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Moving on after The Harlequin Incident ™, and following in Last Knight's fine footsteps, this WIP is from the Learn To Paint Kit 2 - Basic Skin and Cloth. I'd finished the monk (Tsuko?) and tried Laurana here, but was very, very unhappy with how she'd turned out. So, I stripped her and decided to give her another go. Hopefully there are a few more people out there working on this kit willing to post some WIP pics/stories as well! To start off, we have the primed mini. Already deviating from the kit, she's been primed with Krylon white spray primer, as I've gotten pretty grainy results using the Reaper Brush-On Primer that came with the kit. I'm positive it's me, not anything wrong with the primer.

After wanting to learn how to paint minis for a long time, I was finally encouraged by some friends to take the leap. I found the Reaper 'Learn to Paint' kits and have found them an incredible resource for a new painter. While I know my work on these minis isn't perfect, I'm really happy with how they came out for the first models I've ever painted. Working through these has given me a lot of confidence, and I like it a lot more than I thought I would! I will say that I struggled more with the layering technique in the second kit than I did with the wash/dry brush technique from the first kit. I'm happy with the progress I've made, though. Now that I've finished all of the minis that came in the kits, my next project is to paint the minis in my Fury of Dracula game. I'm really happy to finally be exploring this side of the gaming hobby!

I haven't seen this posted anywhere else on the boards and did not find anything by searching, but RealmSmith has posted an interview from GAMA on YouTube with Ron and Ed. If this has already been posted, please feel free to nuke this post with extreme prejudice. As YouTube is a commercial site, no link but searching RealmSmith and Reaper will get you there. Here are my notes: Pathfinder Paints (!) - 56 new colors, Golarian specific colors, ETA October. Learn to Paint kit expansions, 6 additional colors each and instructions, 4 expansion sets, ETA June or July. Pathfinder Learn to Paint kit being worked on.

Hi all, I have been helping out at a monthly "learn to paint miniatures" class at a local games cafe. It has mostly been brand new painters who have never painted a miniature before. We are using the Reaper Learn to Paint starter kits as well as the miniatures that were provided by Reaper. We recently ran out of miniatures, so the cafe order a bunch of new ones. I convinced them that we should get enough of one miniature such that everyone in the class can paint the same one at the same time. That way people can follow along with an instructor who will show what they are doing on a screen. We are getting a lot of repeat attendees now, so some of the participants are ready to do more than just slap a single thick coat of paint on the figure. So far, they have been hard to convince to try any shading or highlighting. Even washes and drybrushing are meeting resistance. So, I am looking for advice. The figure we are going to do this month is 77396: Olivia, Female Cleric by Werner Klocke. I am going to paint one plain purple and show them Derek Schubert's monochrome class sample so they get a good sense of what highlighting/shading will do for their miniature. Olivia Purple Monochrome What I am looking for is suggestions on a colour scheme that looks appealing, will be relatively simple to paint and where the effects of highlighting and shading can clearly be seen. I am not good at picking out colour schemes, and I have already scoured the internet looking for ideas. So, your ideas, please! Any suggestions you have on colour or on conducting the class will be welcomed. Geoff

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

My Reaper Learn to Paint kit just finally arrived after one set getting lost in the mail and the other taking its time. Last night I decided to end a stressful day by painting. Very pleased with how Anirion came out, would still like to refine my photo taking. The light tent I threw together is helping, but the natural highlights and shadows are still obscuring some detail. I think part of my problem is that I need to reconfigure the backdrop so that I can place the mini deeper into the tent.

Hi Everyone! I'm extremely new to this. I've never tried my hand at painting as a hobby.. let alone miniature painting. But after Bones 3 funded, and my realization that I had several other mini games coming from KS at some point, I started gathering everything I needed to learn how to paint. I bought some stuff i didn't need, and some other stuff that I might need someday. After all the fiddling I wound up with a Reaper Bones: Learn to Paint Kit as a starting point. I had also bought a few bones (20ish random models) through an ebay sale to futz with. Tonight I started painting. I started at 8 and ended around midnight. I tried to follow the directions as close as possible... I made a lot of mistakes... I know they aren't even close to what you guys here can do, but i can't believe how these turned out as my first try! I started with the 77018: Skeletal Archer, and in my grab-bag of bones found a 77144: Mummy which i thought might share a similar palette (eh... kinda) I'm still working on a soft box setup so the lighting and focus are a bit off, but here's the result! The next two models in the kit look significantly harder than the Skele (77042: Orc Marauder, 77150: Ragnaros) but hopefully I can do them justice! If you have any comments or tips i'd really like to hear them! -K

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.

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!

(Scroll to the bottom for most recent version) I was reading through Cash's workbench thread in the WIP forum and came across an insightful post by galladril It made me think a little bit about how disorganized hobbyists can be about our skill sets. We tend to jump in, and just try things. That is something to be applauded, but it is like trying to run before you can crawl. Sure, we get where we want to go eventually, through trial and error, but we take a lot of painful falls along the way. I am someone that takes painting classes at every convention I go to, to learn new techniques, and what I find is that I'm constantly trying to do things that are not suitable for my skill level. I could get more models painted to an acceptable tabletop quality, and go through a lot less simple green if I just took a step back, and looked at my progress in painting from a more academic angle. When I start to look at a new degree, I get a course listing. This outlines the prerequisites I need for each step in the field. The closest thing I can find for this as it relates to miniatures is Wappel's Painting Pyramid, which I find is really deigned for someone with a background as an artist. To that end I decided to modify galladril's list to suit my needs. I also decided to add in other aspects of the hobby that I think go hand in hand, but are in reality separate topics that we learn alongside our painting. I have used a different numbering system for each field, and plugged them into the list in the order of mastery that I think makes the most sense. Of course, we can dabble in items up the chain, but I believe true prowess will only come by mastering the underlying techniques first. Without further ado: 1) Color Theory i) Model cleanup/flash removal, gap filling 2) Basecoating (sharp transitions, smooth paint) 3) Drybrushed Textures 4) Shading (with Washes) 5) Highlighting (with Drybrushing) ii) Basic conversions and sculpting (purity seals, scrolls) a) Basic scenic basing by this point 6) Airbrushing (optional) 7) Lining 8) Layering 9) Glazing 10) TMM b) Advanced Basing techniques by here. 11) Wet Blending (Optional?) 12) NMM 13) OSL c) Full narrative bases d) Dioramas iii) Complex sculpting Please, help me add to the list, or rearrange it as needed. Once we have something that is more or less final, I will start looking for tutorials for each topic. Between this, and the established tutorials thread, I think we can really help each other to excel. Version 1.2 (Leaving original version for reference) Breaking them out into categories and skill level. Painting Topics: Beginner: Brushes (Using them, and the differences between them) Paints (Brands, types, uses, consistency) Preparing models (Flash removal, Assembly, Gap filling, and removing release agent) Priming (Moved this up, because unless you are using enamels or Bones, you really need this before basecoats) Basecoats Novice: Basic Color Theory Drybrushing textures Shading with washes Drybrushed highlighting Army Speed Painting (wet palettes, Colored Primers, Dipping) Larger detail painting Stripping Journeyman: Lining Layering Glazing Zenithal highlights and shadows Blending (2-brush/feathering, wet optional) Paint Mixing Smaller detail painting Eyes Skin Shading Hair True Metallic Metals Airbrushing (Optional) Weathering (Pigments and battle damage) Basic Gems (3, 5, and 7 layer gems) Master: Non-Metallic Metals Sky Earth Non Metallic Metals OSL Freehand Makeup Crystals, glass, gems and other reflective/transparent surfaces Conversions and Basing: Novice: Basing with flock Basing with textured paints Conversion using existing bits Journeyman: Scenic Base composition Basic conversions using putty (Purity seals, scrolls, etc.) Weapon swaps and similar small figure modifications Master: Sculpting Dioramas/vignettes

looked around and couldn't find a l2pk5 in show off so I started one, feel free to post your mini's guys. looks like some of her hair came off, will touch it up before I seal it.