So I'm getting back into minis after many years away. I was never particularly good - so I'm actually trying now.


Anyone here got some to show? Favorite paints etc.

Here are two I just finished. I need to re-varnish them, the Reaper sealer is too glossy. I've been practicing my blending, stipling, and other techniques. I'm not trying to make them display-worthy, they're for handling and throwing around on the table. I'm still a noob.

Looking good! Way better than anything I could do, which is one of the reasons (besides money/space) I use paper minis.

It's a lot easier than people think (even myself). Of course I'm still learning - but there are only a handful of techniques you can learn some basic proficiency and your figures will look a lot better.

The problem with this image is that the lighting was sharp when I took the pic, and the sealer looks way too glossy.

The Cost. Yeah it can add up. But as I've gotten back into this hobby, I had the following parameters I set for myself in the learning process:

1) I have a lot of minis from the old days I never painted. Top priority - paint these.
2) If I'm going to paint new minis because I needed to buy some for my specific game - I'm going get Bones minis from Reaper as they're plastic and cheap and I'm painting for heavy use, so if I'm going to learn to be better, make it cost effective.
3) If I'm going to spend money - get my money's worth but don't buy something I won't paint to my own satisfaction.

I did consider doing paper-flats, but my players and I wanted something more substantial. This (un)fortunately led me down a very deep rabbithole. Battlemaps led to breaking out minis, led to getting terrain, led to customizing terrain, led to buying more minis, led to re-learning how to paint, all of which (plus a lot of discussion here) has led me to eyeballing 3d printers and air-brushing... /blinks... yeah.

Anyhow - I'm still polishing my painting game, practice, practice, practice. I'm looking for others here for advice, tips, or just mutual sharing of their minis. Hell - if you do custom flats, put'em out there!

Quote from: tenbones on February 25, 2022, 03:41:10 PM
It's a lot easier than people think (even myself). Of course I'm still learning - but there are only a handful of techniques you can learn some basic proficiency and your figures will look a lot better.

The problem with this image is that the lighting was sharp when I took the pic, and the sealer looks way too glossy.

The Cost. Yeah it can add up. But as I've gotten back into this hobby, I had the following parameters I set for myself in the learning process:

1) I have a lot of minis from the old days I never painted. Top priority - paint these.
2) If I'm going to paint new minis because I needed to buy some for my specific game - I'm going get Bones minis from Reaper as they're plastic and cheap and I'm painting for heavy use, so if I'm going to learn to be better, make it cost effective.
3) If I'm going to spend money - get my money's worth but don't buy something I won't paint to my own satisfaction.

I did consider doing paper-flats, but my players and I wanted something more substantial. This (un)fortunately led me down a very deep rabbithole. Battlemaps led to breaking out minis, led to getting terrain, led to customizing terrain, led to buying more minis, led to re-learning how to paint, all of which (plus a lot of discussion here) has led me to eyeballing 3d printers and air-brushing... /blinks... yeah.

Anyhow - I'm still polishing my painting game, practice, practice, practice. I'm looking for others here for advice, tips, or just mutual sharing of their minis. Hell - if you do custom flats, put'em out there!

Between my very bad eye sight and my shacky hands... No, not gonna even think about it.

Add the cost (the wife would kill me).

Now add the lack of space to keep them.

I'll be eternally jealous of the 3d minis.

Quote from: tenbones on February 25, 2022, 03:41:10 PM
It's a lot easier than people think (even myself). Of course I'm still learning - but there are only a handful of techniques you can learn some basic proficiency and your figures will look a lot better.

The problem with this image is that the lighting was sharp when I took the pic, and the sealer looks way too glossy.

The Cost. Yeah it can add up. But as I've gotten back into this hobby, I had the following parameters I set for myself in the learning process:

1) I have a lot of minis from the old days I never painted. Top priority - paint these.
2) If I'm going to paint new minis because I needed to buy some for my specific game - I'm going get Bones minis from Reaper as they're plastic and cheap and I'm painting for heavy use, so if I'm going to learn to be better, make it cost effective.

First up, great minis!

I've been pretty dissapointed in Reaper Bones. They're the type of minis I'd want to use speedpaint techniques (washes and drybrushing) on, but mold lines look horrible with those techniques. And getting rid of mold lines on Bones has been frustrating as hell.

QuoteAnyhow - I'm still polishing my painting game, practice, practice, practice. I'm looking for others here for advice, tips, or just mutual sharing of their minis. Hell - if you do custom flats, put'em out there!

Stone golem I'm pretty proud of. I just built up the texture by stippling various greys until it looked good, and then did a thin grey wash to bring back the details.



Space Marines from the boxed game Doomsday Countdown.



Some old X-Wing Miniatures repaints where I first tried out printing decals. (The brown fighter is the stock paintjob, just decals added.)

Some of my favorite painting channels-

https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePaintingClinic

https://www.youtube.com/c/DuncanRhodesPaintingAcademy

https://www.youtube.com/c/MidwinterMinis

Highly reccomend Midwinter Minis Blackstone Fortress playlist. Lost of good speed paint techniques.

SWEET!!

Those Space Marines look clean as hell. Are these for play or just fun? Dig the stone golem too - at first glance I thought he was unpainted until I looked at it. Yeah he looks great. What scale is he?

Bones - well I still consider myself cutting my teeth. I'm really wanting to learn how to hit this balance between "looking good" and not going overboard since they're going to have heavy use. Yeah they're cheesy quality, but I don't mind cleaning them up (to a point). I'm already buying 3d printed minis to do more painstaking work on. I'll post them up after they're done.

Star Wars - OHHHH LORDY. I'm thinking about getting Star Wars minis for my next SW campaign. And that's going to mean ships!!! Any suggestions on lines, or 3d prints out there?

Quote from: tenbones on February 28, 2022, 12:08:58 PM
SWEET!!

Those Space Marines look clean as hell. Are these for play or just fun? Dig the stone golem too - at first glance I thought he was unpainted until I looked at it. Yeah he looks great. What scale is he?

For play. They came with a boxed game, but I did paint them up. I have a loose rule that I don't paint boxed set minis because the project usually stalls out and then I have a board game I can't play because the minis are all on my painting desk. But sometimes I just can't resist.

Stone golem is a reaper bones. 25-28mm, but he's a bit tall because stone golems are big.

QuoteBones - well I still consider myself cutting my teeth. I'm really wanting to learn how to hit this balance between "looking good" and not going overboard since they're going to have heavy use. Yeah they're cheesy quality, but I don't mind cleaning them up (to a point). I'm already buying 3d printed minis to do more painstaking work on. I'll post them up after they're done.

They're not bad. Just takes work to fix up those mold lines. I can't argue over the price  I've got a fair amount of bones myself.

QuoteStar Wars - OHHHH LORDY. I'm thinking about getting Star Wars minis for my next SW campaign. And that's going to mean ships!!! Any suggestions on lines, or 3d prints out there?

I don't have a 3-d Printer. If you do get X-Wing minis for RPG use, be aware they have a square base and peg system (you can see it in the pic) To use different bases, you'd have to cut off the peg connectors and rebase them. If you don't mind the square bases, all the X-Wing miniatures are really good, and come prepainted, so you can skip that step and use them right out of the box.

Plus you can try out the XWM game. 

I've been tempted to get into the XWM game... but I can't justify playing it with my group. But those minis look great for ship-combat the only issue being that FFG Star Wars doesn't require it.

But since I'm considering Savage Star Wars... I could make it happen. Definitely on the menu.

Quote from: tenbones on March 03, 2022, 10:23:08 AM
I've been tempted to get into the XWM game... but I can't justify playing it with my group. But those minis look great for ship-combat the only issue being that FFG Star Wars doesn't require it.

But since I'm considering Savage Star Wars... I could make it happen. Definitely on the menu.

The disadvantage is you're paying 20-30 bucks for all the XWM game content, dials, tokens, etc, per ship. That's pricey, especially if you only use them for RPGs.
I'd reccomend ebay, or keep an eye out for deals.