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Hi! I'm brand new to the hobby and stumbled across the forums, so I thought I'd share my first WIP photos. I started playing in my first DnD campaign in December and the other players painted their own player character minis, which made me want one of my own (and one for my husband, who also plays in the same campaign.) I snagged the two LTPKs then started watching all the videos I could find on mini painting. I have no background in art/painting so it has been refreshing to give it a shot! However I am also in the rabbit hole now of wanting all the colors, basing supplies, tools.... lol. The minis in this kit are: 77018 Skeleton Archer 77042 Orc Marauder 77148 Mangu Timur I pretty much followed the book for how to paint the skeleton archer. The main differences being that I ordered the kit of Citadel washes after seeing so much praise for them, and I used a few slightly different paint shades (like dragon bronze for the metal bits instead of blade steel.) I still need to base him (cover that mold line between his feet!) but otherwise I'm pretty happy with him for being my first mini - he could use some weathering and higher contrast, but I sealed him before learning about weathering and the benefits of exaggerated contrast. My current WIP is the orc. I still have to do some highlighting passes because I don't think I've got enough contrast in the skin yet. I need to highlight the metal as well (haven't done that yet.) I'd like to attempt some weathering on the leather to make it look more worn, and try my hand at rust on the metal bits. I'm pretty happy with how my attempt at making the shield look wooden turned out (thanks YouTube!) I also found an oval base I might try to base him on since it fits his wide pose, but he'll be pretty big for using on a standard tabletop grid. Haven't touched the Mangu Timur model yet! I also need to get a better setup for photos, I was having trouble getting decent shots of these guys. I appreciate your thoughts on my work so far, thank you! I'm excited to join in.

Had bones versions of these two lying around, with Hajad being the last mini from the Layer up LTPK that's sat on my desk for a while now, and Kogo who I'd planned on using for my Furiously Fluffy Howling Hounds army, but wound up getting the metal version for that, and so he's sat around on my desk for a while. This hopefully will be a shorter than usual WIP thread from me, given that the main goal I'm pursuing with this is to try and work on a few techniques for speed while simultaneously getting used to two new brushes I picked up for a forthcoming attempt at a goblin challenge on DDS2. Why these two? Well, they were lying around, but also, more importantly, they are two areas I don't really have much experience. First is Hajad, who might very well be my first actual (proper) attempt at doing a skin tone, doubly so a dark one. I don't count my attempts years ago with a Catachan soldier or two where I took some sort of flesh paint, and then put Chestnut ink over it. All of it - well, the flesh parts anyways. Man that was a sunburnt soldier! Kogo was chosen because of his type of armour, and he was the only figure I had around that was actually wearing armour - DDS2 has a decent variety of armour types, from cloth, to leather, to plate, and even in between, and I sure wouldn't mind a tad more practice on such before actually starting that challenge. Anyways, first up on the painting table area we have 77134 Hajad, Pirate. ^This is more or less where I left off last night, with most things roughly blocked in. I could have gotten liner all over him, but I figured since the goal was to work on a few techniques I'd rather actually be painting! :P Main reason I liner isn't necessarily for a good base coat for paint to adhere to (since Bones works fairly well with Reaper's paints), but because it usually lets me see details a lot easier. I think I spent about an hour, give or take up to this stage. For those wondering, yup, following the colour mixing stuff listed out in the LTPK's booklet, partially due to a few reasons, but the biggest is having never really done flesh before, so I want to basically use several different learning techniques and hope most of it sticks for when DDS2 comes about ^_^;;;; ^And here's where we stand at the moment, with the shadow layers put down on his skin, as well as the lining done. I was aiming to try for something slightly different with lighting, and went more towards a harsh, mid-day kind of sun that has a rather sharp downwards angle, coming from the left (when looking at him face on) and somewhat in front of him. I'll playfully say he definitely has a case of the uglies at the moment, but I'm hoping it will be relatively easy to resolve as additional details (and glazes) come into play. Up to this point I think it was around 45 minutes or so of additional work. I'm not trying to race against the clock by mentioning time spent, more just catalogging to see what I've done, and how long it takes, etc. As for brushes... I'm not touching my Series 7 at the moment, because that kind of defeats the whole purpose of getting to know these two brushes! I'm using the Expression E85 for most of the larger area work, while the Sceptre Gold II 101 I've used for the more intricate areas (like the lining, as well as most of the shadows due to finding fine brush control easier with it). Back to the painting table... Once I've washed out my dry palettes, I've run out of empty ones!

I finished the last of the LTPK2 minis! The last one I did was Hajad the Pirate. About half way through I realized my brush skills were not up to the task on blending the shadows and highlights properly so I decided to exaggerate them instead so he came out looking a little comic book arty. I am pretty happy with the end result but this mini was mostly a lesson in how much I need to practice building up thin layers and blending. Also he was an epic eye failure, so he's a blind pirate. C'est la vie Either way, he was a lot of fun!

Ok, here is my first NMM paint job. I'm not sure if I dislike the technique, or just picked a bad mini to try it on first. I found it a bit fiddly and frustrating with all of the dully cast spikey bits. I did a pretty quick TT quality job on everything not NMM, so I know there are a lot of places to improve there. Also, I feel like the photos make it look better than it really is. I'm pretty happy with how the front of the armor turned out, but the shield and shoulder pauldrons were frustrating. Would truly appreciate any feedback on improving the quality of my NMM! I'll be doing Mangu next and tracking in the same WIP thread. Wip thread here:

The third and final mini from the Layer Up! LTPK, Julie Guthrie’s Hajad the Pirate: Not gonna try for any better images, because then you would see how badly I messed up the eyes... Mostly by the book, but I skipped the lining as my little brush was becoming temperamental. Of the three minis in this kit, this is the one I was most looking forward to, as it has the most exposed skin of the three (one of my problem areas). Think I oversold the abs a bit too much though. Based on issues with the previous minis, I elected to basecoat both weapon blades with Ebony Flesh before applying the metallic. The Filigree Silver included in the kit was too watery to play nice with bare Bonesium, and in any case it was difficult for me to see where the paint actually stuck. Plus, it makes lighter metallics pop. It was nice to see darker flesh tones included in this kit. The darkest (non-dark elf) skin tone I had available before was Tanned Skin, but my attempts to mix in darker paints always resulted in a weird shade of sadness. All in all, this kit was a good learning experience. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and it was neat seeing the colors build up with each layer. The cartoons were cute too. I just hope that my technique improves moving forward. And that painting eyes gets easier.

Ok so I had picked up both LTPKs with the intent of hopefully learning some new stuff. Now not that they aren't great resources for new painters, but I had already read most of what was presented in them through a variety of sources on here and through other blogs. So I sat on them. Then I decided they offered a good opportunity to try a few other techniques and decided to give it a shot. So in the basic kit, I'm going to try my hand at some NMM. We'll see how it goes. The Layer up kit I plan to use for OSL. Anyways... onto the painting. 77042 - Orc Marauder I started with the Orc Marauder thinking he'd be a little easier. Probably should have started with Mangu. I went ahead an documented all of my steps, in case anyone is interested in the parts before NMM. I tried to stick with the paints in the kit for the most part, but decided that once I get to the NMM I'm going to use 1 or 2 colors not included. Pics in the spoiler tag.

The second mini from the Layer Up! Learn to Paint Kit, Ingrid the Gnome Thief: A fun little mini. She taught me that I love to overdo shadows. This is very evident on her cape, though glazing did help a little bit. On the bright side, the sculpt has some big, expressive eyes, and I think both came out halfway decent for a change. This one has a fun base, as well. Lots of details to pick out, and the instructions have a neat combo for painting mossy patches that I’ll have to steal for future use. Feedback is appreciated!

Painted (mostly) by-the-numbers, Anirion: This was a departure from my normal style of painting, and I made a number of mistakes, but wanted to stick to the instructions and see how it all turned out. All things considered, I think it looks decent. I didn’t worry about trying to correct the bend in the staff or any mold lines. And I added a third highlight layer (more yellow) to the robes, to make them pop just a bit more. The camera washed these out, it seems. The little details probably deserved more attention, but the focus here was clearly on the robes. I think I did learn a few new things, hopefully for the better. More practice will help. Comments and critiques welcome.

I've had these pics on my camera for a few days, and keep forgetting to upload them... Keep getting distracted by other projects, but nothing wrong with that I say... ^_^;;;;; These photos were taken using my previous way of doing things, and I definitely prefer the "newer" way even if it means a bit more work up front, but there's less editing, and my kit lens is a LOT easier to work with for such up close pictures. Kind of can't wait to get that Olympus 60mm f2.8 macro that's on my wishlist, but right now it's a debate between miniature supplies and camera gear, and the camera gear isn't currently on sale, plus we really could use a wider selection of paints in the house, so..... Ingrid was definitely an.... Interesting challenge to paint, to say the least. She has a great deal of smaller details to her, aaaaaand she's pint shot glass sized, which adds to things. Interestingly enough, the biggest issue I kept running into was with her gloves, boots, and especially belt. Cloak also gave some issues, even having me somewhat frustrated at first that my initial shadow layer looked a LOT like vertical red and black stripes, I kept it as it was, and added additional layers on, which seems to have partially corrected itself, but looking at the photos, at the right angles it... Still kind of shows that way. Oh well, we learn as we go, right? This was also the first mini that I attempted something resembling eyes, and I did my best to have it look like she was looking right at the gem itself. It took a few tries, but I managed to get some sort of hazel-brown eye going, although with just the one colour hazel eyes have (not the brown-green mix).

Been working steadily on Anirion from the Layer up! LTPK over the past few days, and I can say with certainty I like how the two learn to paint kits approach things very differently. I'm also rather liking how things come out with layering techniques... Can't think of much else to add here for text other than I really REALLY need to get a proper lighting setup going to take pictures with >.>;;;;;;

First completed mini of 2018. I decided to go back to the basics and start with the LTPK Kit 1. What do you think? Only 10 more (in my inventory) of this particular figure left to paint, and another 29 20 skeletons in addition on my to paint shelves. Once the skeletons are done, then moving on to the Orcs.

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!

So...this is 1/4 for the FebRPChallenge. I just have quick and dirty cell phone pics for now, until I get my lightbox set up. I painted this with following the schematic outlined in the LTPK.

So, I'm doing the Layer Up learn to paint kit from reaper. Hopefully, I'm not missing any of the basics from core skills (I did the AP learn to paint process). So, all washed and boiled...

Hello everyone! The last entry from my Learn To Paint Kit: Layer Up! I am very pleased with this mini. It's not perfect, and there are some parts which didn't come out like I had hoped, but I learned a lot and I think some parts came out very well. I tried to focus a lot of attention on the little details. I would really like to hear what you all think, I am trying to improve with each mini. The parts of this mini which I think I struggled with the most were the True Metallic Metals. I don't like them. I really want to try to learn how to do NMM, as I think those look so much nicer. Thank you for your advice!

I painted my last figure from the Learn to Paint Kit: Core Skills. I'm thinking i'll order the next kit to work on layering. I found this figure a little tricky because I used so much of the metallic paint. I'm happy overall with how it turned out. My favorite spots are the blue fabric in the back and the shield. Can't wait for the next set of figures to come in. It's exciting to already see how far I've come and how much I've learned from painting my first mini. C&C welcome, I'm always looking for ways to improve! Thanks for checking him out. ~WhatsEcstacy

Hello all, This is the 3rd mini I have ever painted. It is from the Learn To Paint Kit: Layer Up! I am pleased with how it came out, though once again I think the pictures do not do it justice. I followed the directions in almost all regards, however I used a flesh wash instead of what the booklet called for, and I tried out a Gemstone colour from GW on the gemstone. The number one thing I learned from this kit was glazing. WOW! Its so simple but it helped smooth the transitions between highlights so well that I will never not glaze again. Please let me know what you all think! I really want critiques too! Help me get better at this hobby that I love so much!

Tonight I started spending some time with Hajad (middle figure) from the Learn To Paint Kit: 2 Layer Up... not much to see yet. I think I'm gonna give him some facial hair though... Much work yet to be done. For those following along at home, I'm still doing the base coat layer.

So with the new year I finally got back to painting after an overlong hiatus. Started off with the Bones LTPK2 focusing on layering. I have to say that I really like this kit all in all. The minis are pretty good, the selection of paints are nice, and the instructions are great. While I in theory, knew much of what was being instructed, it didn't really "click" for me until I was going through the instructions in the kit. Now, that's not to say that I suddenly became amazing (its Learn to Paint after all, not Mastering Painting), but I definitely feel as though this will help me out a lot going forward. Unfortunately I really need to get a better setup for taking pictures, but been trying to save money for things like paint and minis. :P Hopefully next set of pictures will be better as I forgot to shine the light directly at these since I was in a hurry. First up was the wizard Anirion: There are parts here that I feel really happy about, and others that are obviously not as good. I am still struggling with the tight spaces and small areas and one thing that I am definitely finding out is I still tend to have too much paint in some places, especially when highlighting or shading. In particular this can be seen in the skin and on the hem of the robe on the bottom, but definitely improving from where I was. Next was Ingrid: Again, I like the cloak on her, but the rest was a bit of a struggle. Eventually I kind of went "good enough" (and it does look better on the table top which is really all I'm going for at this point). I will say though that these were, by far, the best eyes I had done up to this point, so there is that! Thank heavens for new, quality brushes from Mrs. Gargs for XMas (who got an amazing deal on them too!) Finally, it was time to paint up Hajad the Pirate: This guy was pretty fun to paint, even if it was annoying at times (due to my own incompetence). Got the eyes on the first try which really made me happy, but then I think I over shaded his skin a bit, still though pretty happy overall. I also want to give props to Reaper for including a female figure and a figure with African skin. This has nothing to do with PC or anything, just that I've always been nervous trying to do those because I didn't feel comfortable with things like the skin tone or the faces. This was a perfect way to get started. All in all, I highly recommend this kit for new painters! I certainly feel as though I'll be able to take what I learned and apply on pretty much every mini from here on out. Now if only I could figure out how to keep from being clutzy and knocking random parts of my mini with the wrong color paint as I'm going in to the target area. I'm sure its a matter of practice, practice, practice, just still annoying! :)

So I ordered the new LTPK last week and the Post Office foiled me by actually delivering it really quickly, on Saturday, when I was out of town, when the temps dropped to about 3 degrees overnight. Anyway, got home yesterday and it looks as though two of the paints froze (based on a quick shake test -- the others could be heard shaking but two of them didn't). I haven't had a chance to actually test them out yet though with all the unpacking and everything. My question is, assuming that they have now thawed out while sitting inside the warm house, is there likely to be any long-term effects on the two colors that did freeze?

So I was browsing over at FRP Games and saw that they had a second Bones LTPK called Layer Up(#08907) listed as a preorder. I've got a coworker who I'm just introducing to painting, and who bought the first Bones LTPK already but is now looking for more. Is this coming soon, or has it been shelved for later due to some reason or another? If it's coming soon, I'll tell him to buy it when it pops up, but otherwise I may just send him over here to buy some of the minis and paints that came with the old LTPKs and lend him my copies of the booklets that came with them.

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?

For my next trick, I will finally finish off my last LTPK: #5 Armor. In my last LTPK adventures, I decided not to work on the models concurrently. This time, I'll do them both at the same time again! Step -1: Review the instructions. Oooh, I know what all of these things mean now! I'm not planning to completely stick with the included colors, primarily because we now have entirely too many shades of ... everything. The metal bits that are the purpose of the kit will follow the instructions, for sure. For Dain, his cloth will definitely not be blue (not decided on what color yet - Edit: hmm, greens sound good), and I think his hair will go more to the orange-yellow. For Rasia, she looks like she needs black hair, and I'm not sure yet if I'll do her skirty bits as metal (silver or silver-blue like her armor) or leather. Both of them will have their leathers and accessories done up with whatever feels like a good idea (or happens to be on the palette) at the time. Step 0: It's all about the bases. (Sorry, I failed my catchy music save) Waaaaay back when I started doing the metal LTPKs, I primered all the minis involved, then superglued them to 1" tiles. Ah, well, it doesn't count as shame if its only primer and glue, right? This may not have been the best of ideas in this case, as I also failed to remove Dain's shield before I glued him down. In an attempt to salvage my errors, I removed the shield sprue bit, and glued down some mixed size sand to hide the nub. I also gave Rasia the same treatment, since I already know that this simple sand treatment works with the tiles. Step 1: Paint To be continued... No pictures yet, because everyone knows what primer and unpainted sand looks like. P.S. I did find the old open thread, but its super old and I didn't want to necro it.

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

This is my first paint job. I have many WIP shots, just trying to get my government internet to cooperate. ;) Thoughts?