Painfully

Fair warning, the link in this post goes to a hunting site, and that means you might see some blood. But it isn't a gorefest. It's just a hunting site. Ever since I saw these, the idea of an ordinary bear just doesn't seem that ferocious.

I like to use those glass counters, like the ones from Chessex. But I found a stained glass store online that sells a much more interesting variety of them, and got me 3 different types. I love them! :)

Here's a good online source, and 10% off everything too. RPG_Shop

i use poster putty and screw tops from drink bottles. I sometimes use white glue and wide, tongue depressor-sized craft sticks too, which lets me hang them upside down in the corner of a cardboard box when I primer them. Almost anything works actually, as long as it is stable enough not to tip over, and doesn't let go of your mini while you are working with it.

They've been at my FLGS for many weeks now. I'm sure I saw them in the online store too. Look under paints, and then brushes. or look here.

Warrior thief: It looks like the weapon is added to the mini as a separate piece. Can figs be cast with their hands empty, and then weapons just superglued in place? I'm curious because it seems like you could make weapon conversion work a thing of the past if that's what you do in the greens stage of things anyway. I especially like the face on the warrior thief. It's much more expressive. He actually looks like he's putting some effort in his swing! His off-hand seems a little, "dainty." Perhaps he should have a fist instead? I have too many warriors, and thieves already, but the face definitely earns a sale IMO. I intend to give it, "head of the line" priveledges, and get him painted up right away. Tax collectors don't swing swords. They hire other people to swing swords for them. But I could definitely see this guy being a rich robber-baron, or a leader among a band of brigands. Bear #2: I'm all for bears, but #2 looks like he is ready to tip forward. Can you guys add a larger base to that one, or is it too late now? I had a similar problem with the Dire Badger from Chainmail. It wanted to tip forward at the slightest touch. Even filling the base with putty wasn't good enough to keep it upright. I ended up bending the dire badger upward, and no doubt weaking the thin pewter section attached to the pewter slot tab, until it didn't tip so easily anymore. I think the front paws would look better pointing forward. Has anyone seen a charging bear and can confirm that they lunge without their paws forward? Or is that assuming somebody lived through such an attack?

To make blood spray, just use an old toothbrush and flick the ends with a finger. Be sure not to overload the brush though. Test your spray on an index card to see if you have enough paint. *edit* aww. She beat me by 6 min. I was mesmerized by the History Channel.

...but it's cold outside.

I currently use brake fluid, and although I've heard people say it doesn't effect plastics, I have had plastic bases crack in half, and the green stuff i used to fill the slot bases become soft enough to peel away. But, maybe that's because I leave them in the fluid for weeks without remembering them. If I want to preserve the green stuff and the bases, I always take them out in about an hour and scrub harder.

I asked pretty much the same question months ago. Here's a link: bowstrings

At 13 years old, I must recommend you get adult supervision before leaving out a container of harsh chemicals someplace in the house. Not to mention this can cause trouble if you have pets. If you have younger siblings, then you are just asking for even more serious consequences. Make sure everybody in the house knows what you are doing, and that it needs to be left alone. Using a Pyrex glass container is highly recommended. And I wouldn't consider reusing the container again for anything else unless it was properly cleaned. Don't just throw it in the dishwasher after you're done! If you have a glass marker, I would put a nice skull and crossbones on it, label it, and use it only to soak minis and nothing else. Do consider that any chemical harsh enough to strip paint can probably do wonders to your skin. Chemical burns will make your skin swell, itch, turn red, or otherwise just tingle with that special glow unless you protect yourself with rubber gloves. This includes oven cleaners, Pine Sol, brake fluid, etc. You can get gloves cheap in any hardware store. Soap and water won't wash off chemicals that have already been absorbed into your skin. Protect yourself. Also, consider using safety glasses when brushing your minis clean. You don't want even a light mist of chemicals touching your eyes...chemical burns in the eyes are even worse than on your hands. An overnight soak is usually good enough to strip most minis. I always use a toothpick or dental pick to get those last few spots that won't come out with a brush. Sorry if I sound too adult, but I have worked with a lot of different hazardous materials, and most 13 year olds I know (and more than a few adults too) aren't responsible enough to handle themselves properly around chemicals.

Woodland Scenics is the most commonly available static grass. I doubt that what you saw would work any differently as long as they called it static grass. It really comes down to quantity and price, and maybe color choice. I'm guestimating, but I think an $8 shaker bottle from Woodland Scenics will last for a REALLY long time (like several years). In fact, after more than 3 years of painting, I'm still on my first shaker bottle of static grass. Give me another year or three, and I'll let you know when I've used up half the bottle. :)

I second the petition for more horses. Last bunch of horses I bought were kinda small looking. I need Clydesdales, not fawns! That, and Dark Age Miniatures made me buy mules with my horses too! They're griffon food, I say! I need stout horses! I've been wanting a vine creature for a while. Please, no Venus Flytraps. I'm looking for some cool vines with maybe a few optional pieces that I could arrange to wrap around a character fig to make it appear they're wrapped up. Yeah, that would be cool.

The wardog has more of a cute factor going for it. It is NOT a wardog. A wardog would have a spiked collar and be barking and snarling and drooling all at the same time. And if it had a leash, it would be held by somebody strong and fighting to keep the dogs back. That would be a wardog. The bugbears are cool, but I got too many unpainted ones already. None of the other stuff really looks all that interesting to me.

I use 2 lights, and a white index card held above the mini to help fill-in the shadow spots. The lights are very close to the mini when I take the pictures. I NEVER use the camera flash. To fix blurring, you need to use a tripod, and a timed shutter release or remote control if you have one. Blurring from having one part of the mini in focus, but not another can be fixed by increasing the exposure time to one second or longer. Increasing exposure time also means using a tripod to avoid shaking though. Visit Cool Mini or Not and check out their articles on taking pictures. I found it to be very helpful.

This is a bit more of a hardware project than a painting project, but I didn't see a more appropriate forum for it. I'm thinking of what I can do to show off some of my work, but in a way that invites people to touch and look closer, rather than putting my things in a boring display case. Has anybody tried building a mobile of minis? I'm still debating whether I want this to be an indoor or outdoor mobile, so the addition of a wind chime isn't out of the question. An outdoor mobile would mean I would have to add all-weather varnish of some kind though, and I'm not sure if that's desirable. Anyway, if anybody has suggestions or just some hardware experience with such a project I'd be very interested in your input. Here is a list of some preliminary obstacles I'm planning for right now: 1. Finding the center of balance of a mini. Currently going by "feel" only. I'm considering placing two, "loops," or attachment points on larger figs which might be difficult to balance otherwise. 2. Correct rod material. This depends ultimately on the weight of the minis. I'd like to make a large one (able to bear Reaper's chimera and griffon figs, for example), and also a small one that might be hung above my computer monitor (able to hold a few character figs, but also one "centerpiece" fig of a larger size). Is brass tubing a bad idea? 3. Wire material. Considering thin guage steel wire--using multiple threads for some larger peices. The weight of the minis might force me to use larger wire though, but I want the wires to be as invisible as possible. 4. Attaching the wire to the minis. I am thinking of using a small D-shaped piece of metal which I would place by drilling small holes into the mini and then supergluing them in place. Additional suggestions and comments are welcome. If things go well I'd like to build a few of these, and possibly give one away as a gift.

I bought a flourescent magnifier lamp that I use as my main light source. I also have two regular desklamps with the GE Reveal 75W bulbs on both sides of it, although I usually only use one of them at a time. This helps with color balancing, although if I had to choose only one light it would be the flourescent. I couldn't imagine using the magnifier all the time, but it is convenient to double check tight spots or details without straining your eyes. Most of the time I do just hold the mini closer to my eyes, but when the fig is almost done it's important to me to check all the edges, and just inspect, and hopefully improve my work. A good rule when using most magnifiers is to make sure the lens is equally distant from both your eye and the object you're looking at. Odd distances will only distort your viewing.

My local area Ace Hardware Store had plenty of this stuff, and it is only in a strip mall. You can just save yourself some time by calling up the hardware section of your yellow pages and asking around. Smaller stores are usually willing to go the extra step to bring in business. So if it really isn't available locally, I'm sure it wouldn't be too much trouble to have them order it for you.

I use glass counters. Really, I just couldn't imagine trying to pack up an army of figs to where I have to DM my games. I only take figs for characters, and choice NPCs, and whatever else I can fit into my, "small" box. Glass beads are convenient, pack easily, and are generic enough to use as just about anything you want on the battlemat. If you like, have their leader represented as a fig, but don't feel you need to go out and buy an army just to watch them get picked off in the coming fight anyway. Monster tokens (icone printed on little cardboard circles about the size of pennies) can be a cheap alternative that are more disposable, but have fun sorting them out if you have mixed groups of creatures in a large scale battle. I prefer to spend my DM'ing time on other things than printing out tokens and then having to cut them all out--it's just too much time for too little reward. I go for the glass counters all the time. For variety, may I recommend the Southern Front Glass Company. They specialize in stained glass making equipment, but also carry a large variety of different and interesting glass beads. You can find them at http://www.southernfront.com Look under Jewels, nuggets, and gems. I especially like the opals!

Just an FYI, I got mine at my Tru Value hardware store, and will add that the look of the can is very different than what you will see at the Krylon website. At the top, a black bar states, "No Run, No Drips, No Errors!" then the Krylon oval red emblem appears Then states, "Primer" Then you will see 5 circles of varying shades, from black to white. Nowhere on the front does it say sandable primer. But the barcode on the back should have on the label, "1315 All Purpose Primer White" The cap is nice, in that you have two side tabs to press to lift the cap off. It's much better than others where you are required to use a screwdriver or other lever to open them. -------------------- Somebody mentioned in another thread that Krylon white primer is what GW relabels and sells for more than twice as much. A lot of people like GW's primer, but the cost is ridiculous.

I'm still looking for some standard variety crocodiles. Giant ones would work too. Demonic crocodiles would be great! Please don't make me go to the children's toy store looking for plastic crocs! I think Reaper would see good sales of a few other standard variety creatures too, like horses, plain open and closed chests (and maybe a mimic version too!), and a collection of tree stumps and trunks. [i generally dislike using the odd variety of treasure packs that Reaper has out now. I just want plain chests.] Those kinds of things will definitely see use in just about every D&D game I can think of, regardless of their campaign setting. My suggestions might not be too sexy or appealing to the Reaper folks, but I'd be willing to bet that they would all sell very well, even to a lot of gamers that never paint. I hope somebody at Reaper will strongly consider doing some of these, "plain" figs. -------------------- And I also love the Grendel scenery pieces. Right now I only have the portcullis, but it is great! I only wish it was bigger in size. I would never build a castle with such a small front opening that it would be unsuitable for at least two horses abreast to walk into. Personally, I think it beats the pants off of Reaper's gothic arch any day. I'm going to have to try to talk my FLGS (which carries everything Reaper BTW) into getting more Grendel scenery.

I think there are distinct differences between halflings and gnomes; enough to warrant a different mini. I think a gnome tinkering with alchemists bottles and such would make a truly distinct mini. Maybe a pair of them with before and after explosion faces would be cool too. Heheh. (it's the little differences like that that would help me buy some of the less popular minis). Anyways, just throwing some ideas out there and hoping Reaper will go sculpt something neat. I'll have to suffer without any cool gnomes for a while it seems.

Actually, I know Reaper has at least one gnome in their line. Are there ANY plans to do more gnomes? Looking at the gnome fig (I don't remember the item #) it appears to be just as large as several of the halflings. The size is one of the reasons I was reluctant to buy the fig. It's too big for a gnome. Anyway, if there are no plans for Reaper to make gnomes in the future, I'd like to know it so I can shop elsewhere. ---------- Hey, it's July! IIRC I think there is a certain dwarven wizard coming to my FLGS this month! I'll be looking!

Now, usually, I check out my FLGS every week (sometimes twice a week), and I often pick up most of the new Reaper figs. But today I saw, well, a gothic archway. I just can't imagine putting this one on my battlemat. An archway. No doors. No fancy keystone at the peak of the arch. No gargoyle. Just an arch. And the thing can barely stand up on its own. I'm certain somebody can use this thing for their diarama, but for gamers, I cannot imagine anybody buying this one. I would actually buy a pack of doors (but not windows), a portcullis (big one I hope), or even a battlement (cause that's what counts when you set up a tower on a battlemat anyway), but just plain arches don't make any sense to me. So is anybody out there shopping for gothic arches? And how are you using them? Inquiring minds want to know. ----------edit I love the yeti and the charon figs though. A BOAT! Finally, I get a boat! Now if I could just get that boat super-sized to hold about 4-6 figs...hint, hint. :)

I mentioned this elsewhere, but it certainly belongs here. I am having trouble with the new dwarf cleric as well. Although as far as his anvil/backpack is concerned, I decided to green putty the hole and discard the pack. The base is the one with the snake on it and, unfortunately, it doesn't allow the fig to rest evenly in the slot. The best solution I can think of is to have Reaper remove that snake. I don't feel it's fair that I have to buy new bases, because the one packaged with the fig "doesn't work." ---------- I do like the flagstone base that came with the recent dwarf king figure. I'm lazy when it comes to basing and appreciate it when I'm provided with textures I would find difficult or time consuming to do myself. I would like to see figs that match their bases when it comes to providing the fig with a setting. Rogues and heavily armored folks should be walking on paved stones or other city-like textures, while beasts and most monsters would be on natural ground textures, that sort of thing. If there is any doubt, though, I would rather just see plain bases with my fig. People will complain if their base has to be reworked, but nobody is going to be too naggy if they get plain bases. I'd like to see Reaper sell a 4-pack of decorated bases by type. So, 4 flagstone bases in a pack, 4 dungeon bases in a pack, etc. Please avoid a combo pack, or I will always end up with something I don't like. If Reaper does this, then I would like to see plain bases packaged with the figs all the time. And why neglect the larger bases? I wouldn't mind seeing large bases get similar treatment, although it takes being mindful of how the large creatures have to sit on the base so as not to create an obstruction.