My first foray into painting miniatures - Reaper LtP Kit #2 and others

[Blackbird71]

I'm just getting started in the hobby of miniature painting, and I thought it would be good to document my progress with my first few minis here. I'm doing this for two reasons: 1) I'd like to get feedback as I progress in the hope that I can learn a thing or two from those more skilled and experienced than myself, and 2) I hope my experience can serve as a guide for other beginners looking for a place to start.

 

My story so far:

 

I've really been enjoying some tabletop campaigns recently, but my characters have been missing one thing: distinctive minis. Sure I could use old game pieces or paperclips or something to represent them on the board, but I like to flesh out my characters in every regard, and a good custom mini can help the other players see the character I have in my mind. Plus, they look cool!

 

With that thought, I decided to try my hand at painting my own minis. Now, it's confession time: I've never really had any artistic talent whatsoever. Whether music, drawing, painting, etc., I've always managed to astound people with my lack of skill (just aks my wife!). I'm an engineer, I deal with precise measurable quantities and figures, so something like mixing paints and experimenting with tones is something of a challenge for me. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist, so a project like this has potential for frustration, as I know I'll probably never be satisfied with anything I paint. It will definitely be a learning experience as I teach myself to allow the imperfections and just move on.

 

I'm also someone who overthinks everything I do, so before I started, I spent a couple of weeks researching various tutorials on techniques and recommended materials and tools. Armed with this information, and a great deal of advice from helpful people in the Tips & Advice board (here), I picked a starting point.

 

I decided to go with the Reaper Learn to Paint Kit #2: Skin and Cloth. I did this for a few reasons, including the variety of colors, a full size bottle of primer, and two different brushes to help me get started. I also had some Ral Partha minis from an old TSR board game I've had sitting around for years that I thought would make good practice pieces.

 

So, after ordering my kit, and a few trips to the local hobby and craft stores to stock up on supplies, work began. My wife is joining me in this endeavor, so one evening we started by just priming several of the minis:

 

(Click to enlarge)

 

Overall, this went pretty well. We put about 2-3 coats on each of the four minis on the left; the two on the right only got a single coat (I actually wasn't planning on painting these two yet, but I had a bunch of primer left on my palette that I didn't want to waste). The hardest thing was probably getting the consistency right. It had to be thin enough that it wouldn't clump and obscure details, but thick enough that it would actually stick to the metal surface and not slide right off. A 5:2 mix of primer to water seemed about right. Filling in all the nooks and crannies was tricky, especially on the textured bases, but a little time and patience paid off, and we got a good coating.

 

The next evening, I started painting the monk mini that came with the Reaper kit. For the most part, I followed the steps in the instructions that came with the kit. One exception is that I painted the eyes first, following the guide here. Doing the eyes first in the way described here just made sense to me, and I liked the result. Anyway, I got through the skin and hair that night, and here are the results:

 

 

Now, when I examine this work closely, I see all sorts of imperfections: rough lines, shading that's either too wide or too narrow, sloppy brush work, etc. But overall, for a first attempt, I'm pretty well pleased with the results so far.

 

I think that one of my biggest obstacles is that I lack the fine motor control to put the brush where I want it, especially with the smaller details. The result is that each time I apply a new color or layer, I inevitibly get some paint on a part I've already done, so I spend a lot of time going back and retouching areas I've already painted just to fix my mistakes. I'm hoping that this level of control is something I can develop through practice, because if it has to be a natural-born talent, then I'm doomed!

 

One thing I found that helped was keeping my paint mixes in small sealable containers. This made it easy to go back and get a little of a color I had used before when I needed to paint over a mistake.

 

A problem I ran into was when I discovered a chunk of excess metal on one of his sandals that I had missed before priming. Once I put paint on it, it looked particularly ugly. So I had to cut, file, prime, and paint the side of his foot all over again. I thought I had been pretty thorough in looking for this stuff when I first prepped the minis, but it just goes to show that it's worth going over the whole thing a few extra times to make sure, as it's much easier to remove the stuff before you start painting.

 

If I had it to do over again, I think I would have painted the bands in his hair before doing the hair itself. As it is now, it's going to be impossible for me to keep the brush on those tiny narrow lines, and I'm sure I'll be repainting a lot of the hair. If I'd done the bands first, then I could have easily covered the slop when doing the hair the first time. Of course, you can see how much overlap I got onto the bands from painting the hair and skin, so I may have had the same trouble anyway, but like the eyes, it seems to be a good rule of thumb to paint the smallest details first, and then paint the surrounding area.

 

So far I've easily sunk 4-5 hours into painting this one mini, and I'm expecting it to take at least that long to finish it. We'll see how it goes from here!

[joshuaslater]

That's serious progress!! Keep the pics coming.

[Inarah]

FWIW, your experience exactly mirrors mine when painting, and I've been doing this for nearly 30 years. There's always going to be spots that need touching up.

 

You might look into using a wet palette. Paint keeps a long time in one of those. Mine is home made from a sandwich container, and today I am painting with paint I put down 3 weeks ago.

 

Your mini looks great, BTW.

[Mercius]

looking great, keep it going!

[Blackbird71]

Thanks for all the encouragement, it's nice to know that my experience isn't too dissimilar from others'.

 

I really am such a klutz though. I started work on the pants earlier, and somehow I managed to get a big red spot right on his chest - nowhere near where I was painting! Oh well, it's a good thing I still have all the skin tone mixes.

[QPCloudy]

Wow! That's your first mini!? I think I might need to get one of those starter kits ;)

[Ferox]

Full of win. The focal point of most minis is the face (and especially the eyes), and you've pulled it off spectacularly well.

 

You're doing a great job. The standard advice here is "lighter highlights, darker shadows", but that takes some experience and confidence to pull off -- I'd say keep doing what you're doing. Don't worry about the big red spot -- the neat thing about paint is that you can paint over it.

 

Don't pay too much attention to how much time you put into a mini: as you get more comfortable with the techniques you're using, they'll take less time; on the other hand, you'll want to use other techniques on later minis, and spend more time perfecting them. Mini painting time is like hard-disk space: the more you have, the more you use.

[Kannan Fodder]

My first miniature came out nowhere near as good! I can definitely see some contrasts in the skin tones, but I feel that the highlights could be a bit brighter. The eyes look very good.

 

I usually use a smaller brush to get the little details, like the bands in the hair. Use just the tip, and try to pick out the highest points. I've found that helps a lot to avoid excess paint slop. Brush control is a skill you will develop with practice.

 

I have discovered that the quickest way to discover "errors" is to take a picture of your work and look at it enlarged on your monitor. This is one reason I do Works In Progress shots.

 

I'm a perfectionist too, and I tend to take longer to paint the miniatures I'm particularly fond of. I don't actually keep track of time spent on a particular miniature, and I often switch between several in order to allow paint to dry before moving on to the next layer or color.

 

You're doing a great job.

 

Just noticed you asked about stubborn paint in your other thread... I use Mona Lisa Pink Soap and The Masters Brush Cleaner and Restorer. I've been able to get caked on paint to come out of brushes, and have been able to get the gunk buildup out of the ferrule buy soaking them in Pink Soap. I have a white nylon brush that tends to stain easily, so I don't use it with strong colors (like the aqua blues, darker blues, and rich purples).

 

~M

[Doug Sundseth]

Don't worry about staining your brushes*. If you can't get the paint off when you're trying really hard, you won't inadvertently contaminate your paint when working on a mini either.

 

* Unless it's an aesthetic thing, of course.

[Blackbird71]

Well, here's the update from yesterday:

 

 

I'm afraid the lighting in the pictures isn't great; in addition to learning how to paint miniatures, I'm also learning how to photograph them!

 

The pants are pretty much done, I still need to do highlights on the laces/belt/etc, and there is plenty of touch-up work to do. I almost didn't want to do shades and highlights on the pants because the basecoat seemed to naturally provide some shading effects that looked pretty good, but I'll admit it looks better this way.

 

So far as brush sizes go, I'm using a 2/0 and a 3/0 for most of the small detail, I'm just not that good at it. Each time I try to fix some of my mistakes, there's a good chance that I'll add new ones, so I end up going back and forth between colors. One thing I'm learning is when to call it "good enough," and realize how unnoticeable a lot of the little mistakes really are. I know they're there because I put them there, but unless someone is going to go over this thing with a magnifying glass, I can get by with less than perfect. Or at least, that's what I keep telling myself.

 

Since I'll be touching up some of the skin later, I could try taking the highlights a little brighter still. I've read that that advice is often given to new painters, and I can see why. Going any brighter just seems unnatural to someone as inexperienced as me; I have to just trust that it actually will look better.

 

I keep track of the time as more of a metric of my own progress; down the road I'd like to compare how long it takes me to paint a mini to my first one. I've read some people's comments that they can usually do a mini in 2-3 hours. At this point, that is mind-boggling speed to me. So far, I'm up to about 7-8 hours invested, and I'm estimating another three to do details and touch-ups, plus there's the base to do as well.

 

Thanks to everyone for all of the comments and encouragement! I tend to be my own worst critic, so it really helps to know that my first efforts aren't as bad as they sometimes seem to me.

[Kannan Fodder]

Highlights are something I struggle with too. For some reason it just doesn't seem "right" going that bright, especially with skin. I studied others' work, read a lot of posts and tutorials, experimented a bit, and I'm getting more comfortable going brighter than what seems "right" to me. Thing is, I used to stop when I thought it looked good, but after I sealed my minis for gaming, the subtle shading and highlights would all but vanish. I then found out that this usually happens, and you have to anticipate it and go for more contrast in order to compensate for it. (Thank you Reaper Forums Community for this gem of wisdom.)

 

You appear to have a good grasp of the basics, and the eyes point to your ability to control the brush. Everyone struggles with control at some point, but you do acquire better skills and control the more you paint. I used to have to touch up everything, then I started playing with different sized brushes, found what I'm comfortable with, and noticed a marked improvement. Some of my earlier work is really horrible. I mean really, really horrible!

 

I'd say shade and highlight the pants, or else they'll look odd next to the carefully blended skin. You're doing good. Much better than my first attempt, actually much better than my first couple dozen minis. Small mistakes are to be expected early on. This is part of the learning process. Most non-painters won't even notice them.

 

One thing I do if I'm really worried about paint slop ruining details I've already painted is to use paint on sealer to seal an area I've already finished. If I then slop paint when I move on to the next layer, it's easier to clean up without damaging the area I've already done. You can still paint over the sealer if you need to.

 

~M

[Kannan Fodder]

Don't worry about staining your brushes*. If you can't get the paint off when you're trying really hard, you won't inadvertently contaminate your paint when working on a mini either.

 

* Unless it's an aesthetic thing, of course.

 

I only pointed it out because I once used my white nylon flat to drybrush a mix of Deep Ocean for highlights over black. My brush ended up this lovely shade of pale aqua, even after thoroughly cleaning it so that the soap had no tint of color. I let the brush dry as usual, then some days later used it to drybrush white over a skeleton. End result was that the skeleton had a faint tint of blue. It worked on the skeleton, but not on the unicorn.

 

My paint wasn't actually contaminated, rather it was the residual stain on the nylon brush that transferred the color. I have not noticed this with natural hair brushes.

 

~M

[Blackbird71]

One thing I do if I'm really worried about paint slop ruining details I've already painted is to use paint on sealer to seal an area I've already finished. If I then slop paint when I move on to the next layer, it's easier to clean up without damaging the area I've already done. You can still paint over the sealer if you need to.

 

Good tip, thanks. Would you normally use a gloss or a matte sealer for this?

[Kannan Fodder]

Matte sealer. I use either Vallejo or Reaper's MS 09107 - whichever one happens to be handy when I grab for it. Or I just spray a quick coat of Testors DullCote. Just let it thoroughly dry before moving on to the next layer.

 

I have an old, old nylon brush that is basically trashed to the point it's not even suitable for glue, but it makes a good scrubber for wiping off paint slop.

 

~M

[Blackbird71]

Well, I had some time this weekend, and with the exception of the sealer coats, I've pretty much finished the monk:

 

 

All in all, I don't think it was a bad effort. I'm pretty happy with how the pants turned out, as well as the weapon. The bands in his hair are still a mess, but they were only getting worse. I definitely need to work on my skills with hair shading/highlights. One thing I noticed when looking at it under magnification is that the lines between shades (particularly on his skin) were very clear and obvious. You don't see it as much when looking at the mini itself, but I need to work on blending the layers. I put in about 13-14 hours in total on this mini.

 

When I had some downtime while layers on the monk were drying, I figured I could use some of the same colors on one of the Ral Partha minis. These ones are a bit different than the Reapers. They're made to a slightly smaller scale, which makes them a little harder to work with, but the detail isn't nearly as fine, so it kind of makes up for it. Here's the start:

 

 

I know, he looks a bit like Santa Claus at the moment, but that should change once I cover up the rest of the primer. For the most part, I was just putting down some basecoats. I started by doing the smaller details first (sandals, pouch, sack, etc.), and then coloring the larger areas. I was using a larger brush to lay down the red, I'll go back with a smaller one to fill in the edges close to the other colors. The eyes in particular wer a problem with this one, as they are tucked deep in a corner inside the hood. I think I got them all right, but thankfully they're not all that visible!