Cerridwyn1st

Welcome! Sorry, guys, I haven't been posting as much in past months as I should... Uh...honestly, Lumpy, I'm not sure. That's one of the first Confrontation pieces I did, and I was still using Armory paints (since discontinued) for most of my work. And, yeah, it was before I got the hang of the camera, so I'm not sure how green or blue he really was. Looking at my current paints, though, I think you could approximate the base color with a mixture of Vallejo Dark Sea Blue and Reaper Ghoul Grey; that could probably be highlighted up with a mixture of Seafoam and Pegasus Blue. Hope that helps a bit. Jen See, told you guys she was around. Nice to see you, Jen. The highlight reminds me of Vallejo Model Color Sky Green. Think that would work? Could add a darker blue/green for the basecoat, and blend up to Green Sky for the highlight. BTW, Jen, I love the Lysette you use as your Avatar. How did you get the cracked jem in her staff? Superhuman brush control?

I love using Simple Green. It's about the only thing I use to strip minis. It softens Greenstuff, but the GS will re-harden if it's left alone. Hit or miss wether it will remove or damage conversions. Big chunks like a filled in base are fine. Little bits may or may not come off. What you don't use on your minis can be used to clean anything from a car engine to glass. Just dilute it to meet your needs (directions are on the bottle). It is non-toxic, biodigradable, has a nice smell, and is quite economical if properly diluted. It will sting if you get it in your eyes. Wear glasses.

Jen has posted here recently, and also on the Confrontation English Forum.

The new Reaper Master Paints will be $3 a bottle, which is comparable to Vallejo. I've switched to using Vallejo almost exclusively. I've got the full Game Color line and quite a few Model Colors. They are NOT the same consistancy- Game Colors are a lot thinner than Model colors. Keep that in mind when you start thinning. The only thing I don't like about Vallejo is the skin tones. They seem a bit orange to me. So I tried to go back to Reaper, but those look thick and chalky to me, even after thinning ARGH! When will the new Master Paints come out and end this pain?!!! Beautiful Reaper skin tones in a high quality product?!! Oh, right, July. Dialing up local gaming store to put in reserve order.

Yes, but matte can kill the layering that makes it NMM look good. For my money, Satin is the only way to go. Not flat enough to kill layering. Not glossy enough to wipe out painted on highlights. Perfect median between the two.

Mercy, you should see my stuff at in-between stages. In fact, I paint and highlight one color or part at a time largely because I am a sloppy worker (honestly) and thus don't have to worry if I get paint on areas that will be overpainted later--i.e. when working on flesh I can get that color on the garment areas. I also do lots of correction and touch-up as I go along (such as going back over darklining that's been obscured by stray paint). It's really less about being a neat painter than it is about cleaning up and making sure the final product is neat. Jen: Do you cover "mistakes" with white paint so the underlying color will be uniform? For instance, if you get flesh color on a cloth area, will you paint over it with white before working on the cloth? Just curious. Back on topic - general rule, if I'm drybrushing, I do faces last. If I'm layering, I do faces first. Reason? With drybrushing, it is a lot easier to slip and have the paint wind up where I don't want it. With layering, I have a lot more control, so it's OK to "dress" the fig, working inside out, as it were. Mel

Actually, I LOVE sandable autobody primer. Think about it - it flows into depressions. A scratch on a car finish is much more shallow than details on a mini. So the body primer gets into the nooks and cranies nicely, but still leaves details, as long as you don't go overboard with the stuff. I use Duplicolor Black, probably wouldn't use any other black primer. I've used Krylon white primer. Not bad stuff, but not great either. Kinda grainy. I'll use it on cheap stuff, or if I'm trying to match someone else's paint job. All-time fave is Tamiya. Sure, it's expensive, but a little dab 'll do ya, so that small can goes a LOONNGG way. I use Testor's gray for greenskins. I've never tried the $1 a can stuff from the auto place, but I've used the stuff from Walmart. I used the white and black paint. Chips badly, so don't use it. I didn't use the gray primer very long, and most of those minis have subsiquently been stripped and re-done, so I've no idea how the stuff holds up.

That's very cool, Fynn. I really love the woodgrain on the back of the shield and the motifs on the front.

Duplicolor Black Sandable Auto Primer. Smooth texture, great coverage, flows into depressions. Oddly enough, even though SUPOSEDLY it is supposed to fill in scratches, it doesn't obsure details if applied thinly. You can buy it at WalMart for about $3.50 a can. They had a cheaper brand of primer, but I resisted the urge. I've used cheaper primers before and they are seldom a true bargan. Of course, I've used more expensive primers and not been happy with the surface texture. I used this stiff to prepare my own CAVs. I'm happy with how it worked out.

I mount my minis on Reaper metal bases and fill in with green stuff. Gives them nice weight so they don't tip over, they look good, and would be compatable with the Warlord system.

Try this, using Dragon White, Dragon Blue and Breonne Navy. Start with the skirt. Put down a base coat of Breonne Navy. Mix 50/50 Breonne Navy and Dragon blue. Use this to create your mid-tone by applying it to the high spots of the mini. Highlight with dragon blue. On the bodice, start with a base of your navy/blue 50/50 mix. Use Dragon blue as the mid-tone, and highlight with a mix of Dragon Blue and Dragon White. Hope this helps.

If you have a lot of paint in the ferrule of a small brush, you can soak it in solvent to loosen the remaining paint. I use Plaid Brush Cleaner. The trick is to soak the brush without damaging the bristles. I have a trick for this. I put brush cleaner in a GW flip-top bottle. Then I take a small piece of card stock and put a hole in it about the size of the brush diameter. I put the brush though the hole and place the cardbord on the open bottle. The brush tip can soak without the bristles getting damaged. You can soak the brush up the 24 horus to loosen the paint, then wash as you normally would. I haven't had any problems with either the solution or the soaking method damaging my brush. After a cleaning like this, I'll usually coat the brush with Pink Soap, shape it and let it dry.

Have any of you guys tried the Woodland Scenics rock mold thingies? They look cool, and would be an answer to the fact that I can't sculpt rocks worth boo-boo. Just wondered if anyone had used them and what they thought. Oh, and to answer the question at hand, I mostly use Kneadatite blue/yellow when I need to sculpt stuff. The infamous "green stuff". I've got a couple other formulations of the stuff too, but I'm momentarily out of blue/white. I've got a friend who swears by Apoxysculpt. One of the Games Workshop designers at Games Day Atlanta had two big tubs and makes really cool things out of the stuff. I'll probably order my own when time/cash permits.

Wreck: I understand the time constraint. Maybe things will work out better the next go-round. You can get some work done in a 15 - 30 min. time block, but you need to be very organized. Decide in advance exactly what you want to do. By deciding in advance what you will work on, you limit the set-up time needed and the amount of stuff you have to paw through to get started. This maximizes the time you can use to actually work on something. I use this to get in some time basing and cleaning figs while I'm at work. I have a small kit and work on stuff during my lunch break. I usually decide the night before what I need to work on, so it's fixed in my mind well in advance. Hope that helps. Cerri

Dragonsreach (Mike) PM'd me back and said he'd gotten his figs through mail order via the Reaper website. Shipping and import fees were aweful, and the stuff took forever to arrive. Squiggers, could you post the location of the Leisure Games store you went to? I'll send that to Mike, maybe it would help him. Thanks.

My mentor lives in England and he gets Reaper minis. I'll PM Dragonsreach and ask where he gets his minis, then come back here and post the reply. Hope that helps.

I guess I just have to be different. I usually paint my metals on top of white. I use the Testor's Acryl Fantasy paints, which have very fine metalic grains. Then I glaze the metal with Tamiya Smoke. It's a very nice look when I get done. I'll drybrush a little silver on top. I've also painted metallics on top of a base of Vallejo Hull Red to get a rusted appearance. I'll have to try painting other color metalics on colored basecoats. It sounds like a very nice effect.

When I first started painting, I was using Reaper Pro-Paints and Liquitex Basics tube paints. These were too thick for my liking, so I started putting them in a watercolor box so I could thin them appropriately. This also meant I could carry quite a few colors with me. Problems? Well, the box dried out. I tried to get around this by putting a damp paper towel on the top of the paints. But that dried out (since the box wasn't airtight. And my paints started getting "furry", especially after I started adding Magic Wash. Oh, and heaven help me if I dropped or tipped the box. Eventually, I abandoned the watercolor box. I started using a wet pallet. Problem? By the time I had the paint to the consistancy I wanted, it was like watercolor, and spread all over the inside of the paint box. :( So I'm going to give the inside of the watercolor box another try. I'm going to seal the sectional part of the watercolor box in an air-tight container and put damp papertowels underneath. This way, I can get my paints as thin as I want without them spreading all over the place. The watertight box and internal spounge should help keep them liquid. ANYWAY, to answer your question: it's perfectly fine to use extenders ON a wet pallet. As a matter of fact, I'll often spread a little Magic Wash on my pallet before adding paints. Of course you can add extenders/thinners to paints on your pallet. Just be aware that when they get really thin, they need a little room to spread. That Warmaster Blister for a wet pallet ain't gonna do it. It's too darned small. Most wet pallets are intended for acrylics, which are fairly thick. If you like your stuff more watercolor consistancy, you might try putting damp paper towels under one of those little pallets with the dimples in them in an air-tight box. Oh, and an atomizer bottle isn't a bad idea, either. You can spritz your pallet and keep it damp. DON'T put any thinners in the bottle - just plain water. Some of the thinners are dangerous if inhaled as a mist (says so right on the bottles), so DO NOT try spraying any thinning or extending agents.

Find a mid-sized brick or cement wall.... Bash head against repeatedly. . . . . . . . Or simply search this site and the English Confrontation Forums for "NMM". You'll find loads of advice. Loads and Loads and Loads. One of the best topic series on the English Confrontation Board is called "Ark's Painting Tips". The thread is getting a little old now, but if you find it there is some great stuff. I also compiled the colors Thierry suggests into a single list. Go to my website at: http://wolfbar.servemp3.com/cerridwyn1st/ and click on Thierry's Paint Chart. There is a link 3/4 of the way down the page to a visual example Thierry did of how he paints NMM. http://www3.sympatico.ca/jleblanc012/etape-nmm.jpg His advice helped me finally "get" the basics of NMM. Hope this helps. I was really furstrated trying to paint NMM. I'm still a long way from doing anything besides small gold baubles and fairly simple swords. It seems to me that one of my big problems with trying to do NMM was tackling it before my brush skills were up to snuff. If you get terribly frustrated with it now, take a break. Practice blending and layering a bit more, then go back to it. You may find it comes much easier with practice in techniques that require similar skills. You might try painting gems the Citadel way of doing it, then do gold jewelry, then try a fairly simple sword. Also helps if you have a friend (real life or online) that can critique your work and let you know what you're doing right or wrong.

For strawberry blonde, I kind of favor a reddish-brown base with blonde highlights. I think I used Vallejo Model Color Hull Red lightened a little with more red, maybe a touch of Bonewhite. Highlit with Filthy Brown. To highlight hair, since it's a very thin area, do the following: 1) don't thin your paint too much. If you are using Vallejo Game Color, you might consider not thinning at all. But dampen your brush. Dip it in water and then blot before loading paint. 2) blot your brush. A damp spounge works best for me 3) stroke the raised areas with the side of your brush, not the tip 4) let the first highlight dry, and if it isn't light enough, go back and do it again. Building up successive layers after the paint is dry is better than trying to paint the same area while the paint is still wet 5) after your earlier highlights have dried, add a little bonewhite (or bleached bone (Citadel) or ivory (Reaper)) to your previous highlight color and rehighlight the "brightest" points of the hair, such as the top of the head, sides around face, any waves that are higher than surrounding hair.

Kevin, why not justs thin with water on the troublesome colors? Thierry Husser, who is a fantastic painter, only uses water to thin his colors, never any additives. His results are spectacular. You can find him as Arkaal on CMON. Look up his gallery and you will see some breathtaking miniature art.

If you just want a basic base, coat the top of the base with Elmer's or woodglue and sprinkle on flocking material. I usually add a drop or two of the paint that I'm using in for my base with the glue, so it will match. I heard something interesting that I haven't tried yet, but intend to. Glue sand to your base before you prime. Prime the sand along with your mini, then paint the sand a dark color and drybrush a lighter color on it to finish.

Lining up my colors could take a while - I've got LOTS of paint. However, I keep most of it in the top of a tacklebox. Could just reach in and grab one.

Hi, my name is Cerridwyn, I'm a sponge roller.

Maybe what we need here is real coordination. Not just one or two people posting at a time, but having a single day, single hour even, when hundreds of people send in the request at the same time. They couldn't ignore that. For example, the different people that run SIGs (like Zaphod & Tammy) could all email their users and say "on X day at X time, log into Ebay and make this request". Post a similar message on CoolMiniOrNot and boards for gamers and painters alike. Then, on day X, the emails hit.