Show Off Your First Mini!

[ShadowRaven]

you know, that copper paint for red hair actually almost works. I wonder how a wash and drybrush treatment would look with it?

[CashWiley]

I was going to say the same thing.

[ShadowRaven]

well you know what they say about great minds,

[redambrosia]

IIRC I based it with a terracotta colour. My intent had been to highlight it with the copper, but I was a newbie and the paint got everywhere. It was easier just to paint everything copper But I think I could get it to work better if I redid it now.

[hungerfan]

there are a couple ways to tell if your minis are lead. A quick scratch test , if the metal is a dark grey, lead. If the mini is metal and older than about 1990, lead.

Then lead it is. I have not done the scratch test but it is very dark and they were bought mid to late 80s. Well most. I may have bought a couple of them in 90-91.

 

I shall just put them up now that I have taken pics and shared the nostalgia.

[Arutema]

My first were a pair of nude succubi, so follow the links to behold my shaky handwork and that horrible gloss sealer I used to use.

 

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

[sliksham]

I don't have anything pics of my first minis, having sold them on or stripped and repainted them, my first actual paint jobs were some Citadel Savage Orcs, painted in bright blue Humbrol enamel paints because I didn't know any better; but here's a pic of the earliest thing I still have.

A pair of warhound titans from around 1990ish I think, found them whilst sorting through the boxes in the loft.

 

 

[alchemist]

My very first mini was stripped long ago, but this is one of my first, a Citadel fighter painted with Humbrol enamels about 1986. The silver thing on his shield is supposed to be a tree, not a mushroom cloud. Unfortunately, my freehand has never got much better.

 

[redambrosia]

He's a Knight of Atomic Armagedeon!

 

Actually, he could be if you gave him a gas mask....

[odinsgrandson]

Man, I wish I had access to my first mini. I started out painting Monster in my Pockets along with some GW minis (Rogue Trader era orks and epic scale Eldar).

 

I started when I was ten, and my mother decided that I could use her fabric marker paints just fine. Imagine you're trying to paint with a very runny sharpie, and the pink is clearly labeled "red." Oh, and no one told me to undercoat them, so everything the sharpie doesn't quite reach is just left pewter colored.

 

Basically what I'm saying is that my first mini looked worse than any of the ones I've seen on this thread. Hopefully, I've improved a bit.

[CashWiley]

I think in a way I was lucky having a best friend who painted minis when we were kids (around 10/11, though I had been gaming with minis since I was maybe 8...1978!). And his older brother was phenomenal, won a few painting competitions in the early 80s and they were both regular ol' canvas artists. So I just kind of knew the basics from being around them and using their minis for games, and then for the first couple years I painted he was around to make fun of my paint jobs (especially color choice which is why I obsess over it now).

[daveismyhero]

We need to keep this thread going until my Bones arrive on the last ship from China, so you can all bask in the horror that will be my first mini. Thanks to everyone who has shared pics and tales of woe. Seeing how far many of you have progressed keeps me optimistic that I'll be able to find the painting gene that I thought had eluded me.

Edited May 31, 2013 by daveismyhero

[ShadowRaven]

even if it ends today, by the time yours get here and the first ones painted, it still won't be thread necromancy. Thread 'heal' perhaps, or maybe thread 'breath of life' but it shouldn't be decomposed enough for necromancy

[aromaticpose]

I had promised myself after Reapercon to get more involved in the message boards, so this seems like a perfect place to start. Here's the first one I painted about 2 years ago. I plan on doing another one of Anirion sometime and hopefully can do a little better. Would love to make the purple and yellow robe combo work.

[CashWiley]

Luckily you have one (or more) coming in your KS package!