My first stabs at painting (77104 Blacktongue, 49022 Andromedan Vizier, 77073 Freja, 77074 Dain)

[RFS-81]

Some time ago, a friend of mine hosted a mini painting for dummies session. I didn't have any figures to paint, but I wanted to try it out, so I bought a couple of miniatures from Reaper that I thought looked cool. Turns out, I like it!

 

 

Blacktongue, Gnoll Ranger The first one I painted. Base colors, splurge wash all over, drybrush some highlights around the mane. Easy! I was surprised how much I liked the end result. I don't like seeing it up close like that as much, but I don't hate looking at it on my shelf. This got me to buying my own colors, brushes, etc. and continue.

 

 

When the lighting is good, the pouches on his back don't look like giant butt cheeks. When it's not so good, well... I thought making them a different shade from the fur was good enough.

 

Andromedan Vizier This one I'm less happy with. I followed the same approach as before, but it came out much more drab than I wanted. The lesson I took from it was to be more intentional with wash. Turns out it's not just skill in a bottle. Who would have thought? Also, I felt like the yellow wasn't really sticking to the figure. But I didn't have that problem with the hair on Freja. When I'm a bit better at painting, I want to buy another copy and try it again.

 

Freja, Dain I tried to make some better decisions here about which parts need washes and which don't. Sometimes I got confused about which parts were supposed to be leather or metal, for example on the arms or boots. Overall, I like how these came out.

 

 

I'm so happy that I didn't screw up the detail on Dain's shield!

Edited December 19, 2021 by RFS-81
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[KruleBear]

Nice start. Welcome to the forum and the hobby. 

[Big Bad Wolf]

Welcome aboard! I'm pretty new on here myself.

Here you'll find a wealth of great talent and great people who are more than willing to share of their wisdom and knowledge. 

[deathly halliwell]

These are a really nice start! Some strong colour choices and you seem to have good brush control. One thing to consider with these ones or your next ones is coming back after the wash to do another layer of the base colors as a highlight, such as on the red padded armor on Freya, the skin on both dwarves, etc. That can help the minis look a lot "cleaner" with relative ease.

 

A great start overall, welcome to the hobby! And nice choice of first minis, gotta love some dwarves 🙂

[Glitterwolf]

Welcome to the forum!

A good start into the hobby,

I recommend watching some videos on Youtube about Painting Fantasy Miniatures, it can be very helpful to take you to the next steps.

Most important thing is to have fun!

Nobody can paint like a Pro in one go, and it's up to you what level you're aiming for,

Fun is the key, without it one will stop painting.

[Chaoswolf]

14 hours ago, RFS-81 said:

When I'm a bit better at painting, I want to buy another copy and try it again.

This is an excellent idea. A lot of people (myself included) will tell you to never repaint your first miniature, but to keep it and do another version of it a little while down the road to see how far you've come.

 

Very good looking paintjobs on your first few miniatures, keep it up and have fun!

 

Welcome to the forum.

[RFS-81]

Thank you all for the kind words!

 

 

10 hours ago, deathly halliwell said:

One thing to consider with these ones or your next ones is coming back after the wash to do another layer of the base colors as a highlight, such as on the red padded armor on Freya, the skin on both dwarves, etc. That can help the minis look a lot "cleaner" with relative ease.

 

Yeah, the smudged look bothers me a bit. I don't know if I want to go back on them. I've already applied varnish and I don't know if I should paint over that. Also, I'm not sure if I'll be able to hit the precise color mix for the skin and the padded armor again. But anyway, what kind of technique do you have in mind? Drybrushing, or normal painting while trying to dodge the crevices?

[deathly halliwell]

26 minutes ago, RFS-81 said:

Thank you all for the kind words!

 

 

 

Yeah, the smudged look bothers me a bit. I don't know if I want to go back on them. I've already applied varnish and I don't know if I should paint over that. Also, I'm not sure if I'll be able to hit the precise color mix for the skin and the padded armor again. But anyway, what kind of technique do you have in mind? Drybrushing, or normal painting while trying to dodge the crevices?

If you're happy with the result then there's no need to go back. 🙂 I think that you probably could try a careful drybrush but yes, I would say normal painting while dodging crevices. But not completely necessary at this stage!

 

[Poilu_1914]

Very nice job on your first minis! Welcome to the forum and the hobby! As far a picking out the highlights after a wash, I prefer a wet brush rather than a dry brush, basically a similar technique but the brush is just slightly wetter.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looking good! You have taken your first steps into a new world!

[Evilhalfling]

welcome to the forums and to painting!

You are off to a great start. 

It is  a terrible amount of fun, and I love the way you are carefully considering what to do to be better after each figure. 

[Iridil]

Welcome! Great start. Warning.... you may need to buy some storage bins - unless you have a lot more self control than I do!

[RFS-81]

On 12/20/2021 at 9:34 PM, Iridil said:

Welcome! Great start. Warning.... you may need to buy some storage bins - unless you have a lot more self control than I do!

I paint at a glacial pace, so if I don't buy more than I paint, I should be fine. If. I'm still not done with my current project, but I already have my eyes on some more.

[Poilu_1914]

3 hours ago, RFS-81 said:

I paint at a glacial pace, so if I don't buy more than I paint, I should be fine. If. I'm still not done with my current project, but I already have my eyes on some more.

That's how the shelf of shame gets started! Or in my case box of shame. Once you have one of these you're a real hobbyist! 😄

Edited December 22, 2021 by Poilu_1914
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