Core Miniature Painting Techniques Every Painter Should Know
Hey again, friends. Here's a truth that took me way too long to figure out: there are really only five techniques that do the heavy lifting in miniature painting. Five. Whether you're knocking out a squad in an evening or spending 40 hours on a single display piece, these are the techniques you'll reach for every single time. Everything else is just a variation or a combination of these fundamentals.
I've screwed up a lot of miniatures on the path to pounding these into my head. I'm not a smart man. But here's the good news. Once you understand what each technique does and, more importantly, when to use it, painting suddenly stops feeling like guesswork and starts feeling like a process you actually control. And that's a pretty great feeling.
This page is your map. I'll walk through each technique in the order you'll actually use them on a model. For each one, I've got a dedicated deep-dive guide where I go into the full breakdown. But start here. Get the big picture first.
What You'll Need
- Miniature— A plastic or resin model to paint
- Acrylic paints— Starter set with primary colors, black, white
- Fine detail brush— For precise work and small areas
- Basecoat brush— Flat or round, for general coverage
- Wash/shade paint— Flows into recesses, adds depth
- Spray primer— Prepares surface for paint adhesion
- Wet palette— Keeps paints moist and workable longer
- Drybrush— Stiff, splayed bristles for highlighting textures
- Varnish (matte)— Protects paint, reduces shine
1. Basecoating
This is where every paint job starts. Basecoating is simply laying down the initial solid colors on your model. Cloak gets its blue, armor gets its silver, leather gets its brown. You're establishing the color identity of every surface. That's it. Nothing fancy yet.
Here's the part most people get wrong, though. They spend ages trying to get their basecoats absolutely perfect. Flawless opacity, no overlap, every edge razor clean. And I get it. It feels like you're building the foundation, so it should be perfect, right? Nope. You cannot ruin your paint job at the start. Be bold, not restrained. The further you get into a paint job, the more impact you'll have on the final look. The beginning is the least important step to get perfect.
What actually matters here is your color choices. Start bold and saturated. Boring colors at the basecoat stage mean a boring model at the end, and it's much harder to inject life into a model later than it is to start with color and refine it down. The other thing that matters is your paint consistency. If your paint is too thick, you'll obscure detail. Too thin, and you're looking at six coats before you get coverage. Learning to thin your paints correctly and load your brush properly is honestly the most important skill in this entire hobby. It's more of a feel than a science, and it builds with practice.
What Makes This Technique Work
Basecoating isn't about perfection. It's about making a statement. You're establishing the mood and color story of the entire model in this step. Pick colors that excite you. If you start with grays and browns everywhere, you're not making your job easier later. You're just guaranteeing a dull result. Trust me on this one.
Read the full guide: How to Basecoat Miniatures
2. Washes and Shading
If basecoating is about establishing color, washes are about establishing depth. A wash is a very thin, heavily diluted paint that flows into the recesses of a model. Creases in cloth, gaps between armor plates, the space between fingers on a hand. The wash pools in all those low points and creates instant shadow. It's kind of magical, honestly.
This is the step where a flat, toy-looking basecoat starts to look like an actual miniature. One coat of wash and suddenly you've got definition everywhere. Folds in cloaks look like real folds. Muscles look like they have actual depth. Chain mail goes from a blobby mess to something with individual links. People call washes "liquid talent" for a reason.
The trick is knowing when to apply a wash all over the model versus just putting it where you want the shadows. An all-over wash is fast and forgiving, which is great for army painting or when you're just getting started. Targeted washes in specific recesses give you more control and a cleaner result, but they take more time and a steadier hand. Neither approach is wrong. They're just different tools for different situations.
What Makes This Technique Work
Gravity does most of the work for you. The wash naturally flows into the lowest points on the model, which happen to be exactly where real shadows would fall. You're not painting shadows freehand. You're letting physics do the shading. That's why this technique is so beginner-friendly and also why experienced painters still rely on it for every single model.
Read the full guide: Washes and Shading for Miniatures
3. Drybrushing
Drybrushing is the fastest way to add highlights to a miniature. You take an old brush, get a small amount of paint on it, wipe most of it off on a paper towel until the brush is almost dry (hence the name), and then lightly drag it across the raised surfaces of the model. The tiny amount of paint left on the brush catches only the highest points and edges.
I'll be honest. Drybrushing gets a bit of a bad reputation among some painters who see it as a "beginner shortcut." That's nonsense. I use drybrushing on display models. Plenty of award-winning painters use it regularly. It's incredibly good at picking out texture, fur, chain mail, stone, bark, hair, anything with a rough or complex surface where painting individual highlights would take forever and probably wouldn't look as natural anyway.
The key is brush selection and pressure. A good, purpose-built drybrush makes a massive difference compared to just using a wrecked old brush. And you need a lighter touch than you think. Like, way lighter. Most drybrushing problems come from too much paint on the brush or pressing too hard, which gives you that chalky, dusty look instead of a subtle highlight. When you get it right, drybrushing is fast, satisfying, and surprisingly convincing.
What Makes This Technique Work
Drybrushing works because it only deposits paint on the parts of the model that physically stick out. No thinking required about where light would hit. The texture of the model does the work for you. Pair it with a wash (which handles the shadows) and you've got a fully shaded and highlighted model in a fraction of the time that layering or blending would take.
Read the full guide: How to Drybrush Miniatures
4. Layering
Layering is how you build up smooth, controlled highlights on a miniature. You take progressively lighter versions of your base color and paint them in smaller and smaller areas, focusing on the surfaces that would catch the most light. Each layer is thinner than the last, each one covers less area, and the transitions between them create a gradient from shadow to highlight.
This is the technique that separates "that looks pretty good on the table" from "wait, how did you paint that?" It takes more time than drybrushing, for sure. But the result is smoother, more intentional, and gives you total control over where the light appears to fall. When you see a model that looks like it's actually glowing from within, that's layering (or blending, which is really just layering with extra steps).
The biggest mistake I see with layering is people going too thick too fast. Each layer should be thin enough that you can barely see it going on. You're building up the effect gradually, like stacking transparent sheets on top of each other. And here's something that helped me a lot: you don't need to jump straight from your shadow color to pure white for highlights. Use a brighter version of the same hue, or mix in a warm saturated color instead of white. Keeps the vibrancy alive and stops your model from looking washed out.
What Makes This Technique Work
Layering works because thin, semi-transparent coats let the colors underneath show through at the edges, creating natural-looking transitions. The more patient you are with thin layers, the smoother the blend. And remember, it's going to look rough at first. Don't let the ugly phase take you down. It all comes together by the end.
Read the full guide: Layering and Highlighting Miniatures
5. Edge Highlighting
Edge highlighting is exactly what it sounds like. You paint a thin, bright line along the sharp edges of a model to simulate how light catches on those points. Armor plate rims, the edge of a shoulder pad, the spine of a sword blade, the brim of a hat. Anywhere two surfaces meet at an angle, you run a fine line of lighter paint.
This is probably the most nerve-wracking technique on this list because it demands brush control. A shaky hand or an overloaded brush and you've got a wobbly line right where everyone can see it. But here's the thing. Brush control is a skill that improves over time. It's not something you either have or you don't. And the stabilization tips I share in my videos (keeping your wrists on the desk, elbows on your armrests, pulling the brush toward your body) make a massive difference.
When it's done well, edge highlighting makes a model pop in a way that nothing else does. It creates that crisp, defined look you see in studio-painted box art and competition entries. Even a simple, single-color edge highlight over a wash can transform a model from "fine" to genuinely impressive. And if you mess up a line? Just go back with your base color and neaten it up. That's not cheating. That's literally how every painter on the planet does it.
What Makes This Technique Work
Your eye is drawn to contrast. A bright line on a dark edge creates maximum contrast in a tiny space, which reads as "sharp" and "defined" even from across a table. It also tricks your brain into seeing the model as a larger, more detailed object. A good brush is critical here. If your brush tip is splayed or curling, you're fighting the tool instead of learning the technique. A size 2 sable brush handles about 80% of everything I paint, edge highlights included.
Read the full guide: Edge Highlighting Miniatures
How These Techniques Work Together
Here's the part that clicked for me after way too many painted models: these five techniques aren't isolated skills you pick from a menu. They're sequential steps in a process. Basecoat lays down the color. Wash defines the shadows. Drybrush (or layer) builds up the highlights. Edge highlight adds the final definition. Each step builds on the one before it.
Think of it like building a sandwich. The basecoat is your bread. The wash is your sauce. Drybrushing or layering is your filling. And edge highlighting is that final slice of cheese on top that holds it all together. (Look, the analogy breaks down if you think about it too hard. Just go with me here.)
The beautiful thing is that you can stop at any point and have a model that looks good. Basecoat plus wash? Totally respectable tabletop standard. Add a drybrush and you're looking sharp. Layer on top of that and add edge highlights and you're pushing toward display quality. Each technique takes the model a step further, and you get to decide how far you want to go on any given project.
Don't feel pressured. If you want to be done after the wash step, be done and be proud of your work. But know that each of these techniques is waiting for you when you're ready to push further.
Where to Go from Here
If you're brand new to all of this, make sure you've got your workspace and tools sorted first. Check out the Getting Started guide for that whole setup process.
Once you're ready to dig deeper into each technique, here's the learning order I'd recommend:
- How to Basecoat Miniatures. Color choices, paint consistency, and setting yourself up for success.
- Washes and Shading. Instant depth with minimal effort.
- How to Drybrush Miniatures. Fast highlights that actually look great.
- Layering and Highlighting. Smooth, controlled highlights for when you want to level up.
- Edge Highlighting. The finishing touch that makes everything pop.
And once you've got these fundamentals down, you've got options. If speed is your priority (army painters, I see you), head over to the Speed Painting guide to learn how to use these techniques efficiently at scale. If you want to push into more advanced territory like NMM, wet blending, or freehand, the Advanced Techniques pillar picks up right where these fundamentals leave off.
And if you want the full deep-dive with me walking you through a complete project from start to finish, step by step, check out the NINJON Masterclass. I refined my entire process down to just the really important things and threw away everything else. It's the fastest way to level up your painting.
Now get out there and slay the gray.
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