Slackers Painting Guide

Introduction

This guide is aimed simply at easing a player through Wargaming with the least hassle, in terms of painting, and getting decent results from an army. The basic idea is to build armies that look good at about 12 inches distance, using as much "mass production" technology as can be shoehorned in.

·         Lazy Man's Figure Painting Guide

·         Buildings for Cowboys and Terrain for the Idle

·         This is boring, Return to Home Page

The Lazy Man's Figure Painting Guide – Spray, Wash, Dry Brush ‘n Go

I perfected this technique in the early hours of many mornings looking after my new born sons while my wife caught up some desperately needed sleep. Its fast, gives very good "Stand off" results in both 15 and 25mm, but is "impressionistic" in nature and relies on putting most effort into what the eye focuses on . Try it, it is really very fast compared to other methods.

·         Base the troops. I texture "big" bases (Artillery, elephants, baggage) with polyfilla, the rest I leave as plain cardboard .

·         Spray them brown with matt enamel if historical miniatures - I like a reddish brown for horse, a sand brown for foot. This paints troops in a natural shade, and the base, at the same time. The exception is heavily armoured troops (cataphracts, Italian Wars knights etc) - just paint the base and the bits of horse and spears etc brown. For Sci Fi figures I also like black and then just drybrushing their main colour on, or spraying on the main shade - our Eldar and Orks were done in brown, and the Snow Tigers in white

·         Paint solid colour blocks eg for shields, tunics, armour, flesh. You can leave a lot brown as this is a natural colour for cloth, hair, wood, leather, etc and will not "jar" the eye like unpainted white or black undercoat does.

·         Washes. Most figures today are well etched, so a wash really brings out details like fingers, wood grain, armour patterns, hair etc. Brown washes turn matt brown spraypaint into cloth, wood, hair, leather,etc. Coloured washes look like faded or drab clothes that are fit for veterans and peasants. I like bought washes as I'm too lazy to mix my own and they keep the same shade. I wash all chainmail armour etc with gunmetal, straight onto the lead, drybrushed gold if it is gilded armour.

·         Dry Brush – bit of drybrushing to accentuate highlights, especially on tanks etc for weathering.

·         Flock bases. Your troops are now perfectly respectable to be used on table, especially as second rankers and lower classes

·         Detailing - I detail Big, Bright things - shields and banners - I go for a lot of big, bright shields and banners, as this is where the maximum bang for buck for colour is. You alone will know when to stop, but in general I find well detailed flags, shields and a bit of drybrushing and black wash over shadowed areas is all you need.

By the way, there is no doubt that it is far faster to paint uniformed regulars than irregulars, especially as I like my irregulars to be multiple different poses on a base. For later armies some are easier than others – eg ACW Union Army - replace brown spraycan with blue, ditto white spray for Austrian Horse & Musket armies

 

Buildings for Cowboys

In the dim and distant past I made my own buildings, but this has no part in the Lazy Gamer's repertoire. Buy, Spray, Wash, Brush n Go are the watchwords here:

  • Buy - there are many, many people making all sorts of buildings today, just look at one of the Wargames glossies or any major convention. Get out that credit card and buy! This is not to say that one shouldn't make ones own, or even mount said purchases on beautifully sculpted terrain pieces, but this is not the Lazy Way.
  • Spray - Get that old Sand Brown again, spray the whole edifice. Gets rid of the oil and creates an easy to paint/wash/etc surface
  • Wash - OK, maybe paint the bits that are genuinely not washable, but I find that most natural colours are fairly easy to reproduce by washes on a sand brown base. For old wood I really like the Tamiya "Khaki Drab" colour.
  • Brush - Drybrushing on highlighted colours brings out the model's details, and also is useful for texturing eg thatching, stone etc.

 

Terrain for the Idle

In the dim and distant past I made my own terrain too, but this has no part in the Lazy Gamer's repertoire. Buy, Buy, Buy are the watchwords here:

  • Buy - there are many, many people making all sorts of terrain features today, just look at one of the Wargames glossies or any major convention. Get out that credit card and buy! This is not to say that one shouldn't make ones own, or even mount said purchases on beautifully sculpted terrain pieces, but this is not the Lazy Way.
  • Buy – A good terrain cloth – we have a grass one, a sand one and a green cloth, all 6’ x 4’
  • Buy – Hills etc - OK, maybe paint some bits of  polystyrene or chipboard or cork, Games Workshop has a nice book for terrain building ideas