Miniature Painting

Hateyou · Jul 16, 2019

Gankak said:
Its awesome to see this much enthusiasm for miniature painting... so I say this as a warning. If you have a lot of disposable income and want to keep it STAY AWAY FROM GAMES WORKSHOP. Its crack.... trust me. Trying to beat that addiction...

Glad people like the thread. It has inspired me to change my avatar after 17 years here!

I steer clear of GW. There’s so many good models and it just never ends. Release after release. I think they’re great but know I just couldn’t handle that volume and $.

Gankak · Jul 16, 2019

Hateyou said:
Glad people like the thread. It has inspired me to change my avatar after 17 years here!

I steer clear of GW. There’s so many good models and it just never ends. Release after release. I think they’re great but know I just couldn’t handle that volume and $.

Same... every time I go to my local store its like a white woman in costco. Go in saying I need 1 paint... come out spending 150 bucks and i have no idea how.

Dashel · Jul 16, 2019

Gankak said:
Its awesome to see this much enthusiasm for miniature painting... so I say this as a warning. If you have a lot of disposable income and want to keep it STAY AWAY FROM GAMES WORKSHOP. Its crack.... trust me. Trying to beat that addiction...

Hah well yeah, totally seeing the costs are high for this hobby! I mean my tentative plan now is to go check out the local games and see what's out there. I see one shop has 40k games at 1850 points. I only vaguely understand what that means. Point's = army size kinda? They also have DnD, Age of Sigmar and Infinity.

Sooooo we will see. Right now I just wanna paint a Space Marine like this dude:

Or maybe a yellow one.

Gankak · Jul 16, 2019

Yes... in Warhammer games the army size is controlled by points. Each unit has a point value assigned to it based on its ability/equipment etc.

As a new painter I would start with blue. Blue is a fairly easy color to start with. Yellow/Green/Black/White start to get difficult for various reasons. Yellow/Green because its hard to get good opaque coverage and black/white due to highlighting/shading.

Erronius · Jul 16, 2019

Y'all gonna make me start up this shit again. And I don't know where I'd get the time, between 40hr job, teaching at night, and being a video game addict.

FML

Hateyou · Jul 16, 2019

Erronius said:
Y'all gonna make me start up this shit again. And I don't know where I'd get the time, between 40hr job, teaching at night, and being a video game addict.

FML

I have 40+ hr job. Wife. Small Kid. Start night school soon. Video game addiction. 3d printing. Board gaming.

Fu.

Kovaks · Jul 16, 2019

I barely get to do this, between the kids, working out and work, but I pretty much gave up video games so that is where I found some time.

Hateyou · Jul 16, 2019

Kovaks said:
I barely get to do this, between the kids, working out and work, but I pretty much gave up video games so that is where I found some time.

Yeah, I basically just rotate hobbies depending what I’m in the mood for. Definitely video game a lot less than I used to but that was kind of happening anyways. Mostly gave up heavy reading and beer brewing for painting/gaming.

Erronius · Jul 17, 2019

Hateyou said:
I have 40+ hr job. Wife. Small Kid. Start night school soon. Video game addiction. 3d printing. Board gaming.

Fu.

You are a better man than I am, sir.

I SAY GOOD DAY!

Hateyou · Jul 17, 2019

Erronius said:
You are a better man than I am, sir.

I SAY GOOD DAY!

You don’t need eight hours of sleep. Just sleep faster

Kovaks · Jul 17, 2019

Hateyou said:
Yeah, I basically just rotate hobbies depending what I’m in the mood for. Definitely video game a lot less than I used to but that was kind of happening anyways. Mostly gave up heavy reading and beer brewing for painting/gaming.

All my reading is now done audibly during my commute these days

Dashel · Jul 17, 2019

You guys can totally do it. Painting at least. Set it up, carve out an hour before bed. That's what I do in any event. I own a business, 2 kids, wife, new puppy. Doable!

I took a big step back last night haha. I have this a Reaper Mini of a female elf ranger. Looks kinda lame in it's out of the box form. Her face looked like an alien when it's pure white and you can't see the details.

Then I found this painted image (and others like it) and I'm like WOW ok that looks great!

Then I tried to paint the base coat. For whatever reason this time my paint was wayyyyy too thick. It's FUBAR now. I'll have to see if I can fix it but it really brought home that rule of thinning your paint to skim milk consistency. I think it's because I used a Vallejo paint and not the Reaper MSP that I'd been using. Whatever it was I learned my lesson.

Gankak · Jul 17, 2019

You can strip it I am pretty sure. I am not 100% sure with what however as i haven't ever stripped a mini.

Hateyou · Jul 17, 2019

Dashel said:
You guys can totally do it. Painting at least. Set it up, carve out an hour before bed. That's what I do in any event. I own a business, 2 kids, wife, new puppy. Doable!

I took a big step back last night haha. I have this a Reaper Mini of a female elf ranger. Looks kinda lame in it's out of the box form. Her face looked like an alien when it's pure white and you can't see the details.

Then I found this painted image (and others like it) and I'm like WOW ok that looks great!

View attachment 215532

Then I tried to paint the base coat. For whatever reason this time my paint was wayyyyy too thick. It's FUBAR now. I'll have to see if I can fix it but it really brought home that rule of thinning your paint to skim milk consistency. I think it's because I used a Vallejo paint and not the Reaper MSP that I'd been using. Whatever it was I learned my lesson.

You can strip it easily and start over. Just soak it in a Tupperware full of Simple Green overnight and it’ll come right off the next day.

Yeah, switching paint brands is tricky. I generally stick to Vallejo and Citadel.

Hateyou · Jul 17, 2019

Finally finished my Bell Crow. I’m happy

Dashel · Jul 17, 2019

EDIT: WOW that looks amazing HY. How did you get that skin tone like that? That looks ridiculously good.

EDIT 2: And how big is that mini? He looks awesome.

I'm gonna forge ahead and just paint her. Flaws and all. I'll see what happens. If it's a disaster I'll know to strip next time. I think it'll go better if I just push through and get to the next one on my list. I need to get better at figuring out base colors now that I don't have a walk through guide. Im googling images of the model, seeing some painted versions, and taking a shot at it. I think my mistake was mixing colors on this one. I mixed "Flat Brown" vallejo with "Pure black" MSP. Might have been fine if I watered it down. I think that's where a wet palette would help me too, maybe I waited too long and it thickened up even more.

My Hero Forge guys are coming soon! Should ship the 19th. Hope to get at least 2 more done by then.

Kovaks · Jul 17, 2019

Hateyou said:
Finally finished my Bell Crow. I’m happy

View attachment 215548

View attachment 215547

View attachment 215545

View attachment 215546

It might be even creepier with the flesh tone. Great job.

Hateyou · Jul 17, 2019

Dashel said:
EDIT: WOW that looks amazing HY. How did you get that skin tone like that? That looks ridiculously good.

EDIT 2: And how big is that mini? He looks awesome.

I'm gonna forge ahead and just paint her. Flaws and all. I'll see what happens. If it's a disaster I'll know to strip next time. I think it'll go better if I just push through and get to the next one on my list. I need to get better at figuring out base colors now that I don't have a walk through guide. Im googling images of the model, seeing some painted versions, and taking a shot at it. I think my mistake was mixing colors on this one. I mixed "Flat Brown" vallejo with "Pure black" MSP. Might have been fine if I watered it down. I think that's where a wet palette would help me too, maybe I waited too long and it thickened up even more.

My Hero Forge guys are coming soon! Should ship the 19th. Hope to get at least 2 more done by then.

Thanks. It’s 90mm / 3.5 inch tall. The picture below shows a typical 28mm figure, probably the size of the bones you’re painting. The skin ton is pretty much like everything. Dark base coat, then keep lightening it and shading it til you’re happy with it. Skin tones are still difficult for me.

Yeah paint starts thickening almost immediately, it’s continuously drying when it’s sitting out. Watering down is how you deal with that, and you’re right, a wet palette helps with that.

Kovaks said:
It might be even creepier with the flesh tone. Great job.

Thanks, that was my intent. Wanted a pale but human looking color.

Hateyou · Jul 17, 2019

We had a discussion about notes a while back, forget with who. Here’s how I take them. I have only done it on a few big models that I knew would take a while and I had things planned out before I’d started. Smaller stuff I just wing it as I go.

I wrote first layer first, separate each new layer color with a comma. If it’s a + then it was a combo of two colors, followed by a ratio, in case I need to make more. Some things that only have one layer and I know what I alway use (like the blue crystals and glow) I won’t write down. Or things like blood, dirt on the cape, etc.

Dashel · Jul 18, 2019

Funny you posted that list. I made one for myself on the basic process i'm going to try to use until I can get better.

Miniature Painting

Not Great, Not Terrible

Vyemm Raider

Blackwing Lair Raider

Vyemm Raider

<WoW Guild Officer>

Not Great, Not Terrible

Mr. Poopybutthole

Not Great, Not Terrible

<WoW Guild Officer>

Not Great, Not Terrible

Mr. Poopybutthole

Blackwing Lair Raider

Vyemm Raider

Not Great, Not Terrible

Not Great, Not Terrible

Blackwing Lair Raider

Mr. Poopybutthole

Not Great, Not Terrible

Not Great, Not Terrible

Blackwing Lair Raider