Basecoating Miniatures: The Foundation of Every Paint Job

Hey again, friends. Basecoating is one of those steps that sounds so simple it shouldn't need its own guide. Just put color on the model, right? How hard can that be?

Well. It's not hard. But it is the step where most new painters develop bad habits that haunt them for years. Thick paint, overloaded brushes, panicking at splotchy coverage, trying to get everything perfect in one coat. I did all of these things when I started. It made the hobby frustrating until I figured out what I was doing wrong. And what I was doing wrong was really just one thing: I wasn't thinning my paints.

So let's go through this properly. Basecoating is the foundation of literally every paint job you'll ever do. Get this step right and everything that follows (washes, highlights, weathering, all of it) becomes easier and looks better. Get it wrong and you're fighting your model the entire way.

What Basecoating Actually Is

Basecoating is laying down the initial solid colors on your model. Skin gets its skin color. Armor gets its metal. Cloth gets its blue or red or green or whatever you've chosen. You're establishing what everything is. That's all. You're not shading, you're not highlighting, you're not blending. You're just saying "this part is green, this part is brown, this part is silver."

It sounds boring. It kind of is boring, in the same way that laying a foundation for a house is boring. Nobody gets excited about concrete. But if your foundation is crooked, the whole house is crooked. Same thing here. Clean, smooth basecoats make every subsequent step work better.

The Most Important Rule: Thin Your Paints

I cannot stress this enough. Goopy, thick paint is always your enemy. Always. At every level of miniature painting. If I could go back in time and tattoo one piece of advice on my beginner self's forehead, it would be "thin your paints" in reverse so I could read it in the mirror every morning.

Here's the process. Take a drop of paint and put it on your wet palette. Mix in about one brush-full of water. That's it. This thins the paint down so it applies more smoothly and easily. It shouldn't be watery (that's too thin). It shouldn't be like yogurt (that's too thick). You're looking for something like the consistency of whole milk. It flows off the brush, but it's not running all over the place.

Now here's the part that trips people up. Once you've mixed the water into your paint, you'll have paint on your brush and you'll want to start painting immediately. Do not. Rinse the brush in your water cup, dry it on your paper towel (twisting to keep a nice sharp tip), then go back to your thinned paint and load up about halfway up the bristles. Dab the brush on your paper towel to remove excess. Only then do you start painting.

I know. That sounds like 40 steps just to put paint on a model. And I apologize, but this really is the most important thing in this entire guide. Loading your brush and thinning your paint so you have maximum control is what makes the difference between "I love this hobby" and "I'm throwing these models in the trash."

The Three-Coat Rule

As you're applying base coats, you're going to notice something alarming. The paint looks splotchy. It isn't fully covering the primer underneath. There are patches where the black shows through and patches where the color is strong. You will be tempted to think something is wrong. Maybe you got bad paint. Maybe you should use thicker paint. Maybe this brand sucks.

Nope. You are not doing anything wrong. There is nothing wrong with your brand of paint. Do not use thicker paint.

Because we're painting over dark primer and because acrylic paint is inherently somewhat transparent, it's going to take a few coats to get full coverage. And even if you think the paint looks good after one coat, do not believe your eyes. That black primer underneath is darkening and muddying your colors. You need at least two or three thin coats layered on top of each other to see the true color you're using.

This is the three-coat rule. Always paint at least two or three thin coats for your basecoat. Each coat builds opacity. By the third coat, you'll have full, vibrant, smooth coverage that shows the actual color of the paint. If you ever look at a finished model (yours or someone else's) and the colors seem muted or dulled, that's almost always because they didn't build up enough thin coats. The primer is still darkening everything from underneath.

Patience here pays off enormously. Three thin coats will always look better than one thick coat. Always. The thin coats dry smooth and preserve detail. A thick coat fills in sculpted detail, leaves brush marks, and looks chalky. This is not a place where shortcuts work.

Painting Inside Out

What order do you paint things? I like to work from inside out. Start with the innermost surface. That's usually the skin. Then paint whatever's on top of the skin (the shirt). Then whatever's on top of that (the coat). Then whatever's on top of that (the necklace, the pouches, the belt).

Why? Because if you make mistakes (and you will make mistakes, don't worry, we all do no matter how long we've been at this), you're more likely to make them on an area you haven't painted yet. And you're just going to paint over that area later anyway. So the mistake disappears.

If you painted the coat first and then tried to do the skin on the hands, you'd inevitably get skin-colored paint on the coat. Then you'd have to go back and fix the coat. Then you'd get coat paint on the belt while fixing it. It's a cascade of touch-ups that wastes time and drives you crazy. Inside out avoids most of that.

Metallic Paints

Metallic paints work a little differently from regular paints. They have tiny shiny particles in them that create the metallic effect, and those particles are a bit fussy about consistency.

I find that I want to thin metallics slightly less than regular paints. Instead of mixing water into the paint on my palette, I just use a damp brush. Dip it in the water cup, dab it on the paper towel so it's barely moist, and then go into the metallic paint. That little bit of moisture in the brush is enough to make the paint flow without separating the metallic particles.

If you thin metallics too much with water, those little particles separate from the medium and it becomes a mess. You get inconsistent shine, streaky coverage, and what looks like glitter water instead of metal paint. The fix is always the same: less water, more thin coats.

And just like everything else, take your time and apply two or three layers to get that full shine. One coat of metallic rarely looks right. Two or three coats and it starts to look like actual metal.

When to Use a Bigger Brush

A lot of beginners reach for the smallest brush they own for everything. It feels safer. Smaller brush means more control, right? Not exactly.

A small brush holds very little paint. That means you're constantly reloading, and the paint on the model starts to dry between strokes, which leads to a rough, patchy texture. For basecoating large surfaces (a cloak, a shield, the body of a vehicle, even the base itself), grab one of those big cheap synthetic brushes. Load it up with thinned paint and lay down smooth, even coverage in far fewer strokes.

Save the small brushes for when you actually need precision. For basecoating, bigger is usually better.

Handling Mistakes

You're going to paint outside the lines. You're going to get brown leather paint on the green skin you just finished. This is normal. This happens to every painter at every skill level.

When it happens, don't stress out and try to fix it right away. The paint you just applied is wet, and if you try to correct it now you'll make a bigger mess. Just let it dry. Move on to painting something else. Come back later and cover the mistake with the correct color. It might take a few coats to fully cover, but that's fine. This is exactly what thin layers are designed for.

And honestly? The inside-out approach means most of your mistakes will be covered up naturally by the next thing you paint. So a lot of them fix themselves.

Contrast Paints as an Alternative Basecoat

Here's something worth knowing about: contrast paints (and similar products like Speedpaints from Army Painter) can function as a combined basecoat and shade in one step. They're heavily pigmented transparent paints that settle into the recesses while leaving a lighter tint on the raised areas. Over a white or light primer, one coat gives you a basecoat with built-in shadows.

This isn't the "right way" or the "wrong way." It's a different tool for different situations. Contrast paints are incredible for batch painting armies where you need 40 models done this month and you don't have time to do three careful basecoat layers on each one. They're also great for certain materials like skin, cloth, and organic textures where the naturally uneven coverage actually looks like realistic shading.

If this approach interests you, I've got a full deep-dive in the Slapchop and Contrast Paints guide. But know that traditional basecoating (what we've covered here) gives you the most control and the cleanest results. Everything in miniature painting is a tradeoff between speed and control.

Coverage Troubleshooting

A few common problems and their fixes:

Splotchy, uneven coverage after two coats. Normal. Keep going. Most colors need three coats over dark primer. Some (yellows, reds, and light colors especially) might need four or five. Each coat evens things out more. If it's still splotchy after four coats, your paint is probably too thin. Add a tiny bit less water next time.

Brush marks visible in the dried paint. Your paint is too thick. Add more water. Also make sure you're not overloading the brush. Remember: load the brush, dab on the paper towel, then paint. The paper towel removes excess that would otherwise pool and leave brush strokes.

Paint pooling in recesses and covering up detail. Way too much paint on the brush. Dab more aggressively on the paper towel. You want the brush to be damp with paint, not dripping. Also use less water. You've gone past "thinned" into "watery."

Colors looking dull and muddy. You haven't built up enough coats. The dark primer is showing through and desaturating your colors. Keep layering. Three or four thin coats of a vibrant color over black primer will look completely different from one or two coats.

Paint drying too fast on the palette. Use a wet palette. Seriously. If you're still using a dry palette, this is the thing that will make the biggest single improvement in your painting experience. See the tools guide for options.

Take Your Time

The biggest mistake I see new painters make is trying to paint too fast. You need to walk before you can run, and that applies to all things, including gaining a skill with a paintbrush. By going slow, you learn what works and what doesn't. You get immediate visual feedback. And as your skill with the brush grows, your speed improves automatically.

Basecoating is actually a pretty relaxing step once you stop fighting it. Put on a podcast, throw on some music, and just calmly lay down those thin coats. There's no rush. There's no right or wrong speed. And there are no rules in miniature painting. That is one of the joys of art. You just do what seems fun and excites you.

Related Articles

Once you've got clean, vibrant basecoats on your model, you're in an incredible position. Every step from here builds on what you've just done, and the model is only going to look better and better. The hardest part is behind you. Now get out there and slay the gray.

Some links below are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy something through them, NINJON earns a small commission at no extra cost to you — it helps keep the tutorials free.