MamaGeek

I was home sick with a cold, so I finished up the diorama. I plan to do tweaks, nitpicks, etc., so have at it, tell me what needs fixing. I'd like to add a railing to the top of the stair landing, but I don't know what to make it out of that I have at hand. I'm entering this in a show on Saturday, along with several other pieces, including St. Patrick, which I also need to finish this week, so I don't have a lot of time. Here's what all the symbols mean: Door Number: 9413: "九死一生" (gau2 sei2 yat1 saang1 in Cantonese) – nine die to one live, meaning 90% chance of being dead and only 10% chance of being alive, or survived from such situations (a narrow escape). Wall Art: Literally: the Changjiang River waves behind drive the waves ahead. Meaning: Each new generation excels the last one. Graffiti: River Crab - internet slang for censorship Text - "Inharmonious" Book Cover: Falun Dafa emblem - symbol of the banned Chinese religion Falun Gong

OK, so I replaced the too-big rat with a pile of newspapers, a bucket, and a couple crumpled pieces of paper. You can see my oops! on the wall there. Plus I fixed the stairs, and need to repaint them. I plan to add some graffiti to the walls in the alleyway as well. Closeup: And here are the kids:

Great fix, Derek! Nicely done!

Very nice reds, and awesome pile of coins!

Not bad! They have a nice, consistent look,and the basework is very convincing as a marshy terrain.

Thanks for all the ideas! Just wanted to drop a quick note to say I've been super busy and probably won't work on this again until the weekend, at least.

I worked on the OSL some more, and the police are attached now. The door, doorknob, and hinges are painted as well. I need to add an apartment number somewhere, I think. And I'm still not thrilled with that rat. I think I will take him off. I just need to figure out what to put in its place. Here's what I have in my bits box: closed book, empty wooden bucket, wooden barrel, long-handled shovel, chicken (to scale), coiled rope. I am not very good at sculpting, but I could probably manage some trash. Any ideas?

Thanks! A welcome mat is a great idea! And the gun was converted to a knife, because guns are illegal in China. I just realized I forgot to paint the flowers on the back of the dress. Oops! I'll have to fix that...

Beautiful, beautiful babies! Children are such treasures! I love to see all these photos!

Very good work. The blues are especially good, both on the figure, and on the base. I love the basing in general. The sword is nicely done, too, although the line down the middle is a little shaky. (You probably can't see it in real life, I would bet.) Well done!

Here's the Mom. I'll probably touch her up here and there, but she's pretty much done. Painting the hair was really fun!

I look forward to seeing them whenever you're ready!

Lovely work, very clean and smooth. The NMM on the sword is perfect. Well done!

Very cool!

Following some advice from Andy Pieper (Talespinner), I added more yellow to the lamp light. I think it helps the OSL. I also added more black to the shadows, and painted a white light coming from the open door. Next, I took off the walls and painted the carpet inside, with an oriental rug design I found somewhere. This is the first time I ever tried painting a fabric texture. How did it turn out? The family and apartment interior will all be painted with a very warm palette, leaving the outside cold.

Actually, I paint light to dark on everything, and not just from white, but from the lightest shade I intend to use on an area.

Nice work, especially on the gemstone and the cloak lining (interior). You have a good handle on blending, which is a difficult thing to master, and requires a lot of practice. Good job! For your next mini, I suggest you do more of what you did with the lining, using a different color to shade, not just a darker version of your base coat. Be bold, and do it all over. You may surprise yourself!

White pigment has the largest particulate size, has the highest coverage of any pigment, and is also the heaviest pigment. These qualities mean that there is a fine line between thinning enough to gain the translucent quality needed to glaze, and going too far--essentially "breaking" the paint by adding too much water. Rule of thumb is that a color must be thinned more to layer well the closer it gets to pure white, but be cautious. Also, thin with water, not flow improver. Though flow improver helps up to a certain point, adding extra does actually start to work against you when your paint becomes very watery. You may see the midtone or highlight from the Cold Greys return (or something close, perhaps as an HD), but the triad sold much more poorly than the warm Stone Greys and neutral Greys so we are not planning to bring it back. --Anne If I may chime in here, one way to avoid the problem of white is to base coat with your highest highlight, then shade down. You should then only need to touch-up the white, instead of trying to achieve coverage. Back to you, Anne!

Bones do not require primer. I have painted several now, and have not primed any of them. In place of primer, they require a good washing with dishwashing liquid, to remove any oils on the surface. After that, avoid touching them (I sticky tack them onto an old pill bottle for handling), so that you don't get oils from your hands on the surface. Your first paint coat should also be straight from the bottle (not thinned). If you do all tht, you don't need primer for Bones.

Truly phenomenal work, Andy! He looks so real, and like Corperea said, the expression is perfect! You are such a great sculptor!

Good speed painting, though it's probably worth the extra time to do the eyes.

Oh, I can't take credit for the idea to base coat with the lightest highlight. I learned that from Aaron Lovejoy's incredible blending tutorial: http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=32050&hl=blending+tutorial

Sure! When I speed-paint, I start by base-coating the entire mini. I use the highest highlight color of each section for this step. Then I shade the entire mini quickly with very thin navy blue. Next I shade each section with a semi-dark midtone. For the sleeves I used hunter green. For the leather and pants I used brown liner. For the cloak, black. If the area needs blending, I'll use a midtone for that. On this figure, that was really just the cloak, where I wet-blended layers of gray and black until it looked pretty good. Then I added a spot of gry to the armor studs and painted the swords. The skin and eyes were last, and I painted them how I usually do, just stopping when they looked decent, instead of working on them until they were really good (good for me).

Cool, thanks!

Ahhhh! Thank you! Now I know where to look next time! I appreciate the tip!