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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!

Welcome! This is my first thread here, and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone for the knowledge and inspiration that I have already received from this site. I painted some when I was in college about 20 years ago. Mostly GW stuff as it was easily obtained. Most of it was fairly flat. No wash, layering, glazes, ... However, I did do a little with drybrushing. The back of the cloaks on the Wood Elf Wayfinders very much screamed for drybrushing. I've spent my last few months getting an area in my garage cleared for me to paint., as well as picking up a few supplies. Most of my GW paints had dried out. At least one ones in the pots. I still have a few of the bottles that they used before the pots that still have usable paint in them. Most of my paints are the hobby paints that you can pick up at Wal-mart, Hobby Lobby, Michael's. I got some paints someone was throwing out, so .... cheap. My one lamp (swing arm with magnifying lens) I also got because someone was throwing it out (they claimed it didn't work. Simple bulb change fixed that). This last week I have been putzing about with my camera (Polaroid i256 I think. Nothing special). I have been trying to figure out how to get a good picture, and keep the size of the picture down. So, let's see how I did. Living Elemental © Wizkids Not much so far. Just the basecoating. I'm looking to blend color into the "branches" for lack of a better word. I'm looking to have them be lighter at the tops as they should have the least growth/weathering. At least as I see it. Skeleton Archer © Wizkids I've noticed that I missed some armor on the left leg, as well as a spot on the box (visible from the back). I plan on adding metal to the armor at the ends, but feel that it should be mostly leather. I plan on doing the cape in blue and the fletches in red. The cape I want to blend into a dark brown/black at the bottom to give the idea of it being worn and used over the decades. Wood Golem © Wizkids I picked this because I thought it would be fun, and because of the contrast to be had between the bark and the exposed parts where it looks like it has been cut. I want to get a wash on those parts to try and show off the rings. I also want to do an overbrush on the bark to try and darken that up some. Potbellied Gremlin © Wizkids Nothing here yet. I was working with browns the other day and that just doesn't fit in yet. For whatever reason, I see this guy as a bit of a diseased creature, and am looking to work with a lot of glazing with yellows, brows, and greens. All of these pics are just the front photo. I have side and rear pictures as well that can be found in the link in my signature. The WIP pictures should all be around 60-70kb to fit the WIP guideline of 150kb. If you venture off into the Miscellaneous section, those pictures might be a bit larger (~500kb). But, you can look at my workspace (such as it is), lightbox, paints, brushes, and bitboxes. Thanks for your time. Any and all critiques are welcome. How else am I to learn?

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:

My daughter who turns 6 in a week and a half has been bothering me to paint her skeleton in the extra LTPK I gave her last year. I agreed last week and we started it up. I grabbed another skeleton from my Vampire set and went along since it had been a while since I painted mine. Tonight we finished up and based them. Can you pick out which is her skeleton and which one is mine?

Hi everyone, I've been lurking over recent weeks on these forums, after hearing about the Bones 3 kickstarter reignited my interest in painting miniatures. I did a bit of miniature painting about 15-20 years ago, largely for D&D games (painting Ral Partha figures), and still have a pile of leftover unpainted figures. So after I came across the Reaper Learn To Paint Kit, I decided to dive back in and have a go. I've now finished the three LTPK figures, and done a few of my old Ral Partha items. Learning to paint is sooooooo much better these days, having access to all of the discussions in these forums, and other tutorials online. I've already been able to try several new techniques that I had no way of finding out about all those years ago - even things like wet palettes, and how to take a half-decent photograph. I did the three LTPK figures first - pretty much solely following the painting guidelines in the set. I was very pleasantly surprised at how these turned out - especially the orc's skin and leather armour. This is a bariaur from the Ral Partha Planescape boxed set. Very pleased with his fur and horns. Eyes need lots more practice. No idea where this ranger figure originally comes from - a friend ask me to paint it for his character in our D&D game (a game that ended in 1999... so I'm only running a little bit late). Got to have a go at some basic layering on his cloak, but the eyes still a problem. This ghost came from the Ral Partha Ravenloft Castles Forlorn boxed set - just a chance to practice some gradual colour changes - need to try using some (washes? glazes?) to smooth the transitions, presumably. Anyway, thanks to everyone who regularly posts on these forums - I've been finding it all amazingly useful to get back into the hobby, get the right gear, and learn some new techniques. And in so many cases, a really good inspiration on where I can improve. Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks, Stu