Can a board-gamer who's never painted a miniature get good results with Planet Apocalypse?
Yes, and the game's models are a better starting point than most people expect. Planet Apocalypse is a cooperative horror board game from Petersen Games where players fight off waves of demons and a towering demon lord threatening Earth. The miniatures are detailed, and the dark infernal theme means shadows, washes, and drybrushing carry most of the visual work for you. You don't need years of practice. You need the right sequence.
This guide walks through that sequence from raw plastic out of the box through priming, base coats, washes, drybrushing the demons, handling the big demon lord figures, and sealing at the end.
What supplies do you actually need before starting?
Keep the list short. A hobby knife or sprue cutters, an old toothbrush, black spray primer, a few colors of acrylic paint (more on those below), one dark wash, three or four brushes in different sizes, and a can of matte varnish for the end. That's it.
Paints from Citadel, Army Painter, or Vallejo all work fine for this. Don't agonize over brand. The wash matters more than almost anything else here. It's the tool that makes demon miniatures look finished rather than half-done.
Why does cleaning the miniatures before priming matter so much?
Straight out of the package, plastic miniatures carry a thin film of release agent left over from the molding process. Primer beads up on it. You'll think you've done everything right and then watch paint flake off two hours later.
Scrub every figure in warm soapy water with an old toothbrush, then air-dry them fully. Takes about 20 minutes total. While they're drying, run a hobby knife held at 90 degrees along any visible mold lines (those thin raised ridges that trace where the mold halves met). On demon figures they tend to run along horns, limbs, and wing edges. Scrape the line off rather than carving into the plastic. A needle file reaches any spots the knife can't.
This prep work isn't glamorous. It's the difference between paint that stays on for years and paint that peels after a few sessions.
How do you prime Planet Apocalypse miniatures without losing detail?
Black primer is the right call here. The game's demons are infernal creatures from a corrupted world, so deep shadow in every recess is exactly what you want. The primer pre-shades the model before you touch a brush.
Shake the can for a full two minutes. Hold it about 12 inches from the figure and sweep steadily in short passes, never stopping the can while spraying. Two thin passes beat one heavy one. Aim for a misted coat, not a coat of house paint. You should still see the sculpted detail through the primer.
Humid days cause spray primer to dry cloudy or grainy. Pick a dry day, or prime indoors near an open window if the weather is bad. Let the primer cure at least an hour before handling.
What base coat colors work for the demons and the heroes?
Thin your paints first. Squeeze a bit on a tile or wet palette and add water until it's roughly the consistency of whole milk, flows off the brush easily, doesn't glob. Thick paint fills in sculpted detail and dries chalky.
Planet Apocalypse's demons lend themselves to deep crimson, dark red-brown, or a sickly purple-grey as the main flesh tone. Any of those land in the right thematic zone. After the main flesh area is covered, block in secondary areas: claws in bone-white or pale grey, horns in dark grey or near-black, any visible muscle tissue in a darker shade of whatever you used on the flesh. It doesn't need to look clean at this stage. The wash coming next does the correcting.
Hero figures read better with a contrasting treatment. Human skin tones, practical earth-colored clothing, and metallic weapons set them apart from the demon horde at a glance. Useful when you're tracking who's who in a busy game state.
What does a wash do, and which one should you use on these models?
A wash is a very thin, flow-boosted paint that runs into recesses on its own via gravity and capillary action. It creates natural shadows in seconds that would otherwise take careful, tedious brushwork to replicate. For Planet Apocalypse demons (with lots of surface texture, ribbing, and muscle detail) it's the single most effective technique in this whole guide.
The Warhammer Community painting tutorials describe washes as foundational for tabletop-speed results on models with high surface texture.1 The r/minipainting community on Reddit echoes this constantly for newcomers asking where to start.2
Citadel Agrax Earthshade is a warm brown that sits well over reds and flesh tones. Citadel Nuln Oil is cooler and better for grey or metallic areas. Army Painter Dark Tone is a strong all-purpose pick if you want one wash that covers everything. Apply it over the fully dried base coat, cover the whole figure generously, and leave it alone for 30 to 45 minutes. Don't move it around once it's settled.
How do you drybrush the demon figures after washing?
Wait until the wash is fully dry. Genuinely dry, not just surface-dry. Drybrushing into a damp wash drags it around and ruins the shadow you just built.
Load a stiff flat brush (a cheap hardware store brush works fine) with a lighter version of your base color or a slightly brighter mix of it. Then wipe almost all of it off on a paper towel until the brush barely marks the paper. Drag that brush quickly and lightly across the surface. The tiny bit of remaining paint catches raised edges (horn tops, knuckle ridges, muscle bands) while the recesses stay dark from the wash.
Build up two or three passes, going lighter each time. The last pass can be close to off-white on the very tips of horns and the tallest points of the sculpt. At that point, the figure reads clearly at arm's length across a table, which is exactly where it spends most of its time.
How should you approach the demon lord miniatures specifically?
Same sequence. Prep, prime, base coat, wash, drybrush. The main difference is that demon lords are centerpiece models: large, heavily detailed, and the visual anchor of a game session. They deserve one extra pass of attention that the smaller figures don't.
After the drybrush step, pick up a size 0 brush and add a few targeted details: bright orange or yellow in the eye sockets, a thin edge color on the tops of horns in a light tone, and any rune or marking on the body in a contrasting shade. These are the areas where players' eyes land first. Even 15 minutes of detail work on a demon lord changes how the whole table reads.
Painting in sections helps on bigger models. Do the body first, then attach wings, then paint the head last. Each area can cure before you move to the next.
Do you actually need to seal the finished miniatures?
Yes. This is the step most new painters skip once and never skip again.
Acrylic paint bonds to primed plastic reasonably well, and Planet Apocalypse figures get handled constantly during play. Paint wears off high-contact edges (fingertips, weapon tips, base edges) in just a few sessions without a protective layer. A matte varnish spray takes five minutes and protects hours of painting work.
Testors Dullcote and Army Painter Anti-Shine are two popular picks. Apply in light passes on a dry day. Humidity causes a cloudy frosted effect, and if that happens, a coat of gloss varnish followed by matte usually rescues it. Let each pass dry before adding another.
What color schemes hold up well on the table?
The game gives you real variety across demon types. A fire-themed palette (deep crimson base, orange drybrush, pale yellow on horn tips) is the obvious pick and looks striking under most table lighting. A necrotic palette with sickly greenish-grey flesh and purple bruising in the recesses reads more diseased than fiery. A third direction is desaturated and dark, nearly black-and-blood, which photographs well and works beautifully under dim ambient lighting.
Pick one palette per demon type and stay consistent across all figures of that type. Batch-painting groups of five or six at once saves time and keeps the collection looking unified. Hero figures should contrast against all of them: warmer skin, earthier clothing colors, so the difference reads at a glance during play.
Grab Planet Apocalypse, then get painting.
All of this starts with having the game. Planet Apocalypse is available directly from Petersen Games. Check the product page for current pricing and which editions and expansions are in stock. In-stock orders process within 48 hours and ship US domestic via USPS Ground Advantage (2-5 business days).
Painted Planet Apocalypse demons on a table look genuinely threatening in a way raw plastic can't match. The process to get there is more approachable than most board-gamers expect before they start. A can of primer, a dark wash, and a stiff drybrush cover most of it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need any hobby experience to paint Planet Apocalypse miniatures?
No prior experience required. The prep-prime-base-wash-drybrush workflow produces solid results for beginners, and the demon models are forgiving because dark recesses and textured flesh hide brushwork imperfections naturally.
What paint colors work best for Planet Apocalypse demons?
Deep reds, crimson, sickly purple-grey, and corrupted flesh tones fit the game's infernal theme. A dark wash over any of those base colors brings out the sculpted surface detail very effectively.
Should I use black or grey primer for these models?
Black primer is the standard choice for dark horror miniatures because it pre-shades recesses and makes colors richer once painted over. Grey is a decent option if you want a bit more visibility applying lighter base coats to hero figures.
How long does it take to paint a full set of Planet Apocalypse miniatures?
Batch-painting the smaller demon figures in groups runs a few hours of active work. The larger demon lord figures take an hour or more each once you include drybrushing and detail work. Most board-game painters spread the project across several sessions rather than one sitting.
Do I need to seal Planet Apocalypse miniatures after painting?
Yes. Acrylic paint chips off bare plastic with regular handling, and these figures get picked up constantly during play. One light matte varnish pass protects hours of painting work.
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