rubegon

Thanks for the great feedback @Al Capwn and @Sanael - it’s really helpful! I spend some time tonight laying on a lot more red and I think I managed to increase contrast somewhat, and shifted more area to a mid tone. Next step is to highlight with something lighter and add darker shadows. For reference, the colors I’ve used on the armor so far are: 09401 Dragon Red - basecoat 09426 Charred Brown - layering in shadows and edges/creases 09492 Heraldic Red - layering up highlights I think the brightest red I have is 29082 Brilliant Red and I have Clear Magenta - I don’t have Clear Red (just ordered it so should have it this weekend). I do have 09236 Black Green and 09237 Violet Shadow - that one is a deep, inky blue! I’m thinking to glaze the shadows down darker and purpler by adding that, and then layer up with the Brilliant Red and a pale yellow. I figure that will give me more brightness contrast, while also some color contrast with the hue shifting. Will that work? Colors I’ve used and considering (right front): Thanks again!

Thanks for the feedback! I don’t have any goals for this piece other than to use it to practice to improve my “design” and technical skills. By that I mean ability to have a good plan for a piece and then be able to execute it well, if that makes sense. Bigger picture, I do want to work towards making display quality pieces and eventually something good enough for competition. I also hope that as I improve, I’ll be able to quickly paint good tabletop quality minis. I don’t have as much time to paint as I’d like, and I want that time to count. It’s not so much about relaxing - I’m motivated by improving and seeing better results, so I do want to aggressively focus on building my skills. The B&W images are really helpful - thanks for that. I knew I needed to go back and highlight the armor more, but that makes it very clear. I’ll work on that next and see how it goes. As for the green, I felt good about how bright I went with the highlights - I just though I wasn’t focused enough with them on the back. The knots look messy. I want the lightest spots to be smaller, but just as bright. I need to think carefully about how to highlight the armor now. I think I’ll add apply some brighter red over largish areas, and then highlight by adding some pale yellow? EDIT: typo

I got this mini in the Mini Painting 101 class at ReaperCon. This was our first ReaperCon - my wife and I took the class together. I’d painted about a dozen minis (badly) for D&D before going to RC. I like this sculpt, and I wanted to work on improving my basic painting skills. I decided to keep working on her to see how far I can go. I’ve spent an embarrassingly large amount of time on her already. I do feel like I’m learning a lot though and getting better at controlling my brush and getting paint consistency right. I broke out one of the good brushes I had bought and not touched - a da Vinci Maestro. I still feel unworthy to use it but maybe it will help me get better. I’ve done a lot of work on the red armor already, but still need to do some more highlighting. I think I might have overdone the highlights on the green ropes in some places. I was planning to glaze them down and redo a bit smaller. Thanks for taking a look. I would greatly appreciate any feedback or tips on what I can improve on the parts I’ve worked on already. Here she is so far - she looks a lot better if you squint.

That sounds like a good class. I have a lot of big minis and I haven’t even thought about starting any of them except one (Demogorgon) where I’m following the “official” painting guide. I’ll try to get into your class next year if you teach it again.

I’ve been lurking this amazing WIP thread since I joined the forum after ReaperCon. I love that this started out as “something a bit basic” to paint and now a month later it’s this awesome necromantic diorama with a story, a crazy beautiful impressionistic color scheme, and a (2nd!) big dramatic OS lighting scheme. This grew as you were doing it right, or is this your idea of a basic fossil paint job? Thanks for sharing this WIP. It’s been fascinating to watch your process. It’s really awe inspiring to see how you make these huge bold decisions and then just do it, and then see a better way and just like that, redo it even better. I’d love to watch you work in real time. I think you mentioned that you teach a class, right? I don’t know if I’m good enough to benefit from it, but I want to take that class next year!

We ended up going to Torchy’s a few times. We go to the one near home in Houston regularly, and this one was just as good, except that the one in Denton has a full bar and very refreshing drinks. The 15% ReaperCon discount was a great deal sweetener. The sangria was excellent and very refreshing. Their patio was large and they allow dogs outside. That was nice because we were able to bring our puppy and feed her dinner while we ate rather than having to crate her in the hotel. For future reference, Torchy’s can tailor the items on their regular menu. Our kids always get simple steak or chicken tacos with only shredded cheese, and my wife gets the green chili pork without onions. The tuna taco taco I get isn't spicy, and the breakfast ones aren’t either. I think they can prepare non-spicy versions of most things on the menu.

That’s looking great @kristof65! I’ll look into these machines to see if they can do what I want. I see the new Silhouette can cut balsa, so that might work, and at $300 it’s not bad. I’m sure the kids and I would find many other uses for it (leather!). The immediate application I was thinking of is some custom storage pieces. I’ve got an awkward hobby station. It’s an antique secretary desk with a decent amount of space, but not configured optimally at all. It might make more sense for me to look into Ponoko for that instead though, and see if I can convince my wife to let me buy a resin 3D printer ...

Thanks for sharing your process. Do you use these as terrain for TTRGP? Youve got me curious about craft cutters now. I want something like that so I can design and build my own craft station if it can cut thin plywood. Did you cut that unicorn I see with it as well?

That roof looks fantastic! Can you explain how you made it a little? Is it strips of card with a zig zag edge laid down on the cardboard “decking” like shingles? How did you get the shingles cut so consistently? R

Hi Tapetum - thanks for picking such a great song! The kids love it and were really excited to get up there and sing along. That moment was probably the highlight of the whole Con for me.

Hi, Bryan - I think my kids and I karaoke’d Bo Rhap while mini painting with you at Reapercon! Here’s a still of the awesome air guitar battle with my boy (is there a way to embed inline?). My name is Ruben, btw. I started painting minis about 6 months ago, and dragged my wife, 2 kids, and our dog Penelope to Reapercon from Houston on a lark. I assumed they’d be looking for things to do in Denton while dad geeks out for a few days. Now they’re all hooked and we apparently know what we’re going to be doing for Labor Day for a while. :-) I just joined the forum after the Con, and may start posting some of my mediocre minis as a I try to get good enough to submit something I won’t be embarrassed of next year. This looks like an amazing community! I haven’t been active on forums in a long time, but this seems like a very welcoming and positive place I look forward to spending some time in. R

If you do figure it out, please reply back if you have a chance. Do you remember what you used on the hair?

I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Growtix has no connection with Embassy Suites. Growtix has a software system for managing conventions, and Reaper is one of the Con organizers that use it. Comicpalooza in Houston uses it too. When I look at my order history in growtix I see the last 2 Conicpaloozas and Reapercon 2019. It works a bit better for CP, but still has a pretty horrible UI. I think CP has an upgraded version of GrowTix with more features, because they have a dedicated app each year. My impression is that GrowTix works pretty well for organizers as far as planning and running the Con, but they don’t put much emphasis on the attendee experience. The organizers are their customers, so that isn’t too surprising. I don’t know if a better system is available. Maybe not, as this must be a pretty small niche. Or it might be cost prohibitive. I have to believe Comicon uses something better, but they might have their own system. For what it’s worth, if there is a better system available I’d happily pay more for a Reapercon pass if they change to it. I think an extra, say $10, per attendee would be money well spent if it addressed the issues because I’d get more out of the event. I spend a lot more to travel and stay, etc. This was our family’s first Reapercon, and we loved it! We’re definitely going back next year, but the GrowTix system definitely detracted from our experience for all the reasons others have covered very well. If anyone is tallying votes, count 4 for my family in the “please fix the GrowTix problem” column. I won’t be mad if they can’t though. I understand - software’s hard.

Wow! These look great! They look exactly like I’d imagine them. The skin and hair are perfect. I have a few deep gnomes I need to paint for an underdark campaign I’m DMing. Mine won’t look anywhere near this good, but I’m going going to use yours as a reference.

My kids were ribbon hunting like crazy and stole fire pit rocks to give you - that one in the lower right is one of them! I hope you’ll do this one again next year because they’re already talking about interesting rocks for 2020. My daughter will probably give you too because she feels a bit guilty that her rock wasn’t interesting enough. :-)