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I'm getting a new wet palette soon and I have been struggling to find pennies old enough to contain enough copper to help with the weirdness that my wet palette gets over time. To be clear I want to put some copper under the sponge to do this I'm just not sure what I'm looking for. My big question is should I be looking for copper wire? If so, what gauge(s)? Also, would a copper mesh like the one seen below work just as well if not better?

So, after a lot of thought, research, and discussion, my wife and I have decided to purchase a lost-wax casting system. Essentially this is a system for casting any metal with a melting point below 2000 deg F into jewelry, minis, etc. Unlike the spin casting used by companies like Reaper, this will be low volume with only 10 to 50 pieces a day possible. I should note right away, that I do not intend at this time to go into minis production/sales on my own. So what do I intend to do with it: Make jewelry for my wife and our business. Eventually (10+ years), we would like to get into producing our own line of gold and silver jewelry and become seasonal vendors at various Ren Fairs as a retirement career once the kids are out of college. Of course this is a long term goal and won't happen for a long time yet. I'll practice on copper and pewter first. Make rings for our sister parish in Haiti. Due to various cultural reasons, most Haitians won't get married until they have a pair of rings. This can be very hard for some of the poorer people, so they just stay apart and don't get married. My wife can by old jewelry under value and I'll be able to melt them down and make them new rings and send them down to them as they need it. (We've been giving them the rings she finds, but this way we will be able to cast them in the shapes and sizes they actually need/want.) Make armatures for my sculpts. I spend a lot of time resculpting skulls and basic forms because I have to start from scratch. This will allow me to make a library of animal armatures and other stuff to speed up my sculpting. Also, I will be able to produce better sculpts by being able to control how much and what type of metal is in the armature. I don't ever want to send Reaper another piece of furniture that warps on the mold again (bookcase, I'm looking at you). For sculpts I can't/don't want to sell, I'll be able to make copies for my friends and I (maybe even some goodies for things like the BOGW ). I'm sure I'll think up other uses as I get more skilled at it. I started reading, studying, and taking some classes on the subject in the past few years. I'm at a point where the only way forward is to take the plunge and buy the equipment so I can begin practicing and learning for real. My finances are at a good spot for it now, so I took the plunge and ordered a kit from Gesswein. The following equipment is on its way: Rubber mold vulcanizer (small single figure version of what Reaper uses) Wax injector (for making wax copies in the rubber molds) Burnout oven (for baking the wax copies out of the molds before casting) Vacuum casting machine (for removing air from the molds and later pulling the metal into the molds during casting) Flasks, investment, wax bits, rubber, and lots of other materials needed. Here is a picture of the kit I bought: I won't be able to just jump in and start casting right away. I still will need to get a method of melting the metal (either a torch or an electric furnace). I'll also need to rework my basement studio with new benches, electrical outlets, and venting to make it safe, which is where this thread comes in, as I thought you all might be interested in this, so I plan on documenting everything here, from the unboxing, to the building, to the first cast piece. I'm very very excited! Andy

I recently finished kaphrixis using the scale 75 copper metallics. It's for a gift so it needs to be sealed and I am at a loss as to what to use. Using either a glosscoat or a dullcote will change the brightness of the metal. Does anyone have suggestions on which way to go? Or is there another option? If it were to remain mine I would just put it in the display case unsealed. Thanks for any help.

WIP thread: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/60469-77279-narthrax-copper/ My copper dragon Palorforthen, who I painted Narthrax up as, is a very different sort of story. In my world, dragons do not have alignment based on color. They're good or evil by their own personality, not the color of their scales. Dragons also are not sorted by 'blue is lightning, red is fire', either, but rather into elemental categories of Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and Arcane. Arcane dragons are the strongest, for they are naturally gifted at magic and can use a wider variety of attacks than the others, who are limited to their breath weapon attack. In this world, a large section of the main continent is ruled by a mated pair of large purple Arcane dragons, who are quite evil and power hungry and extort the smaller and weaker dragons living within their borders. The female of the pair, her first clutch of eggs hatched and were playing at the front of the lair, were stolen by thieves while the male was gone hunting and she was resting. Tragically, during transportation all but one was killed, from mistreatment, neglect, and exposure. The remaining one was caged and hauled on a cart, crying the whole while. They passed into the hot desert territory of a young copper Fire dragon named Palorforthen, who heard the calls and went to investigate. Spying the stolen hatchling, he swooped in with his fire blazing to ward off the thieves and break the youngster free. Not finding any parents, and the young hatchling too young to speak or otherwise show where he lived, Palor took him back to his lair and for weeks he tended and fed the little hatchling, thinking of him as a adopted little brother almost...until the mother and father came calling. The evil pair were quite ready to slay Palor, viewing him as the thief that had stolen them in the first place, if not for the little hatchling's obvious affection for him. After listening to his terrified babbling, they decided to believe him and, seeing how much their little son cared for him, forced Palor into servitude for them and bullied him back to their lair as a companion and guardian for their remaining son, leaving him under threat of horrid torture and death to not let any harm come to him or to make him upset. In fear of his own life, and in truth having grown very fond of the little hatchling, he bowed to their wills and became a servant, tending their son as a playmate, older brother, and protector....always under the watchful eyes of his sadistic parents.

This is was my entry for the 4th quarterly Reaper Facebook contest. It was good enough for 3rd place! There were so many well painted models, and awesome interpretations. As I was planning it, my starting idea was copper nmm. I didn't want the typical verdigris. Then I thought a bluish or purple to counter the orange, so that got me thinking Drow with purple glazed into her shadows. Then I took that farther to try to get OSL in her eyes, shield, and base as if she was casting 'protection from good' or something. Sadly, the OSL was saved to the end when I ran out of time. So I tried a bright rim around those areas, then a purple glaze. It wasn't striking enough for my tastes, but ... deadlines! So, I hope you like her. Sorry if the photo is blurry, it's a cell phone screen grab. C&C welcome.

Hi, Here is my take on Kyphrixis painted as a Copper Dragon. I used metallic (craft) paints throughout. What I found the hardest was to try to break the monotony of a big metallic piece and give him character. I mostly used various alternated washes to try to accomplish that, and a good dose of verdigris. C&C always appreciated. (Also, due to the metallic sheen, I struggled to take good pictures so I varied backgrounds)

Young Swamp Dragon "Copper Dragon on Marbled Tiled Hex Base" At the monthly Paint Day I host in Seneca Falls, NY ... Finger Lakes Paint and Game Day ... a Reaper forumite came up for a visit from down near NYC. He brought with him some great pieces of marble tiles that were left over from a floor installation. These tiles are 3/8 inches thick and one inch to a side hexagons of white marble. He gave me several before he left to return home. Not long after that day, I decided to utilize one of his amazing pieces of marble for the Reaper Miniatures Young Swamp Dragon, sculpted by Kevin Williams, that had been sitting in his blister pack on the wall above my work table. But I wanted to really utilize the gleaming white marble and pay an homage to the base. So using plastic squares as individually placed tiles I set out to make a marble floor on top of the marble base. The base turned out wonderfully. But what kind of dragon was I interested in painting? I certainly wasn't interested in making him a "swamp" dragon. After some thought and a comparison of size to some of my other dragons, I decided he would be a copper dragon. But that led to the idea that the copper dragons would molt their skins like lizards and snakes. This molting would in fact take the form of verdigris (copper rust) and form around the outside of the dragon as it slept for long periods. I set out to create a verdigris combination of paints to paint on his wings and underbelly. But after some conversations with other artists and a specific comment from the provider of the marble tile, I decided the dragon was shaking off his molt and scattering bits of the verdigris around the floor and that his wings were still not finished molting and that hardened bits were still attached to the dragon. To see everything that went on in the production of this piece, please check out the WIP. Thus, I present to you, my copper dragon: Enjoy. Check him out in the Inspiration Gallery. (Approved) Added to Thrym's Index of Reaper Miniatures & Thrym's General Show Off List

Critique please! This is the test fig for my gnoll contingent that came with one of my bones kick starter sets. The rest are about half way done, but I wanted to get feedback before I got all the work done on all of them so I can take said feedback into account.

I've only been painting minis since January but I learn a little more with each mini. I got this mini from my local gaming shop.How it hadn't been snapped up already, I'll never know. I had a paint scheme in mind even before I got home. I loved the damage in the wings and knew I wanted to make them really pop out. So I thought what better way to do that then by going with a copper dragon showing it's age in both the copper shades and with the teal patina. It took some playing around with a combination of browns and rosy skin tones to get the different shades of the brown copper and a combination of the ocean and moss paints to get the green patinas. (Oh if only I had known that Reaper was going to be coming out with copper colors in this Kickstarter! But I can't wait to play with them next year. ) I entered it in a Large Monsters contest at my local gaming shop so it's only the dragon without the rest of ruins and minis. I decided to keep the underside cleaner and brighter than the top of it since that would be more protected. So the chest is a light copper with few marks and scratches. I started with matter colors to get the right shades of copper then lightly brushed on a metallic copper to the scales and wings to give it a nice sheen. I did paint the horns and claws solid copper metallic. When I think of dragons being hunted, I thought of what would be treasured and displayed. The head and claws come to mind so I wanted to make them really stand out as a real treasure. The kind of thing that a kingdom would have on display for generations in a mighty hall even when it was nothing but the bones, copper horns and talons. I'm also including a picture of the base minus the dragon so you can see it. I'm really happy with the stone work on it. I added some grass and vines to it to give it more depth and interest. All in all, I'm pretty pleased with it and I really enjoyed painting it. It's the biggest mini I've worked on so far. I'm debating adding some stippling on the wings to age them a bit more but we'll see. For now I'll just enjoy it.

I went on a dragon painting binge a couple of months ago. This is Sandra Garrity's Dragon of the Fire (or rather, its more casual cousin the Bones Fire Dragon). I started with some thought of it being a desert dweller and it developed from there. WIP thread here, including a few false starts.

Now for something completely different.... I'm putting together a piece for my wife while I wait for paints to finish out Jazzy's elf/fairy/lutanist/whatev! The Bladesinger ended up being too large for Munchkin usage, and she and Jazzy never could decide who the piece belonged to anyway so... Here's to round #2! This will probably be a 2-piece game piece starring Victoriana and her robot companion/butler/keeper of the cheese HLpR Bot, both of Bombshell Miniatures. My wife loves all things Jane Austin, all things Victorain, all things Tea Time... You get the idea. She likes to tease me about painting tiny things, then I remind her of the time I walked into her watching Pride and Prejudice on tv while crocheting a purse and sipping on herbal tea... ANYWAY! This should be right up her alley and she's excited about it. I'm considering several ideas for basing (I'm getting addicted to basing). I've asked and looked at examples of miniature rugs, wooden staircases, cobblestone streets, etc. However, I was digging through my ever-increasing bin of things I've ordered but haven't used yet, and came across my Army Painter field flowers. I may end up doing a picnic for a lovely spring day... All in the size of piece used for Munchkin (yeah! right!) At any rate, here are the pics of Victoriana and HLpR Bot in all their shiny metal glory! The Lovely Lady: The Fussy Assistant: Partners in Crime (and tea!): I'm going to mess around with a few ideas, and am going to have some fun with this. I've got some Sculpey I haven't used yet (the oak tree was Milliput), and I may try to whip something together. Here's an idea: I'm considering using Sculpey over these 2 wooden disks to build up a small mound with grass, flowers, and possibly some gingham blanket somewhere on the thing... Maybe just a small corner to indicate the picnic part. (For reference, the large disk is around 40mm) We'll see what happens!