Painting the Argonaut

This is my first painting tutorial. I make no claims to being a great miniature painter, I certainly have friends who paint a lot better than me, but I do believe my method is quite easy to follow.

At its core, it's not much harder than painting a colouring book. My method consists in dividing the miniature in separate areas, divided by the miniature's edges much as a colouring picture is divided by lines, and paint each area with a solid colour. This requires only a steady hand, it's just a matter of painting inside the lines. Furthermore, the paints used for miniatures dry rather quickly, which makes it easy to fix mistakes.

A word of warning about paints and paintbrushes. A paintbrush is not a crayon. You don't paint with the paintbrush, you paint with the paint. The paintbrush is just the tool you use to transfer a small droplet of paint from the paint pot to the miniature and spread it evenly over the miniature. Given the small size of miniatures, it's always wise to charge the paintbrush with as little paint as possible. Too little paint is easily fixed, you just go back to the paint pot and dip the paintbrush again, and again, until you're done. Too much paint can be a problem, removing the excess paint is a pain and once it dries it may obscure the miniature's details. It's a balancing act, you don't want each step to take forever, but it's best to err on the side of caution.

I started out with assembling the miniature. This miniature is from Warlord Games, from their Greek Hoplite Command Sprue. One of the reasons why I prefer plastic miniatures is the freedom you get in assembling them, how subtle changes in the way you position an arm or tilt a head impact the overall feel of the finished miniature.

Next I added sand to the base with white glue and fixed it with diluted white glue. I prefer doing this before priming because it allows me to paint the finished base as part of the whole painting process and not as a separate step in the end.

This method of basing is somewhat lengthy. White glue is very liquid, so, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises, I find it best to leave it to dry for quite a long time. Usually I apply the sand with white glue and then leave it to dry overnight. The next day I apply the diluted white glue to fix the sand, so it won't come off while I paint. I apply the diluted glue with a small syringe and spread it evenly with a toothpick. And leave it to dry overnight. The next day, the sand on the base will be hard, ready to be painted over.

The next step is applying the primer. Not much to it. I prefer applying primer with a paintbrush because: 1) not as messy as spray; 2) less waste; 3) it doesn't stink up the place; 4) I don't need to wear a mask; 5) I can apply primer when it's cold without fear of unforeseen side effects; 6) I have a better control over how even the primer is being applied; and 7) I can get the primer in all those hard-to-reach spots that spray primer usually misses.

At this point I also like to plan the painting ahead. Planning is important, as it saves a lot of time further on. Before I even start painting the miniature, I already have a mental image of the colour scheme I'm going for and in which order I intend to paint the several steps. That said, it is not uncommon for me to deviate from the original plan as some part of it doesn't quite pan out as I intended or new ideas come up during the painting process.

Now the painting proper begins. Yes, so far this has been only prepping the miniature. I like to begin by painting the base as this can be a rough and messy step, so I prefer to get it out of the way while there's nothing else painted that can be spoiled. Painting over sand is hard on the paintbrush, I advise using an old brush whenever painting the base.

Next I usually paint the skin. One of the most useful advice I've ever received in miniature painting is, paint as you would dress. Or, in other words, paint from the inside out. Begin with the hard-to-reach spots, when you can afford to be messy. Notice how the helmet around the face is also painted in skin colour. That will be fixed later. As the painting proceeds, you only have to be careful when painting next to parts that are already painted.

This next step was simple, I just applied a wash to the base. This is something I usually do at the end of the first day of painting, as I also like to leave washes to dry overnight. 

Keeping with the earlier advice of painting in dressing order, I painted the tunic white. As I was already painting white, I painted the helmet crest as well. This is where the original planning comes handy. As I knew the tunic and helmet crest were the only bits I would be painting white, this meant white was out of the way. There's no need to be rigid about it, some colours you use more than once during the whole process, but in general it's not a bad idea to get everything in any given colour out of the way in one step.

Next I painted everything else with a khaki brown. (Notice how the excess skin colour on the helmet is now painted over, no sign of the previous mess.)

This served two purposes. The leather bits were to remain khaki brown. The armour bits were painted brown as a base colour for a bronze layer. Metal paints tend to be thinner than other paints, so it's not a bad idea to paint first a base layer in a colour similar to the metal you're going for.

In this instance, as I was getting ready to apply the bronze paint, I found out the paint had clotted inside the pot and was unusable. Time to improvise.

So I painted all armour in silver...

...and toned it down with a sepia wash. I had done this before, so it was not a complete improvisation, but it definitely wasn't what I had planned in the beginning.

A word about applying washes late in the painting process. Washes are basically very diluted paints, which means if you're not careful it will flow where you don't want it to. (Unless you're applying a wash to the entire miniature from head to toe. Which I wasn't.) Just be careful, knowing there's nothing that can't be fixed later on.

Now I applied blue to the shield and the helmet crest. The miniature is coming along quite nicely at this point, it's getting closer to the mental image I had in the beginning.

At this point I also decided the short sleeve on the sword arm would look better in white instead of khaki. So much for white being out of the way...

Next I did a bit of freehand on the shield. Freehand would deserve a tutorial to itself and I'm not the one to make it as, frankly, I'm not that good at it. That said, I do have a few tricks.

First, keep it simple. It's best to go for a simpler motif and get it right than to be overambitious and make a mess of it.

Second, think in terms of background colour and foreground colour. In this shield, I went back and forth between orange and blue, adding details with orange, removing other bits with blue. The ring at the bottom of the trident, for example, started out as a solid orange circle and became a ring when I painted a blue dot in the middle.

Freehand can be finicky, but it's nothing that cannot be improved with practice.

And there are alternatives.

Finally, I did a few small details in dark brown, namely the Argonaut's beard (I know, it's hardly noticeable) and the leather strap over the breastplate. I also did a blue edge on the leather skirt (not the proper technical term for it) beneath the breastplate, as I felt that part of the miniature lacked contrast.

And that's that. It's not hard to get a miniature ready for the tabletop if you're neat and organized. The main thing is to plan ahead, do the messy bits first, and be very careful when painting next to an already painted part. That's all there is to it.