Our social media accounts are inundated with hobby questions on a daily basis, and it’s high time we got some of them answered. Rather than muddle through the ins and outs ourselves, we’ve collared Adam from the Warhammer TV painting team to give his expert advice on all things paint and palette.
Are Technical paints like Armageddon Dust best applied with a regular brush or a Citadel Texture Spreader?
Adam: The texture tool does a fantastic job of getting these much thicker paints out of the bottle and spread across the surface of your base. Using a standard brush will often ruin its fine point as the paint dries and forces the bristles apart, so if you don't have a texture tool to hand and are desperate to base your miniature,* you could use a piece of plastic from your box or a coffee stirrer.
If you’d like to know more about these Technical paints and the best way to apply them, check out this video. You can also get great results by giving your bases a cold, snowy look with Valhallan Blizzard – a favourite of many Warhammer Community painters!
How do you know where you need to highlight?
Adam: As obvious as it sounds, if you’re aiming for an ‘Eavy Metal style like the box art, you’ll first want to focus on the sharpest edges of your miniature. Taking power armour as our example, we would work our way around the model, picking out the right angles and edges of panels. We can then look where the light would catch them – hold your miniature up to a light source to see where light naturally falls on it – and apply a brighter colour to the top three quarters of the existing highlight.
Apply your brightest colour as a dot highlight wherever two edges meet – just a tiny point will do. It might not seem like much, but it will make your highlights pop out nicely and give the impression of a reflective surface.
What is the best primer and base colour for yellow?
Adam: In regards to priming, we have a choice of White Scar for the most vibrant yellow, Grey Seer for a darker and colder shade, and Wraithbone for a much warmer, sandy yellow. Which one we pick will depend on the mood that we want our miniatures to have, be it bright and energetic or sombre and worn.
For the basecoat we often go with the trusty Averland Sunset, then layer over it with Yriel Yellow to push up the brightness before going into shading or highlighting with our colours of choice. If using Contrast paints instead, there’s a vast selection of available yellows to choose from – Imperial Fist is a favourite as it covers very well and can be used as a substitute base paint if we apply it over one of the three primers.
What's your technique for painting eyes?
Adam: We actually covered this in a whole article on Warhammer Community just last year!
How would you go about adding dust to armour?
Adam: Great question! There are many ways to achieve a really dusty look, so we’ll talk about one that we think is very multifunctional and looks good across many different armour types and colours. First, we get a dollop of Steel Legion Drab on our palette and then thin it down with water to a consistency similar to our Shade paints – very, very thin.
Apply it over any areas and recesses we want to get dusty. Once the first layer is dry, it’ll have a light brown tint, and you can add further coats to anywhere you want to build up the dust more – a good tip here is to focus later layers towards the bottom where most of the dust would gather.
Once we’re happy with it we can thin down Zandri Dust to the same consistency as before and apply it over the very bottom areas of the armour. Zandri Dust is lighter than Steel Legion Drab and thus perfect for adding a highlight, as real-world dust tends to spread out and get lighter as it settles.
How can I make sure my drilled barrels are always centered?
Adam: There are a few ways to do this. You can paint or draw a little mark in the centre to use as a guide, but our option of choice is to make a little indent with a pin or the point of a hobby knife. This helps to keep your Citadel Drill centred as it begins to turn, and then it’s just a matter of keeping it straight. If you’re under 16, you might want to ask a responsible adult to do the knife-pointing though, as the smallest slip can be disastrous for your hand.
What's the best model for beginners?
Adam: Our paint starter sets are a great way to get your hands on some practice miniatures and the paints you need for them. Each set comes with push-fit models that don’t require glue, and you can choose from Space Marines and Tyranids for Warhammer 40,000, or Stormcast Eternals and Kruleboy Orruks for Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
For those looking to start their first army, picking a faction should always come down to whoever you think are the coolest, or whose vibe you gel with the most. Almost all factions have a basic trooper, such as Space Marine Intercessors or Seraphon Saurus Warriors, and these are typically quite beginner-friendly as they’re neither the biggest models in the range nor covered in loads of fine detail.
Don’t forget, you can also head down to your local Warhammer store and pick up the Miniature of the Month as a test piece. This can act as a great way of getting familiar with the many factions spread across Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000, and having a spare model to practice new techniques on is never a bad thing…
What's your favourite paint name?
Adam: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD by a skull-paved mile. Nothing beats asking a friend or family member who does not know about Warhammer to pick up that paint as a present.
How do I paint a Leviathan Siege Dreadnought? Please, I beg of you!
Adam: This is something we can definitely help with – in fact, we have a whole painting tutorial on the Leviathan Siege Dreadnought! Although ours is painted in the colours of the World Eaters, you can follow the same stages and just substitute whatever colours are needed for your army.
Thanks Adam! If you have any more questions you’d love to see answered by the Warhammer Painting Team, let us know on Facebook and Twitter – we always have our eye out for the hobbyist in need.
If you're looking for more hobby hints, check out the highlights on our Instagram Stories - there's plenty of videos to watch!
* We all know someone who’s had to paint a few models at the last minute before a tournament.