LittleBluberry

Heck, I use Master's Brush Soap on my cheap brushes, it really does help. Salvaged a brush that had been dipped in paint a little too enthusiastically by my 4-year-old. Unfortunately my W&N brush that arrived today had bristles that were BENT 90 DEGREES during shipping. So back to waiting for the seller to send a replacement. (I'm not prepared to gamble that it will be fine when it started out that abused.)

She looks like a femme fatale from a Bond movie. Excellent job!

ced1106, good advice, especially with the DVD instructions. For the record, our oldest is turning 22 this fall while our youngest is 4. Five kids in all. So the oldest snagged a few choice bits from our vampire and painted them over the summer for the Pathfinder campaign he's starting while the youngest has been working on a unicorn we picked up at PAX. I've got lots of cheaper brushes I share, but the Kolinsky is going to be mine, all mine! The real reason why I wanted a Bones LTPK was for my oldest, because he moved out and has no supplies. That's not to say that there might not be another child or two who'd like one, but I have a decent sized hoard of paint that I'll share. LTPKs just tend to be an awesome deal when you're starting out.

I also found them listed at CCG Armory. No availability date there either. I broke down and ordered brushes through an Amazon. An art supply re-seller had W&N at a reasonable-ish price and Amazon stocks Raphael brushes. I've been checking Dick Blick on and off all summer and they seem to be chronically low on brushes.

So I had been impatiently waiting to hear more about whether there will be Bones LTPKs or not, or at the very least if LTPK #2 was going to be in stock in the near future. I checked out Paizo's site to see if they had the existing kit #2 and found this: http://paizo.com/products/btpy7wtl?Bare-Bones-Learn-to-Paint-Kit-Fur-Armor Looks like there are placeholder/preorder SKUs for two Bones LTPKs, a basic one at $22 and a deluxe one for $44. No actual useful information about what is *in* the kits but I figured other people might be interested in knowing that this is still potentially a thing.

Spot on with the ice look, it looks just like frozen lake ice or glacier ice.

For a moment I was confused, I was sure these were the images I'd seen in the catalog... A closer check showed I was wrong and illustrates what a great job you did!

I would be interested in seeing the sales data for the top selling Kickstarter bones versus the original bones. Because I think a lot of the Kickstarter backers are buying the original set, and obviously they have less need to buy the stuff that was in the Vampire box. I also think that 1 month is too short of a time period to gather statistically significant sales data, but I'm no accountant.

Did you have to do anything special to get that glitter to do the mound of coins effect? Every experience I've ever had with glitter involves having glue and glitter *everywhere*. Plus glue all over the glitter. Your hoard looks sooooooo amazing!

I've been waiting for that dragon hatchling to be available in *any* format for a while now... He's really cute and I've already needed him on my gaming table once!

I find that it's easier to get a nice thin coat of primer with brush-on primer than spray-on primer. I tend to get a little overly enthusiastic with the spray on products and that causes detail to disappear. Also, washing metal minis with an old toothbrush and some dish soap helps to make the mold lines a little more visible. This is especially true with a metal mini that's been sitting around for a few years. (Yeah, I've got a few of those...)

If you're looking for good quality crystals to glue on yourself you can also check out this massive assortment of flat-back crystals... http://www.artbeads.com/swarovski-flatbacks-rhinestones.html Heck, I might have to try that out when I finish my Flit... Even a little dragon needs a hoard. :)

I confess I totally stole the idea from the experience of others. I was also lucky that I was able to pry her shield off without too much fuss. Now I just need to find a place with Kolinsky brushes in stock at a reasonable price... I've already got a ton of Reaper paint but I might pick up a P3 metallic or two. She's got a lot of armor and I think the Vallejo metallics I have are getting old and lumpy. (I'm not ready to start with NMM yet!)

Thanks for sharing the TED talk. I showed it to my poor sleep-deprived high school student to explain why I was so appalled at the idea of him only getting 3 hours of sleep. High school starts too damned early here.

Recently my better half was inspired to dig out his Shackled City Adventure Path book, do some minor setting conversions and start up a Friday evening campaign. I decided to roll up a female paladin of Thor, which was fun because I haven't rolled up a new character in a while. It took me a few days to remember that I needed to paint a miniature for her. Whoops! Looking through the Reaper catalog didn't produce a large number of female humans wielding war hammers. Especially if wearing normal clothing was also a requirement. Eventually I concluded that it was time to face my fear of conversions and do a simple weapon switch. Because the Trista sculpt was both so perfect for a paladin and in the box full of minis already in my house, she was the chosen candidate. Halbarand conveniently had a war hammer to donate to the cause. I figured if I was going to do a Bones conversion, I should do a WIP for the whole project to balance out how much time I spend just reading the forums. I used OneBoot's sewing pin method of creating a hole to pin the war hammer on, because my quest to buy a pin vise at my FLGS ended up causing more problems that I haven't sorted out yet. Plus a heated safety pin was a very easy way to poke a hole in her small fist as well as the handle of the hammer. I used a random jewelry making piece of wire that I already had, it was the right thickness and easy to cut. The only problem ended up being that some soot from my hot pin made the glue not stick to her hand right away. After a few tries I did succeed and now I'm the proud owner of a female paladin with a big, bad war hammer. The shield isn't actually attached, I pried it off originally to make painting her easier. I'll glue it back later. Next I just need to paint her, which will be a learning experience for me. My attempt to paint Sir Forscale in Bones ended up obscuring a lot of detail, so I need to develop a lighter touch with the paint. Suggestions are welcome...

Corporea I was just thinking that the blue sky was a great place to look for inspiration and you beat me to it with your excellent jeans suggestion! I agree that savannah terrain would inspire colors that fit well with the theme. (Dark olive from trees, dark brown from bark, etc.) You don't have to have your contrast color screaming loud with intensity, you can soften it and mute it so that it feels right. I do have to say that with his 'rock on' pose I have a hard time seeing him hiding in camouflage... He seems like more of an extrovert to me. But I love the concept, I'm keen to see how it turns out!

Ooooo, your very first WIP! I haven't had the pleasure of watching you work on a mini in a very, very long time.

How did you know that sparkly dice are my greatest weakness?!?!? (Next is pearly dice, and then dice with pretty colors... I have a lot of dice. )

That is some very finely done detail work on the shield and the clothing. :)

Technically there was exactly one metal mini in their first kickstarter...

I'm confused, is he selling a lot of metal Reaper minis and he's having problems with a few special orders? Or is he not selling as much because there's nothing new? Generally a store carries what sells. Poor service from reps is not good, but generally it's not going to stop a store from carrying a popular product. It feels like there might be more going on than just poor rep service.

You asked if there is a better way to get paint into the crevices. What you really need is to thin out your paint a bit, possible with some flow improver. (Depends on what type of paint you're using, cheaper paints are more likely to need flow improver.) And if you get a big droplet of paint on your piece you can dry your brush on a bit of paper towel and use it to pull some of the paint off the mini again. You've already gotten a lot of good advice on your paint not sticking problem. If you find you want to deal with other imperfections (mold lines, etc.) you can get tiny metal files or sanding needles to clean away just the spots that need it. (You'll know what I mean when you get your new miniatures, the metal ones often have bits of 'flash' left over from the molding process.) Your little mouse looks so cute, even with the bit of blur in the picture! I'm a sucker for sparkles.

You have inspired me to possibly relent and pick up one of these enormous Bones dragons. I was avoiding them because they're undead, but yours is beautiful in it's skeletal glory.

Judging by my cat, if you simply place an open laptop on the work surface, the cat will be distracted from the minis and sit on the laptop. :P (Foil and/or tape plus discipline might help... Try an internet search for keeping cats off counters and you'll get lots of ideas.) Unfortunately right now my paints have a dedicated cupboard where they get put away when I'm not painting. That much set up and clean up time is not helping me get any painting done, but with 5 kids living in a 4 bedroom house there really isn't a spare corner. Maybe when the oldest moves back out this fall and takes 1 of the kitties with him...

I am not quite sure how they can grow PAX Prime any further given the limitations of the available buildings in downtown Seattle. It doesn't mean it can't be done, but it is a challenge. I also expect that with D&D Next coming out sometime there will be a bigger presence at many cons for a while. With WotC and Paizo being based in the Seattle area, it's easy to get them to show up at PAX Prime, and the Penny Arcade guys have been pushing D&D quite a bit, but it's still really small compared to the videogame areas. Personally I'd rather go to Gen Con, but our budget doesn't support travel for cons and PAX is about as local as it gets for us.