chipchuck

Reaper hosted a tour to Boy Scout Troop 61 today as they finished their work on the Sculpting Merit Badge with a morning demo from Patrick Keith and an afternoon tour of Reaper by Matt to see how little grey sculpts become hot metal miniatures. Thanks from Troop 61 for all the fun. Chip Scoutmaster (I know, God help them) Troop 61 - Denton PS: I think we hooked a few of the boys who seemed to be unaware of the world of gaming. They stood in glassy-eyed amazement as they were surrounded by minis, and games, and paints, and wonder...ahh satisfaction. :)

Dust the tray with baby powder then give it a good smack.

Been licking brushes for 15+ years. Also played with mercury in school and bit lead fishing weights around my fishing line. How am I still here? (mucho sarcasmo mode on) LOL

No... lick brushes. Don't listen to the haters. LOL

The other comment I was refering to was where you talked about messing up to the point of wanting to strip the mini. Your primary comment was to ask what to use to strip paint. Don't be so hard on yourself. "Good" is very subjective. It also includes personal goals you set for yourself. If your objective is to paint minis to win awards, then your level of "good" is going to be different that if your goal is to have something other than stark white plastic figures on your game table. As for your "limitations", I don't put much stock in inherent mastery of much of anything. Painting, like playing trumpet, writing, or rebuilding the engine block of a 1977 Pinto is a skill that improves with repetition and self critique. I'm willing to bet, that if you took anybody off the street and gave them the vampire level kickstarter box and a set of paint, told them to paint each mini one after the other and after each one think about what they'd like to do better on the next one, their last mini would be a lot crisper than their first one. (Have a look at Derrek Shubert's first mini). It's all in what you want to put into it, and if you don't want to put in much, that's okay too. We're not here to tear folks down. We're here to encourage folks in painting on whatever level they are comfortable with and to whatever level they seek.

There is no think...only do.

I'd probably do 1:1 Brown Liner to water (but I'm a bit messy). Then go back and clean up each scale after it dries. It's really more about the clean up than anything, you just don't want it too thin because there should be deep shadow between the scales.

I'm for Simple Green too, but I wanted to give you a pep-talk on your other comment. It's okay to mess up a mini. Don't fret. We all do it. My advice would be to keep it, and finish it out. Then have a look at it and take a few notes (mentally or on paper) as to what you think you need to work on improving, what colors worked or didn't, and anything else you like or dislike about it. If you have the means, keep that one and buy another of the same to make your second effort with. Then you can compare them side by side to see progress. If a second copy isn't equitable, it's understandable. Take your notes, maybe a few pictures, and dunk that sucker. An old toothbrush after a day or two in Simple Green will clean her up....just don't brush your teeth with it after a night of drinking. :)

I did the same a few years ago. I had been away from the painting table for a few years. My advice is, grab a regular sized mini that inspires you and knock it out quickly. Think of this as blowing the dust off before polishing the table. Sure you're probably not going to bust out the best you can with it, but it'll get your gears working again, and you can use it as a level set moving forward. Welcome back, have a swig, the brush water is fine. :)

Patrick Keith (Bombshell Minis) was selling Sculpting Kits through the Reaper store at ReaperCon. I don't know if that was a con-only thing or if they're going to continue carrying them. I bought one because it had a dental tool I've been looking for on the advice of the other sculptors, and color shapers that are hard to find. Plus it came with a host of other good starter tools, a little ProCreate putty and some wire for armatures all in a little carry case. I think it was $40. You might give the Reaper Store a call and see if they still have them. If not, I bet you could contact Patrick directly.

I really liked your Gnoll. Fantastic combination of colors. Bravo!

Also remember the finnicky nature of red paint. It doesn't "cover" well. It's transparent in a way. Also, you can't add white to it to brighten it (you'll make pink everytime). Depending on your color composition, you might be able to add orange to it or a little yellow. Much like blending blues, sometimes it's better to start with your highest and paint down with reds. With that said, you may need to highlight an area first with white, let dry, then go back over with the red shade you want to apply. Thanks to Anne for teaching me this when I was so frustrated with reds I was ready to remove them from my paint set.

Welcome to the addiction. :)

You're doing fine. Don't be afraid to go even deeper in the crevices and higher still on the wee little tops where the light would hit it. Great job, keep it up.

I backed it, and am very excited to see its development.