Fresh Painter Interview Preparation Guide

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It is definitely enough. However I would love to earn twice this amount.

These are some of the questions which can be asked from you when you will give the interview for the post of the painter. You will have to be innovative as well as attentive if you want to excel in the field of painting.

GW Superglue and 2 part epoxy sometimes for stronger bonds.

Castrol SuperClean - found in automotive aisles. Be careful when you use this - wear a mask and gloves if possible, don't take chances with your health like I do!

Paper towel. I also use my lips to maintain a good tip on my brushes. By the time I'm done a painting session, my bottom lip has a gross line of paint stuck to it. Very unattractive, but effective.

I have many, but a couple are spam email and painters not updating their websites - I need stuff to look at! Oh, and Forgeworld's prices.

I prime it black and drybrush it a few times using successively lighter shades. For healthy grass I use greens, for dead grass I use browns and bones.

Reading White Dwarf, internet articles and tutorials, and simply asking people how they did stuff. Most of my techniques were gleaned from other people, only a few are my own inventions :)

I use London Grey and Space Wolves Grey 50/50 (although I have been experimenting with different greys, such as shadow grey). Then I add either white or bleached bone to this for several layers (up to white). Then, when dry, I give the areas several very thin washes with bestial brown and dark flesh, and sometimes vermin brown. Sometimes I sprinkle salt on the wash, let it dry, then brush it off (trick I learned in White Dwarf).

I use boltgun and highlite it with the appropriate amounts of chainmail and mithril silver. When that is done, I give the metallic layers several very thin washes of brown, yellow and green inks - making sure to siphon off any puddles using my brush.

I keep a dropper syringe on my desk that contains a mix of 1/3 blending medium by Winsor and Newton, and 2/3 water. I add a drop or two to my paint mix, depending on how thin I want it. For times when I paint one color for quite a while, I might go back and add more drops as needed.

I actually prefer to paint red over black, which most people do not like to do (I think most like to paint it over white). I use a mix of Vallejo Cadmium Maroon (recommended to me by Finn Kisch) and Reaper Aged Red Brick (recommended to me by Anne Foerster) as a base. To this I add red gore for a few highlite layers, then blood red. Depending on how dark a red I want, I might go up to pure blood red and then add a little fiery orange to that for final highlites.

Sometimes just top 40 radio, but 95% of the time I listen to instrumental soundtracks like Braveheart, all three LOTR soundtracks, 13th Warrior etc.

Lately Sascha Buczek blows me away nearly every time he posts a model. Also Cyril, Matt Verzani (who's prices have me eternally jealous, and I love his hyper-color style), and Mayne Thiele.

Chaos Black, Reaper Walnut, Vallejo Flat Earth, Codex and Fortress Grey (mostly for bases), every flesh tone you can think of, Vallejo Dark Sand, GW Bleached Bone, Tamiya Smoke and Clear Red, Yellow and Green (great for bases and slimy parts on models).

I use plaster molded rocks sold at hobby stores, real rocks, aquarium rocks, reptile bark, static grass, flock, sand in various grits, plasticard in various styles (you can buy it plain or with grooves and tiles pre-engraved), metal modeling mesh (sold at hobby stores), Woodland Scenics Water Effects, brass rod, guitar strings (usually I use these for actual model conversions), 2 part epoxy mixed with inks (for making standing pools and puddles). And of course various bitz for bodies etc.

Aside from the obvious brushes and brush tub, I use small modeling files (I like the ones that are rounded on one side, flat on the other), a sculpting tool (for epoxy putty work), a jewelers saw, the dremel, a desk-vice (also made by the dremel company), exacto knives (careful!), a steel ruler (which I often lose), scissors, a dust buster (shockingly useful to keep the area clean of metal filings), an airbrush, plastic pallets from Michael's craft store, a desktop paint shaker from Micro Mark, tweezers (small modeling ones), and clippers - one set for cutting metal and one set designed to cut plastic parts off sprues (very useful! Thanks Mark!).

Nope. Bought one (the task lamp version) and it just takes up space on my desk. I don't use it.

I use cheap swing arm lamps with GE Reveal bulbs, 100 or 60 watts, depending on my mood

I have a Nikon Coolpix 995, with a good quality tri-pod for taking pics. The 995 is I think equivalent the newer model # 4500 if I'm not mistaken (I might be). Good camera for macro work. I usually have the settings at 8 and 15 for setting 1, and 9-10 (there are 2 numbers at the bottom of the screen, I have no idea what they are called). 8 makes for a brighter picture than 15, but can sometimes make whites and light colors too harsh.

For drybrushing and base work (hard on brushes) I use old Games Workshop brushes I have from a long time ago. For the main paintjob, I use Winsor and Newton Series 7, sizes 000,00,1 and 2. I also use a GW tank brush sometimes - those are excellent for large models in terms of laying down primer or drybrushing large base areas. My tank brush has lasted me a very long time.

16 years.

In order of "pleasure to paint, most to least", I would rank the manufacturers (for me, personally):

- Rackham (Confrontation)

- Games Workshop

- Warmachine

- Reaper

However, all 4 make excellent models and each have their own flavor.

I keep planning to and never finding the time - I prefer using my free time to paint! But if possible, I'd like to do one sometime before my 50th birthday.

Choice of primer color should not be an "all or nothing" affair. For figures that use a lot of metallics, I use black. For figures using lots of lighter colors (perhaps white robes) or NMM, I use white. All of my bases are primed black before drybrushing. And for most of my figures, I will prime different parts of the model with different colors (for example, I will mask off faces on black primed models, and prime the face white - flesh is hard to paint over black). I use spray cans (GW black primer is excellent, but I dislike their white), airbrush priming (for nice smooth consistency, I only do batches of figures with the airbrush due to setup time) and brush-on priming (usually Vallejo White GameColor primer).

Most of the time I use my variable speed Dremel, witer joints I use a slightly larger bit and paper clips cut into straight lengths.