How to Paint Faces on Miniatures: A Step by Step Guide for 28mm Figures

Set yourself up for a steady hand

Good light and some magnification make a big difference. A bright lamp, a magnifier or a head loupe lets you see what the brush is doing. Sit with your elbows on the table and hold the model in a painting handle or on a stable base so that your free hand can steady the brush hand.

Use a small, sharp round brush, since a worn tip makes fine work harder. Paint in short sessions to avoid tired hands, and take breaks if lines start to wobble.

Resting the model on a soft towel or in a handle prevents you from smudging fresh paint while you work. Warm up with a few strokes on a palette before touching the face, so the brush has the right amount of paint and the first mark is not the shakiest one.

Skin base coat

Choose a skin tone suited to the character and apply a smooth base coat in thin layers. Avoid thick paint, because it hides the sculpted nose, lips and brow that give the face its shape. Two thin coats are usually better than one heavy coat.

If you need help with color mixing, a small range of flesh tones from light to dark can be mixed to produce many shades. Consider that tones read lighter at a distance, so a slightly deeper base often looks right on the table.

Check the base coat from several angles before shading. Any gaps or patches show up as soon as a wash goes on, so fix them first with a thin touch of the skin tone and let it dry.

Shade the recesses

Use a thin wash or glaze in a darker, warm tone, such as a reddish brown, in the eye sockets, under the nose and lip, under the chin and along the hairline. Take a little paint on a small brush and let it flow into the recesses, then lift any excess from flat areas with a damp brush.

Avoid black or very dark grey for skin shading, which can make a face look dirty. Warmer shades usually look more natural, though pale or fantasy skin tones can use cooler shades.

Do the shading in several small passes rather than one heavy one. A face with soft shadows looks more natural than one with a single dark outline, and thin layers can always be built up if you want more depth.

Painting the eyes

For eyes, a simple method is to paint the socket area dark, then add a small off-white dot or a thin line for the eyeball, and finally a tiny dark dot for the pupil. Pure white can look wide-eyed, so a light grey or cream often looks more natural.

Take your time and work with a very small brush, positioning the pupils so both eyes look in the same direction. If it goes wrong, correct it with the skin tone and try again once it has dried.

Some painters paint the eye as a single dark dot and skip the white altogether for helmeted or distant figures. At tabletop scale, a clear dark mark under a heavy brow is often enough to show where the character looks.

Mouth, nose and brow

Lips can be a slightly redder or darker version of the skin tone, applied in a thin line. A tiny highlight on the lower lip makes the mouth look soft. For warriors, you may leave the mouth almost entirely shaded for a stern look.

Highlight the nose tip, brow ridge, cheekbones and chin with a lighter skin tone. Use small, deliberate touches rather than big strokes, so the face keeps its form.

A tiny dab of lighter skin on the forehead and upper lip, blended with a damp brush, adds a gentle highlight. Take your time and step back often to check that the face still reads as a single smooth shape.

Hair, beards and details

Paint hair and beards after the skin so that you can tidy the hairline. Beards can be shaded with a dark wash and highlighted by drybrushing or light strokes along the sculpted strands. Scars, tattoos or war paint add character if you have the space.

Keep details modest at gaming scale. A few clear marks read better than many tiny ones, which can look like noise from a distance.

If you are painting a whole squad, do the faces for all models in one session. Repeating the same steps on several figures builds muscle memory, and the shades stay consistent across the unit.

Fixing a face that looks wrong

If the face looks strange, step back and check from arm's length. Many problems, such as eyes of different sizes or an overly dark mouth, are easy to correct by repainting the skin over the mistake and starting that feature again. Dry paint allows you to cover errors cleanly.

As a last resort, a face can be stripped and repainted, but it is rarely necessary. Take a photo, because the camera often shows errors you miss by eye, and let the model rest before you decide on changes.