GENERAL WARGAMING BEGINNER HELP

[Kaal979]

Tabletop newcomers sometimes tend to waste their half life through a few significant mistakes!
Im speaking from experience since my affection for this hobby led me to those wrong ways.
But if you like to become a beginner or start completely new these tips gonna be useful.



When you found a game like warzone you're firstly sort of blinded by its possibilities of choices.
But don't go fanatic and start collecting a entire army - instead study the different unit types
and compare the available miniatures to choose a maximum of three units of your interest.
Then search the books for the best suitable enemies also by tactics and miniature choices.
But don't make the mistake to use different scales which some systems unfortunately have.
This way you can have a interesting set which is less massive but more entertaining.
Not only that you can now play alone - easily invite friends to some overviewable sessions.



Now comes the biggest mistake of wargaming in general - the first miniatures paint.
You may think its easy to paint details like shadows and highlights but thats wrong.
All the other figures waiting would possibly need lots of more uncalculated time.
And the worst thing is: overperfected paints indeed drastically devalue the gaming experience.
Believe it or not - i claim miniatures in one colour are better gaming tools than detailed.
So its the best way to simply paint on the different colours like uniforms leathers and skins.
Forget all other painting instructions since they are only good for showcase miniatures.

Dont apply any foundations whether white nor even black and use a big brush
to cover the materials and build a everywhere resistant layer (except metals).
Test if you like to apply darker washes or not and leave the figures like this.
But first try different colour schemes with pencils on paper until you found the best combination.
And under no circumstances start painting uncleaned figures and if you must remove old colours use
for metal laque thinner and for plastic brake fluid or fairy ultra spray (expert tip)!

If you although think my paint skills are much better and my figures be more special then
you can try to experiment with advanced undercoating and wetbrushing after tint applications.
Therefore its basically important to create thicker layers on certain higher structures.
But the unarguable advantage is that wetbrushed paints are by far more resistant than normals.
For good figures always use brightest possible colours like e.g. orange instead of brown.



Also plan some terrain and use textil colours to create a terrain mat from cotton lace.
Then build a few simple cardboard ruins and and cover them the same way.
Also goos are plastic foam plates (construction isolations) which can represent hills and such.
I prefer to tighten parts of the coloured cotton laces on them but painting is easier.



Add later a bit more expression to the figures by drawing huger eyes on them.
If possible use changeable bases for other terrains and dont glue the figures in.

That's basically all you should consider to have a great start in the new hobby.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Perhaps not the exact advice I would give a first time gamer (especially the painting advice)  then again I'm probably more miniature rather than game focused. But worth a read none the less I think - I totally agree with you on the not buying too much to start with bit and to be careful of what scale you buy

My top-tips for a new gamer in no particular order would be something like


 Buy and paint the miniatures you like best - worry about how many you need and what game to play with them later

 Miniatures from one game can be used in any game of the same scale and genre, it doesn’t really matter what game they were made for as long as you're clear what rules you're applying to them

  Coat d'Arms are the best alternative to Citadel Paints for 2 very important reasons first, they are slightly cheaper; and second Coat d'Arms made the original Citadel Paints so not only do most of the colour match any painting guide that refers to Citadel Paints but they are very high quality too.

 Start with a Black undercoat and build your colours up from there

 Dry-brushing is the most underrated painting technique out there - so called 'Pro-painters' may scoff at the idea but I think the quality of my painting speak for itself

 Games Workshop aren’t all that great - they are just expensive and high profile. Other companies produce products of equal and higher quality for considerably lower prices.

 If you really must buy GW products buy them second hand or at least from an online store with a decent discount. Never buy directly from GW's website or go into a GW store.

 Dettol will strip paint from most Plastic and Metal miniatures and is mostly harmless compared to what some people will use

 Most miniature games use 28/30mm miniatures - with a half-decent sized collection of figures of this scale you be able to play a staggering number of different systems

 Out of all the miniature game out there Skirmish level games take up the least space to play and store in your home.

 Never buy an entire army for a mass-battle game at once

 Miniature-centric RPG games (especially the Dungeon based one) often require the GM to have a huge collection of miniatures and terrain - the players however can get away with owning a few as 1 single miniature on foot to represent their character

More of my advice on painting can be found Here

[Kaal979]

Thanks for the comment!
I know its always hard to strip
all the great old paints but if one
takes a closer look at how they
compare to most game boards you
must admit that they gonna be too dark.
Because of this im even going to paint full
colours only in the future - see as example
my new artwork of the glade rider:

 

The secret with this way of paint
stays to never use black but white.
Btw. - isnt this dettol some sort of
medical bacteria killer for docs to
wash their instruments only?
And which exact sort can
actually strip the models?

P.S.: The rider model convertion
is btw. ready and once painted i
will keep you updated with pictures!

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Personally I like my miniatures with a dark, dirty realistic look to them

Kaal979 wrote

isnt this dettol some sort of
medical bacteria killer for docs to
wash their instruments only?
And which exact sort can
actually strip the models?

Dettol is an antiseptic/disinfectant for home use available in most supermarkets, the unscented orange-ish coloured one seems to be the best kind for stripping paint (and also the cheapest)  - for more information on using Dettol, check out This Thread Here 

[Kaal979]

Thank you very much for the infos!
Did you btw. ever try to apply black wash
as finalisation on your (probably evil) figures?
Its too easy and looks great - see example:



 

 

P.S.: Did you btw. already hear of
the new cad 3d printer technology?
It allows - unlied - to scan and print
models in any scale and full colour!
This way in future games can be
fully playable direct from the box.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Your miniatures are looking good so far; why not post some larger pictures in the Sci-fi Painting and Modeling section, it'd be nice to see some classic WarZone figures there

Kaal979 wrote

Did you btw. ever try to apply black wash as finalisation on your (probably evil) figures? Its too easy and looks great

Yes, I often use Citadel Badab Black and/or Devlan Mud for 'black-lining' certain details and to neaten up edges - I always try and include a few notes on the painting techniques I use each time I post pictures of my miniatures and if I haven't all anyone curious need to is ask

[Kaal979]

Yes sure when all is done - i in order will complete the army
and also a second namely the Capitol Desert Scorpions and
maybe some Bauhaus Etoiles M. (blue trousers) then i will
make many great pictures all with terrains. Check in my
DeviantArt gallery (link below) for the design concepts!