Painting Miniatures - Gold Work

The last painting step is the hardest of all, the gold trim. I have come to dread this step because at this point I am starting to get really sick of working on the pieces and then I have to paint the gold. The paint has to be mixed perfectly so that it flows without brush marks and does not run off the line. If it bleeds off the line, it can be extremely difficult to remove. Great care and a steady hand is needed for this job. The concentration wears me out sometimes.

On one painting stick that has three pieces, I timed myself to paint the gold trim. Took me 27 minutes to paint three. As I work and get the rhythm down, I can speed up some but not much. I use a stopwatch to challenge myself like a contest to see if I can improve. This is a little trick I use on tough pieces.

Here is a picture of the gold paint mixed just right.



Here are some pictures of "Blast-Off" and "Ice Cream" with the gold trim painted.









You can see how much the gold trim really improves the look of the pieces and gives them a nice finished look. After the gold trim is done, the pieces are allowed to completely dry. Then I spray each one with a matt varnish. Because the pieces are handled, they need a protective coating and the varnish does the trick. The varnished pieces are allowed to dry then onto the next step. More updates will follow.

Thanks for reading.
Randall Zadar
Sculptor/Zadar Studios
www.zadarstudios.com