I think many of us had tried painting our models by hands at some points, and the first time results most likely not very satisfactory.

I wouldn't go into details on how to paint xxx or how to paint with xxx by hand, as many 師兄 already have great tutorial posted here.

Instead I wish to talk about the equipment used in hand painting. Here I wish to talk about equipment that would allow you to get satisfactory results easily, I am not saying you can't get satisfactory results using different equipment or doing things the other ways round. Here I want to talk about equipment / method that would most likely deliver you satisfactory results. That's why they are called 神器.

Brushes

Winsor & Newton Series 7
Simply said these are the best brushes money can buy. These brushes are for water colors, be sure stated this when you ask for it at the arts store. The prices of these brushes are proportional to how many hairs the brush has. So 000 is the cheapest, 00 costs a little more, and so on.

Winsor & Newton Series 7 - For Miniature Painting
For those of us painting figures, these are specially made for miniature painting. These brushes have shorter hairs, providing extra control. But I think not many art store have it for sale. (I am only able to order them online, if you know which store in Hong Kong have them available for sale please tell me too.)

Paint

Acrylic Paints
Acrylic paints once dry, won't dissolved again when you paint over it. This property makes them easy to use for beginner and veteran a like. If you need to paint a gradual change of color, you need to do feathering instead of blending, details please refers to the tutorials by other 師兄. Recommended brands are Andrea, Citadel, Vallejo Model Colors.

Thinner

Distilled water (蒸餾水)
Acrylic paints are thinned with water, here water means pure water, not tap water. Normal tap water contains many chemicals that would have strange reactions to the Acrylic paints. So use distilled water as thinner, the brand of distilled water being use is not important.

Plaette

Wet Plaette
Wet Plaette is a plaette with a sponge underneath, which keep the paint above wet. Wet Plaette makes sure the Acrylic paints on your plaette won't dry while you wait for the paint on the model to dry. This serve three purposes:
(1) If you are painting with custom mixed color, it makes sure you won't need to mix the color again and again;
(2) Wet Plaette usually come with a lid, which allow you to keeps the color usable for days;
(3) Save you money for not having the paint keep drying on the plaette.

Varnish

Lacquer based varnish
Acrylic paints are easier to chip, so you most likely would need to apply a coat of clear varnish. Due the the wet climate in Hong Kong, Acrylic based varnish easily got "white mist" when dry. This can be eliminate by using hair dryer while you apply the varnish. But why make things so complicated when you can use Lacquer based varnish? Lacquer based varnish won't get the "white mist" no matter how wet the whether is.

[ 本帖最後由 DoEddi 於 2018-8-19 10:10 PM 編輯 ]