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I decided to flip through my ReaperCon purchase of the Learn to Paint Kit 2: Layer Up! and was inspired to actually get started... This is the result of a couple of hours of effort. Still working on the shadow stages, but so far I'm a fan of both the instructions, the paints, and my work. I'm not a fan of the brush that came with the kit. According to the instructions, it's supposed to be a size 1, it's a size 0. Not that big a deal... but the fact that it's bristles are splayed out like an abused drybrush? Does not match the quality of the brush I bought at ReaperCon and have been using regularly since.

So I'm new to the forums and new to the hobby. New to painting. I picked up one of the L2PKs and gave it a shot. Forcing myself to share in hopes of motivating myself to keep sharing and hopefully keep improving. Had a hard time with the eyes and the teeth. The iPhone had a hard time taking pictures.

I just started painting miniatures in July, and the very first figures I painted were the L2PK1 ones. I then did a few more miniatures based on what I learned from that and I just finished the L2PK2 yesterday. I thought I'd post some pictures here and hopefully get some feedback on how to improve. I have the L2PK3 and I've ordered 4 and 5, which I think I'll actually do first. I've read through some of the WIP threads and the NMM looks like something I should have more practice before trying. These were all done using the paints from the first 3 L2PKs plus a tan sample bottle. Here are the Giant Rat and Swordsmen from L2PK1. Since these were literally my first miniatures I followed the instructions very closely. I needed some familiars and small animals for a game, so I did these next. I was inspired by the image from the Gallery for my werewolf, and I just noticed that the paint developer at Reaper uses it as her Icon so now I know where it came from! These guardsmen where done using very similar techniques as the Anthurian Swordsman, just different color cloth. The look of dry brushing screams SKELETONS! So I bought some to practice on. I like the Bronze Age look I got from adding a bit of brown to the antique gold from L2PK2. And here are the L2PK2 results which I just finished yesterday. I got ahead of myself and missed that the skirt was supposed to be blue, but I like having it all green. I'll take the metal washers off once the weather cools and I can get a coat of sealer on them. These are all for table top gaming, but I really want to have good looking miniatures to play with. Clearly the first thing I need to do though is get better lighting for taking pictures of my future minis to post.

Okay, so I've been using synthetics for a while - and not expensive ones either. Cheap ones. These ones, which I actually love quite a bit, and need to order a few new sets of - but I want to upgrade. I started painting minis about two months ago, but I've always been obsessed with them; I just never had the $ before... Now that I'm in college, I've got loads of cash, strange as it may seem to say! So anyways - I'm in the hole ~700$ for KS2, and after Christmas I plan to see if I can scrape together the scratch for either the 52-paint set or all of the L2PK, so I was thinking I should look into a new brush as well. I want to try one, to start, and then get a few more as I get used to them, although I might pick up a liner brush as well... Now my question is this. I want to try a W&N Kolinsky Sable - the one that Buglips and co. are always raving about. But I've been seeing a few people saying they've been shipped bum ones lately, so I'm wondering if I should buy from a store. This place: http://www.alvinco.com/~TheLilyPad/Shop/Products.aspx?IID=45218 Is local to me - a five minute walk away - and so I was wondering if I should go there to buy, so I can see the brush before I buy it, or if there's somewhere cheaper online that's reliable? I've got a little list of questions, so I'll toss them here: 1) This is the right one, right? Not a "student's line", or anything? They're right down the street from the school, so... 2) Is 25$ a reasonable price for this brush? 3) Brush care... I know I need shampoo for them. Any favorite brands here, or just whatever's cheapest at the shop? 4) These. Anybody used them & want to offer a review? I could probably spring for one of the sables, and get one of these too... If I did, what would be the best size? 5) About those L2PK... Does anyone have a list of what you get if you get all 5 of them? I know people said you get whole bottles, but I've not seen a list of exactly what those bottles are - anyone have a list of colors, so I don't accidentally overlap if I get the 52-set and the L2PK? (Finances... sometimes, they work well for me. Sometimes, things are lean... It's a complicated algorithm based on a base of 200/month, less groceries, less textbooks (once per semester) and the rest is my hobby money. Don't drink, so... Minis it is! How many just depends on the number of days I want to eat well vs mac&cheese & chicken thigh nights...) Anyways, answers for any of these'd be great. I'm looking forward to next semester - every night is ramen night ATM because I'm scrimping & saving for KS2; I want to be able to toss in around 800 at Christmas - and I'm looking forward to the summer even more - I want my minis! Hopefully, Reaper was being conservative in their shipping dates - I'm EB, so if you could get those out by July, I'd be happy to bring mine to Connecticon and advertise for you there! :D Anyways, I'm rambling. Thanks for your help, guys!

Well, since I've got my first order of minis from Reaper, it looks like I'm officially in the hobby. Alas, all I have at the moment are a big pile of minis, four paints, and no brushes to use them with til I open gifts with my dad this weekend, he got me the four Learn to Paint Kits that are in stock (no #2), so that also means a Bones stocking. I think I might've gone a touch overboard in getting minis, but I wanted a wide variety of things to work with. So today marks the first package of four, hopefully all of them having a Bones stocking within, so in addition to the minis I want, I'll have over 50 bonus Bones (Bonesuses?) to which I can apply my beginning craft. So at the moment all I have to offer are photos of my purchase and the contents of the stocking. You can see it to the left of the P in Reaper, but it seems that one of the lady lycanthropes (Technically since two of them are cats, it ought to be therianthropes, I do believe?) had her tail break off during shipping. At least I think it fell off. I can't get a good butt inspection, since I don't want to open the pack and lose the tail somewhere along the way. So there's going to be my first foray into mini repair, super glue, and possibly using some sort of putty since odds are I won't be able to pin the thing on, due to a lack of surface. Also present is the Bone Triad of paint. Though this order has zombies and an armored skelly, my next order has a big pile of shambling calcium. So I figured I'd pick up those shades. We have the zombies, a bunch of animal people, kobolds for another flavor of low level fodder, and some cute demonesses. This selection should surprise no one that knows of my day job. Just google Von Krieger, and have brain bleach on hand. I'm the first two results, and most of them that aren't about soem car or the Adventure Quest guy. Aside from the bottle of Ginger Cookie colored paint, this is the contents of my Bones stocking. Some minis I'd been thinking about getting, and I think I actually got Mr. Leezard there in another order. I'd been eying the green ghosties, but thought I'd hold off until I got the basics down before trying to mess with translucent stuff. I've got three more orders from Reaper coming in, the kits from my dad, and my mother and I will be going shopping to pick up the gear I need for this sometime in the near future. I have a feeling that I might be base coating with Ginger Cookie, as I might have five bottles of the stuff sometime in my future. :P

Hello all and thank you for your help. I feel like this has probably been covered, but I couldn't find specifically what I'm looking for so please excuse me asking. If there is already a thread you could direct me to that would be excellent as well. I am going to get into miniature painting and have decided that my best bet to get started would be to go through the Reaper Learn To Paint Kits 1-5. These come with a number of colors already, but I am interested in what (if any) colors people suggest adding to the collection of paint included in the kits. I can list the paints below organized by triad. Colors listen in parenthesis are not included in the collection, but are part of a color triad of an included color. I'm not sure if that's a good way to go or not as I understand the concept of triads and base, shadow, highlight principals, but not the application. You also get some duplicates which I will list how many. Information from this thread, which I then re-organized and reformatted to make it easier to read and cut out duplicates (IMO) thanks to Ced1106, with a few corrections on names. Over 50 bottles of paint, and 35 unique colors plus the Primer and Sealer. Here's a link to all the current Triads AFAIK might be as of 2009 only, so maybe there are newer ones. Additives Triad: Reaper Inks I: Lining Triad: Brush-on Primer x3 Black Ink Blue Liner Brush-on Sealer (Brown Ink) Brown Liner (Flow Improver) (Red Ink) (Grey Liner) Neutral Colors: Off-Whites: Pure White x3 Linen White x2 Rainy Grey (Leather White) Pure Black (Ghost White) Medium Skin: Rosy Skin: Tanned Skin x2 Rosy Skin x2 Tanned Shadow (Rosy Shadow) Tanned Highlight (Rosy Highlight) Gold Metallics: Silver Metallics: Colored Metallics I: Antique Gold x2 Honed Steel Pearl White New Gold Polished Silver (Ruby Red) (Ancient Bronze) (Shadowed Steel) (Copper Orange) Ochre Golds: Natural Steel: Palomino Gold True Silver (Chestnut Gold) (Blackened Steel) (Buckskin Pale) (Tarnished Steel) Yellow: Blood: Bloodthirsty Red: Sunlight Yellow x2 Blood Red x2 Carnage Red (Marigold Yellow) (Red Brick) (Bloodstain Red) (Lemon Yellow) (Deep Red) (Clotted Red) Burnt Colors: Red Browns: Autumn Browns: Classic Browns: Ruddy Leather x3 Mahogany Brown Russet Brown Intense Brown Oiled Leather x4 (Chestnut Brown) (Harvest Brown) Walnut Brown x2 (Burnt Orange) (Rust Brown) (Orange Brown) Blackened Brown Cool Greens: Warm Greens: Olive Greens: Grass Green Leaf Green Olive Green (Forest Green) (Pine Green) (Muddy Olive) (Jade Green) (Pale Green) (Pale Olive) Pure Blues: Martial Blues: Ultramarine Blues: Sapphire Blue x2 Breonne Blue Ultramarine Shadow (True Blue) Ashen Blue (Ultramarine Blue) (Sky Blue) (Templar Blue) (Ultramarine Highlight) From what I can see there is a lot of good colors that people recommend included in the L2PKs. What I'm mostly interested in are the following: -Autumn themed colors like Red, Yellow, Gold, Brown. I feel like I might be good on brown with what's included and Palomino gold might work great for turning leaves as well? What about a fall red and yellow though? I just love the look of fall and I would really like to get some great fall themed miniature armies going, much similar to this bloodydrakes amazing circle of oboros army. -Red seems pretty lacking too, maybe the Fire triad to get a nice orange as well? this kind've ties into the Fall theme I want to get going for a tabletop army. -Yellow. Any suggestions for another nice yellow or will sunlight yellow (which I like the look of a lot) be good enough for all my yellow needs. -Metallics. Some of my favorite colors are metallic Bronze and Copper, but any suggestions between Ancient Bronze, Coppery Orange, Scorched Metal, Old Bronze, Tarnished Brass? I'm looking for a cleanish looking color like gold, but a bit darker and more reddish/brown. Too many options :) -Forest greens. I'm quite surprised by the lack of greens, Grass and Leaf sound useful enough, but is there a preference between Forest/Pine green for a darker color or a different suggestion? -Liners, I don't know much about liners, but I keep hearing people say they are important. Is there a certain color I should get besides the Blue/Brown? Really anything that you more experienced painters found the L2PKs lacking in or consider a good stepping point once you graduate from the kits. Thanks!

Finally finished my Laurana from Learn to Paint Kit 2:

I've never painted a completed mini before and with my epic swag of Bones on the way I figured I'd better get some practice in, so I bought Reaper's 'Learn 2 Paint Kits.' Just finished up the first figure from the first set, Anhurian: Went a little side-ways off of the original instructions and used a bit of Leaf Green on the grass as well as some Sun Yellow for the extra highlights. I also painted in the freehand rampant lion and extra line details on his tunic and sleeves. Having worked on this mini I can honestly say that I'm really looking forward to getting into the non-metallic-metals kit, I've never been fond of metallic paints and having worked with them now my feelings towards them haven't changed much. I'm very picky when it comes to placing my shadows and highlights and metallic paints / washes make me want to pull my hair out. I can understand why they exist, they certainly make things very fast but personally I'd prefer to spend the time to shade my own metals by hand.

He's finally all done:- I know his eyes are terrible, and he's a bit too shiny (I'm still fairly new to using that brush-on sealer stuff, or any model varnish for that matter). But are there any other areas I need to work on? I'm very open to suggestions

Here's the first finished mini in my L2PK journey:- Not the most exciting mini I've ever painted, but it was fun none the less. Comments and criticisms are very welcome, this little adventure is all about making me into a better painter, so I am yours to mold.

Just finished this guy from Learn to Paint Kit #4. This dude is one strength potion away from exploding. C&C welcome.