Flow

I'm currently painting the 'Female Ranger with Bow' for my wife to use in a Pathfinder game. http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/shop/index.php/female-ranger-with-bow.html She's a beautiful miniature - but, same thing. Arms needed pinning. I've seen this enough with Dark Sword miniatures that I think it's pretty consistent across their line. On a side note - that's a crazy paint job in that link I shared. That eye shadow! These are very fine/minute details and are seriously tricky. I'm just happy that I have crude eyebrows on the one I'm painting.

Just a quick heads up just to make sure you're aware - Dark Sword miniatures are very well done, but are typically issued in pieces that require assembly. The elf swordsmen you linked likely doesn't have his arms attached and will require pinning/gluing in order to assemble. This isn't a problem necessarily - as you said you were new to painting, I just wanted to negate the surprise of realizing you had an 'extra step' required. Pinning (as opposed to only gluing) is preferable, though can be tricky with miniatures with very small/thin parts. There are a lot of pinning guides around and it is a common question on the forums; hit us up if you need any tips!

Given that Bones does seem to be a little finicky and these sorts of posts seem common - maybe they really should be primed first? Would that fix the issue? I haven't tried painting one yet; though I did step into that big Kickstarter late last year, so come October I'll be swimming in them.

Agree with everyone else on the skin tone selections - it works very well here. I've a fire giant lurking around that I need to paint, and I'm wondering if something similar might work with him!

Stunningly beautiful! I had just picked up this mini myself, last month. When I get to it, I hope to do at least half as well. And apologies in advance; I think I'm going to have to borrow your color scheme. It just really *works*!

A long time buddy of mine dug up some 1980's miniatures he had buried in a back room. He hadn't touched these things in over twenty years, and so he gave them to me. I've a big bag of them - some of them are definitely 'keepers' (I'm looking at you, Umber Hulk!). I tried out the bead blasting on a few of them and thought I'd share a before and after shot. Bead blasting all seven or so of these miniatures really only took 10-15 minutes or so. It is extremely quick. The cockatrice isn't shown in the 'after' because I realized it had a broken wing and so didn't bother.

This is a good point. It's "mostly" safe; you wouldn't want to breath the tiny glass beads either, and they are also whipped up into the air. The bead blaster though is in an enclosed chamber (note the puffed up gloves in the center photo). So, it is all contained. As an extra precaution, when taking the model out I generally quickly take a breath and hold it before opening the chamber, so that I'm not breathing in dust. I want to keep my lungs functioning.

It scares me almost as much as it did when I was 12 - but I'll likely give it a shot.

I did a blue demon awhile ago and was happy with it - colors outside of red can definitely work.

I'm really wishing I had taken better "before" pictures! Here is a smallish one of its head before, and then a closeup of after. It's really shiny, now. Before: After:

The first one is the "before" - I wish I had taken one of better quality. Take a close look at the skin on the wings before and after, as well as those eggs. There's an ashen covering of oxidation that was discoloring it. Now the thing is a lovely silver all over. I did do the bead blasting with a pretty mild abrasive and with lower-ish air pressure. It really does seem to do a good job! I am tempted to make a go with this thing for Reaper's end-of-year dragon contest. Assembly is likely to be rough.

I just think this is neat, and so had to share. I recently picked up an awesome old set, Dragon's Lair, from Grenadier. This is from the early 80's. I had the set way back when, and never finished it. As a kid, I think I was just too daunted by its size and just didn't know how to approach it. Somehow it was lost over the years (no memory of how - just, it's gone!). I was happy to nail this complete set recently on Ebay. It had some oxidation from the years. My father has a very nice work garage which includes a bead blasting machine - this thing takes tiny little glass beads and fires them under pressure at the target. It's really good at cleaning off old residue/paint/oxidation but does not appear to damage the metal of the minis itself. Below are before and after pictures, including a photo of the mini in the bead blaster itself. The outcome is that the mini is darn near new - it does have some unfortunate gaps here or there from corrosion, but those should be patchable through gap filler. I love this machine. :D

My wife and I are ridiculous consumers of vitamins, and I discovered some time ago that the squat, fat bodies of empty vitamin containers work well for painting miniatures. If the mini has a base, then I just glue it to the cap of the vitamin jug with a bit of white glue. If it's a tab type, then just put it in a slot base, dab white glue on it to temporarily hold it in, and then white glue that base to the vitamin lid. The white glue is strong enough to hold a miniature firmly onto the cap while painting, but pretty easily peels off when you are done and want to actually mount it on something.

They are, actually, rather perfectly aligned.

I believe this is my 23rd miniature (I think? My brain's fuzzy. I blame the goblin.) Overall I'm happy with the results, though his little toothy maw came out a little funny. I don't know if I over clumped some paint early on, but it seemed like he lost the toothy look that the model has on the product page. Constructive criticism welcome! Votes link (if you are so inclined): Minirater Link

I wouldn't have been able to resist naming this thread "Paints on a Plane!". Just thought that worth mentioning.

Gratz to those who won! I'm looking forward to the next contest; I only found this one late and so just submitted my latest deal (though, I am truly partial to my Basil). If you could PM me any scorings Monkey, I'd appreciate it - definitely trying to improve and am very open to critique. !

Okay - you can now. You can now delete an image (to presumably upload a better one). You can also delete the entire entry; look for a 'delete' button along with the save button at the bottom upon editing. There is a mild bug with this - don't delete an image so that there are no images before deleting the entire post. It still does field validation before going through the delete process, and rather counter-intuitively refuses to delete if the require fields are not present. Editing your own name is now in. If you registered with the Facebook setup, you can edit your account after the fact and change it to a name of your choosing. !

Exactly! I think I've become a footprint convert. More mini's need footprints behind them (where applicable).

Thank you for the kind words! I did enjoy painting this mini. I have an affection for giants in general, and female giants are typically under-represented. She's a great one.

I do agree with your points, especially on the hair. I kind of agonized over her hair a bit. I had it way too 'sky blue' at first, then mellowed it to ghost off-white, but couldn't find a strong way to shadow/highlight it. There is some shading there, it's just not very well contrasted. After struggling, I admit I gave up - sometimes you have to move on.

Frulla Krung - female frost giant! The axe is my first ever attempt at NMM, inspired by some of the cool stuff Cashwiley and others have done around here. I just used the standard grey triad with a bit of white on one side and a wee bit of black on the other. Minirater link (votes are gud): http://www.minirater.com/02622-frulla-krung-female-frost-giant

It's not, but I think people have so far been pretty correct in how they categorize their work, and I think this is interesting. That gnoll was actually a pretty rockin' job, especially for re-entering the hobby after so many years. For fun, I just posted my "first" miniature. It, uh, didn't come out as nicely. As discussed in this thread I would still like to come up with general guidelines (not rules - it's just too subjective for that) on what is Novice, Intermediate, and Master. Something in work.

Okay, multiple images per post are in (though needs testing). You now "should be" able to upload multiple images - up to five - of your miniature into a single post. This means posters won't have to create duplicate entries if they want to share more than one photo; nor will they have to make a collage (if they don't want to). Five images! One post! Give it a shot.

Awesome.