QUICK & SIMPLE

PAINTING GUIDE
PRE-PAINTED MDF
Sarissa 15mm Pre-Painted Maison Fort kit.
Well, Sort Of.

This is a short ‘how to’ paint

article to show how quick it can be
to get an unpainted MDF kit onto
the games table. OK I will admit
I will take a little time to add
a little extra effects, but they
are simple and don’t involve spray
paints, three colour layers of paint,
ink wash and dry brushing ‘til your
elbows hurt.

Gary Faulkner is head of the design

department at Sarissa Precision and both he
and the design team work hard to turn ideas
and concepts into reality.
He is also responsible for all the
painted kits you see on the Sarissa
Precision website.
He recently wrote a series of award
winning articles on working with MDF for
Wargames Illustrated, so he knows what
he’s talking about. This guide has been
created to give you the quickest
results with minimal effort whilst
using easy to source supplies.

WWW.SARISSA-PRECISION.COM
Quick & Simple Painting Guide

Where to Start?

As usual look at your instructions

and the kit layout. The one thing
about an unpainted kit is that the
parts can be efficiently laid out,
nested together to save materials and
time to cut it. So taking a look at
what lies where means you can get
colour down fast and only where you
need it.
You can see in the picture, I’m
only going to use five paints. The
brushes are clean and non-dry brush
scrag ended. You’ll also see a number of water based brush pens, more of them later.

Shake Your Pots Off!

As the title says, this is a pre-painted kit. Paint

your kit on the sheets. I use my paint fairly
thick, using only a little water on the brush to
get it to flow. Only paint the sides and parts
you want painted. Paint them whatever colour you
want too. I use more than 1 brush, so I can have 1
cleaning or drying while painting another colour.
Paint both sides. Thicker paint means that it
doesn’t bleed into the cut edges so much.
After opening the kit and reading the instructions
through, the painting only took 30mins. This is a
multi-layered kit, so simple, single skin kits will
take far less time.

Build It They Said, Build It!

Take the parts off the sheet, sand any little tag marks
as you would with a plastic model kit. I admit I did
clean off some paint that went over the sides.
45mins to build it, including the sanding. I use
superglue gel only. No elastic bands or clothes pegs
were harmed in the making of this kit.
The result is much like any other pre-painted MDF kit,
just in the colours I chose.

www.sarissa-precision.com
 by Gary Faulkner

Oh NO You Can’t Stop There, You Never JUST Paint a kit.

Tell Us More, You Cry!

Using your own paints allows you to ‘touch up’ all the
burnt edges and have a perfect colour match - (10 mins).
This is a simple, fast way to get your building onto the
table and into action. That said, let’s take the kit to a
simple weathered level. This would normally involve
ink washes from various companies, a lot of water and
waiting time.
Before moving on leave the kit to dry fully. Game with
it for a day before weathering it.

Weathering with W ater Based

Brush Pens
MAN THAT’S ROUGH -
That man is losing his touch!

The thing with ‘water-based brush pens’ is

they are water-based. Unlike ink washes and
weathering liquids they are made to wash
off. They wash off after they are dry, they
wash off with water. Don’t use standard type
markers.
The other good thing is they can be used like
a pen and can be used to detail areas too.
Perfect for painting timber frame buildings.
Draw the lines in. Just use a light base.
I used two different tones of pen and will
add some colours as I go. Draw it where you
want it. As long as you don’t leave it too
long to etch into the paint you can wash off
anything you don’t want. That said, you can
wash off excess hours after you put it on.
The darker and stronger the pen colour is
the more it will stain the base paint over
time. You’re warned.
Using a damp brush (wet it then take the excess off with tissue) brush over the edges
of the pen areas. Use less or more water as you would inks. The picture shows the
effect mid process.
10mins to apply the pen and 30mins to wash it and add to some areas.
I finish with a clear matt spray paint.

www.sarissa-precision.com
Quick & Simple Painting Guide

Start to Finish - Total Time

2 hours and 25 minutes to get the colour and the weathering you want for your table.

Equipment and Materials Used

ACRYLIC PAINT BRUSHES
Ravell (Matt) (361-85) Braun - Brown Daler Rowney - System 3 Brushes (Short Flat)
Ravell (Matt) (361-89) Beige - Beige Daler Rowney - Graduate Brushes (Flat Wash)
Ravell (Matt) (361-39) Dunkelgrun - Dark Green Daler Rowney - Graduate Brushes (Round)
Ravell (Matt) (361-76) Hellgrau - Light Grey Windor and Newton - Cotman series 111 (Round)
Ravell (Matt) (361-05) Weis - White
BRUSH PAINT PENS
SUNDRIES
Ecoline Brush Pen (704) Grey
Super Glue High Viscosity (Sarissa Precision Ltd) Ecoline Brush Pen (718) Warm Grey
Matt Spray - Belton (Molotow Artist) Matt 400ml Ecoline Brush Pen (533) Indigo (On the Doors)

Established in 2010, Sarissa Precision Ltd. has evolved into the industry’s leading
manufacturer of (reasonably) awesome MDF model kits. Our range of expertly designed kits
include buildings and accessories for many periods and settings as diverse as the Dark
Ages, WWII, SciFi and more. Working with leading companies - Warlord Games, Oathsworn
Miniatures, Mantic Games and italeri, Sarissa Precision also produce a number of bespoke
lines for bestselling games such as Gates of Antares, Burrows and Badgers, The Walking
Dead: All Out War and Gangs of Rome. With a webstore that sports more than three and a
half thousand product codes, they’re also pretty confident they have exactly the kit you
need, when you need it.

www.sarissa-­
precision.com

@sarissasprec @sarissaprecision
Sarissa Precision Ltd, Unit 4 Thorpes Road Ind Estate. Heanor, Derbyshire, DE75 7EE. United Kingdom

Company Number. 8421922 VAT Registration Number. 158524688

Registered Address: 35 Sherwood Street, Warsop, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG20 0JR. United Kingdom

www.sarissa-precision.com