The Hobby That Dare's Not Speak Its Name Aka Wargaming

Dwarfs is 1993 and the WDs begin May 98 (221). I'm not sure why, out of the many, many GW books and mags I had that these few have survived.

I never even had any dwarf models!

Just binged a good hour of painting tuts and I've come to the realisation that I must paint some miniatures. It's been many many years since I've set foot in a GW - any ideas where to start?

Are there any sets to get you up to speed? Maybe 3 models, paints, brushes etc? Happy spend a bit, would rather get some decent paints etc.

Also what are thoughts on contrast paints? Are they like shades?

the contrast paints seem to have been a bit of a flash in the pan. there's also a lot of heavy criticism of them from painters on YT. seems some colours work ok, some dont but they're really just for speed painting if you're not that fussed about results.

The small dropper bottles seem to be held in higher regard than the pots that citadel use which can dry out if left open too long

don't forget to buy a wet pallette, the citadel painting handle is pretty good but you can bodge your own.

Army painter do some pretty good value sets with a decent range of colours, as a rank amateur I quite like their brushes too but they require quite a lot of tlc to keep in good shape.

also worth buying some small ball bearings to put into the paint bottles to act as an agitator when shaking, ebay/amazon should have some, I'm sure a google would tell you what size you need.

Also get a decent light. the daylight architects lamps on amazon will do a good job.

Crikey this a rabbit hole and a half.... I'm going to be £150 down at this rate and come away with 3 minis.

Contrast Paints are okay if you just want to slap paint on something (surprisingly the exact thing they were marketed for...). If you're a pro painter you probably don't need them, although the possibilites of translucent inks are interesting.

You can make your own wet palette from a basic tray shaped plastic whatever, two sheets of kitchen paper and baking paper on top

I can recommend Vallejo paints. They come in a dropper and are cheapish. I second the comment on ball bearings though. For all paints. Shake well.

Just for trying stuff out: A small and a very small brush is all you need. Take the cheaper ones, you will break them anyway ;)
For starting out 3-4 basic colours, 1-2 metallics, and a black wash are probably enough.
I'd recommend spray can primer, it saves you time and gives a nice even coat.

I've passed on contrast paints for now - something I'd like to look into though, they seem interesting. I just got some GW palettes for now, and a couple nice brushes (dry, base, fine). I got a set of Plague Marines which come with 6 paints, and I grabbed a couple more from the GW recomended paints just to have a bit more of a ranged spectrum. I did get a can of spray primer - death guard green. And I have a a couple little tools comming for cleaning up the mold lines etc.

Thanks for the tips, forgot about bearings in the paint! I'll look into making a wet palette too.

EXCITED!

Yeah, that seems like a solid starter set. I'd recommend getting a neutral spray primer (grey, black or white) but the green will work for the plague marines.

Of course, now you gotta post pictures. ;

Hey, is Citadel's Purity Seal good stuff? I've read not so nice things about it.

I've paid good money to get some of my minis painted by people far more talented than I, and would not want them to lose their looks. Quite sure they already have a clear coat, but would like to do an extra round just to be safe.

Yeah wasnt sure what to go for so just went for the base colour, not very versatile of course. Do people still use white? 90s vibes. When it all finally turns up I will of course post pics.

I would ask the person who painted it for you what they used, and then use another coat of that on it. Safest way really.

I would advise against a spray varnish, as you can easily mess up a nice paintjob with it.

I can recommend Vallejo Varnish. Matt, Satin, or Gloss, depending on what you need.

@JT People very much still use white. Or Black, or Grey, or a mix of all those sprayed in a zenithal lighting fashion.

or a mix of all those sprayed in a zenithal lighting fashion.

Woah, that sounds hardcore. Does it make much of a difference? As a long-lapsed aeromodeller, Tayima grey spray primer was the only one I've heard of people using. Though I suppose the advanced will pre-shade panel lines and the like.

I've seen some people doing the zenithal spraying, looks like a useful technique.

Gotcha!

I really like it for painting with Inks (or contrast paint)
I prime my miniatures black and then white in a 30° cone at the top. Straight from the spray can.
That leaves the miniatures white on top, black on bottom, with a kind of rough gradient between the two. Now if you add the translucent colours, the roughness will be gone and instead you have easy shading in parts where light usually doesn't get to.

It's quite handy once you get the hang of it, but really only works when painting with transparent colours. On normal opaque colours the effect is minimal.

Don't think it has that much to do with the table top game, however, there are some superb short movies on youtube. It seems to me that everybody is a baddy.

Heard vicious rumors that Event Horizon was inspired by WH40K.

WTF.

Well, Event Horizon is about the most accurate depiction of what in WH40k lore is known as the "Warp" so...

On a slight whim (in Chaos Cards looking to buy superglue whilst in holiday in Folkestone) I picked up the 40k Recruit edition starter pack.

Got my 5 year old interested in it yesterday and we played the first mission a couple of times.

He got the hang of it pretty quickly and really enjoyed it. This could grow and grow....

Is interesting.

Nature or Nurture.

My boys are obsessed with transformers.

Altho it is still franchised all over kids TV.

I still have to take some blame.

No warhammer....yet. 😊

A mate of mine swears by them and has been actually painting stuff - which is quite a change!

I'm sticking with my tried and tested methods

I've been getting ready for some Adeptus Titanicus next month. ALWAYS wanted to play AT back in the day, but never had the money.

Been playing with weathering too, which is a lot easier than it looks!

I've seen some people doing the zenithal spraying, looks like a useful technique.

I use it all of the time. I undercoat in black with a halfords spray, then do another colour sprayed from the top down and not too heavy. Leaves all of the shading in and gives a good guide on where to paint

Very nice! AT does look very interesting, but no-one's playing it around here...

Handily, I've got a mate who took no convincing at all, so the two of us have been able to get stuff together. As its only 5-6 models per side, its dead easy to (hopefully) have a good looking game. Just hope its not too complicated rules!

Painted up some minis from clank legacy boardgame a couple of months ago and used the contrast paints on a couple to add a bit of a textured look. not really what they're for but the rust on the leftmost figures armour and the bone dragon horns are the most obvious spots.