Basic Painting Guides
Anyone who wants to make their own scenery will of course need to paint them. Here I will discuss some basic painting techniques to help create realistic, good looking scenery.
1) Thin your paints
When mixing your paints, or if you are using a single colour, thin your paint down with either paint thinner or some water. This allows the paint to enter the detail sections of a model without covering it up and ruining the detail, it is often better to apply 2 or 3 thin layers of paint than one thick one. Build up your layers gradually.
2) Using Washes
A wash is essentially your paint made incredibly watery by mixing with a lot of water or drastically thinning them down. A wash helps you to create a natural looking shadow on your model without having to hand paint all of the shadows, nor do you have to worry about ruining your other colours. A wash will only cling to the cracks and crevices of the model and will dry inside the gap slowly but surely creating a natural looking shadow within the gap.
3) Dry Brushing
Almost the exact opposite of a wash, a dry brush requires your paint to be thick. Put some paint on your brush then dab off the excess with either some kitchen/toilet paper or run your brush over a palette several times so as not to waste paint, then dab off the excess. Quickly run your brush over the model aiming for the edges that would catch light and you will immediately start highlighting your model increasing the realism and creating a more 3 dimensional effect.
4) Have a mixing palette
A mixing palette allows you to mix and thin your paints on a surface with no fear of ruining the paint itself or a surface that you work on. I use the lid of a margarine tub turned upside down, by using it this way, watery paint will flow down into the gap and stay there. Another advantage is that the lid is flexible and you can bend the lid back on itself to remove any paint that has dried and peel it off.