Hobby FAQ

Two coats of flat white primer. Speed Paints are translucent, so the whiter the surface, the more the colors pop. I usually go a step further and paint the model with a dead white on top of the primer to get as bright a base as possible before any Speed Paint goes on.

There are a couple approaches. The first is painting your main color, a highlight, and a lowlight, then adding bold black lines between sections and white spot highlights. The second is painting the model normally and then going back with thick black lines on any edge where two different areas meet — basically inking it the way a comic artist would. Both work. The black lines do most of the heavy lifting either way.

I did a full write-up on comic book style minis if you want to see how it looks in practice.

Start with a dark grey base — not pure black. That gives you room to add real shadows with black and highlights with a lighter grey or off-white. Then do your bold black panel lines the same way you would on any comic book mini. The contrast between the dark grey armor and the true black lines is what sells the effect. Pure black armor with black lines just turns into a blob.

I break down the full approach in my comic book style minis write-up, and you can see how it looks across different models in the gallery.

A fine-tip brush and thinned black paint. Some people use Micron pens or other fine-tip markers, and those work fine for quick jobs. But paint gives you more control over line weight and lets you clean up mistakes more easily. I use a size 0 or 00 brush, thin the black just enough so it flows off the tip, and pull lines along every edge where two colors or surfaces meet.

You can see detailed examples of the lining technique in my comic book painting breakdown and the results in the gallery.

Depends on how bad it is. For small mistakes, just paint over them — two thin coats usually covers anything. For bigger problems like thick gloopy paint or colors that just aren't working, you can strip the model with isopropyl alcohol or a dedicated paint stripper. But honestly, most of the time you can save a rough paint job by going back in with washes and dry brushing to add depth. A lot of what looks bad at the base coat stage looks fine once you add contrast and detail.

I've rescued plenty of models this way — see my comic book style minis and Death Guard paint scheme for examples where layering saved the day.

Get both the miniature surface and the transfer wet. Trim off as much excess clear film around the image as you can. Slide the transfer onto an exacto knife or sharp tool, position it on the wet surface of the mini, and gently pat dry with a paper towel. The water lets you reposition before it sets.

No. I don't own one and I'm happy with how my work turns out. If anything, I think learning brush techniques first gives you a stronger foundation. Add tools later if you want, but they're not a requirement for good results.

I started with snow texture paste and honestly still use it. But there's more to making snow look right than white stuff on a base. The trick is a little blue da bo de da bo di. I build up blue washes and blue dry brushing to create that icy, cold feeling before any white goes on. Layer that with white dry brushing and painting to create depth. (The darker blues read as colder, so you can control the mood.) Once the layered foundation actually feels like winter, then I go in with texture paste to add volume and that final snow effect on top.

Build a small recessed area on the base using cork, texture paste, or greenstuff to create a lip that holds the liquid effect in place. Paint the bottom of the recess with whatever color you want the liquid to be — greens and yellows for toxic, blues and browns for water. Then pour in a thin layer of UV resin or two-part epoxy resin and let it cure. For toxic effects, mixing a little fluorescent paint into the resin before curing really sells the look. Build up in thin layers if you want depth.

I used this technique on my toxic wasteland bases and a variation of it on my custom bases.

Yes. I print all my custom bases with a 0.2mm nozzle on a Bambu A1 Mini and they turn out great. The smaller nozzle picks up way more detail than a standard 0.4mm, which matters on something as small as a 25mm or 32mm base. I've even printed full miniatures with it that came out really clean.

I share the STL files for free on the downloads page.

Depends what you mean by budget, but I print everything on a Bambu A1 Mini and the terrain comes out great. Trenches, bunkers, tokens, bases, full miniatures — it handles all of it. The one limitation is detailed miniature characters. For rank-and-file troops and terrain it's more than capable, but if you want crisp faces and tiny weapon details, that's where resin printers earn their keep.

Roll small sausages of greenstuff or Milliput, flatten them slightly, and stack them in offset rows the same way real sandbags are laid. Press a flat tool or the back of a hobby knife across each one to create the fabric fold line down the middle. Once cured, prime and paint them a tan or khaki color, then wash with a brown wash to bring out the texture. They look great piled around barricades, trench walls, or gun emplacements.

Sandbags are a great detail for dioramas and storytelling pieces. I also share terrain files on the downloads page if you'd rather print than sculpt.

Paint one element in a unique color per model. My Comic Book Style Mandrakes all have different fire colors. This acts as a built-in visual ID that also looks cool on the table. For my Night Lords Kill Team, I went a different route and 3D printed custom nameplates for each model's base. Both approaches work. The key is picking something consistent across the squad so you're not squinting at subtle differences mid-game.

Start small. The minimum you need is a unit name, your starting roster, and names for your leader and characters. For the backstory, just pick a believable origin point for that faction. My Krieg army is a newly minted siege regiment where every single member is a cherry who hasn't seen combat yet. That's it. That's the whole starting lore. From there, everything builds through actual games. Officer stories come from in-game achievements, memorable moments, and failures. It feels way more earned than writing a ten-page backstory before your first roll.

You can see this in action with The Borrowed. These two are my Chaos Knight War Dogs whose story grew entirely through Crusade games.

Remember what this is. It's your hobby. Your fun. Your "take a breath, build something cool, and live in another world for a bit" hobby. If a project is dragging, just let it sit. My Mandrake Kill Team has five models fully painted, one sort of done, and four still in the box. It's been 18 months. And that's fine. The passion comes back, or you get inspired to do something even cooler. Either way, guilt has no place at the hobby desk.