Cassu

There is no such thing as too much bacon! I am finally almost over my cold. Going to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and play Dragon Age.

Unless Cassu is looking into making her own paints? Not anytime soon!

Cute and creepy!

Loving the colour scheme, the mix of greens and yellows is fantastic. Adore the highlights on the scales too.

I also like, 'a work is never finished, only abandoned.' We all know we could spend an entire lifetime on one mini if we wanted to! I think she looks fantastic Cash!

Awesome work for such a quick speed paint!

The freehand is lovely!

Really beautiful, I especially love the shading on his flight suit. Very well done!

That pink sword looks totally badass Cash!

I'm afraid that Walnut Brown, although great on metal minis, doesn't work well on Bones at all. Buglips discovered that. He also discovered that Brown Liner is the magic paint that sticks to Bones and makes everything else work. Like Doug, I mostly use Golden Matte Fluid Acrylics. But I am almost on my second bottle of Brown Liner. It's that useful. Thanks for correcting me! Very true! I shall keep an eye out for Vallejo Model Air. No ReaperCon for me yet, although I will one day I swear! Thank you! My local store does stock P3 paints, and I haven't ever used any before. I did some research and read mixed things, but will get a pot and give it a go. A turquoise colour sounds amazing. I am loving all of the advice and replies to this thread, thank you so so much guys!

I have used the Reaper clears before and really loved the, totally getting some more again! I have limited experience with metallic paints but as others have recommended, will try a different brand. So I've build my own paint set and added it to my cart, this is it: (I must have missed one when I was copy and pasting the colours from the site into Photoshop.)

So much great stuff in this thread already, thanks everyone! Thanks for the recommendation on metals. I think I'll end up getting any metallics later, I still don't have that much experience with metals and when I do finally feel ready I want to go head-first using different techniques, weathering, etc. to make them look amazing. I haven't seen those Vallejo sets but will keep my eye out! I shall keep looking! I remember getting a few nice ones years back, they're such a great idea. I've used a combo of Primers, but fairly happy with Reaper. Used some of their clears before too and really enjoyed working with them, work really well for transitions. Brown liner yay! I shall look into those primers, thank you. Thanks for the tip! Oh yes, I (somehow) ended up with a few bottles of Walnut Brown and loved it so much, especially after Buglips' amazing discovery of covering your Bones in a Walnut Brown wash to make the details pop before painting.

Due to some awful circumstances I lost my entire Reaper set of Bones III Kickstarter figures and my entire set of Reaper paints. This caused me to step away from the hobby for awhile, due not only to not having paints but I felt a little heart-broken over the whole thing. (Mostly my paints, I had spent years building up my set of Reaper paints including some of their awesome limited edition ones they gave away during events.) However, it is time for me to wallow no longer and a trip to a local shop this past weekend has had me purchase some paints to jump start my passion for the hobby again. In the past I have only ever used Reaper and Citadel paints (Citadel paints are freaking awful, the way the yellows dry up after you've barely used them once... might as well be tossing money at a brick wall) so am keen to stick with what I know. I have however just purchased some Vallejo and Army Painter paints and washes due to the fact that no-where local stocks Reaper paints in store. I am avoiding Game Color paints as well because although my local store stocks them I have heard nothing but bad things about the stuff. I just purchased a few Army Painter tones and the Vallejo skin tone set. (The skin tone set has some handy dandy how-to inside as well.) This is enough to let me get a few licks of paint on some minis I have on hand but I am doing some research on the most cost effective way to restock the diverse inventory I had in one foul swoop. I've been looking into various Reaper sets (are the triads no longer a thing any more?) and am tossing up between the 'building your own paint set' and the pre-packed Reaper Master Series Bones Paint Complete Set: https://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/set/sku-down/09966 I just had some fun in Photoshop pasting together swatches of all 54 colours in the set for easy reference: This set is $184.99 for 54 paints, which is $3.51USD per bottle, the same price as the 'build your own paint set' for the same number. That's $4.68AUD which is still cheaper than the $6 for Vallejo paints I can get at my local gaming store. Given that I don't use metallic paints much at all and I am fairly set for skin tones I suppose it would be better for me to build my own paint set. In that vein, are there any colours that anyone really recommends I get? A colour you personally love and find yourself running out of more often than not?

Maybe if you both get the same mini you could both walk through painting it together, and you could show them a few techniques as you go?

Well I shall be sticking around now for awhile I swear! (I have edited my signature to reflect the nature of my disappearance and reappearance like Doctor Who. Or a Phase Cat, or other geeky thing that teleports or travels through space time.)

Agreed. I pin SO MUCH stuffs. I also love my pin vice. Maybe too much...

Oh also, one technique I find to get the right amount of paint onto the bristles for dry brushing is to dip your brush in your paint, and then blot it or run it gently across a dry paper towel. If you're using a paper towel with texture or ridges you can also see how it will look before using it on your mini.

The others have given some great tips on starting to use your uber fancy expensive brushes (there is a reason my local art store have their W&N's in a locked glass case behind the counter) but the rest now is just general maintenance. I don't recommend using your W&N's for things like dry brushing that could easily destroy the bristles, use a cheap brush for that. Also don't leave your brushes sitting bristle-down in your cups of water while painting. Once you've finished using a colour, rinse your brush off in a cup and just place it side-down until you need it again. Sitting the brush with it's weight on the bristles will destroy them faster than you'd like.

Pretty much what others have said. You can also use washes and glazes over the top of dry brushing top knock back the colour a bit if you think it's too bright and to diffuse some of the harsh edges. I tend to only use dry brushing these days on fur and if I'm painting grass, rocks, etc. for bases mostly because I feel I lose a it of the control over where the paint goes when I dry brush. But dry brushing is still a very effective technique.

I adore the browns on her cloak, gorgeous stuff!

Totes supporting your Patreon now too!

Oh wow! (Is it wrong that I want this so, so much?! *grabby hands*) The mix of textures here is brilliant, and the lines of her hair are gorgeous.

Such an epic idea for a conversion, nice work!

Welcome back! I also return, high five! These are such great minis, the colour scheme you've used keeps them all cohesive enough. I adore your highlighting!

Back in Australia. Short version of the long story, I ended up dating a very, very bad person and left Scotland very suddenly to get away from them. I don't have my paints and most of my minis from Reaper's third Kickstarter because I had to leave most of my belongings behind. I am not safe, and happy back in Australia with family and friends. Well, some people have. I'm just kind of bumbling along after a slow year last year (only painted a couple minis and a bust), then I broke my foot, then I took up drawing and oil painting, then another break this year. I've really only done a handful of tabletop minis this year (3 plus a rushed OSL experiment). I'm glad people like them, but I'm not exactly lighting the world on fire (unlike Kuro and Corporea!). I saw your art stuff, so cool and mad props to you for giving it a go! So sad about your broken foot though, eep! To put this thread semi back on topic, teehee, just bought a Bones Vanja the Fire Giant Queen to start painting when I get home.