Search the Community

Here is my journey making my first water base. I'm not quite done yet, as I still have some work to do on the Satyr, but I'm so close to finishing. This was a huge experiment for me, but I'm planning to do it again. I'd like to enter a water piece into ReaperCon this year, and I think this was good progress on the way to doing just that. I would love your feedback if you have any. Photo 1 - I started with some foam board (first time using that too!!) and glued it together. I used regular old Elmer's glue for this. Photo 2 - I started carving out the foam board and playing with where I wanted the main rock to be. Photo 3 - I used some Vallejo Plastic Putty to smooth out the sides of the base. Neat stuff. Was recommended on another forum. Photo 4 - I started to use some Milliput to seal in the foam in preparation for adding "water" Photo 5 - I used Milliput and some cork to make "rocks" Photo 6 - I decided I didn't really like the cork rocks at all and sculpted them to look like slate instead. I also started sculpting some river stones for the basin. Photo 7 - More river stones, and placed the satyr to make sure it would work. Photo 8 - Priming and zenithal light. Photo 9 - Finally adding some color. Photo 10 - Flocking and some plants added. I made the vine out of wire and paper. The "fern" was from a laser cut set of leaves I had. I'm not really happy with the fern looking thing. I've crushed it more than once now while painting, but it will have to do for now. Would love some feedback if you have any. Photo 11 - I taped it and held my breath and add two part clear epoxy. IT LEAKED EVERYWHERE! It was terrible. I added more tape and stemmed the flow, but it was pretty bad. First time for water... I expected this to happen deep down inside lol. Photos 12, 13, and 14 - I started adding scenic fibres to simulate the waterfall. I also used some water effects called Making Waves to "glue" it in place. Photo 15 - I added another round of two part clear epoxy to make the water deeper and to fix some of the mistakes I made with the water effects and fibres. Photo 16 - I used some micro sanders to bring the front of the water to a shine. I also added some more water effect to show some flow in the water. I also started painting the Satyr and playing with colors. Photo 17 - I used some pure white paint to show water activity a bit more. I also did more work on the Satyr and glued him in place. I didn't pin him, and probably should have, but he's holding so far.

Got Sophie this weekend and got a good start. I’ve been painting large minis lately so I needed a break. This is obviously heavily inspired by Wren’s, (Rhonda Bender) official painting but sort of flipping the hues of the dress and wings. Just started playing with the designs on the brestplate segments. I have already made one attempt on the screen left that I rejected and have started to paint out. I may just paint them out altogether if I can't pull it off.

I was asked to paint my friend's steel Hero Forge mini. The character is a Half-Fairy Werewolf Drunken Master, so no judgment on the design of the mini. I have painted 5 or 6 of the, "cheap" and expensive plastic minis from Hero Forge but this is the first metal one. I have to say they are tough but as rough as 60 grit sandpaper, and you lose almost all fine detail. In the picture the metal one is on the right, the priest in the center is the cheap plastic, and the bard on the left is the HQ plastic. Still yet to see a brass one.

Fire Giant i did over the weekend. Still a lot to do but starting to get there.

My BF had a PC made with Heroforge I've been putting off, cause he wanted Tartan painted. I've seen all the recent Tartan posts here and followed along with the tutorials and I'm so pleased with how it came out! He also requested a red leather jacket and green mohawk. Overall I am so happy with this mini. Used almost all reaper paints, and a couple of citadel washes. Thanks so so so much for all the tartan inspiration!

Good evening all, so I finished these two this morning, that come from an old Ral Partha set called I think Dwarven Steam Cannon, that was resurrected in a recent Ral Partha Kickstarter. I don't have the actual steam cannon, but I do have two of the three dwarves that operate the contraption, which are here: I made them pretty much the same color of uniform, because they are running the same big machine, just varying essentially their hair color. They do both have eyes and they are painted, but they are under those furrowed hairy brows. Here they are together: There is a third engineer, who is actually working, he's got a shovel and he's picking up coal, but that's a figure I just don't happen to be the proud owner of. I'll have to pick that one up one of these days to complete my little trio of dwarves. Remember that these are old school Partha, so they are pretty small sized figures. They probably take up about 1/3 to 1/4 the lead of a modern dwarf these days and are probably about 20 mm tall. I really do like these figures, as they are some of the few non-bellicose figures from that time, no weapons, just working (even though they are running a cannon). Anyhow, simple paint jobs, and I hope you enjoy them!

Caveat. I am a complete amateur. That being said, I decided to throw up a little how-to-assemble post on my blog for the Visigoth here: http://heavygearthunder.blogspot.com/2014/12/heavy-gear-blitz-how-to-assemble.html?m=1 So I have been doing some painting on the finished model and thought I might share here. https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/51341578@N02/15960540965/ https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/51341578@N02/15340923813/ https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/51341578@N02/15958571761/ https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/51341578@N02/15959891152/ Hope those links work for everyone. It is my Flickr account, but due to the picture size I don't want to overload everyone's modems. :) Edit: Here is a link to the last stage of camouflage I reached. https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/51341578@N02/15959887962/ God bless!

I'm sure this is a question that many people (including myself) have asked themselves when getting into this craft (with Reaper paints at least). Part of this topic (and this post) is a question geared toward each and every painter (that uses Reaper paints) out there, as this question cannot truly be answered in terms of time, as each person paints a different way. The other part of this topic is actually an answer, in one way an answer to the question posted. TO SCIENCE! I recently received an order from Reaper in which I bought their pack of 3 empty bottles to use for custom paint mixes, and water-down mixes. The other reason I bought them was to test just how much you can get out of them. I saw posts and tutorials saying "Use x drops of this paint and Y drops of enough", and sometimes those where 3-5 drops. My first fear was that I'd be going through paints like water! After using them a bit I realize thats not the case, but wondered; Just how many drops are in a 1/2oz bottle? (approximately) So I decided to break out the science! And by that I mean a small measuring spoon. Lets get some constants going here: Being in Canada, the measurements I'm using are in milileters, or ml. 1/2 or 0.5oz = 14.7868ml The primary measuring instrument I am using is 2.5ml, which is approximately half a teaspoon (so others can replicate these tests). Now lets get started, to test this I filled one of the droppers with regular (Canadian) Tap water. I then proceeded to drop individual drops one by one into the cup until it was at the top, counting as I went. I repeated this several times and each time I got a nice round number of about 80 Drops per 2.5ml. This evens out to about 32 Drops per 1ml. If there are 32 Drops in a single ml, and 14.7868ml in a dropper that means you get about 473 Drops Per Bottle! Keep in mind for a number of reasons this is a rough estimate: -Not every bottle will have exactly 1/2oz, some may have a little more, or a little less -These are drops of water. Drops of paint are going to be different sizes, and thus more or less than 473 -You dont always have to use a full huge drop of paint if you only need a small amount (mixing) Still its a neat thing to know that you'll get at LEAST 400 drops on average, so if something calls for 4 drops, don't worry, you can do that over 100 times! One last thing on the drop subject, if we get about 473 drops per bottle, and each bottle costs about $3.29, that means you are paying about $0.007 per drop! Not a bad value if you ask me! Now we return to the first part of the topic, how long it takes painters to go through a bottle. That is where I turn to you, the community, the experts. How long does a bottle of paint (preferably Reaper, but can list others as long as you mention the brand) last you? What colors do you go through the most? Is there a specific color you find yourself constantly running low on? What color or colors do you find yourself using the least, not because you dont like them, but because you can never find a use for them? Also do you have any tips to keep your paint in good condition, to to make it last longer. Such as using painting mediums to increase volume? Dont forget to like this post, or others like it if you found them fun or useful!