Roguescape

• Undercoat/ Prime
  

• Base Colors

Undercoat: For me to be able to get the best results on my miniatures, I need to make sure that I start with a good undercoat. Different people use different colours for undercoats, but I have found that if you want your figures to really stand out from the tabletop, then a white undercoat is essential. Black can be good if you want your models to look more dark and sinister, but I like brightness in my miniatures, so I have stuck with white all the way through.

If you start by giving your models a good undercoat, the rest of your painting time is going to be well spent. Bad undercoats make models look messy, and you may as well have not bothered to put one on. So what makes a good undercoat? Well, to me there are two things that you need to be aware of. The first is to make sure that the undercoat is as solid as possible. By this I mean that none of the miniature should be showing through the paint, be it plastic or metal. If your undercoat is too thin, it will create blemishes in your colors that are added later. To get the best results with undercoats, I would recommend your miniatures be sprayed, because it will leave the undercoat uniform and smooth.

This leads me into the second thing you should take note of, and that is the thickness and texture of the undercoat. If you do choose to spray on your undercoat, then make sure that you apply the paint evenly to all areas. Mounting the miniatures on a piece of card can help a lot, as you can turn it while spraying, without touching the wet paint. Make sure that you spray in a well ventilated area, as not to breathe in any fumes from the spray can. It is best to spray undercoats in two goes. The first one doesn't need to cover the figure completely in a solid color. Let this one dry, then apply another coat to finish the job. Two thin sprays are better than one big one, as you can control the amount of paint you are putting on a lot easier. So bare in mind that each layer of paint you put on a miniature is going to decrease the amount of detail on it. If you apply one big spray, you may go overboard and blot out this detail, but with two small coats, you are going to be able to keep the paint smooth, flat, and uniform, keeping the detail visible.

If, on the other hand you choose to brush on your undercoat, then as well as watching how much paint you put on and how uniform it is, you should also be careful not to 'work' the paint. Basically, 'working' the paint means to play with it while it's drying. I find that Skull White can get a bit chalky at times while painting, so the best remedy is to add a few of drops of clean water to the pot and then give it a shake (preferably with the lid closed). This way, when you come to undercoat your miniatures, the paint can be applied evenly and smoothly to all the areas, without drying while you are still painting it. If the paint starts to dry while you are still applying it, you will end up with either brush strokes in the paint or lumps of goo on your miniature, or both.

Below are two pictures of a Space Marine. The one on the left has an undercoat that is not uniform/solid. You can see the blemishes in it. When colors are put on top of this the blemishes may show through. The one on the right however is uniform/solid and any color put on top of it will be solid also.

So, in summary, try to go with spraying on your undercoats, rather than brushing them on for best results. But if you do choose to brush, then be careful while painting it.

Base Colors: So now you are ready to apply the first lot of colors to your miniature. I will go into more detail in each race on specific pages, but here I will just say that your base colors are the primary colors that you want your figure to be painted in. Again, you need to make sure that your paint application is smooth, solid and uniform and most essentially, neat. The more you get colors overlapping onto the wrong areas, the more you'll have to clean up by painting over again, and this can get very messy. So if you have applied a good base coat, then you shouldn't have to much trouble with getting good base colors. I prefer, mostly, to apply base colors in one go, but sometimes, if the pigment in the paint is not very strong, I would have to result to two, maybe three coats. But when I do this, I need to make sure that each coat is as thin as possible, as not to obscure any detail. Below is the same Space Marine with a couple of base colors added.

What colors should you use? Well, whatever the paint scheme is that I am using at the time, I make sure that each is a mid-tone of what I want the end result to be. Why a mid tone? Because it will then prepare your model for the shading and highlighting stages of the painting scheme. This is explained in more detail on the appropriate pages. So with the Space Marine above, I have chosen Ultramarines Blue and Sunburst Yellow as two different base colors. So when I want to add depth to the figure, I can then add Blue Wash (see Shading for more information) to the helmet and Orange Wash to the chest eagle. From there I can use lighter tones of blue and yellow to highlight up. So as I have said, I like to use a mid-tone for my base colors. You may like to do the same