The EASIEST Way To Paint Miniature Figures 

I'm returning to modeling after an absence of 42 years--I'm now retired. Part of my career was as a technical trainer (electronics, computers, s/w, processes), and this session is close to being a masterpiece. I learned so much about a topic where my knowledge and skills are literally at zero. Broad expanses of armor, wings, and hulls are a piece of cake, but this stuff is a true art form, and I feel blessed by the skill level you bring to the subject. Your knowledge is excellent, but your presentation skills, especially with commentary, are outstanding. I had a little difficulty with the accent at first, but caught on quickly, and I liked this whole segment so much I had my wife watch it just for the sheer entertainment value, and even SHE loved it! Kind of like the first time I heard Led Zeppelin in 1968. I'm a fan!!! It comes across as a true labor of love Mr. Kovac!

Holy moly, that white paint on the black layer just adds a whole nother dimension to the figure and it just looks so freaking COOL

I find when pre-shading skin tones, if I use a dark red instead of black I get much more realistic shading.

As a long-time minature painter, I recommend switching out the Tamiya flat white for a white acrylic ink. It will reduce speckling dramatically. I'm not a great airbrush painter, so I use it thinned 50:50 to be more forgiving, but that is not necessary.

You make everything look easy in this hobby! But seriously, this is so helpful for painting figures. It’s so simple and looks like so much fun. :)

Gosh, If you ever do a diorama for this thing, I just feel it would fit best on a slope in a tall grass field, ever since the start of this build and seeing the turret so far tilted up I could just picture it. Doing something like a tall grass field would be a joy to see you figure out, as I've always wanted to do one of my own, and I really feel it would be an awesome change of pace.

I love the fact that you're putting figures with your models now and you seem to be enjoying figure painting now which is a plus!

Yes, this is the method I use on every one of my figures. One of the major benefits (apart from the simplicity) is the finish is VERY matt, on account of the glaze/filter being just a diluted watery wash. There's no need to try and blast the figure into "matt-ness" with a flat coat at the end. The white highlight spray should be heavily thinned, too. Anyway, great video, as always! :)

That`s so amazing - I never thought about a black basic colour, before I started watching your videos. But concerning a "fake shadow" in areas, where one might miss some colour when paintig a model, this was the best idea ever. Thank you very much for this!

Vallejo air are great (and extremely cheap) colors to thin down for glazing. Using a glaze medium instead of water is also very good. If you want really vivid colors you can use Games Workshops contrast paints (stupid expensive) in a thin layer (or straight from the can if that's the result you're looking for) and if you're advanced you can use other colors than black/white to glaze over. And if you're really really advanced you can mix metals into your glazes and get cool results. If you want more advanced underpainting you can wash, drybrush, highlight or even weather your sketch before glazing it. Or between layers of glaze. You made a great figure. It's a definate yay from here. Good and patient job as always.

So many years I been building armor and aircraft and avoided figures like the plague. I picked a helluva time to start learning to painting figures. This method looks easy I’ll give it a go I think this will be the 9th attempt just for one crewman.

Just what I needed! this is actually a nice way for painting anything with brushes :D Going to try it over the weekend

Amazing how I just started buying figures for upcoming dioramas, and rewatched older videos of your figures… just for this video to come out today. Wonderful work! Glazing method seems to give the most control with the best outcome.

Thank you for this video I'm going to be working on my 1/32 scale He-219 and I have a resin maintenance crew, aircraft crew, and weapons loaders and this will definitely come in handy when I paint them

Awesome. I was also aware of zenithal highlighting, and props to you Martin for making the jump from table-top to scale models. The process you’re using here make such sense, and whilst I’ve done the thinning/glazing thing, it’s only when you said ‘yo, it’s a filter’ did it click. Can’t wait to try this on my Brit RAC figures i got for my Border Model’s Crusader diorama. Thanks so much! By way of helping, I’d recommend looking up Squidmar’s video on using wet palettes. He talks about ‘loading’ the brush correctly for highlighting, and once you see what he’s talking about, it really helps with the whole ‘tide mark/brush stroke’ thing. Great stuff Uncle!

I've watched uploads from many very talented modellers and their subjects be they tanks, aircraft or buildings are magnificent but they let themselves down with human figures. They always seem to be overdone with heavy shading particularly on faces making them almost cartoonish. You have no such problem! That figure is a sheer delight to see.👍

Hard to argue with these results. They speak for themselves. Ive been doing a 3 step zenithal (B/G/W). And while this helps get an smoother transition (less speckling), I really like your White over Black for higher contrast. This is basically a sketch prime for values and it really works with the glazing. I will be trying this out. Love this video. Thank you.

Hey thank you!!! This is a hobby I am just starting to get into and have been a bit disappointed with my first few efforts. Going to give this a try with my next set of minis. The comments from everyone, also very helpful. Thanks folks....

Awesome video and a great use of the highlighting technique. The mini-painting folks often call this a 'zenithal' highlight, but it was definitely surprising to learn as an armour modeller making the shift into mini-painting. After some experimentation, I find that with faces, in particular, it can be useful to put them on an armature and eschew the white/black to instead use flesh tones in the same approach - I usually vary this a little as humans get suntanned skin where exposed to sun if exposed to sun frequently; clothing does not share this trait. Similarly, I find that varying the type of white you use for the highlight spray from pure white to various sorts of off-whites allows you to create cool or warm highlights in addition to providing the same benefits as the pure white. Some glaze colours do better over a yellow highlight spray (red, orange).

This looks great! I think that this face may be the best one you have made yet! The tanker looks amazing standing on the tank, the uniform green looks terrific!

I’m a figure painter 99% of the time but follow you. One thing I see that armour modellers forget when adding figures is that the shadow areas on each figure is individual. So there have bee tanks with crew gathered around ALL with the highlights in the same place per figure and NOT how light would strike each one differently. Think of the 5 on a dice, light coming at 45 degrees would hit differing sides if the 4 outer figures were all looking at the centre. 👍🏽

Hi Martin: I would consider for the next figure a dark brown and a warm white for base and zenital highlight (airbrush steps). This way the glaze colors are warmer too, and so, more natural.

I'll try it! When it holds up under magnification like in this video, you know you've done a superior job. Amazing figure and model!

Great tip, thank you for that movie. You can also use Glaze Medium to dilute the main paint, It will of course cause the paint will dry much slower, but is also eliminating "water" tension and will not allow to accumulate paint in drop shadow areas.

I've been using this technique lately, especially since I picked up the line of Pro Acryl's Transparent Paints; they go down and mix like regular miniature paints but they're transparent, perfect for over-zenithal techniques.

fantastic results! I'm going to paint my Imperial Guard using these techniques someday, but if you want to beat me to the punch, I would definitely watch a video of you painting a squad or a IG tank (if you're into WH40K). This is way better than having to use 30 colors of paint to get roughly the same result and minimal blending required! Great job!

Definitely yay! Darn that looks good. I'm looking at it mostly from lotr/warhammer figures perspective and it looks waay better than most techniques I've seen. Sure it can't be applied to everything, but all the textiles easily. Gotta try it, it really gives it that nice realistic shadow transition

This is a terrific demo and I will use this method on my figures. I mostly build planes but take breaks painting figures for my plane.

Outstanding job, great technique, I do like the final mud effects, realistic and superb!

Absolutely love it :) And perfect timing, as I'll be painting up some figures for a diorama soon as well haha. Also really puts into perspective how bloody huge tanks are....

I discovered your channel this year and have become addicted. You are such a huge inspiration. I am going to focus more on realistic and detailed work in 2024. Marry christmas and happy new year!

Looking forward to traying this method. It will be my first try at a 1/35 scale figure - or any figure, for that matter. Thanks for the detailed tutorial.

Phenomenal! The results are amazing and work excellent here. Never have I seen green done this well. Thanks!

Thanks for this. I have avoided moving forward with my armour build as I wanted to add figures to it (I'm not an armour builder really, just wanted to try something different). This video has given me something to try and hopefully give me something close to what I had envisaged.

Fantastic Tutorial🏆🏆🏆! I’ve known about this technique for years and have always used it, but your thinning of the paints like you showed is the key as well as the use of flow retardant. Patience and practice are the key to any of our skills, but this just re-enforces what can be done with a simple change. Very well done and thanks…

I was skeptical at the start, but daaaaaaaammmmmmnnnnn! That is one fantastic result! Will be giving this a go.

This technique gives great results and seems easy to master, something good for the average modeler. I sometimes use a similar technique, utilizing glazes to soften the shadows and hilights on the figure. Excellent video, thanks for sharing! 👍

I just wanted to say that I enjoy every one of your videos and that they have helped me immensely in my builds. Some things that I thought I could never do you have made me understand how to and I have actually been able to pull the techniques off. Groundwork is an Achilles heel of mine and I will be doing one for a current build I have and I will be using your groundwork techniques step by step. Thanks for helping me and many others.

Really smart man! From an old dude that has layering thick coats of highlights and shading. This is very smart and looks great! Thanks for teaching an old dog a cool new trick!

Interesting method of figure painting. I must experiment on a figure for myself to see how it works. Great work as usual Martin 🙂

You’ve just solved my worries of figure painting 👌

Your modelling and painting techniques are amazing! I have learnt so much.

Very well done! I will be sure to use this technique going forward.

I think I will totally copy that technique for my next figure

Dude, I just want to say thank you for sharing all of your tips, and your modeling journey. See you in the next one.

Amazing job as always! It would be awesome to see you work your magic on a Warhammer 40k tank!

Damn for only painting a few figures since you started a few builds ago, you certainly have it nailed down now. Awesome work as usual!

I’ve always enjoyed building models. I built my first one at the tender age of 10, maybe even as early as 8, through my early/mid teens, when toy and hobby stores in my neighborhood started closing mid 1970s. You couldn’t find a store that sold models anywhere. I was into slot cars too, especially Aurora. All my favorite things seemed to have vanished. Fast forward decades later, and through eBay, Amazon and the internet, I went back to my roots and began building models and racing slot cars. Anyway, long story shot, all the models I built over my lifetime, I only painted a handful and not very good either. You and others inspired me to give it a go, so now I purchased a airbrush kit along with acrylic and enamel paints. I have a few broken models around that I am going to practice on, I’ve yet to use the airbrush. I’m learning through your excellent videos and I’m just in awe of your creations, you make it look so easy. I’m not expecting mine to come out like yours, but I’ll be happy if they look somewhat decent.

Thank you stunning work. I’ll attempt to adopt your method and hope it will work on a 1:72 scale figure…

Incredible. Best technique and results I have encountered. Now to apply it myself.....

Just get back to this material and it really really works ;) thanks :) you dont only show how it can be done in an easy and very effective way BUT its stops me from bitching all the time while painting 1/35 figures.

Thank you for showing such a great technique , it has helped me a lot in my painting of figures .

One cannot argue with the results, well done.

This is not cheating, this is the way! Basic techniques, advanced results! You figure turned great and I'll use this method when painting the 1/20 scale figures from Maschinen Kreiger.

Looks good! Sheperd Paine mixed 6 different shades of each color he used. Clever as he was, I'm surprised he didn't use a black undercoat. Thanks for the video!

Thanks for the video, I have a few kits that have included figures on the backlog and it’s nice to see how other people do their technique and learn something new

Fantastic result! 👏

Looks great. I mostly paint fantasy and scifi stuff but I’m thinking I should pick up a few more of these nice realistic green/olive/khaki colours as they’re really nice

Amazingly simple yet a very nice end result! If I still had both of my eyes I would try this method for sure.

Ahhhh…. I’m remember discovering this method. Your right it feels like cheating and when I passed it over to my lil group of chumrades, it’s exactly how I described the method. And in reading the comments here I feel I’ve learned a lil more to experiment with going forward. Detonate new sun here chief! Very enjoyable watch.

I had zero figure experience, but tried this on a tank commander and wow, it was fun and the end result was good, especially for a first ever figure.

great video....great tips....I have quite a few figures built, waiting on paint....going to try this method....kudos

What a fantastic channel ,I'm totally new to the model world and came across this channel while looking for a beginners modelling Chanel.....had to subscribe

Ok... THIS was one of your BEST VIDS YET! VERY Nicely Done! :D

Spraying white from into. Very simple but very effective. Great tip. Thanks. It's a yea! I wonder would it work for seats etc. Build up the colours subtly and let the eye fill in the details.

Fantastic technique I think it looks awesome

A master job on this figure...well done

The best tutorial I found so far (and I was looking for one a lot)

your my fav modeling channel...

I will definitely try this when I get back into model making.

I like this method, might give it a try myself, I don't like doing figures because they are hard to get right, but this will make it easier, thanks for sharing...

I love this technique. So realistic.

100% yay!!! Great tutorial Martin....love it! I have the characters from "Fury" to paint for my diorama. I will be using this technique. I've NEVER painted figures before & was always worried about my skillset for figures, this has given me the confidence to try. All the best......& thanks again

wwoww this is just great! My figures always end up in the bottom of the spare box. Now I think it's time to give them a new assignment.

Uncle, you're amazing... I normally paint only figures and just watch your videos to improve my armor modelling skills. Anyway, I'm freakingly surprised to see (and I really admire) how you improved in your figure painting skills. How much time you spent with this one? I normally spend more than a week (or even a month)!!

As usual, great tips. I learn a lot from you..thanks again,. Gary from CT. U.S.A

Very interesting and effective method👌 i hoped you would talk more about your hair painting, this can be tricky too, at least for me😁

WOW !!! Very nice results. I will definitely be giving this method a try on my next figure 👍👍

Very nice Work and Explanation,helped me out Cheers from the USA 🍻

You’re f’ing brilliant. Just love watching you work - and the results- always amazing.

Fantastic result.It looks great.Compliment. Nice technique👍

Uncle Night Shift... You are the best. Going to try this method on a Master Box DAK figure set. Included is Gen. Rommel. Looking forward to the process.

-Superbe , bravo, quelle maîtrise.... et quel plaisir de découvrir les évolutions de peinture. On en tire toujours quelque chose à essayer , merci pour ce partage .

This was my first idea when seeing preshading method but you nailed it showing how to add some vibrant colors. You could check also Army Painter Speed paints, they might add some more options for you.

Love this technique - will definitely have to give it a crack!

Just got back in to painting and thank you so much as i have to relearn all this again 👍👍👍👍

Primera vez que veo un video tan didactico para pintar figuras para que queden realistas...felicitaciones gran video y muy didactico. Saludos desde Chile

I'm starting new project today and I think I'm going to try this method on the model. Great video very helpful and informative

The resoult of a simple zenithal highlight are solid even if you use a light layering instead of glazing. Just skip the basecoat consistency and start to layer from the vase color to 1-2 highlight. Sane time needed as using 3-5 glazes of the same color

Brilliant!. Says it all really. Bravo sir.

that mud is amazing

I usually used this technique for the stowage. A really easy way to produce tons of stowage as well.

that is truly amazing, next time i build figures i will have a go at this method.

Very nice job on the figure.

You made a statement (and the colour you're using works with black & white pre-shading) you are not necessarily limited to black & white with your pre shade I tend to like a chocolate brown and light cream when doing things with a lot of leather for example

Looks awesome. 1000 times YAY!

Magic. Thankyou! And I liked the cork idea too!

Brilliant, what a perfect method you’ve introduced! Well done!

Just wow. Amazing job.

Отличная работа!