So, being completely new to the whole painting my miniatures thing, I have some (read:MANY!) doubts as to my ability to actually paint anything even slightly attractive on my ships and squadrons... I guess my biggest concern is that I won't use the right brushes, paint/paint type, that-sort-of-thing. That being said, I figured I'd reach out on here and see what other have been using that have worked for them. Now I know there are several other posts involving painting and what-not but none of them really detail materials, methodology, etc that I (and I'm sure others out there) are looking to learn more about.

Thanks all and happy Monday!

Check this one:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1495797/easy-fast-way-paint-armada-unpainted-models-wave-1

It's an easy and fast way for people without time

Okay, to kick around what I use, starting very basic:

• For brushes, I have a bunch of old citadel brushes, some army painter brushes, and some randos I have gotten from art shops. Basically, any brush with a decent tip/point will do fine, and make sure to never, ever smash your brush when painting or cleaning. Always preserve the integrity of the hairs (straight up). Wipe vertically (bottom to top) to clean, never smash the tip when cleaning in water, etc. Mix paints with a drybrush or old junk brush if you are mixing, same for watering down.
• For basics: a sealed floor tile as a palette, a backdrop beneath it (for me, this is literally a very thin plastic cutting board) so any paint / water spillage doesn't stain my table, a good paper towel (you don't want the crap kind that disintegrate or are very rough and don't absorb well because it's hard on brushes) to wipe brushes on, and some heavy cups with clean water. I say heavy because otherwise I knock them over because that's how I roll.
• For paints: I use a mix of citadel, privateer, and reaper. Vallejo is also good and I have used them in the past. Here is the cold truth: any decent model paints from those ranges work. It's a question of personal preference.
• For primer: I use army painter grey for Armada ships, but I have had good experiences with Privateer sprays and GW (expensive, though, but their black can't be beat and their white is kind of crap). I hate primering Armada ships black, though, because it means you are going to spend a lot of time on base coats.

My other notes:

• Always always always always water down your paints for Armada stuff. Always. You can obscure huge amounts of detail if you don't, and it's hard to fix without scraping / stripping ships. There are lots of small, fiddly bits. Always water down your paints. Always. Did I mention you should water down your paints?
• Primering can be an adventure for these guys as well. Make sure to use small bursts from a decent distance away. You don't want to obscure detail with heavy coats.
• I haven't stripped ships yet (just primer over the pre-paints), so someone else will have to talk about that.
• Put tape on the clear bases for the medium / large ships if you don't intend to primer them.

Is that helpful?

Well, here's the start of the questions: are we talking squadrons or capital-class ships? Because they tend to paint up differently, even if some of the methods some individuals use are similar. Sheer scale and detail wise, some things are just more intuitive with certain methods and mediums.

Just some basic stuff (in addition to what Reinholt said very very well), if you're using citadel paints, use an old junky paintbrush to transfer paint from the pot to the palette instead of your good brush. It'll make the good one last longer. Secondly, the smaller paintbrushes aren't always the best for every job: a size 0 or 'Citadel standard' brush is usally all you really need if you only want to get one brush. There's no reason to invest in a Winsor and Newton size 0000 because it's almost certainly not going to help you with 99% of the work you're doing. Army Painter has some decent and fairly ergonomic brushes, Citadel is okay, Winsor and Newton is expensive but good.

Make sure yo change your water frequently when you clean your brush. The last thing you want is vibrant paints getting contaminated by hues of other colours. Frequently clean your brush even while doing the same colour, and -always- clean it between colours. Then change the water if you're switching between any type of black, white, yellow, red, blue, or metallic.

That said, if you want a 'beginner' method that genuinely works really well, it's hard to beat 'wash and drybrush' most of which is covered in what Jagged linked. Take your primary colour, paint the ship and let it dry. Then, use a wash/ink/Citadel Shade. This will settle into the depths and create shading. Wait for it to dry. Take a 'junky' large-enough brush, load it up with some of the base colour (or lighter) paint, and wipe it on a paper towel until the colour appears to have all come off (trust me, it hasn't) and use light brushes over the model. The paint residue will adhere to the hghest points, creating high contrast. You can take an even lighter colour and do this again at the edges of the model, which enhances the effect. It's definitely a good start.

I put up a tutorial on my little thread-thing a few days ago, but it's really just down to my methodology and might not be really suitable.

Here's the thing I've learned with paints: each one is different and behaves differently. It takes a while to learn and some people have different preferences (Vallejo for vibrant accents, Minitiare for transparency, Citadel for metallics and washes, Reape for base coats, Cote d'Arme for nostalgia, P3 for... stuff, etc). I hate to say it, but a lot of it is experimentation mixed with trial and error.

If you're in to stripping models of old paint, Simple Green (Fairy Power Spray in the UK if I'm not mistaken) has always been my favourite. Non toxic, sort of a minty smell, and won't melt plastic, you can leave a painted model in the solution for a day, then take an old toothbrush to it and it should eat the paint off.

If you're in to stripping models of old paint, Simple Green (Fairy Power Spray in the UK if I'm not mistaken) has always been my favourite. Non toxic, sort of a minty smell, and won't melt plastic, you can leave a painted model in the solution for a day, then take an old toothbrush to it and it should eat the paint off.

Vykes and I tend to swap out "who answers" to these threads, so I'll just tag on to him here...

Simple Green, when it comes to Armada models, is of a unique use - as it will not strip the base FFG paintcoat .

So if you prime and paint over the original paintjob, Simple Green will get you back to "out of the box"

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/203010-painting-tips-and-tricks/?hl=%2Bpainting+%2Btips

Shameless self promotion!

Best advice I have is don't skimp on a good brush: though I own something like 20+ brushes, I have basically one brush I use nowadays other than my airbrush, which is a raphael 8404 kolinsky sable no. 1. It's pricey, but I believe it is the lightsaber of paint brushes! I used to literally buy a new brush to get a new point whenever I needed to do detail work, but I haven't replaced my Raphael 8404 in a year of intermittent use (though I do baby the tip, use brush cleaner, don't let paint dry on it, etc). There are any number of good tutorials on youtube to show you the whats and hows of brush cleaning/storage (just as important as the painting itself, IMO).

As others have said, the point is really the same on a big or small brush, but a good brush will keep the point a lot longer if you care for it. The other thing that brush size changes is the reservoir- a bigger brush holds more paint/water and will take longer to dry out because of that. The tiny brushes are only for when you literally can't fit a bigger brush in the same place. A bigger brush also allows you to paint with the sides of the brush rather than the tip for edge highlighting, which ends up giving you a more consistent edge (though I personally have switched to filing watercolor pencils down to a flat shape and using that for my edge highlights, as described in the thread above).

Also, since these are supposed to be really big vehicles, don't be afraid to try tips, products, and methods from model train people and scale model ship people. In my experience, if you're going for the realistic style, those are just as if not more applicable than the typical miniature painting tips you'll see for 40k type stuff.

If you have any previous painting experience you can use that to your advantage.

I personally break all the rules and use artist acrylics which are too thick in reality for model painting. However, I have done a lot of canvas painting and so understand this medium well enough to use it to my advantage.

So, being completely new to the whole painting my miniatures thing, I have some (read:MANY!) doubts as to my ability to actually paint anything even slightly attractive on my ships and squadrons... I guess my biggest concern is that I won't use the right brushes, paint/paint type, that-sort-of-thing. That being said, I figured I'd reach out on here and see what other have been using that have worked for them. Now I know there are several other posts involving painting and what-not but none of them really detail materials, methodology, etc that I (and I'm sure others out there) are looking to learn more about.

Thanks all and happy Monday!

I'll start you off with the easiest thing to paint in the game, the humble Tie Fighter. You will need:

• Brush - Sable size 1 or a Games workshop standard brush. You can use smaller brushes but the point at the end of a size 1 is just as good and tiny brushes have problems with paint getting easily into the root and eventually the bristles loose cohesion and scatter.
• Hobby Knife.
• Acrylic paints from GW, Reaper, Vallejo etc. e.g. From the Games Workshop citadel ranges: Black = Abaddon black, Light grey = Calistra Grey, Dark Grey = Mechanicus Standard Grey, Black wash = Nuln Oil, Orange = Whatever daft name they have chosen this week but you know... orange.
• Water pot.

1. Clean up the mould lines with a craft knife. You could use a file but I find scraping with a sharp exacto knife the best way. Remember the big mould line on the inside of each hexagonal solar panel.
2. Paint the whole thing Games Workshop Calistra Grey. This is one of their Base paints with a high pigment content so no need to prime the model or use an airbrush, just get a decent covering and don't miss bits.
3. Paint the whole cockpit canopy (including windows) a darker grey such as GW Mechanicus Standard Grey.
4. Wash the whole model with GW Nuln Oil. Put enough on to get it to flow around the model and gather in the recesses but not too much so it pools.
5. Paint the solar panels black inside and out. Avoid the hub and spokes on the outside leaving them grey.
6. Using Callistra Grey paint the spokes on the inside of the panels. Also paint the outer rim of each hexagonal panel including a slight 1mm overlap on the sides. You can also highlight any raised areas of the hull of the fighter.
7. Give the cockpit area a second wash of Nuln oil to get the windows nice and dark.
8. Highlight the cockpit window frames with Mechanicus Standard Grey.
9. Paint 2 orange dots for the guns underneath the cockpit.