Search the Community

More later, with pictures… What would it take to get started in gaming with (painted) miniatures? I’d look at the MSRPs of currently available stuff. Quick estimate: Reaper LTPK $40; Set of rules (I like A Song of Blades and Heroes, $15 from the Big River), enough Bones to fill out 2 10 figure warbands (~50, details later); minimal scenery and discretionary budget, say $15 (bases, dollar store craft gear, etc.); total ~$120…

I recently finished a group of Reaper Bones miniatures. As they are so small they were a little hard to paint at some points. I'm fairly new painting miniatures so I was looking for some feedback and potentially some tips on how to improve in the future. All comments, advice, and constructive criticism is welcome. My own main criticism with them is the highlights as I'm not 100% where/how to paint proper highlights to make a natural look without a ton of brush strokes.

Fire Giant, miniature in Blood Rage board game by CMON. Second attempt at Object Source Lighting, and first at actual flames, lava and red hot sword.

The Troll, from Blood Rage board game by CMON. Highlights attempted with dusk sunlight from upper right direction. First attempt at painting gems (rubies amd emeralds). This was a bad mini to paint, due to entire areas not being accesible without cutting the figure apart (i.e. behind the handle, underneath the loincloth, the feet and hands).

Yay, more painting!

I just installed reaper for the first time, on a friend's recommendation. I opened a project that he made that I know works. I set the audio output drivers and devices. I get click sounds in the program, but the project has no audio for a short while, then blasts a whistling sound, almost like guitar feedback, and the volume levels show max. I can't seem to find record of this anywhere, any ideas?

So last week I started in on the Reaper Learn to Paint Kit: Core Skills. got the skeleton done which turned out decently and started in on this guy. Yesterday I finished him. I ended up getting the orc stalker instead of the marauder, and I think this one must be a bit more difficult to paint as it has a lot more differing areas on him. Overall not too bad for starting out I think. the swords took a few coats of base, they were very smooth and untextured so the honed steel paint wasn't taking very well at first, and washing it didn't do much of anything. Painting eyes is going to be a challenge to learn.

Hello again everyone. I've been working away at trying to improve my painting. Reaper Bones 89001 Pathfinder Red Dragon This is the model that made me place my first Reaper order and get back into painting. I've started using sand for basing again and I really enjoy the fine texture it gives. I tried using sealer to "save" my work a few times on this model but I never ended up removing my mistakes, instead I just painted over them. I think this has left some of the details a bit gloopy (e.g. the horns). Overall I am pretty happy with it but I would love to hear any comments. Once I know he is done I am going to Dullcote him and then put some gloss on his tongue. RAFM Durnaoth Elf Halberds and Ral Partha 03-209 Elf Standard Bearer I bought these off eBay not really knowing what they would end up looking like. I find the standard bearer looks a little goofy (reminds me of the Planescape Torment character models) but I really like the Halberdiers. They were weird to assemble, as they were molded with their right hands attached to their thighs. They had to be cut off and their arms bent into place. I still feel like there is a little something missing. Again, any feedback would be great. I am planning to get some gloss spray (Krylon maybe?) for these guys and then I will dullcote them. I will test that on the standard bearer first. My fiancee wants to set them up with the dragon somewhere in our apartment. Crucible 91-221 Orc Eagle Knights Another eBay purchase where I had little idea what I would be getting. I was really excited to find out that these are orcs with an Aztec spin. They are almost where I want them but I still have a few things left to do. Let me know what you think. Thank you!

I am of course in way over my head here, but I am trying my hand at sculpting now. I've looked at a bunch of guides and tutorials, and played around with GS and fimo. This project will hopefully result in a pseudodragon for one of the players in my group, or at the very least a nice learning experience. Unfortunately, I didn't think of creating a thread until after I've started, so in these pictures I have already made a "skeleton" out of iron wire and added GS and fimo to it. Now I am waiting for the GS to harden a bit so I can start sculpting "for real".

Hello! New here... Started getting into D&D in the fall of last year and figured I'd go all-in and do the whole miniatures thing. Got a nice order from this place for Christmas and decided to start with my Bones minis, primarily since I'm an action figure customizer and felt more at ease painting plastic than pewter. I should also point out that I've never ever had a good experience with paint washes, or shaded painting, so I'm sticking to "clean" paint jobs like one would find on an action figure or a PVC figurine. Hopefully I can still get feedback, pointers, et cetera. Hellknight: This guy's from Pathfinder but I'm a D&D guy so I just made him an evil knight with an original color scheme. My friend who DOES play Pathfinder tells me the color scheme was cool nonetheless. Half-Orc Assassin: You guys call him Rogan, but I painted him to look like the half-orc assassin from the old D&D toyline by LJN, Zarak. This one also took some sculpting, he seemed to be missing some muscle mass on his left arm, and most of his left finger was missing, so I had to fix that up with Green Stuff. Got him largely to keep company to my WOTC Warduke mini, and I'm hoping to find something that'd work as the evil sorcerer Kelek. Speaking of, these aren't by Reaper but I wanted to try and show them off too. Warduke is awesome. His WOTC miniature isn't perfect but it hits all the right marks... except the limited color palette that pales in comparison to the classic figure's look. Took it upon myself to fix that. An old piece from the Dark World board game that survived from my childhood. The Manticore is one of my favorite mythological beasts. Had to resculpt one of his forelimbs's claws since it broke off at some point between childhood and now. I'm hoping I can get some cool colors done for the Ogres and diminutive Orcs I still also have from that game. Thanks for looking!

I'm painting an oldie but a goodie, the Demon from grenadier 5002. I havent found any finished paint jobs of this that impressed, if anyone has one I'd love to see it. I decided to use the cover of the box (screenshot included)as inspiration and try blending, washes, and highlights. I would NMM his sword but I can't figure out how to shade a surface with this many angles yet, so I went with the flame idea. His offhand should be holding a whip, but I decided it was another chance to work on blending and it looks better than a brown leather whip there. Process and paints on the blending Primed with citadel black Blending: Made a 4:4:1 wash of vallejo retarder medium/water/citadel khorne red (this looks to me like skim milk) Used this wash very lightly probably 8 - 10 times on the top of wings, stroking from the bottom to top (I thought this was probably the best blend work on this mini?) Repeated this process for the sword using citadel khorne red, troll slayer orange, flash glitz yellow, and vallejo white grey, reverse for the whip. I painted the green with citadel kharloc green, highlighted it with citadel warboss green. The fur I painted with khorne red and troll slayer blended, then dry brushed with troll slayer. The sword handle I dry brushed with Citadel chainmail I liberally washed the entire figure except the sword with citadel nuln oil. Questions that I ran into so far: How do I darken or lighten a red? If I add black it turns purple, If I add white it turns into pink. How do I darken an orange? Similar problems. Is washing with black the right idea? When I bought paints at the FLGS here in the bay area, it was suggested that I buy agrax earthshade, which is brown. I've also found some devlan mud because everyone online seems to rave about it. Also brown...What gives? How do you NMM a horizontal curved surface like this sword? Is this a technique that could be applied to a sword blended like this to add to the effect? Please your C&C is welcome.

Greeting all, What would you recommend for a beginner painter for an easy humanoid (no monster) miniature? I am getting into to painting and want to something easy to begin with. Thanks

Hello. I'm new to painting and have no artistic background. I've been watching videos and reading tips and tricks. I'm ready to embark on my first painting expedition! Some minis look far more intricate than others. Can you suggest a few specific models that might be "easier" for a beginner to paint? Thank you!

Had some time at work to slap paint on Arthrand here. I'm trying to subtly add highlights to his cloak. I've not had much practice with it yet. I know I need to push them a bit higher still though. Also sorry for the sideways image. I'm uploading from my phone and it's gone wonky. I don't know how to fix it!

New dude posting! Here's what I'm currently working on, in spare time as I find it. Had some snow days from classes, so I knocked out a few minis. This one isn't quite done yet. Neither are the others, really.

Hi! New guy here. I just found out about Reaper minis when Bones 1 came out. My roommate backed it and got a ton. He also backed Bones 2 and those just came in. He lets me slather paint at them. I'd have backed Bones 2 myself, but I was distressingly broke. Anyway, neither of these are my first mini (though Gerard kinda looks like he could be) and were painted months apart. I painted Gerard back in like.. July. Almaran was in December, partly because I wanted to be better at painting first before I tackled him. I have another figure of both of them of my own, unpainted. I have an idea about what I want to do with "my" Almaran, but I'm not sure how to go about the armor yet. I digress. Minis! The picture of Almaran is a bit blurry. Sorry about that.

This is the Reaper CAV "Spectre" in Bones, number "**94006" (I hope). Story time: Having only painted a handful of fantasy figures, my CAV earlybird robots arrived, and I became paralyzed. "How do I paint them? What colors? Do I paint them all the same color? Or in squads? How do I build squads? Where are the rules? Oh no what if I do it wrong?" Yet, when I assembled them all, I found an excuse! A Spectre with two left arms. Aha! Reaper wastes no time in shipping out a replacement, so my reprieve will, it seems, be brief. When my box arrives, I tear into it expecting a tiny mech arm to be floating in all the packaging materials, only to find an entire complete Spectre! They sent me a whole figure instead of just the arm! Well, that means I still have a 'spare' Spectre, with his unorthodox firing methods, so that's nice. But what's this? Paint? Free paint! A bottle of Reaper MSP Promo 09659 Ginger Cookie! Clearly, this was a suggestion. Sophie, upon packing up my Spectre knew I needed a nudge, and thus provided it. So "Leftie" is going to be a cookie mech. Blessed with freedom from choice, I actually started getting to work. Paralysis blasted! He's an extra, so who cares if I ruin him? I can't go wrong! To start, I filed off (some) mold lines, boiled him to straighten things out, washed him with a soapy toothbrush, rinsed, dried, and stuck his bits to bottles. Then I slathered on a coat of unthinned Ginger Cookie. By the time I finished the parts I could get, it had dried enough for a second coat. His bits: Closeup of my slathering skills: I'm planning to glue in his, er, Crotch, to the knees, but leave the rest un-glued so I can rotate him and stuff. Tips, ideas, suggestions welcome, but don't expect the painting to get much better than "looks ok, mostly, from a distance, without your glasses on".

Recieved april 11th, finished unboxing after only 2 days! I sorted out all the minis I wanted to painted that would fit in the case. after about 2 weeks: Here are 2 of my early heroes. I love the scroll, and folds in the robes, but hate the faces. after about a month: koboolds, goblins, 10 adventures are painted. At least a few are on a shelf of shame, waiting fixes Goblins the goblins seemed very paint friendly, with large eyes, protruding eyeballs, and interesting details, but something went wrong. advice is welcome.

What can I say - I'm a sucker for punishment. I'm learning to paint by painting gnomes There's a method to the madness, though - I'm working up to painting the gnome that represents my DnD character. So without further ado - here's my third miniature attempt: Ingrid, gnome rogue who loves the shinies. Comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated. I tried to do highlights as well as shadows, with some success, but my highlights need work. I have to say - that desk lamp with 3x magnification I got really helped - at least I saw the details this time!

It's all Loim's fault. Oh, it started innocently enough. First he lured me into the world of Reaper Miniatures by inviting me to some crazy DnD play-by-post games on the forums. Once here, I started lurking in the crafting topics, amazed at the incredible things everyone is doing. I was hooked. Then when I started talking about how much I'd like to try painting some minis, he rounded up from his supplies the basics I'd need to get started in the habit...er...hobby. Armed with some paints, brushes, wet palette parchment, and some cool Reaper Bones, I was ready to get painting! How hard could it be?? Quite, it turns out, when you have no freaking idea what you're doing. But thanks to the excellent tutorials in photography here on the forums (and finally finding the manual to my camera :P ) I was able to take decent shots of my first attempts to paint miniatures, in all their gory detail. I didn't do a WIP because it wasn't until last night that I finally got the photography right... Loim insisted I inflict them on you all before I throw them in the Simple Green, so here they are. Comments and critique are welcomed. The first mini I tried to paint was the Reaper Bones skeletal swordsman. He suffered badly from my attempts to drybrush highlights. The next mini I tried was the Reaper Bones female gnome caster. I missed a lot of her detail - couldn't see it, partly due to really awful lighting at my desk. And my usual approach in this situation - aim in the general direction and hope for the best - works pretty well for threading needles, but not so much for painting minis...

I picked up my first ever Bones piece at ReaperCon this year. I found out very quickly that water doesn't play well with Bones, but I also heard that you don't need to prime Bones. My question is simple: do you prime your Bones? And if not, how do I need to alter my paint prep to get the best results? Thanks!

Hello again everyone who comes to this lovely little forum to show off and take a look at some of the nicest miniatures around. Today I bring to you not a Reaper mini (didn't have one that fit my character so had to look else where), but one I found for a game called Hell Dorado. So far I've finished only the base coat and a little bit of the highlighting on his body. I'm looking at whitening up his clothes a bit more and then I need to work on his eyes and all of the touchups. So without further adieu, here is my latest mini: When I finish him up tomorrow I'll be sure to post the final product and share some of my thoughts on this particular mini. In the mean time if yall have any comments or recommendations I would love to hear them as I'm still very much a newbie to the hobby.

Hello great and wise painters, I hope I can have a moment of your time for some advice on Paints. About a year ago I got quite some bones from the first Kickstarter for tabletop playing. They arrived a little while ago and now I would like to paint them as well but I am new to the painting scene. Currently I am in the process of picking what paint I want to use. Unfortunately the local game store mainly got GW paints and some of the Vallejo paints but no Reaper paints. So I'll be getting my paints directly from Reaper. For my initial paint selection I want about 30 paints but I have no clue which ones I will be using often, I think I saw a list somewhere but I can not find it any more. So can any one point me to this list or advice me on what paints I should get to get me started. Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone, my brother and I have recently decided to pick up miniature painting for our Pathfinder games so we have a little more control over what our characters look like. I currently have 3 miniatures being shipped and we are also waiting for the LTPK to arrive as well. Definitely looking forward to learning the art and I've been watching videos and reading the pinned topics at the top of this page to get an idea of what to do in terms of painting. Now I have decided to post here to ask the more experienced (and by that I mean you have actually put paint to miniature unlike myself :P) what are some things you wished you had known or done before you started your first miniature. Maybe some tips or products that you didn't think about being useful then, but now you couldn't do without. Even some paints (or paint brands you might recomend to buy or stay far away from) that are really important to have in a collection (I already know about browns being useful for the obvious reason of skin and what not) Any tips or help would be greatly appreciative and I'm definitely looking forward to getting into this hobby.

So the bones kickstarter came with 12 giant rats and 2 swarms. some of its not going so well. My young daughter did the brown basecoats, then I tried to clean them up, using some drybrushing. Bleh. advice might be helpful. then I did a swarm, black rats, pink faces, and some gray highlights. it looks okay from a distance, but a hot mess up close. Then I found a WIP thread where someone painted them white. with some pink. This turned out adorable Gaint rats, but my attept to add black shadows did not go perfectly. I think I may stay with the minimalist approach. Just unpainted bones with pink details and painted bases. The bases will need color stripes so I can track them in play. Im also considering painting 3 of remaining 6 large rats black/gray with pink faces.