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Hi! 🙂 I see myself as a somewhat of an advanced beginner at mini painting. After painting minis on my own for some time, I became interested in revisiting the instructions from my Layer Up! kit. This was the only figure I had left, so I went with it. Overall, I had less fun with it comparing to when I was just starting out. That's because I felt like the instructions were pushing me in directions that I did not want to go. The place I've struggled the most with was the sash. I could not understand its layout, until I looked at the metal version of this figure. At which point, I've decided to redo it in my own way. As a personal accomplishment, these are the best eyes I've done so far. And I think the skin shadows/highlights came out pretty good, too. The base isn't finished. I'm looking to add a sea shell in front of his feet. Anyways! Without further ado, here he is. I'm looking for some constructive comments/criticism! ~Z

Finished the last mini from the LTP Layer up kit. I'm happy with how h turned out and learned a lot about where to place highlights. Now just have to transfer that to other minis. and here are all the mini's from the kit in order of painted. Best face still goes to Ingred, but Hajad has better skin, Anirion is probably the weakest paint job of the 3 but still looks good

The third and final mini from the Layer Up! LTPK, Julie Guthrie’s Hajad the Pirate: Not gonna try for any better images, because then you would see how badly I messed up the eyes... Mostly by the book, but I skipped the lining as my little brush was becoming temperamental. Of the three minis in this kit, this is the one I was most looking forward to, as it has the most exposed skin of the three (one of my problem areas). Think I oversold the abs a bit too much though. Based on issues with the previous minis, I elected to basecoat both weapon blades with Ebony Flesh before applying the metallic. The Filigree Silver included in the kit was too watery to play nice with bare Bonesium, and in any case it was difficult for me to see where the paint actually stuck. Plus, it makes lighter metallics pop. It was nice to see darker flesh tones included in this kit. The darkest (non-dark elf) skin tone I had available before was Tanned Skin, but my attempts to mix in darker paints always resulted in a weird shade of sadness. All in all, this kit was a good learning experience. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and it was neat seeing the colors build up with each layer. The cartoons were cute too. I just hope that my technique improves moving forward. And that painting eyes gets easier.

Hajad is another sacrife to the toy box level painting (ie. ignore moldlines and any advanced techniques) in my quest to find the "right" zombie skin tone. This time based with 50/50 MSP Vampiric skin and VMC Basic Skin Tone. Covered with a wash of Army Painters blacker colored Dark Tone Ink. This is getting closer to what I want and might be right on with a wash using a brown ink like Strong Tone. I am going to find another sacrificial mini to try a 50/50 mix of the vampiric skin with VMV Dark Fleshwith a brown wash. I think that will give me the grey undead color I want ith enough caucasian skin to look like a fresher conversion to the zombie lifestyle. I like this model, so will need to look at getting him in metal at some time. For now this one will be used as a ghost pirate in a Hero Kids adventure with my four year old. Thoughts and comments greatly appreciated.

This little fella came out alright I think. My first successful attempt at painting human eyes at this scale.

Here's the culmination of my first painted set of the Bones I pirates. I'll just let the photos speak for themselves (and I apologize, I'm still working on the photo thing). They were a lot of fun to paint, the women a little more difficult I think due to the sculpts. Gruff Grimecleaver is a really fun little mini. I'm only disappointed when I looked him up in metal and realized his metal version is holding a chicken. How awesome is that! So a chicken might be in the future of my spare version of him. Anyways, thanks for reading, comments and criticism always appreciated!

More pirates for 50 Fathoms, Barnabus Frost (77132) and Hajad (77134). Barnabus got the play the big bad pirate opponent, and Hajad was the unfortunate extra that bit the dust in my one shot I ran last weekend (see here: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/56252-50-fathom-pirate-recruits-bathalian-77020-and-tiik-warriors-77186/)

I quick-painted the five Bones pirates, and this is the fourth. I hated his little moustache, so I ignored it when I painted the figure.

This is the first mini to use my happy seppuku base stamps. I'm still working to reign in the eyes.