Re-painted Marro

[Phasma Felis]

I'm thinking of expanding my collection of Marro, and the first thing I've noticed looking at them in stores is that a lot of them are badly painted...like, really badly painted. Some of the drones in particular look like someone just sprinkled some red pepper on and called it a day. Now, I haven't painted minis before, but I know the difference between ink-wash and dry-brush, and everyone's gotta start somewhere. So, any suggestions for a newbie painter, like how to get the existing paint off or how to balance paint/dry-brush/ink-wash colors? How about ideas for what color to use, if not the standard fleshy pink? Has anyone else re-painted their Marro, and if so how'd it turn out?

[alewian]

Hi. I am a newbie painter too. I have been painting minis for two months and I have painted 13 minis until now. Just some suggestions:

1.- If you have not materials, buy the Citadel starter paint set (it has a starter brush and 9-10 colors and here, in Spain, its costs 15-20 EUR). Also you can buy a 0/4 brush to paint details.-

2.- I think it is not necessary to remove the current colors, just paint all the mini in black and paint over it.

3.- About colors, I think the marros could look very cool with the colors of the Balrog in Whitedwarf/September:

a.- General color is black.-
b.- Holes are painted in yellow over red (simulating flames).-
c.- Finally a white/metal dry-brush could be nice.-

4.- Please post photos if you do it.-

[justjohn]

If you're new, I would suggest heading down to the local Wal-mart and buying some Apple Barrel Craft Paint. It's about $.47 per bottle. You can buy a decent pack of brushes for about 3 dollars. You're looking at a start up of 10 bucks for about 15 colors and 4 brushes.

I'm not the best painter in town, but I consider myself at least average. I used Citadel Paints for a long time, until a fellow painter introduced me to Apple Barrel. I'm not a good-enough painter to really go into a ton of details about why Citadel is better than the other cheaper paint. The cheaper paint works fine for me; it covers well, mixes well, and blends well into washes.

If you do continue painting, THEN I would go after the more pricey paint and gear.

To answer your 2 questions:

Washing involves putting a darker, watered down color over a lighter color to fill the pits and grooves and add depth. Marro Drones are painted that cream color, then have a red wash applied to them.
To make a wash, you water down paint, and optionally, add in jet dry or floor wax, depending on your preference. This keeps the wash from being to gloopy in crevices. Washing is fairly easy, and you can be really sloppy, and it really doesn't matter, as you can blot off any excess, since it's watered down and isn't prone to smudging. Generally I just dip a dry brush into any large pools of it on a figure, and it sucks the excess up.

Dry brushing is just the opposite. It involves lightly brushing a lighter color over a darker color. This highlights the raised portions. To dry brush, you get a teeny bit of paint on your brush, and wipe off most of it, then you just go over the raised portion of the figure. If you have the right amount of paint on the brush, the paint will just get on the higher portion, while leaving the lower portions unpainted.

Hopefully this answered a few of your questions, and didn't confuse you any further.