Painfully

I've done up to five at the same time, but I never do armies. I do it mostly to reuse the same paint I've just mixed, although I just as often end up mixing some more of the same color because it starts to dry on the palette. I could never paint an army of figs. It seems much more tedious than fun to me to do things in repetition like that. The folks that paint GOOD Warhammer figs must have A LOT of time on their hands, and the ones that paint OKAY armies often look "sloppy" to me up close. I notice a lot more drybrushing from the people that paint armies, and the look of it has never appealed to me.

I'll try my hand at this. I've got my digital camera at the ready, and the mini at my side. I got a really good cast, with minimal mold lines--one of the best I've ever picked up actually. So, anything bad about this one will be all me...I dunno if that's a good thing or not yet. Things can be really confusing when I don't have anything else to blame. Anyway, let me get out my imitation eagle feather headdress, and do the "low humidity so I can spray prime my figures" dance, and I'll be right with you guys. Chicago weather has been terribly muggy lately.

Well, I'm glad somebody has learned from New Wave how NOT to treat customers. With the several positive comments, I will certainly be willing to give the CMON shop a try in the future. I do think it is worth commenting to them that any affiliation with New Wave is to be HIGHLY discouraged. In fact, I'd say it's dragging down their sales even as I post this, because I KNOW I would continue avoiding them if it weren't for reading this thread. New Wave is absolutely the worst.

My experience with Michigan Toy Soldier is that they frequently have their Hudson & Allen items on backorder. Don't expect everything on their website to be in stock. Fantization also sold their Hudson & Allen items very quickly, and have had to back order almost immediately after they first offered them. ... Isn't CMON affiliated with New Wave? I don't mean to derail the thread, but ILL NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM NEW WAVE AGAIN IN THIS OR ANY OTHER LIFETIME! Okay, I feel better now. I have nothing against CMON itself, but if New Wave has anything to do with it, I'd sooner send them dog poop than money. **the rest of this post has been censored for foul, hate-filled language that would make a sailor cry for his mommy. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread**

If anybody has seen the Hasslefree mini of the female paladin with her hands in prayer, I thought that was a very different, and very cool pose. So, Reaper should do a classic pose of a full armored knight, helmet tucked under one arm, and kneeling as though to receive a knighthood from a priest. It's a classic pose, and deserves to be done well. ---------- I'd also like to see a wizard with a flaming ball in their hand, vs the boring crystal ball that just gets stared at, or looks out of place. Maybe people can sculpt flames easily, but sculpting flames is not something I want to spend my time on when I could be painting. Plus, the poses desirable for a wizard with a fireball are much different than the old men who are trying to look wise and knowledgeable. ---------- I'd like to see some variation to the body types of warriors. Big, barrel-chested warriors that don't have to look like body builders, and women that actually look STRONG, instead of pretending to be barbie dolls that carry swords. ---------- I know I've asked for this before, but...I still need some swamp creatures. Crocodiles or some crocodile-like creatures would be cool. Gimme big, nasty, pointy teeth! ---------- I'd like to see a stag with many pointy tips on his horns. It might be a bit more complex than is feasable to cast, but I know if it can be done, the Reaper folks will find a way! Head piece detachable, so I could make him into a wall plaque as an option too. The stag is also an impotant figure in "the hunt" from mythology, although I cannot recall which one right this moment, and now my brain is itching.

Has anyone used paints from Cartoon Color Company, Inc.? I'm curious enough to try out the Cel-Vinyl colors, and wanted to see if anybody else has experience with the brand. I recall people mentioning them in passing from time to time, but not with any frequency. Do they thin well enough to become transparent? Do they mix with other brands at all? They sound similar to VMC due to the vinyl-acrylic base. They speak of high chroma, and come in a huge line of tints, radiants, and grays of each color. Any info the folks here can add would be greatly appreciated.

Every serious miniatures painter should pick up a W&N 7, and THEN decide if their old brushes are worth anything. If you want to save a few bucks, Vallejo offers a very nice set of brushes. Another brand is Kalish--excellent kolinsky brushes, and I believe the Reaper brushes are made by them as well. You won't hear too many serious artist's clamoring for GW brushes anytime in the near (or probably far) future. But, as far as brushes go, there are many who sing the praises of the W&N 7. Don't take my word for it. The best way to choose is to try one of each, and then decide for yourself what kind of brushes you want caressing your figs. Artists are a finicky bunch. So, the best answer is always to use whatever brush you are most comfortable with. However, of those artists that have picked up a W&N 7, few go back to anything else.

Remember all those cartoons when you were a kid, and a character had a moral dilema? Who would come to the rescue but a little devil guy with a pitchfork, and a little angel guy with a halo to help sort out the issues. I don't know if they'd sell very well, but it sure would add drama to the "little voices" when my paladin is in a tough spot.

The luster of Vallejo's alcohol-based metallics is much brighter IMO than anything I've ever seen from any brand in acrylic. The super gold, and super silver go on incredibly smooth and bright. Remember to shake those bottles!

After a visit to Hobby Lobby, and another hobby store, I discovered that my local game store overprices their dullcote, as well as their superglue. Be sure to shop around and compare prices! Dullcote is $2.68 per spray can at my Hobby Lobby, and $3.29 at my LGS.

I'm not usually a big fan of figs from specific characters in movies and such, but I really like the kung-fu pose displayed early in The Matrix when they slow down the first fight scene. Of course, it's 10x cooler when a chick in black leather does it, than when the Karate Kid did it. I vote for that pose on the next monk chick! Please, please, please!

I use Master's brush soap. It comes in a small, round, reclosable dish just a little smaller in diameter than a CD. Just get your brush wet and swish around in the soap for a bit. Rinse, and repeat until it doesn't leave any traces of paint, and you see no paint at the ferule. As you're swishing in the soap, some of it will build up around the edges of the ferule, and will gradually weaken/loosen the paint there--just keep swishing and rinsing until it's gone. All my good brushes have stayed in tip-top shape, with my first W&N series 7 still in great shape after more than eight months now. I don't always clean my brush everyday with soap, but certainly at least once a week. If you get a W&N series 7 brush and take good care of it, you will almost certainly notice that it outlasts brushes of any other kind. There isn't much more to it as far as cleaning brushes goes, except maybe try not to get paint into the ferrule in the first place (which is impossible to do for smaller brushes IMO).

That jade looks great! The look I'm after is a transparent glass. Think glass figurines, or a crystal ball. It is often both refracting, and reflecting images at the same time in real life, but needs to be simulated in the figure painting as generically as possible. I'm not trying to create the effect on just one small portion fo the fig, but rather, I want the entire fig to appear as glass from head to toe. The process might be very similar to NMM, or painting jewels, but I'm trying to give it a more translucent appearance. The jade in the pic above, for example, would be much too dark, but the jeweled appearance of it is fantastic otherwise. My thoughts are that I should paint the mini in white primer first. Then apply a highly tinted, soft white/grey/blue base layer as the "transparent" base layer. Then, assuming a prism-like effect of colors, run very thin, highly tinted, barely noticeable washes of iridescent violet, red, and yellow along various areas. Then apply high gloss varnish, and then examine the result to see what direction I should try on the next mini.

I suppose if it were possible I would have seen somebody do it by now. I'm wondering if anyone has seen or attempted to paint a pewter fig in such a way as to represent glass. I've considered the possibility of a chrome effect, by painting the fig black (and maybe white as a separate experiment), then chrome, then using a high gloss varnish, but I'm not sure that's the effect I'm after. Still, there has to be SOMETHING put on the fig to help it look flat, and near seamless (i.e., no shadows, no blacklining, very little contrast). I'm thinking it might come down to mostly the finish I use, but it's all guesswork until I get something put together. So, before I begin to line up the poor victims for my great "glass experiment" I'm looking for any input from the minds here on the Reaper boards. Remember, only YOU can save me from punishing my virgin pewter figs! I'm determined to do this. If nothing else, I'll start to see what other effects I can put together.

Has anyone tried Golden fluid acrylics? They come in 1oz. flip-top bottles, and have some interference colors I'd like to try out. I know I use some of their textures for basing already, but I haven't played with their paints yet. Any comments on other products from Golden?

But are you certified? Cause, you know, some of us have cool certificates from large state institutions.

I think eyes are a real milestone for newbies, since it takes a certain amount of brush control, and an ability to get the paint where it needs to be. But even more useful is letting newbies know they can paint the eyes before the rest of the mini.

I'm just curious. In all the many times I've read about paint stripping, why is it nobody mentions paint removing solvent--the same kind you might use to clean brushes??

HA! You assume they actually answer their phone!

Yes.

I paint in silence. Well, sometimes I have a clock radio, but then the first commercial comes along, and *CLICK*. Yep, silence. Well, that, and the little voice in my head. When I am on my computer I prefer a little bit of energy, but nothing quite like metal. I listen to Groove Radio. I've enjoyed a collection called Buddah Bar, for a more international/dance/mellow sound. Some of it is really so-so, but others are a real gem. Artists vary, so if you find one you like in the collection, you can always go looking for more of that artists particular work. There's a real funny track called Showroom Dummies that I like, but it isn't typical of the rest of the CD. A friend of mine is into "funk" music. A bit more 70's'ish. He likes WeFunk Radio. Apparently, they play some newer songs with the same kind of "funk" flavor he likes. Once in a while I like to check it out.

Um. Stay away from New Wave if you order online. They are notorious for taking payment up front for minis you will be lucky to see for months due to backorders. Their customer service is terrible. They are affiliated with CMON, and advertise a lot there, but don't be fooled. If you start a thread on CMON you will be sure to get a lot of comments about New Wave, but chances are it might be deleted if one of the admins there see it. I could go on and on about how I was ready to buy an airline ticket so I could personally go find one of "them" in person and do terrible things to "them," but that might suggest I'm not a respectable citizen. Seriously, you've been warned. There. I've done my good deed for the day. P.S. Where's the halo'd angel smilie? I've been a good boy, honest!

Somebody I know has bought two cases of the newest release from WotC, and he is still something like 6 figures short of the full collection (all rares of course). I wonder how many more he will buy before he actually gets those last six?

W&N series 7 brushes are on the expensive side. You shouldn't expect to find them in a hobby store. You'll find them in a good art store, or may have to go online. If you visit an art store be sure to ask a sales clerk for them, as even at my large, big city art store the W&N brushes are kept in a locked cabinet, and away from the other brushes! Apparently the other brushes are not worthy of touching the great W&N series 7 brushes. Reaper and Vallejo brushes might be more available at good hobby stores that sell a lot of paints and figures. With the exception of Reaper and Vallejo, I would avoid hobby store brushes in general.

You might be able to find, "NOX." It is a very D&D'ish game not unlike Diablo. It will likely be in the bargain bin section, or you will have to find it online. Hmmm. In fact, I might have to throw that on my computer now just for a change of pace from the first-person shooter games I usually play.