Octopus Overlords

Reaper miniatures are also pre-primed. I have found with both Reaper and Nolzur's (haven't tried any others) you still need to do a little prep work cleaning them up, although Dad may want to do that rather than hand the xacto-knife to the kiddo. I would also recommend one of these, Reaper Learn to Paint Kit to practice on. Pretty inexpensive and you get 3 basic miniatures to learn on, plus there is a basic guide book that lay's out the color scheme and takes you through the basic techniques.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 27, 2020 12:17 pm (Apologies in advance, as I’ll sure this has been asked before.)

Little B 11.9 got an amazing Christmas present from one of the other players in our D&D group. She received a set of starter paints, brushes, and miniatures that matches both her (halfling rogue) and my (dwarven cleric) characters.

She wants to start painting, but I’m not sure where to help her begin. Is there a particular “Mini Painting 101” video or guide that you’d recommend?

TIA

Also buy a bottle of Simple Green. If Little B doesn't like the results all she needs to do is plop them in some Simple Green overnight and like magic the paint will have come off (with some gentle scrubbing)!

Painting black sucks...

Yes it does. I found this to be helpful with my blacks. Not that they don't still suck.

It was always white that gave me issues.

https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/8631/dont-play-gray

This guy has been painting Night of the Living Dead minis in a color version, then in a black/white/grey version. It's kind of inspiring and helpful in hearing in how he gradiates his blacks to create dimension.

Continuing my pulp run...

Finally painted 2 minis again..., click right twice to see a video of both.




and

hentzau wrote: ↑Sat Jan 02, 2021 2:44 am Continuing my pulp run...

Looks great!

Is that painted with those washes? I forgot the name..

EzeKieL wrote:

hentzau wrote: ↑Sat Jan 02, 2021 2:44 am Continuing my pulp run...

Looks great!

Is that painted with those washes? I forgot the name..

Citadel Contrast Paints.

Did this Doc Savage last night.

Any of you folks that backed the Reaper Bones kickstarters want to part with any of your pulp-era minis from the sets? Let me know.

Nope. I'm hanging on to mine, likely for the exact same reason.

Tonight’s work...

That one turned out really well.

Those of you with Bones minis...do you prime? And if you don’t prime, how do they hold onto contrast paints.

I don’t prime Bones (or Nolzurs or Deep Cuts) but haven’t tried the contrast paint on Bones yet. There are sometimes a few patches that need to be brush cleaned or it won’t hold paint well.

I know I have a few Bones pulp duplicates where I already painted the metal figures.

I always prime Bones. I thin my paints before applying them, and thinned paints do not work on unprimed Bones. The "Bonesium" (which is just PVC) accepts some brands of acrylics without priming (not all), but it is hydrophobic - it repels water. Thinned paints just run off unless you thin exclusively with acrylic mediums. On top of that, Bonesium, especially the earlier formulaitons, is slightly translucent. When you have thin detail enough light shines through it to effectively erase the shadows. That makes it really, really hard to see the details while painting them (although this was improved once they started adding the gray dye.) Priming them solves this problem, too.

I've never tried Contrast paints on them unprimed, but I can give it a whirl later on.

Found this. It would suggest that the answer is no.

Yeah, I was going to say, I did an experiment with a single bones figure (lizard person) and the green contrast paint. Without priming it wouldn't stick at all and ended up either beading off or now flowing correctly. Definitely need to prime them first.

Some helpful tips and tricks.

Tonight’s work...Green Hornet and Kato for you youngsters out there.

Tonight’s work. No close up, they’re both Monets...look good from a distance but a big old mess close up.

I want to highly recommend Scale75's Inktense Wood, which feels like magic in a bottle. Paint in a light-middle brown, add highlights and then add this ink and it really does look like wood. Feels crazy. I've been using it a lot painting Altar Quest (I have painted SO many doors):

Doors


Garbage Pile


Folklore Large Doors


Galastig


I just love the look of it and I want to find more things with wood in them to paint (although maybe not more doors for a while).

Did 2 more of Mysthea: (you can press the arrows to see a short video too)



and



Not happy with the last one but yeah, whatever. On to the next ones!

2 more from Mysthea:

I'm always paranoid about that. There are two times I force myself to wait longer than necessary: after washing before priming, and after finishing before varnishing. In both cases, I'll usually let them sit at least over night. If I finish a piece and I'm not using it right away, I'll set it aside for a day or so before I start varnishing. It's overkill, yes, but don't want to take the chance.

I'll be doing that from now on as well

Tonight’s work...

'ello, mummy!

I've gotten very little done over the past week. I bent over about 20 degrees a little over a week ago, and my back went, "POP!" Since then, I can barely stand to sit in the painting position (hunched forward) for more than a few minutes. Still, I've gotten some progress made on my 7th Continent stuff.

Tonight’s work...

Nice job. You've always got a great variety of pieces.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jan 27, 2021 9:25 am Nice job. You've always got a great variety of pieces.

That's because I'm weak and can't resist interesting figures/themes.

Tonight’s work...

Tonight’s work.

hentzau wrote: ↑Fri Jan 29, 2021 2:38 am Tonight’s work.

I love this one. Something about the way the shadows look on it.

I'm starting to experiment with my hot wire cutter and XPS foam. I've read that the fumes are mostly CO2 and water, and not terribly toxic, but I think I'm going to need to work out a way to get rig an exhaust fan that I can set in my bedroom window while I'm working. Given that I want to learn to solder, too, it'll come in handy. I just need to figure out a way to do it when the air outside the window is single-digit.

I was thinking more about sticking a box fan in the window point out and finding a way to cover the gaps, but that's not bad. I might be able to find something similar already built, but since he's writing that for people who solder, he doesn't go into any detail at all about what electrical parts he's using, how to wire it, power it, or, you know - solder it.

And is a filter really enough to neutralize the smoke?

There's always flexible conduit to the window.