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How to Paint Flames on Miniatures the Quick & Easy Way

    I don’t often do video only tutorials but it just made sense for this particular technique. See, I’ve been experimenting with ways to paint flames on miniatures. I’ve had a lot of failures, I mean a lot. However, I finally found a method I like that looks good and is super easy to do as well.

    What I’ll show you is how to paint flames on your miniatures. This technique isn’t hard, but it does take a little practice. The results are some unique and interesting.

    How to Paint Flames on Miniatures

    This flame technique makes use of blending but not in any hard way. What I do is lay down very thin coats of paint in rapid succession to let it all blend itself out. I’m not intentionally glazing layers out or doing anything fancy, just working fast.

    It’s that fast paced painting that makes this nearly impossible to really capture in my traditional method of taking pictures of each step. By the time I took a picture, made sure it looked good, the paint would be dry.

    I realize this might sound difficult, quickly painting, and it will admittedly take some practice, but it’s not hard – honestly. It’s kind of a controlled chaos as you’ll see.

    The idea with this is to freehand paint some flames. If you want to put some cool flames on your miniatures armor, then this is what you’re after. If you’re looking to paint fire that’s physically on your miniature, then this isn’t exactly what you’re after. However, the colors used and basic principle remain the same. So, don’t leave yet :)

    Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. The commission earned helps maintain this site.

    I cover this in the video, but here’s the paints I’m using.

    I also highly recommend using a wet palette for this. It keeps your paints workable through this process.

    I’m using a Raphael 8404 Size 1 brush for this. I like it because it has a good point and a good sized belly to hold paint for a brush that small.

    Oh, I do wish I zoomed in more on the tutorial, so sorry for that. I’m learning as I go with video tutorials. Also, my sinuses were being annoying so just ignore the sniffles ;)

    Let’s dive in with the video, shall we?

    Conclusion on Painting Flames

    There are countless ways to paint flames. There’s the old-school hot rod flames we’ve all seen. You can even find tutorials on how to paint realistic flames.

    My technique I feel bridges the two. It’s more real than car decal flames but not quite 100% realistic either. The thing I really like about this technique is it’s fast. In minutes you can have something that looks good.

    Like I said above, I tried countless ways to paint flames prior to this. Actually, not quite countless. I’d say it’s around 12-14 techniques I tried. So, while this may not be for everyone, or exactly what you’re after, maybe it’s at least given you some ideas and that’s all I’m trying to do :)

    Specific Painting Techniques & Tutorials

    Check out these other tutorials covering specific techniques.

    Thor

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    WestRider
    5 years ago

    Technically speaking, if you have to estimate instead of being able to actually, y’know, count them, the number of techniques you’ve tried is “countless” :D

    Rory - Stepping Between Games

    Stop making me want to try new and scary things!