So i never painted anything. I was terrible during art courses at school. But i want to try. Still, i have many questions:

1) i've read the guide from army painter. Ok, i can do it. However, my store only has citadel color. Are they the same? Or there is something i should know about using them?

2) are color primer sprays really necessary? They are a little expensive... and if they are necessary, how much of them should i buy? Can only 2, a black one and a white one, be enough?

3) regarding shade... well, looks like magic to me. But army painter says "dip and that's it, it's easy!" and yeah, it looks doable. However, my store doesn't have army painter quickshade. Should i get citadel shade (quite dirrefent if i understand, no dipping) or should i buy the army painter quickshade online?

4) i understand even less about the anti-shine matt varnish. again should i buy it? the army painter one, or there is a citadel variant?

i guess that's enough... for now... XD

thank you for the patience!

1) citadel or army painter are largely the same (some will say otherwise). Both are acrylic paint made for miniatures. I use both, but do prefer army painter over citadel, mostly for the price.

2) Priming is a must. That said, you will be fine with black and white, or even one or the other. If you get both, you can do some neat light effects with the color gradients (watch sorastros painting on youtube). My early models were done only with white, I've progressed to doing some more complicated things over the years.

3) shades can make the most mediocre paint jobs look like masterpieces. I like citadel shades more than dips, as they are easy to apply to models with a brush.

4) Varnish is varnish, I think sometimes you will lose some shine on armor and whatnot, but it's for protecting the paint on the figures.

Hopefully some of that helps.

6 hours ago, Jukey said:

1) citadel or army painter are largely the same (some will say otherwise). Both are acrylic paint made for miniatures. I use both, but do prefer army painter over citadel, mostly for the price.

2) Priming is a must. That said, you will be fine with black and white, or even one or the other. If you get both, you can do some neat light effects with the color gradients (watch sorastros painting on youtube). My early models were done only with white, I've progressed to doing some more complicated things over the years.

3) shades can make the most mediocre paint jobs look like masterpieces. I like citadel shades more than dips, as they are easy to apply to models with a brush.

4) Varnish is varnish, I think sometimes you will lose some shine on armor and whatnot, but it's for protecting the paint on the figures.

Hopefully some of that helps.

Thank you! So for 1) everything is ok

For 2) i guess i will buy 2 citadel primers, the black one and the white one. Mixing them sounds really too much for me ahahah... if you have a link for the video, i'll gladly watch it.

or 3), i hope it's easy to use the shade with a brush... the dipping method looked really ahahah... do you think that even someone as clueless as me can shade?

4) so varnish is done to protect the miniature, not to paint? There is a citadel varnish?

I'd use white and black primers from vallejo, 400 ml, brush ready. Really efficient. Keep away from Citadel primers. Expensive and meh

9 hours ago, swarmer said:

Thank you! So for 1) everything is ok

For 2) i guess i will buy 2 citadel primers, the black one and the white one. Mixing them sounds really too much for me ahahah... if you have a link for the video, i'll gladly watch it.

or 3), i hope it's easy to use the shade with a brush... the dipping method looked really ahahah... do you think that even someone as clueless as me can shade?

4) so varnish is done to protect the miniature, not to paint? There is a citadel varnish?

Shade is really easy. Step 1) cover the whole **** thing in shade Step 2) dry up all the pools and large areas with the brush and clean it up 3) let it dry.

Army painter actually has ink shades (in bottles) vs the dip. The bottle works really well -- the dipping stuff leaves a shiny coat? Meh.

I like heavy shading, so I usually just apply heavily with a brush. You will want to check back over the model a few minutes after applying as it can pool a bit much in spots.

Heres a link to sorastro painting some runewars, these videos are what helped me get started.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=%23&ved=2ahUKEwi1jrrVy6DhAhWjj4MKHQDhDxkQwqsBMAJ6BAgGEAo&usg=AOvVaw0VTJzWxrN8ZFOD4xbU2nov

Find Sorastro on youtube. Every technique you ever need is covered in his videos in a very user friendly way.

and Vince Venturella, also on youtube.

My local store owner gifted me 3 marines to practice with painting... great! This is my attempt without shading... i was pretty satisfied

And this is after shading. Not really satisfied, since there are many "random" black spots on smooth aread like the shoulder and the backpack. I guess i used too much shade on surfaces that needed no shade, i hope i'll get better results with the other ones.

By the way, which brush should i use for shading? Small or big? (i used a big one)

U can use it in two ways- 1) only in areas near "inner edges" or 2) on entire figure (in this case of course u will need bigger brush. Either way remember to use a cheap brush. U do not have to be precise and shades literally thrash brushes.

if u choose 2nd method, remember to clean excess shade from open surfaces with a cloth before shade dries. Also, there are also inks and shades of different colours....

I recommend Vince Venturella about inks on youtube.

Swarmer, where do you live?

11 hours ago, coldsteel said:

Swarmer, where do you live?

Italy, why?

Thank you all for the advices. I tried with a small brush but still the shade pooled a lot. I guess i'm still using too much and i should clean it with cloth as Skaflok said.

I'm using citadel shades, what's the difference between them? Like between Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil?

Also, what's a good way to clean my brush?

Just seeing if you were local to any of us, get a little hands-on painting help.

Agrax is more of a 'softer' wash, for fabrics and such. Nuln Oil works best over armor or metallics.

As for cleaning, you want the Master's brush cleaner. https://www.generalpencil.com/the-mastersreg-brush-cleaner-and-preserver.html

Thank you, you are helping me so much!

Another question (sorry): can someone tell me a gloss/metallic variant for green and red by citadel?

(i'd like to only use citadel colors since they are the only one sold by my local store owner, he's really a nice guy, he helped me a lot, i'd like to buy from him as much as i can)

GW does not have a metallic green or red (I had to make my own metallic red years ago...) Best bet is to use a glaze over silver or metal colors like https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Glaze-Waywatcher-Green or https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Glaze-Bloodletter

You just have to experiment and see what looks good to you.

So for heavy armored units (for example ardus or spearman) i should use nuln oil. What about other units like golms or reanimates? Agrax earthshade?

What about oathsworn cavalry? Oil for the armor, earthshade for the horse?

In a palette you can mix the shades together.

Nuln oil is kind of like it says, it will dry into a dark oily looking shade.

Earthshade is more brown tinted.

Mixing different shades and/or colors with a palette will help you get custom shades/colors so you don't have to rely on the base products.

I wanted to use the base products because i think i will make a mess XD

I have already tried Agrax on the marines, i guess will try the Oil on Ardus and see what happens. Then i- try some mixes like you suggest

By they way, if i want a spectral glow kinda like this one for my Waiqar:

Should i use a bone white base and then apply a blue (actually, green: i want a spectral green) shadow or glaze?

22 hours ago, swarmer said:

I wanted to use the base products because i think i will make a mess XD

I have already tried Agrax on the marines, i guess will try the Oil on Ardus and see what happens. Then i- try some mixes like you suggest

By they way, if i want a spectral glow kinda like this one for my Waiqar:

Should i use a bone white base and then apply a blue (actually, green: i want a spectral green) shadow or glaze?

Hey, those are mine actually!

I primed them using Vallejo White Base. It's a priming paint that you apply with a brush without diluting it. I do this because I usually can't use spray primers in my apartment. If you're using spray-on white primer that'll work just fine and be quicker.

Then it's a simple green wash (not glaze). I don't use glazes myself but I do believe they are somewhat different to washes in that they don't flow in the recesses as much. Since to get this spectral look I then dry-brush them with white to make the raised parts stand out, I don't think using a glaze would be much useful, but if anyone knows more about glazes than I do feel free to interject. You can use a different wash here if you like, a different sort of green or a blue or purple would most likely work great for a spectral look. Keep in mind because you're applying the wash on top of pure white it'll end up looking quite bright, as you see here, even though the wash I used was a rather dark green.

Then as I said it's a simple matter of dry-brushing the entire spectral parts with plain white, and that really brings the whole thing together.

To make life easier you should do this first before you paint the armor or belts, as that allows you to be completely messy with the green wash and the white dry-brush, it really won't matter if you wash and dry-brush all over the mini, as you'll paint over everything else anyway. Obviously you should also prime the minis entirely white for this to work.

All in all it's a very quick scheme to do as it allows you to paint the skeleton and the rags all in one go and in two easy steps. Then it's just a matter of painting some armour and leather bits. So far I'm managing to paint my Waiqar much faster than my Daqan thanks to this. By the way the Waiqar armour is painted the same dark silver as the Daqan, but I do a light brown wash on top of it to make it look dirty whereas the Daqan armour is washed black.

That is a great piece of edvice for someone who has 32 trays of skellies to paint

17 hours ago, Kookanoodles said:

Hey, those are mine actually!

Thank you very much! I hope to get results as amazing as yours! Can you suggest me a green wash from citadel to use? I bought Waywatcher Green and Hexwraith flame, but i'm starting to think that they won't get the effect i hope.

30 minutes ago, swarmer said:

Thank you very much! I hope to get results as amazing as yours! Can you suggest me a green wash from citadel to use? I bought Waywatcher Green and Hexwraith flame, but i'm starting to think that they won't get the effect i hope.

I've used Vallejo washes personally, but I think Hexwraith Flame is exactly what you need as it's what Games Workshop uses to paint ghosts:

Thank you so much! That really helped me!

EDIT: really noob question: after applying Hexwraith Flame, do i still need to apply shade?

19 hours ago, swarmer said:

Thank you so much! That really helped me!

EDIT: really noob question: after applying Hexwraith Flame, do i still need to apply shade?  

I don't think so, I think Hexwraith Flame works like a shade.