awong

Hello, Sorry for the resurrection but this looked like a relative thread... MicroMark is currently selling the Robart paint shaker, on sale for just a week, on-line only, @$35, with only $4.95 shipping. A little cheaper than usual. I also use a lab vortexer type mixer so I can't say how good these are but if you search other threads, the reviews seem positive. Thanks AWhang

My set (1 and a 0) have started to get ragged lately (about 2 years of sporadic use). I've noticed that I'm getting a lot of breakage but I think it's happening during my cleaning process. My cleaning water bowl is pretty rough with all the buildup of paint over the years. I have a bad habit of rolling my brushes against the sides while trying to clean them. I'm guessing that's what is wearing down the hairs and causing the fraying and breakage. Also, I don't condition as often as I should. I'm going to have to just rely on swishing the brush around in the water from now on. A note about conditioning...I recently cleaned my brush with Pink Soap and then went right back to painting. I noticed a big difference in the performance of the brush. I couldn't get a thin layer of paint to lay down. I would pick up a little thinned paint, dab the brush on a towel, but when I reached my mini, nothing. It was driving me crazy. Then I remembered that I hadn't dabbed any conditioner onto the bristles after washing. After conditioning, everything went back to normal. -AW

Just an FYI, Miniature Mentor has just sent the heads up that the Monique DuNoir DVD will be available this coming Monday (May 23 2011) barring any additional computer glitches. Looking forward to seeing whose suggestions they followed up on :) -AW

Ack, One week and I'm still slapping paint on my pieces...why oh why does it always come down to this!!! I'll be there Saturday bright and early. I promised to take up a volunteer position for an hour or two. -AWhang

I also regularly mix Vallejo, Reaper (both lines) and GW (haven't tried the P3 line yet). I do want to make one observation about the above comment, you need to be careful with some brands of "Acrylic" paints. They clean up with water but need a different thinner (I think Tamiya and Gunze Sangyo fall in this category). These acrylics do not play nice with the lines you mention. If in doubt, always test a little on the bottom of your mini's base or on a "test mini". -AW

Great! New people to meet! Looking forward to seeing you all there. -AW

Cool. Are you going down Friday as well or just the Sat? I've only gone on Sat. Is Friday mainly set-up and shopping or do they do one of the presentations? Also, since you're one of the officers...:) Do you think they would be amenable to the idea of a paint and take table (or two?). I haven't seen anything about Reaper's Black Lightening lately (discontinued?), but I always thought that painting mini's with acrylics would be a great way of introducing children (and maybe even a spouse or two) into the hobby...without breaking the bank. Can you image sitting down to paint next to someone like Bill Horan or Steve Durling :) Just thinking out loud. -AW

Just wondering if anyone from this board might be attending this year. I'd love to touch base and meet anyone that will find themselves in Orange, CA March 19th (Sat). I hope I'll have some pieces ready, although this year has been an abnormally slow paint year for me (since last March, one finished, one near complete, 3 started):( Here's some info from their site. When: March 18th -19th, 2011 Where: Doubletree Hotel Anaheim/O.C. 100 The City Drive, Orange, CA 92868 For reservations call (714) 634-4500 between 8am and 5pm PDT They have a decent sized competition with some really top notch painters, a sellers area, an auction to benefit the club, and this year, I believe a sculpting demonstration given by Bill Horan and a flat painting demo as well. Although mostly geared toward the Historical Figures, I've never had any problems being inspired by the sheer beauty of some of the pieces and I know that fantasy minis are entered and garner prizes (just ask KatieG!). They use the Open System for awards so one basically competes against themselves. I hope to see some of you there...please look me up! I'll be the one looking so closely at figures that I look like I'm trying to smell the paint color off the figure (bad eyesight :) ). -AW

Me too! I was told that my sender was close to sending (that was some time ago), but I haven't rcvd anything yet. I hope it hasn't gone missing in the mail. -AW

I've gone through Amazon with these but I remember the price being much lower...around $.99 each. I must have gotten them at a good time, or my memory is completely Kaput I use a combination of glass craft beads and snipped Reaper "broccoli bases" and base tabs to act as agitators. You might also try these guys -AW

His huge wrench just cracks me up This is what I painted for the 2010 June - Sept. Mini Exchange. I had a blast with the rust and distressed metal. My mixing of NMM and real metalics was a mess...I don't think I'll be doing that again. The monocle was an interesting experiment as well. Hope you like him! Thanks for looking. -AW

Oh, don't be too sure. When I was first starting out, I would have killed for a good repository of even the simplest techniques clearly explained and illustrated. The whole "thin paint to skim milk" thing is an example. One only needs to look at the subjects that keep cropping up in this "Painting Tips & Advice" section to get some good ideas of what you could cover. If not painting, how about pinning, priming, finishing/polishing, proper care of brushes. And, the fact that the artists you mentioned DON'T have free videos on their sites means people will have to go to other sites for that help. They may very well visit your site, right? Anyways, I say, go for it! Oh, and I also like in-depth tutorials with lots of nice, clear pictures. -AW

Perfect! I don't know how I missed this one. Many thanks to you Jabberwocky for bringing this to my attention! Ah...I feel the warm rush of enthusiasm flowing again. Thanks also to Cyradis and Ironhammer for your words of encouragement and ingenuity. I've worked with fibre optics before and they're fun. Maybe if I were to put this in a little box vignette. Thank you! -AW

Congrats Kit! She's beautiful. -AW