"Any good 15mm painting tutorials out there ?" Topic

While I eagerly await the arrival of my Martian Front figures, I realize I've never painted 15mm before.

In my ongoing quest for self-improvement (lots of opportunity there), I might try and 'forget' how I do 28mm and see what I could learn about 15mm.

My goal is a good 'two-footer', not a prize winner. Something that can be accomplished relatively quickly – i.e. playing before the snow flies !

I'm likely okay with vehicles / tripods but infantry I could use some advice on.

Any comments ?

No tutorial, but here are some thoughts:

1. Keep it simple.

2. Dark colors look darker on smaller miniatures, so you might need to go a shade or two lighter than you would for your 28mm miniatures.

3. I find priming the miniatures helps a lot. I tend to use grey, but sometimes white. Never black, for me at least.

4. Thin your paint out big time. I thin mine to the point where it is almost a wash. I find two benefits doing that: (1) I don't accidentally smother the miniature's detail and (2) if you use a light colored primer you get some measure of highlighting.

5. I use a magnifying lamp, a magnifying visor, and lots of light. I've had cataract surgery in both eyes, and was blessed with near-sightednes in one eye and far-sightedness in the other (really – it drives the Optometrists crazy) which was retained after the surgerys for fear of inflicting double vision on me on top of everything else. Consequently, my depth perception is iffy at best, so the bigger the minatures appear, the better!

6. Shadowing can be a challenge. I've used black paint washes, India ink washes, and, lately, Army Painter Quick Shades. While I haven't yet mastered the use of the Quick Shades, I think I have come to the conclusion that the "Strong Tone" (the middle of their three tones) is too dark for 15mm. Or, I'm putting too much on, or leaving it too long, or not getting enough off before it sets (that pesky mastery issue). In any event, I'm going to give the Soft Tone a try with my next set of miniatures to see if I like it better. If not, I'll probably go back to diluted India ink.

7. Use the smallest brushes you can find. My four favorite brushes are Army Painter's Regiment, Insane Detail and Psycho, and an IMEX brush whose size I cannot remember right now, but it falls between the Insane Detail and Psycho.

Above all, exercise a lot of patience. Those little guys will drive you insane when you start to suffer "detail creep". ;-)

Regards,

Scott Chisholm

Here's a good one from Mark "Extra Crispy" Severin. I use it for my 28mm as well.

link

Jim

I put together this quick tutorial:

YouTube link

If you wanted to get a bunch of troops out quick, I'd just do up to the wash stage and then instead of continuing to highlight, simply matte varnish.

I actually take the opposite approach to Nukesnipe. I prime black and then use dry brushing with pigment heavy paints, GW Foundation or Val Game Colour to create a base colour, leaving the black to create shadows. I then add a drybrush highlight and add details. I have a tutorial on painting 15mm US infantry on my blog here:

link

I'll be adding one for their German counterparts just as soon as I finish them…

G

Sounds like we have covered the two basic schools of thought in painting small figures.

1) Shadow first and build up color. i.e. prime black.

and

2) Shadow last.

I have done both and I am a big fan of the latter.
Many years ago now I posted these "How To" items on my site.
These are using wood stains to achieve a shadowing effect.

link

This 2nd one is more of a step by step for painting large numbers of small figures.
link

P.S.
I am hoping to have item directly dealing with the "All Quiet on the Martian Front" models.
link

I layer dark to light, same as with 25/28s. Three levels, eyes if they are sculpted. I don't do anything different basically.

These are Essex

I love this thread. Very useful for me.

I haven't tried 15mm figures yet, just 1/100 vehicles so far.

A few of the many sites I checked for tutorials, that I thought bookmark-worthy included:

Model Dads site (15mm FoW, very useful)

modeldads.co.uk

Gruntz painting tutorials (one highly rec'd ruleset's how-to pages)

link

The Painting Clinic youtube (search it)

YouTube link

Dwartist's blog (a nice efficient style)

dwartist.blogspot.com

Black Widow Pilot's blog (master of the kitbash)

link

I would also say that since FoW seems to be the WH40K of 15mm figures, so any FoW tutorials would be quite useful as well. What is sci fi painting if not WWII/Modern extrapolated into the future?

You might want to check out the 6mm SF, VSF, Interwar, Weird War and Modern What-If Boards, as well. Quite a bit of great smaller-than-28mm painting to be found there, also.

I have little or no experience (1/35 dioramas, forty years ago), so these were all great for me to see what was possible, and the many ways to get there.

Your experience may be different and the usefulness may not be the same. Cheers, in any case, and welcome.

All very good advise ( especially the bit about patience) … the difficult thing now will be to choose which system you'll use.

You can also check the one I did ….

castrarunis.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-to-paint-15mm-minis.html

Hope it helps.
Z

Lots of good ideas here.

Agree with you Scott, I prefer grey primer as well – how anyone can see to paint a black figure is beyond me !

Never thought of checking out various FoW sites – forgot it is also 15mm.

Thanks all !

Flashman14's technique is a recipe for madness; eyes on 15mm!!! It's telling that they're individually based – presumably for skirmish games.

These figures are not individual playing pieces; they're designed to be based en masse and viewed en masse. I don't understand why some people waste vast amounts of time and blind themselves trying to misapply 28mm painting techniques to them.

I've used the same technique for years: black undercoat followed (when dry) by white damp brushing, then clothing is painted in a semi-damp brush style, sometimes with the paint thinned a little – depending on colour and desired effect. Then paint in the details.

The white on raised areas renders all detail visible, and against the black in the recesses does your shading for you when you come to apply your colours. And because the relief is white or light grey, there's no loss of colour strength where its needed – although for bright uniform colours (red etc.) you might want to do a second white damp brushing. This is as much effort as is needed for 15mm.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was only one way to enage in the miniature gaming hobby. You have a narrow view of it there Henry. Other words came to mind but for now I'm being polite.

People assert one scale should be painted differently than another, but I don't buy it. One is always trying to recreate the effects of light and wear and tear on the subject. The only difference to me are those of surface area and the level of detail.

The goal for me is always the same for all scales: to mimic the effects of sun and wear to the best of my ability. I also try to "honor" the sculptor and paint what is clearly sculpted. Sometimes I get rushed and skip a highlight, or decline to fix a stray stroke, but those are exceptions to my general routine.

I know perfectly well that there's a spectrum ranging from display miniatures on one end to using abstract tokens for game pieces on the other. I've found a place on that spectrum that satisfies my expectations of the hobby. Here relativism is ok.

Madness, time wasting, misapplication of techniques, what utter . And I reject outright your notion of how 15's are to be treated. En masse? How baseless and arbitrary given the level of detail that's been common at this size for at least 30 years.

A touch over-sensitive, Flashy?

If you'd bothered to read the OP, you'd be aware that CraigH specifically asked for advice on techniques that better suit 15mm than the approach he's been taking with his hitherto exclusively 28mm hobby.

It's apparent to anyone who did read it that he wants a method that will allow him to rapidly churn out figures painted to a good army standard: 'My goal is a good 'two-footer', not a prize winner. Something that can be accomplished relatively quickly..'. Your eccentric technique, which occupies one extreme of the painting spectrum you allude to, clearly isn't that.

You'd unable to see the eyes on a man positioned at a such a distance that he looks 30mm tall. How much more pointless and unrealistic is it then to attempt to define them on a figure half as high?

The only advantage of well defined detail on 15mm figures is that it assists the sort of rapid painting techniques I've described. Otherwise it's irrelevant if you can't see it without holding the figure in front of your face.

I think both schools of thought are equally valid.

While I prefer my 15mm for skirmish scale, they are also very well suited for larger battles.

I think there is a wealth of techniques in this thread that CraigH could pick and choose from to get the results he wanted.

I don't think anyone's ideas are more or less valid here, especially since it is a matter of taste.

I can give you these walk throughs:

link
link

as examples.

My figures are generally multiple based, primed, dry-brushed and dipped. I do not paint eyes…

Even if they're sculpted as my life is way, way too short but I look upon those who do with admiration and awe.

John T

I've only ever painted and played with 15mm figurines – I'd be at an complete loss trying to paint something as huge as a 28mm figure. A case in point: the Reaper Shadow Dragon (~120mm long!) has given me fits for two weeks, and I've had to repaint it once already.

I totally get Flashman14's desire to "honor" the sculptor – I used nearly the same words on a different forum a few weeks ago. But, I do FRPG and skirmish, not large battle (yet); as each of my miniatures is an "individual", I try to individualize them. I've just gotten to where I can decently paint eyebrows – one of these days I may figure out how to do the eyes….

Ultimately, it's all about playing the game.

By the way, great job with your Sahadeen John T! I chose a slightly different color scheme and based them as individuals. How to you get the "glass" effect on the goggles. I haven't figured that out yet.

Regards,

Scott Chisholm

Thanks Scott

All my 'glass' (goggles, visors, scopes, binos, computer screens and windscreens) are all done using Tamiya acrylic transparent laquer over silver.

Check out the links I posted: I'm fairly sure I covered it in one of them.

I certainly mentioned it here: link which also gets used on the etched brass control screen in this shot:

John T

John T,

Thanks. I'd thought you might have done something like that. I'll have to give that a try.

Regards,

Scott Chisholm

Superb, visually striking work, John – and all done using sensible mass production painting techniques appropriate to the figure/model size.