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Painting Zoids
By Assistant Doc David R.
Zoids are a line of
toys made by Tomy of Japan. They
have been around for at least 20 years, and have invaded the US four times.
Zoids are futuristic war machines, which resemble mechanical versions of
real animals, dinosaurs, or insects, dripping with guns.
They could also be described as models, because they come as parts on a sprue,
which you assemble around a motor. The
end result is a little mechanical beast which you wind up and allow to scuttle
across the floor. The larger
battery-powered versions wave their claws, open and close their jaws, and even
light up or emit roaring noises. The
Zoids line is undergoing a renaissance in Japan, and now have a manga and anime
to boot. With the introduction of
special characters in the story, many new Zoids releases include miniature
figures of the pilots. While many
Zoids collectors have taken to painting up the completed Zoid as a model, many
are still new to painting human miniatures, especially ones as small as the 1/72
scale Zoids pilots. I recently
wrote this primer on painting miniatures as a way of introducing Zoids fans to
the miniature painting hobby.
Tools:
Most
of these you'll have already, of course, but I'll list the basic ones just in
case.
An X-acto Knife
A set of needle files
(at the very least, you need one needle file that is semi-circular in cross
section: round on one side, flat on the other. It would help if it tapered to a point.)
Some fine sand paper
Brushes:
to start with, I recommend getting round brushes, of about medium
quality, in the following sizes: 10/0,
0, 1.
Paints:
For miniatures work, I prefer using acrylic paints to enamel paints.
Enamel paints tend to take much longer to dry, and cleanup requires the
use of toxic chemicals. I haven’t
used enamels in quite a long time, and can’t really give any good advice as to
how to use them well on a miniature.
However, many acrylic paints which you may already be familiar with that
are aimed at the modeler, as opposed to the miniature painter, tend to be too
thin and too fast-drying for miniatures work.
This would include paints like Tamiya or Gunze Sangyo.
They certainly can be used, but they may not be ideal.
To start off with, I recommend going with Applebarrel paints, which are
extremely cheap. They can be found at any arts and crafts store.
The basic colors needed are Black, White, Red, Blue, Yellow, and Flesh.
At the price for Applebarrel, though, you might as well buy any
intermediate shades that seem interesting.
Similar paints in this vein include Folkart and Delta Ceramcoat. There are ‘better’ paints available from other
manufacturers, and you can find information about these by visiting
miniature-painting websites.
There are some specialty paints you might find useful.
A paint-on primer is nice. I
use Games Workshop 'Smelly' Primer. (Generally,
I use a spray primer first, and keep the paint-on variety for covering gaps in
the spray coat, and taking care of trouble spots.)
Metallics are also useful. Games
Workshop or Ral Partha metallic acrylics are pretty good.
You can also find Reaper Pro Paints, plus Tamiya, Gunze Sangyo, and
Testors make metallic acrylic paints. You'll
probably just want Silver/Steel and Gold at first.
One absolute necessity is to get what is often called a blending medium
or extender. This is a fluid which keeps acrylic paint from drying as
fast. I’m using a bottle of
Liquitex Acrylic Slow-Dry Medium.
Other Materials:
Superglue:
thin for general purpose, thick for gap-filling.
The reason I recommend a superglue instead of a plastic solvent glue is
because you may be gluing plastic to a non-plastic surface.
However, if you are gluing two plastic pieces together, then plastic
solvents, like Testors model glues or Tenax TR-7 are ideal.
Bases:
For stand-alone miniatures, you really want to attach the figure to a
base, even if it's only temporary. For
example, my Irvine figure is currently glued to a stainless-steel washer, so I
can manipulate the miniature without touching the paint job.
I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with him in the long
run. For bases, washers, pennies,
pre-cut pieces of wood, even thick cardboard, all do well.
Basing Materials:
Eventually, you may want to put your miniature on a permanent base.
You will want to improve the appearance of the base.
This can be done by painting over the surface of the base with some
thinned-down white glue, and sprinkling on some flocking.
There are other materials, like sand, static grass, shredded colored
foam, and special flocking gels that can all add texture and a realistic
appearance to the base. It's easy
to find the flocking materials used for model trains in hobby shops, and many
gaming
Gap-filling and modeling
materials: Squadron white putty is
good for filling in small holes. For
more advanced techniques, there are a variety of two-part epoxy resins
available. These include Milliput,
Kneadatite, and you can also find similar materials in the plumbing supply
section of your local hardware store.
Preparing
the Miniature:
I'll be using Irvine as
my example, since he's the one on my workbench right now.
1.
Separate the miniature from the sprue.
For plastic sprue, I usually use a wire cutter to cut through the bulky
sprue frame. Then I get in close
with fingernail trimmers to cut the sprue holding the piece.
Then I trim off the remnant with an X-acto knife.
2.
Clean up the miniature. There
are (or were) clear seams on the edges of my Irvine.
After all, he's more of a nifty trinket than a real miniature.
To remove these seams, there are two techniques I use. On flat, detail-free areas, like the edges of his legs, I
used a needle file to file the seam down. On
areas of sharper detail, like his head, I used a piece of fine sandpaper, folded
in half. I recommend wet-sanding in
these cases. After using the file,
go back with some sandpaper, as files tend to be coarser than sandpaper and can
leave scratch marks.
3.
Remove mold-release residue. All
you need to do here is to wash the plastic in some warm water with a drop or two
of dish detergent, then rinse in water and allow it to dry.
This removes chemical residues from the surface which could interfere
with paint adhesion.
4.
Prime. If you're just doing
figures one at a time, then a little
paint-on primer works
well. Otherwise, spraying in bulk
is more efficient. Primer color
makes a big difference in the appearance of your miniature. For example, using a black primer will give your finished
miniature a darker cast, and can also make painting your miniature a lot easier
if you're doing a quick job. I
prefer white primers, because I generally like brighter colors.
Also, it's a lot easier to prime white, then overcoat black if you want a
more somber piece, than it is to prime black, then overcoat white.
Because so many paints are somewhat translucent, it can be harder to
cover over black.
5.
The actual painting
A general rule to keep
in mind when painting your miniature is to start from the inside out.
In other words, proceed in layers. The
first layer of most miniatures is skin, so paint the face, hands, and other
exposed flesh first. Then proceed
through the layers of clothing, and finally to any carried equipment.
That said, a good place
to start is with the eyes. These
are among the hardest things to paint at a later stage, because they require a
steady hand. If you do them first,
though, they can be easy. Step 1:
using a slightly off-white color, such as a very light gray or ivory,
paint horizontal bars across the eyes. This
colors the eye whites. Step 2:
Using your finest brush, and a typical iris color, paint a vertical slash
down through the centers of the eyes. That's
the iris. Step 3: Using
your flesh color, carefully paint around the eyes.
Now you can go and finish off the rest of the face.
Painting the lips is
the next hardest part of doing the face. Generally, the problem here is balancing the color.
For males especially, you want to make the lips look lip-colored without
looking like lipstick. I recommend a slight admixture of red and brown, possibly a
bit of purple, to your basic flesh hue.
As far as clothing
goes, you're on your own as to what you want it to look like.
The box art and the anime are good guides, but you can also use your own judgment.
When starting out, it's probably best to work with the paint colors you
have. It sucks to mix a custom
paint shade, get interrupted, then not be able to quite reproduce that exact
shade later.
One last thing:
I often work a little bit of blending extender into my paint when I work
with Applebarrel paints. This helps
them to go on more smoothly.
6.
Shading and Highlighting
This can be the
trickiest part to get right, but adds immeasurably to the appearance of a
miniature. I will discuss the three
most basic techniques.
Washes:
Washes are the best way of adding dark shadows to your miniature.
They are very simple to achieve: simply
take a darker shade of your base color, thin it down, then paint it into the
crevices and folds of your figure. Exactly
how dark you want your wash to be is up to you, and depends entirely on your
personal preference. For
effectiveness, you want to thin your shade to about the consistency of milk.
I generally use a combination of water and blending medium to get to this
point. When you apply it, it's
probably best if you blot your brush on some paper (I use paper towels).
This removes the excess fluid, and keeps your shading from turning into a
smeary mess. Its especially
important to be careful around the face, or any
Water-soluble inks are
available in many colors that are great for washes, but that's a more advanced
topic.
Drybrushing:
This is a simple technique for bringing out detail in areas of high
relief. It works particularly well
on hair. You need a relatively
fine-point brush, but it's best if its old, because drybrushing is hard on
brushes. You want to take the dry
brush (don't dip it in your water jar), pick up a little paint of a lighter
shade on its tip, then wipe off most of that paint.
Then gently wipe the brush over the surface of the area you wish to
highlight, against the grain of the texture.
This brings out the raised surface details.
You can drybrush in multiple layers, with a heavier pressure and
intermediate shade on the first pass, then lighter pressure and
Highlighting:
In this sense, highlighting involves directly painting
7.
Finishing
Detailing is the last
step you want to take with actual paint. This involves taking your fine brush, and painting things
like buttons, belt buckles, jewelry, etc. This
is generally when metallic paints come into play.
When all the details
are finished, you probably want to think about basing the miniature properly.
If you've mounted the miniature on a temporary base, now is the time you
want to remove it from that base and place it on whatever permanent base you had
in mind. You may want to seal the
miniature first before doing this, if you're worried about messing up the paint
job. See sealing, below.
A typical miniature
base is a rectangular or circular piece of plastic (or wood, or metal), anywhere
from half an inch to an inch (or more) across.
The Zoids miniatures are in 1/72 scale, and will fit just fine on a
half-inch base. After attaching the
miniature, you want to add any texture to the base that appeals to you.
The simplest basing method is to paint the base in a color, such as
green, the resembles ground, then paint on a layer of white glue, and add a
flocking material. I've got a
little plastic box full of green flock for this purpose... I just dip the base
in, shake off the excess, and let it dry. You
can get a lot fancier, though. Adding
spare model bits, building miniature dioramas, whatever looks good to you.
When your base has
dried, it's time to seal the miniature. I
use a
8.
Other Information
Games Workshop is one
of the most successful miniatures gaming companies in the world. They market a line of paints and hobby products.
You can find their stuff in gaming hobby stores, and you can also order
online. Beware, however:
Games Workshop materials are often horribly overpriced, taking advantage
of young modelers who don’t know how to shop competitively.
Their paint is generally of good quality for miniatures work.
However, the bottles are badly designed, and can be difficult to open.
A talented miniature
painter, with many examples on how to deal with painting problems.
Well, I think that’s about it. Have fun!