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Right, so this is probably a stupid question, but I'm gonna ask it anyways, because, well, I'm uncertain. So a week ago, I purchased the D&D/Army Painter Monster Paint Set. Fantastic set, contains more paints than I'll need ever for a decade for a year for an undetermined period of time. Anyways, this set came with three washes - Shadow Wash, Flesh Wash, and Brown Wash. As recommended by several other painters on a different post, I decided I'd use these premade washes rather than the thinned-down paint I had been using in the past. However... I doubted, and now I'm uncertain. After a quick google search, I'm even more confused as I saw contradictory answers, and answers that weren't really answers. I know I'm being irrational, but do you use these the same way as thinned-down paint (applying to the miniature after it's been basecoated?), or do you use it some other way? Again, stupid question, but as they say, it's better to be safe than sorry. Thanks!

Show off might be a bit of a misnomer, I'm not the happiest with these guys, mostly putting this up for tips on what I could do better next time. Paste from final post in WIP thread: Alright "finished" with these guys. When I say "finished" I mean I'm overcoming my perfectionism to move on to something else because they're serviceable. Tried to use some speed painting techniques, but still took way too long, need to work on that. If anyone's got any tips on how I could have made them better without, layering/glazing/something else that takes forever, they would be much appreciated!

I just got into miniature painting and decided to post on the forum to get some feedback and advice. This is only the second miniature I've ever painted. I'm pretty happy with how he turned out despite my lack of experience. I'm thinking of dry brushing his back a bit more for an even more intense frost/ice effect. I plan on varnishing and basing him as soon as the bases I ordered arrived. Any CC is welcome thanks for looking!

Hi again folks, I followed all the instructions. I watched several videos on YouTube. I thought I did everything right.... I tried to do a wash using Reaper Brown Wash. I made sure to thin it a bit with flow improver. I liberally applied the wash mix EXACTLY like i had seen done on every possible video I could watch...but the results were very much NOTHING like I thought they would be. What happened? It basically looks like I just used brown paint...

So, I've been invited to the FLCS to play in an Age of Sigmar scenario. I've never played before, and I don't own many GW minis. I was told that this would not be a problem. Right o' then. Then next step was to figure out what run. Evidently for the scenario I needed to bring some sort of Hero and a pair of units with the minimum number of models to make up each. I downloaded the rules (all four pages of them, shocking coming from GW) and all of the Warscrolls (army lists basically). Reading through the Warscrolls, I finally hit upon something that I already had models for. Orcs. I went in on the Orcpocolypse in Bones 1, and all of those excellent Tre Manor orcs were just sitting there, asking for paint. I quickly decided on a list of two units of Black Orcs (5 models each) and a Hero, Grimgore Ironhide, to be played by 77064 Kavorgh Orc Warboss. For the units, I'm going with 77051 Orc Stalker and 77042 Orc Marauder. One model in each troop is a Black Ork Boss and hey will be represented by 77059 Orc Berserker. The game is on Saturday at 1300 (1pm). I figure that I have to leave by noonish to get there, so I have approx. 14 hours to get them done....and get some sleep. I plan on using some of the techniques that I learned at RCon during the Army Painting class I took from Aaron. I'll try and post pictures as I go along, but depending on how much of a roll I find myself on, they may be far and few between. As of right now, all figures have been boiled, scrubbed and given a coat of Blue Liner. I went with the Blue vice the Brown as I tink it will help out with the base colors. The Black Orks will all have dark skin, steel weapons and armor and leather accessories So I' keeping it basic. I plan of starting with the skin, moving onto the weapons and armor and finishing with the belts, boot and fur capes. We shall see how he plan survives contact with the enemy. Figures as they stand now, while waiting for the Liner to finish drying. And in taking the picture it appears that I made a made a mistake and prepped 5 Stalkers and only 3 Marauders. There was supposed to be 4 of each. Oh well, onward! Paint appears to be dry so next step is flesh. I'm going to try Dark Elf Skin first and if that doesn't work, I'll wing it.

OK folks this is my most recent attempt at painting. I decided to do this mini in the color scheme of the Protectorate of Menoth from Warmachine. Basically I am doing a test paint to acclimate myself to the colors and techniques that I will use as I begin painting several minis for the Mk III release of Warmachine. I need some help though, I have had several missteps in this paint thus far and am struggling to see this as a success. 1) How should I highlight the white? Should I do darker tones around the highlight areas? 2) Should I use some liner to try and add some more contrast? I feel like the sculpt wasn't the best and then my mediocre painting skills don't help and I feel like a lot of the details this mini did have have been obscured by my crappy painting abilities. 3) I REALLY don't know how to highlight the top cape and the crest on the shield as that color is a combo of Bloodstain Red,Violet Light and then glazed over with Clear Magenta. I know that's a lot but there are very specific colors for the faction and I am trying to get as close to that as possible. 4) Can someone please explain Ink's to me? I used a red ink on the bottom cape as it was suggested somewhere else to help with contrast on similar colors and while I like the outcome, it shifted the color in a way that I didn't expect and am not certain how or why inks are used. 5) Finally, if anyone does play Warmachine as Menoth I would like to know what your thoughts are on my colors; I am currently only using Reaper paints.

I am in a bit of a pickle. I've searched around and tried looking at a few threads but I'd like to post my mini and get some concrete advice on how to proceed. I've thought about just spraying it white again, and keep it with the ghostly green all over, but I'd kind of like some additional detail, and thought the dress was great as blue,. It's the rest that don't want to work. Especially the hair and white threads: Any opinion is valid here. I just mainly need advice on what might work in regards to colour combinations. And maybe some advice on how to shade the white parts properly. Although I think I'll go with a creamy wash?

Hey all, After sealing my Eregris Darkfathom tonight and reflecting on the experience of painting him, I discovered a few issues with my approach that I would really like to rectify before the next detail heavy mini (read: mini that I spend way too many hours on ). For the glove fringes and the tassles hanging from the pauldrons, I wanted a wash to create depth. However, the actual topography of these features is very shallow, so I had to let the wash sit there pretty heavily basically until it dried naturally (some areas I'll remove pooled wash with a clean brush if it's too much) in order to take hold in the cracks so to speak. The result was pretty much staining the whole area rather than just the little nooks I was shooting for. TL;DR - What are some preferred methods for creating depth or separation in very small areas where a wash won't sink into the desired areas without staining the foreground?

I'm painting up some good old fashioned aliens in orange space suits, and I'm looking for a good color to use as a wash. I used Black Wash straight out of the bottle but that make it look a bit too dirty. I used Intense Brown but that was too light and didn't provide enough contrast. Any suggestions on what would look good? I'm leaning towards a deep red or maybe Walnut Brown but would love some expert opinions on the subject.

Hey all, SO, I've been scouring the forums here, on CMON, and Dakka; looking into how to mix washes and glazes. I have come away from this a bit confused and little overwhelmed with information I must admit. I completely understand the respective uses of washes and glazes, but, specifically whats confusing me is how I would go about mixing them. Everywhere I look there's a different answer, some people use only water for glazing, others use glazing medium, some matte medium, then some say forget medium it's cheating, and to only use flow improver+water/water alone. Then conversely there are those who use flow aid + water for washes and regular thinning only, and further yet those who will make a wash using only water, or only flow improver, or even flow improver + water + medium! I do understand that something like this can be highly personal and differ greatly from person to person, because of style, desired effect, etc. Also, I know I might get even more differing opinions here, but, hopefully a general consensus can form. So the real question comes to two things: A. How would you mix a consistent and smooth glaze, without getting the sort of "dirty/uneven" effect that seems can occur from only using water B. How would you mix a wash for any color, that will pool well into recesses, without really affecting the color integrity of the surrounding area, and without tide marks Whew! Thanks for any and all help ^.^

This is a fimir from Forgeworld. I bought a couple for use with the Hero Quest game (I play with my brothers kids). It was the game which got me hooked on the hobby as well back in the day, so the nostalgia vibes are high. ^^ Thought I'd post it here, too. As there was a discussion about painting with washes/glazes, and this miniature is painted that way. Based white, then hit with washes until the correct darkness levels were achieved: Here it was in progress: This is a new photo. It's seen a lot of use on the tabletop since the time it was painted early last year, and shows some flaking here and there:

So I returned from a month long trip in Spain this evening to find a Giant and strange box sitting on my bed. After opening it carefully, thinking it must be a bomb or decapitated head, I was overjoyed to find it was none other than my Bones Kickstarter! REJOICE! After sorting through the sheer rediculous number of miniatures, I realized that I'm going to need some sort of motivation to paint this beastly assortment of minis, and the best way to do that is to showcase my work on the internet as I try to tackle, as quickly as possible, all the Minis I got. The plan is to speed paint them up to pretty much tabletop level, a little lower than I'm used to doing with really only one base color and one layer of shading, with alot of drybrushing and washes to help me "cheat" along the way. Without further rambling, we haveeee... this guy. Model #1 of 200...ish. Mr Sandman. At first I was like "OHHHHH EVIL WIZARD!", and then I started with the purple and was like " He kinda looks like hes wearing one of those sleep caps on his head... OHHHH SLEEPY TIME WIZARD." and gave him a cute little star covered hat. Nothing is more intimidating to enemies than stars on your head. If anyone has any tips on how to take better pictures of my minis, or any comments, feel free to belittle or abuse me at your whim. Also, if anyone knows where I can find the actual names of the models so I dont have to name them all stupidly, that would be grand toooooo... okay. I'll have a new differenter picture of another mini tomorrow, with more madness.

Yo, folks. Questions: 1. When using a wash, how does one decide what color to use? I'm working with the Reaper triad, and I also picked up three Citadel shades the other day. Reaper's black I think I get. It gives a lining sort of effect and black shadows, in my early experimenting. The brown seemed to do pretty much obvious stuff with the mini I've tried it on--dirtied it up, gave it some shadows not quite so dark as the black but entirely noticeable. Would it be an avenue to explore for weathering/aging/whatevering wood and/or leather? The flesh wash--should I be trying to hit faces and hands with it? Save it for more scantily-clad minis? Something altogether else? I've also got some Athonian Camoshade, Agrax Earthshade, and Drakenhof Nightshade. So basically a green, a brown, and a blue wash. Unless I'm totally misreading. The Athonian I haven't used. What situations should I be looking at for a greenish wash? The Agrax seems pretty comparable to Reaper's brown. Is it? I haven't used it yet. I picked it up because everyone seems to swear by it--seems like I've seen it talked about with everything from skeletons to wood to leather. Thoughts and/or advice? I tried out the Drakenhof on a wizard's pale bluish robes with the hopes of both shadowing and blue-ing up the color as well. It seemed to work on both counts (though I wasn't entirely thrilled with the mini, but nevermind that). Was that a reasonable idea? What other considerations/situations should I keep in mind with this one? Or am I totally off the reservation with all this? 2. I'm painting a piece right now, and I mixed up a nice chocolate brown for a robe. I'm getting ready to highlight and got to thinking--should I vary up my colors with highlighting? I've been aiming for very-light versions of the base color. What would happen if I tried highlighting with something else? Is that a thing? Like, go with a yellow on a brown or some such? Or a red or orange or something? I feel like this question particularly makes less sense than it did when I was thinking about it earlier.

I am very happy with all of the advice I got on my last post about varnishing/protecting my miniatures after the paint job is done. I thought I would ask another question about washing. I have a few questions about color combinations and application. 1.) Color combinations. What goes best with certain base colors? I am currently working on a mini with a green cloak, a red leather tunic some brown leather armor, gun metal grey shin guards, a silver sword and shield. What are the best washes to use here? I own some Citadel washes. I have decided that I do not like that these paints come in little pots and I cannot drip them out like vallejo paints but that is another story. a.) Drakenhof Nightshade: Was thinking this may give my sword a "magic" glow if I washed with that color. Maybe the cloak? Thoughts? b.) Nuln Oil: I planned on doing the gun metal grey paints with this wash. Maybe the silver shield to bring out the contrast in the grooves. c.) Reikland Fleshshade: The skin like the hands and face? d.) Agrax Earthshade: Maybe the leather armor? Maybe the cloak? e.) Greyphonne sepia: Maybe the leather armor? Maybe the cloak? 2.) Application: I have Lamian Medium from Citadel as well. I was told by the sales guy I should use it to thin out the wash to get a better effect. So it does not streak all over and actually hits the recesses in the mini. With these little pots I don't know how I would combine this with any wash with out either dumping it into the wash container itself or mixing them outside the pots in another container. Any ideas for applying the wash paints themselves? How much wash on the brush? Up and down or side to side? Wax on wax off? :) Please pardon any redundant questions. I really appreciate everyone's help from the weekend!

Just curious, but nearly every tutorial i watch has people doing their final washes in a brown or black variant. Is there any reason to not use a wash of the same shade as the general area your washing? Like if you have a large red cloak, washing that area with a thin dark red wash instead of black/brown? Washing purple pants with a dark thin purple wash? Or are targeted washes just too difficult to manage/control? edit: Doh! on the 'doe'

Here are the three most recent things I painted. I painted each of them in about an hour. I didn't prep the minis at all so there are plenty of mold lines.

So, I'm finally making time to paint again. Or, well, I've at least managed to clear a space for painting in order to try and make time in a week when my work schedule goes back to normal a bit. But I've got a question, which I meant to ask back in February when I did LTPKs 1&2, but forgot to. How the heck am I supposed to do washes/glazes/any heavily thinned painting using a wet pallete? I bought one because I didn't want to deal with paints drying on the pallete in the middle of painting, and it works great for that if I'm using paint that's lightly thinned, but once I start trying to mix up a wash it just runs everywhere on the pallete and gets into everything. Is it because I'm using the wet pallete paper that came with the wet pallete that I bought? Should I switch to just plain parchment paper for my pallete paper? Also, do they make any kind of welled wet pallete? I'm going to guess no, but I haven't look around that hard. I would think something like that would be great for washes, but if anything I can always just use a dry pallete for mixing washes and a wet pallete for everything else.

My fiancee and I have been slowly building up our paint collection with Reaper paints, and we love them! Thanks for some great paints! I cant wait to test them out on the models we are getting from the kickstarter!!! One thing we both would love to see is the collection of washes being expanded. Do you guys have any plans create more washes?

One technique for painting miniatures is pre-washing. You prime the miniature in white, wash (or ink) the miniatures, and the details stand out. The wash also can serve as shading. Bones doesn't require priming, but inks and washes directly applied to a Bones miniature will bead. So how do we pre-wash a Bones miniature, without beading? 1. Mix one drop of clear gesso with one drop of dark paint. (fwiw, Liquitex gesso drops are about twice the size as Reaper paint drops...) 2. Wet your paintbrush, dip in the mixture and paint thinly. 1. Mix four drops of matte to one drop of dark paint. Matte is paint without pigment, so will stick to the Bones. 2. Do not load the brush. Lightly paint your Bones miniature. 3. Matte isn't ink, so it's likely you will still have something of a coat of paint on the miniature. Wipe off your brush on a paper towel, then lightly wipe the miniature with your brush to remove excess paint and reveal the white Bones plastic, sort of a reverse drybrush. Some of the mixture will remain in the crevasses, like a wash would. If you want to get fancy, or are painting a large miniature, you can pre-wash different parts of your Bones miniature in different matte-paint mixtures. Some of the Bones miniatures have dungeon-tile bases, so you could use a matte-black mixture for the dungeon base, and a different mixture for the miniature itself.

Ok, so I was looking for flow improver today, and Hobby Lobby and Joanne's did not have it. I want to make a wash similar to Les's wash recipes... I have the ink, distilled water, and matte medium, but no flow improver... I've read Future works as a flow improver, also dish soap works... So, anyone have a suggested recipe with the inks, and matte medium?