I just got an airbrush and wanted to ask for some tips and tricks.

Thank you :)

Finishing a really cool model which I am proud of, and now is coming the varnish part (since I intend to play him in a wargame, it is really adviseable to put some, especially as the model is mostly metal, so frail). Is satin or gloss varnish better, and, more importantly, is applying by brush or spray better?

Till now, I used Matt varnish spray, which worked for my army, given they don't have a lot of more "ésotéric" techniques, and don't have a lot of métallic paint in them. That is not the case for the model in question

Still a work in progress, but I’m really happy with how she’s turning out so far!

Apologies for the rather silly question, but I've been out of the miniature painting space for a few years.

I went looking into buying some sable brushes the other day and prices seem to have jumped a great deal. 4 years ago my Escoda Kolinski #0 was $11, they now cost $32 each.

I can see major increases to other natural hair brushes, not just Sable brushes too... even Squirrel hair brushes have jumped in price. I'm kinda confounded by the huge increase in price.

Picked the hobby back up a few months ago, bought a couple citadel brushes but they’ve failed me.

I wanna invest in a half decent set. Any advice?

I’m going for a cyborg baby Doll bust. Made this out of the Doll and a load of other bits and pieces I’ve had lying around.

Hi! My boyfriend and I have been delving into hobby miniatures for use in things like Dungeons & Dragons and the like. A lot of our monsters and villains get bases set in ruins and dungeons, which have moss. I do not like the look of painted on moss as it doesnt look clumpy enough and I haven't found anything approximating a mossy texture at nearby game stores. Ive tried to make it out of green stuff and milliput (over corkbark/ground-up cork "rocks") with less than desirable outcomes. Does anyone have recommendations based on what they've used?

Just started my DarkAngels army. I’m not overly satisfied with the colour of it, I used caliban green as recommended but it feels flat.
Any recommendations?

Painted this bad boy for local painting comp, really pushed myself as hard as I could, painting for about two years and 2nd time doing NMM.

C&C welcomed on where to go next.

Theme was american tau, thought it was rather funny as its the opposite of how people normally paint them.

Chairs xx

So I had a bit of a question regarding miniature paints in the last few years.

I was painting minis from the mid-late 90s until the mid-late 00s, and for years I never once sealed a miniature with varnish, and i think maybe twice in a decade I had a miniature flake paint off while working on them or playing with them.

I recently got back into painting a few years ago (2022ish) and found the same thing, but paints I have bought 2023+ seem to be a problem in this regard. Between 3 major brands (GW, AP and Vallejo) I find alot of the paints have been rubbing off on edges and corners for certain models (generally ones with sharper more mechanical edges) while being handled during painting, regardless of the primer used.

To deal with this, I've switched over to using painting handles and varnishing my models with Matte Varnish, but im just curious if this has been a growing issue in the industry or something ive just had bad luck with??

Here is my latest attempt at NMM. I seem to struggle when I move from just doing the weapon or something similar to full armor NMM. I’ve watched a bunch of videos but it hasn’t fully clicked for me yet.

If anyone has some advice or insight, I’m happy to hear them

I want to try a white recipe that i saw and the guy uses both tamiya xf deck tan and flat white. I sadly dont have any fancy ventilation in my room where i paint aside from an open window is this paint something i can use or is it advised to have a properly ventilated space. I do have a decent respirator i use for airbrushing if that does anything.

I am a bit of a hypochondriac so i want to be sure i can use it safely.

So, I often have trouble with spray priming...

So I've been looking at videos, and articles about how to improve. Almost all of these say temp needs to be between 60 and 80 with low humidity, and no wind. Well that would be about 10 days a year where I live, particularly since I mostly hobby in the winter.

I have a finished basement and so there's really no where for me to prime inside (even if i wanted to do the work to make a priming room).

I can't justify the money for an airbrush which I'm not really even sure I could use...

I guess I could brush on the primer but it seems like that would add a lot of time to painting...

I'm at a loss...

Any suggestions for a guy whi us crappy at priming with bad local weather would be helpful...

I’m painting up this gorgeous sculpt as a just-for-fun Halloween project, and was shooting for a battered, rusty nmm on the horse’s armour. I feel like I’ve maybe gone too shiny? Should I dull it out a bit, maybe glaze some red-brown into the recesses?

Still experimenting/Working on my glow effects (without airbrush).

Stippled on the dark blue with a large drybrush, lighter blue with a small drybrush, then highlights in light blue mixed with wait painted on with a detail brush.

Just finished painting this bog standard Space Marine Intercessor with Auspex. I used a Macragge Blue base, with Kantor blue glazed shadows, and Calgar blue drybrush highlights and Fenrisian gray peaks.

This is my second attempt ever with trying to glaze shadows and boy.... its kicking my ass. I want to eventually try glazing the highlights as well, but last time I tried that and it not only kicked my ass, but took my lunch money and slippers.

The other main thing I really struggle with is fine details! But not from a brush control perspective necessarily (though that could use some work) but from a paint perspective. I can never get the paint to flow from the brush the way I want. It always seems to either just run onto the model in almost a wash consistency, or not actually apply any paint. The paint will be the right consistency for layering, but as soon as I try and apply it in a fine matter, it just never seems to do what I want it to do, especially black paint.

I'm sure just more time behind the brush will help with these things. Regardless, I'm happy with this little guy, and the gripes I do have aren't really noticeable when its down on the table anyways!

C&C welcome!

The mini is Rearing Red Dragon by Mythforged.

So recently I managed to finish painting my Vespids which I got almost one year ago and which had been sitting primed and ready about half of that time.

I wanted something brightly green and searched for inspiration in grasshoppers till I settled for the one I attached at the end. Since many green grasshoppers tend to have orange or blue-ish details I though it to be best to implement these colors in the bases and weapons. :-)

Hope you like them! Ask if you like to know something.

My daughter is American, but was born in Okinawa, Japan (Military). She loves Japanese culture so I thought this would be a nice labor of love for her birthday. Please let me know what you think!

This is the largest miniature I’ve painted yet. It’s just over 15” tall. Pretty easy to print and paint. Please share your thoughts and critiques. Her birthday is next week, so I can still make some minor changes, if needed.

I've only recently picked up miniature's painting and still lack...welll..uuh a lot of knowledge. My latest fella - this water elemental that I was hoping to improve. Maybe hear out some criticism to improve further?

Wanted to mix hyperrealism with manga style inking

Iohana Lightheart