How I paint in enamels. Part one - The Set Up

Since the Covid lock downs, the monthly hit rate on this blog has escalated from 10,000 - 13,000 a month to over 20,000, and with that increase I'm receiving triple the number of private communications with specific queries, mostly regarding my use of enamels, or painting in general. In response, I have decided to do a step by step of how I paint figures using Humbrol enamels.

Now, I have to point out straight away that, there is nothing new in my basic technique and I don't have, as far as I know, any special tips for speed painting. This latter point will, no doubt, disappoint many. The most common compliment I get is "the speed you paint at is amazing" or suchlike, but the truth is I don't paint that quickly. Granted, I probably do paint a little quicker than most because the paint only goes where I want, how I want, and nowhere else but, that is only because of constant practice. I paint as many figures as I do, not because of technique, arcane magic, or trickery, but because I don't mind putting the hours in - sorry but, if you are looking for a secret speed painting technique, or a tartan paint supplier, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Not all the painting questions I've had relate directly to enamels, technique, or colours, so in response to the myriad of questions I've had recently, I think I'll start at the very beginning and cover as many things as I can.

This is my painting station (it's not used for anything else): It's a big desk, with lots of drawers for paint, tools and the like. And, it has enough surface space not to be overly crowded - it has elbow room.

It has to good local forms of lighting. These are an Anglepoise LED lamp (light without heat), placed to shine directly and closely from my right (I'm right handed), and a wall mounted 2' long 20W florescent strip light, situated just above my sitting eye line, to brighten the general painting area - which it does considerably.

My desk is directly beneath a big window for even more light during the day but, I don't like painting in direct sunlight so the blinds are usually drawn to defuse it when I'm painting. At night, I suppose the blinds reflect the artificial light back into the room - double bubble.

The lighting doesn't end there. Above and behind my head there is a further 9' of florescent tube lighting. These are, incidentally, why the photos of my battles tend to be quite well lit.

Note the digital radio, under the Kitchener poster, because you can't paint and watch things at the same time. (I mostly listen to talk radio and plays. I find being entertained whilst I paint keeps me at it for longer periods of time).

Close by I have a laptop, which is in invaluable when painting stuff for which I don't have hard copy guides (also for Radio 4 Extra on the BBC Radio iPlayer, so I can listen to 'box sets' - four and a half hours of Sherlock Holmes, anyone).

A good comfy chair is an absolute essential. This one was a Christmas present, from my wife, last year.

Close at hand, top drawer right side, I keep my paint. It's split into two lots, opened tins at the front and unopened tins at the back. Best to be organised here. It's all Humbrol, and nearly all is 'new recipe'. The three acrylics, in the corner, are bright metal colours (more anon).

Beneath this drawer, several others mostly hold other paint of various types (tins of emulsion, spray paint, etc.).

On the other side of the desk there are drawers for modelling tools and all manner of other useful, on occasion, odds and sods.

To the right side of the desk (as seen in the first photo above), I keep my modelling drill close by and always set up, and hanging from the wall by their cables are a couple of glue guns. I also keep a small, wooden desktop chest of drawers here - it contains transfers, pens, pencils, compasses, and a very simple minor injury first aid kit.

It's amazing how much gubbins this hobby of ours creates. I also have various cupboards full of modelling and basing materials - storage space is a never ending problem; it's always storage space.

At the back of my desk I keep the things I most readily need to hand.

Brushes, glue, and a clear plastic desk tidy stuffed with various scalpels, modelling knives, pincers, etc.

On the subject of brushes: I mainly use Artmaster Pearl Series 10/0, 5/0 and 3/0. These are reasonable quality and keep their point for some time but are very cheap, at £1.50 a pop. The Artmaster Acrylic series brushes are also very good - these brushes are sized the same but have slightly stiffer bristles.
My advice when painting with enamels: Don't buy expensive brushes because the thinners will wreck them in no time at all and their better quality is soon negated: Best to use cheaper brushes that you can afford to change more regularly.

Note that the brushes in the jars, behind the good ones in the black plastic desk tidy, are big ones mainly used for terrain and basing jobs; and old figure painting brushes which I keep for silly one use then chuck away jobs, like applying glue when sticking paper flags together - you can see by the amount of them, just how many I go through, and these are the ones I kept after a 'full jar' clear out last week. Also, in the black plastic desk tidy, are two big plastic water reservoir brushes with lids on - we'll get to those at the end of this series of posts, they are very clever and I use them for acrylic inks.

BTW, I don't usually keep this many new unused brushes in stock but, with Covid and lockdown, I decided to stockpile a few just in case there is a supply problem.

The jam jar is an essential piece of kit. It is full of paint thinners (white spirit). I find stubby wide topped jars are the best but, any glass jar will do. I generally have two or three jars of used thinners on my desk in which the enamel sediment is slowly settling out. When it has (it takes a couple of weeks), I pour it into a clean jar and re-use it. That's why the thinners in this jar is the colour of, to be polite, honey. Using old, settled out thinners means I only go through 2 litres of spirit every three or four months - unless I'm particularly thirsty.

When using enamels you will need to mix paint to get the right highlighting shades. There is no way around it, so you will need a palette.

I've used all manner of things over the years but, I've settled on using a 6" white ceramic wall tile. These are nonporous, smooth, the right colour for mixing on, and easy to clean. My tile has a piece of cardboard the same size as the tile underneath it, to 'cushion' it.

Next to my palette, I always keep three sheets of kitchen roll (medium quality), folded in half, bulldog clipped to a piece of board. It's used for brush maintenance and it is in constant use. It's important that there should be several layers of paper, rather than just one, to add sponginess. Sponginess is important for springiness as much as absorbency - it helps to have a springy, spongy surface when wiping your brushes.

I keep the pallete and kitchen paper on a larger tile purely as a means to quickly move the whole lot to one side as one lump when I need to make space on my desk, and I regularly cover this larger tile with clean paper (green at the moment) so I don't have to clean it.

IMPORTANT ADVICE: Enamel paint wrecks furniture and clothes.

You may need to protect your work surface: To protect yourself from your wife, in the event you get Humbrol all over her dining table! My desk is covered with a sheet of perspex (actually a bit of old shower screen) to protect it as best I can - unfortunately the glass that once covered the desk got smashed. In the event that you don't have something (a sheet of glass, perspex, MDF, or whatever) to protect your work surface, may I suggest a roll of wall lining paper; it's a fairly cheap and disposable alternative. I have a sheet of lining paper under my perspex to reflect light - the actual desk top is brown leather and it soaks the light up. You might also notice, in the first picture above, a piece of denim rag and three still folded sheets of used kitchen roll just to the left of my palette, these are for pallet cleaning and, in emergency, cleaning up any accidental spillage - once bitten, twice shy. 

Lastly, on the subject of protection: As we are all now aware, proper PPE is important. I always paint in a plain white cotton apron. These are cheap as chips. I buy about three a year and they cost £2.20 each on ebay. I would never paint in good new clothes, but these aprons make my old cheap clothes last twice as long - much to the chagrin of my much embarrassed son, but that's what I'm there for, isn't it.

Next up, Part 2, will be a very short piece on figure preparation.