Show Off Your First Mini!

[Baugi]

Sadly I don't have him anymore, but mine was this lad here:

Done up of course in unthinned, right out of the jar, testors enamels, glopped on so thick they obscured any possible detail. I think he had blue pants, light flesh coloured skin, silver armor and a red cloak.

 

He was followed by and a female caster with a serpent staff that I can't seem to find pics of anywhere. They were all from the Ral Partha "Imports" line. I had a 2-part Balrog from that set too, and a beholder. Wish I'd kept them!

 

Edited May 31, 2013 by Baugi

[Metalchaos]

Mine was a Ral Partha Thief with Longsword in Ambush, back in 1988.

[Malynor]

Story time - feel free to skip the text, and just look at the pictures.

 

Earlier this year (February sometime) I decided I needed a new hobby - and a friend had a Descent: Journeys in the Dark game with decidedly boring plastic miniature pieces. Un-thinned craft paint straight from the bottle to the mini - no idea about washing or dry-brushing, or anything besides just slobbering colour onto the mini, threw on some high-gloss sealer to stop the paint from chipping and the results were this:

 

I painted all of the heroes and a few of the "elite" bad-guys in fairly short order (slobering paint doesn't take long at all), and when I mentioned to a friend that I was painting miniatures, she wanted to see pics, and my horror story of a flickr stream was born. She said they were "serviceable", which I didn't take for a compliment - and when I pressed her for details, she mentioned magic voodoo-techniques like drybrushing, washing, and using thinned paint. A whole new world opened before my eyes. One of the first mini's I painted after doing some research was this one here... I was SO proud of him (and I still think the rock he's on turned out fantastic).

 

Then I found Reapermini.com, and these wonderful forums that are incredibly intimidating, and yet amazingly friendly and supportive at the same time. Seriously, I'm pretty sure you folks all missed the memo that stated everyone on the internet is supposed to be an angry, scornful, anonymous, hate-filled entity.

 

Still working on the plastic Descent minis, my Painting improved by magnitudes just by lurking here and absorbing information passed on to others. I ordered some a bunch of BONES - newbishly picking out ones that I could use for games (a horde of goblins, orcs, kobolds, and skeletons) and not minis that would help me actually learn to paint better. They sat on my shelf while worked away at more of the Descent minis (using these new magical techniques for applying paint takes much more time than slobbering) - I decided I needed real miniature paints to paint my own minis with, and ordered both sets of HD paint, and a few (~35ish) MSP to fill out the colour selection. Painted a few BONES (sorry no pictures of them), and then ordered L2P kits 2 and 4 (and a bunch more BONES).

 

I just recently finished Tsuko, I'm pretty proud of him as I branched out and tried a bunch of new things on him, I posted him in the Open L2PK2 Show Off thread. I think I'm getting to the level where I'm actually better than the pre-painted D&D minis I've collected over the years, and I don't need to be too embarrassed to post them here. Expect more from me in the future. Especially once the new Kickstarter BONES models become available.

 

An amazingly addictive hobby - I've come a long way in just 4 months, but realize how far there still is to go when I'm amazed and inspired by some of the truly beautiful works of art being posted here.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Malynor

[ShadowRaven]

Mine was a Ral Partha Thief with Longsword in Ambush, back in 1988.

 

I have that guy sitting on my desk right now, getting touch ups in between other projects. I might use him for a halfling some time

[Paintdawg]

This is a zombie from a Grenadier D&D monster set of the early 1980s. It displays the paint strategy I used for 10 years: base color, black wash, done.

 

I will cop to the fact my mom painted the eyes because she had a much steadier hand.

 

 

 

[lankwell]

My mum found these packed away and took a couple pics.

They'd be from sometime between '91 and '94

 

 

Way different to the stuff I've started doing now using the L2PKs!

 

Looks like only single colours (no drybrushing/blending/washing etc). Didn't know what any of that was back then.

And I loved the metallic paints too by the looks, haha.

Edited June 2, 2013 by lankwell

[lankwell]

Then I found Reapermini.com, and these wonderful forums that are incredibly intimidating, and yet amazingly friendly and supportive at the same time. Seriously, I'm pretty sure you folks all missed the memo that stated everyone on the internet is supposed to be an angry, scornful, anonymous, hate-filled entity.

An amazingly addictive hobby - I've come a long way in just 4 months, but realize how far there still is to go when I'm amazed and inspired by some of the truly beautiful works of art being posted here.

 

Agree totally with you there, this place has to be one of the best forums I've been to. And likewise, enjoying improving my mini painting, and totally surprised my wife is loving it even more.

Definitely hurts the wallet though ;)

[Girot]

Technically the first mini I ever painted was one of the original plast beaky head marines. I've long since lost that guy. Next up after that I think was my very first 40k kit (Guardian Defenders) of which I still have a couple. I'll toss up some pics when I get a chance.

[trystangst]

Well I can't say if this was THE first, but it's certainly one of them. Notice the lack of primer...

[Amalor Myrnnyx]

The first mini I ever painted was for BattleTech, and was this Charger:

[Fremen]

I love this thread, and I really like seeing where everyone got their start. Here is mine, he is a Ral Partha mini from the Fighters pack. Ral Partha had a bunch of sets if I remember correctly that had one male and one female of various classes, like thieves, magic users, fighters, etc. I think i might even have some of these packs languishing in a dust covered box.

 

 

[Darkmeer]

While not the 1994 Space Marines of Shame who have been given away (painted them in 1996), near to that is the Chainmail D&D Aasimar from my WIP page. I had issues due to using enamels, having switched to acrylics, thus she has been stripped and moved into a place of less-shame.

As I said in my original WIP thread, she was started sometime in 2005. Yep... It was 2005 to 2010 before I picked up the brush again. Thank you D&D prepaints for spurring me to do more painting, as I consider even my aasimar to be on par or better than some of the "rares" at the end.

 

[Grimreaper71]

I'm not sure I have anything from when I started in the mid 90s, but here's the first thing I did upon starting up again in 2011 (after 11 years off):

And one of the last things I did before I took that 11 year break:

Very nice

[Leopardpixie]

I cant remember what my first mini was, but here is one of my minis from the beginging. I have recently stripped it. I will repaint it when i have time.

[Grimreaper71]

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.

I like the color, might have to use it myself