Raggy's Gaming Adventures

A specific request from sonofsonofspock  lead to me covering primers in part 3, this got a little longer than I had anticipated and so I pushed the discussion of brushes into a part 4. I am far from expert in paint brushes and constantly struggle with getting the most life out of the ones I have. For folks looking to explore a range of options, I'd offer this as a launch point and would love to hear feedback on options beyond this. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Brushes So brushes... they're kind of a big deal (I'd insert a meme here but I'm too lazy... just imagine an anchorman shaped paint brush). These are what control the application of your paint most of the time, non-brush applicators I have tried include airbrush, spray cans, sponges, toothbrushes, pouring,  tissue, fingers and dipping. Some of these are better options than others... and they all have specific use cases. Digression aside, you are going to get very familiar with brushes in this hobby and ...

After some popular reactions on Reddit for my previous two posts and a specific request from sonofsonofspock  I am extending this series to cover primers and brushes. I will put a bit of a disclaimer in here; I found things that worked for me fairly early in the hobby, as a result, I never really went as deep into the alternatives as I have with paint. With all that set - here goes: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Firstly Primers... Before I get into the manufacturers, I am going to talk briefly about what color to prime in, what technique to use, whether 100% coverage matters or not. The simple answer I have is - experiment. Whatever works for you is the right thing to do. Regarding colors - for years I was a firm user of grey primer because it allowed me to paint whites, yellows, reds and blacks onto the same model with equal ease, more recently (with the acquisition of an airbrush) I have shifted to zenithal white over black for the quick shading help. For your first eve...

Welcome back to Part 2 of my guide on getting your first paints. In this part I am going to look into types of paint as well as the brands that are out there. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Acrylic vs Enamel For those of us that grew up making model airplanes, we are probably familiar with the heady scent of turpentine and enamel paints. These are hard wearing, oil-based paints that are the bastion of the hobby modeller. The major problem with enamel paints is that they are not water soluble meaning that brushes and equipment will need cleaning with mineral spirits / white spirit / turpentine / methylated spirits etc. These are not the best chemicals in the world, give off rather potent vapours, may be carcinogenic, are expensive and also destroy paint brushes. There are some excellent uses of enamels and oil based paints in general but, unless you are a pro painter / serious tournament painter I strongly suggest you steer clear of these. Acrylics are water based, sparing th...

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 A few months ago, I started routinely stalking r/minipainting and one thing I noticed come up quite a bit is "I'm just getting started, what paints should I get?". Often this will get bundled up in with other more general questions about getting started but I saw a lot of 'what paints next' posts or even just paint specific posts. Often there is a mess of manufacturers vs color sets vs brush/airbrush and so on. When I moved to the US, I was able to experience first hand the pain of building a paint set from scratch after 3 months in a shipping container dried out basically all the paints I had. I figured I would share my experience and learnings. The First Rule of Paint Club: Get paint colors for the things you tend to paint. I can't emphasize this enough, especially if you are painting up an army - you don't want to be mixing the main colors of the army for every single model. It's a pain in the arse an...