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Clean, assemble, mount

Before a single drop of paint touches your figure, spend ten minutes on preparation. Mould lines — those fine ridges where the two halves of a casting mould met — will show through any paint job, so scrape them away with the back of a hobby knife blade or a small file. Work gently: the back of the blade is safer than the sharp edge, and it won't gouge soft metal or plastic.

Wash the parts in warm water with a little washing-up liquid, then rinse and dry thoroughly. Plastic and resin castings often carry a thin film of release agent that repels paint, and no amount of primer will save you from skipping this step. Once dry, assemble with a suitable adhesive, fill any gaps with two-part epoxy putty or thick acrylic medium, and leave to cure.

Finally, mount each figure on something you can hold. A wine cork, an old paint pot, or a length of dowel with a blob of putty on top works perfectly. You'll paint faster, smudge less, and your wrists will thank you. If you plan to base the model on a textured round base, do that now — sand, grit and static grass are much easier to apply before the figure is covered in careful brushwork.

Prime with patience

Primer is the bridge between plastic and paint, and it's where most beginner paint jobs are won or lost. Use a spray primer designed for miniatures, shake the can for a full minute, and spray in short passes from around 20 to 30 centimetres away. Several light dustings beat one heavy coat every time. If the figure looks glossy and clogged, you've gone too close or too thick, and fine detail will vanish.

Colour choice matters more than people expect:

• Grey is the forgiving all-rounder and shows you exactly what you've covered.
• Black gives instant shadow in recesses but dulls bright colours over the top.
• White keeps colours vivid but punishes messy brushwork.

A useful trick is to prime in black, then dust white primer lightly from above. That gives you a head start on shading before you've picked up a brush. If the weather is cold, damp or windy, spray indoors with ventilation or use a brush-on primer instead — humidity can leave a chalky finish that ruins an otherwise perfect undercoat.

Base coats: thin, steady, twice

Thin your acrylics to roughly the consistency of semi-skimmed milk. Two thin coats that flow smoothly will always look better than one thick layer that clogs detail. Load your brush, then wipe most of the paint off on a palette tile or the rim of a dish before touching the model.

Work in a sensible order: large areas first, then smaller ones, saving fiddly details for last. Plan a palette of four to six colours for a whole unit, so your warband looks like it belongs together on the table. Paint skin and cloth before armour and metallics, and keep a clean, damp brush handy for tidying edges. If you make a mistake, let it dry and paint over it — chasing wet paint only spreads it.

Shading: let the shadows work for you

A wash is the fastest way to make a miniature read clearly at arm's length, which is exactly how it will be seen during a game. Brush a thinned dark wash over the whole figure, or use a pin wash — guiding the liquid only into the recesses — for a tidier result. Warm colours take a brown wash well; cooler tones and metal prefer black or a dark blue-grey.

Watch for pooling on flat surfaces, which leaves ugly tide marks. Touch the pool with a clean, slightly damp brush and the excess will lift away. Once the wash is bone dry, go back over the raised areas with your original base colour. That single step sharpens everything and stops the figure looking muddy.

Highlights: drybrush, layer, edge

Highlighting is where character appears. Drybrushing is the workhorse for textured surfaces — fur, chainmail, stone and hair. Load a battered old brush, wipe nearly all the paint off on a tissue, then flick it lightly across the model. The pigment catches the raised areas and leaves recesses dark and rich.

For skin, cloth and faces, layer instead. Mix your base colour one or two shades lighter and paint thin strokes on the areas that would catch light: cheekbones, noses, knuckles, the tops of folds. Two or three gradual steps look far better than one stark jump. Edge highlighting — a fine, bright line along the sharpest armour edges — adds a crisp finish, but keep it delicate. A dot of dark colour in each eye socket often reads better than a white eyeball with a pupil, and it's much less likely to look startled.

Varnish: the step that saves your weekend

Unsealed paint rubs off on fingers, foam trays and table edges. A matt varnish is the final, essential layer. Spray two thin coats in dry, mild conditions, holding the can a good distance away and moving in steady passes. Warm the can in a bowl of warm water first and shake it thoroughly.

If your figures see heavy handling — club nights, tournaments, borrowed armies — consider a gloss varnish first, then a matt coat over the top for looks. Gloss is tougher; matt is prettier. For awkward details and single character models, brush-on varnish gives you precise control. Let everything cure overnight, then store your finished figures in a foam-lined case or on magnetised bases, and they'll survive years of adventures looking sharp.