First, the classic Zombicide painting tutorial video most people on this sub have seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxm7Y0IJ10U
Sorastro's method uses standard acrylic paints and a wash/shader and will give you good table-top results and is pretty forgiving.
The two most common approaches for beginners for painting Zombicide is typically using normal acrylic paints and some kind of wash(s) to help while slowly learning drybrushing, highlighting, and layering to improve the results. This is following the approach Sorastro is demonstrating. The second method is to use contrast paints (Citadel) or speedpaints (Army Painter) and either paint white-primed minis or do a version of Slap-Chop. I'm not going to waste a wall of text just to explain it poorly so here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH3WGHw9eDw
I've started doing Slap-Chop because I have a huge backlog of minis and I can bust out regular character minis in about 30-40 minutes each, simple monsters in 20 minutes, and complicated, highly detailed minis in an hour. I use Army Painter speed paints and some acrylics, the cheapest brushes I can find on Amazon, like $9 for a pack of 50. When they start to get funky or weird, I pitch it and grab another. So much quicker than fretting over higher quality brushes. I have nice stuff, but I've transitioned to cheap everything as it works and I prefer to get minis completed and on the table. These are the first minis I ever used speedpaint/slapchop on for reference (from Cthulhu: Death May Die):
https://imgur.com/a/74HkVye
Thanks, I appreciate the praise! I can't claim all the credit though, the speed paints do a lot of the work for me. Zenithal highlighting, using colors besides black/gray/white for priming, and some pre-slapchop edge highlighting also goes a long way.
What colors do you use for priming? I am always eager to try something there. Currently using some bone white + white as slap chop base for some warmth and saturation. :)
I started out using a black base with a heavy zenithal of medium gray and a quick, narrow blast of white. I quickly learned that I could get really good results using either a dark reddish brown or a dark olive drab as the base and then a neutral yellow tan for the mid and white for the highlights. Using the reddish brown gives a lot of warmth while also providing dark, saturated shadows. The green is great for monsters and is strong enough, it will pull grays, blues, and greens together so they feel like they're the same tone even if they aren't. If you want to be quick and have muted, desaturated colors (speed paints can sometimes be comically bright) doing a base of dark red/brown with a quick highlight of tan followed by a quick by-hand highlighting with that same tan gives great contrast and shadow while keeping the colors more restrained or "realistic" in their saturation. As far as the colors, I started out with Army Painter (their flat black, uniform gray, necrotic flesh, etc.) and have since moved on to krylon as I can't tell a significant difference.
That sounds great, thank you! :D
I was also thinking about dark red as a base, but then didn't go for it, because it felt too exotic. 🙈
Do you also use that for regular layering?
Sorry for the late reply, busy with weekend stuff.
I've seen dark red used as a shadow tone for contrast/speed paint to great effect, it all depends on what colors are going over it. I've seen a dark navy used to give deep shadow and a very cool/cold tone as well. Experiment with army men.
One thing I learned very quickly was speed paints typically do NOT look at all like the label and can look very different over different colors. So I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of army men and primed them all white. I keep a bag of them to try out color combos I haven't used before or when trying to mix speed paints to match a specific color.
I absolutely do use dark red/brown for regular layering. Granted, my approach is oriented more towards speed so most of the layering I do is is from my dark tone to a light (sand or tan is my go-to) *before* I apply any speed paint to the model.
I just use cheap brushes. You can get a pack for $5 off ebay. Don't need expensive paint but get proper miniature paint (small pots). Then get a zombie flesh coloured primer can and spray them all. 25% of the job is done instantly.
Start with the zombies. Stick with maybe 5 colours and paint lots of 10. Vary the patterns. Then repeat.
Painting zombies is great because you can make mistakes and cover it with blood.
Painting zombies is terrible because so many miniatures makes it really boring and tedious.
Once they are done cover with some variety of quickshade.
I'm no expert, but I've been painting my minis from Cthulhu Death May Die and Tainted Grail. Here would be my answers:
1) I like Citadel Contrast paints myself, but I think Army Painter is probably good as well.
2) Synthetic brushes will stand up to more and last you longer, but in some cases, sable brushes will soak up a bit more paint. I wouldn't spend a bunch on brushes to start; Army Painter has sets of 3 for like $30. As to sizes, I'd start with that pack. I usually just buy a brush when I find a need a certain size. Just some general sizes to start, and then go from there.
Some people swear by washing their minis first; I've never done this. I just coat them with a primer and go to work. Some folks get knives and cut down any excess lines or fill gaps with putty; I've also never done these things.
There are a lot of ways to go about this, i'll try to cover a few. Lots of good resources out there from youtubers to reddit. The Miniature Painting subreddit has some really great information. r/minipainting
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**Base, Wash Highlight** - Quick and Decent Results. Sorastro is often linked to for this method because he specifically has zombicide tutorals. [This Sorastro: Black Plague Guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMOTmOchKyQ&t=2s&ab_channel=Sorastro%27sPainting) isn't Marvel/2E but I've watch it and it goes over a lot of basics.
**Basing** refers to laying down a solid color of paint on a whole area. Red shirt, blue pants, blonde hair and so on.
A **wash** is a very liquid type of paint closer to an ink, I think it has a slightly higher pigment density and better surface tension than water (which is the most common thing to 'thin' acrylic/miniature paints). You'd brush it all over the miniature and it will pool in the recesses of the miniature where there would be shadows.
**Highlighting** is picking out the highest points where the light would catch the most. Basically the 'top' of everything.. Head, shoulders, protruding arm, bent knee, all the way down to the tops of folds in fabric if you were so inclined.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**Contrast/Speed Paints** + Zenithal Highlight/Underpainting (aka. "Slap Chop") - Quick and Great Results but slightly more to learn. Lots of different ways to go about this, tons of resources on youtube. Mostly what i'm trying to highlight here is contrast paints as they offer a different way to paint. Basically you're 'underpainting' or 'Zenithal Highlighting' your model in black and white. The Contrast/Speed paints are more transparent so that black and white shows through the color producing your highlights and shadows. Often people will add more highlights at the end where needed.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**Base, Shadow, Highlight** - Speed varies (quick to long) as well as quality (crap to awesome) with much more to learn. This is more of a 'classic' kind of way to paint. Learning to mix and thin paints, where highlights and shadows belong that make sense to our brains. The quality gets better as you become a better painter. Basically you base the areas add other colors to the base color to create the shadow and highlight colors (best to avoid ***PURE*** black and white for this). Then place your highlights and shadows where they belong.
If you like this style, there is a lot of room to grow here. With layering, glazing or mixing tones in between your base/shadow/highlights you can have smoother transitions and a higher quality paint job. Contrast paints and washes are often used along side this where they can benefit or are useful. Washes are amazing for very textured areas like fur or chainmail. Contrast paints can be used like glazes to tint colors, like adding red tones to elbows/cheeks.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
I could write more but this is probably already too much. It mostly comes down to if you want this to be a hobby or you just want painted miniatures that look cool. The hobby side there is always more to learn and ways to grow as a painter. The cool painted miniature side has good techniques and options for you to get great results while valuing your time. Hope this helps, send me some pics if you ever feel like sharing or post them in the zombicide discord :)
I enjoy painting minis. I own lots of paint and brushes. So here we go:
The cheap matte paint at Wal-Mart that is 58c each can work. They come in a ton of colors. If the price for a color is above 1$, they are the satin colors. Matte = no shine, satin = slight sine.
Obtain what you want. Browns, yellows, greens.
DO goto an LGS and buy ONLY some washes, I like Army Painter Light and Null Oil. These be goodies.
You can buy paint brushes from any hobby store, including Wal-mart. You will probably only need a 0 and 1 brush, maybe a 2 and 3. Get a round for these sizes, and get a small flat (or chisel).
Goto a dollar store, and buy a small round makeup brush (for dry brushing).
Then decide if you want a shine or matte look. You can just buy a top coat. So get glossy, extra glossy, or matte.
Oh! And you can totally just use rattle cans from wal-mart (or whatever store you have, wal-mart rules my part of the world) for base coats. A black, dark grey, light grey, and white. These are 4 great sprays to have for zennithal high light spray (or just brush paint).
You can see some of the stuff I painted @sand__Panda on IG. The newest stuff is the Thundercats, and I only used the above. I own more expensive paints, but I challenged myself to use for of the cheaper paints.
For size of brushes? Larger than you expect you will need. Lots of us try to get the smallest brush possible because we think it will make painting small things easy. There are two problems with smaller brushes.
First, smaller brushes will dry out faster. They have less volume inside the brush compared to the surface area outside the brush.
Second, smaller brushes need you to thin your paint more to get a smooth coat. Bigger brushes can smooth a larger surface area, whereas a little brush will fairly easily leave a wake. Think of it like putting peanut butter on bread with a toothpick instead of a knife. This compounds the first problem because thinner paint dries faster.
So get a multipack of round brushes (cheap Taklon ones from the hobby store are fine. Just make sure they come to a very sharp point) that are different sizes, and use the largest one that you can control for most of your work, and then when you find that the brush is slowing you down because it's too big swap to a smaller one.
i saw someone using old/empty prescription bottles with sticky/tac on top as a handle to hold figurines (stuck to the lid) while painting. get a lamp to shine on them while you paint; it will help your eyes and it will also help them to dry quickly. just get cheap brushes, and try to get a good brand of paint. if you really love it you can probably invest in brushes later; they can get to be ridiculously priced for really good ones.
For a pallet, I use a kids "poppable" fidget toy. they work great to hold paint and acrylic doesn't stick to the surface of those things. Just turn them over and pop the old paint into the garbage.
If it's your first time painting then don't sweat the specifics, just get started. Your job is just to add color to the model. I'd reccomend a set of brushes from hobby lobby if you don't have access to cheap miniature brushes. (You'll probably shred your first set anyway) and for paint. Army painter base paints and speed paints. The brushes are under 15$ and the paints are like 3-4$ a piece. Army painter is a brand zombicide has actually collabed with in the past and I highly recommend them.
I've had 3 painters from my studio go on to be proffesion and one competition winner and I hope your works will put them to shame 😉
First, the classic Zombicide painting tutorial video most people on this sub have seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxm7Y0IJ10U Sorastro's method uses standard acrylic paints and a wash/shader and will give you good table-top results and is pretty forgiving. The two most common approaches for beginners for painting Zombicide is typically using normal acrylic paints and some kind of wash(s) to help while slowly learning drybrushing, highlighting, and layering to improve the results. This is following the approach Sorastro is demonstrating. The second method is to use contrast paints (Citadel) or speedpaints (Army Painter) and either paint white-primed minis or do a version of Slap-Chop. I'm not going to waste a wall of text just to explain it poorly so here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH3WGHw9eDw I've started doing Slap-Chop because I have a huge backlog of minis and I can bust out regular character minis in about 30-40 minutes each, simple monsters in 20 minutes, and complicated, highly detailed minis in an hour. I use Army Painter speed paints and some acrylics, the cheapest brushes I can find on Amazon, like $9 for a pack of 50. When they start to get funky or weird, I pitch it and grab another. So much quicker than fretting over higher quality brushes. I have nice stuff, but I've transitioned to cheap everything as it works and I prefer to get minis completed and on the table. These are the first minis I ever used speedpaint/slapchop on for reference (from Cthulhu: Death May Die): https://imgur.com/a/74HkVye
I started with this. Watched his Imperial Assault tutorials as well and then other Warhammer stuff.
Those Cthuluhu models look really great! I am especially impressed, because I wasn't expecting much after you had presented your method so humbly. :)
Thanks, I appreciate the praise! I can't claim all the credit though, the speed paints do a lot of the work for me. Zenithal highlighting, using colors besides black/gray/white for priming, and some pre-slapchop edge highlighting also goes a long way.
What colors do you use for priming? I am always eager to try something there. Currently using some bone white + white as slap chop base for some warmth and saturation. :)
I started out using a black base with a heavy zenithal of medium gray and a quick, narrow blast of white. I quickly learned that I could get really good results using either a dark reddish brown or a dark olive drab as the base and then a neutral yellow tan for the mid and white for the highlights. Using the reddish brown gives a lot of warmth while also providing dark, saturated shadows. The green is great for monsters and is strong enough, it will pull grays, blues, and greens together so they feel like they're the same tone even if they aren't. If you want to be quick and have muted, desaturated colors (speed paints can sometimes be comically bright) doing a base of dark red/brown with a quick highlight of tan followed by a quick by-hand highlighting with that same tan gives great contrast and shadow while keeping the colors more restrained or "realistic" in their saturation. As far as the colors, I started out with Army Painter (their flat black, uniform gray, necrotic flesh, etc.) and have since moved on to krylon as I can't tell a significant difference.
That sounds great, thank you! :D I was also thinking about dark red as a base, but then didn't go for it, because it felt too exotic. 🙈 Do you also use that for regular layering?
Sorry for the late reply, busy with weekend stuff. I've seen dark red used as a shadow tone for contrast/speed paint to great effect, it all depends on what colors are going over it. I've seen a dark navy used to give deep shadow and a very cool/cold tone as well. Experiment with army men. One thing I learned very quickly was speed paints typically do NOT look at all like the label and can look very different over different colors. So I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of army men and primed them all white. I keep a bag of them to try out color combos I haven't used before or when trying to mix speed paints to match a specific color. I absolutely do use dark red/brown for regular layering. Granted, my approach is oriented more towards speed so most of the layering I do is is from my dark tone to a light (sand or tan is my go-to) *before* I apply any speed paint to the model.
Thank you :) Army men are a nice idea. I have primed my bottle caps and painted them in the color of the content.
I just use cheap brushes. You can get a pack for $5 off ebay. Don't need expensive paint but get proper miniature paint (small pots). Then get a zombie flesh coloured primer can and spray them all. 25% of the job is done instantly. Start with the zombies. Stick with maybe 5 colours and paint lots of 10. Vary the patterns. Then repeat. Painting zombies is great because you can make mistakes and cover it with blood. Painting zombies is terrible because so many miniatures makes it really boring and tedious. Once they are done cover with some variety of quickshade.
thank you
I second this! Washes and cheap brushes are low cost, forgiving, and quick!
I'm no expert, but I've been painting my minis from Cthulhu Death May Die and Tainted Grail. Here would be my answers: 1) I like Citadel Contrast paints myself, but I think Army Painter is probably good as well. 2) Synthetic brushes will stand up to more and last you longer, but in some cases, sable brushes will soak up a bit more paint. I wouldn't spend a bunch on brushes to start; Army Painter has sets of 3 for like $30. As to sizes, I'd start with that pack. I usually just buy a brush when I find a need a certain size. Just some general sizes to start, and then go from there. Some people swear by washing their minis first; I've never done this. I just coat them with a primer and go to work. Some folks get knives and cut down any excess lines or fill gaps with putty; I've also never done these things.
many thanks
Spend some time over at r/minipainting, they've got you. Lots of direction in just their sidebar.
thanks will do
There are a lot of ways to go about this, i'll try to cover a few. Lots of good resources out there from youtubers to reddit. The Miniature Painting subreddit has some really great information. r/minipainting \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ **Base, Wash Highlight** - Quick and Decent Results. Sorastro is often linked to for this method because he specifically has zombicide tutorals. [This Sorastro: Black Plague Guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMOTmOchKyQ&t=2s&ab_channel=Sorastro%27sPainting) isn't Marvel/2E but I've watch it and it goes over a lot of basics. **Basing** refers to laying down a solid color of paint on a whole area. Red shirt, blue pants, blonde hair and so on. A **wash** is a very liquid type of paint closer to an ink, I think it has a slightly higher pigment density and better surface tension than water (which is the most common thing to 'thin' acrylic/miniature paints). You'd brush it all over the miniature and it will pool in the recesses of the miniature where there would be shadows. **Highlighting** is picking out the highest points where the light would catch the most. Basically the 'top' of everything.. Head, shoulders, protruding arm, bent knee, all the way down to the tops of folds in fabric if you were so inclined. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ **Contrast/Speed Paints** + Zenithal Highlight/Underpainting (aka. "Slap Chop") - Quick and Great Results but slightly more to learn. Lots of different ways to go about this, tons of resources on youtube. Mostly what i'm trying to highlight here is contrast paints as they offer a different way to paint. Basically you're 'underpainting' or 'Zenithal Highlighting' your model in black and white. The Contrast/Speed paints are more transparent so that black and white shows through the color producing your highlights and shadows. Often people will add more highlights at the end where needed. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ **Base, Shadow, Highlight** - Speed varies (quick to long) as well as quality (crap to awesome) with much more to learn. This is more of a 'classic' kind of way to paint. Learning to mix and thin paints, where highlights and shadows belong that make sense to our brains. The quality gets better as you become a better painter. Basically you base the areas add other colors to the base color to create the shadow and highlight colors (best to avoid ***PURE*** black and white for this). Then place your highlights and shadows where they belong. If you like this style, there is a lot of room to grow here. With layering, glazing or mixing tones in between your base/shadow/highlights you can have smoother transitions and a higher quality paint job. Contrast paints and washes are often used along side this where they can benefit or are useful. Washes are amazing for very textured areas like fur or chainmail. Contrast paints can be used like glazes to tint colors, like adding red tones to elbows/cheeks. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ I could write more but this is probably already too much. It mostly comes down to if you want this to be a hobby or you just want painted miniatures that look cool. The hobby side there is always more to learn and ways to grow as a painter. The cool painted miniature side has good techniques and options for you to get great results while valuing your time. Hope this helps, send me some pics if you ever feel like sharing or post them in the zombicide discord :)
wow thanks for this I really just want them to look cool on the board.. Everyone is very helpful thank you
I enjoy painting minis. I own lots of paint and brushes. So here we go: The cheap matte paint at Wal-Mart that is 58c each can work. They come in a ton of colors. If the price for a color is above 1$, they are the satin colors. Matte = no shine, satin = slight sine. Obtain what you want. Browns, yellows, greens. DO goto an LGS and buy ONLY some washes, I like Army Painter Light and Null Oil. These be goodies. You can buy paint brushes from any hobby store, including Wal-mart. You will probably only need a 0 and 1 brush, maybe a 2 and 3. Get a round for these sizes, and get a small flat (or chisel). Goto a dollar store, and buy a small round makeup brush (for dry brushing). Then decide if you want a shine or matte look. You can just buy a top coat. So get glossy, extra glossy, or matte. Oh! And you can totally just use rattle cans from wal-mart (or whatever store you have, wal-mart rules my part of the world) for base coats. A black, dark grey, light grey, and white. These are 4 great sprays to have for zennithal high light spray (or just brush paint). You can see some of the stuff I painted @sand__Panda on IG. The newest stuff is the Thundercats, and I only used the above. I own more expensive paints, but I challenged myself to use for of the cheaper paints.
For size of brushes? Larger than you expect you will need. Lots of us try to get the smallest brush possible because we think it will make painting small things easy. There are two problems with smaller brushes. First, smaller brushes will dry out faster. They have less volume inside the brush compared to the surface area outside the brush. Second, smaller brushes need you to thin your paint more to get a smooth coat. Bigger brushes can smooth a larger surface area, whereas a little brush will fairly easily leave a wake. Think of it like putting peanut butter on bread with a toothpick instead of a knife. This compounds the first problem because thinner paint dries faster. So get a multipack of round brushes (cheap Taklon ones from the hobby store are fine. Just make sure they come to a very sharp point) that are different sizes, and use the largest one that you can control for most of your work, and then when you find that the brush is slowing you down because it's too big swap to a smaller one.
thanks so much for this
i saw someone using old/empty prescription bottles with sticky/tac on top as a handle to hold figurines (stuck to the lid) while painting. get a lamp to shine on them while you paint; it will help your eyes and it will also help them to dry quickly. just get cheap brushes, and try to get a good brand of paint. if you really love it you can probably invest in brushes later; they can get to be ridiculously priced for really good ones. For a pallet, I use a kids "poppable" fidget toy. they work great to hold paint and acrylic doesn't stick to the surface of those things. Just turn them over and pop the old paint into the garbage.
thats a great idea for the pallet thanks
If it's your first time painting then don't sweat the specifics, just get started. Your job is just to add color to the model. I'd reccomend a set of brushes from hobby lobby if you don't have access to cheap miniature brushes. (You'll probably shred your first set anyway) and for paint. Army painter base paints and speed paints. The brushes are under 15$ and the paints are like 3-4$ a piece. Army painter is a brand zombicide has actually collabed with in the past and I highly recommend them. I've had 3 painters from my studio go on to be proffesion and one competition winner and I hope your works will put them to shame 😉
awesome thanks for the advice