Hobby Report - First and Best (so far)! [Group/Open]

[Bathory]

Nice job Rob! You've improved your colors, have freehand and eyes :)

[ub3r_n3rd]

Still love seeing everyone's progress! It's so cool!!!

[Darkmeer]

Alright, I'll play.  My first minis that I painted were Space Marines painted in a cornflower blue craft paint with a metallic shoulderpad.  I tend to play with the shoulderpads of minis I paint (when armored).  That's a theme from when I was a kid.  So, from there, here's where I go:

 

My earliest piece (I'm willing to photograph) is an Aasimar Priestess from the D&D Chainmail line, painted circa 2005-2006, just before the dark times happened:

 

A long time later I picked things up (Around 2011) I painted Juliette as a white mage, which was the most challenging figure I had attempted, andrelatively succeeded with, although my camera skills haven't much improved over the years.

 

I got into Warmachine around this time, and choose to play painted.  I fail more miserably when unpainted for some reason.  BONES 1 happened after that as well, and the first real competition piece I made was Abyzarran.  He remains my favorite piece to date. 

 

I have many other pieces, but, technique-wise, I think that my most recent Vanja, Fire Giant Queen (old metal one!) is probably the best technical piece I did as I tried for many things I hadn't ever succeeded with (and still came flat IMO, especially when looking at pretty well everyone in this thread's work). 

 

[Darkmeer]

And, since I mentioned Warmachine, I'd better post some pics!

I play Khador and my middle son plays Cygnar, so here comes the Motherland first:

and, of course, Beast 09 (my favorite Character 'Jack in the game)

 

And, for Cygnar, I've painted a few things, but here's what I've been most happy with:

Mark 1 pStryker variant pose (my favorite pose of his:

a Hammersmith:

and a Lancer

 

Also, I have many soldiers painted, but those are less dramatic than the warjacks.  Hope someone finds inspiration and sees that I began an effort for basing truly, with my Warmachine models.

[ub3r_n3rd]

Great progress, Thanks for sharing!

[Glitterwolf]

Nice work!

 

 

I love that Dragon!!!!

[Darkmeer]

Great progress, Thanks for sharing!

 

 

Nice work!

 

 

I love that Dragon!!!!

 

Thank you both.  I still love that dragon.  It's the larges one I've painted other than the Pathfinder Red.  I have the Fire Dragon and Bones Shadow dragon on deck, but that's been for over a year each at this point.  I'm happy with them, just SLOOOOOOW.  The Abyzarran that I painted was quite a bit of time to get finished.

[Auberon]

Since I only got into mini painting a few years ago I had just assumed that I had missed the whole enamel paint era, but it turns out I was wrong. When I was at my parents over the past weekend my mother handed me some stuff she had "saved" for me. One of the items was the old Battlemasters game that I had completely forgotten about. It looks like I made it about halfway through before I stopped, likely because I had trouble finding anyone to play with and gave up on it.  I know that it was painted with testor's enamel, because that was the only thing I would have had, and with synthetic testor's brushes that had no point.  I might have been 13 at the time, but was more likely 14.  Not only have I moved my first painting back by 20 years, I've also moved back my first freehand by the same.  :D

 

Here are a few example units:

 

 

I think this example does show why gamers can be annoyed with players who don't paint their units.  I mean, these guys are just a basecoat but from three feet away look way better than bare plastic.

 

Pics from the winter exchange:

 

 

 

 

[Glitterwolf]

You have come a long way!!!

 

Super!!!

[Grumpy Cave Bear]

I'm going to apologize in advance for "Figure 0"... but you asked for it, right in the thread title!

 

Myself, I've been in the miniatures hobby since early 2013, after I backed the Reaper Bones I Kickstarter just to get the paints -- yeah, no figures at all -- so I could test them out on larger scale models. There was a time in my high school years, early 80's, when I painted a handful of Grenadier/Ral Partha figures, but those are long gone.

 

Before the paints arrived, my youngest, Kenny, asked me to try to "fix" one of his plastic toy soldiers that had lost its base. So for fun, I grabbed my Tamiya paints, painted it up, pinned it to a balsa base, and quickly "scenicked" it with sand. Then I hit it with some cheap craft spray sealer, and all my work was undone, as the Tamiya paint reacted to the thinner in the aerosol and ran. And so I present "Figure 0", so named because I don't want it to count as the first:

 

 

Kenny didn't want it back. I have sometimes thought about entering it on the CoolMiniOrNot website as a prank.

 

What I consider "Figure 1" is a bit better, but comes from the same toybox as the soldier above. This fellow got painted with the Reaper paints from the Kickstarter, then sealed with a better quality clear coat, sprayed from an airbrush:

 

 

He stands about 2" tall without the axe, so I couldn't use him in a game, except as "the world's smallest giant". Still, I like his muppet-like facial expression. I have named him Eric, after a terrible DM that I once knew.

 

Latest figure was the Dub Bullock figure (http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/73141-the-ladykiller-77207-dub-bullock/?p=1509844) that I modded and entered in the Valentine's day painting contest. I think I have improved a bit since I started.

[Glitterwolf]

More than a bit!!!!

[ub3r_n3rd]

BUMP!

 

I see we've gotten quite a few new people on the forum lately. Please, everyone continue to post and share your works, old and new!

[InvisibleThumb]

I blame Uber for making me dig for the last 20 minutes to find my first mini, but now I'm not convinced I didn't touch it up at some point.  

 

This is Linroc Brightrune 02244.  I originally painted this dwarf about 15 years ago.  I used craft paint and I remember it taking a loooong time to start to look okay.  This was around the time that prepainted minis started to become more common so I thought I'd paint up some PC models special.  Well other than this dwarf, a pair of goblins and a small rat, I did not paint anything else for many many years.

 

 

 

The base is recent.  I have used him occasionally in a Frostgrave warband (dwarf and halfling themed)

 

I am not sure I have a "best."  One of the ones I'm most proud of I did about a year ago.  Deathsleet.  A number of firsts for me.  First big dragon.  Needed to build up the base to anchor the tail.  First time working with putty for the wings and trying to sculpt the putty into scales to blend in.  First time really trying to blend - many layers went on those wings and they still look so rough.  Almost first snow base (tested it out on another before doing it on this one)

 

 

 

 

Oh and I don't know if anyone has mentioned this before but white is a difficult color!

 

 For most recent see my latest show off.  Did a bit of freehand on this one. 

 

[ub3r_n3rd]

Very nice, Thumb! Happy you shared your works with us. Vast improvement!

[SisterMaryNapalm]

This one is no figure, but scenery equipment.

 

Years ago, back in school, I was totally interested in the WWII topic, and as Revell of Germany was providing a lot of sceneric displays with their combi sets, I once saw the Africa corps package, which included a ruined building. But as during that time the available money was rare and my parents considered me to be too young to get such kits (I was like 9 or 10 years old), the only way for me to get such a building was the pottery making lesson at school.

 

"Design a landscape" - Guess what I did? Right:

 

 

Nowadays it looks more like this:

 

 

That is a mill, originally from some small company that doesn't exist anymore (if I am correctly informed). The modell had been somewhere on a guys attic and when he figured he didn't need it anymore, I took the kit, assembled and upgraded it and it now is the centerpiece of my Valkyria Chronicles table

Edited August 3, 2017 by Knochensack