results, thanks again for all the help.

I know this goes against everything we have been taught, but personally, I like to start with an ink wash as the second step after priming. it really helps to the define the model, and in the case of the stormtrooper below. gets you to tabletop quality really quickly.

Total time on this model was 30 minutes, *including* clean-up of the model, priming, drying the primer, ink wash, then the ink wash drying. Total amount of "brush time" on this model was no more than 2 minutes:

Granted, there is alot of work left to do, but having the nooks and crannies pop like this really helps me see all the model's detail and where to go from there.

I will tell you, I think thus far R2-D2 has been the hardest to paint!!

Leia has been the easiest...

~D