HeroClix painting tutorial

[Lord Pyre]

As much as I love collecting figures, and playing C3G stuff, one thing I can't stand, is HeroClix's paintjobs. Sometimes they're not bad, but most of the time it seems they're horrendous. Which is a shame, since a lot of those sculpts are really good (Not the Mystique. I've given up any hope of trying to fix her). Honestly, look at this!



...The eyes.... THE EYES!!! AHHHHH!!!!

*Ahem* ANYWAY, I can't stand it, so I almost always repaint my figures. Sometimes I do a complete repaint (Priming, and then starting from scratch), other times I do my Patented Pyre Painting Procedure (That's a lotta P). This gives my figures a very consistent look, and easily hides any unwanted eyes, or other small paintbrush slips that probably occurred. It's a quick, simple way of spicing your figures up, adding detail and depth to the sculpt.

For this tutorial, I'll use Black Canary.



Not absolutely horrible, but obviously it leaves a lot to be desired. The sculpt is alright, the textures in her legs aren't deep enough to bring out fully, and the rest of her is fairly flat and rounded, so this technique won't work PERFECTLY, but we can still do a bit. Her hair is good, though.

The first thing I did was recolor her jacket, because having only the few colors is pretty bland. And on the comic art for the card, her jacket look black anyway. Then I changed the color of her belt for some contrast, and touched up some spots around her hair and the edges of her legs. This step is completely optional, but I'm anal so I usually do it. It depends on how bad the figure need it, up to you!
I also covered up her eyes with some flesh paint, which I think is more important, since 'Scape doesn't paint eyes. And eyes are completely disproportionate on minis, anyway.



There we go! It already looks better! But as you can see, the color is still really flat. How do we fix this? Move on to the main attraction:
Drybrushing!

It's a really simple technique, basically you take a lighter shade of the color you wish to enhance, and slather your brush full of it. Then wipe most of it off lightly, so it still has some on the brush, but not enough to actually paint lines or anything.



The you want to move your brush so the tip is horizontal, don't dab at the figure. The purpose of drybrushing is to paint the outermost parts of the figure a lighter shade, while keeping the deeper areas the original color.



You can do this with the entire figure, changing colors as you move to different areas. I used a lighter gray for her legs, and a lighter blue for her body. A trick I use for black, instead of using a gray, I use a blue. Using gray over black is really obvious most of the time, and blue seems to give it a littler extra something. Experiment, and see what you like!







Her legs weren't that well sculpted, which is why the color doesn't seem consistent throughout. But otherwise, it looks pretty good. But still missing something....

A wash!

A wash is also simple to do. Take a small amount of paint, and mix it with a bit of water. The idea is that the watery paint seeps into the deep recesses of the figure, and does an exceptional job of bringing out detail in the figure by darkening the deep spots.



I'm adding more water at that point. Not nearly enough. Just keep mixing it until you have enough! I always test on my finger, and that's a perfect example of what it's supposed to do. See how it brings out my fingerprint without completely covering it up? I might need a LITTLE more paint yet in this example, because when it dries, it's lighter then when it looks wet, so it can take a little bit of practice to figure out exactly how to get it right.



I almost always use black, it gives the figures a "dirty" look, which I think is perfect for superhero brawls. If you don't like it so dark, you can experiment with other colors. Some people use browns, Siege used blue, it depends on the color colors, and the figure being used. But I'll stick with my black for this time.

Well, now to apply! Dip a brush in the wash, and coat the figure!



Don't worry about covering anything up, it'll dry out nicely! And it there's REALLY too much that you doubt will dry, just sop up the extra wash with a dry paintbrush, and try again. You'll rarely have to, unless you cover their entire face, or something like that.



Still wet here. As you can see, the wash covered some of the little mistakes around her boots. This way you can say it was all on purpose!

...And here she is dry!



She looks much better than before! Not so "boring!"

And as you can see, her hair now has a lot of depth, and actually looks like it might be moving! The amount (and color) of wash depends on your personal preference, but I like it dark and heavy. I like my stories gritty, haha!




I'll snap some pictures of other figures I've given this treatment to and add them eventually. It really helps a lot of figures (Batman, Robin, and Joker especially), while other figures just don't have the greatest sculpt to do much with (Like Green Lantern), and it turns out kind of flat. Dirty looking flat. I don't mind it, but it doesn't look the greatest.

Hope this helps make your battles more colorful!


(Oh, and quick tip. DO A HEAVY WHITE DRYBRUSH ON ICEMAN! Seriously, I got the idea from the ice elemental. I wasn't going to do anything with Iceman at first, but it makes him look REALLY cool, and only take a few moments! Just a simple white drybrush! The heavier, the better, just not to cover up the translucency completely)

[halfbad]

This is a great tutorial, good on you for posting it up. Thanks!

[Lord Pyre]

Originally Posted by halfbad

This is a great tutorial, good on you for posting it up. Thanks!

Psh, YOU should be giving ME the tutorial...

[halfbad]

Originally Posted by Lord Pyre

Psh, YOU should be giving ME the tutorial...

None of that. You did fantastic, and it is a great technique.

I am thinking I will write up a series of them in November, from starting a figure, to basing, to finishing, etc.

Let's collaborate on it, send me a PM.

[Griffin]

I think the wash on Canary's hair is too dark/black. A deep brown would be best and a lighter wash I think as well.

Thanks for putting this up though, it is about time us C3G painters had a place to congregate.

+rep worthy for sure.

[Lord Pyre]

Originally Posted by Griffin

I think the wash on Canary's hair is too dark/black. A deep brown would be best and a lighter wash I think as well.

Thanks for putting this up though, it is about time us C3G painters had a place to congregate.

+rep worthy for sure.

Like I said, it's personal taste, mostly. I usually keep them all similar colored, with a few exceptions. I gave Penguin a black wash, and it didn't turn out well, should've used something else, there!

[LordEsenwienIV]

This is very useful, not just for HeroClix.

+rep most defiantly.

[Scapemage]

I'm going to try this on some custom painte figures. Thanks!

[Lord Pyre]

Originally Posted by LordEsenwienIV

This is very useful, not just for HeroClix.

+rep most defiantly.

Yeah, I've used it on normal 'Scape figures, but for the most part those look good enough to not be repainted, haha!

And you're not defying anyone with your rep....

[Xn F M]

Nice tutorial LP. I don't think I'd ever considered going with a more heroscape-style repaint on my clix figures before, I think I may go and give this a try . . . .

I do have one little comment/suggestion though,. It looks like you're getting a bit of a blotchy finish on your wash there. There's a trick that works with ink washes that I'm pretty sure works with paint-based washes as well.

1/2 -1 drop of dish soap changes the way watered down inks (and presumedly paints) flow so that they sink more naturally down into the recessed areas, reducing the amount of blotchy areas on the mini.

[Lord Pyre]

Originally Posted by Xn F M

Nice tutorial LP. I don't think I'd ever considered going with a more heroscape-style repaint on my clix figures before, I think I may go and give this a try . . . .

I do have one little comment/suggestion though,. It looks like you're getting a bit of a blotchy finish on your wash there. There's a trick that works with ink washes that I'm pretty sure works with paint-based washes as well.

1/2 -1 drop of dish soap changes the way watered down inks (and presumedly paints) flow so that they sink more naturally down into the recessed areas, reducing the amount of blotchy areas on the mini.

Yeah, I've heard of that, I've tried it on some Last Night on Earth minis, but I didn't notice a big help. I should try again on the bigger clix figures and see if I can get it to work.

But I kind of like the blotchyness, and if it's TOO much, I just wet down a brush and wipe it off before it dries too much.