Cerridwyn1st

What do you guys do if you don't get feedback on a sale? How long do you wait before sending a polite reminder? When do you give up and figure they aren't going to give feedback?

I feel you, Brumbor. I might even have mine tucked away somewhere. Too bad I had about a two-year gap between design and starting to paint minis - probably would have done better sooner if they'd been fairly concurent.

Brushes I actually use: W&N Series 7 - 000, 00, 0, & 1 W&N Series 7, miniature - 000 & 00 (the 000 is probably the most used brush in my set) Vallejo - 2 Lowe Cornell Series GG 6/0 - amazing brush for the money - less than $4. Another well-loved and well-used brush. Doubles as loaner for Painting Clinic Reaper Master Series Kolinsky Sables - 5/0 & 1 - just got these Friday, in love already Various Cat's Toungs (Filberts). Two are from Renaissance Ink. I highly recommend the size four, excellent for basecoating, though like any synthetic it will get the bendies. They have some of these in sables, just haven't got round to ordering any. I have a couple sable cat's tounges from other manufacturers that I really like. Some cheap synthetic flats that I use for sealing and painting basis. Royal Langnicel Big Kid's Choice Value Pack - 12 natural bristle brushes for $1. Excellent for Painting Clinic, and sometimes I use them myself. If your local games shop doesn't carry high-end brushes but does carry Reaper products, have them oder a couple Master Series for you. It will save you the hassle and/or expense of tracking down W&N 7. With the Series 7, you can either pay $15 and up from your local art store, or get them cheaper online but have the savings wiped out by shipping charges.

I'll second that! Not that you'd want anything of mine, Flynn, but it's the thought that counts. I guess I kind of had the same idea - I asked Arkaal to paint a couple of Rackham familiars for me. Hey, if you're going to buy something that is better than what you can do yourself, GO BIG! I mean the quality of the paint job, not the size of the piece. Whoa, Nelly, if I could learn to paint like him...

I'd go with Crusoe on that. Strategically applied stat grass instead of basing the mini. Painting the base details would look better than a bad application of stat grass, no doubt. QUOTE: "I'm given to understand that it's not precisely good taste to just leave the base as painted metal, but I don't want to lose those fern leaves and mushrooms!" That, my friend, is a matter of opinion. And you know what they say about opinions, don't you? I guess you kind of hit a hot button of mine. It annoys me to see otherwise beautiful pieces of miniature art degraded because they don't have an eleborate display base. Just use your own best judgement, and don't worry too much about other's opinions.

Hey, that $6.99 can is HALF the size of a GW can, so it is hardly cheaper. Since they sell for the same price, the Tamiya is actually twice as expensive. HOWEVER - this stuff is great. Smooth as glass, doesn't run, isn't gritty, doesn't obsure details, covers beautifully, doesn't rup off high points like Vallejo paint on primer will - I love the stuff. What I will do is put my minis on a Lazy Susan and spin as I spray. Nice smooth coat, first shot. Then I touch up any "missed spots" with Vallejo primer. The Vallejo is great for getting the recesses, it just isn't so good for spots likely to be rubbed as you paint. One warning - if your paint is very thin, it will slide around on the surface of the primer like water on a waxed car. Once you get a layer of paint on, though, you can use paint as thin as you like and it won't matter. Yes, it is expensive. But what REALLY is the most expensive component of your painting? Your own time, that's what. Or it is for me. And if I have to mess around trying to get the stuff to go on right, or shaking the can for 5 minutes, or spraying multiple coats, etc., then there isn't much savings using something cheaper. I could have spent the time painting, for crying out loud.

LOL Yea, I kind of worked it out myself by trial and error - lots of error. I guess that is kind of what I meant by saying I go on "color tangents", and it'a a lot of how I developed the way that I do things. Although I may well print out the stuff about the color wheel and place it (along with a color wheel) in my paint box for future reference. I do understand what you mean by "tint" and "shade". Tints being the full color with white added, shades being the full color with black added. I used "visual color", "highlight" and "shadow" for those who don't have a background in color theory. I find "base" to be an over used word when talking about miniatures, so I wanted to avoid it. I will keep the comment about Reaper Blue/black in mind, too. But you have to admit - the big-mouth paint bottles get gloopy over time. Maybe when the Master Paints come out, I'll give that color a try.

Good advice on cleaning brushes. I also have one of those GW flip-top bottles (the new ones that sell for a buck) full of Plaid Brush Cleaner. I use it to soak gunked up old brushs and for quick cleanups when I'm on the go. The bit about what kind of brush you use is especially true.

OK, in discribing this stuff, I'm going to do a little linguistic inventing. Forget using "base" in any of this; I find it too confusing. Visual color refers to the color you want to register with the viewer as the color for the mini. Shading is the color that registers as the shadow on the Visual Color. Highlight is the color that registers as the high point on the visual color. Highpoint is the brightest part of the highlight. I've been finding lately that I go on "color tangents". I'll paint similar colors on a series of minis all at once. This has helped me a lot in figuring out how colors work. For instance, I found that I like painting skin greens (like trolls, lizardmen, dragons, etc.) on top of gray instead of white or black. Green on white looks cartoony, muted on black. Gray seems to come out just right. Green skin looks best with an undercoat of dark green-blue for the shade. I then layer up to the visual color and highlight. For the highlight, I'll often just use paler shades of a bottle color, rather than mixing something. I do a little differenlty on green cloth. I start by painting the visual color all over the cloth area. I shadow green by mixing Windsor & Newton Payne's Gray with sky blue and add this to my visual color. If I need more intermediary steps, I add sky blue to the previous mixture. For highlights, I mix yellow in the visual color. the highpoint may be almost pure yellow. Sand yellow works really well for forest green-type colors. Red looks best when you start with an undercoat of red/brown. Vallejo Hull Red is great, and Reaper Brick Red would probably work, too. Sometimes I'll add a bit of my visual color to the Hull Red. Just seems to look better that way. Layer up to the visual red color. For highlight, add yellow or yellow/orange to the visual color. The highpoint may be orange-yellow or yellow with only a touch of red. Blues are fairly easy to shade and highlight, mixing in black for shade and white for highligt works pretty well. You can also use the Payne's Gray mixed with the color for shade, sky blue for the highlight. Black can be a pain, and oddly enough, Payne can help you out. Payne's Gray, that is. My online mentor, Dragonsreach (on CMON) told me about using this color. He uses it to highlight black, then mixes Codex gray little by little and blends up for highpoints. I use sky blue instead - guess I just have to be different - and it works pretty well for me. I haven't done much with white lately. I guess that will be the next phase of my mini-madness.

Lars: I'd love to hop on a plane and help you shop - want to buy me a ticket? Have you got time to run some demos? That would help them a lot. Seeing other people doing stuff helps create demand for the items among the customers. You don't have to do a game, either. If painting is your thing, then demo painting. God knows, a corps of hard-core painters could keep just about any store afloat. Ahem (cheap plug here) there's always Black Lightning. Cerri

What about Tamiya Smoke? Must be a different color than Vallejo; mine looks like dark gray, almost black. It's specifically mentioned in an article on CMON about polishing metal instead of painting it. I've used it on a couple of things and it is really nice. I used it to add shading to the dragonet on Tox's shoulder (I had painted the dragonet gold) and the affect was stunning. http://wolfbar.servemp3.com/cerridwyn1st/ebay1/Toxall.jpg http://wolfbar.servemp3.com/cerridwyn1st/ebay1/Toxfa.jpg

I have only used inks a few times, and I can't say I've ever had the problem of them re-liquifying when the sealer went on. I seal first with Krylon Satin and then apply Dull Coat. The problem I had with ink was that it wouldn't flow evenly, and I'd end up with a streaky look to the raised areas of my mini. That bothered me a lot, so I stopped using inks. The smell is aweful, too, I really hated it. I might like the real artists inks better, but I haven't used them yet. Instead, I use Plaid Walnut Varnish and Plaid acrylic gloss varnish. For the walnut varnish, I'll thin it with a little water before I use it. For the gloss varnish, I add a drop or two of Vallejo paint in the color I want to wash with, maybe a little water, mix it up and go for it. I've also used Liquitex Basics with a lot of water added. Thin it to the point it's like watercolor, and it works pretty well.

I don't search using "pro painted". I search using "reaper painted", and rarely see something labled "pro painted". I guess that the title letter restriction makes it difficult to put "pro painted reaper" in and still have room to title the figurine itself. Just to check this out, I searched "pro painted", "reaper painted" and "reaper painted pro". "Pro Painted" returned 453 hits. That's a lot of stuff to look through, especially if it's mostly crap. "Reaper Painted" returned 149. Only skimmed a few, but didn't see any real dogs in the lot. "Reaper painted pro" only had 11 hits. I've never discribed my work for sale as "pro painted". That kind of "yeah, me" statement leaves me cold. If you really are a pro, it should be evident from your work. If you aren't, you can say it all you like and it won't make it true. Boy, but you guys have some NASTY things to say about the people who do use "pro painted". You never know. They might get better, someday.

my ebay moniker is mcarrkul. OK, not very creative, but it was late and I was kinda tired... Hey, if I changed my moniker, would that change my rating? I worked hard to get that 28, you know!

Thanks, also to Flynn for the tip on mailing stuff for $4.00. I'd overlooked that, and used Oversease Priority. Cheaper than Express, but still kinda high. Kamui K, I've had the same experience with selling stuff overseas. For example, a guy from New Zealand bought my entire lot one time, three figures in all. My first sale went to France, and in the last one I sent a dragon to England. I'd say about 1/3 of my stuff has sold overseas. I look at it as a my contribution to trying to close the Trade Deficit. FYW: Pack stuff REALLY WELL to go to England. I've NEVER had a fig damaged in the post, and the dragon arrived with BOTH wings broken off. The customer said not to worry, he'd never had a mini arrive that WASN'T damaged. I still feel pretty bad about it. Anyone else have experience selling overseas?

If you really have your heart set on supporting a floundering store, then keep ordering your Reaper paints through them. It might be better than starting on a whole new line of paiints. If you REALLY want to go there, Reaper is supposed to come out with Master Paints sometime soon. Probably not until after they relocate, but soon. I can sympathize with wanting to help your favorite store. I managed a small store that went belly up. It is very difficult to recover from bad management. My old boss, the owner of the store, offered to give it to me. I thought about the money owed on the store and the product that it had for sale, and came to the conclusion that even if my boss GAVE me the store, I couldn't keep it afloat. So I bailed and got a job as a secretary. It isn't as much fun being a secretary, but it's less stressful, my hours are steady and I'm better off financially. I hope things work out. If there is anything I can do to support you, let me know.

This is something I just did recently. I think it worked pretty well. I painted a base coat of rust red. For this I used Vallejo Model Color Hull Red. Then I drybrushed a dark steel color on that. Next, I added "rust lines" around bits that were sticking out on the shield, like the rivets and spike. I don't have a link to the picture to show you this, but when I shoot the fig I'll come back and post a link.

I've heard this story before. I can't tell you if the Testor Fantasy Acryls are Polly S reserected. I can tell you they are fairly nice paints. They have a nice consistancy and cover well. The finish is very smooth looking, if a bit shiney. I used them for my dragon (except the dark green underpaint, which is Tamiya). http://wolfbar.servemp3.com/cerridwyn1st/ebay1/dragon.jpg I don't know what the Polly S colors were like, so I can't compare them. I have used Vallejos, Reaper, Citadels, and Tamiya. I only have a few bottles of the Acryl, but it is on par with the other paints. Where it really stands out is the metals. They are beautiful! The metal particles are extraordinarily fine, which gives an unsurpassed luster to the paint. These are by far the best metals I have used. But those fine particles settle like crazy; you really have to shake the stuff to get it mixed again. Good luck in the paint hunt. You know, you could always get your paints from teh Reaper online store. Not as good as the immediate fix of walking in a store and walking out with paint, but we do what we can.