Ogre Miniatures: Ogre Miniature Painting Tips

I'm going to share a few tips and techniques I've picked up over the years. Tools, painting techniques, you name it.

Antennas for 6mm scale vehicles

I use black nylon paint brush bristles for antennas. They are cheap, plentiful, and you don't puncture your finger every time you pick up a mini, like you do with wire antennas. I recall thinking "I'm going to need a tetanus shot" after stabbing my finger on some Battletech mech wire antennas I did years ago...

I bought a cheap nylon bristle paint brush and cut the bristles off with scissors. I have been using those bristles for the last 25 years or so, and have yet to run out.

I usually leave the bristle long, and use a drop of superglue to attach it to the mini, sometimes I use a drop of accelerator so I don't have to hold it in place for too long. After the glue has dried for an hour or so, you can trim the antenna to length with scissors or flush cutters.

See my pictures in the GEV painting tutorial below.

Painting and Detailing Paneuropean GEV's

I got busy and painted a huge batch of GEV's recently, I was tired of the monochromatic red paint scheme. Basically there are 8 steps to doing this:

1) Priming - I usually prime my miniatures with Krylon Ultra Flat black. It sticks like crazy and dries fast. Of course, if I'm painting the vehicle light colors, then the black primer sucks. Luckily not many of my Ogre vehicles are light in color.

2) Base Coat - I sprayed the Paneuropean vehicles with Krylon Banner Red (satin) from a rattle can. Like I've said elsewhere, I believe in quick and dirty paint jobs for these. Krylon was nice enough to discontinue Banner Red (satin) from their line a few years ago, so I switched to their Banner Red (gloss). I figured I could just spray everything with Dullcote and they would all look the same. Nope. The gloss Banner Red is a little darker than the satin, so now I have a two-toned army. Oh well.

3) Skirt - I paint the skirt flat black all the way around the GEV with a craft store brand acrylic.

4) Windshield - The windshield is really two steps. I mix up a 50% wash of light blue paint and put a drop in each window. Capillary action usually does the rest, filling in the whole window. If not, a #0 brush can be used to work it into the edges. After that wash dries fully, I mix up another 50% wash, this time with dark (Navy) blue. I repeat the process of putting a drop in each window. The nice part about this technique is that it usually leaves a lighter colored "frame" around the window edges.

5) Lift Fan - I put a drop of 50% metallic silver wash in here, to highlight the blades. I also put a dot of black in each engine inlet and exhaust.

6) Guns - I pick out the 5 gun barrels with metallic gold.

7) Antenna - Just superglue the bristle into the antenna socket, let dry, and cut to size. You can also curl them with something to give them that swept-back look.

8) Flat Coat - I dust a couple of light coats of Dullcote over the whole miniature, for protection and to remove any glossiness.