Welcome to a new, limited series of articles covering the basics when it comes to painting models. This series plans to show you a number of simple and easy to reproduce techniques to get your models up to a tabletop standard.
For the next few months, Dave over at N++ Wargaming and I will be working together to show you all how you can get tabletop quality results for your models with a handful of simple techniques. Both Dave and I will be taking on a specific challenge every two weeks and covering that in our post. You all will be able to see how two different painters cover some basic concepts and the results we get.
Now I've only been painting minis for about two years now, but I've learned more than I ever thought I would in that time. We all start out wondering how we're going to paint some of those tiny details, but once you "know how," it can be super easy to get some real nice results. Just looking at the Terminators at the top of the post shows you how far I've come in such a short time. The very far left one doesn't really count since he was done about a decade ago, but he makes for an interesting comparison.
I'm sure having a degree in Art helps, but this isn't rocket science. It just takes a basic understanding and some simple formulas to be able to get good results. As Dave and I make our way through the topics, I'm planning on showing you guys the tricks I use and the order I do things in to get the results I do. Sometimes it's as simple as a particular color combination or a specific sequence of applying colors and washes.
I have to say, this whole thing was Dave's idea and when he contacted me about the project to help people understand the simple stuff, there was no way I could turn him down. I had all kinds of stipulations about the project, but Dave heard me out and it was just too good not to be a part of after that.
So, all that being said, look for the first post this coming Wednesday. Starting with light colored primers, both of us will taking a model from start to finish sticking to basic techniques only. We'll both have links to the other's articles as well so if you find one, you can find the other one without trouble.
You can see Dave's Project Intro post here.
The plan is to post each installment every two weeks until we get through all of them. I'm sure there will be lots of questions as we go through, so feel free ask away and we can always add things to help folks out with specific issues.
Check out the complete Back to Basics Series here.
