My first four painted minis ever

[Citrine]

Welcome to the hobby and the forums! Those are very nice first minis, if I were you I would keep them as is, so that in the future you can see how much you have improved.

[Chaoswolf]

Good work on them, I look forward to seeing what else you do.

 

Welcome to the forums!

[Lorathorn]

Why, oh why can't we ever have a newbie here sho's worse than me at painting?

 

Anyway, welcome to the insanity we like to call a forum!

 

A tip.

It won't hurt to edit the first post and add tags for each mini, and possibly even your username.

The first so that anyone can easily find all threads with the same minis, and the second to make it easier for us to be nosy and read all your topics. 

 

Is there some kind of an FAQ for how you do tagging? I would love to be able to do that to help others.

 

Oh, and one other thing. What do you guys think about using a glaze? I have a testor's dullcote that people on another forum seemed to swear by, but I worry about what it'll do to the paint job, or alternately, if I should do it to get a better finish off of them. I thought I saw another thread on this somewhere, but I couldn't find it (or at least specifically about the testor's brand)

Edited November 14, 2016 by Lorathorn

[Serenity]

For tagging, all you need to do is edit your first post and enter the tags in the Topic Tags box separated by commas.  You can edit any post you've made.  There's an "Edit" button at the bottom of your post.

 

Here's a link to the Show Off forum Guidelines and Suggestions which talks about which tags to use.

 

I usually don't seal, and I use MSP brush-on sealer on Bones when I do.  If you want to use a spray on Bones minis, use caution.  Some sprays make Bones figures sticky.  I think Dullcote spray is safe for Bones, but haven't done my own tests to verify.  I know others have used it without issues.

[Lorathorn]

How do you decide if you seal or don't seal?

[Gadgetman!]

If it's getting ANY handling at all, or is left exposed to air, it should probably be sealed.

Acrylics tends to stay 'tacky' for years so dust can stick to it even if it feels dry. And when that dirt sticks you'll never be able to get it off again. 

And yeah, it's very easy to damage the finish if it's not protected by a varnish or something.

 

There are many different varnishes on the market both for brush and airbrush application, or even as rattle cans.

Dull-cote is often mentioned. (I don't use that. They don't sell that here in Norway... )

 

I'd suggest getting 17ml / 0.5Oz bottles of a few different varnishes and trying them out. Or badger another miniaature painter to lend you some, if there's someone nearby. 

(Reaper have 2 sealers in their store. One is glossy, I don't know about the other)

Most seems to prefer a matte finish sealer(such as dull-cote), but there are also gloss and different 'satin' finishes. They all have their uses, and it's possible to use more than one varnish on a mini. Some like to use a gloss, then a matte on top of that, or just different varnishes on different areas.

[Jaws]

You are off to a perfect start. :)

[Jaws]

If it's getting ANY handling at all, or is left exposed to air, it should probably be sealed.

Acrylics tends to stay 'tacky' for years so dust can stick to it even if it feels dry. And when that dirt sticks you'll never be able to get it off again. 

And yeah, it's very easy to damage the finish if it's not protected by a varnish or something.

 

There are many different varnishes on the market both for brush and airbrush application, or even as rattle cans.

Dull-cote is often mentioned. (I don't use that. They don't sell that here in Norway... )

 

I'd suggest getting 17ml / 0.5Oz bottles of a few different varnishes and trying them out. Or badger another miniaature painter to lend you some, if there's someone nearby. 

(Reaper have 2 sealers in their store. One is glossy, I don't know about the other)

Most seems to prefer a matte finish sealer(such as dull-cote), but there are also gloss and different 'satin' finishes. They all have their uses, and it's possible to use more than one varnish on a mini. Some like to use a gloss, then a matte on top of that, or just different varnishes on different areas.

Just noticed this. Not to hijack the thread or anything, but Jula has matte spray at reasonable prices. Panduro sell matt and gloss (brush-on) varnish in semi-large containers, that last a really, really long time. Most other products I use are from miniature companies, but those mentioned products are really great.

 

It's good advice, though. Always seal my miniatures with gloss varnish, first, then use matte on top when it's dry. To remove the shine. 

[Guindyloo]

Are there general tips for dressing bases?

There are a hundred million different ways to dress bases. There are simplistic ones, pre-sculpted ones, and countless different materials to use. I would first establish what kind of base you want to use and then seek out how to achieve that look.

In addition to the resources here on the forum that Xherman linked you to, the first thing I would do if I don't already have an inspiration picture in mind, is go to google. When I'm searching anything mini related, I start my search term off with "miniature painting" so "miniature painting swamp base" or "miniature painting forest base." Right there on your first page of results, you're probably going to see a couple of youtube tutorials and many blog posts. You can visit all of those and/or you can hop over to the Images results - a lot of the top image results are going to end up linking you back to a tutorial, I've found. If you find a base that you like but can't find a tutorial and the person's not available to ask directly, ask us here. I'm sure that someone will be able to lead you in the right direction.

 

I feel like my detail work is weak, and I need more practice at things like artificial shadows and blending. Timur in particular could use a lot of detail work.

Don't get frustrated if you're not progressing as quickly as you'd like to. I have a tendency to try to run before I'm even done learning how to crawl and it only leads to frustration. Practice, practice, practice and have lots of patience with yourself! The kinds of things you're talking about can take years for some people to get right. For some of us it never clicks. Strive to do the best that you can do but understand that you can only progress at your own pace.

 

My fear/excitement is in painting humanoids with faces (not helmeted, etc) but I have anxiety about eyes. So far I've only been able to do like with the stone golem and do red eyes (I still have to give my orc marauder the red eye treatment too).

As far as eyes are concerned - don't worry, we all have anxiety about painting them. My best advice is to always expect them to go terribly wrong because unfortunately a lot of times they're going to! Just make sure that you're keeping your paints well thinned so that when you make a mistake, it's easy enough to paint back over it and try again without getting a thick paint build up that kills details.

 

Oh, and one other thing. What do you guys think about using a glaze? I have a testor's dullcote that people on another forum seemed to swear by, but I worry about what it'll do to the paint job, or alternately, if I should do it to get a better finish off of them. I thought I saw another thread on this somewhere, but I couldn't find it (or at least specifically about the testor's brand)

I can't help but notice that you called a sealer a glaze, so I just want to make sure that this was just a typo/terminology confusion rather than you thinking that when people talk about glazing that they mean sealing or vice versa.

A glaze is a very, very thinned down paint, basically just coloured water, that you can use with either the purpose of changing the tone of the colour that you're using (for instance, using a glaze of purple in the shadows of a green cloak) or to bring transitions together/tone down a transition that has gone too far.

Sealing is putting on a protective coat to stop the underlying paint job from becoming damaged.

 

Like I said, just to make sure that you're clear on the difference.

 

I don't usually seal my miniatures and that's for 2 and 1/2 reasons.

1. I don't use my miniatures for gaming, I only paint them for display.

2. I live in a very high humidity area, so spray sealers are not generally an option for me and so I worry that brush-on sealer will either leave brush marks or pool or bubble.

2 1/2. I'm lazy and really would rather just use a spray-on and since I can't, I don't.

 

Now the reason that some people swear by Dullcote is because it has proven its worth in giving a perfect matte finish. The reason we want a very matte finish is partially because at such a small scale, any kind of shine is going to interfere with your painted on highlights and also having a shine will give your minis a sort of plastic look rather than the organic, realistic look that we're typically looking for.

 

Any way that you decide to go as far as sealer, I highly recommend first off making sure that your humidity isn't too high (it can change from day to day even if there hasn't been rain) and I also recommend testing it on a sacrificial mini that you don't care too much about before you put it on one that you do.

[Lorathorn]

You are right, I meant a sealer. My bad. Thank you so much for the advice.

[Glitterwolf]

AND HAVE FUN!!!

 

Don't forget to HAVE FUN!!!