When I started painting minis in the 1970s, all we had were the Testors enamels. That’s it!!!

Great to see oils more featured in miniature content creators ! If I would have an advice for those wanting to try is to not focus too much on drying time. The point of oil is mostly painting alla prima, as traditional oil artists. Make sure you make proper disposal of solvents too. For going further I'd also recommend the channels of OmegonEdge, Mended Brush Studios and of course the oil father, James Wappel. You'll notice different ways of painting with oils.

Lovely work. I’ve been painting my Shatterpoint minis with oils. The Clone Wars tv show had a visibly painterly quality to the animation that oils convey.

Oil paints sre fantastic! They are so much more stress free when painting

I know what I'm doing for the next half hour. Edit: It was great, I think a cool name for the horse would be Aed. The Celtic God of fire.

This was a good tutorial on oil painting. I've tried painting with it with various results. I do like the method, and this will help me experiment a bit more. And for the Europeans in the audience, you can get the 37 ml oil of Windsor and Newton colours at Hornbach or Bauhaus stores for a much cheaper price. And those ranges they sell are smaller, so the barrier of entry is lower. And the horse is called Bob...

Taran is my suggestion for the steed’s name. What a lovely piece! I’ve been using oils as washes for quite a while but now I’m going to try out some of the techniques you illustrated so aptly on a test mini-probably even a little horse. Thanks as always for an awesome video- the story and the tips!

Just started using oils for pin washes. your content has been a wonderful aid to getting me going. Great work, kind regards Anwar

Painting „classic flat tin figures“ for around 45 years with all kinds of paint I can tell you that oil paints stick much better on tin or metal figures than acrylics do. Underpainting with acrylics help a lot, esp. on bad covering colors like yellow. For thinning oilpaints you can use different kinds of balsamic turpentine, you can also receive some which fasten the drying process of the oilpaints. In the 80s I painted all my figures (and minis) with oils. I switched competely to acrylics approx 10 years ago, big plus is the little drying time and that they are odorless and non-toxic.

Alex, this is a vid that couldn't be more for me It's packed with the trademark reasoned experience of your own hobby life - so that folks get to avoid the issues you went through and that's hobby gold. It puts folks well along that oils learning curve You also produced an inspiring magnificently beautiful horse and reminded me I don't paint near enough horses, I've focussed on scifi Your results look so different to mine, I block in opaque acrylics, I shape volumes and paint the light in oils, then I use different, relatively heavy body acrylics to highlight edges , features and glistenings, to make textures, to provide that sharpness and the features that oils don't. It makes for high quality feature models, be they display or heroes, and it makes unit/army painting way, way faster and completely coherent with them. You didn't do that, you produced what I'd call a painterly piece and it's beautiful for it. I love both The speed factor in oils is in using tiny amounts, dots and lines, of thinned oil paint for the blending, just using a little more adds that despised drying/curing wait. Though in unit painting the delay just naturally fits into the workflow. such a great hobby vid Alex, thank you

I love oils and almost use them exclusively in a very similar workflow to yours. Crisp lines are easy with practice and experience. I usually wait for the model to cure entirely before doing any edge highlights. Since the oils dry very slowly, the paint doesn’t dry on your brush so fine lines are really easy. Eyes and tiny details are also much easier in my opinion. Creating smooth transitions is so easy and relaxing.

I had tried painting a knight and guardsman from GW, using Oils a little while ago. I found: - Darker colours in oils cover like light colours do for acrylics, - you can skip the prepainting step by applying oils (without white spirit) and then using a make up sponge to whip away the oils on the raised edges of the figure. - you have to keep in mind thin vs thick -> oil paints won't adhere to oil paints of the same thick or thinness. You'll find that paint will come away if you don't keep this in mind. - you'll find it difficult to do sharp details with oils and probably find it more straight forward going to acrylics. - if you want to use acrylics but do oil mixing, then try adding flow improver to your acrylics, not prefect but is do able.

Alex, the miniature looks amazing, the oils have created a very unique look to it and will be much different to the one I will paint in acrylics if I ever get round to it. And yes to random Patreon meetups in pubs!

When I've started watching this video and taken a look to your test piece I must admit I wasn't sure where you were going with this. But, as the video goes and the narration is taking me to this meditative mood, I blink my eyes and realize those soft gradients and tones are beautiful and I sort of want to take my old oil tubes out again. Good job!

I just started trying oil paints on my minis and I find it quite a bit more fun and relaxing then acrylics. Its nice to see the brush usage laid out so simply.

A Patreon pint with Alex sounds like a good time. Now if only you came to the Brecon Beacons instead!

I dipped my toe into oil paints for the first time ever, it was just an oil wash but I love all the information presented in your video, as always exceptional job an incredible video

It's so great to see you paint with oil paints! Thanks for this video and thanks for using our glass palette ☺

“Not a clan rat in sight.” Now I have to go back and see if there is a hidden one.

I want to thank you for mentioning Lovesick by Bob Dylan. I hadn't listened to that song in a long time and might never have remembered it. My mind only has so much space before things get filed in deep storage. Once they are there, who knows if it will ever surface again. Fine taste in music, friend. Thanks for the video. .ore people should try oils. It's so easy to blend. Really, the only "negative "for me is the drytime, and I'm fine with it because the slow dry time is also a gift sometimes.

Love it. It looks like a painting and has a much more Fantasy effect.

I got my start with enamels by basically wandering blindly through the traditional hobby section of an art store. The owner was always confused by my vague explanations of what I was up to. I never really got the hang of it until a friend took me to games hobby store and I got GW paints. Still I come across some of those old glass pots of testors and have the urge to explore working with oils. What's old is new again.

Ahhh I enjoy your process of painting with oils, I think I will give it a try. The idea of recommending literature is also great

My experience with oils was good but sometimes not. Painting with oils requires less layers so it can be faster and less steps. The long drying time is an advantage and makes it a more relaxed pace. When painting with oils its all one layer of paint. Oil paints have two levels of "dry" they set after a short time when the solvent dries, then they completely dry after a day or two. Solvents greatly decrease the complete drying time, which is not always a good thing, white spirits set faster, odourless spirits set slower. To increase flow without shortening drying time you can use linseed oil instead, I don't recommend using cardboard as a palette, you don't need it to dry quicker, the linseed oil is the equivalent of acrylic medium so there no reason to reduce it only to use thinners to get the flow back. There is a learning to curve and sometimes if you mess up you can spend a lot of time going back and forth trying to get it right and this may mean you are adding too much paint which makes it look lumpy and when it get that way its harder to change the colour, meaning you may have to wipe it off and start over in that area after all that work. Getting sharp small details right can be difficult, mostly oils have a smooth blended look and sharp colour changes can get blended away by the colour underneath. Oils are great for NMM you can get smooth blends very easily. Also great for OSL. When choosing paints avoid the cheap sets they are unusable, the lowest quality useable is student grade but I would go artist grade especially for titanium white and cadmium red and yellow, cheap versions of these paints have significantly less pigment. A lot of darker colours like black and dark brown can be cheaper. Many pigments have staining qualities which can be used to great advantage for undershading. James Wappels videos are great for this info.

Always fascinating to watch your miniatures come to life with the oil paints!! When i started painting miniatures which was planes and tanks when i was younger you only had little miniature tins of oil paint!! This was around the late 80’s!! When did Acrylics come around ?? As i never recall seeing them!!

I'm returning to DnD recently and I've wanting to get my gaming figures out. I want to try oils om them. What a great preview of using oil paint! ❤

Grifud is a good horsey name. For certainly he be lord of horses. Either way another great video. Love the finished work.

Hehe lovely video. Lovely corner of youtube. Shame this cant make much money (i suppose). Wish you won a lottery and kept doing more of what you do freely. With all other mini oil painters out there, surprisingly this one made me want to use some of my Old Holland much more than channels that explore topic in more detail. Well done

Nice watch! Oil painted minis profit a lot from some recess shading afterwards. Either the usual way with acrylics or as part of a second layer with oils. Then you can ramp up the vibrancy with transparent oils if the model became too muted. Dmitry Fesechko has a great but sadly short tutorial series on painting with oils.

I'm late as usual, I do enjoy oils, actually rather handy if we have a very hot summer. Acrylics in such conditions dry on my brush before reaching the model. I hope all is well in sweden.

Thanks for covering this topic! I've never used oils, so was not aware of the considerable differences in the application process.

Great stuff. Planning on building a grimdark Cities of Sigmar army soon, oils could be a perfect tool for some of this.

Beautiful work Alex, thank you for sharing. I like Bryn for the horses name, as it's welsh for Hill, which the horse is standing on.

Using oils in this way is, in painterly terms wet into wet. Perfect for blending but if you want defined, very sharp detail you need to paint wet over dry. To get oils to dry a bit quicker you could use an alkyd drying medium, a good one is made by Lukas.

Thank you for reminding me of Katherine Kerr, I'd completely forgot about her as I kast read them 30ish years ago.

Excellent video, I've been painting with oils and enamel washes almost exclusively for a few years, minus an acrylic base, and can confirm all the info in this video is spot on and explained extremely well. Tip: Abteilung 502 miniature specific oils are excellent, especially for a more muted palette. On a separate note, I would love to see a similar video to this covering air brushing...

I did enjoy playing with oil paints when I last used them, though that was well over two years ago now. The new house is much less well ventilated, until I'm able to put new, more cat proof windows in. In the meantime, I've been looking at trying the Golden Open paints, which promise much the same, but with lower VOCs.

I'm a fan of mixing yellow for that heavily saturated highlight with green.

Been painting polymer clay sculptures with oils for a few years and have loved the results. It's a lot more time intensive compared to acrylics but a lot of fun.

That horse is amazing

@52 Miniatures I enjoyed reading the Nevernight trilogy after your last book recommendation. I'd love to see a you do a small diorama inspired by the book.

one of the Very Best figure painters i know use only oils he started like that back in the early 90s and he is still going strong !

Very nice result, I especially like the way the horse looks. I have been meaning to try this for a while, definitely going to give it a go now

Damn, I love the daggerspell series

Great tutorial. I must recommend artist grade oil colors. You can use the smallest amount of paints for big minis or scenery and they will cost you less money and are actually easier to use for a beginner. Like Old Holland and Michael Harding. Skip the cheap Chinese stuff in sets and buy like 10 artist grade oil colors (or go sale hunting online or at the craft store for them). Painting with these feels very zen. Add and remove, mix and push. As you know Becker's are common here in Sweden. I think they are pretty good - not the best but available from a lot of places and fairly chep for that quality. Have you tried the colors from Ottossons Färgmakeri? Amazing colors from opaques to transparent. And they sell the tubes in three sizes so you can get big ones with titanium white and blacks and smaller for colors that you use less of. Fin häst!

This is fantastic. Would love to see more models done this way

Always such a pleasant experience my friend! Nice outcome too!

Wow! Nice results!

Very nice Alex. I enjoyed the video. I hope you continue to enjoy making them. 🏰

Awesome! I hope you’re having a great summer ☀

As a figurative oil painter, it was really interesting to see the medium used on miniatures.

“Stress release scream in the woods” 😂

Oh wow, great timing. Picked up a few oil paints (W&N) at a good price yesterday after years of painting.. First painting session with it tonight, and been dreading it somewhat. This could not have come at a greater time. Thank you!

Love it! More oil painting content please

Looking great again Alex! I have some old oils laying around somewhere. Realy need to check them out for minipainting sometime soon. It looks very rewarding.

Excellent tutorial and a spectacular paint job! Great work! Thanks for sharing!

I read the first Daggerspell book as a kid (I tended to browse used paperbacks so I've read 1-2 books of many fantasy series without completing a lot of them) and I liked it! In my imagination the warriors all looked like Rohirrim--mail armor and unarmored horses riding around forests and hill forts. For the horse's name, how about Ríoga? Gaelic for "regal"

Great video Alex. It looks fantastic! Oils can give a very "painterly" finish. Ever since I started watching Marco Frisoni (NJM), ive been waiting to try painting a mini with primarily oils and eventually incorporate them into my normal paint workflow.

Love purple madder!

Really helpful video for getting into oil painting minis!

Try using an ice yellow to brighten green, its great!

Great video Alex as always. If you want to speed up drying time you can use a uv light but please don't over do it. I told another utuber this trick but he didn't read my follow up comment. He put his mini in a uv cure 3d printer thingy overnight. DONT DO THAT. Many paints under uv cure in 15 mins. You may need to reposition after to directly hit other parts. Some take longer like white and some like burnt umber or crimson aren't light fast and can change hue if over cooked.

Hello Alex. Let’s paint fluffy happy little clouds. No need to learn wetblend acrylic if using oils… that’s what oils are meant for.

Based on your description, the fantasy series you mentioned seems to have a lot in common with Jack Vance's Lyonnesse. Interesting...

Cool 👍

Another fine job

You painting green, because you have trouble with green, reminded me of myself. I am red/green colorblind. So one of my first minis was a brown space marine with red highlight. Trying to paint a mini up to my standard, withour beeing able to see the difference between the colors. :)

Very good and easy to follow guide. More oils please :)

You've read my mind. I bought a surplus of oil colors and mediums, brushes and gesso and linseed oil as well (I plan on doing an oil painting as a gift). Yet I've been hesitant putting oil paints on my minis. This tutorial shows me that I'll surely be fine just getting in there. The manner of your delivery makes me feel calm and confident. The Deverry Series by Katharine Kerr is oddly perfect as well. I've been wanting to read some high fantasy written by a female author. They'll be perfect audiobooks for when I'm making fantasy terrain. Galatis (proto-Celtic for "ferocious, furious") for a male. And Epona, (Celtic horse goddess) for a female. Either would be a prime name for a horse. Fun fact: Epona is the name of Link's steed in The Legend of Zelda series.

I read these books years ago, currently Im lost I dont know which generation I should be in now or where to pick it back up, probably worth going back to the start!

Great video, very informative and easy to follow, makes me want to use my collection and how to use them, thanks Alex

'and I like it' should be said more in our hobby.

Great stuff friend 👏 👍 🤙. Thanks again for sharing your journey 8

Great video!

With oils, the cleanup with traditional oils is a lot more work with white spirit. There is an alternative, though! W&N and a few other brands too make _water-mixable_ oils. For W&N it's the Artisan line. Note they're still genuine oil paints. The pigment range is also not as varied. But cleanup can be done with water. Water can also thin it but it tends to be "grainy". One major downside to Artisan oils is the Artisan thinner liquid - what might be closest to white spirit for these paints - _will_ destroy acrylic paint. Instead you need to use the other Artisan oil mediums (Artisan safflower oil) to thin the paints down but it's a little trickier. You _can_ use white spirit to thin them, but if do, you must also do your cleanup with white spirit, defeating the purpose. Finally, you can also do truly insane things that regular oils can't, like mix Artisan oils with acrylic mediums like Contrast medium... and it works. Literal witchcraft. This style of water-soluble oils is an interesting alternative to consider, but you need to experiment a little as not all true oil techniques will work for mini painting.

I think this was an interesting experiment. It also makes me wonder what it would be like to paint a mini exclusively with other kinds of paint like gouache, enamel, or India inks.

Thanks a lot !! a very interesting video.

Thanks Alex, bery helpful. I've only ever used oil washes. I need to buy a few colours other than brown and black

One of my favorite horses at the castle I work at has his jousting/stripper name as 'Warcry' but real name is Stephen... for which I call Phtephen... love him. Though he has been conditioned to getting himself into a panic 2 seconds before charging down the tilt 😂

There are some oil paints that are based on alkyd oil instead of linseed oil. They cure faster than the linseed stuff, but you still have plenty of time to work. Surprisingly rare in Sweden, but at least Abteilung 502 is available. They are more focused on scale model weathering though.

There are various white in the oil world that can give different results, (I will use the french names because, well, I am French). Blanc de Titane is not the same as Blanc de zinc. Another thing to consider, is the brand Cobra, that makes Oils that are soluble in water (Yeah, I know), without fumes, and that you can use with children. You still have the qualities of the oil (the yellow is not very covering though) but with not the cons. A box with the primary colours, black and white costs under 25 Euros for 20mL tubes, or under 30 for 40mL tubes. I found that I use almost pure White on the minis in the end, then blend. About your test, your painting style is generally not very contrasty to begin with, so spending a lot of time on your gradients leads to that blurry feel. This would have been a great occasion to use Titane White on your edges, especially on the metal helmet. I highly like your content.

My oils always tend to get a bit muddy on my minis; I think I get impatient and try to blend a little too much. One of these days I'm going to lock myself away for the weekend and use oils only!

Woah, I dig the storage setup for the paints. Is that custom built?

Kjempe bra episode ! skal prøve Olje i dag:)

Great paintjob Alex! Random question, I've seen a lot of people talk about enamel paints as well, are the different from oils and if they are, why use one over the other?

Great video friend. I've been painting and experimenting with oils on minis for a couple years now with a lot of fun and success along the way. One thing I haven't gotten the handle on is varnishing after oils. I've experimented with different brands, lacquers and acrylic based, various finishes... and I found they ruined all the wonderful contrast and blends I achieved with the paint. Even upping the contrast with the initial oil applications didn't resolve the fact that, to my eye, varnish destroyed all my work. I still paint over the oils with acrylics after they've cured, but I'll never varnish an oil painted mini again. Do you have any thoughts or words of wisdom you could share?

Like resin 3d printing the toxicity of oil painting is underplayed at times in my opinion. It’s really awesome though.

Celtic war horses are usually named Steve

I use oil painting on my miniatures since... 1992 !😅

Interesting! I don't work with miniatures, but instead with larger plastic kits, typically made by Airfix and Tamiya. I wonder if these same methods would apply with these?

Youre Watch, is it a vintage “trench watch”?

Hey, it looks like Daggerspell is free to me on audible. I will give it a listen

Well... you said it yourself. The horses name is: Sir. Gestions

So I have to buy into a fully new paint range so I can keep my old ones purely for brush licking? Interesting.

I've been facing heat problems for a few years now with global warming, and there are already problems with acrylics concerning the accelerated degradation of paint, but with oil it's even worse, oil gives off heat even when varnished unlike acrylics, the varnish provides some protection but it's not 100%. I invite you to take a look at what has happened in certain museums, such as Orléans, which have had to deal with heatwaves. If you don't have a home protected from the heat, the possibility of running your air-conditioning even when you're absent, or have one in your apartment because it's too old, the oil will pose a stock problem at 25-30°C. In my house in city, it can be 30-40°C during a heatwave. I saw that it might be possible to save everything with an isothermal box, and I'm currently experimenting to validate the principle. In theory, it poses the problem of the appearance of mould on the varnish, so you avoid one problem only to encounter another. In these times of climate change, oil paint is a thing of the past, at least for me. And there's also the question of continuing to paint studio-level pieces that won't last long without protected storage.

Call the horse Fadowshax.

I'M NOT GOING BACK!

You dont need to thin it if you want to avoid white spirits lot of people who use oils for miniatures don't often thin it.

Epona? Yeah, Legend of Zelda did borrow this from the Romano-British.

Are you sure you are not an artist disguised as a miniature painter? 😉