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Orc Marauder, Grunt, Slayer, Slicer, Stalker, and Sniper ready for the table. Orcs don't care bout no social distancing!

I decided that with my Bones 4 refrigerator box looming on the horizon, I should just get some of my old Bones painted. I knew I wouldn't devote the time to getting any of these ultra pretty, so they had just been sitting in a bag unless I needed to throw some placeholders on the map during a game. One Sunday, I powered through as many as I could just to get them done. Vandorendra (NSFW) Funnily enough, I was just as proud of some of these as some of the nicer paint jobs I've done, since I was able to let go and just let them be imperfect, and they were done and out of my to be painted pile.

Couldn't resist the silly-ish title - it was originally going to be "Novice Painter, versus LTPK:Core!" but I changed it a touch at the end.. Bonus points if you read that as the Innkeeper from Hearthstone. :P While I have painted miniatures in the past, I've first and foremost never shown such results to anyone, and secondly went in blindly with those ones, and while I was happy with them at the time, I wanted to improve. Other things in life took over for a while, and then finally I said that's it, I'm either going to FINALLY paint my primered army of doom that was at Doom In June 2005 or I'm going to sell the minis I've had sitting in boxes for over a decade. So glad I found out about the Learn to Paint Kits, because that pretty much solidified that decision right then and there :P Anyways! At some point we were all at this stage, and while looking over the pictures I can see a number of things I can improve on (*cough* like my up close photography skills *cough*), but for most things... I'm happy with them. Especially the chain mail on the Orc Marauder. I just might have to retake some of these photos, because I realize looking at them that, uhm, first and foremost f1.7 blurs half the model, and secondly, I didn't get a shot of the backside of the Marauder's Shield, which I was also happy about. Oops. But before I ramble on for three pages......! Drybrushing feels sooooo weird, but it was starting to click once I got to Magnu, even if I wound up overdoing it in a few areas and it so wasn't a dry effect anymore. But that's life, we learn from our actions!

Painted 2/17 with LTPK received at Xmas. Asked for it after tough experience painting minis with Folk Art craft paints. (See bugbear warrior post.) Soooo much easier! It was like a different art form altogether. I followed the directions verbatim with the skeleton. I like greyish orcs so changed the skin tone and some other colors. IIRC, Mangu is per the painting guide.

Hello everyone, So I have had reaper minis since the first bones kickstarter, but it wasn't until recently that I actually decided to start painting. I wanted to show off what I've done so far, and hopefully post other pictures as I make progress. I realize that these are rough, and I appreciate any advice on the matter. I posted these pretty well in the order that I painted them, and had anywhere from a few days to a few weeks between each mini. I think I am finally getting the hang of dry brushing, as seen with the golem, and the more I learn, the more I think I need to go back and touch up my older paint jobs. But overall, I'm pretty happy with the way they look. I can't wait to use them at the game table! P.S. I probably need to find a better place and method for taking pictures. These are ok, but I like the more professional looking pictures I tend to see. Apologies if the quality on these pictures is not excellent.

After lurking around off and on for the past year and a half or so I've decided that y'all seem to be a safe bunch of nuts so I figured I might as well say hello and try that whole being sociable thing, I thought I'd share the first things I painted. These are from the Learn to Paint Bones Kit I got in January of last year when I first discovered Reaper. I have to say that I have been really impressed with their customer service! These are currently tacked onto my monitor at work:

I've been working on two of the minis that came with my Reaper Bones Learn to Paint kit. I've tried to follow the directions pretty much step-by-step, and I think they're coming along pretty well. Some observations I've made as a new painter: 1) Separated paints need be shaken very thoroughly, even sometimes to the point of popping off the dropper cap and stirring them with a toothpick or something similar before shaking them. Big thanks to Mad Jack and Inarah for pointing this out and suggesting getting some small glass beads to drop in the bottles and act as agitators. I never would have thought of that. 2) Some areas will require multiple coats of paint, and you must wait for the previous coat to dry before applying the next one. It doesn't take that long to dry, but if you try to paint over wet paint it will just mess up the first layer. This may be a duh kind of thing, but it's also one I learned by trial and error (mostly error). 3) Look at the mini you're painting from a bunch of different angles. This will help you find any spots you missed, and you will miss some. Also, taking pictures can help find areas that need to be touched up. I've found this very useful, so I've started taking pictures whenever I decide to take a break or get to a point where I have to wait for something to dry before moving on. Use the zoom, Luke! It may be that nobody finds any of that useful, but I thought I would share it just in case. It's the kind of things that weren't covered in the painting guide or that I've seen in videos or write-ups that I've watched/read online so far. If anybody has other tips or tricks they use, please let me know. I do learn from mistakes, but I'd rather avoid them if possible. Thanks! Illustration of what separated (read: not shaken enough) green paint looks like applied to a mini's base: Properly shaken green paint applied as a second coat (also note touched up steel toes on boots): Skeleton after base coat, wash, and first drybrush highlight: Skeleton after second drybush highlight and detail colors:

77042: Orc Marauders (Sword and Shield) NNM and metal with black wash.

I had taken a bit of time off, and the results show.. but, not too bad. It was a bit chalky, so I did a few green ink washes to even it out and bring out the green more..

I did have more of my second wave to post - I would have gotten these up at the time but I didn't have a digital camera that was worth a damn. First, I have a neat comparison. The first of these minis is an Orc Swordsman done with full shading, highlighting, etc. The second is essentially a basecoat, picking out a few extra highlights, and an "Agrax Earthshade" wash: --------- Interesting, no? Compare to the same model that I painted (and posted) earlier - this one was done with a basic wash/drybrushing technique: