So, first of all... how many of you have felt the need to paint your miniatures?

If so, do you have any general painting tips such as good paint brands to buy, whether or not to prime the figures first, etc.

What do you use to protect the minis after painting... some sort of varnish?

If you do an ink wash do you have to highlight as well, or can you get away with only doing the one? (Washes seem fairly easy, I never know where to highlight).

Do you try and match the colour schemes of the character cards, or do you prefer to go with your own style?

I've done some repaints on my X-Wing minis but have limited painting experience in general. I am strongly considering painting up the minis from Talisman, at least to make them a little easier to find on the board and to differentiate quickly between players.

I have not felt inclined to paint the Talisman figures, entirely due to not having the time to do so. I used to paint miniatures, mostly GW ones, so I'm fairly accustomed to painting and have tried a few different techniques to find out what works best for me. GW paints and brushes (Citadel) are very good but also very expensive. You can do just as well with much cheaper brands but I couldn't tell you which ones to avoid, because I always just used Citadel stuff.

You will definitely want to prime the minis first. Some say you should prime with white primer, as this makes the colours pop. I always preferred black primer because then you get all the shading done by default. If you use white, you will have to cover some areas with black before colour anyway, such as all metal. Downside is you need a lot more layers before you get to the colour you want if you build up from black but like I said, that means you can get some nice shading done in the process. Of course, if you want to make it easier on yourself, you prime with white, fill with the colour you want and then wash it. I was never entirely happy with inks but it sure saves on time.

Whether you use inks or not, you will definitely need to highlight afterwards. The more time you spend on highlighting, the better the mini will look and that is a fact. Every edge and every raised detail should be highlighted, as well as a highlight pinprick on domed surfaces, such as gems or shoulder guards. None of it is strictly necessary but the highlights are what makes the mini vivid. To find out where to highlight, watch the work of others. There must be thousands of pics on the web to peruse. Pay attention to edges to see how many shades lighter the pros go for.

When it comes to varnish, I never bothered. The minis tend to look much nicer without and the paint is fairly sturdy. Depending on how you store them and use them they will mostly be fine. On the other hand, if you don't varnish the minis, you also accept that there will be scraped off areas after a while. For Talisman, it's probably best to varnish.

Both for priming and for varnishing, I recommend sprays. It is much easier and quicker and the result will usually be better as well.

Hope this helps, good luck and be sure to post some of the results!

A few additional tips:

1. Use a scalpel and preferably a set of fine files to remove the mold edges.

2. Use really hot water to shape bent swords/spears etc then immediately cold water to fixate it. (repeat..)

3. An tube from those fizzy headache tablets you put in water works great (!) together with some glue tack as a holder for the minis.

4. Spray primer. White for vivid characters ( Sprite etc) and black for the rest. Start spraying before and finish after in quick sweeping movements, use as little as possible.

5. It's not a bad idea at all to quickly just plan/write down in what order things should be painted so you don't have to go back and redo areas because an above layer was more tricky/messy.

Like Borealian said.. paint it

There are some quite good instruction videos for download/watch online if you want more tips on painting.

5. Use spray varnishing. I use the Citadel one.

Happy painting

Werewolf after base paint and first round of highlights.