How to: Paint a Mosaic Resin Base

Hello friends!

I don't think I've ever been as happy with my basing as what I've developed for my Haqqislam Infinity forces. These bases are  satisfying to paint, look fantastic, and best of all are quick and easy to do! The techniques I use here can be employed for any sort of textured resin base, and I hope you find them useful!

For this army I'm using the Micro Arts Studios 'mosaic' resin bases. These are great quality casts with some lovely subtle texture to them that this process really brings out.

Step #1: Select bases and drill holes. First I choose which base will be used for which figure. Situate the model on it during assembly and drill holes in the base to mark where the pins will be. I note which figure goes in which slot by writing in permanent marker on the underside of the base. Then undercoat the bases with your preferred color using a rattlecan, I went with Games Workshop's "Mournfang Brown" spray.

Step #2: Base colors. Using an airbrush I went over the entire base in with Vallejo Model color's "Sand Yellow". It took about 3 coats to get a nice strong tone across it, working off of a brown undercoat. I then used a brush and painted sections of the mosaic using Games Workshop's "Stegadon Scale Green" and "Doombull brown".

Bases after step two.

Step #3: First layer of shade. I used Scale 75 "Inktense wood" wash through the airbrush to get this first layer. I sprayed this almost parallel to one section on the side of the base in order to have the ink catch the raised edges of the base texture. The Scale 75 washes are very strong and even with this limited usage you get a lovely tint out of the base layer of paint.

These are the same bases after the first shade. Note how there's a lot more ink on the side of the base in the top right than there is on the base itself. This is because I only wanted it to skim the top and was spraying most of the ink on the side of the base to help control the amount going over the top.

Step #4: Second layer of shade. I used the exact same airbrush technique only this time using Army Painter "Strong Tone" wash, which is a very natural tone to bring everything together. Once again I focused my spray against the side of the base in the exact same spot as the previous shade in order to only skim the top of the base and draw out its texture.

Bases after step three.

Step #4: Detail work. Once the second shade has fully dried, paint the rims of the base black, and do some edge highlighting around only the outer rim of the base to make things pop a bit. I didn't bother doing any edge highlighting inside the base as I knew I was about to use pigments anyways.

Step #5: Varnish bases. This is really important because we'll be wiping the bases down with water when we use pigments and the inks and washes will absolutely be wiped off in the process if you haven't varnished it. I used Army painter "Aegis suit" rattlecan varnish but you can use any sort of satin or gloss varnish that offers decent protection against water.

Step #6: Pigments. Use vallejo's "Burnt Sienna" pigment and mix it with a bit of water to get it nice and sludgy. It should be thick enough that it doesn't run when you put it on a flat surface, but runny enough that it still falls into and fills the gaps of the bases. Using a cheap brush you slam this mixture into all the crevices of the base. Have fun and be as messy as you want, none of the pigment on the surface will be staying there.

Bases after step six. Pigment spackled into the cracks.

Step #7: Wipe away the pigment. This is the funnest part of the process! Dampen a cloth or piece of paper towel a bit and literally wipe off the tops of each base. After 1-3 passes all of the pigment on the surface will have disappeared but the pigment in the cracks will remain. Your varnish will protect your previous work from getting wiped off. It's sooooo satisfying.

However you need to ensure the previous layer of pigment has completely dried, preferably overnight, before doing this. Otherwise you might remove some of the pigment in the cracks!

Finished bases after the pigment has been wiped away.

Step #8: Final varnish. After giving the remaining pigment another chance to fully dry (it doesn't need quite as long this time) you should do one more layer of varnish to set it in place and voila, mosaic bases! The varnish will also help protect your work if you decide to paint your figures after they're attached to their bases as I do. Any stray paint that gets on the base can be wiped off with water without issue thanks to the varnish.

My test model getting painted on top of a completed base. Looking good!

These techniques should work well for any sort of textures resin base! I hope it has proved useful!😄

Update VI: Converted Ork Big Mek and Lootas

I’m proud to showcase the next 250 points of my 40k Ork army for the narrative escalation campaign that I’m organizing. The campaign has been going really well and it’s been such a blast getting to play more games! The orks are doing surprisingly well, having only suffered one loss out of four official games so far.

Now that we’re bumping up to the 750 point level I decided to include a unit of Lootas to provide some more dakka for my army, as well as a Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field to help keep said lootas alive and have them move and shoot. These are painted using the same techniques and schemes as my initial 500 points, with a real emphasis on speed painting and no highlighting whatsoever outside of multiple ink washes.

I’m relatively pleased with how the converted Big Mek turned out, and the Kastellan parts certainly came out looking as beat up as I wanted. I really enjoyed incorporating the brass/copper metals on the Kastellan portions, and figuring out how to paint the green patina these materials accrue was a blast. I do think the patina is a little sloppy around the rim of his head, but otherwise it looks alright!

Close-up of the patina on the bronze.

The model does feel a little dark overall, as does the rest of the army, although I don’t think I’ll be bothered enough to go back and highlight stuff in the future. Also the darkness helps draw attention to their signature orange skin, which was super minimal on this particular model so I’m glad I managed to emphasize it so much.

I'll be sure to post more closeups of other units in the army, as well as a picture with everything all together. Thanks for looking!

Hobby Thoughts: How to enjoy painting miniatures.

I don’t claim to be a great painter. In fact I am perpetually reminded I'm not given the award-winning abilities of my roommate Byron. His basic line troops wipe the floor with my fanciest character models.

A phoenix guard model from my roommate on the left. A warpriest character I slaved over on the right.

Talk about a slice of humble pie right? Yet I have, over the course of the past year, come to truly enjoying painting as my favorite aspect of the hobby. This is something that was absolutely not the case for many many years, and I thought writing article about the changes in equipment, technique, and attitude I've undergone to reach this point this would be a great idea for anyone else looking to enjoy their time with the brush a little more.

From "I hate this shit" in 2010 to "I'm having a blast!" in 2015.

This article assumes that painting is a priority for you to some capacity within the hobby. Whether it’s painting a high-quality force or just hitting a “three colours and based” minimum for a tournament you may find something of interest here.

Equipment

1. Know what type of paints your buying and whether they align with your painting goals. There is no such thing as brand loyalty when it comes to paints due to the variance across each range. Experiment with different brands and see what you like, check out what others recommend. Of relevance to this is a personal revelation I've had recently in the difference between what I will call "tabletop" paint designed to have good coverage and go on as a basecoat easily with a harder protective finish, versus what I'll call "advanced" paints that might have a high pigment count but are not designed to be very opaque or cover effectively. 
• Examples of "tabletop" paints include Vallejo Game Color, Army Painter, and most Games Workshop paints, all of these are designed to basecoat smoothly and stand up to the rigors of handling produced by typical gaming. Of particular note here are Games Workshop's "Base" range and Vallejo's "Extra Opaque", both of which are formulated for maximum coverage.
• Examples of "advanced" paints include Vallejo Model Color and Scale 75 paints. Both tend to cover poorly despite their vibrant colors, but because they are not very opaque they produce beautiful blends far more easily then having to really thin out a paint that wants to cover everything.
2. If you are painting anything bigger than a skirmish-game sized force then do yourself a favor and buy an airbrush. Even if it’s a cheap set up you will get back hours of your life through simple techniques like colored base coats and/or blocking out colors on basic line troops. I can't see myself painting anything without one.
3. Get a good traditional brush. I haven’t really implemented this myself yet as I've  not yet tried the much-idolized Windsor and Newton series 7. But I have gradually progressed from using Games Workshop, Army Painter, and currently Kolinsky sable hair brushes from Element Games. The improvement in control of the paint coming off the brush has been noticeable each time.
4. Use a florescent or daylight lamp to illuminate your painting. Any cheap articulated lamp will do, and it helps even more than you think.
5. Don’t buy things you don’t want to paint. If you want to have a good time painting, then paint something you find beautiful. With the glut of skirmish games in the market right now there are many companies with extremely poorly designed, or downright ugly miniatures. I'm not inclined to care how great a system rule-set is, how beautiful people may claim the miniatures are, or if a particular model is really strong on the tabletop. If you don’t like them, don’t spend hours of your life on them.
6. Don’t buy more miniatures then you can paint. Trust me, I know how hard this is. But having a legion of things that need painting is going to hurt your enjoyment more than anything, and turn an otherwise enjoyable painting session into a small part of a massive slog towards completion. Unless you’re doing big batches with simple techniques like airbrushing/washes where you can see progress being made extremely quickly, be conservative with your painting goals. One unit at a time, reward yourself with a character between them , put away any miniatures that need painting so they’re not out in the open guilting you. Don't assemble things you won't be able to paint right away. Don’t spend loads of money in one go, regardless of how good the price is. A personal rule of thumb for me is to buy, assemble, and paint only one box at a time, be it a character, vehicle, or unit. You get to enjoy your painting more and you save money, it's win-win!

Technique

Given that I'm not an expert painter this section is quite basic, but I hope still applicable to everyone getting a bit more joy out of their painting. However feel free to skip it if you're already a strong painter!

1. Spend time on assembly, clean all mould lines, pin things that need pinning. With modular options think about natural-looking yet dynamic poses. Add some details to your bases like rocks, etc. There is no point beautifully painting a miniature that was slapped together in a few minutes. Conversely, a clean and well posed/assembled miniature will make even a basic paint job looks miles better. This is the reason I stopped buying second-hand figures. 90% of people are not thoughtful in their assembly, and the effort and time to salvage their careless work is not worth the reduction in cost.
2. Choose a primer colour that will help you paint your chosen colour scheme. Using a black primer for a brightly coloured force that has a lot of yellow (for example) is just adding hours to your painting, whereas its a great decision if your painting lot of metallics since they cover nicely over black. Conversely using a light primer with darker colours will make more work for you, as any mistakes will stand out much more and you'll need to basecoat and shade more extensively. Grey is a nice middle ground if you have a mix of dark/light colours. For other colours outside of these three I recommend using an airbrush basecoat over one of them rather than a colour primer.
3. Using a little plinth of some kind for painting is often quite useful. It isn't always strictly necessary but having a magnet on the bottom of your figures and sticking them on a wine cork with a penny glued on top can help with accessing hard to reach points. Alternatively if you are pinning your model to their base, consider painting the base and figure separately and just sticking the figure into a wine cork while painting it. This is a must for metal or resin figures since paint layers can easily rub off on your hands.
4. Thin your paints. People always say this but you have no idea how true it is until you do it. Just water is fine for most applications and it won’t affect coverage if you’re using a good basecoat paint. How much you need to thin depends on application, but for basecoating you should need to do two coats for good coverage of anything that isn't extra-opaque like the Vallejo line or GW base paints.  Glaze medium is an exceptional thinner for when you want to reduce how opaque paint is in order to have it pool in the recesses like a wash, enhance how easy it is to blend a paint, or just washing over a series of layers to tie them together.
5. Basecoat carefully. Unless you are doing advanced shading and highlighting the need to put down a clean basecoat of a single colour over your primer before doing anything else is really important. If your basecoat is neatly done then everything else is gravy and the model will still look good almost regardless of what follows. It should all feel downhill after a good basecoat.
6. Washes are your friend. Most people already know it, but for the sake of any truly new painters, washes go a long way to adding depth to your models. Bonus points if you use a bit of glaze medium to make their colour go on smoother. A careful and clean basecoat with a wash or two is probably the best place to start for a beginner painter on your average line-trooper. Keep it neat and keep it simple. Once your comfortable with that you can step it up to the magical formula of basecoat, wash, basecoat on raised areas, higlight/basecoat mix for highlights, which is more than adequate for the majority of hobbyists out there.
7. Less is more when it comes to paint. Keep things simple with a handful of colors and only 1-3 pots of paint for each. Repeat simple techniques and shade down or higlight up by mixing rather than introducing tons of different paints. Remember that black is not a color and doesn't clash with any scheme, so if a figure has a lot extraneous details like equipment hanging all over it consider just painting the extra stuff black to keep the visuals clean.
8. Paint your bases last. If you mess up the colour and get it on the miniature's feet it’s a lot less noticeable than the reverse scenario.
9. Varnish your paint-job. With plastic miniatures this is only necessary at the end, but with metal or resin I would suggest at least three coats of varnish: one after your primer, one after your basecoat, and one when its finished. There's nothing worse than having your hard work get rubbed off when you are painting or playing.

Mindset

1. Plan your painting in advance and use test models if you want to try a new color scheme. Think carefully about how your colours will look and check out how they relate on a colour wheel. Consider in advance how you will base your figure and what its visual interaction with your colour-scheme will be. Also be sure to write down your paint scheme as it develops so that if you come back to a particular scheme down the road you can retain consistency.
2. With each miniature, know what quality of painting you’re aiming for from the outset. Don't try to paint line troops like your character models and vice versa. Make sure your expectations align with your skillset. Knowing when to put down the brush is just as important as being able to paint like a golden demon winner. When it comes to line troops remember that quantity is its own form of quality, so most of us can keep it simple.
3. Keep pushing yourself to make painting interesting. If you are not enjoying your painting try employing a new technique. Try painting a different model in some new colours, or a one-off figure from a totally different system or army. Always try to incorporate something into what you are doing that challenges you. Try a bit of weathering on your vehicles or armor, or try some blending on a character model.
4. Take the advice of people who are good painters. This doesn't mean you have to do everything they say. But really try to absorb it and think about how you can apply it to your next project. I despise coming back to a model I feel is “finished” so I never implement any criticism I get immediately, but I will always internalize any feedback I receive and keep it in mind for the next figure.
5. Know when to step away from the painting desk. If you are ever frustrated or finding you are not enjoying yourself just stop and do something else for at least 15 minutes. Stretch, go for a walk, talk to some friends. Its just not worth harming your mental state to finish a miniature, and if you push yourself like this its only going to reinforce whatever you dislike about the process. Additionally, if you are frustrated with a paint job just step away and don't look at it for a day. Coming back with a fresh pair of eyes is far better than going back and forth and agonizing over things.
6. Don’t play if it’s not painted. Another tough rule to follow that goes hand in hand with “don’t buy too much”, as the less models you have awaiting painting the less likely you are to try and field them. The payoff, however, is absolutely worth it in my mind. Being able to put a fully-painted army on the tabletop gives a cathartic pleasure in and of itself, and contributes immeasurably to the enjoyment and visual immersion one gets out of the game. If both armies are painted then you get a beautiful, immersive and far more characterful game out of your chosen system. Alternatively if you’re playing against an opponent with an unpainted force then you have already won, dice rolls be damned.

I hope this wasn't too pedantic from someone whose clearly only an average (if that) painter. Then again I think its precisely because i'm average that my words might be a bit more relevant to most of the hobbyists out there.

Happy painting all, and thank you for reading!

Painting Experiment: Orange/Yellow Orks Part 2

I'm planning to run a Warhammer 40k escalation campaign with a narrative focus next February. To that end I have to decide on a army to build and paint for it and, because i'm a masochist, I've elected to go for Orks rather than the using the Grey Knights I've already completed. While I love the Grey Knight models the fluff and character of the Ork army is vastly preferable to me. I love custom armies with a great backstory and a focus on having fun rather than winning games, and the Orks are all of these things to a tee!

After the (relatively) successful experiment with orange skin I spent a lot of time agonizing over a color scheme to accompany it. I settled on a bright turquoise produced by Scale 75 and tested it on my original model here.

Turquoise is exactly opposite bright orange on the color wheel and compliments it very nicely. So I quickly moved to get some actual 40k orks to test the scheme on. Thankfully a mate of surgical fame had a partially-used pack of stormboyz he gave me to test my scheme on.

Initially things went great and I loved the way they looked with my orange skin.

The grot inside this rocket is probably my single favorite miniature of all time. I'm dead serious.

However after this it got a little complicated. 40k Orks have tons of different components slapped all over theme, especially these stormboyz figures, and it was tough trying to decide where the turquoise needed to be. I eventually added a secondary color and did the majority of their armor in black as its an absolutely neutral tone, and actually compliments the turquoise and orange quite nicely.

My plan now was to paint turquoise on the clothing and black on the armor with just a few small turquoise accents here and there. But unfortunately even this simple arrangement ended up looking a little too garish given how bright the turquoise i'd chosen was.

The jumpsuits are too much in that color.

To this end I decided to use a burnt umber over a good portion of the clothing to tone things down, and it ended up looking alright. This guy (exempting the red on the rocket) is probably the best indicator of where i'll go with things. Burnt umber clothing, black armor, and turquoise accents here and there in both areas.

Naturally I did some sponge weathering on their armor to give them that properly battered orky look. The black looks lovely with a bit of metallic sponged over it. I also liked the idea of them slapping turquoise paint over the black, which I managed to convey a bit with this guy's eye. I'm going to experiment with adding this sort of "handpainted" turquoise to the armor some more I think.

Unfortunately I messed up the bases after experimenting with different washes on each one. I'm going with a desert theme to accompany the orange/yellow skin tone since they are fungus after all! I'll be getting some new pigments to use on them and further dirty them up. I may also chose a different turquoise color that's slightly less in-your-face about things in order to tone down the palette a bit and make the orange stand out more.

Working with these guys definitely  hammered home how important it is to test your colour-scheme out on some miniatures before starting to paint your force properly. These guys haven't been washed or highlighted yet, or had their details picked out, but even going this far has given be a great understanding of what to do with my chosen scheme. Next up, an Ork battleforce! (And painting a GK librarian when I get bored of assembling things)

Thanks for looking guys!

Painting Experiment: Orange/Yellow Orc Flesh

So last night I took a little break from my Grey Knights to fool around with paints chemes on a Savage Orc Warboss from Fantasy I have lying around. For my next little 40k project I’m sorely tempted to take up Orks even though they wouldn’t ally very effectively with my Grey Knights. I’ve always loved the miniatures and the inherently casual and fun sensibility that the army brings. You play Orks to have a good time, not to guarantee a win!

However there are two things I dislike about GW orks:

• The green skin. I know it’s a little heretical but I’m just a bit bored of it and want something different!
• You have to paint a lot of them. They are the polar opposite my hyper-minimal Grey Knights.

To that end I wanted to experiment with producing a really quick and efficient way to paint non-green Ork skin to use on the line troops. Even in a 500 point army there will be at least ten boyz I need to paint so I wanted something quick and dirty to use on them.

I decided to base my scheme around the more naturalistic earthy skintones of the World of Warcraft Orcs. I’ve never really played WoW but I love the direction that blizzard has taken the Orc’s appearance in their latest expansions. To this end I was looking for an orangey-brown base being highlighted up into yellow given the palette presented by these images.

Conveniently enough, Element Games acquired the entire Scale 75 range of paints this week, and given the hype surrounding them I really wanted to try them out! To that end I decided to purchase a few bottles and used a lovely Savage Orc Boss I had lying around as a tester model. After some thought and color comparisons online I ended up selecting their “Mars Orange” to use as a base and use their “Tenere Yellow” as a highlight.

Given that I’m looking for something really quick and simple to do on the line troops, I wanted to do everything through either my airbrush or washes, no brushwork allowed! To that end I began with a black spraycan primer, and then did an initial coat of Mars Orange mixed about 70/30 with Army Painter Uniform Grey in order to allow for better coverage over the black. After this I went over everything again with straight Mars Orange. I have to say it is an absolutely gorgeous color that went on like a dream, it gives a really naturalistic earthy tone that looks superb. I was almost tempted to start washing straight away, but after such great results from one pot I just had to see the other.

Unfortunately the Tenere Yellow was a bit of a weird color, the paint had a curious texture that didn’t want to thin nicely in the airbrush. While I love getting unusual colors like this that make an army look really unique sometimes they can be real duds and I was afraid this might be the case. I tried different levels of yellow over the mars orange and it ended up looking alright at points, but I definitely think I went overboard and that it should only really be used for a single minimal zenithal highlight rather than covering the bulk of the skin like I did here.

However the results improved significantly after a wash of orange ink. I made this from a 50/50 mix of scale 75 red and yellow inks kindly borrowed from Byron. The scale 75 inks are incredible but damn are they ever vibrant! It feels like your using ink from a pen they have so many pigments in them. But I’ve never seen a more vibrant orange ink than the mix I got out of these. I did the wash over the entire model but as I went over sections I’d immediately go over them again with straight water in order to push the inks into the recesses. This could have been done better with some Vallejo Glaze medium but i'm out at the moment, so water had to do! A tempting alternative to this would be to glaze it with the mars orange again which might look more cohesive but I'll try that on another miniature.

I decided it still looked a little too bright so I did another wash all over with Army Painter Soft Tone ink, also going over everything with water after I’d put it on. The result darkened things down nicely and made it look a bit more like skin. While I’m far from 100% satisfied with this it gave me a pretty good idea of what to do for a line troop, especially considering there isn’t that much skin showing on the typical 40k boy. I think with a lot less of the yellow involved so more of that lovely orange shows through, and the use of a proper glaze medium with the inks it will be perfect for churning them out en-mass.

Obviously I will spend a lot more time on the leader figures pushing the contrast more and highlighting up from an orange-brown to almost a pure yellow tone. While this might sound like it will clash with my line-trooper scheme, something I love about the orc fluff is it allows for a range of skintones within the army. Especially given the fact that orks who keep winning fights literally undergo massive physiological changes. It only makes sense to me that the biggest and best orcs would have the most vibrant coloring!

Thanks for looking,

-Tom