Old Skool Mini Painting - What is it? How has it Evolved?

Today we look at the history of our hobby and discuss the early days of modern wargaming painting. From D&D to Rogue Trader, we'll take a look at what shaped painting as we see it today.
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[@garenosborn]

Man, my first mini was a Ral Partha that I painted using testors enamel model paints. No thinning, what’s thinning? Thinner is for cleaning your brushes right? I was probably 13. 1983? I recently returned to the mini painting hobby after about 30 years. I’m slow and easily distracted so I don’t get a lot done but I’ve painted a few space marines and a squad of ork boys. Airbrushing is a game changer and just knowing that you can, should and will thin your paints is as well. I don’t have any of my old minis anymore but I’ll say that the maybe 20 minis I’ve done since starting back up again are worlds ahead of the maybe 200 minis I painted in the 80’s-early 90’s. Channels like this and a few others have really made my painting improve in leaps and bounds.

[@hewlett-packardlovecraft2297]

Ral Partha? Now there's a name I haven't heard in YEARS. I'm in much the same boat as you- first set of paint was Testors, knew diddly about thinning paints 'cause as you said, thinner was for cleaning your brush, and here I am 30-ish odd years back in a hobby I left 'cause we just didn't have access to info like this. Took the plunge on an airbrush set-up, bought some Vallejo paints, and now I feel as if I can paint anything, even though I know I can't. But the difference is night and day, now. i guess you can say we paid our dues. Have fun back in the hobby.

[@timandshannon03]

I started in 2nd Ed 40k in like 93-94 but hadn't done anything since. Started again in 2020 thanks to the coof, and got back into 9th Ed. Glad you got back too!

[@ccrooper88]

Got to be at least 13 years since that GW airbrush monstrosity was released. I remember buying it and got out of the hobby in 2009! I do love the old school style and remember regularly raiding my dads model railway supplies for things like flock, ballast etc to go on my bases. Aaah happy days

[@TesseractMinis]

Could well be 13 years, yeah! I couldn't find an exact release date, during my research.

[@MrPolicekarim]

I think Benji's Hobbies did a video about it? He said that at the time, GW only had 2 spray paints in their range!@@TesseractMinis

[@AndersRamm]

Old school ftw!!✌️

[@EdGarnham]

The frustrtation of painting in the 80s was real. Coming back to it now it's like easy mode. So much more fun.

[@KrullMaestaren]

I have dedicated the little time that I have to oils lately because blending, washing etc becomes much easier. Drying time is different/interesting, you can thin the paint a lot and reach a point where they will stick to the surface after a few minutes so that you can add a layer or blend into them. My second lesson has bin that less paint on the brush is king, always brush it on paper at least once before touching the figure. Priming has a huge effect, had to switch to primers that you brush on.

[@happyguy333]

There are definitely things that we can learn and take from OG mini painting, but I'll be cold in my grave before I surrender washes! Also: "Take that ultramarines!" love it.

[@mattvegas3388]

We just use to make our own back when. It was pretty easy.

[@rockstrongo831]

Anyone else here who knows the therm red herring from the old computergaming times? Btw nice video.

[@mattvegas3388]

Funny you mention the bases. Way back figures didn't come with bases and they weren't sold separately. The best method for basing was finding floor tiles that were about 1" X 1". Lot's of people didn't base any of their figures, or if they did it they were painted just a solid color. I once copied a person who painted the bases as stone flooring, that was going all out back then.

[@zackcook5123]

Old skool painting! I once found a couple of the old gw paints in a charity shop most of the labels gone. They where terrible, despite that it was fun to see this ancient bit of warhammer. Personally I've really grown to like the old gw style with cartoons bright colours. Suit eldar and orks well!

[@mugsofdoomminis]

As someone who came from scale modelling I never did like edge highlights. We should celebrate the volumetric!

[@TesseractMinis]

Personally I don't much care for how they look, or for the process.. but they are sometimes necessary I guess.

[@mugsofdoomminis]

@@TesseractMinis yea when you look at the world around you it would be strange to see everything with neat edge highlights :P

[@TesseractMinis]

Unless you lived in the Tron universe 😎

[@Psychichazard]

I started painting minis in the 80's. I recall the revelation in using polyfiller to create base textures. And switching from my older brother's airfix and humbrol enamel paint that he painted spitfires with to tamiya acrylics....exciting times. I also seem to remember that the first release of citadel colours were a bit....awful. Coming back to the hobby recently I've now started using zenithal priming and inks- and even contrast paints- to get the look I was after all those years ago.

[@TesseractMinis]

Haha! Yes the first citadel paints were absolutely terrible! I remember them vividly 😢

[@timandshannon03]

Everyone poops on my Ultramarines..................lol Literally started 2ed with Ultramarines. LoL Wish I still had some of my old models.

[@CattyRayheart]

I rather like the super saturated colors on the gaming table but when looking at them on video or pictures they don;t look nearly as good.

[@GrognardPiper]

I’ve been getting some metal miniatures in the style of 1st edition AD&D. I’d like to paint them with an old school 70’s/80’s style and look. Does anyone have any advice on this?

[@clintonclay3158]

I'm thinking of how I want to paint my dark angels combat patrol. I kind of want to do a retro old school theme.

[@clintonclay3158]

This is a stupid question. Are there any tutorials on the old school painting style? I have minis I want to practice on. Thanks in advance!

[@TesseractMinis]

I haven't done any myself, but my painting is pretty heavily influenced by old skool styling.

[@clintonclay3158]

I'm clueless can you tell me your step by step with that crimson fist? It looks so badass I want my dark angels to look like that

[@TesseractMinis]

Sure! That was actually a really simple paint job. Started with a dark blue, then mixed in some mid blue and glazed out toward the edges of each volume (the shapes or each section of the mini are called volumes). Continued adding mid blue and building up glazes, then added a touch of a really bright light turquoise colour and edge highlighted the panels. Then some final edge highlights on the top facing/sharp corners, using just the turquoise. The red is exactly the same method, just starting with a dark red, working up to a bright red, then introducing orange for the edge highlights.

[@clintonclay3158]

Thank you. I'm not too familiar with glazing technique. Ive only been painting minis for a couple weeks. Thank you for the advice! So, the trick is going dark then working to the lightest color? I'll see if I can pull it off with my practice pieces.

[@KenS1267]

? GW was not the whole of the miniatures world back in 1991. I owned a lot more RP stuff than GW stuff. I never black lined. that was always a tedious process. Washing worked better, particularly when pewter minis came out and the sculpts became very detailed. There weren't premade washes of course so I would just dilute a darker shade of the base color of the mini or use India ink. I never had the patience for airbrushing except to do big batches of things at once. I did entire units of micro armor in olive drab with an air brush and then did details with a normal brush. Saved a whole lot of time. The major difference now is the availability of tools and paints. Back then there was Testors paints, which were really awful, and a few equally bad competitors, they made Citadel paints look good. Brushes were mostly for the plastic model world and generally the finest ones were just barely adequate, I unfondly remember trimming brushes to get a tip fine enough to do detail work on RP 25mm minis. Wet palettes? Never saw one. dropper bottles? nope. More than a dozen shades? I think Testor officially had 70 or so shades but they didn't sell individual pots to retailers. They wanted to sell the full display case or various kits. So it was virtually impossible to find most of the colors except from model mail order companies and glass bottles getting shipped was dicey to say the least. Now you can get almost anything you need from companies actually geared to gamers.