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I said come in! posted:So as a new person who doesn't understand the differences, why might you want to air spray paint, or spray can prime your models instead of hand brushing a coat from like a Citadel pot onto your figures? Speed is one reason, if you are doing a bunch of models you can just give them all a couple of quick passes with a spray can in one batch and have a whole unit undercoated. Its also generally a nice thin primer coat with little effort. And price-wise per model spray paint is going to work out cheaper than citadel pots. There are also things you can do like zenithal highlighting which give you a jump on shading too. Cant speak to airbrushing, never touched one in my life, but I imagine the reasons are broadly similar. As an aside, I started getting back into the hobby about a year ago after a break of... probably about 20 years. Experimented with doing zenithal highlighting after seeing it in a few youtube videos, and it made a real difference. Were people doing that 20 years ago and I didnt know about it because I was a dumb kid/bad painter or is that a thing that became popular in the intervening years?
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Jun 14, 2019 23:46
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Harvey Mantaco posted:I painted my lizardmen when I was 12 with ruined exterior wall paint I stole from a construction site and highlighters so don't worry you were better than some. In investigating the attic of my mums house to see if I had any models lying around to practice on I found the bloodbowl team I painted using glass paints, on the rationale that the tub was very similar to the GW pots at the time, so the paint obviously had to be similar. Spoiler Warning; It was not. I said come in! posted:Thank you for the education, everyone! I love the effects I've seen people get with airbrushes, but I'm kind of with you on that tbh. I'll maybe think about it when I'm happier with my efforts with a regular brush. But spray cans are cheap, easy to get and easy to use. Just give it a go!
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Jun 15, 2019 00:04
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Air spray painting is something I really want to do, but when looking at the equipment, especially the cleaning part, I nope'd my way on out of there. It looked so incredibly intimidating. I'm afraid I would just gently caress up very expensive equipment really fast.
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Harvey Mantaco posted:Th-th-they came I backed those on kickstarter, and also have massive paralysis about actually painting them. For the record, the companion pdf lists Hartley as "French Bulldog Fighter", so the box is just a typo. His breed is French Bulldog, his class is Fighter.
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Jul 27, 2019 18:08
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Safety Factor posted:
This looks fantastic, I really love the effect you have gotten on the armour plates.
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Aug 8, 2019 21:54
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Warlord WIP 
Heads and weapons are just red, but I've still got a lot left to do.
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Unoriginal Name posted:Has anyone tried the Wraith Bone (or Grey Seer) contrast spray on a Reaper Bones mini? Does it ever fully dry? Someone told me the reaper bones plastic doesnt react well to most spray propellants, so that could be the problem? Reaper say they dont need primed at all, but having painted a couple I feel this is a terrible lie.
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Aug 28, 2019 22:50
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Max Wilco posted:With all that in mind, I wonder if maybe the issue is that I'm trying too hard, and I get myself frustrated. Mind you, I'm not aiming to win a Golden Demon or anything (hell, I don't even play the tabletop games, so I'm not worried about complaints about my armies being unpainted). I just wanted to paint some stuff up, and maybe make some dioramas or something. I want it to look nice and detailed, but I'm not shooting for 'Eavy Metal-level quality. I'm similar in that I am painting miniatures for games that I dont play. I've been back in the hobby for... Probably between 18 months to maybe 2 years, after a long time away (used to play 40K starting in Rogue Trader era, gave it up around the dying days of 2nd edition, when it had become painfully obvious that they were never releasing a codex: squats (I had moved on to chaos by then, but still...). Played/collected a bunch of other miniature games too back in the day). I am also shooting for "good tabletop" standard, and hoping to get better than I go. I occasionally paint something I'm very happy with, but as soon as I take a picture of it the camera highlights all the flaws I hadn't previously noticed. But the difference is; I enjoy painting. I got back into mini painting because I find it relaxing. The process is fun, even if the end results arent always as good as I would like. I just try and remember that I'm still learning (I might have been back into painting for 2 years, but thats not painting every day or even every week. Some weeks I paint every evening, sometimes months go by where I never touch a brush) so when something doesnt work as well as I like, well, I'll do it differently next time. Plus, if I gently caress something up, its just paint. Its fixable. If I really hated what I've done I can always strip the whole lot off and start again (although I pretty much never do). One of the biggest things for me is learning when to walk away from a model. Sometimes, good enough is. So; some advice. Cut yourself some slack. These arent commissions, you arent on a clock and if there are mistakes you arent dealing with an angry customer. If you need to take a break, take a break. Do something else for a while, or paint something totally different. I know after I got done painting an old halfling bloodbowl team I wanted to paint something as far from that as I possibly could (and also deeply regretted making their team colours yellow and blue. I'd forgotten what a bitch it could be getting a good yellow colour down), so I picked up a few cheap MDF terrain kits (some "TT combat" buildings for the record) which I then really enjoyed building and painting. Painting terrain using house paint tester pots and some big cheap craft brushes is a lot more forgiving that halflings with their stupid tiny faces, while still using a lot of the same basic skills. Also, I tend to have a few entirely different sets of models undercoated and waiting to go at any one time. I'll fairly often sit down with the avowed intention of finishing model A, then find myself pecking at model B, just doing a quick basecoat of the clothes, or hitting the metalics, or while I have the reichland fleshshade on the brush anyway for model A I might as well give the skin a quick wash. Then at a certain point I realise that B is now mainly done, and would only take about 15 minutes to do the last few bits and get ready for basing. I've painted a decent number of models that I found initially daunting by simply doing a little easy bit at a time, instead of worrying about the whole thing.
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Sep 13, 2019 15:24
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jesus WEP posted:everyone’s dunked their paintbrush in their coffee at least once right No. Some people have dunked it in their tea instead.
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Sep 13, 2019 18:41
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Max Wilco posted:It makes me feel better to hear that I'm not alone in regards to dropping a project for a month or so, as I've done that a few times. Months? My dude, I have models here that I put on an undercoat, with zenithal highlighting (admittedly the airbrush free poor mans version using rattlecans), over a year ago that still have never felt the touch of a brush. I've literally just moved a few of them to my painting table last night in the hope that I eventually actually y'know, paint them. (A big winged monster dude from shadow of brimstone, a firegut growler from Vor and Krong the Mighty from superfigs. As I say, I'm not playing the games anyway so a lot of what I paint is just what I liked the look of and could get cheap. Or stuff I didnt sell off when I dropped off the hobby the last time). Don't sweat months. As I say, I enjoy painting, even when I gently caress it up a bit I stil find it overall relaxing, but it does require a certain level of concentration. There are whole weeks when I come in from work, look at my painting stuff and just shake my head because I'm too knackered for any kind of precision. Also, I should maybe mention, the Firegut Growler and Superfigs model have both been sitting in a box in my mums attic for almost 2 decades before being undercoated, if that makes you feel better about models sitting for months. Generally speaking, once I varnish a model, its done. If I notice any flaws/unpainted bits before varnishing, I fix them. But you could easily spend the rest of your life constantly going back and picking up bits you arent happy with on the same 10 models over and over. Once you look at it and think "Yeah, that looks good", call it done and walk away. No one else in the whole world will ever look at the miniatures you have painted as closely as you do, so a lot of flaws arent realistically a big deal at all. Obviously this is not the case if you are wanting to win a painting competition, but if you were wanting to win competitions you shouldnt be taking advice from me in the first place. If you are currently burned out on painting little army mens, I really would recommend building/painting some terrain for the little army mens to hide behind/stand on/pose near. The tank could work too, I bought a 1:48 scale KV-2 tank off aliexpress that this very thread recommended as being about 28mm scale so I could give vehicle building/painting a go without paying games workshop prices. Have not built it yet because the tank tread looks fiddly as gently caress, but I will when the mood takes me. Either one will be more forgiving than doing troops, and a welcome change if you are just sick and tired of painting the same uniform over and over. If you are looking for terrain inspiration, I would heartily recommend The Terrain Tutor on youtube, and Lukes APS. Both are terrain wizards whose primary focus is on making the best looking terrain on a budget and without using too many specialist tools. Most of their stuff is done with materials and equipment from hardware stores and pound shops. They are both also very upfront about when they gently caress up something while making a piece, showing you what they did wrong and how they fixed it. Miscast terrain is far less prolific as a youtuber, but he has some great quick and easy terrain projects, including printable guides you can just glue on foamboard and then cut out the pieces. I cant speak to the airbrush, I dont have one. I'm personally wary of ever recommending someone in a hobby slump spend a significant amount of money on that same hobby in case they do, it doesnt help, and now their slump feels worse to them because they are in the same slump with the added feeling of "Well, that was a waste of money. Never even used the drat thing.". I do think it would be the easier way of doing vehicles absolutely, but for me personally as I'm not building an army of guys all wearing the same colour armour I feel like it would be of limited use. A lot of people who use them swear by them but I am still trying to get better with a brush, I might look at an airbrush when I'm happy with my regular brushwork. But thats me. You know you better, if you think using one looks fun, and the novelty of learning to use it will help you, then fill your boots!
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Sep 14, 2019 11:28
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Max Wilco posted:I know this was a couple of pages back, but I wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded about my long post about burnout. I think it helped. You get hobby saws that fit onto like a scalpel handle. Do not get those. They suck. They have very thin blades (yay!) but have almost no stiffness to them (boo!). Get a razor saw. If you just put "razor saw" into amazon (in the UK at least) you get one for like £9 eligible for prime shipping that is pretty decent. And if you dont like it, well it was less than a tenner anyway. The basic idea is that it does a nice straight cut without losing too much material (so the blade isnt wavy like a hacksaw blade is for example). I love my side cutters, but if you were to try and clip an arm off a model with them, best case scenario you get a clean cut at the shoulder, but the arm is pinched where it was attached. Worst case scenario the arm is pretty mangled and also pings across the room and I have to spend 20 minutes on my hands and knees looking for the loving thing before giving it up for lost. With a razor saw its a fairly clean cut, so I can put a new arm on the dude, and also put the old arm on a new dude with minimum clean up. When it comes to knives... I dont do a huge number of conversions any more. But I do some, and I have to say that like 90% of my knife work is done with a set of cheap snap off blade knives from a pound shop. Its the kind with a retractable blade where you can snap off the end where it gets blunt and just extend the new blade. It was 2 thin ones (my model workhorse knives) and 2 stanley knife sized ones (I mainly use the bigger ones for doing terrain) for a pound. They do the job fine. The rest is done with a cheap-ish hobby knife similar to the Xacto ones you linked (but some no-name brand. I might have bought it in Tiger maybe? It definitely cost less than £5 with a bunch of blades most of which are odd shapes I'll never use). As long as the chuck which holds the blade is metal, its all good. If its plastic, then it just doesnt last in my experience. I had one from the same pound shop I got the snap off knives, and the plastic bit that held the blades just very quickly loosened and lost its thread to the point of being dangerous to use. So you can go cheap, but dont go super super super cheap. Chances are the blades are more or less the same in any cheap to mid price hobby knife, so its really the bit that holds them (and the bit you hold) you want to look at. Metal good, plastic bad. If you want to pay more for one with a nice case, go for it, but I'd rather have one with no case and a replaceable blade guard so I can just chuck the knife in the tub with my other modelling tools. You might also want to pick up a set of jewellers files/needle files for cleaning particularly rough areas. Again, do not go expensive unless you are going to be using them drat near constantly. Cheap ones will work fine, they are mainly just less durable. If you are going to be filling a lot of voids/doing modelling with greenstuff or milliput, I'd also recommend get some cheap rear end sculpting tools or dental tools. Silicon brushes (intended for for clay modelling) can also be handy for pushing greenstuff into a hole in a model and then smoothing it over.
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Sep 25, 2019 16:40
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Dr. VooDoo posted:Also is there any place to get like newspapers or discarded drink cups for litter bits? I found skulls, bones, and broken bricks which are perfect but I’d like some litter to give the bases that ruined town feel you get in movies and tv shows a lot I've been looking for decent urban litter type bits for basing myself (although I'm currently doing a bunch of Malifaux models, so I've been looking ideally for more sort of victorian type stuff than coffee cups) and I have found very little. Kromlech do some bottles which might be okay, and TTcombat do some resin bits (I'm eyeing up their "camping accessories" set, which does contain some 6 packs of cans which might be good for you. And also a guitar which I am not sure I would ever have a reasonable use for but kind of want anyway). They also do some "Back Alley Accessories" sets, with some neat looking urban base features (pizza boxes and lost teddy bears for example) but a lot of the bits seem too big to use for basing (Wheelie bins and discarded mattresses for example). If they did one set that was all the small bits I'd have picked one up in a flash. All the TTcombat bits are in their "city streets" range on their website.
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Oct 22, 2019 21:18
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Max Wilco posted:I have been using a wet palette, so that might be why I've had issues. I did find that I had to let it dry a little to get it to apply better, but it still didn't seem right. I'm not any kind of expert, but everything I've seen/been told suggests that metallics dont like wet palettes and vice versa. As for paint variety, my paints are a mix of all sorts of different brands. GW (mainly their contrasts and washes), Army Painter, Coat D'arms, Vallejo, and one brand that appears to just be called "Miniature Paints". Dont be daunted, just do what I do and when you need a specific colour just buy whatever brand you first see which has the colour you are looking for, or a close facsimile of it. Dont be too hung up on an exact colour match for a GW paint (unless of course you are halfway through painting an army and thats the main colour, in which case just stick with what you know works, or accept that half your marines will be almost imperceptibly darker than the other half). Like if you use Coat D'arms Gun Metal on an armour plate instead of Leadbelcher* wash it with an army painter black wash then highlight it with literally anyones shining silver paint it'll probably look fine. Personally I dont buy an alternate for a paint I still have on hand, only when it runs out. I do skew towards Coat D'arms, but thats mainly because thats the bulk of what my favourite local games store carries so if I suddenly realise that this dudes robe would look great in a Jade Green, chances are thats where I'll go and buy something. I do have to walk past a GW to get there, but y'know. *This is not a specific replacement recommendation, I'm not super familiar with GWs current paint lines, but from a google it seems like Leadbelcher is a gunmetal type dark silver? Everyone does a "plate mail" or "gun metal" or "sword blade" metallic paint. If you lined them up next to each other then I'm sure there are differences, but when its on a model? I'd bet the exact colour of the undercoat makes a bigger difference to the final look than exactly which brand you picked for "darkish gray metallic".
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Nov 17, 2019 00:12
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Max Wilco posted:What I've been doing is using paint comparison charts to try and find the equivalent paints. However, they seem to be out of date, so newer colors like Lupercal Green or Thousand Sons Blue aren't listed, and so I don't know what to look for in regards to finding the closest equivalent. I know it wouldn't be a 1:1 match anyway, but I don't like trying to eyeball, because I feel like I'll pick something that ends up being far off from what I wanted, and searching for info online has mixed results, because either there's no real consensus on what to use as a replacement, or it involves mixing colors and/or airbrushing. Okay, but I guess the question I'm asking is; Why are you trying to find the equivalent paints to match specific Citadel paints? If you buy another brand and its a very slightly different shade of electric blue from thousand sons blue, why does that matter? If you are wanting that exact colour (for example maybe you want to follow a painting guide exactly, which isnt my thing but also isnt a bad thing. Me, I sometimes look at them for ideas, then usually just do the best I have with the paints I have) then the only way to be sure is to buy the citadel. If you run out of Lupercal Green halfway through painting a tank with it, then sure the exact colour match is important, but it sounds like you are just getting started with a lot of the things you are painting? So surely any dark military green would work fine? And contrariwise, if you are happy enough with the citadel paints, you like the pots and dont mind the GW tax, then why bother trying to find an alternative? You like their paint, its readily available, why go to the effort? You are absolutely allowed to just use citadel. And while cost is a minor factor in the paints for me, as Cinara mentioned, the GW pots are loving terrible. They dont always make a good seal, and the lids on about half of mine will randomly decide to half close themselves just as I go to put a brush in. Although I will say I dont totally love dropper bottles either. If I see a tiny part that needs a touch up (eg I dropped the drat figure and I can see a tiny bit of metal showing from the end of the nose) I like being able to take a small dot of paint on my brush without having to squeeze a (comparitively) large drop out or lever off the dropper top, and thats easier with a lidded pot. Also I once had a clogged nozzle on a dropper bottle, squeezed it and the end popped off and half a pot of elf green emptied into my wet pallette. I prefer the Coat D'Arms pots myself, but I realise thats because they are the exact pots that citadel used to use when I was painting 40K figures (badly) and so thats what I'm used to. I dont hate the MP Miniature paints (apparently they are "Gamecraft) pot, which has an actual unscrewing lid. Having a lot of different brands of paint will give you some Definite Thoughts about paint pots apparently. The reason I walk past GW is I like supporting my local (non GW) store when I can. Also sometimes I am not in a chat with randoms about miniatures mood (or am just in a hurry), and the GW staff seem to have a "ask anyone looking at paints about what they are painting" rule. Or are just friendly curious fellows, but I'd think working there would knock that out of you pretty quick. Also, why on earth do you think anyone will think that using contrasts is terrible? They are useful tools to have and use! If I have a group of minis all wearing leather dusters I have zero compunction about hitting all the coats with a thick coat of Snakebite Leather contrast and going about my day, and the black is pretty good for hair and suchlike too. I've tried a few of them for various things, and the only one I've tried that I'd warn people off is Magos Purple, unless you are specifically looking for a kind of slightly thicker purple wash. Even then applying it over a pink basecoat got a skintone I didnt hate for some malifaux guys (Terror tots for the record)., although its a bit blotchy in places. You might consider it a slight shortcut, but so is zenithal highlighting, and coloured spray primers, and batch painting, and premade washes, and having lots of paint colours instead of just having primary colours and mixing your own, and lots of other things I use when I paint. They arent suited for every application, but they are great in their niche. I'm not in any way knocking you for asking for recommendations for the record. (In fact I'm not intending to criticise you at all! I'm just curious as to what you are hoping for/why you are asking) Every brand of paint I've encountered has some paints I like (Vallejo do a yellow I like the coverage on, army painters strong tone wash is a belter, coat d'ams do a colour called "horse tone dun" that I find super versatile as a light tan) and some I dont (as I said, Magos Purple from Citadel is kind of dogshit, some of the army painter paints absolutely NEED an agitator in the bottle and a lot of shaking, a lot of Coat d'arms greys are much lighter or darker than I think they are going to be on an actual miniature). jesus WEP posted:I find it kinda funny that the Warhammer video channel always recommends putting the wash out onto the palette to control the amount on your brush, instead of just dabbing the rim of the pot like any sane person would do Yeah, I like the warhammer channel painter guys fine (they are good painters, and in the videos I've seen seem personable enough) but its always worth remembering they are working for a company that wants you to buy all the paints, and use as much of them as possible. Call me paranoid, but I always assumed "every brushload of wash that dries on the customers pallette is one more brushload closer to them buying another pot of wash" was the motivation on that one. Or, just possibly, "Try not to knock over a pot of Nuln Oil on camera, jackass", because motherfucker the pots of wash have a high centre of gravity.
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Nov 17, 2019 02:56
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), so I just default to Citadel.
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Max Wilco posted:
Hey, if it helps you not feel anxious about it or whatever, knock yourself out! I just want you to be aware that when a painting guide says "basecoat with thousand sons blue, do the details with pallid wytch flesh, highlight the details with guilliman white" you will get extremely similar results if you basecoat in whatever electric blue you have to hand, do the details with any brand of just off white, then highlight it with literally any white. GW want you to buy all their paints, obviously, and other people who tell you their mix/recipe/paintscheme will tend to default to GW colours because they are widely available and what most of the audience have to hand. If GW black, royal purple and gold is a nice strong colour palette on a model, then vallejo black, royal purple and gold will give just as nice a paint scheme. Contrast paints dont work well on large flat areas, that is true. So dont use them for that! Apart from that, go nuts. If using them gives you an effect you like (whether that is using them as "intended", or putting them over metallics to get a candy shell type appearance, or deliberately applying blotchy or whatever) then they are good. Its not cheating or improper any more than buying a pot of wash is. You could after all make your own wash by thinning paint down with water and acrylic matte medium (or Lahmian medium if you want to stick with GW) and possibly a touch of flow aid (or dish soap if you are a cheap bastard like me). I will still very rarely do that if I want to wash something in a very particular colour (or if I need a wash for terrain, because no way in hell am I buying enough agrax earthshade to cover a bunch of buildings with a shotgun wash of it). But if I just need a miniatures trousers washed with green? Break out the whatever its called Camoshade, slap it on. Quicker, easier, lets me get to the next bit I enjoy faster. Lifes too short to a) take no shortcuts at all or b) spend literally any time dealing with any arsehole who tries to make you feel bad about taking a shortcut in what is at the end of the day just a hobby you do for fun. Obviously if you enjoy doing Basecoat +Wash then Contrasts are largely unnecessary for you as they shortcut something you like doing. But me, I've got 15 gremlins wanting painted and using contrast ork flesh then highlighting with some light green will do just fine for most of their skin tones. Especially as I have a bunch of greens and sometimes suffer a bit of analysis paralysis deciding exactly which shade would work best for a particular application. I get the trying to get the best value thing, I really do. If I'm honest thats sort of part of the hobby for me; Trying to get the best results I can on a budget, seeing what corners I can cut and/or products I can sub out for rough equivalents and which I absolutely cant. Partly because I am not a rich man and want as much hobby as possible without spending huge sums, but also I just like doing it. Like even if I won the lottery I think I'd still be buying miniatures off ebay, doing most of my undercoats with car spray paint, making my own washes for terrain pieces and black rimming bases with thinned pound shop craft paint. But sometimes doing that means you have to be the one experimenting! And sometimes those experiments fail. So try the paint you are eyeing up. Worst case scenario it doesnt work well for what you wanted it for, you have to strip back your test model, buy another paint and redo it. But then you are the one who, when someone else asks, can go "Sure, this paint is a good substitute for gw skaven scrotal purple, but this other one from the same range is too thin and doesnt get as good coverage so avoid that one". And if it helps at all, I've had paints from lots of different ranges, and I've never had one that was literally unusable for anything. Maybe not what I wanted it for originally, but not a single bottle of paint has not found a use for SOMETHING.
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Nov 17, 2019 12:10
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Harvey Mantaco posted:And done. Final dudes from 40k thread: (btw is there a point to cross posting? Seems like everyone who reads the one thread probably reads the other...) For the record, I read this one, but not the other because I dont play 40K.
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Nov 27, 2019 17:50
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Dr Snofeld posted:What do y'all use to strip minis? My white basecoat went on badly and I want to start over. Dettol seems to be a popular method but my friends swears by using acetone-free nail polish remover. These are Blackstone Fortress minis so they'd be hella expensive to replace if I Nurgle them by leaving them in too long. I'm in the UK, so a lot of the common recommendations for paint stripping arent available (if you google it you get a lot of recommendations for US brand names). I tried dettol and it kind of sucks out loud. It has a really strong smell which lingers and while it works, it works super slow. Now I use methylated spirits to strip minis. Cheap, easy to get, not particularly harmful on the skin, and you just dump the minis in a jar, pour meths over them, wait a bit and scrub them with a toothbrush. Smell evaporates quickly too. You can even reuse it multiple times (although I think my current bottle is more or less hitting its reuse limit, its cloudy as hell). I've used it on plastics and never had a problem.
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Dec 1, 2019 21:27
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Ineptitude posted:Always wanted to paint a few miniatures and finally have the time to do so. Zenithal highlight. The bottle of Revell plastic glue I have sitting next to me right now has a long thin metal tube applicator, if thats any help. I'd also pick up a cheap tube of gel superglue from somewhere, useful for jobs the plastic glue isnt up for, and stays exactly where you put it. For basing you might want to pick up some PVA glue (I think americans call it Elmers glue?). Again, big bottles are cheap as hell, and great for sticking sand/static grass/flock to bases. Bigger rocks use the aforementioned superglue. As for brushes; To start with you really only need 2-3 brushes. A small one and a bigger one. If you want, also a drybrush. Bigger one is for basecoating, smaller one is for more detail work. My general workhorse brushes are an army painter basecoat brush and an army painter highlight brush, but thats more because thats what my local game shop stocks rather than any particular brand preference, more or less any brand is fine*. Some truly great miniature painters use crappy cheap brushes from a craft store, so I personally dont put much value in buying a more expensive brush, especially when starting out. If you find the brushes with triangular grips more comfortable in your hand or whatever then get those, but honestly, any brush which comes to a good point and isnt ridiculously thick will do the basic job of putting paint on the miniature. I've just bought about 10 brushes off've wish for £1, I figure if I get 1-2 useable brushes out of that I'm doing okay, and the rest can be relegated to drybrushing or applying PVA glue to bases (or painting sand on bases where the glue hasnt quite dried because I am impatient) and other poo poo you wouldnt wish on your good brushes. I will report back if they ever arrive. I will say I'm not in love with the army painter drybrush. The bristles are way stiffer that I would like for a drybrush, but again, thats largely personal preference. I've wound up doing most of my drybrushing with a really soft brush I got in a pack of assorted brushes for about £2, or an old clapped out army painter detail brush that doesnt hold a point any more for drybrushing small areas. Is you want to save a little money you can easily make your own wet pallette. A sandwich tub with a sealable lid and a thin sponge cut to fit, top with some parchment paper/baking parchment. There are loads of youtube videos that go into making one. It is very much not difficult in any way. You might want to chuck a metallic paint or two in there as well, I dont see any metallics in the vallejo paint set. A gun metal (any dirty silver will do, GW call theirs Boltgun Metal I think, other companies go with names like "gun metal" or "chain mail" or "plate armour") and a brass or gold at the very least. Maybe a shining silver as well for highlighting the gun metal. If you are going straight in with attempting non-metallic metals, then ignore this. *and by fine I mean "will have some good brushes and some lovely brushes in the same range with precious little consistancy".
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Dec 4, 2019 00:55
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Ineptitude posted:The plastic cement fumes are dangerous? In my experience the "sunny dry days only!" thing for spray paints is way overstated. I live in Scotland. Its usually cold and wet. I find as long as I warm the cans (put them in a sink full of water you can still put your hands in, dont be daft and use boiling water or anything) and shake them for longer than you think you need to the paint goes on fine. I wouldnt do it while it was still actively raining (or snowing), but in breaks between downpours you can still get decent coverage. I also dont do much to mitigate plastic cement fumes, but then I'm rarely doing more than a half dozen miniatures at a time, and I mainly work in a fairly large room with decent air flow anyway. I put them on the other side of the room while they are drying, but thats about it.
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Dec 12, 2019 21:24
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tangy yet delightful posted:Any recommended brands for someone wanting to try the zenithal priming/painting method? Rattlecans? Pretty much any pair of black and whilte (or whatever dark/light combination you are using. For a treeman type miniature I had some success with a mushroom brown pray, zenithally highlighted with a light sand colour) cans will work. Honestly most of the ones I use are car primers from a pound shop If you are using an airbrush, I'm less help as I dont use one myself, but I would imagine its similar; Whatever dark airbrush primer and light airbrush paint you have to hand will probably work fine.
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Dec 15, 2019 10:35
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Ben Nerevarine posted:When people talk about gluing things to bases, what kind of glue is best? I think I've heard watered down Elmer's white glue, is that right? Dont water it down. Apply raw PVA (or elmers/craft glue/white glue/wood glue or whatever you want to call it), put on your covering (I usually superglue down any really big rocks, but sand/small bits of gravel/sawdust flock/foam flock/static grass all goes fine onto PVA), leave to dry. Paint if required. Sometimes once the glue dries people will give it a quick spray of watered down PVA to make it extra secure which might be what you are thinking of, but I rarely bother when basing, I only do that for terrain. I figure that the extra security isnt worth the extra hassle when I'm literally never going to touch that miniatures base covering again (plus I'm going to hit it with a couple of coats of varnish anyway), as opposed to terrain where you are going to put model bases on top of the covering at least occasionally. If you are gluing then painting (eg coating with sand then making it look like black and gray urban rubble or whatever) then be a little careful basecoating it, if your paint is too watery it can reactivate the glue and move the covering around. Particularly if you are like me and tend to not give it enough time to fully dry because you are so near finished you get impatient. If you put the sand on before you spray undercoat then this isnt an issue because the spraypaint helps hold it in place.
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Dec 16, 2019 18:33
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Werix posted:Thank you for this! I encountered the same problem with the sand moving around last time I painted and couldn't figure out why, and this makes sense. How long should you let the glue dry before painting? Or does it not matter and just make sure the paint isn't watery? Honestly I'm not sure how long to leave it, I doubt there is a hard and fast number. It'll depend on how warm it is where you are, how humid it is, how much glue you used, and probably if you were gluing sand vs gluing sawdust. All I can tell you for sure is "Leave it until you think its dry, then give it a bit more time". This is a problem I still have because as I say I'm usually basing as more or less a final step before varnishing and I get impatient for the finish. Which is when the glue gets reactivated and/or I accidentally get black paint on the miniatures feet. Less haste more speed and all that. Basically let the glue fully dry, and paint it quickly more by dabbing/stippling than with brushstrokes, and trying to avoid your brush hitting bits you have already painted. This should minimise the problem at least!
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Dec 16, 2019 19:45
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jesus WEP posted:Ha, thanks for the tip! I had another one to go, so I tried to make the eyes a whole lot smaller. I think this looks better! That really does look a lot better, good job!
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Dec 28, 2019 17:06
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I picked up some dirt cheap brushes off wish.com, and they are perfectly fine, although I havent done a massive amount of painting since I got them so I cant speak to how hardwearing they may turn out to be. But for the price I paid I'm pleasantly surprised they are usable at all to be fair! Edit to add: For doing terrain I pretty much exclusively use "Boldmere" brushes from The Works (a discount book and craft shop) because you can get a set of like 8 for £2, and I dont have to give a poo poo what effect stippling on wall filler, sand and house paint will have on the brush). SiKboy fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Jan 16, 2020 |
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Jan 16, 2020 21:32
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Heroic Yoshimitsu posted:I want to expand my selection of colors a bit from the two starter Reaper sets I have. I'm specifically looking for a good purple and gold, at the very least. But I generally want more selection. What do you all think of this set? Looks fine in isolation, but how many of those paints do you actually want? If you will use all of them, its about $2.50 per pot, which is decent (and I have liked the Vallejo paints I've tried personally, I'm low key in love with their flat yellow as a yellow paint that actually gets halfway decent coverage), so go for it. Most of the colours wont be exact matches for what you already have so give you more shades to play with (and my opinion you can never have too many shades of grey, brown or skin tone), but you almost certainly already have a black and white. If you wind up really only using the purple and gold, then you have effectively paid $20 per paint you actually use, which is obviously a waste. Once you have a set of basic colours (which it sounds like you have), I tend to recommend just buying the paints you need, as and when you need/want them. Know you are going to be painting a bunch of orks? Buy a dark green and a light green to go with the mid green you already have. A bunch of steampunk mechs in your to do pile? Brass paint buying time. Personally I'm also not much of a fan of buying paint based on photographs, I'd rather see the pot in person. Of course, you might be in a different situation from me; I'm within fairly easy reach of a local games shop I like who stock paints (although their selection is somewhat scattershot between brands), and very easy reach of a GW, so its not a major hassle to pick up paints as and when I need them, and I kind of enjoy browsing and choosing the exact shade (which will often end up drying much differently from what I expect. Seeing the pot in person is my preference but I'm not sure its actually objectively useful). If you dont have a local shop/hate browsing/your local shop is poo poo and just want a one and done "now I have a bunch more paints", then I've certainly seen worse sets than that.
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Jan 18, 2020 01:03
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Communist Thoughts posted:thanks for the paint stripping advice guys and gals, is there a way I can stop paint coming off of the metal model for when I'm painting it? Theres the "junior" model in the wargames foundry "street violence" range ("The Family" pack, if this doesnt link correctly). Warning, in this link there is also a NSFW miniature ("Ma Viscera") https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/street-violence/products/sv025-the-family
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Jan 26, 2020 22:36
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I had a drill bit snap when I was drilling a metal miniature, and because I was holding the bit I was drilling (which was stupid, but I was tired and in a hurry so of course I was) the broken part still attached to the pin vice was rammed straight into the end of my thumb. Definitely wasnt fun. Dont hold the thing you are drilling into. And also, if the drill stops turning, dont just apply more pressure in the hopes that will make the end bite again, I'm pretty sure I bowed the bit and thats what made it snap.
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Jan 30, 2020 17:12
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I've said it before and I'll say it again; The fact that there has never been a Redwall skirmish miniatures game is a drat travesty.
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Feb 10, 2020 17:56
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Fake James posted:I've seen a lot of painters who paint their bases first and then glue the miniature to it. Is that secure? Wouldn't the model only be attached to the paint and thus risk coming off easier than if the model was glued directly to the plastic/resin, or is it fine? I've recently mainly been painting models with tiny wee ankles that I dont want to risk trying to pin the feet, and if I'm gluing to a base I've pre painted (which I only really do if its a scenic resin base, if I'm adding sand or flock or static grass or whatever myself I almost never do that until the model is painted and glued) I take a knife/pointed sculpting tool/safety pin/needle file/whatever and scrape a little paint away from where each of the models feet is going to be so that the glue gets direct surface to surface contact. I honestly dont know how much of a difference it makes, other people say that gluing over the paint is fine, but, like you, I'm dubious of how strong gluing to the paint would be and scraping a tiny bit of the paint off only takes a few seconds and it makes me happier knowing itsdirectly glued resin to plastic. Edit to add: Obviously if the model hasnt got tiny ballet dancer ankles then pinning is the way to go for maximum security.
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Feb 12, 2020 19:16
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Iceclaw posted:Better? That is much better looking, the contrast with the orange is more eye catching (without being jarring) and shows the different textures of the skin and... uh.. bony plate bits. I'm not a lizardologist.
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Feb 13, 2020 23:47
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I have also painted a large lad for Malifaux this weekend. Still trying to figure out the whole "taking pictures of miniatures" thing, but figured I should occasionally post what I'm painting instead of just talking about painting.  He still needs varnished and I'm going to do some kind of water (well, ooze) effect in the base, but I'm pretty happy how he turned out. He sat on my desk unpainted for months, actually painting him and the base took an evening once I actually started.
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Feb 16, 2020 21:45
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Electric Hobo posted:This is a cool guy, and paintjob. I don't know what your plan is, but I'd go for some contrasting ooze on the base. Everything is a bit green right now. Thanks! Its a Desolation Engine (outcasts faction, Amalgam Keyword). I'm leaning towards changing the colour of the ooze from green myself, the rest of the guys I've done on similar bases have mostly green tiles, so I wanted to keep that to tie them together (also because frankly gently caress doing a pattern on that many tiles) but those models have more contrast with their bases. I'm thinking maybe orange or purple. Feel like making it blood would be a bit cliche.
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Feb 16, 2020 22:46
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I had a long weekend, so I got a bunch of painting done. Plus I got a cheap collapsible light box to take photos (going to photograph my miniatures before packing some of them away as I'm reaching the point where I have more painted stuff than I have free space), and I'm trying it out, so have a photo of 2 guys I painted this past weekend. Malifaux Baby Cade and Candy (1st ed miniatures). Not gonna lie, tried like 5 times to paint a red and white swirl on her lollipop but my freehand skills are in no way up to that, so I went gently caress it and painted it green instead. That now completes my Pandora Crew (or at least the minis I have for her, they were part of a big mixed ebay lot. No poltergeist, which doesnt seem to come up on ebay on its own particularly often, but I'm keeping an eye out). The sorrows (ghost dudes) were painted a while ago and I'm not as happy with them now as I was at the time, but it is what it is. Couldnt get them properly in focus anyway, turns out taking decent photos of miniatures is tricky, who knew? 
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Feb 18, 2020 20:30
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hollylolly posted:Is there a special paint or something I can get that will give my snek a wet look? Gloss Varnish will probably do that for you!
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Feb 18, 2020 20:40
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Electric Hobo posted:I like Vallejo Flat Yellow as my generic yellow. Their Air range has Moon Yellow, which is paler, and Sun Yellow, which is more orange. Seconding this. Vallejo Flat Yellow is a good generic yellow that actually gets half decent coverage.
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Feb 22, 2020 23:02
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Max Wilco posted:I thought to put them on custom bases, so I didn't glue them down on the included bases. As a result, I've just held the gun barrel, antenna, or some other part of the mini while I paint the other parts, and you can see that I've smeared some of the metallic dust (mica, I guess?) onto a couple of places. If I'm doing a squad sized group of miniatures that I am gong to put on fancy bases I want to paint separately, I normally glue them to a plain base for painting. I just use less glue than I'm going to use for their permanent base. Makes it easier to paint without holding the miniature itself and accidentally smearing paint/getting a thumbprint in the basecoat/dropping it/breaking a fragile bit. When you are done its easy enough to carefully slide a thin sharp knife blade between the feet and base to separate them from the temporary base for proper basing. Smart way to do it is to put the base at 90 degrees to your cutting mat so you are cutting down the way. Doesnt have to be a base of course, I glued the Desolation Engine I posted before to an ice lolly stick which was glued to a regular sized base so I could use my regular sized painting handle. This has the added bonus of making it look like hes surfing while you paint. Theres other things you can do (drill and pin the feet, then stick the pins in a cork or something for example) but "just lightly glue them all to plain bases" is way quicker and easier. I'd do something like that for important figures (command models, characters, whatever), but apart from anything else I only have like 2 corks. A lot of wine seems to be screw top these days.
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Feb 23, 2020 02:22
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Max Wilco posted:My thought was to put poster tack on a cork or some other type of handle-hold. Some of the Skitarii have a 'running' pose, so drilling into the feet seems kind of iffy. I've tried that, but when I tried it just didnt give a firm enough grip. Fine for spray painting (but then you have to be careful that no tack is covering any bits you want undercoated, like the sides of the feet), but as soon as you poke a brush at it the figure slowly tips over and you end up getting paint somewhere you didnt want that paint to go. If you dont want to drill the feet (and I cant blame you, I personally find drilling and pinning tedious at best) then I really do recommend just lightly gluing them to a temporary base of some kind (whether spare bases you have around or a craft stick or whatever). Then that base can get put on whatever handle you like. Tack works better on a base than on a miniatures feet because it has more surface area to grip, I've sometimes tacked a miniatures base to a paint pot to use as a handle, and I've seen people do similar with pill bottles or lengths of wooden dowel. Do make sure that its a paint you dont need for the miniature you've stuck to the top of it though.
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Feb 23, 2020 03:10
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Kabuki Shipoopi posted:So I just headed up to Michigan Toy Soldier and snagged Ak's wet palate. I use a mix of citadel and Vallejo paints and I was wondering if you guys had any tips for me as a first time wet palate user. I'm hardly an expert, but here goes anyway; I've never used that particular wet palette (mines a tupperware box with a flat sponge and some parchment paper), but in my experience; It depends. Which I realise is unhelpful but... Different paints work differently on the wet palette. You're going to need to experiment a little to get the thickness you personally like. I usually put a drop of water near the paint, then pull a little of the water into the paint as required. Citadel paints usually need this, I dont use many vallejo paints, but their yellow doesnt generally need thinning on my wet palette. But then, I generally try to avoid thinning yellow as much as I probably should in the interest of getting at least a little coverage. Cleaning the palette... I've seen a lot of people complaining about mold on their palette after a while, but I've never experienced that. I think it very much depends on your environment. Where I live its cold a lot of the time, if you live in the tropics then you're going to have to clean it more often. I've seen people recommend adding a few drops of alcohol (propanol or whatever, not drinking alcohol) to the water to fight mold, but I kind of think if it was enough alcohol to really effect mold growth then it would have an effect on your paints. Personally I clean it (and let the sponge totally dry) when I know that I'm not going to be using it for the next week or so and/or when I need to replace the paper, which is irregular at best. Somewhere between once a month and once every two, depending on how much I'm painting. Storing in the fridge probably wont do any harm, but I'm not sure its necessary either. Hopefully someone else will be along in a minute with experience of this.
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Mar 6, 2020 17:42
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Electric Hobo posted:The Firestarter joins my Malifaux crew. I need to get some color shift paint, so I can paint a trail of gasoline from the fire to his fuel can. Looks good!
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Mar 7, 2020 13:42
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ShallNoiseUpon posted:So this is I think the 5th mini I've ever painted. The first four all have pretty glaring errors, but I want to keep them for the future so I can look back and laugh at how bad I was/am. I've been super intimated to post because there are so many awesome painters here (this is more me being silly and scared for no particular reason, everyone is always so nice), but I figure that if I can get some direct c&c that it'd be more helpful than slamming my head against a wall trying out techniques willy-nilly. I went though the basic Reaper learn to paint box and then the first one in the "advanced techniques" box to learn some baseline skills coupled with watching a lot of mini painting YouTube and absorbing stuff through that via osmosis). It's the first time I've tried to put a color scheme together without just following what the instructions said for the "learn to paint" stuff. I think it turned out at least okay, I tried to drybrush some metallic onto the gun and spewed glitter all over the rest of the mini that I think I mostly managed to get off. Looks drat good for a 5th mini ever! Whats in the mail for basing just out interest? You dont need much for an effective base, depending what scheme/setting you want to do.
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Mar 8, 2020 00:14
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ShallNoiseUpon posted:Round bases (square bases being unacceptable is basically the only concrete mini-related opinion I've got formed) and Vallejo ground texture, I'll probably just do it some sort of brown and then go wander in the woods for scrubby looking tiny branches and rocks I can smash up to be more scale-appropriate and maybe go to the hobby shop and grab some wastelandy-looking tufts. Sounds good! I find the basing process oddly rewarding myself. Slate breaks up pretty easily and makes a pretty good scale appropriate rock, and gravel tends to be a decent size without needing to be smashed. Never used any texture paste myself yet, but I've seen people get good results. I have a strong preference for round bases myself, and I've grown to really like the lipped bases from the malifaux stuff I've been painting. I assumed the square base was mandated by whatever game the mini is from tbh!
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Mar 8, 2020 01:17
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jesus WEP posted:do most people buy a special thing for wet palette or just do what i do and clean a plastic takeout tray and use that? I was using a takeout tray but switched it for a sandwich tub with wings on the lid that can lock it closed because the takeout tray wasnt as tight a fit as I would have liked, and it was drying out quite fast. Bought a pack of thin (like 5mm wide when dry) sponges and a roll of parchment paper and cut to fit. That works for me.
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Mar 11, 2020 18:04
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