Fixing Painting Mistakes

Finger Prints, Bumps and Small Details

These are the most common types of errors that need touch ups when it comes to painting miniatures. In these cases I usually wait till the very end of what ever painting step I am on to cover them up (that way if more fingerprints/bumps etc happen I can do everything at once). 

Dry brush- If your dry brushing got messed up I personally like to redo all of the dry brushing/ detail layers in that area that got covered by my boo boo (ex- My white body of the boneclaw got a blue finger print from my painting the cloth. I redo the top 2 dry brush layers and the glaze to cover up the blue)

Shadow layer- Lets say you had a very nice shadow layer that got covered by another paint. You can get your finiest tipped brush and go back in with that shadow layer paint OR make a glaze/wash using that shadow layer pigment and go back into the creases.

The face-Eyeballs and facial pieces can be a beast to get right. My tip for faces is try holding your mini upside down so your brain no longer sees it as a face. Even still, sometimes the details are too small for some brushes. You can use toothpicks, use brushes that have fewer bristles (or cut a brush you don’t care about to have fewer bristles). Use as little paint as you can, you can always add more. For faces, just go back to the last paint layer you covered. If you add too many layers of paint you’ll run into more problems loosing details. Any time you need to fix face mistakes less can be more.  

Globs of Paint 

If there is a glob of wet paint where it’s not supposed to be, take a clean and slightly damp paint brush and hold it sidewise (to get more surface area) while twirling it over the glob to pick up as much of the excess paint as you can without spreading the pigment elsewhere.  This may not get all the paint every time but it will give you a cleaner and easier surface to touch up if there is still pigment left. 

If you are just starting on your miniature and you have globs of paint (meaning no other layers or just a dry base coat) you can use a wet wipe to clean up the glob. Or if its a glob of your base coat color, use your brush to either smooth out the glob or remove it. 

For Bigger Boo-boos

First you need to determine how big and bad this boo boo is. If an area is in just one section (such as a  body part ex. Torso, or on the clothes, or the face). You can go back to the last 2 or 3 layers and re apply. What I mean is if you were adding a wash and it turned out bad or went in an area you didn’t want you can re do the last dry brushing /detail works prior to the wash to get it to the prior look before the boo boo

My paint bottle spilt/I dropped my mini into paint….yes this happens sometimes. This is where you do damage control in a larger area. Clean off what unwanted color you can with a wet wipe as gently as you can (not trying to take off all the layers). If you can get it cleaned off or to a point that you  do a few layers back great. 

If your paint/wash/materials got into all of the cracks and crevasses of your mini or if your miniature has gotten  too much paint where you have lost major details (feather texture is gone, nose/eyes/ears are gone, hair looks solid due to paint in cracks, etc) then you will have to go back down to the base after cleaning off your mini and start back at the beginning. This can be disheartening but sometimes you get great work from 2nd chances. See the side on cleaning it back to the base. 

Back to the Base

If there is a moment where you go, I need to start over, don’t feel despair. Sometimes paints don’t work like you want them too, or something doesn’t look the way you wanted it to. Sometimes it’s better to get a fresh start. 

Things to use:

1. Rubbing Alcohol- can be put on with a paintbrush for small areas or put it in a bowl/Dixie cup and submerge 

2. Soft toothbrush- scrub the paint off gently 

3. Soapy water to clean and rinse the mini  

AVOID:

• harsh chemicals or cleaning chemicals- they may melt or disfigure your mini 

• paint thinner- again will “melt” your mini 

• Acetone for plastic minis- will melt them. BUT acetone can be used on pewter or metal minis 

General Advice