Starting to paint my own mini's YEA!!!


Miniatures


Hey all I have a question to put out there. Where is a good place to get info on technique for painting minis.

Thanks in advance for any info


I have never understood the whole minis craze. it just seemed odd to me. Please explain why people are fasinated by little toy figures?


Rhyan Garrow wrote:
I have never understood the whole minis craze. it just seemed odd to me. Please explain why people are fasinated by little toy figures?

I like doing them for use in my D&D games. I am also disabled from a car accident and nothing better to do.


Ah well then... Jeez what are you supposed to say to something like that? Altho i do undertand about their usefulness in games. Im just not fanatical about them. My friend is though.

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Check out www.coolminiornot.com

They have links to all sorts of useful tutorials, and lots of pics by some really talented artists.


Reaper Miniatures has both miniatures for sale and a lot of handy tutorials on everything from what brushes to buy, what kind of primer to use and how to set up your work area to drybrushing and modifying figures.


Gommer, where are you? I'm in Putnam Valley, NY. If you're anywhere nearby I could offer you a one day clinic that would set you well on your way. A decade ago I bought many thousands of figures and managed to paint about 100 <:) but they're quite good by anyone's standard. Well, except for those of feeble-minded fractious contrarians.


The Jade wrote:
Gommer, where are you? I'm in Putnam Valley, NY. If you're anywhere nearby I could offer you a one day clinic that would set you well on your way. A decade ago I bought many thousands of figures and managed to paint about 100 <:) but they're quite good by anyone's standard. Well, except for those of feeble-minded fractious contrarians.

I wish I was in Putnam valley!!!! But (SIGH) I live in utah. thanks all for the info. I will look into them all.


I would suggest checking out some of the articles on the Warhammer game site. Given that they're entire thing is painting your mini's and battling with them they should have some good articles on this.

I remember when I was younger and painted mini's they had an excellent guide on mini painting - it went over all the techniques like basecoating, drybrushing, washes, etc.

I would also suggest picking up some issues of White Dwarf magazine. I have one or two issues and they have painting guides in them - very useful for seeing what colors they use as basecoats, highlights and for shading.


Niko77 wrote:

I remember when I was younger and painted mini's they had an excellent guide on mini painting - it went over all the techniques like basecoating, drybrushing, washes, etc.

I have a few Warhammer booklets like that from the early 90's. They were an excellent primer.


Best general rule about painting anything is to work from the general to the specific, regardless of what you're working on. By this, I mean don't paint the little gems on a mini's scabbard if you haven't already gotten the base coats for the face, hair, clothing, etc. done. Common sense, I know, but it's a helpful thing to keep in mind. Starting simple is always the best bet and as long as you don't varnish them you could probably go back into the minis you've painted once you get really really good at it. Have a great time!


I find that working with a single color at a time helps when I paint minis.

Scarab Sages

I've considered doing this, but I think the future Mrs. Zombie would kill me if I started.


Vigil wrote:

Check out www.coolminiornot.com

They have links to all sorts of useful tutorials, and lots of pics by some really talented artists.

This is a really cool site!!! very informative.. Thanks for the link :)


I don't personally paint minis (buy mine prepainted) but I have lots of respect for those who do. The miniature board at WoTC website is mostly a showcase for others' work but there is a tutorial on there demonstrating how one person repainted the Dracolich mini. Read it yesterday and thought it was interesting.


Keep your paint schemes simple, and always clean your brushes.

Never dip your brushes into the paint too deep (so it touches the metal) and change the water pot regularly (add a single drop of washing up liquid detergent to the water pot to help with mixing if using acrylic paints like GW or whatever).

Always wash your miniatures in warm soapy water before painting them to get rid of the factory dust and dirt and make sure to strip them of all flash and meld lines.

Um.. stand your paints upside down and shake them well before use, keep them out of any strong sunlight.

Coolminiornot is aces.

Always water paints down, painting on three thin coats to get the right coverage/effect is much better than painting it on thick and loosing detail.

Buy decent brushes -and lots of them.

Learn and use the colour wheel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ColourShading.png

Thats all I can think of for now... :)


Lilith wrote:
I find that working with a single color at a time helps when I paint minis.

Yeah. -You know what I'm finding really cool and fun at the moment? Monochrome technique painting. I love it.


R-type wrote:
Lilith wrote:
I find that working with a single color at a time helps when I paint minis.
Yeah. -You know what I'm finding really cool and fun at the moment? Monochrome technique painting. I love it.

Ok dumb dumb question. What is the monochrome technique? Also one more question what type of paints do you use? I myself use the reaper pro series. I like the way that they are thin, and easy to mix.

Anyhow thanks for all the info.

Later Gommer:)


Monochromatic just means different shades/tones of the same color. For example if you chose blue your pallet might include midnight blue, navy blue, royal blue, sky blue, powder blue, and ice blue.


Lady Aurora wrote:
Monochromatic just means different shades/tones of the same color. For example if you chose blue your pallet might include midnight blue, navy blue, royal blue, sky blue, powder blue, and ice blue.

Yup! And one other cool thing you can do is paint a mini in monochrome then paint one part (like a sash or cloak or gems etc) in a colour from the opposite side of the colour wheel -it creates beautiful chaos! :)

Little techniques like this help me make my mini's look a lot better than they actually are.


SWEEET!!!!!!!!!! thanks for the input. :)

very big grin!!!!!!!!!


Can't wait until Monday... My order from Paizo will be here around 4:00 or so.

YEAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Rhyan Garrow wrote:
I have never understood the whole minis craze. it just seemed odd to me. Please explain why people are fasinated by little toy figures?

Because they are awesome to paint duh!!!!


And they're addictive!! though personally I prefer the plastic prepainted kind (not that painting's not cool; it's just I rarely have the time because I'm so busy posting on these boards instead!).


Just got all my paints, and the learn to paint kits from reaper. WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now as soon as the new table leg gets here I can start. :)

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