deep_sashelas

Been ages since I had time to pick up a brush. Thought I'd grab a mini off the "to be painted" shelf and git to it. Took a week of snatched time here and there, but he's finally done. There's supposed to be a shield some place, but goodness knows where it is... Oh well, who needs a shield in Blood Bowl when you gotta big axe to slaught- er...knock people down with...

One very good online tutorial about acrylic paints can be found here: http://www.ttfxmedia.com/vallejo/cgi-bin/_...elcolortecnicas Sometimes, as a beginner, you may feel that your mini doesn't quite look like how you'd like it to look, like other minis you see online. The key is really how many colors you use in your shades and highlight, the more shade and highlight colors, the closer it becomes a gradient where you don't see abrupt transitions, and the nicer it looks to the eye. Attending a painting meet is a really good idea if you live in an area where that's possible. You'll learn heaps more actually watching people paint than just reading about it. Keep practising and keep at it!

Hi there, I'm no master of layering and you've already gotten great advice from the pros, but I just wanted to add two things. As nice as W&N Series 7s are, they're not compulsory if beyond your price range. I taught myself how to get pretty good results from just ordinary white or golden nylon artist brushes. The important thing is proper brush care, keep the points straight, free from abuse, and they work well. Of course, if you end up painting in as much quantity as some of the more prolific, a Series 7 will last longer and be more cost-effective in the long run. And this was mentioned in passing earlier, I don't know if you've seen this article or missed it. Let it Flow by Darin Hlavaz . It's free, doesn't require purchase of the Warlord rulebook (great book and painting guide though), and has pictures. This was a revelation to me the first time I read it. Used to paint straight from the pot for basecoats, and thin aggressively into washes. Didn't figure out I could actually thin basecoats and work slowly down into layering consistency and then thinner into washes. This is also another great and free guide to layering. Vallejo Acrylics' Guide In the end, as they say, there's only so much reading and listening to /watching experts can do. Ya have to touch a brush somewhere along the line. Practice away, post a few pics of your figs, people here will then be able to tell what stage you're on and give you more advice that way.

Nifty. Thanks for the advice, all. I'll give these bases a shot someday soon. Hopefully sooner than Soon.

Wandering around my local Spotlight (craft) store recently, I noticed a bunch of small plain pieces of wood in various shapes. Circular, rectangular plaques, etc. They looked like the unfinished version of decorative wood bases used to show off a nice paint job. Was thinking they'd be great to use as display bases...except, I'm completely ignorant in all things wooden. How would I go about turning plain wood into nice slightly-glossy dark-stained display bases? The little I managed to read online mentioned stuff like sanding them down really well first. And then applying some kind of wood stain. What kinds of stains are there and which aren't terribly noxious to use? I'm a little leery of buying a big tubful of stain from a hardware store, meant for staining an entire cupboard or something, and killing myself with fumes in the process. One article mentioned gel stains in tube form? Anyone know of any mild versions in an art or craft store? Any special technique to get the glossy shine after staining, or is it just spraying it with a gloss sealer that does it? Thanks in advance.

Between real life (house moving) and way too much computer gaming (city of heroes *twitch*), I haven't had time to paint anything much lately. So imagine my joy when the perfect excuse for painting -anything- on company time fell into my lap. Work is currently setting up a dinosaur exhibition, we're half-involved with the actual exhibition and half-also creating educational classes on dinos for kids. As if we can teach anything to the kids, they rattle off dino names that intimidate me. A colleague brought in a whole bunch of Tamiya dinosaur models (bought with company money, muhaha) and started assembling them. Another hidden model enthusiast (more of a Gundam robots guy) jumped in and started providing advice on how to fill the cracks with putty. Neither had any clue how to paint up their proud plastic-grey and army-green creations. Ideally, I know, these kits are airbrushed. Seeing as I haven't yet leapt into that part of the hobby, and no one else was at that expert painting level...Not to mention, those jokers were veering into dangerous territory, ie. too nervous to pick up a brush, so they were talking about getting cheap hardware store spray paint... Better a mid-level paint job with brushes than a dino-blob. Finally, a use for the Liquidtex starter set acrylics I bought some time back, and all those synthetic nylon size 5 brushes bought as a set of 0, 1, 3, 5. Color scheme idea was based off the picture on this website: http://prehistoricsillustrated.com/pg_jtu_19.html Done with umpteen layers of washes for shading and more umpteen colors for drybrushed highlights using mixes of brown, orange, red, yellow, black and white. Apologies for photo quality, taken at work, so lighting's poor and lots of photoshopped color correction and busy background removal had to be involved. The blue I is a rough guess as to how high the Tamiya human figure would stand compared to the brachiosaurus. I forgot to include him for scale comparison. Covered by the black board in the background is a normal-sized CRT computer monitor... That dino is BIG. Detail shots: Plus the baby brachio: I need to go get my hands on a Reaper T-Rex or two some day soon...

One way of getting around this would be to use general broad themes. Something armored. Something elven. Something mounted. Something reptilian. Something monstrous. Etc. Keep it broad enough and you could even paint CAV to the theme, just change the color scheme and the freehand deco.

Sacrilegious of me, but I've been known to use pins to dot the eyes. Noticeboard pins or the point of a compass to pick up black paint that's only slightly diluted from the pot. Trick is to touch it very lightly to the mini so you don't scratch off any layers of paint or primer. Depending on how the humidity is, you might have to mix in some flow improver/extender so that it doesn't dry immediately on the pin tip.

Hey Haldir, I see you’re having an almost similar experience to mine. Made a cleric too, and generally got beaten up by everything in the dungeon while missing. Made a warforged barbarian and was amazed by the difference. DDO seems to stress class differences and team roles more strongly than CoX, rogues pick locks and disable traps, clerics heal/buff/fight in pretty much that order, fighters bash stuff up/tank, mages cc/do damage, etc. I’m stubborn though, so I persisted with the cleric. Pretty much ‘leeched’ my way through the first two levels with a team, doing waterworks, etc, and served as a healbot. At lvl 3, I made some very important discoveries. As you get higher in level, clerics get buffer, they’re not so pathetic as the level 1 guys. Your spellpoint reservoir increases to the point that you don’t have to ration spells as meagrely, heals become significantly stronger, your buff duration times go up – which makes buffing more important, and by finding/buying good armour and weapons, you’re sturdier with better AC, have a shield to block with, and can do passable damage. I was able to solo quests a level or two lower than me. Turn undead does evil things to undead significantly lower level than you. And the magic spell for turning you into a fighting machine = divine favor. I found myself missing much less often and doing greater damage with that self-buff. It’s now permanently enshrined into my spell repetoire. Once your level 2 spells open up, bull’s strength is good too = +4 str. Made my 14 str jump to 18, which was very nice. And I hear there’s divine power later on which is even better. In a team where you are the highest level, doing an even-level or lower-level mission, a cleric can seriously pour the hurt on, buff the whole party and generally feel godlike. I amazed myself by ending up with higher kills than the fighters. And no, no one died, so I wasn’t ignoring the ‘defending’ part of the equation. In a team where everyone and the mission is significantly higher level than you, though, and you’re back to an EQ priest role. Stay in the back, bodyguard the ranged attackers at best, and heal your lil heart out. Most teams are somewhere in between the two extremes. I’m normally up front smashing stuff up with the fighters until someone takes bad damage, then I fall back to spam heal him back to normal, and then head up to the frontline again. Or I end up rescuing the rangers, rogues and spellcasters (who always seem to draw heaps of aggro) by beating in the heads of whatever goblinoid decided to go after them. If you find yourself wanting to do the most damage or get the most kills, a cleric won’t really suit your playstyle. Fighter-types appear to be the scrappers of DDO, while mages and sorcerors seem like the blasters. But things get better for the cleric as one rises in levels.

Missed this thread until now. I'm one of those who got sucked up by an MMO and have yet to lose interest. CoH/CoV is fun for me because of no phat lewt, just the excitement of a good fight and great team combat effects. And you can always put it down and play another day if you get too busy. My global is @Lycaeus, and my primary server is Freedom. Have alts all over the various servers, but probably won't have time to branch out and play them regularly. If any of you need an influence or infamy hit on Freedom, just contact me, have one char max'ed out on either side. I'll see if I find the Reaper peeps on Virtue this weekend, have a ninja mm Master Sing Song in the pre-teen levels.

That's gorgeous. Thanks heaps for the WIP thread and appreciate all the phototaking work. Your painted dragon makes a darned good advertisement for Kyra and Lavarath, starting to feel the "it must be mine!" sensation itching. Good choice of ref pic and color scheme, and I agree, the horns look good.

Ok, I admit this is a bit of a teaser, since I'm not sure if you can find the product in your own countries. Here in bright, balmy and currently WET Singapore, there's a huge store that sells all kinds of stuff at 2 dollars each - called Daiso, it imports it all from Japan. Should you wander through similar stores, check out your gardening section and see if you can find something that looks like the photo below, a somewhat smaller-than-volleyball-sized bunch of artificial plants. The Japanese make and export the craziest things...From the picture on the label, you're evidently supposed to just put it in a pot and have it look decorative. The moment I saw it, I thought JUNGLE!!! Probably could clip off bits of it or something. Got home to investigate my spoils, and it didn't even need cutting, you could pull clumps off. The leafy bits are attached to a round plastic base which needs a bit of artful camouflage (you can see one not well-hidden in the pic below). They're a little tall, one stand reaches up to a 28mm fig, so it's better suited to squad-type sci-fi wargames when you can explain away not-to-scale stuff as "alien foliage." But I've never seen anything that made my table look so good for so little effort before. Had to share.

Wow, the paintjob is beyond my ability to comment on. I can only drool at the cleanness and try to aim to emulate it. That hair on the ogre's legs and feet amazes me, how is that done?

That patina on the armor is brilliant. Very nice indeed. Overall the model looks great, and I especially like the color of the weapon, highlights the eastern theme and fits the fluff. The only single bit of constructive criticism I can think of - if I think really hard to find something to nitpick - is that his front is one solid block of armor color (albeit, very nice armor). Using his belt to add some color contrast might make him really pop from the front. His back is great. Sweet paintjob all the same. :)

All your ideas are doable. First idea is good. Fast, simple, and you'll always be able to figure out what colour each demon is quickly. Your second idea is imo, the best for a novice. It'll challenge you enough to paint distinct colors neatly on the figs - be it chest armor or demon skin or marking tattoos, etc. It's not as ambitious as you might think. Third idea is most work, most ambitious, but is quite interesting actually. The subtle effect would be nice to look at, but very hard to get right and you will run the risk of mucking up a good paint job if your wash/dip is not thin enough. I would definitely NOT use cheap hobby paints for doing something like this, the pigment size is prolly too big and grainy to look good. I'm thinking thinning artist's inks or even GW inks for this type of clear glaze. You'd want a subtle colouring effect, but not like you threw coloured sand all over the mini and hoped for the best.

Hot dang! Chose a good day to go visit reaper forums to see new stuff. *Shiney object syndrome increasing* Such a drooly dragon is a muuusst-have. Now if only I could justify it by dragging myself off the computer and back to the painting desk. Darn addictive games. Must schedule some painting time asap.

Well done! Congrats on being the first of us to actually finish the cotton swab challenge too! I really like the pen idea you invented with the q-tip, very innovative. It's something I might borrow and try out to get mine done too. And the mini looks good, given the tools.

Whoo, cool. You finished! Mine is still sitting on the paint desk with only two colors applied. Durn cotton swabs DRINK paint, I've found. And I have been sooooo distracted by the onslaught of computer games released this season. Battlefield 2, City of Villains, Indigo Prophecy, Dawn of War: Winter Assault, Dragonshard, you name it, I've been trying to play it. Must finish a few, then start painting minis again.

That was HILARIOUS. With a capitals H and A, for HA HA HA! I'm never going to look at LOTR the same way again. I loved the 'uh oh, I aggro'ed' 'u fuking noob!' bits. And I understood every word, even if I don't play WoW. Too much City of Heroes and Guild Wars and First Person Shooters. Call me strange, but I can read leetspeak, even if I choose not to speak it.

Basic Photoshop Tutorial Found this online, it explains cutting and pasting, and some basic tools. Only problem is, the pictures seem to be missing. One thing in Photoshop is that after you have the basics down, you may like to pick up some keyboard short-cuts. Those become very handy for doing things. As mentioned above, Select All = CTRL-A Copy = CTRL-C Paste = CTRL-V Moving layers - I think it was hold down CTRL and left mouse button and move it around. (Hard to remember without actually trying it out.) To save something as not a PSD, remember to Flatten Image under Layers, before saving. Or Save For Web. Edit: Here's better tutorials with pics. A bit long to work through, but spending some time going through them will really improve your knowledge. Just like mini painting, practice makes perfect. And PS is fun because there's a billion free tutorials online. Follow the steps to get a result, then experiment on your own = Learn PS Fast! Another Photoshop Tutorial Even More Photoshop Tutorials

You might be able to adapt this technique to jade. Lazlo on Painting Marble

Both versions are stunning and to die for. If you ask me, if you have two painted versions, show off both. Different people may like and be attracted to different color schemes. I actually prefer the red one. Part of it could be because the red is in a more dramatic angle shot, while the blue one is viewed from further off and side-views. (Those pics are good to demonstrate what the complete mini looks like though.) The focal point of the blue, imo, is now the dino. The rider sort of blends in more, and the sword isn't quite visible at first glance. It IS a very cool dino though, so that may be your goal. The red has more of a focal point on the red rider as a character, while the very well-painted dino is an accompaniment. Again, depends on what you're aiming for.

We has not tried it out personally, no, but we is very happy to hear that Kit has squashes them nasty global file thingie dead. They is better dead...only fishes and rabbitses is juicy sweet when raw. Show-Off lookses much better now, with no extra clickies and pics coming up just like old forum home. Thank you, Kit! You rules. Here, have a nice juicy fish to celebrate. P.S. And no, I haven't watched LOTR lately... Hrm, mebbe that's the problem. Off to find time to DVD marathon and exorcise Gollum.

It's fantasy, me precious. Orcses and Ogreses and other such humanoidses can be any color you want 'em to be. Gollum! Pale white, grey, orange, brown, black, purple, red, blue... Even lime-green. Yesssss. We takes no responsibility for your opponents laughing at yours pink Revens though. Seriously though, go for it. Looks good. That's a skin tone I'd personally love to achieve on sea-elven characters, but if there be 'black orcs' that are dark green, nothing stopping paler green ogres either.

Had a quick look at it. Looks great. I like the simple design = fast load times. Fancy flash looks cool, but does not make a site easy to refer back to. The article titles in the tutorial section are making me drool, they look very informative (I liked the primer one as you covered the 'newer' techniques of zenith priming, and mentioned directional lightsourcing - one of those 'seems obvious but never thought about doing it that way until someone points it out') Greatly look forward to when you get all of them tutorials posted. The "go with the flow" title for the terrain sounds especially fascinating.