How to paint miniatures Oldhammer style

Greetings Oldhammer fans! In this video I attempt to use an oldhammer miniature painting guide to paint an old citadel dwarf miniature from the late 80's. I did my best to follow the painting tutorial to the best of my abilities and I think the results speak for themselves...
How did you paint miniatures in the 80's? Do you paint Oldhammer style? what oldhammer painting techniques did you use on your miniatures?
Let me know in the comments below!
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Artwork: Games Workshop
Music: Gremlin Graphics/EA

[@davedogge2280]

That's as good as GW painted in their glass cabinets at the Manchester shop in Manchester in the 80s

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

You are very kind!

[@ArpisRoh]

I'm just getting back into mini painting after decades away. I am painting all my old minis (from the 80s & 90s) before buying new ones. I think I may even have this dwarf somewhere!

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

have a try with the old guide!

[@KneeCapHill]

You absolutely need to also make a video where you explain how you get the 90s film fotography effect on the thumbail. That effect is almost as important as the paintjob to really sell the nostalgia

[@elcasey]

Back in the old days (and I am only going back to the mid-90s, but I had all the books from the 80s back then as well), there simply wasn't a large variety of washes and inks available (or at all). When I started out, I had Flesh Wash, Armor Wash ... and I think that was honestly it. Maybe a green wash, but I didn't play Orcs/Orks back then at all (yet now I am a huge Kev Adams fan, now that it costs double figures for a single mini, typical). Thus, they have you making your own from highly thinned mixtures of paint. Now I would just use what's readily available. I still try to paint to a "sort of Oldhammer" standard, as I am returning to the hobby after a 20+ year break. I use Nuln Oil (gloss and matte), Athonian Camoshade, etc. It's just so much easier. But one thing to remember is that old minis like this lent themselves very well to a sort of bright, cartoony painting method. While I certainly think that today's line of injection molded plastic kits are far more detailed and arguably "better quality", they have no souls. And don't use flock for the base. We never did that (in mid-90s Florida hehe), we used PVA glue, dip it into sand, paint with Goblin Green (or whatever you can get that is closest these days), drybrush with yellow-green and a tiny bit of yellow. And, of course, paint the base rim Goblin Green as well! ;) Happy Grognarding.

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

I feel I have to agree with a lot of what you say. Would you like to see a return of the old style minis/painting?

[@elcasey]

@@SnakeWorksStudio Even by the late 90s the move to black primer and drybrushing for a "grittier" (now we would say "grimdark", I suppose) look and feel was becoming very popular. So I think the hobby is big enough for all types of painting! From the really cutting edge stuff like Marco Frisoni, Miniac, and Ninjon do, all the way down to "full Oldhammer" style (which some people are able to do even these days with breathtaking effectiveness). I am mostly doing Bolt Action these days, so I'm back to pretty much the way I used to paint back in the late 90s - block in all your base colo(u)rs, hit the entire model with Agrax Earthshade or Seraphim Sepia, hit the flesh areas with Reikland Flesh Shade, and I also use Nuln Oil Gloss on any metallic areas to dull it down but keep it glossy. No, we didn't have any of those in the 90s, but we did have Flesh Wash and Armour Wash. Same result, pretty much! Then I use a single highlight color for the entire model, VMC Dark Sand in this case, since I am painting Imperial Japanese, and I *lightly* drybrush the entire model with that color which unifies it and adds highlights. I've managed to turn out over 50 infantry this way in less than 2 months, which is quite fast for me! At the end of the day, I think the most important part of this hobby is that people should do what they enjoy. Sometimes I feel like that gets lost in the FOMO and "must have the #latestthing" hype generated by GW and some of the fan communities. Keep up the great work, mate, love the channel!

[@doncoyote68]

@@elcasey Currently going for a style inspired by old eavy metal. Mostly Dave Perry. You have to think a lot about color combinations, I like it, makes it more interesting. A lot of models I see around thus seems pretty flat. There are a couple of other styles I'd like to try my hand at though. But resources for specific styles are a bit difficult to find. One really good way is to buy some second hand models in a style you want and use as a reference. Pictures just aren't good enough for it.

[@kwest9747]

The tips for painting eyes turned my whole world upside down!

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

How so? these are very very old tips

[@kwest9747]

while I have grumped how being right/left handed impacts the angle you paint a miniature from, I never thought of something as simple as turning a model upside down to better access one of the eyes while painting faces. Ironically I do manipulate the model in 3d space quite a lot for other details - I just never considered doing it for eyes @@SnakeWorksStudio

[@sillyninja65]

got about 30 of these from my dads collection. he painted them white and blue with ginger hair and a beer icon on the shields and they look bloody wicked

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

Did you paint any yourself too?

[@0ff868]

this painting guide was not even half bad! for a complete newbie like me it seemed pretty easy and straightforward, nothing too fancy, yet somewhat good-looking thank you, Marcel, for your outstanding work! your channel is an absolute treasure!

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

thanks man! I hope you enjoyed it!

[@0ff868]

@@SnakeWorksStudio every minute) this video has such cozy feeling, I must've rewatched it, like, ten or twenty times at some point I was struck with a huge inspiration to sculpt similar-looking dwarf miniature, so I could try using this guide to finally bring myself to paint a mini for the first time) in the past I've made some crappy ones here, couple of very average-looking ones there, but never actually tried painting them seems to me it's only fitting to follow a 'eavy metal article from the 80's)

[@bringbattlewargaming8720]

Omg,what a nostalgia hit. I did the same thing with a dwarf. Enjoyed that vid

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

Glad you enjoyed it! Do you still have your dwarf?

[@bringbattlewargaming8720]

@@SnakeWorksStudio oddly enough, yes I do. At the time it was the best painted model I had and I didn't even have a Dwarf army back in the day

[@blythejones7052]

Beautiful

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

Will you be having a go?

[@ironbomb6753]

This Dwarf ended up in my Bugmans regiment. Such great days those were.

[@MaskedRiderChris]

This was a fun blast from the past, and I liked it better than the approach GW has these days, which is "Give your miniature a white base coat and then SLATHER IT WITH THESE SUPER EXPENSIVE CONTRAST PAINTS! THERE, ISN'T THAT BRILLIANT," near as I can tell.

[@0ff868]

100 percent truth and almost every painting guide out there looks more like a glorified advert for paints, rather than any kind of sensible advice

[@MaskedRiderChris]

@@0ff868 I used to rely a lot on the Citadel Colour app until recently. I got me a wet palette and even though I have a lot of paints from various brands (Citadel, P3, and Vallejo), I'm getting more into blending on the fly now and creating my own gradients and such. I have not succumbed to the Contrast Plague yet and will not give in!

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

do you like the black lining?

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

I feel its a bit of a mix

[@0ff868]

@@SnakeWorksStudio yeah, I think blacklining wasn't necessary at all It looks cool, though, when you've mastered it, but it's a long way

[@jamiewarne9066]

Those dwarfs were £2.50 for a pack of 5. Don't forget though, back then we had 2 boxes of 9 paints + a set of inks with no KZbin to guide us. Bases had to be painted green or they wouldn't let them in the shop to play. White dwarf was far better back then too. I loved the centre pages to see up coming releases, and Thud!

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

is it true about the green base thing?

[@jamiewarne9066]

@@SnakeWorksStudio it was for my local shop, thats how I knew my mate had been borrowing the models I left at his house.

[@MaskedRiderChris]

And nowadays those dwarfs would be something like $50 USD for those five! Or something mad like that anyway. GW's pricing model is still ridiculous.

[@snowuk1472]

Considering a portion a chips was 25p then it was still a wedge

[@jeremiahembs5343]

Spearstaff brown wasn't really khaki, it was more like a yellow ochre so made a decent highlight for green. Your base color green for the grass should have been darker and cooler. Spearstaff brown was semi-transparent and so could be used to highlight things pretty easily. The black outlines you mentioned looking bad are supposed to be applied with a thinned down black paint with a very dry brush where just the tip of the brush is touched into the paint and then turning the figure upside down so the black paint flows into the underside of the raised area making shadows and separating the objects. The dry brushing on the weapons was easier to achieve with the old citadel paint because the medium was a bit gummy and would stick to the model if you moved the brush rapidly, similar to how the citadel line of dry paints work today but even more sticky. Usually you would use a flat brush with a semi-circle tip to do it though keeping the brush very flat against the model but just using the tip. With one rapid coat the black metal would look like iron with a few shiny scratches, with more coats it would look more and more like shiny metal with some black shadows.

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

i only used what i had to hand. if i were an expert i would have got the original paint! did you ever paint like this?

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

do you like them?

[@jeremiahembs5343]

@@SnakeWorksStudio Yes, I still paint like that and I like what you've done. The main difference is I would have used a regular brown to shade under his nose instead of a really dark brown because it looked a little strong there and I would have used a slightly browner and darker red to shade in the grooves of the shirt and used a little orangish red to highlight the ridges of the shirt. That would have helped give more depth to the outfit. I use a lot of different brands, but I like Coat D'Arms paints the most, but I also use vallejo, P3, WarColours, WarColours Classic 88', sometimes oil paint too, even cheap Folk Art or Delta Ceramacoat type acrylic paint like you can get at Walmart. Just whatever works. Just by painting a lot and you'll find out that the type of paint you use isn't as important as how you use it. It's just that miniature paint is finer and less gritty than cheaper stuff so while different paint has to be handled differently to get good results you just try different approaches until it works for you. But you don't need original paint old school citadel paint to paint in the old style. The coat d'arms brand and p3 brand paint is basically the same stuff and the warcolours classic 88' is pretty good too especially the reds and metalics. The medium is a little thinner than it used to be especially the warcolours classic '88 brand, but that's not a bad thing since you don't have to thin it as much to get it to flow. But the old school type paints like those brands do separate a lot especially the blues so it's good to have some mixing balls to drop into the container of paint and a nail polish paint shaker can really help too. I have arthritis so it's a major blessing for me to just hit a button and let the machine do the work especially since I have so many different paints and shaking them all up is really hard for me now.

[@ledonjondebargul5631]

Great video and citadel miniatures. I am a collector and painter too. I subscribe to your channel now. 😃👍 hello from France

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

Hello! What pieces are you collecting?

[@ledonjondebargul5631]

@@SnakeWorksStudio you can see a part of my collection on my channel. Essentialy citadel LOTR, D&D and AD&D and warhammer of the years 80´s and 90´s. 😃

[@ILetYouGo]

Would be interested in seeing a 90s version of this. Feel like the Oldhammer painting style had matured by then with thinner blacklining and a much more effective result

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

I will see what I can do! 90's you say?

[@ILetYouGo]

@@SnakeWorksStudio yeah late 90s, box art / eavy metal style stuff. Thin blacklining only started going out of fashion in the early 2000s I think

[@ILetYouGo]

I think people also used to put a wash over the black (when washing the basecoat) to lessen the contrast slightly.

[@adamfox1669]

Aahhh.... retro warhammer40k! Best. I just got a horde of 2nd edition plastic boyz& grots. 48 & 39 respectively. Im not planning to go 'full retro ' with the paint scheme, but more of a mix between oldhammer and weathered campaigners. I think I like having valid excuses for pouring over my old WD's and spending time looking through a boatload of YT videos on the subject! Thanks for sharing these. Always a pleasure. Be safe!

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

How’s the paint on those coming along?

[@khublaklonk4480]

Not quite sure how I wandered onto this video, but I'm glad I did! I remember that issue and article, and I was a big fan of those Perry dwarves, though I never managed to find that particular one myself. At the time I was still doing enamels and turps, and it all looked very modern to me! I used to get headaches from that ruddy turps; I was glad to finally ditch the enamels and move to acrylics, but the sight of a Humbrol tinlet can still send me strolling off down Memory Lane if I'm not careful...

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

We don’t want to be getting headaches from the paint! Have you tried the newer stuff since?

[@worldhistoryminiatureshous9757]

Superb tutorial ! Like bring me back years ago ! happy to discover your channel and subscribe it !

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

thank you very much! you are very kind!

[@worldhistoryminiatureshous9757]

@@SnakeWorksStudio You are welcome !

[@howieb4217]

great stuff!

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

Thank you! Have you tried painting old style?

[@DrakesHobbiesAndGames]

The blacklineing is a talent I don’t have anymore, but man does it make the paintjob look old. We have Nuln Oil for that now.

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

Have you tried oils or contrast?

[@OldManPaints]

good little tute. You speak very clearly. I pretty much use all of these techniques...with some colour differences. I backline with a watered-down black or dark tone ink. I don't understand the modern method of fully painting one part of your figure completely. before moving on to the next. surely it's easier to do all the base coats..then the washes, highlights then clean up at the end?

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

I would agree! I was just trying to follow the guide, have you tried it yourself?

[@OldManPaints]

@@SnakeWorksStudio no,..I have my way...which is based on which is most efficient. Is not efficient to fully paint one part of a model...because you need to open pots ...close them and then reopen them again later a million times. I still though your video was great.

[@sugarface88]

very enjoyable

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

thanks! im glad you enjoye it!

[@synns6898]

Remember owning and painting that dwarf as a kid, certainly was not painted to a good standard in those days, but I remember painting it red and green.

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

yes! do you still have him somewhere?

[@synns6898]

@@SnakeWorksStudio unfortunately not, my cousins had all my old citadel stuff when I hit my chasing girls and highs faze of my life. It was then years later I returned to the hobby and had to start collecting all over again unfortunately

Lots of these old school painting techniques seem dubious to me, but I love black lining. That's what really screams old school to me

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

Have you tried it?

@@SnakeWorksStudio Yes, it's really what I was missing for an old school look on my minis. That's super easy too!

[@patinho5589]

Yeah the black lining is a strange step. I also dried to follow the old 50p citadel painting guide when I started too.

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

50p painting guide?

[@patinho5589]

@@SnakeWorksStudio yeah. “How to Paint Citadel Miniatures” .. a little pamphlet which sold for 50p. I bought it at around the time of WD issue 110 I’d say. It was about 12 pages long. It’s red. I didn’t watch the start of your video properly before - and I assumed you had a version of it with a different cover on your desk.. I didn’t realise you were following a guide inside WD99. It had about 2 pages on cleaning your model etc.

[@tommyakesson8858]

I would have to see it IRL but I dont think I would mind the black lines. Why? Like often it depends. Is it a display pice? One you will look at from a few inches away? Probably not. Its supposed to be a about a meter away in a table. I remeber how happy I was with my dryads I painted like .... 14 years ago. Now that I picked them out again to play Old World I notice the same issue. They look great. Up close. But on the table rhe contrast just isnt enough.

[@weirdsciencethe2nd205]

Back wen I used to paint a lot i even did friends army's for a price of course me and my Foster sis earnt good money doing that the only thing I'd say is there's no brush you have taken scissors to to make it uber thin and also if you cut like a slight angle it is a useful brush for doing like say exposed ceremite and use hot pins to make bullet holes or dents in there pauldrons and chest plates and we even made micro arrows using a dremel matches ant the few feathers we found lol that was for a dwarf army the guys face when he saw the tiny bows and arrows and I even made him a little like match stick defence for the price he paid I felt I had to back aged 16 150 quid was a loooot of cash lol

[@kenmcvittie3584]

I remember that issue of WD back in the good old days when miniatures were £2:50 for 5 and a box set was £10.

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

haha yes! do you still have any?

[@kenmcvittie3584]

@@SnakeWorksStudio sadly not I wasn't in charge of my last move, so only my LOTR and some 2000's vampires made it. Very few of the paint jobs would have stood up. A friend still has all his box sets and Games tho dating back to Mid/Late 80s Fantasy Battle and 40k

[@eldraque4556]

where did you find the exact dwarf they used in the guide?

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

I had to scour eBay for days!

[@eldraque4556]

@@SnakeWorksStudio good effort

[@leespiderpod]

All of my citadel’s were painted in thick enamel

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

Is it fun to paint with?

[@leespiderpod]

@@SnakeWorksStudio I was a kid at the time so I loved it, but as an adult.. no way!

[@bunkerdome3562]

you should paint the model your way now and compare

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

a very good idea!

[@Bluecho4]

The black-lining might have gone better if it had been pin washed instead with black wash.

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

You're right! I was trying to follow the old guide. it was hard!

[@Dave_L]

Don't tell me he's going to cut the tab off that model and put it on a 25mm base... please don't tell me he's going to do that to that classic model...

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

hahahaa it doesn't matter as long as its fully painted!

[@kbrown4393]

Hello, I’ve recently inherited a large quantity of warhammer\oldhammer. Most of it is dated 1984 and I’m looking to sell them. If anyone has any information or are looking to buy them, contact me thanks.

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

E mail me @[e-mail] with some pics and a list?

[@jamiewarne9066]

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