wolfric

wow, thanks so much. great info.

1). If you are basing for gaming you can simply glue the miniature to the base, then cover over the ground with flocking, sand, or leave it bare. Or if the minis are from Reaper's Dark Heaven line, you don't even need to add a base they can be used as is if you like. 2). Most of the local gamers here simply glue. However, if you are going to handle it a lot I would suggest a method of attaching called "pinning" in addition to the glue. This involves using a pin vise to drill a small hole in both parts, inserting a small pin and then gluing them together. Again depends on what you prefer as I know local gamers here who abuse the heck out of their minis without pinning and they still hold up. You can also use putty to hold the pieces together, but if you are just starting I'd stick with gluing for now. 3). I use Loctite glue, I used to use Zap-a-gap but found it didn't hold as well for me. I've heard of some using Gorrilla glue as well. So I'd suggest picking up one of those to try. There are several articles here on this site under "The Craft" tab on the front page, and many many articles and helpful threads here on the forums. It's well worth the time to look or use the search function on the boards here. There is also a very long list of articles here to look through too. 4). If you have a local Michael's, Hobby Lobby or art store I'd go check those out for brushes. You can usually find something on sale that would work. Or if you don't, the brushes Reaper sells on the web site here work really well. I'd suggest at least one size 0 brush to start with. Paint wise, well everyone has their own type of paint preferences. If you want it fast, single color not really heavily involved with the painting aspect then Craft Paints like Apple Barrel or Deco Art are pretty cheap and you can get them at some Wal-marts, and craft stores. If you want to do more with your painting, I'd suggest trying either Reaper's Master Series Paint or Pro Paint lines. Both cover really well and are far superior quality to craft paints. (Personally I'd skip craft paints and go for a few bottles of the Reaper paints). There are plenty of painting tutorials out there, many on these boards. Give a scroll through the Painting Tips & Advice as well as the WIP forums here and use the search function too if you are looking for specifics. There is also at least one in "The Craft" tab on the front page and the link previously posted to CMoN has tons. I don't know if you know to use primer before painting or not, but you can get brush on with Reaper's Master Series paint or Krylon floral primer (craft stores/wal-mart) spray cans are also pretty good. You'll also want to pick up a can of dullcoat spray from the hobby section to spray your finished painted miniature with to keep the paint from rubbing off when you handle it. Maya~ Maya you're awesome, thx very much

Ok, so I got a few reaper minis to go along with my D and D minis. I have a few questions for anyone that would like to lend a helping hand since I've never done this before. Ok here goes: 1) I noticed that the bases dont really "fit" into the minis. i.e I assumed that they would "snap" into the base. Do you simply glue them onto the base? 2) A few of the minis came with separate parts (one of them was a dragonborn without his head!) now I guess this was to make it easier to paint, but do you simply glue the separate pieces on or is there some kind or sodering involved? 3) In reguards to 2, when I attempted to use standard crazy glue to glue a part on it didnt hold, also, there is a shield for one of the characters and there really doesn't seem to be a way to glue it, so I refer back to the sodering question. 4) Whats the best/cheapest paints and brushes for a beginner and are there any "tutorials" anywhere about painting for beginners?