Miniature Gaming ERA - Modelling, Playing & Painting

[MyQuarters]

Finished the main Necromancer for Zombicide Black Plague. My first non basic ass zombie mini I've done since my first 4 practice minis. Felt pretty good to paint something with different colors than the zombies, and put a little more attention towards it. Granted, it's by no means amazing, but I just started painting in November and I'm proud of him!

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I've been painting (off and on I guess) for a couple years (not that I'm all that much better for it) and I'd be proud of him - looks great!



I've been working on my secret project since Xmas. Looking forward to sharing photos of my dudes, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for the one member of my group who I know browses this thread.

Couple weeks and I'll have a slew of photos at the ready!

 

[Griselbrand]

Now that I have a car note again I've cut down on the impulse purchases. Which means I can work on my backlog!

Up on the bench currently are four Plague Marines, Iason from Arena Rex, and a Tamiya 1/24 Mazda RX-7 from the late 80's that I'm building because it was my first car. Once I finish those I'll have a Bandai Slave 1, Bandai MG Tallgeese I, Plague Terminators, and my Infinity Nomads to work on. It'll all keep me more than busy these next few months.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

As a salute to Twig and Boat Times, I painted my next two heroes by combining elements from both of your last posts for fun ;) I thought it would be a different thing to do and they turned out pretty good!

 

[Boat Times]

Nice! I'm honored you chose one of mine to use as inspiration (in some sense of the word, haha). Those look really cool, and man you are making me want to pick up Massive Darkness!

 

[Deleted member 9241]

Nice! I'm honored you chose one of mine to use as inspiration (in some sense of the word, haha). Those look really cool, and man you are making me want to pick up Massive Darkness!

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I liked your purple! Also, the bottle with the blue liquid is a stand out of your model IMO. Its just a nice little touch that is painted quite well.

 

[Twig]

Yesss more green fire GREEN FIRE EVERYWHERE.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

One more for the day. He's a solo hero, so no female counterpart unfortunately. The only character without one actually. (He's my wife's favorite). He's a huge dude too. Much larger than any other hero.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

DP

 

[Mandos]

Well, I have time, all my supplies, and nothing on my schedule tomorrow, time to finally paint some ninjas... after I get a cheese loaf baking(My mom let me have her old bread maker for Christmas) and I'm back from the holidays.

Also all your painting looks awesome, hopefully I'll have some success and the painted minis will help me lure people into playing

 

[Deleted member 9241]

My next 2 days are free, but I think I might concentrate on one of my other hobbies a bit. I've kicked out a good deal of Massive Darkness and I don't want to get burnt out. I'm at 15 miniatures painted for the year, which is over 1 per day on average. The scary part is I will have to keep that average up if I want to complete this project in a year. Lol, not bloody likely!

If my family wants to watch a movie tonight, I may try and knock one out then.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

Damn. Just got struck with inspiration. Looks like I'll be knocking out 3 more heroes today. One will be from Massive Darkness and two will be from Zombicide Black Plague (my first BP heroes!).

I believe this will continue my foray into solo heroes since BP does not have m/f alternates to their heroes. It's a great chance to diversify my hero lineup with a bunch of one offs.

 

[Boat Times]

Damn. Just got struck with inspiration. Looks like I'll be knocking out 3 more heroes today. One will be from Massive Darkness and two will be from Zombicide Black Plague (my first BP heroes!).

I believe this will continue my foray into solo heroes since BP does not have m/f alternates to their heroes. It's a great chance to diversify my hero lineup with a bunch of one offs.

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Very interested to see your BP heroes! Speaking of which, here is my completed first hero from BP, Ann the Nun:

I'm way less offended by her face than I was with my Necromancers face. I also have to admit, I only chose to paint Ann first because she seemed pretty easy to do and not because I particularly liked the character but I think she came out looking really cool and was actually excited I got to use her while playing BP last night. It was also the first time I got to play BP with all the zombies painted, and the Abomination and Necromancer painted as well!

 

[Deleted member 9241]

She's great! Good job on her. I actually pulled her model and primed it with my others because she looks like she'll be a pretty fast paint job. In Massive Darkness she's considered a Warrior Priest so I have to work her into my other purple characters, which shouldn't be an issue at all.

Lets talk painting rituals. I have quite a few.

All my paints are sorted by color. I pull the paints out in front of me as I work on a model. Once the model is complete, I take a picture of the model with my phone next to all the paints I used. This is totally a force of habit. I'll always have my color combinations this way in case I need to paint more or touch up a model.

When working on a project, I keep the finished models within hands reach. I like seeing progress and it allows me to make subtle differences or similarities between models if needed.

Once my current model(s) are done, I make a clean slate for my next one. Fresh water for brushes, fresh plate for paint, fresh paper towel, all my colors go right back in their groups, and my brushes are reorganized.

I play with my models a bit when they are finished. This is kind of my favorite part TBH. Every new character added to Massive Darkness, or anything with a group/squad, can be endlessly rearranged to show the models off in the best way possible. A new mini added to the group changes the whole dynamic and its fun to see the different configurations it adds to the group.

So what are your painting rituals?

 

[Griselbrand]

Rituals?

I have to have something on in the background. But it can't be music or Podcasts, it has to be Netflix or HBO and the like. There needs to be a visual component.

It's a pretty common one and I think it might be the only ritual I have. Though this year I'm going to make it a ritual to start with a clean work space every day. :)

 

[MyQuarters]

I'm pretty sloppy to be honest - got paints, brushes and bases all around me when I paint - finished models are on the shelf above my monitor.


I usually paint with either a podcast (MBMBaM usually), TV or audiobooks (Artemis by Andy Weir atm) to keep me sane.
Hours pass quick. I've painted SO MANY models this year already.
I'm doing 'em fast and dirty but I'm up to over 50 models already in 2018.

Couple weeks and I'll reveal all!

 

[Deleted member 9241]

The first of my 3 Battle Wizards is done. I'm doing them as brown, gray, and white wizards. The big goal here is to have a differentiat the Battle Wizards as well as tie together some of the "subgroups". For instance, this brown wizard looks excellent paired with the barbarians, wood elves, and big ogre dude. The gray will tie in my Assassins, and the white will look great with the rest.

This dude is from Zombicide Black Plague. The Massive Darkness heroes are much better than these. The're a tad larger and all their detail is more pronounced and easier to paint. He was interesting to paint because he's basically all browns.

 

[StaffyManasse]

Over 50 models you say...quick and dirty...hmmm...

You're making an Age of Sigmar skeleton horde!

Spoiler

or not

 

[Deleted member 9241]

Gray Wizard down

 

[Mandos]

Well first attempt, since I needed to try sooner or later, started a second one but stopped because I'm a little to shaken today. Forgot to paint the silver on the lower leg front. Also a look at my setup. I think I need a bigger and smaller brush though(got a 000 and a 1 at the moment). Not great but you have to start somewhere... I think stormtroopers May have been a better choice though... I think the Imperial Assualt models are bigger. I've got the Christmas money but wanted to see what I thought of painting first. I don't mind it, but I'm not very good that's for sure, heh. Although it'd probably help if it was a day my hand was steadier.
Not pictured is my is my ice tray pallet. I'll continue another day. This not so great attempt took about a hour. Should have time Tuesday it'll be 29 degrees in Texas XD

I'd happily accept advice and tips. Yes I did base wash, 2nd base and final... terrible at small detail though

 

[Boat Times]

So that looks like a good base painting, you just need to go over some of the smaller details again no biggie. Also that 000 is probably too small, I pretty much always just use a 1, and sometimes my 0. You got the reaper learn to paint kit, right? Why not start with the models in the kit, and follow along with the guide? That way you are getting your practicing done on models you've got no attachment towards, and it'll help you learn along the way. Oh, also also, you probably want to thin your paints more than you are already doing (if you are thinning at all). I'm by no means a master (or even all that good) and I'm still trying to get used to how thin my paints should be, but I usually put at least one drop of thinner into them. The paints are thin enough which means I have to do at LEAST two base layers, sometimes three (or more), but it makes the models look much better.

Speaking of thinning paints, is it recommended to thin metallic paints? I feel like every time I've tried to do that it just dilutes them too much and the shiny metallic part doesn't really come out. So those are the one kind of paint I've stopped thinning, but is that advisable?

SillyEskimo the potion on Baldric looks REALLY cool! I've got my Baldric primed, but have yet to paint him. Also your Karl (I think that's his name?) is pretty cool, as well. I don't have him primed yet, actually just got him with the Wulfsburg expansion on Friday. Here is one of the minis I painted today and I really like how he came out:

He's Apprentice Milo! At first I had his hat and gloves black, but then I decided "you know what, he's going to be the apprentice to my Necromancer!" and made the overly large hat and gloves purple. He stole the gloves, hat, book and parchments and is now fighting back against his evil master. As a model he also has the most successful eyes I've been able to do so far. Overall I'm pretty proud of him. The other model I'm painting today is a viking dude with an axe, and he's coming along alright but something about him isn't doing it for me. Not quite finished with him yet, waiting for the washes to dry, but I dunno...

 

[Mandos]

I have the layer up rather than core. Also I'm having enough trouble with the size of my ninjas the layer up minis are half that size! My hands are a little unstable on the first part

 

[Boat Times]

I have the layer up rather than core. Also I'm having enough trouble with the size of my ninjas the layer up minis are half that size! My hands are a little unstable on the first part

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Hm. I'd suggest picking the core set up as well, if you can. And really learn to paint with those. The core set at least comes with two very big minis. If you don't want to pick that up, maybe go to a local hobby/game store and pick up some reaper bones minis, a lot of them are quite large and should be cheap enough to buy two or three to practice on first. I really, really recommend starting with some practice minis before painting anything that you care about, that's what I did and I'm happy for it. I didn't start painting my zombicide minis until I had already painted 5 practice minis. I followed along with the learn to paint set for the first two only, and then used the guide as a reference for the third, and the fourth and fifth I just did on my own. You'll see improvement with each one, trust me.

 

[Mandos]

Ok, thanks Boat Times ill consider the core set, I just have to balance off my budget first. My nearest shop offers lessons but it's just far enough way to be inconvenient since it's in the town over. I do want to this right, and the ninja is not too screwed up to salvage either. I did enjoy painting, was just annoyed at my hand for being shaky, it's a long term issue(never could hold a camera steady). I really want to get good at this, especially since I've decided to use some of my Christmas money on Star Wars Imperial Assualt

 

[Twig]

I'm not aware of the extent of your hand shakiness, but I will say that when I first started painting my hands were fairly shaky and I found it frustrating. The more I painted, the more steady they got. If I take too long a break between painting things, I often have to build back up, though I've yet to take a break long enough that I needed to start form the worst I've been. There's probably some science there somewhere??

It also sometimes help to rest the model in one hand with a solid squeeze (not, like, tight or anything, just enough to keep everything stable) and use that as an anchor for your painting hand/brush. Though, the only time I really do that is for painting eyes and more recently freehand stuff. Really fine detail. Also if you are resting the model on your hand, be careful of scarping off paint. I only ever really have a problem when it's metal, though, so doubt it'll be a problem with those foot soldiers.

In other news, I'm in middle of painting something, and I don't remember what color mix I used for this damn leather. It's like a...greenish...brownish...grayish...mess. *scream*

 

[Boat Times]

My hands aren't steady either. I wouldn't call them shakey, but they are NOT steady which makes things like eyes and small details very difficult. For small details like that put your wrists together and take a deep breath and go in for the little detail. Doesn't always work, takes a couple tries and I'm usually not happy with the result but hey, everything takes practice. Not sure if you need to spend money on lessons or not, I really do think you'd be fine with the learn to paint core set and just watching good painters on youtube. My favorites are Sorastro & Vince Venturella. Sorastro should be helpful especially with your Imperial Assault minis, since he's got a whole tutorial guide on a large amount of the line. Vince's Hobby Cheating series I find REALLY helpful because he goes through a technique, explains it in detail, and shows you how to use said technique in the same video. I've been watching a lot of painting videos recently and those two are definitely the two I find most helpful, but every video helps in some way.

Also, and feel free to not take this advice, but I'd hold off on Imperial Assault until you've gotten some good solid plays from Ninja Turtles/painted the entire set. If you know of some crazy good deal on IA then go for it, but if it's not on a big sale somewhere I'd just hold off. It's an expensive game and you could feel regret about getting it if you never actually get it to the table. I say this from experience, I've got 12 board games sitting around unplayed/unpainted. At the same time, I understand if you just want to go buy it. As I said...I've got 12 board games sitting around unplayed (including Imperial Assault). I fully expect most of them to be played at some point, and I think Imperial Assault is my next painting project once I'm done with Zombicide, but those games have been sitting there for months.

Here's the other mini I finished today! I've warmed up to him a bit after adding some flair to his axe and his horns.

 

[Twig]

Also if you painted a Star Wars game I'm sure that'd involve a lot of Stormtroopers, and white is hard.

 

[Mandos]

Oh, I know what I'm getting into on IA, I got into some collectibles for a while and I know how easy it is to spend too much, but I got the money for Christmas the base generally goes for 80 on amazon now, and it's got a solo mode now. Also it's a good cap off to my collection. I'm also minimizing my board game buying with all the switch games coming out. IAs been on my list for a year

 

[MyQuarters]

I have stupid shaky hands too - give it some time & practice and you'll find ways of mitigating it, don't worry

Also your first mini looks worlds better than my first Necromunda gang did, and I was very proud of those at the time, so you're ahead of the curve there at least :)

 

[XShagrath]

Just finished up my last Mansions of Madness figure this morning. Now on to the re-basing project! Have any of you re-based on clear acrylic before? If so, what glue did you use? I've tried a few different ones so far, and they all have their quirks.

Craftics #33 - Dries clear, has a strong bond, but is a real pain to work with. Very thick and stringy.
Testors Clear Parts Cement - Very easy to apply, and dries clear. Bond is not very strong, and takes several minutes to set. It's very difficult for me to hold a model in place for 5 minutes.
Testors Liquid Cement for Plastics - Didn't seem to stick to the acrylic on the test I did.
Bob Smith Industries Super Gold - Read someone else had used this. I picked a bottle up, but haven't tried it yet.

Obviously standard superglue is out, due to its tendency to fog clear acrylic.

 

[Mandos]

Thanks Mikeside makes me feel a bit better. And I know it takes time and practice. Also my Italian bread loaf turned out perfectly so there was a victory this weekend

 

[MyQuarters]

you should feel good about it mate - if they look a bit more interesting painted than unpainted then you've improved them & you can only get better from there on.

As an excercise you might find it most useful to play with your paints a bit now - try thinning one down bit by bit and seeing how thin you can get it while still having control over where it goes - then try that again with another colour (as not all paints are the same from pot to pot) - that'll really give you an idea of how to master them

also remember that if you put a layer of paint on and it's a bit transparent, that's great - let it dry and do another layer until you've got the opaqueness you want - that's the trick to getting lovely thin layers with no detail clogged

 

[Boat Times]

I wasn't planning on painting a mini today, but while I was out running errands I stopped by my local hobby shop and picked up a few paints and how could I not use at least some of them when I got home? Here's a boss necromancer for Black Plague named Ostokar:

Gotta admit, most of the time when posting pics here I think "man....these look so much better in person than in these pictures", but I also have to remember that in person your eyes aren't zoomed in so close to everything. Speaking of eyes, one of them paints I picked up was Vallejo's Fluorescent Green and I used it to give him glowing eyes, which look MUCH better in person and super cool. I really like how they came out. I also got a Vallejo Sepia Ink and I really like what it did to his leathers. I feel like I can do more with his tattered robes, but I'm not quite sure what.

 

[Twig]

Northkin Shaman Front

Northkin Shaman Side

Northkin Shaman Back

I wanted to do more blending on the cloak, but those runes are raised surfaces and I couldn't figure out how to do it well. ):

 

[Percival Sparkletrout]

Question, are any of you guys into 15mm miniatures, or is most everyone here in the 28mm crowd?

 

[MyQuarters]

28mm here.


what 15mm game systems exist?

 

[Percival Sparkletrout]

Gruntz, Ion Age, Tomorrow's War, Stargrunt, and Laserburn are all 15mm. I believe Traveller's wargaming rulesets were scaled to 15mm, too.

My own hobby ADHD leads me to painting all kinds of bizarre stuff from smaller manufacturers. 15mm is what I am currently trying to focus on in order to clear out some of my backlog. Here's a trio of space goblins I painted up last night. These guys are from Ion Age.








To give a sense of size, these guys are all basedon 1 yen coins, which are about the same size as a American penny.

 

[Twig]

Mostly warmachine for me, so 30mm small bases.

Though trolls are almost entirely medium, at 40mm. (Then 50mm and 100mm.)

I would paint the heck out of some space goblins! But I try to stick to painting things I'm actually playing, for now, haha.

 

[Percival Sparkletrout]

One of the best things about Ion Age's space goblins is that they ride space chocobos.

 

[Twig]

DANG!!!

 

[Boat Times]

Damn Twig, your shit looks so clean. Super cool.

I'm also jealous and terrified of those space goblins on space chocobos. Jealous because that's awesome, and terrified because 15mm sounds way too small for me to handle.

 

[Twig]

Haha, thanks. Cleanliness is just a process of fucking up a million times and finally getting it right. Now I'm to the point where I can usually do it without the paint getting too thick!

15mm does sound absurdly small. D:

I'm legit tempted to buy some, though, just for painting fun. Are they metal or plastic? I hope not metal. ):

 

[Percival Sparkletrout]

Ah, that's probably going to be a roadblock for you. Most 15mm figures are metal. Some companies put out resin, but those are pretty rare. I know that Plastic Soldier Company does put out some plastic figures, but they're primarily WWII.

15mm is daunting, at first. I was terrified when I tried it out. Once you've done a few figures though, you find that it's actually easier than you thought. Due to the small size, you don't get as much detail, so just some base colors and a round of simple highlights is enough. Hell, base colors and a thick wash are enough to get you a tabletop quality paintjob.

 

[XShagrath]

I got 7th Continent (Kickstarter board game) last year, and when I opened the box, I was surprised to see 15mm minis. It was pretty scared, but I think I did an adequate job on them (at least for tabletop quality). The sculpts aren't very detailed at all, so I didn't have a lot to work with.

Imgur Gallery

 

[Twig]

To be fair 15mm metal is probably way more tolerable than 30mm metal. Or bigger. :P

Still being tempted haha.

 

[Percival Sparkletrout]

I've done both ends of the spectrum. I tend to paint a lot of 28/32mm as well as the 15mm stuff.

Here's Killjoy, a Malifaux character I painted about two weeks ago. He's on a 50mm base btw.



Or, here's a Squalo from Infinity. I think he's also on a 50mm base.



Overall, I definitely think 15mm is easier to paint. Their smaller size really helps. Plus, you can have proper mass battle games at that scale and if you wanted to do a skirmish game, it takes up way less space. Being significantly cheaper is also a bonus.

 

[Twig]

I really like the colors on that infinity mini!

 

[Deleted member 9241]

Couple of new heroes included in their class grouping. The Zombicide Heroes have slimmer bases and are a tad smaller, but they still look good together.

Here is the Warrior Priest group. The nun is from Zombicide.

And here's the White, Gray, and Brown Battle Wizards. Cool story: I was finished with the white one and was painting its black base. I put my thumb in wet paint and touched the completed model. I had to throw on some fair to ok osl to cover it up because white alone wasn't doing it!

 

[Boat Times]

I really like that white wizard. I have not tried OSL yet, I think the next technique I'm gonna try to learn is wet blending. In the mean time I got some new metal colors and tried one of em out on this mini:

I like how they look. Specifically that was Vallejos Metal Color Pale Burnt Iron. I also got a steel that I haven't really used yet. The burnt iron was SUPER shiny before I added some Nuln Oil, and as you can see is still pretty shiny. I also painted another necromancer boss a couple days ago:

I screwed up his face pretty badly, and after attempting to fix it 3 or 4 times it just got worse and worse each time. Now it looks like he has a deformed face, which I suppose works out fine. I wanted to keep my necromancers having a purple theme, so I made his dragon staff purple, and gave him some light purple beads on his necklace, along with a purple belt sash. I really like how his robe turned out, and at first I had his dragon the same color as the robe, but then thought it would pop a bit more if it was a different color (and wanted more purple to call attention to him being a necromancer). His shirt was much lighter before, but after shading it became almost the same color as the bones he's adorned with. I don't feel like either of these two models are my best, which is a shame because before these two I felt like each model I was painting was an improvement over the last.

In other news it was really nice out today so I primed a LOT of minis, many of them using zenithal highlighting so I'm excited to see how that turns out for my painting. I haven't used that technique yet.

 

[Percival Sparkletrout]

Are these all Black Plague figures you're painting? I don't recognize most of them.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

Boat Times, I really like that Crossbowman. I'm also not familiar with these Zombicide figures you're painting. Are his colors from the card art, or did you paint him in your own scheme? The two tone, leather, and armor all look great together.

The skin on your necro is great too. I don't think you messed up the face at all. How many necros do you have total? What differences do they have gameplay wise?

Also, Zombicide sandals are a pita to paint. Whenever I look at a new character to paint, I always look at his feet first lol.