Many of the board games I play have miniatures, and painting them adds to my enjoyment of the game. I’m no great painter, and so I’ve come to terms with the virtue of mediocrity – even a mediocre paint job is better than a plain grey mini on the table. There are a few things that I try to keep in mind when painting the miniatures: they are game pieces not artworks; you look at them on the game board; and I’ve got a ton more to paint.
Miniatures as Board Game Pieces
Most of the miniatures I paint are board game pieces, and so they need to serve this purpose. Scythe, for example, has miniatures for the leaders, mechs, and airships, and each faction has an associated colour. This colour becomes a key component of the paint scheme. The faction shown here, for example, has blue as the primary colour. Using blue as the main colour means the pieces’ faction is instantly recognisable.
You usually look at board game minis from about a metre away, against a crowded game board. Fine details aren’t easily seen at that distance, and a general impression is all that’s required. That doesn’t stop me from making some effort – it just moderates the time and energy I’ll invest in most figures. I give ‘Hero’ figures a bit more attention, but the rank-and-file get fairly quick treatments for the most part. The Nordic Scythe miniatures here, for example, are mostly a blue wash over a metallic base coat and some solid blue trim. The leader, Bjorn, and his musk ox companion, however, get a more detailed paint job.
Good-Enough Miniature Painting Techniques
Since I want to spend more time playing board games than painting, the role of miniatures as game pieces and the number of them I have to paint, efficiency is important when painting miniatures. In the past I’ve often gone with the base-coat, wash, then dry-brush approach, and this generally gives good results. I recently got the Army Painter’s Speedpaints, which claim to do base-coat, shading, and highlights in a single application. I’ve found that the results vary a bit, with highly saturated colours having a bit less contrast. The paints do what they’re supposed to do though, and give good results with very little effort. I’ve been painting Mansions of Madness 2e with Speedpaints, and have managed to get through a lot of models in a short time.
More pictures of the Scythe factions are on my Instagram, and I expect there’ll be more painted miniatures there in future.