Akiosama

Here's an article on fully magnetizing KD:M. It's a huge endeavor, but I could see how it could make things much more immersive for the players. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1694918/magnetizing-kingdom-death-monster-survivors-primer Hope this helps. My 2 yen, Akiosama

Absolutely fantastic work. I was a bit underwhelmed when I saw the first mini, myself, but after seeing your paint job, I'm definitely a fan. The second mini - "The Plaid Piper of Ord" - is also a very nice miniature. I'll be curious to see how long of a streak of interesting miniatures they'll be able to maintain. My 2 yen, Akiosama

Given your fondness for painting plaid, you might see if you can try to get the 2nd Minicrate miniature as well. The second miniature is a female variant of the Piper of Ord Warmachine figure called the "Plaid Piper of Ord". See the second image in the Minicrate section. It's a pretty nice mini, and comes with a Trollblood Whelp with a greatsword as a sidekick! My 2 yen, Akiosama

GW uses Deathworld Forest or their new Death Guard Green. They're fairly similar - the DGG is a tad lighter, apparently. Also, apparently a 1:1 mix of DWF and Nurgling Green will give you something approximate to DGG, if you already own those colors. Per Bolter and Chainsword Vallejo Heavy Khaki is very close to DGG. EDIT: Reading further down, the posts state that the color swatches provided by Vallejo aren't a very good match to the actual color and that Vallejo Heavy Gray came out closer to DGG than Heavy Khaki. Hope this helps. My 2 yen, Akiosama

Over twenty years of unpainted miniatures are a testament to how hard this thought process is to break. And that's after having only one miniature that I've ever painted that has actually turned my stomach... For some reason, ice blue skin and purple claws/chitin just did not work on a Hormugant. I think I ended up burying it deep in a box of unpainted Tyranid minis... My 2 yen, Akiosama

For those who are interested, I found this article about magnetizing KD:M if you're so inclined. Seems like it would be an interesting way to get players invested in the miniatures even more. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1694918/magnetizing-kingdom-death-monster-survivors-primer

The best beginner one is definitely the Anne/Jen video. Jessica's is probably #2. The Marike one is good, but I think, as Wren said, she's not as natural a teacher as the others, so the flow of the verbal instructions left gaps, IMO. It wasn't a bad tutorial by any means (I think that would have to be the first from the series where they show you minis painted from start to finish - not Jen Haley's, but the other teacher's. I don't remember what the name of the series was, but it was kind of like 'watch me and figure out what I'm doing'). Now, if we could just get Derek to do one... As for the Miniature Mentor videos, they're decent, but they tend to suffer from three issues - 1) They seem to be typically using a different style than most videos/tutorials I'm used to seeing - it's often a very European style with many, many thin layers (think almost painting with washes); 2) Nearly all the people have strong accents making them harder to understand (many are not native English speakers - except Jen Haley, whose monochrome ranger was awesome); and 3) the host tends to talk a lot, and sometimes interrupts the painter, and also sometimes needs to be corrected by the painter. But there are a lot of videos and they cover many different aspects of miniature painting, sculpting, basing, and actual model kit painting, as well. That being said, the amount of painting tutorial videos is pretty extensive out there and good for various levels. Miniature Monthly is also worth looking into, as is Sorastro, who does a lot of videos for tabletop level painting using popular gaming figures such as Zombicide, Arcadia Quest, and Imperial Assault. My 2 yen, Akiosama

For me, the biggest loss to come from Reaper not being able to continue their RPG line is that there is less artwork available by Tim "Talin" Collier out there. It was his art (much like Matt Wilson's art for the original Iron Kingdoms) that made me pick up that module and wait for the next one that didn't ever materialize. His art is some of my favorite fantasy art out there. I like how he does faces, especially. Would personally love to see a published art book of work he's done for Reaper someday (hint, hint). My 2 yen, Akiosama

One interesting note regarding varnish - I've noticed in Privateer Press' painting guides in their WarmaHordes books that they recommend sealing metallics before painting on the final highlights to allow the highlights to be as bright as possible. Has anyone noticed a difference by doing it this way rather than just painting and highlighting first and sealing at the very end?

One thing I didn't see on your list but might be worth it to look into is masking fluid. Masking tape and plastic wrap will work good for most cases, but having a fluid that will actually sit on the miniature surface without letting paint stick to it is really useful. Was introduced to it in the Angel Giraldez Masterclass books - Vallejo makes one that seems to work pretty well. My 2 yen, Akiosama

Also, keep in mind that given that the Modo stuff is lacquer based, it's tough to get imported into the country, due to toxicity (I think). I've seen tons of issues in the past with the Gunze Sangyo paint lines (makers of many of the official Gundam Paint sets) until they switched them to Acrylic from Lacquer. I think the modelers in Japan still like the Lacquer stuff, though, more than the acrylic, but it's been a while since I've investigated. The Gundam Marker sets are acrylic though, and are somewhat available here in the US as paint pens. My 2 yen, Akiosama

Just curious, since I've seen it mentioned before, a good shade color can be achieved mixing in a complementary color, but does that work for purple, since yellow is its complementary color? (Also, I'm wondering if using a complementary colors to create the shade would possibly help with the chalkiness issue as well?) My 2 yen, Akiosama

One other thing to remember with painting minatures/models, in regards to color shade and model size, is that the size of the model does affect our perception of the color due to the increase in the amount of light reflecting back off the larger surfaces on larger models. (I think this explains why vehicles look brighter than individual figures when painted with the same shade of paint.) In essence, the smaller the model, the darker the color is going to look. This isn't as much of an issue with miniatures as it is with scale models, but there could be some effect going from a 15mm or 28mm figure to a 72mm figure if you're trying to hit the same shades of color. If you use the same paint shade for a mini on an anime scale 1/8 figure, you're likely to get a skin shade that looks a bit too bright. For an explanation of this from a scale modeling view, this article explains the concept pretty well. My 2 yen, Akiosama

Personally, I'm with buglips and prime and paint before assembly whenever possible, but I'm a tad bit of a perfectionist, and I subscribe to the following: Needless to say, I have more unfinished minis than some small gods (usually turtles), and more coming every month, it seems. I did ask Angel Giraldez of Corvus Belli fame (Infinity) and he said that he pre-assembles nearly all the minis he paints, despite using an airbrush for a large portion of his painting style, because even with the masking processes he goes through "it's faster than assembling after". Also, I think it lets him see all the colors together to ensure that his paint scheme works - he shows a lot of quick temporary base coating steps to check paint scheme in his step-by-steps in his Masterclass - Volume 2 book. So, each to their own, I think. My 2 yen, Akiosama

Already part of it. Also, for those who haven't looked at it, they're offering some of their existing models as add-ons at significant discount. My 2 yen, Akiosama