Chargeit

I started off with Army painter but got tired of bottles clogging up before they were empty. I since moved to using Krylon and it works great. Other then a defective one, I've yet to have a bottle of it clog up prematurely on me. I've even used the cheap Walmart primers (Under $1) and found that they work fine. They need a lot of coats to get good coverage. Just have to keep the coats thin and allow a few min dry times in between (what it says on the can). If you're getting that dry dusty affect from priming your primer is probably drying before getting to the model. Try to avoid priming too far away, in wind, or when it's too hot.

Oh man, when I painted my Mice and Mystics heroes I did all 6 at the same time. Was not an enjoyable painting experience. He looks good.

Really nice. Are they selling these skeletons yet? I'm in the market for some and was not happy with the bones skeletons I saw available.

Don't be afraid of basing. It's really easy once you get a few under your belt. Not only does adding bases allow them to stand up correctly, but, fully basing also adds nice weight to the miniature. Dipping works great as a way to push out ok looking miniatures with little effort. It takes longer to get a finished miniature because the dip has to dry for two days or so, but, what would take you 4 - 6 hours to paint with good results, suddenly takes a hour with ok results. I would suggest getting all your basics down before messing with it since it can promote lazy practices. Keep up the good work man.

Yea, they look good if you pick out the flesh also. I went the quick and easy route on mine. Primed black, preshaded white at a 45, dry brushed, eyes, dipped (I was on a dipping kick), done. I used one in a game the other day and they looked fine in play. One bonus to preshading the way I mentioned, is it gives the base a nice stone color without touching it. Are you painting for gaming, or display? If gaming, you might want to look into adding bases to your miniatures. If you check out my Warlock and Skeleton guy (?) you can see what I mean. Pretty much super glue the figure to the base, glue your basing onto it, prime it, then give it a dry brushing or whatever after you paint the miniature. Be warned, I'm not a prime example of a miniature painter. Just offering some advice. I get my bases pretty cheap and in nice sized packs off this one seller on ebay. The only issue being, because of the stance of the reaper miniatures, you'll likely require a larger base then the figure should be on.

The mummies come out well without having to get too crazy without a doubt. I saw pictures of them painted with the flesh and stuff picked out, but, for gaming purposes, there's little point. They look good in play when kept simple. You can get darker shadows by priming the miniatures black. Also, washing or dipping will help bring them out. After the wash or dip, even dry brush or highlight to pull out the raised areas.

Hey, if you don't have a photo light box, one thing you can do is take your pictures outside on a cloudy day for natural diffusion. You don't want thunderstorm cloudy, more like lite clouds. You can get pretty good pictures that way and really show off your work.

Thanks. The cloak came out a little redder then I imaged from repeated washes. It worked out well lucky.

Finished painting this guy up last night. I used the paint scheme of a reaper forum member. Pretty happy with how he came out. Have to thank user "Citrine" for this great color scheme.

Great paint job on this. I copied your color scheme painting mine almost to the key (went gold for the runes on the sword). I'll post a picture when I can get a good one. Need a cloudy day for some diffusion. It came out pretty good, but, not as good as yours. That cloak looks amazing.

Without a doubt reproducing that map took time/effort. I came close to giving up about half way through. However, I could already tell that it was going to come out pretty sweet, and, I had put so much time into it by that point that there was no going back. I'm not a fan of the Next method. It seems pretty forced if you ask me. I'd go for battlemats, or, a mix of prefab and custom 2.5d. However, if it works for someone it works for them. It's just not for me.

Thanks. Will give his crystal a touch up. He'll look good on the table. DM'ing a game tomorrow night that I need him for.

Painted this guy up last night. I had planned on dipping most of my D&D miniatures. I got a wild hair up my butt to base some of them (which I had been skipping to keep them as durable as possible), and ended up basing my reaper minis before painting. I usually base after. Well, now if I try to dip them the bases will be ruined... Not great for speed painting, but, it was nice getting off that dip crutch for awhile. Pretty happy with how he came out. It was enjoyable putting a little more effort into a paint job again. That dip will make you lazy. *Thanks also to the clouds for providing some natural diffusion. **I kind of boned up the writing on his scroll. Did in silver, messed up the 2nd line. Went over with gold, and bah, will just repaint it later.

Good job. For my Wraiths, I used dullcoat as a primer to keep the transparent affect and give my paints and washes something to grip. After doing my paint job I hit with a few layers of dullcoat. Seem to be holding up well. I do baby them more then other miniatures however. I love the bases.

Yea, DM scotty is where I got my information on building 2.5D tiles. The guy is a DIY d&d genius. It's amazingly simple. Really all you need is some cardboard, hot glue gun, a blade, cheap black walmart primer (I use whatever is cheap 0.84 - 0.99 cents a bottle), something for textures such as rust-oleum stone texture (though not as needed), craft paints (cheap stuff), and some really cheap brushes. I guess you also need a space to do it and the motivation. But yea, the investment isn't huge, but the results speak for themselves. I mean, that was my first attempt at 2.5d and it came out pretty sweet. I did mess up in a few spots... My left most room is nowhere near the correct shape, and I incorrectly did mud instead of stone at the start of the cave... However, the end results are pretty damned nice. I can't wait to do this for smaller projects. Such as large encounter rooms. Make sure to get a glue gun that fit large sticks. I was burning through 4 or 5 sticks a tile using a mini. Now, a stick lasts me 2 tiles at least. A mini is still good to have for smaller details. I picked up a bulk pack of Solidbonder Economy hot melt glue sticks "7/16x10" at 110 sticks for something like 20 shipped. I used maybe 6 of them making those tiles. I also picked up their 60 watt glue gun with adjustable temp. I set it to low most of the time to avoid bubbling glue. So, 60w seems to be plenty of wattage for doing this.

It isn't so bad... Unless you try and recreate something like this. That was time consuming. Making your own tiles for large encounters isn't so bad. I was able to make the roads for the first part of this adventure in a hour or two.

Not sure if this is considered part of this forum or not. It does fall into the whole "RPG" thing, so, I'll post it. 2.5d tiles for "Cragmaw Hideout from the D&D 5e starter set... Don't think I'll be making the rest of the dungeons like this since this one took me about 2 weeks to get done. Came out great though. Can't wait to use it. This was my first go at 2.5d tiles. It was a learning experience. I will be making more tiles in the future, just not recreations of published dungeons.

Yea, having my station right next to me makes it easier to be motivated to paint. It's also nice having pictures of whatever I'm painting up on my screens. I usually find 2 or 3 good examples and have them open while I paint.

Good start. I'd look into... Thinning paints. You want to get them to where it takes 2 coats to fill in the color you want (though I usually like mine a little thinner). Point being, you'll end up with a thin layer of paint that won't clog detail or textures. When thinning paints, priming is a must since thinned paints tend to puddle up on bare miniatures. Matte varnish/spray. Testors (works great, small bottle), Army painter make for a good matte. I personally started using krylon. It doesn't leave as good of a matte, more satin. Still, I kind of like just a little shine left over. You can also pick up brush on varnishes. I've had good results with those too.

My painting area. My paints (sorry, Army painter with supporting products from Reaper, GW, and Vallejo) And a "panoramic" view of my entire room. Mostly poorly lit. Before I got back into painting, it served solely as my computer room. My setup is a nerds delight. =D *There's a reason any picture I'll take will involve some kind of wiring.

Thanks. He's a pretty cool looking miniature.

Just gave a quickish base coat to my Mummy Lich. Will be dipping this guy tomorrow to see how it goes. Tempted to paint him up right, but, I have lots of miniatures to paint for use in D&D, and never enough time. So he gets the dip. This is the first bones miniature I've painted. Washed and used spray primers fine. I always hit with black then white at a 45. His base was something I tested out. Basically he's mounted to a normal base. I attempted to use a hot glue gun to work the bump out... It didn't go as planned, however, it did create an interesting affect that I think I can do something with. Assuming the dip doesn't give it issues. Will dip him tomorrow. I'll let him dry for 48 hours before hitting with some matte spray. I'll post the updated results. Well, I checked up on him after work and he was about as dry as he was going to get thanks to warm days and being placed in my shop area with a metal roof and no AC. On the sunny days it's like a oven in there with the door closed... Perfect for curing dipped miniatures. Here's a picture of the after dip/matte. I will be touching his base up. I'm considering going over his gems again, and maybe a little more white on the face. Not sure though. Based and done. Really need to look into making a photo box or something.

I'm not sure off hand. I don't have reaper Bugbears. I'd assume the D&D ones would be larger. However, bones and D&D mini's work out fine. The D&D ones tend to be a little larger, but, they all scale up well enough. I think larger models might start becoming a issue though. For instance the D&D ogre would look like it's 10' vs the Reaper looking 8'. Here are some shots comparing various miniatures. They work out well together, but, there is a small size difference.

Spray priming is the way to go assuming you have a good spot for it. I usually do large groups when I do it (15 + miniatures). I cut up 8" strips of cardboard. I set up groups of 3 on the strips spaced as so... *Not bones miniatures. *Once again, flash does odd things to my pictures... Need to make a photo box. For miniatures that require special attention (heroes, larger monsters, specials, metal), I spray prime individually on pill bottles. Make sure to wash those bones. Heck, any miniature for that matter.

Washed Primed with Walmart flat black, hit at 45 with Krylon white primer. Fully dried. Not sticky. Lessons learned. Reaper bones miniatures have no issue with spray primers as long as you clean them. Cheap Walmart primer works just as well as more expensive primers. Will use again. *Flash makes this guy look a lot whiter then he is. ;)