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[GROUP/OPEN]WIP L2PK1


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So, I got myself one of these here kits, having never painted a mini ever before, and I jumped right into it without really reading the instructions much. And I kinda paid for it. Sort of. I'm still just starting with the painting, but I've already screwed up by not painting on eyes and doing facial detail on the Man-at-Arms before going into painting the cloth. But at the same time, because I can't seem to keep a brush steady I think it sort of worked out because I nearly ended up painting his face blue with an errant twitch of the hand or two.

Here's what I've got so far -
RAUsBj5.jpg?2CMsaRgv.jpg?2

I suppose there's a reason that I bought a Learn to Paint kit.

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A significant number of us seem to have shaky hands, so don't let that bother you. You can work around it once you get used to things and it shouldn't be much of a hindrance.

 

Painting miniatures is one of those rare things that's actually easier than it looks, it's just a matter of getting time in for experience and being willing to take a chance and screw up along the way. And that applies to everybody, even the master painters out there whose stuff makes your jaw drop.

 

And anyway, he's off to a better start than my Anhurian was.

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Well, I decided I was going to try and fix the face. I went in, touched up the spots I put blue on, waited a bit, then did the washes on the face and hands like I was supposed to have done. They looked nice enough, so I waited a few more minutes, and tried to add the walnut brown for the eye sockets and the mouth, and just got it everywhere. So I tried to clean it up, and I've ended up at the point where it's looking like I'm just going to have to repaint the whole head area again. Also, in the process, I managed to scrape some of the paint off of the shield hand, so that's needing redone now too.

 

I really need to figure this stuff out. It's not that it's hard but that I'm just going about it all dumb. Like, I probably should have just left well enough alone on the face and said screw the detailed eyes and mouth. Who needs 'em anyways? But nope, I had to go all perfectionist on it and screw myself over. Live and learn, I suppose. Hopefully this lesson sticks with me, unlike so many others.

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Welcome aboard, and you picked the right place to start posting. Lots of great info here in the WIP forum, and lots of brilliant folks post great info, encouragement, and advice here.

 

As far as the eyes go, don't worry about when you paint them. A number of us paint eyes after some or all of the rest of the face, it's completely a matter of preference. Experiment a bit, see where it works best for you. More importantly, if you're using thinned paints (which I believe Kit 1 covers?), you'll find that there are very, very, very few mistakes that can't be covered up. You can always go back and paint over something, usually multiple times with thinned paint.

 

On the topic of unsteady hands, there are a bunch of things that work well. Biggest one for me (and this is going to sound all new age hippie style, but it's really not), was breathing. When you're going to work on detail areas like eyes, a lot of folks unconsciously hold their breath, which tenses the body. If you try taking a deep breath, then exhaling, then painting, you'll find your hands quite a bit steadier.

 

And I'll second buglips, your Anhurian is way better than mine, and I stripped mine three times before I even got halfway through...

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That breathing thing isn't new-age-hippie at all. In fact, that's how I learned to make distance shots with a rifle before I was first taken hunting. You find your breathing rhythm and pull the trigger when you hit what's known as the natural respiratory pause. It's really only good for taking a single shot and you should really only hold it for a couple seconds or else you screw yourself over, but it's great for getting really steady for those couple seconds. I just didn't think to apply it to painting, of all things.

 

Regarding thinned paint, I may have to thin mine out a bit more. When I tried to fix the face without attempting to clean it, I lost almost all the detail. Which led to me trying to clean it with a paper towel some, and then scraping paint off the hand in the process.

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Took me at least a dozen tries to paint the Anhurian's eyes. I like to paint them before the face because I'll paint in shadow and white and pupils so many times it's all over the brows and cheeks by the time I'm done. I've gotten a bit better and Anduriel's eyes are actually a one-shot for me! Practice is good, and you're in there getting it.

 

I use a second brush to wick away mistakes. If that doesn't work, I paint back over it. You could use a paper towel, but only to dab, not wipe. As you're learning, paint is very fragile on a mini. I try to never actually touch the mini once I've begun painting it.

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Oh rats. I forgot to take WIP photos of this one.... I eventually switched to my tried and true drybrush for this one. The bristles on the one that came with the kit were just too limp after the knight was done. The detail brush is still going strong though, and I used it on both figs in the kit and one of my sophies.

post-6758-0-33187800-1359685457.jpg

post-6758-0-77296800-1359685442.jpg

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Here's my guy after painting/washing the armor. I realized after taking the picture that I forgot to wash the rim of the shield. I haven't drybrushed it yet because I don't think I quite understand the technique. I tried drybrushing the cloth like it said to, but I saw no difference between the way it looked before and after drybrushing so I'm assuming that I did something wrong.

 

eGdhCTC.jpg?2aM6Mook.jpg?2

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