by Sam and Max
Introduction: The elementals have the best results for the least amount of work. Always a good thing! Hardly a subtle creature, a rough paintjob is perfectly suitable for this thing. If you're new to painting, try either these, the zombies, or the cave spiders first.Tutorials from easiest to hardest:
Zombie painting tutorial: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1148047/painting-tutorial-zo...
Cave Spider painting tutorial:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1150793/painting-tutorial-ca...
Ettin painting tutorial: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1140289/painting-tutorial-et...
Goblin painting tutorial: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1144852/painting-tutorial-go...
Flesh Moulder tutorial:
http://boardgamegeek.com/article/15540400
Secret Wash appearance directly on primed figures:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1129305/how-to-select-a-wash...
Mold Lines: Mold lines are the "lines" of excess plastic on the miniature that should be cut off with a hobby knife, and filed off with small files. An engraving pen (under $10 at some craft stores) is a small handheld battery-operated "drill" with an industrial diamond-tipped head that will remove mold lines *much* faster. After removing mold lines, clean the figures in hot soapy water to remove the mold release agent, an oil. If you find mold lines after priming, you can still remove them. You can either spray primer again, or use clear gesss (about $8 at craft stores) to paint over the plastic to "prime" the model for painting.
Primer: To get the paint to stick to the plastic, spray the miniature with primer. Hardware stores sell spray primer, and make sure to purchase primer that says it will bond to plastic. When spraying primer, first clear the nozzle with a quick burst not aimed towards the miniature, then spray in sweeps starting a few inches to the side of the miniature. For these miniatures, gray works fine, but use whatever primer color you prefer.
Fire: For the upper part of the figure (fire and earth), paint in white for the white minion, and black for the master. Drybrush the black master with white. To drybrush, dip only the tip of an old frayed brush in the paint, then wipe off most of the paint on a paper towel. The brush will still hold paint. Brush the miniature, and the paint still on the brush will cover the raised portion of the miniature. After drybrushing white, next drybrush yellow, orange, then red. If you have colored washes, use a colored wash after its color of paint. The washes will tone down any dry chalky appearance of the paint. Secret Weapon washes has a variety of colored washes: Sunshine for yellow, Yellow Snow and Orange for orange, and Just Red for a bright red.
Water: For the bottom halves (water and air), paint blue. If you have some paint experience, paint the lowest part of the bottom portion dark blue, and gradually add white as you reach the top of the figure, especially the "water spout" tail. Then, drybrush light blue and/or white. The picture doesn't show it, but if the white is too harsh, tone down the color with washes of blue. Again, Secret Weapon's Sapphire and Blue are fine for this.
Raargh!
Next: Cotton!