Single Miniature

Your first fully painted mini is one of the best feelings in the hobby. No more grey plastic shame. No more "I'll get to it later." Just one model, one focused project, and a finished piece you actually want to show people.

You'll take a single miniature from raw kit through assembly, priming, painting, basing, and varnish. By the end you'll have a completed model and, just as importantly, a documented color recipe you can replicate on every model that follows.

Picking Your Model and References

Start with something you're excited to paint. Motivation matters more than complexity. Pull 3-5 reference images: the official box art, community paintjobs you like, and at least one photo of the actual miniature unpainted so you can see the sculpt details. Box art is aspirational. Community photos show you what's realistic.

If this is your first model, skip anything with huge flat surfaces (cloaks are harder than they look). Characters with defined armor panels or layered clothing give you natural shadow lines to follow.

Assembly and Prep

Clean every mold line. Yes, every one. Run a hobby knife along the parting lines at a 90-degree angle, scraping rather than cutting. A mold line across a face or a shoulder pad will haunt you through every paint layer. For plastic kits, Tamiya Extra Thin cement gives a strong bond. For resin or metal, super glue (I like Gorilla Gel) is the move.

Decide now if you need subassemblies. If a shield covers the chest, or a weapon blocks a face, paint those parts separately and glue them on later. Dry fit everything first.

Priming

Prime in thin, even coats. Citadel Chaos Black or Wraithbone spray from 8-10 inches away in short bursts. Two light passes beat one heavy coat every time. If you can still see grey plastic, add another light pass after 10 minutes. Heavy primer fills in sculpt detail and creates texture problems.

For more control, try a zenithal prime: black all over, then white or grey from above at a 45-degree angle. This pre-shades the model and shows you where light naturally falls, which is incredibly helpful for placing highlights later.

Basecoats, Washes, and Highlights

Block in your base colors first. Don't worry about neatness between colors yet. Thin your paints with a drop of water until they flow smoothly off the brush. Two thin coats, always. Citadel Base paints or Vallejo Game Color have great coverage for this stage.

Once basecoats are down, apply a wash to the whole model or targeted into recesses. Citadel Nuln Oil for metallics and dark areas, Agrax Earthshade for warm tones. Washes do 80% of the shading work for you. Let them dry completely (seriously, completely) before moving on.

Layer highlights by mixing a lighter color into your base and painting the raised areas. Edge highlighting along armor panels with a fine detail brush (a size 0 or 1 synthetic is fine at this stage) adds immediate visual pop. Start with one highlight pass. You can always add more.

Basing

A painted model on a bare black base looks unfinished. Spread PVA glue on the base, dip it in sand or apply Citadel Astrogranite texture paint, let it dry, then drybrush with a light tan or grey. Add a grass tuft or two from Army Painter. Five minutes of basing work makes the whole model look twice as good.

Varnish and Photos

Hit the finished model with matte varnish (Vallejo Matte Varnish through an airbrush, or AK Interactive Ultra Matte spray). This protects your paint job from handling and removes the shine from washes. If you want certain areas glossy (gems, lenses, wet effects), go back with a brush-on gloss varnish just on those spots.

Photograph against a plain background with two desk lamps at 45-degree angles. Your phone camera on macro mode works. This is your reference for next time and your proof that you finished the thing.

Common Mistakes

• Thick primer coats. You lose sculpt detail and create a rough surface that fights you on every later step. Multiple thin passes.
• Not thinning paint. Paint straight from the pot obscures detail and leaves visible brush strokes. Add water until it flows like milk.
• Rushing the wash. If you highlight before the wash is fully dry, you'll pull pigment and create tide marks. Give it 20-30 minutes minimum.
• Skipping the base. A painted model on a bare base looks like a work in progress. Five minutes of texture and a tuft changes everything.
• Never finishing. "Good enough for tabletop" is a completed model. Perfect is the enemy of done. Varnish it and move on.

Paint one model. Finish one model. That's the whole goal.