Editing 1d4chan's Assembling, Painting and Basing Guide (section)

==Painting==
'''FIRST AND FOREMOST'''

Look at your minis. Think about how you want your new little buddies to look. Visualize the patterns, the colors, EVERYTHING. Write it down if you have to. Not creative enough to think of your own color scheme? Look up pictures, get inspired and go from there. Alternatively, if you are so inclined, look to your codex and follow that art or look at the box art. Luckily, GW has provided a couple painting tutorials on their YouTube channel hosted by different painters, the greatest amongst them being [[Duncan Rhodes]]. 

So you've got your scheme in mind, brush in hand, and you're itching to go. Time to crack on and get these guys painted! You open your paint, and...HANG ON A MINUTE.

Do you have all the stuff you need? Take time to think. You've got your minis built? You've got ALL the paints you need? Different sizes of brushes? How about a pallete? Do you have water to [[THIN YOUR PAINTS|thin your paints?]] Are your miniatures even primed??? If so, go on ahead and paint away. If not, get them. 

===Primers===

Just staring at that beautiful grey mini in your hands, imagining what it will look like once it's fully painted, you'll be tempted to start slathering paint on willy-nilly. This is a mistake. 

===Base Coats===

Base paints are what you use to apply swaths of color 

Base paints are your friend — so long as you treat them right. That's why you thin your paints first. That way, you don't clog up the detail and make your [[eldar]] [[farseer]] look like a tiny [[wraithlord]] in a robe. If you've got the dosh, you can even splurge on one of those fancy rattle can primers/base paints. Those will provide you with a wonderfully uniform basecoat to start from. Just be careful so you don't put WAY too much on. Just light passes will do. 

Assuming you've got your miniature based and you DIDN'T blow yourself up with a spray can, now you block in all of the base colors. At this point, you don't need to be ''super'' detailed. You can afford to be a bit messy, just try not to be ''overly'' messy. With the base colors set, you can do a multitude of things. But for a beginner, or if you're doing a squad of 10+ minis, the basic process of "Base, Shade, Highlight" is good enough. If you're a [[slaanesh|masochist]] or have the patience of Gandhi, then go right ahead and do all of those fancy techniques on all of your dudes. 

*Shade paints are marvelous gifts to man, providing richness and depth to many a mini everywhere. In a nutshell, shade paints are extra diluted with medium as to make them watery in consistency, allowing the paint to run into crevices and somewhat stain lighter colors. If you're painting a large group that's roughly the same color, then it may be worth trying GW's brand of contrast paints. Contrasts are basically base and shades mixed together. Some are stronger than others, so be careful and experiment. You primarily need to have a lighter base for the contrast to show through. Red or blue has a hard time showing over black. The contrast will stain the large areas while also providing shades to the recesses, allowing for decent detail in a single coat. 

*Layer paints are about as half as thick as base coats, but still require some thinning. Layer paints are what really make your minis POP. They're useful for highlighting, glazing, possibly even providing a base color with enough layers, and just generally being good paints. 

Depending on your taste, there are a multitude of companies that you can chose your paints from, the big 3 being Citadel, Vallejo, and Army Painter. Colors are generally the similar throughout, with each company having analogues of another company's paint. (For example, Citadel's "leadbelcher" is the same as "gunmetal" from Vallejo. A helpful guide can be found [https://spikeybits.com/2016/09/vallejo-to-gw-paint-conversion-chart-pdf.html/ here]. Just remember that your mileage may vary.