We’ve all heard ‘it’s Hammer time’ before – at least I hope you have – but for me it was Warhammer time…
My interest in Warhammer began when I was a child. I can remember my dad buying a White Dwarf magazine for me that came with a free enamel Necron Warrior. I can’t pinpoint the exact reason I wanted the magazine, but it had something to do with the tone of the world in which it was set in; I found it appealing precisely because there was nothing else like it on the shelves.
I must have been around ten or eleven at the time, and I didn’t immediately start collecting Warhammer from this point on. In fact, it must have been a couple of years before I went to Games Workshop for the first time and bought an army.
I was the kind of child that did a lot, was interested in everything, but perhaps never thoroughly understood what I was doing. For example, I didn’t comprehend what Warhammer even was, and probably skimmed over the content of the magazine, fascinated by the pictures of magnificent armies, painted by real humans.
Either way, something happened that saw me end up in Games Workshop one day, accompanied by my mother. Here’s where my Warhammer story becomes vague. I am almost certain that I bought the Chaos Space Marines Codex, though I ended up with Chaos Warriors and Chaos Marauders… I also purchased the Archaon miniature and a Chaos Champion. This was my mini army. I must have bought paints and glue and spray because I remember applying all of these things.
I built them, primed them and began painting. I have no recollection of how it went and don’t have any of my miniatures left, which is a real shame; one of the disadvantages of being a serial getter-ridderer. I can remember being careful and my mind can see the results; I even added red to the axe edge to emulate blood. But, I am certain I never thinned my paints, so they can’t have been as worthy as I remember.
Although I’ve had an itch since then to paint Warhammer, for one reason or another, I’ve never got round to it, until now. Warhammer is the kind of hobby you can easily drop a few hundred quid into at the beginning; I didn’t want to do that this time. The bank of Mum and Dad has dried up and so I remained true to my twenty-first century core and did some extensive Redditing.
Many hours, days – some even say aeons – passed, and I was finally ready to make my first order. What did I need to buy to keep costs to a minimum, whilst also making sure I had fun and wasn’t going to restrict the enjoyment I could have… I settled on the Warhammer 40,000 Infernus Marines and Paint set. This includes three Infernus Marines, a medium brush, and six paints: Abbadon Black, Macragge Blue, Corax White, Balthasar Gold, Agrax Earthsahde and Armageddon Dirt. I didn’t stop there…
I purchased a set of Gold Taklon Royal & Langnickel brushes, Citadel Chaos Black primer, Tamiya nippers, Tamiya extra thin cement, a Tamiya basic file set, a modeller’s knife, and a large white tile from Wickes (for 50p I most chuffed). All of this, including the miniatures and paints came to under £80, a number I was happy to spend. From this selection, I didn’t really need the files, but they’re a cheap addition and I did use them.
Now, I don’t know if you’re aware of this: you can’t simply start painting. Don’t tell me you can, because you can’t. First, I had to watch hours and hours of YouTube. I needed to become a master in my mind before I could become a master in reality. Seriously, you have to do that.
I watched some incredibly interesting YouTubers talk about paint, brushes, washes, edge highlighting, #TwoThinCoats, and generally how not to mess up a miniature. How to look after your brushes, what order to do things in, and the list goes on. It’s a shame we do this now: the abundance of knowledge is truly phenomenal. We can apply ourselves to anything we want: you’re interested in fixing the brakes on your car? There’s a YouTube video for that. You want to know how to defeat the final boss at the end of some obscure endgame raid in Final Fantasy XIV? There’s a video for that.
However, it does take away from the honest excitement of getting stuck in. Of course, this is what I had to do now, unless I wanted my miniatures to remain boxed for the rest of my life, paint thickening in their plastic pots, and knife tips rusting: oh, it’s a bleak future I tell you.
I prepared my dining table, filled my Heinz jar with water, unboxed and unwrapped everything I needed. The first step was to remove the plastic parts from the sprue. Armed with my Tamiya nippers, this was a simple job. Because it was my first time in years, I decided to follow the numbering and build one Space Marine at a time to avoid making a silly mistake.
After removing the parts and before assembling the miniature, I carefully trimmed the excess plastic and smoothed areas down with one of my new files. The Space Marines in this set are push fit, so in theory no glue is required – this is another cost you could cut if wanting to spend even less to try the hobby. Prior experience told me not to risk this, so I applied some of my Tamiya extra thin cement to key areas for added durability. Finally, I glued the Marines to their bases.
With the three models built, it was time to apply the Citadel Chaos Black primer. There are plenty of other brands to choose from, many of which are cheaper; the same applies to paints and any other equipment you may need. I solely stuck to quality for the equipment and chose Citadel for simplicity. Painters on YouTube have been involved in the hobby for years. One of my favourites is Duncan Rhodes and I’m sure he mentioned he had been painting for twenty-five years! If he still used some Citadel paints alongside his own brand, they’re bound to be good enough for me.
My point being: Games Workshop are not going to be content making bad paints. Citadel have been around since the beginning and millions (I would assume) of models have been painted using their paint. It’s accessible, consistent and can be bought inexpensively from online retailers.
So, where were we: Primer.
The video on the Games Workshop YouTube said prime outdoors and they used some contraption that holds a number of minis, which makes it easier to spray. I do not have one of those devices, so what did I do, I used my hands, ungloved, like an idiot. If you’re looking for long lasting nail varnish, look no further. I reasoned that it was three models and if I enjoy the hobby, I can purchase something to help me in the future.
I opened the window – that’s right, I chose to do it indoors – held the base between thumb and forefinger, and sprayed them over an open shoebox. I followed the instructions, shook the primer
for two full minutes, and applied the primer in bursts, spraying away from the mini and sweeping the can over the mini once the spray had begun. Once all three had dried and stuck to the shoe box, I analysed my work. The coating was smooth, full coverage and ready to be painted.
The love for miniature painting is understandable: the process of extricating the plastic from the sprues, the glueing, the spraying and painting; watching the miniature take shape, become alive, so to speak, is gratifying. Even at the primer stage, the details begin to pop and the mini takes on a smidgin of character.
Despite being excited to start painting, I was, for a day, negligent. The act of painting alone, is enough to be satisfied. As they say, comparison is the thief of joy, so it’s unhelpful and counterintuitive to spend too much time admiring the work of expert painters. The reason to take up the hobby should be personal and time spent constructing and painting your minis is time spent well. They are your creations and regardless of how they compare to someone else’s they are distinctly yours, no one else on the planet can paint them exactly how you have, bad or good. They’re proof of your expression.
I prepared the table, shook my paints, filled the jar with water, placed the large tile before me and set to work. After shaking the Macragge Blue some more, I used the tip of my brush – the brush that comes with the set is more than adequate for the base layer – and began adding the paint to the tile.
Then I thinned the paint until the consistency was similar to what I’d seen on YouTube. Some people say the paint should be the consistency of milk, which isn’t as helpful as it sounds. Imagine a creamier version of water that isn’t cream. I’ve been sitting here trying to think of a substance, or condiment that is the exact consistency and can’t think of anything. Essentially, what you’re looking for is paint that isn’t too thin so the paint spreads after a test line, but rather remains a line with no discernable lumps (ridges indicate the paint is still too thick). Smooth, not thick. Smooth, not watery. Does that make sense? No? Then we’re ready to paint.
At this point, I was being too pernickety and I know this because it took me forever to base coat these three minis. For no reason at all, I chose to ignore all the videos I watched, where they simply apply the paint liberally using the full face of the brush, pulling the head towards you. Instead, I carefully applied the paint to each panel as though I was detailing. So don’t make my mistake; load up your brush and get that thinned paint on to the minis, covering the main portions requiring that colour.
Something else I learned: there’s no need to cover the entire mini in the base coat colour. For example, the gold edging of the Space Marine armour. There’s no need to cover it all; you may accidentally catch it, but there’s no consequence. Focus on the large panels that require the colour without being overly fussy. Once I finished covering my minis, I got on with a second coat. I was impressed with the results: the watered down paint was the perfect consistency, the minis were smooth and no details were lost.
I had gathered a lot of knowledge on how to paint minis, so naturally, the best thing to do was to forget all of that. There is an ‘order’ to painting minis and I’ve forgotten that order. Instead of recalling what I’d already learned, I deduced my own order. The paint scheme is shown on the back of the box, and this is what I followed. As these were my first minis in a long, long time, I chose not to elaborate and instead go with the paint by numbers approach.
I used Abbadon Black to pick out the holstered bolt pistols and pouches on the back of the figures, as well as the body of their pyreblasters. This was easy enough, though also the point at which I realised I needn’t have covered the entirety of the models in Macragge Blue. I’m wondering, if I painted around the black details, could I have left them Chaos Black, or would I have needed to apply another coat of black regardless?
For this part I used the smallest brush I had, which was a number one Royal & Langnickel Gold Taklon. Despite the wisdom of the online community, I felt the brush was too big and would have preferred a finer detail tip. This was the smallest brush in the set, so I had to make do.
Here, I focussed on brush control and not loading the brush with too much paint. I managed to capture all the detail I needed without making a mistake. The first question that came to mind was, wouldn’t it be easier to paint parts of the figure before assembling them… The consensus online is no. The perfectionist in me wanted to get into all the nooks and crannies; the realist reminded me that no one will see those areas. Again, I applied two layers here and then moved on.
Now I decided to paint the gold on the chest, the shoulders and the pyreblaster barrel, what I presumed to be a fuel container and the magazine. For this, I used the included Balthasar Gold. I shook it plenty; you should shake for longer than you think you need to, apparently. I was surprised how well the paint was coating the details of the model and just how little paint is actually needed. I found myself using less and less for each bit of detail. All that was left to paint gold was the edging on the shoulders of the Space Marines. Although straight and narrow, again, by gently coasting the small brush tip over the surface, I managed to get a good finish.
With all the gold out the way, the last areas on the models to paint were the insignias on the shoulders. Before I even got to painting these, I had a feeling they’d be trickiest part. Not only are the shoulders convex, the insignias are, for want of a better word, shapely. One thing that struck me here is the difference in texture and feel of the paints; each colour sort of acts differently on the brush and when mixing. I suspect this is something to do with the pigments. Corax white was both runny and granulated, sugar-watery.
Well, I was right, which is rare. My first attempt at painting the insignias was a bad one; even using a fine brush, I kept getting white on the blue shoulders. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have tried to follow the pattern of the insignia. Instead, I should have treated it as a raised area and simply ran the side of the brush over it. I was trying to paint it as though painting shapes freehand. Whether I’m right, I don’t know, but I’m going to try it out on my next batch of minis. I tidied the mistakes up using some Macragge Blue and admired my painted miniature. I thought it was looking good. What next?
I’d watched multiple videos on washes, so naturally I knew exactly what I was doing. Thing is, I just didn’t. I got my satisfyingly named Agrax Earthshade out and began washing my Space Marine. Not that kind of wash! The Warhammer kind; the one where you make them look cool, weathered and worn and, I dunno, grimdark? Agrax Earthshade is a shade paint; highly liquidous and used to make the shadows show, I think. Make that Space Marine look all depth defying and three dimensional, not flat and matte.
Now, the irony here is, I had become accustomed to using as little paint as possible, so now I was frightened to splodge the wash on. I resorted to painting the Agrax on, instead of loading the brush and letting the wet nature of the Earthshade take over, slipping down into the crevices of the figure, trailing over the surface.
My models then, ended up appearing a little too grimdark, as though they’d fallen in dirty water, not dirtied themselves battling some vile warp creature on a far-flung, decrepit world. But, you know what, the wash did enhance my minis, it felt like cheating really.
All that was left was the base. I whipped out my Armageddon Dust, which is a technical paint, and applied it liberally to the bases, trying in vain to make it look random and not painted. I wasn’t too happy with the finish of the bases; they lacked the depth of the painted Space Marines, so I searched online for answer.
Turns out dry brushing and washing bases is a thing. Once the Armageddon Dust had settled, I dry brushed with an ad hoc, risky blend of Balthasar Gold and Corax White. The thinking was to eradicate the lustre of the gold and it worked very well. I then applied more Agrax, stepped back and for a moment I imagined my Space Marine mini engaged in a holy fight against a sickening Xenos.
I was chuffed. I’d all but forgotten my first foray into the world of painting miniatures all those years ago. I rekindled a connection to my childhood, reminding myself of the fun I had. It’s an odd sensation, but I think I’ve reached an age where the recollections of my childhood are finding their way back to me.
You see, it’s not only Warhammer that had been niggling away at me for some time, but books and films I watched and loved as a child that I’ve recently returned to. Maybe we all reach an age where the past seems to want to step into the future, to be remembered, and perhaps to remind us of who we are.
Are you getting into Warhammer just now? Or maybe you’re a veteran. Did my painting memoir aid or hinder you? Make you smile, or saddened by my sheer ineptitude? Either way, say hi to us on our socials and tell us what you love most about playing and painting Warhammer.
