Hells_Clown

What you might want to do to make the generals and heros stand out is give them fancy trim and stuff. Paint their armor brighter than the grunts. Give the grunts bronze armor while the big nastys get silver, maybe with gold trim or something. Put a gold stripe on the cloak of the leader, etc. Simple and doesn't break the unity of the colors of the group. I don't like the idea of using different colors for different units. Look at any army. Do the guys in the Armored Cav wear a different uniform than the Infantry? No, same colors, design, etc. But off the battlefield anyway, you can tell officers from enlisted but the decorations on the uniform. Hope that helps.

No pic of me, I don't want to scare the kids. I did notice that there are no pics of any of the Reaper people yet.

I found a nifty tool case at Lowes Home Improvement store. $25 for an aluminum case with the "pick-n-pluck" style foam. Plus it has an insert underneath the foam in the top lid for holding tools that might work for other items. I'd post a link to it, but their website isn't coopertating right now. The problem isn't finding the cases, it's finding the p-n-p foam. Eventually that stuff wears out and needs replacing. That or you can buy just about any case or box and put the foam in it. If you can find it.

Wargods stuff rox! I started painting up a unit this evening. Now they need to crank out more To-Tanem so I can have a big ole army. Oh yeah, if you go to the Croc website, there's an artist's gallery. There's some stuff by some gal named Anne something-or-other...Her stuff's ok, if you like that kinda thing. :p

It seems like everytime I get new paints I think "wow! This color is awesome! How'd I paint w/o it?" :oo: I'm slowly switching to The Big V paints, I think they're nicer, don't dry out like the others do and I don't have to pick up little dots of paint with a toothpick one drop at a time to get the amount I want. Smoke is a good dark ink (Like Reaper's Wood shading ink, but more dense) Cork Brown Basic Flesh (This mixed w/ Cork Brown is my standard flesh color) I like their bronze metallic (the acrylic one, not the alcohol based one) SS Came Brown-Black (Quite possibly the longest color name in paints and a really nifty color to boot. A very dark brown) BTW, they seem a little more expensive (around $3.00 US a bottle) but the bottles are 17ml where the GW pots (which are horrible, no one likes them) are 12ml and not much cheaper. Plus the paint dries out MUCH faster in the GW pots. I have some Blood Red that is nearly all gone after maybe 2 weeks of owing it. I was stirring it with a toothpick and fished out a HUGE glob of paint. BAM, almost all the content gone.

I was wondering if anyone is in the Houston area? Seems like there is a small group of folks here that play, but when I ask about the game at the local stores, no one seems to play it. I was thinking about looking into it, but don't want to invest the money on a game no one plays.

Yea I am familliar with pin vises. I HATE them! :p I find them extremely hard to use and broke the finest bit I had the first day I had it. I used it seccessfully to drill holes in my Litko bases but had little or no success with metal. That's why I got reaquainted with my old buddy Mr. Dremel. He works much better on those metal menaces! I consider the Lupine Lord my first pinning success. Got his arm to stay on with a pin then super glued the snot out of it. That arm will survive WW III. If you're bored, look thru the archives, you'll see my rants and please for help with pv's. I'm just esp. worried about Lola's hand, being so small. Ah well, I suppose if I drill it in half or something I can get one thru the boneyard, yes?

Dallas eh? That's what, only 3-4 hours from Houston? I could do that. Pack up all the paints and minis and make a weekend out of it or something. I could post it to the local groups here and probably get a decent turn out. Jen Haley? :love: The only problem with that is with all that talent in the room I might spontaneously combust. :p PS I had to repaint my Templar Lightbringer cuz the finishing spray came out dusty looking. :( BUT that meant I got to practice my shading n stuff, even tried some of that nifty metalic highlighting stuff you did. Not sure how it looks though, I may have to do more work on it, but the cloak looks GOOD. I think so anyway. Maybe someday I will find the cable that goes to my cam so I can download the pics to the computer and upload them and you can see. Then you can rest assured that you have no competetion from me. PPS When is the con season over? I don't really follow the circuit so I'm outta da loop. See ya...

I have a Black Legionnarie figure that is givng me signs that his sword blade is gonna break off real soon. It's very thin and I am not comfortable with the idea of pinning it back on. Is there some way to keep it from breaking off first of all and if it does, what's the easiest way of fixing it? Second mini: Lola, The Bane of my Painting Existance. I can see an end to this one. After stripping that mini at least two times (that I can remember), I finally got a color scheme that I like on her. Now the trick is putting her hand on and putting her on the base. What's the best way to put that hand on? Sticking her to the tomb base? Please take this under advisement: I am not a professional modeler or sculptor so pleeeeeeease try to keep it simple. Thanks in advance.

I'm on a roll tonight it seems. I bought a bottle of "Blending Gel" by Ceramacoat IIRC and while it does seem to help a little it doesn't seem to extend drying time all that much. Perhaps I am putting too little in? Is the stuff supposed to be a gel or liquid or does it matter? I like how someone else here called Anne "Obi-Anne Kenobi". Perhaps it should be "Paint Jedi" instead of Goddess? :D Oh, one more thing Ms. Forrester, when ya gonna give us mere mortals a paint clinic sos we can learn from the Master? Something here in the Great State o Tejas instead o' one o' those fancy schmancy cons in Cali or Wisconsin or other hard-for-Hade's Harlequin-to-git-to-places?

Let me see if I can remember how I did my skeleton's shields and swords... Base coat them brown then lightly apply a silver top coat so that some of the brown shows through. You can then wash with brown ink or paint. That should give a worn look. When I did the shields I wanted them to be bronze instead of steel (I use bronze a lot, sometimes in conjunction with iron and/or steel for greater variety.) so I tried this: mix some bronze paint with teal. Yes, teal. I suppose you could use green ink, I haven't tried that yet. When bronze oxidizes it get a green patina (sp?) so mixing teal or green with the bronze gives you that look. When I re-do said skeletons I will try to duplicate what I did the first time and let you know. If I remember. :p

That's really cool! :cool: I've been tinkering with this technique a little on some of my figures, but I'm not really good at placing light source and such. Nor do I use as many gradations as mentioned before. But practice makes perfect as they say. I really like the shaman. I started mine but didn't like how he was turning out so he took a simple green bath. Now he's clean and primed, waiting for me to choose a color scheme. Does anyone know of any sites with good wolf pics?

Does anyone make a brush on black or gray primer? Where might I find them?

Anne, your name isn't really Anne Forrester is it? It's Mary Lou Retton, right? :p Yer so darn positive and encouraging n stuff. I appreciate that. You could say "get over it fan boy" but ya don't. Thanks. I'm prolly gonna strip those minis anyway. Not quite happy with how they turned out. And with the evil mage guy I can finally see some of the details I couldn't quite make out before. Ok, back to the grind I go. John Fan Boy

Woohoo! Then I can use them in a Wargods of AEgyptus campaign! :D

Anne, you gotta stop putting those pics up. Cuz if you put them up I will look at them. Then I will get more depressed than usual as I re-realize if I sucked at mini painting it would be an improvement. Now I gotta go give Eredain, the 1/2 elf chick and Gauntfiled the scarecrow a Pine-Sol bath and repaint them. And I was proud of my work on my Dwarf king mini tonight. *sniff* *sob*

I think things are looking a little better. Still using the Woodland Scenics glue, flock and talus, but I started using Likto Aerosystems wood bases. BIG difference. I was hesitant to use them at first, but now that I have some, it's worth it. I'll be getting more this weekend for my smaller figures (I got some 30mm square bases to put my lupines on). All those plastic and metal bases go into the bits box just in case.

Does anyone have any tips for someone new to the fine art of adding fake grass n dirt n rocks to their bases? I'm having a rather difficult time with this and I keep thinking it shouldn't be that hard. Lately I'm using Woodland Scenic's spray on/brush on glue, flock and rocks. The glue doesn't seem to dry very fast, and even after being left alone for several days they stuff still comes off when I handle the minis. I've started putting a finishing layer of glue on top, I will see if that works. Also, how do you layer the flock? Grass then dirt then rocks? Rocks, dirt, grass? I keep thinking the ones I do look like a 6 year old did them.

Is there a difference between the two? I recently got a bottle of gel extender and it seems to keep the paint viable a lot longer, though I have seen paint that is mixed with it not stick to the figure well and require several coats (actually when I saw it wasn't working I got out the jar o paint and used it directly from there and it worked nicely).

That's actually what I've been doing. Using Folk Art Gun Metal Grey as a base and highlighting with Metallic Aluminum (I think that's the color name). I may look into more shades of silver to get that nifty shading thing happening. Then can work on gold, bronze, etc.... Professional schmuck? You mean I could have been getting paid to do what comes naturally all this time?! :O

Have to learn to log in when using a friend's computer. :p Thanks again Anne, I will give that a try.

On the mini painter Yahoo group, someone brought up the concept of painting nmm style but using metallic paints. Does anyone (Anne :D ) have any ideas, tips, tricks for me? I tried it on the Lupine Lord and think it came out very nicely for a first try (if I can find the cable that goes to my cam I will take a pic or two). But I'm always interested in finding out what the pros know.

I second the unusual mounts idea. Wolf/warg riders (with bows as well as swords and spears), dragons, rats, lizards, birds. I think it's in Dragon magazine where the idea of unusual mounts are brought up. The idea of riding giants was mentioned I beleive. How about aquatic folks (like sea elves) riding sea horses or manta rays? Kolbolds riding giant bats? The list could go on and on...

The only ink I've bought from Reaper than I find useful is Wood Shading. I also have green, blue and red and they are all too bright. I thought inks were used for shading, darkening? Though I can see using them as a wash to add a lil bit o color to something, like giving a blade a magic blue glow. Have to try that now.

Wasn't he allergic to seafood? I think I read that somewhere. He was always a sickly sort of person. See what happens when you leave people alone for long periods of time and let them think of stuff?