Build and paint your first Warhammer model: perfect for beginners

hi there my name's guy you're watching midwinter minis and in this video i'm going to cover all the steps you need to know to build and paint your first ever warhammer miniature and guide you every step of the way from this to this i've been doing this for years and years and i've painted hundreds of models probably over a thousand i've made tons of mistakes but in this video i'm gonna do my best to help you avoid them so you can hit the ground running truly enjoy the process of painting and end up with something that you can be really proud of we're also going to be joined by my nieces erin who's 11 and kristen who's 15 and they're going to be building and painting their first models right alongside you i'm erin and i'm 11 years old i have never painted or made a war thing hello i'm kristen and i'm 15 and i've never heard of warhammer i'm sorry guy in the video description you'll find useful time stamps to all the different steps just in case you want to skip to the bit you're looking for or watch it again later okay let's get started let's cover the things you'll need for a basic miniature painting setup you want a nice flat surface to use as a painting area either on a table a desk even a tray table will work nicely if you're painting in the daytime sitting next to a window to get some nice natural light is a great idea but if you're painting in the evening you might want to sit near a lamp so you can see what you're doing more closely white daylight bulbs or leds are usually the best as you'll be able to see the colors much more clearly than warmer softer bulbs if you want to paint models you're obviously going to need some paint there are loads of different brands that make acrylic paint for miniatures and they all have some good points and bad points but for me personally the best balance of quality price and good paint coverage is vallejo i would also recommend getting hold of a can of spray plastic primer for most paint schemes i would recommend getting a gray one and we'll talk about why you need this in a minute to get things going you'll also need a paintbrush i would recommend grabbing a set of cheap synthetic brushes if it's your first time lots of companies make gold taklon brushes in good sizes for the hobby i do about 99 of my miniature painting with synthetic brushes like this they give you good control of your brush but they're cheap enough that you don't have to be too precious about them in the video description i've linked to a cheap brush set that'll give you a good range of sizes it's also quite important to have a few tools for assembling your models some models are push fit but others will need to be put together with glue plastic glue sometimes called plastic cement is the best thing to use for plastic models super glue will hold anything together but the pieces may eventually break apart if you drop them or hold them too hard you'll need a sharp knife to clean up your model before you glue them together maybe you or somebody in your house already has a craft knife or a scalpel be very careful when using something like this i cut right into my thumb when i was about 10 years old trying to build an imperial guard tank and i've still got the scar to get the models out of the sprues they come attached to a pair of hobby snips will be really useful if you don't want to buy a dedicated tool like this just yet nail clippers make a pretty good alternative you'll also want a little jar or cup of water i prefer glass jars as you can more easily see when your paint water needs changed and there's a much smaller chance of you accidentally cleaning your dirty paintbrush in your lovely coffee or worse drinking your gross paint water it's also handy to have a couple of sheets of kitchen paper on hand to wipe your paint brush and clean up any spills you might have you're also going to want a simple palette to mix your paints on a lot of experienced painters use a wet palette which keeps your paints usable for longer but i just don't like them i find it much easier to use a little plastic cup palette like this and the best part is this is the cheapest type of palette too finally it might seem obvious but you're going to need some models for your first mini painting experience i would recommend a normal infantry unit from an army you think looks cool i'm going to be painting one of these adeptus mechanicus qatari models kristen is going to be painting a space marine and aaron is going to be painting a necron warrior right so you've got all the bits you need let's start building your model most of the time warhammer models come on these plastic frames these are called sprues now each model is made of several parts if your sprue has several miniatures on it and is a part of a squad of similar models sometimes parts are interchangeable meaning you can choose whatever arms or legs or head you like but often you'll find specific arms go with a specific torso and some hands or weapons only fit on specific arms make sure to check out the instructions your model comes with just to make sure you're using the right parts once you've identified the bits you need to build your model it's time to snip them out of the sprue using your hobby snips or nail clippers carefully cut out the parts you need one by one if you cut the model parts with the snips right against the piece you might accidentally cut into the part if you cut just a little bit further away we can remove any rough bits later without damaging the model double check to make sure you've got all the bits you need and then we can spend a minute just making sure the pieces are nice and clean and looking their best using your sharp knife carefully cut away any of the little sprue connection points that might have been left behind on the model it's better to cut away little by little than too much all at once otherwise you might damage the model you might also notice that the pieces of your model have a very fine line running all the way around this is called a mould line left over from when the two halves of the mold pressed together this can really easily be removed using the back of your hobby knife you don't need to use a lot of pressure just gently scrape away any really obvious mould lines and your models will look much better when they're all painted up after you've cleaned up your model and removed sprue connections you might notice that some areas have these little white marks this will be hidden when we prime and paint so don't worry too much okay now we've got all the loose model bits and we know they're nice and clean now it's time to attach them dry fit your parts together to see where they actually contact each other and then add a little dot of plastic glue on one side hold the parts together for a couple of seconds and the parts will start to bond if the parts are small you can usually let go after about five seconds if the parts are a bit bigger or heavier you might want to hold them together for a little bit longer some push fit models go together without glue and they have these little posts and holes but i find they often need a very tight squeeze to fit together properly and sometimes you can damage your models by doing this i prefer to snip the posts off and glue them together as though they were normal parts when you dry fit your model sometimes you'll see things that will obviously be really tricky to paint in the future for example on this guitary model i'll be painting it'll be really hard to paint the inside of the coat without accidentally painting the legs in cases like this it's sometimes easier to leave them off paint them separately and then glue them together after you've painted them this is called painting in sub-assemblies and this is very useful for bigger more complicated models for this demo though i'm going to fully build this model just so you can see that it's not the end of the world if you've glued everything together before you started painting oh it's pretty easy like gluing it because like you just put it in the little holes and then you just like stuck in yeah it's good now your model is all built and prepped now would be a good time to add some detail to the base before we prime and paint there are loads of different options some bases already come with sculpted details in the plastic lots of companies also make cool texture paints that dry with a rough rocky look and some crack like dry earth erin decided to use one of these cool texture paints on her necron base using an old paintbrush or a coffee stirrer apply the paint to the base and if you get any on the model's feet by mistake just use a slightly damp brush to wipe it away another easy method of adding texture is by using sand and little stones this is what kristin wanted for her space marine's base apply a thin coat of pva to the model's base place the bigger rocks by hand and then sprinkle sand over the base until the surface is covered after this has dried you can do it again to add even more texture to the surface and make it natural and uneven and if any sand dried to the model's feet or legs no problem just scratch them off with something like a cocktail stick if you don't have any sand little rocks or any cool texture paints you can use literal dirt for my guitari i'm just sprinkling over some dirt and dust i scooped from my driveway again pva glue is great for creating a strong bond over time but super glue will make things stick instantly why not experiment with both methods and i'm sure you'll find one you prefer after an hour or two your bases will be dry to the touch and it'll be time to prime your model now i never used to prime my warhammer models and i only realized what a big mistake this was when the paint on some of my older models started scratching and chipping off priming adds a thin layer of paint that sticks really well to the plastic model but it also acts as a really nice surface to lay your paint down on not only does the paint behave better when you actually paint but it would also make your finished paint job much more durable there are loads of fancy model holders on the market so you can get more control as you spray but i just use blue tack or poster putty to stick my models to a strip of cardboard from a pizza box it's free and it works give your spray can a really good shake for at least two minutes shake and flip shake again swirl flip swirl and a good shake to finish it off this mixes the paint up well with the propellant inside the can so you should get a smooth stream of paint with good coverage on the model the aim of the game here isn't to totally saturate the model in paint it's to give it just a light dusting we don't want to accidentally fill in all of that lovely detail by mistake now head outside and holding the model about 20 centimeters or 8 inches away from the can pull the trigger on the spray can while you sweep left and right as you do this rotate the model with your other hand trying to hit from above and from the underside too this is what you're aiming for here all the areas of plastic that were scraped white the model itself and the base should all be a uniform colour it doesn't matter if there's a tiny bit of plastic showing through here and there priming is always a balance of covering the model as best you can while preserving the detail and not firing too much paint at it here's a quick tip i also prime my paint palette too that way i can test exactly how the paint is going to behave on my model but on the palette itself now when your primer is dry it's time to paint if you're following an official color scheme now's the time to get all of your paints together that you're going to need for your project if you haven't quite decided or you want to make your own scheme just use whatever colors feel right with you there aren't really any rules here the most important thing is that you like it i would recommend choosing a main color and then an accent color that works well with it and isn't too similar if you need some inspiration don't be afraid to look through a few books or jump on instagram to see what color combinations other people are using kristin wanted to paint her space marine as a hawk lord so she chose purple and gold hawk hawk fly hawk hulk erin wanted a spooky grim look on her necrons so she chose a really dark gray and a light bone color well i just feel like it would be very like creepy if you like saw that walking towards you you wouldn't expect it to be like rainbow now i want a traditional look with my skittari so i went with red gray and corroded metal it's also useful to attach your models to something that'll make it easier to hold and turn while you paint as i said before loads of companies make fancy holders but warhammer is quite an expensive hobby and i like to save money wherever i can so i just use these little plastic cups with a bit of blue tack under the model's base okay let's get painting the best place to start is usually with your main color and generally you can paint this everywhere you don't have to be that careful as we can paint our other colors over the top of this one to make sure your paint doesn't go on too thick and obscure details or dry with weird streaks and texture you'll want to make sure it's thin to the right consistency paint straight out of the pot is often much too thick to use straight on the model but by adding water bit by bit it becomes smoother to work with and covers much better and it flows from the brush more easily be careful you don't add too much water though as the paint will be really hard to control and runs everywhere just add a little water bit by bit until it looks nice and silky like this when you're base coating it's important to use a brush that's big enough you might think that you need a teeny tiny brush to paint small models but actually i do the majority of my painting with size two brushes or bigger they carry more paint you can paint faster and you can still be pretty accurate with them when you need to be using a tiny detail brush for base coating will take ages and it'll drive you mad once you've got your first base coat painted on it shouldn't take too long to dry most acrylic model paints dry in just a couple of minutes if you think it looks a bit see-through or it's not really a nice solid color you might want to apply another thin coat just to reinforce it now we've got our main color down and before we start adding our accent colors painting the weapons and stuff like that at this point you might want to do something called dry brushing to add quick highlights to your main color before we actually start dry brushing we'll need a lighter version of your main color you can obviously buy a dedicated paint just for this but don't be afraid to mix your own on your palette so for erin's necron we mixed a slightly lighter grey by adding a bit of white to the main color she used for kristen's space marine we added a bit of white and a tiny bit of red to the purple to make a warmer pink and i'm adding a bit of yellow to my red to make it a little bit brighter and richer now we've got the right color let's start dry brushing grab a large brush like this with big soft bristles and dab it in the paint on your palette now start wiping it on your kitchen paper working the paint into the bristles and moving it around until almost no paint is coming off on the paper now start sweeping your brush gently back and forth across the model the lighter paint will only catch on the raised and prominent areas leaving your original base color in the recesses as you can see this is a really quick way of adding texture and bringing out detail it might seem funny doing it now as we've only got one color on the model but as you can see this is quite a messy step and if you'd already painted some other colors it would be really hard not to paint over them accidentally while you do this the dry brush in it made it look so sick it was really good but don't use too much dry brushing was really it looked really cool when you put it on obviously it was 3d but it looked like more real kind of now you've got a nice textured main color on your model let's go back to our standard brush and start blocking in the other colors we'll be using on the model for the legs torso and face of my schitari i'm going to paint them a military gray color again get the paint on your palette so it's nice and thin and workable not too thick not too runny and now because we're going to be trying to be a little bit more accurate with our paintbrush this time let's make sure the brush has a nice point and that there isn't too much paint on the brush you can do both of these things in one easy motion simply wipe your brush on your palette and twist it around in your fingers there we go the bristles are now in a nice point and we've got just the right amount of paint on the brush now start blocking in your secondary colors paying a little bit more attention on how you hold and where you aim the brush it's really easy to accidentally touch a bit that you don't want to with the wrong paint color either with the edge of your brush or just if your hands are a little bit shaky and don't worry about making little mistakes i do it all the time too if it's a tiny mistake we can just go back with your first color and tidy up the paint once it's dried if it's a bigger mistake you can use a clean brush dampened with a little water to draw the paint away while it's still wet if there are any smudges left over tidy up with your original color again every model painter does this back and forth making sure the colors are in the right place even though base coating might seem like the simplest part it often takes the most concentration so don't be afraid to relax and take your time if your hands are a little bit shaky don't forget to breathe normally and sit in a relaxed position be careful not to hold your breath it can also help if you rest your elbows on your table and touch your wrists together to make a sort of anchor point every model is obviously totally different but the process of base coating will be the same just go around your model with whatever colours you want for that particular area do you want your weapons to be silver go for it pouches and bags and boots to be brown now's the time kristen painted the trim on the armor a nice gold color made the weapons and aquila on the chest a nice dark gray and then picked out some little bits and pieces with silver erin made the head on her necron warrior a spooky bone colour and then painted the gun and cable silver we also painted our bases too both erin and i wanted a few areas on our model to be a cool blue glowing colour but we're gonna leave that just for now because the next stage will darken things down a little bit more so far we've covered base coating fixing mistakes dry brushing and painting a little bit more accurately now let's learn how to use shade paints sometimes called washes to add quick definition to your models i use either a brown wash or a black wash or both on pretty much every model i ever paint they're much thinner and runnier than normal paints and they're designed to seek out the recesses so when they dry the creases cracks and crevices are darker than they were before they also stain the colour they're painted over a little bit too but if you're using the right colour shade paint i think it makes it look more grungy and realistic to apply them load up some wash on your brush and paint it over any of the parts you want to add shading to it seems quite simple and it is as i said i usually use a black wash and a brown wash the black wash is applied over cooler colors like grays blues purples and silver or metallic parts i use a brown wash on anything i want to give a warmer or dirtier tone to reds browns golds even greens look quite nice with a little brown tinted shading if you leave lots of wash on a model that has big armor panels or large smooth areas it might start to look a bit streaky when it dries you can avoid this by when you finished applying your shade paint swapping out to a clean slightly damp brush and just tapping the brush on the part where you want to remove the wash the shade will be drawn up into the brush and you can wipe it away on the paper towel rinse and repeat literally until you're happy with how your models look and then leave it to dry this will take a little bit longer to dry than regular paints but after about half an hour it should be dry enough to add a little more detail if you want to but if you just want to paint your models to a nice tabletop standard this is a great place to leave them if you like if you want to push it a little bit further let's quickly talk about highlighting as you can see the wash stage has muted the colors a little bit so you may want to bring yours back up on the key parts of the model just to add some vibrancy and help define some of the details let's quickly mix up a highlight color that's slightly lighter than our original base color for example i'm going to mix a tiny bit of white into the gray that i used for my schitari's legs and then using my detail brush i'm going to carefully pick out a few of the sharp folds and details around his legs being careful to stay away from the recesses we don't want to ruin all that lovely shading we just did this would be a good time to use a slightly smaller brush and remember to make sure your paint is the right consistency on your palette first not too thick not too runny and swirl the brush to bring it to a nice tip and then paint you can do this wherever you like on your model this pushes the contrast between light and dark on your model too making it look a bit more impressive and helping it stand out a bit more on the tabletop let me show you this process again but this time to make this cool blue energy glow first i'll base coat this small area of coils on the gun and also the eye lenses on this katari's helmet then i'll mix a tiny bit of white into that blue paint to make it kind of sky blue and then paint just the raised areas making sure to leave some of the normal blue visible underneath then i'll mix a tiny tiny bit more white in and do another very small highlight now if i'm feeling fancy i might want to just do a single dot of white just on the sharpest parts to make it look really bright and shiny i'll also do the same thing for the eye lenses and aaron also did this effect on her glowing weapons too you don't need to go overboard with highlights often just a few here and there will really sell the effect and make the miniature look a lot more striking now that you're done painting let's give all our paint brushes we used in the session a nice thorough clean in our water and then dry them off on the paper towel now as you can see we could definitely call it a day here a cool looking model that's been nicely built neatly base coated dry brushed with texture shaded and highlighted definitely a model to be proud of your box of models might have come with a little sheet of cool designs though these are called water slide transfers basically they're just fancy stickers that activate with water let me show you quickly how to use these just in case you want to add some to your models choose the one you want to use and cut around it carefully using some scissors or your sharp hobby knife now add a few drops of water on your pallet and lay the transfer in the water after about a minute give it a gentle tap with your paintbrush and you should see that it's come loose from the paper lightly moisten the area of your model you want the transfer to go on and then very gently scoop the transfer up with your brush now carefully lay it in place on your model and while everything is still a bit wet gently poke and prod the transfer until it's in the right place now dry your brush off on your paper towel and lightly press on the transfer this will absorb some of the water and stop it slipping around as it dries and fixes on now this is a notoriously fiddly process but you've got a lot of working time so just be patient and you'll get it eventually it'll be dry to the touch after about one hour but because they're very fragile they may break or flake off if you touch them too much to make sure the transfer holds for years and years you might want to add some stuff called matte medium over the top this is basically paint but with no color in it and it dries with a nice dull matte finish so it also hides some of the shine on the transfer too helping it blend in and that's basically all you need to know to start building and painting your very first warhammer model here's my skittari model i've painted during this episode but as i said before i've been painting for years and i've painted a lot of models but here's 15 year old kristen's space marine and 11 year old erin's necron warrior both of them are their very first painted models and i think they did a fantastic job if you look at the box art for your models the fancy photos they use on the website or instagram accounts of professional mini painters it's easy to be put off when you're just getting into the hobby your paint jobs definitely won't look like these the very first time you try and that's okay painting models is a skill you develop like any other playing an instrument writing stories playing a sport the more you do it the better you'll get to show you what i mean here are some pictures from our awesome patreon members showing their earliest models compared to their latest models just so you can see how you really do improve over time and while you check them out i'd also quickly like to thank our newest patreon members sean mayan james captain carnage martin tiersgaard danny moore ukrainian smuggler paint me like one of your minis killarat john who streams matt lee daniel morris dan orter james vaughn henrik waddell strichy poo chris r tyler blair joe brackenborough brendan stevens hayden cordell devin danny mcelroy stuart brown darren wallacek thought for your thoughts chris harris edward pemberton james louch brandon danger scott h anonymous contributor and bat flashes i really hope you found this video useful if you're looking for any of the tools or equipment i used in this video there's a list of my recommended stuff in the video description thank you so much for watching if you made it this far you might like to check out some of our other beginner-friendly painting and crafting tutorials and i'll catch you next time bye for now thank you so much guy and i hope you've enjoyed me putting it together and painting it and making it look cool bye thanks for watching bye [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Midwinter Minis

Views: 473,730

Rating: 4.9670539 out of 5

Keywords: painting warhammer, paint first warhammer, beginner warhammer, warhammer beginners guide, how to paint skitarii, painting skitarii, easy skitarii, warhammer 40k

Id: LLJwh4ClZ6U

Length: 25min 37sec (1537 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/EndGamE0630]

This was a really good primer. I've seen. Few others in YouTube do similar videos. Thanks for the tutorial!

[u/Tgheadle]

Very very helpful. Thank you

[u/lastrideelhs]

I know I’m a bit late to the party with this one. But Guy, this video REALLY gave me some massive confidence when I just started getting into WH40k (a few weeks ago). I even showed my parents and they thought it was a really well done video.

Thank you so much for all the content you put out!!