I Just Want To Play: by Kenneth Taba June 2000
KNOWLEDGE
Terms
Sprue – The plastic frame that plastic parts are attached to when you first purchase a plastic miniature.
Drybrushing – This is a technique used for painting, it is a quick (slightly messy) way to highlight you painting.
Detail – Any distinct part of the miniature; cloak, hat, sword blade, sword hilt, skin, eyes, hair,
Primer – This is kind of like paint but it isn’t, it’s specially formulated to provide good adhesion to plastic and metal surfaces so that you can paint acrylics over them.
Base Coat – The color that your want to use for any specific detail. I.e. brown boots or black boots etc.
Opaque Paint – Most paints colors are opaque, meaning, that what ever color they are painted over will not affect they way they look (with a couple of layers of paint)
Translucent Paint – A few paint colors are translucent and will be affected by what ever color they are being painted over. Most notably Reds & Yellows. These colors need to be Under coated with white, then painted over with the Red or Yellow as desired.
Under Coat – Similar to the Base coat, but it is an opaque color that will help a Translucent Base coat look good. I.e. Red and Yellow paints are usually Translucent and need to be painted over a White coat of paint.
Mold Lines, Flash and Vent Threads – These are imperfections in the miniature due to the process used to cast (make) them. Mold Lines are edges where 2 mold halves meet and are sometimes miss aligned, making something that looks almost like a cliff face running around the miniature. Flash is also due to the mold process and is characterized by a thin sheet looking piece of metal running along the Mold Line. Vent Threads are thread like looking pieces of metal on metal miniatures, usually found on the highest raised portions of the miniatures surface
Safety
Using Craft Knifes
(Sharp or pointy things etc.) These tools can cause damage to you. As if you didn’t know this.Knives cut, cuts bleed, this is very unhealthy. You need to be careful, your supply of blood and fingers is limited
.Cyano Acrylic glue (CA glue) is toxic and will bond skin instantly to skin.
It’s kind of hard to do anything if you glue your fingers and hands together. Once I squired some CA glue into my mouth. I had to stuff paper napkins in my mouth to soak up the glue and also so the napkins would be glued to my mouth and instead of gluing my mouth shut or my tongue to the inside of my mouth. Of course I had paper napkins glued to the interior of my mouth, but I could still speak and eat…
Spray Primers/Paints use propellants that are flammable and toxic. Do not use near high heat sources or open flames and always use in a well ventilated area, like outside. Make sure the nozzle is aimed towards the miniature, not your eyes.
I once sprayed my eyes, now I’m very careful.
Care of Tools & Supplies
Paints
– Occasionally add a few drops of water you your paints.Spray Primers/Paints/Clear Coat –
Always store any sprays in a cool area.
Brushes – Always clean your brushes
after painting in water to remove the paint.
Techniques
Drybrushing
Dip the tip of your brush in the paint, (do not use a good brush, use a worn out brush or one made for drybrushing).
Nearly all of the paint should be removed from the brush by wiping/brushing it off onto a napkin or something similar.
Alternately you could dilute your paint prior to wiping/brushing it off on the napkin, this will give a smoother effect but is very hard to control without getting streaks because there is more fluid paint held within the center of the brush, this comes out when you drybrush, so you would need to be careful and also "press/squeeze" out any excess paint prior to drybrushing the detail
Application
Brush off almost all of the paint on a napkin so that the brush is practically dry of any paint. (newspaper, card board etc. this is just something to remove most of the paint from the brush).
Using quick, light strokes of your brush in a back and forth motion, brush the raised areas of the detail you want to drybrush.
The more paint you removed from your brush, the more gradual and smooth your drybrushing will be.
If you left a lot of paint on your brush, you’ll end up with paint caked on your detail, it will also be very grainy at best and at worst, you’ll end up with streaks.
