Gailbraithe

That first barbarian is one of my favorite miniatures. He's so damn big! In addition to the suggestions above, you might consider trying a "magic dip." Something like Army Painter's Quickshade Strong tone is extremely easy to use (you literally just dip the miniature in the jar and then shake it off for a few seconds and let dry), and would go a long ways towards bringing out the detail in the miniatures.

I'm not sure I like that axe with the rest of the mini, I think the contrast between the two is a little overwhelming...but goddamn do I love that axe. That looks like its a +5 weapon at least. And sets you on fire. Or just plain explodes you on a critical hit. The elf is nice too, really like the eyes, but I think you went a little overboard on shading the face. Those cheekbones are so prominent its less "I'm an elf" than "I need a sammich."

I bought a bottle about three months ago and have only made limited use of it. I last used it a day ago and noticed that the liquid was drying out. I suspect most of the bottle will go to waste, which is a shame, but someone who made more use of it than I do might find they use the whole thing before it becomes too dry to be of use. I don't use it as a substitute for glue, but I have found that it is really excellent -- way better than actual green stuff -- for filling in small gaps and creating smooth transitions between conversion parts. Most recently i used it on my Fairy to make the connection of the wings to the torso look more natural. Since the wings were right on the borderline of what I consider too small to pin I only used glue to hold them in. I'm hoping the liquid green stuff will increase the lifetime of the glue bond. Being able to apply it with a brush makes it a huge improvement over greenstuff, and it can easily be smoothed out with a wet brush. I've also used it to paint squad markings on some Space Marine shoulder pads and to add hair to a bald miniature. It has a lot of potential for doing quick modifications to footsoldier models that you want to have some differentiation on -- you can add a mustache to anyone, in any style! In like one brush stroke!

I've used foamcore to make several buildings. To get some texture on the paper I usually just use a brush-on white gesso, the same stuff used to prepare canvas for painting. Sealing the edges with PVA glue also works really well, especially if you have exposed edges. Those textured paints have even higher concentrations of thinners than the regular spray paints and are consquently murder on foam. Design Masters is way too expensive (and comes in too limited a range of colors) to justify using it on foamcore, not when you can just use a little bit of PVA glue.

I would really like to see some ElfQuest style Wild Elves. That is elves with barbarian hairstyles (long hair, top-knots, braids) in rough leathers, decorated with feathers and pelts. Carrying crude spears, axes and the occassional troll-forged sword. They should be uniformly thin and lithe, with big pointy ears. The Wood Elves Reaper is already making are very nice, but they are still too civilized for my tastes. I want some Elves that have truly gone native and rejected civilization entirely. Savage, primiative elves. I would also like to see some Slaves. Not sexy slavegirls, but some poor schlubs doing back breaking labor (or taking a brief respite from said labors). A three pack with two males and a female in tattered garmets with rope belts and no shoes would be perfect. Far too often I find myself running adventures were the PCs have to free a bunch of slaves, and the only minis I have that come close to fitting the bill is Dennis Mize's old Slave Auction girls, which are fun and all, but I'd like some slaves that are actually wearing clothes. Something where I could buy six or seven packs to fill up a slave pen would be awesome.

It beats the heck out of Warhammer. It took me about a year (and $300) to collect and paint one 1500 point army of Space Marines, and the rules are too complicated for most of my friends. I can put together a warband for Song of Blood and Heroes in a week or so and the rules are simple enough to teach someone with one demo game. You should post pics of your son's lizardmen!

I've been surviving Seattle's Snowpacolypse by staying inside and painting stuff. First on my list is my Battle Nuns, which I wanted to finish for my Song of Blades and Heroes warband. I had originally painted three of the four in blue, but I wanted all four in traditional nun black and white. I am really unhappy with how the golds came out - I've been using Vallejo's metallics, and I just don't like them. They don't go on smoothly and tend to become clumpy, which is murder on small details (like these nuns shirt buckles). So I ordered new pots of Reaper's antique and new gold, since I know those work better. But its too late for these gals. When I ordered the new gold paints, I also picked up a bunch of Vale Warriors and Vale Archers for an elf warband I'm putting together for a friend. Those haven't arrived yet, but today I was in my FLGS and decided to pick up a Fairy to add some mystical power to the warband and I spent the whole evening painting her up. Something went horribly wrong with both the superglue I used to fix her wings on -- it ran down her chest and across her thigh and picked up some dust or something and ruined some of the fine details. Then my can of white primer decided to be evil (too cold maybe) and went on all weird, making it hard to get smooth coats on her. The first couple of layers on the wings in particular cracked a lot. So this didn't come out nearly as nice as I hoped, but for all the disasters I think she came out alright. I clearly need a better lighting set-up. I have a light box somewhere, but I moved twice in the last six months and it seems to have been misplaced. :( I had a heck of a time getting the camera to focus (the nuns in particular were problematic), so sorry for the poor picture quality. I tried to correct the best I could in post, but nothing fixes poor focus. :(

I love the white face. I've been meaning to get around to painting mine for awhile now, and now I am inspired!

I agree with stubbdog, a layer of highlights would really make it pop -- especially on the armor, which is a little too dark to see the details (might just be the photograph). That base is just about the sickest thing I've ever seen though. That's just amazing. ::thumbs up::

My initial reaction tot he shield was "Oh, that's going to be such a pain in the *** to paint." But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that painting each individual element on it would just make it look hideously busy, so I just did a coat of MSP Antique Gold, a wash of P3 Armor Wash, and the highlight of MSP New Gold. It came out looking really nice. Thanks for all the comments.

I don't think I've ever posted any photos of my Reaper miniatures here before and I think its time I change that. Sadly, most of my Reaper minis were bought for gaming and not painting, so the paint jobs are often rushed and not to a quality level I would want to share. Also I started with Reaper minis and so a lot of my reaper stuff is quite old and doesn't reflect all of the tricks and techniques I've learned in the last five years since I started collecting and painting again. But every once in awhile I get to sit down and paint something to my highest level of quality, and I thought I'd share a few of those. First up is the Radiant Angel. I picked her up after I got a copy of the game Song of Blades And Heroes. SBH is a fantasy skirmish game that can be used with any fantasy models, and I decided to make a warband out of Battle Sisters and Warrior Nuns (some of the very first Reaper mini I ever bought!). I had to strip the old nuns and repaint them and they're sitting primed on my desk, but first I decided they needed a champion to lead them. The Radiant Angel had just been released so I picked her up and painted her first. I think she came out well. Here's a fellow that might get added to the warband: Almaran the Gold, Paladin With Flaming Sword. His armor is done in blackened steel with shadowed steel highlights. This is one of my favorite combinations and part of why I use Reaper's master series paints almost exclusively. But not entirely exclusively: the blue pendants are done with P3 Cygnar Blue Base and P3 Cygnar Blue Highlight. The flesh tones are Reaper's Pale flesh tones, so they don't show up well on camera, but I like how they give the character a nice bishounen look, contrasting the heavy wargear and flaming sword with an angelic face. Definitely my favorite paladin mini of all time. I can't find this character's name in the catalog, but I'm certain she's a Reaper mini from the base. I really love this figure and painted her up about four years ago. At the time she was my best paint job ever, and she stands up to the test of time. You can see some slight wear and tear on the model - over the years many players in my campaign have been inspired to create characters based on this model. This is Reaper's Jack Harrison doing an admirable impression of Indiana Jones. I decided to do a small collection of famous characters dioramas set on 50mm round bases and this is the first one I completed. I've also finished a Buffy the Vampire Slayer model (using the Sophie model from Hasslefree and a grave stone from Reaper's Lola Darkstep model) and I'm working on a Sherlock Holmes and Watson model, just need to paint Sherlock. This is a carrion grub. It is not a carrion crawler. Carrion crawlers are way less scary looking. This particular grub is painted primarily with P3 Carnal Pink. Which only makes him creepier.

This is my first post. I have over 300 Reaper points! Here's a bunch of figures I'd like to see, none of which are available anywhere (AFAIK, and I do quite a bit of looking). The first figure I'd like to see, for my PC, is: Finari, Crusader Hero mounted on a warhorse with heavy barding. Preferably rearing to attack, with Finari swinging at something next to the horse, giving the sense they are surrounded. Reaper has released some really great underwater figures, almost enough to really do a proper underwater adventure. Almost. I'd really like to see more in this line, and assuming normal Reaper prices I'd buy: A 3 pack of "Darfallen" barbarians (re: Stormwrack), call them Dolphinoids. Trick them out like the Aquatic Elves. A 3 pack of Locathah (carp-like fishmen) barbarians. These guys should also be tricked out with gear like the Aquatic elves, but they should be knock-kneed and goofy looking. Even 1st level PCs need enemies! (I'd buy 2 packs) A 2 pack with a Locathah leader and wizard/cleric type. A 2 pack of savage Crab or Lobster people, a little oversized compared to humans, but still in the medium range. (I'd buy 4 packs) A large/huge shark mounted like the gorgoloth. Something sleek, like a tiger shark, not necessarily the bull-nosed great white that we're all too familiar with. The small shark in the aquatic familiars pack was excellent, now make him big enough to swallow a PC! 2 pack of medium sized sharks, maybe a hammerhead. (I'd buy 4 packs) A medium-large octopus. A large crab. 3 pack of drowned (i.e. slightly bloated, maybe their gear/clothes is "floating") pirate zombies. Maybe one has been keel-hauled, and is wrapped in chains with an anchor trailing. (I'd buy 2 packs) For more general purpose adventuring I'd like: A medium-large sized animal skeleton, like a bear or lion, about the size of the grizzly bear (the one the dwarf chick is riding). Adventures are always calling for some medium/large animal skeleton and I never have a mini. Most recently it was an owlbear, but I'd settle for something that had four legs and looked like it killed things when it was alive. 3 pack of human slaves, with tools in their hands and shackles on their ankles. And not sexy klockenbooty slaves either (I know what you were thinking!). Think "I'll send you to the salt mines!" 2 pack of evil humans with whips and clubs to tend the slaves. Something along the lines of the bad guys in Temple of Doom just screams "I'm a 1st level warrior slaver! Kill me!" 3 pack of townfolk, call it the Welcoming Committee: 1) a friendly merchant making supplicating gestures, 2) a suspicious middle-aged townie with his hands on his hips and his nose turned up, and 3) a gangly callow youth with ill-fighting chain shirt, a sheathed sword that drags on the ground, and and awkward but eager pose that says "Can I tag along Mr. Adventurer?" 3 pack of townfolk, call it Bar Fight: three unarmored humans, peasant garb with broken bottles, stools, and bare fists. I'd buy a LOT of these, just like I bought a lot of the mobbing townfolk. 3 pack of townfolk, call it Desperate Defenders: three unarmored, peasant garb humans with modified farm implement weapons (pitchforks, bill hooks, etc.) in poses that suggest they are warding off some terrifying foe.