Quote from: Exploderwizard;678592Been doing so for 25 years.

It shows, that's really fine work, and there's great stuff in the thread so far. The highlights on the ape are especially nice. I wish I had the time to buy and paint minis, but I don't even use a system which supports them really so it would be pointless.

Sorry about the focus, but these are some of my favorites

I forgot I have a good photo showing all my miniatures at once.



That me bending over the table in the blue shirt and white beard.

And lord help me I dabble in Hirst Arts now.

Never used minis with RPGs; just don't like the bird's eye view during a game, and generally speaking my groups tend to play spread across couches and chairs in the den/ basement/living room rather than at a kitchen table. But I do play wargames, I just consider that a separate but related hobby.

I used to order the Ral Partha catalogues religiously though, even of it ended up being little more than Imagination Porn.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;678599Sorry about the focus, but these are some of my favorites

Very nice!

I do, actually one of my grand unfinished projects is a range of 1/32 fantasy figures I'm sculpting.  Yes, I want to sculpt figures of the characters.  Why 1/32?  Well, I like it I guess.  =][=nquisitor got me hooked and GURPS has always run at 1/35 for the ground scale.  It always struck we as weird that they'd expand the ground scale rather than compressing it.

I got into it years ago and actually became half decent. Not great by any stretch, but good enough that my minis looked pretty on the table. The problem was that looks and practicality didn't work well together. If I wanted a display piece, I'd go for a painted mini but for a piece that I use at the table? Plastic all the way.

I have about 1,000 plastic minis and use them in almost every game I participate in.

I'll also note I hate the pre-painted plastic minis/ Heroclix/ etc, they just look cheap and awful to me. I appreciate that some people don't have the time, money, or talent to paint themselves, and I don't begrudge anyone that choice in the least, but painted minis just have so much more... Substance.

I never had any painting skill so I love pre-painted plastics (aka MageKnight) and printed cardstock. But painted minis are usually quite affordable on eBay. I can get good painted minis for the price of an unpainted mini from the store. Great paintjobs of course cost more.

Quote from: TristramEvans;678643I'll also note I hate the pre-painted plastic minis/ Heroclix/ etc, they just look cheap and awful to me.

I prefer substance over style.

Quote from: TristramEvans;678643I'll also note I hate the pre-painted plastic minis/ Heroclix/ etc, they just look cheap and awful to me. I appreciate that some people don't have the time, money, or talent to paint themselves, and I don't begrudge anyone that choice in the least, but painted minis just have so much more... Substance.

You can make them look much better with very little effort by applying a mixture of Future floor polish, sepia ink and water to them. It will give shading to the questionable paint job and enhance a lot of the detail, so they won't look nearly so awful.

If you google for "Magic Wash" and "the dip" or "dipping miniatures", you'll come across quite a few tutorials.

You can also use a stain called Minwax (which is "the dip") to achieve largely the same effect.

Finishing off a base also adds a lot to a questionably painted miniature. Some rocks and static grass take away from the dubious nature of a prepaint.

I was too poor as a kid, so had to decide between books, dice, or minis.  Books typically won.

Recently I have been getting good use out of Paizo's pawns.  They're cardstock minis with a standardized format. I really liked ordering their booster box for RotRL when I ran it. I grabbed their NPC codex recently as well.

The one thing I wish I had was a way to roll my own.  Working on that still...

Quote from: Kashirigi;678876You can make them look much better with very little effort by applying a mixture of Future floor polish, sepia ink and water to them. It will give shading to the questionable paint job and enhance a lot of the detail, so they won't look nearly so awful.

If you google for "Magic Wash" and "the dip" or "dipping miniatures", you'll come across quite a few tutorials.

You can also use a stain called Minwax (which is "the dip") to achieve largely the same effect.

Just buy the Games Workshop washes, they do the same thing straight out of the pot. A GW wash over a light base coat rarely fails to look great IME.

When I GMed AD&D 2e last time, I painted a bunch of miniatures - rats, ogres, goblins, wizards, skeletons, and a zombie - for the adventure.

I use Army Painter Quickshades, which are the same as the GW washes but half the price. More importantly though, GW discontinued their most useful wash, Devlan Mud, the best replacement for which I've found is AP's 'Strong Tone'



Of course, once I paint mini myself, even if it's just a cleanup, I'd no longer really consider it a pre- painted mini.

I really like Citadel washes/shades.  Seraphim Sepia (browns and flesh) and Nuln Oil (blacks, blues, and greens) are two of my favorites.