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Preping for Minis

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Foote
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PlaytesterHarmony
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Preping for Minis

Hey guys! Quick question I wanted to throw out there. For all of you who pledged for the awesome minis during the Kickstarter, does anyone have plans on painting them? This will be the first game I own that will have minis, and just imagining how cool that Lazer Dragon would look all done up, it got me thinking that I might wanna take a stab it. Anyone else feeling the same thing? Anyone have experience painting minis and lend advice? I know theres tons of stuff about it online, but figured Id pose it to the community first to get some specific advice on this set of minis.

Jumping the shark here? Maybe. I just got GSF on the mind at the moment.

 

Spiff
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I've got plans to paint my minis, but whether I do or not will depend in part on the storage solution we end up with.  If we're just tossing the minis in the box, they'll remain unpainted.  If they have individual spots to store them so that they're not banging around getting chipped, or if I can manage to make a way to store them like that, then painting them will be a better option for me.

The best advice I have is that it's always best to give the minis a white primer coat before beginning the paint job.  That undercoat makes the paint you lay on top of it appear brighter, and it gives the paint something to grip as you lay it on.  It definitely leads to a better finished product.


Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm

jagarciao
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I have thought about it... but I have so many games with some minis that I fear that if I start I will never stop. The last thing I need is yet another hobby...

Silverleaf
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I'm not really a painter but I know quite a few of them - and they'd all recommend giving the minis a wash in soapy water (scrubbing with a soft toothbrush or similar) and allowing to dry before you prime, to remove any oils they might have picked up from the moulds (or your fingers) which could stop the paint sticking properly.

Also, if you haven't painted before you might want to pick up some cheap plastic army men or something and practice before you try painting your good minis.

And it might sound obvious, but plan out your colour schemes for everything before you start to paint - don't get halfway though painting one of them and then realise that the colour you're using would look way better on a different ship...


Just assume I'm always doing that.

Damn it, Ronway!

Foote
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I am rather worried about colors. There are not a whole lot of minis to paint, but I am very hesitant on dropping $100 on paints in the multitude of colors I might need for just one round of coloring (I really do not have plans on getting into the mini gaming scene in general, just not my thing).

Like, already looking at the War-Spectre ships...oh boy. It is rather intimidating trying to start off.

Rabit
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I was painting a lot of figures years ago, but gave it up for other things (like enjoying time with my spouse wink). It can be a really enjoyable hobby, but it does take time.

My thoughts:

  • On Spiff's advice to use white primer: As he said, it helps to brighten up the end result, so if you're wanting a darker paint job, use a black primer. For many of my "bad guys" or darker figures (rats, vampires, etc.), the dark primer made a significant difference - just depends on the effect you are going for. As always, try it out on something else, first. In this case, it's fun to get two, identical figures, prime them differently, then paint them identically.
  • Once you're done, use a couple coats of a spray-on high-gloss coating, then use a couple coats of a matte coating. This will help protect the mini, give it a nice, matte texture, and as the matte coating wears off you will get to the gloss coating, letting you know it needs a new coat before it starts damaging the paint, itself.
  • Getting into painting can be expensive, but if you plan your paint needs beforehand, it will help a lot.
  • It's might be useful to get into an introductory class (at a Con or a local gaming store) to get some basics (color selection, shading, texturing, highlights, etc.). They can be pretty cheap (if not free) and will save you a lot of time and money in experimentation.
  • (I could keep going, but you're probably bored at this point and I am supposed to be working... blush)

 


"See, this is another sign of your tragic space dementia, all paranoid and crotchety. Breaks the heart." - Mal

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Foote
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No thats awesome Rabit thanks! I guess I am trying to get a feel for if it is something I'd want to sink the time and extra money into doing, as realistically it will only be for these minis and not much else. I could see it turning out looking SO cool, but I am rather bad at art things in general. I wouldn't want the minis looking worse than when I got them haha

jagarciao
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Stop tempting me!! I have Zombicide and backed the Kickstarter for Season 2 as well MYTH. If I go down the painting black hole I fear I will never emerge...

Spiff
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As for the paints themselves, I usually ended up with three different versions of each color I wanted, the color itself, a darker version, and a lighter version.  That way I could lay down the actual color, then wet-wash in the darker color into the cracks to make it looked shadowed, then dry-wash the lighter color on top for the highlights.  You can do that all with a single color by mixing in some white or black paint to lighten/darken it, but each bottle of paint isn't individually all that expensive, so I just bought the colors I wanted.

Because these are spaceships and not characters figures, I'm expecting them to be significantly easier to paint.  A single coat of a color, some wet-wash black in the cracks to give it shadows, then maybe some dry washing here and there to make it look weathered.  I'm going to stay away from difficult racing stripes or things like that.  Having said that, I don't want to end up with a bunch of slate gray ships, so I'll try to mix things up a bit. And of course, the Spectre ships are more biological, but those can almost be free-paint zone, where you just lay down colors until it looks sufficiently groovy, man.


Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm

lynkfox
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If you take your time and can get all the mini's done at once, mixing is not a bad idea for getting the 'three colors' spiff talks about. (ie, its fine for these minis, cause youll only be using it on one or two models, but it realllllyyy sucks when you try to match the mixed paint you used on an army of 300 models ;P) Just a bit of black paint or a bit of white paint can dark and lighten respectively.  I use a medicine droper for mixing paints (or i did, years ago when i painted more)


Lynkfox.
http://sentinelswiki.com/ The Sentinels of the Multiverse Wiki

http://mindwanderer.net/sotm/ - SoTM Statistics! Updated DAILY!

PM me if you're interested in playing with the Statistics Data!

Silverleaf
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If you're planning to mix paints it might be worth learning some basic colour theory as well. I'm an artist that works primarily in polymer clay which mixes in the same way as traditional artist's pigments (luckily I have an eye for mixing/matching hues), and I'm always hearing people say they find it difficult to mix certain colours. Then I find out that they were trying to get a bright sap green by mixing ultramarine with cad yellow, which was never going to work! Of course it's much easier to just buy all the colours you need but it depends on how much you want to spend on paint for a few minis.

Another good tip I heard was to make yourself a wet palette (easy to do if you google for it) so your paints stay workable for longer. And similarly, don't paint staight out of the pot with the lid open, it'll dry your paints out.


Just assume I'm always doing that.

Damn it, Ronway!

Spiff
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That's a good point.  I should also clarify what I mean by wet-washing and dry-brushing, for people who don't know.  Wet-washing is when you get some color on your brush, then dip the brush into water (I lay out a saucer next to me with some water in it for this) until the paint on the brush is soaked.  Then when you run the brush over the folds or creases of a mini, the water flows into the cracks, taking the paint with it.  Then when the water evaporates in an hour or so, it leaves the paint, making those areas look shadowed.  You'll need to come along later and do a little clean up to handle the paint that flowed into areas you didn't want it to, but it can really make the mini look nice.

Dry-brushing is when you put paint on the brush then you rub the brush on something to take most of the paint off (I use a piece of foam leftover from a mini pack for this).  Then you lightly brush the lightly-covered brush across the areas of the mini you want to highlight to give the area a kiss of color.  Dry-brushing can really wear out a brush, which is why I have a few brushes which I use only for dry-brushing, so I don't end up trashing my precision brushes.

Both techniques are super easy, and if you use them both, you'll have a mini with a multi-layered color scheme that will look super pro (hopefully).


Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm

Foote
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When the time gets closer, I might pick all of your brains again about all of this. I am guessing I will probably need a good bit of grey/silver for the metahumans, vindicator and dragon. Reds and purples for the dragon and warspectres and cryoshade. Some whites for highlights and the claw, browns and yellows for warbeast and warspectres. I am gonna screw these up so badly I know it haha

lynkfox
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Its actually far easier than you think it is. the secret is -patience-

 

This is one of my better (unfinished) models

 

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lynkfox/media/Warhammer/DSCF1843.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5

or

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lynkfox/media/Warhammer/Skittari/DSC00182.jpg.html?sort=3&o=11

and I did that after about 6 months of working with paints and just reading and listening to all the advice I could get online. The secret i learned in doing him was /be patient/ and use slightly watereddown paints.

 

you can browse through that album to see other models i painted. Of course in that 6 months of painting I did do probably 200 -300 models so... yeah. YMMV :P 

 

But seriously, patience is the best bet, and if you have time to make it to a con? Origins and Gencon both have painting seminars and Free Paint tables - free paint tables are awesomebecause you can just grab a mini and paint, and you can learn a lot from it.


Lynkfox.
http://sentinelswiki.com/ The Sentinels of the Multiverse Wiki

http://mindwanderer.net/sotm/ - SoTM Statistics! Updated DAILY!

PM me if you're interested in playing with the Statistics Data!

Foote
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I have been considering driving over for Origins, but as one of those lazy-good-for-nothin' millenials out of college, money is a prohibitive factor. 7.5 hour drive over from Philly and back plus hotel. But that does sound awesome, thanks for sharing lynkfox. The big guy with the wings is pretty boss.  

Mezike
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As an aside, a tip for getting a nice finish without having to invest too much in materials or practice (and you will need a LOT of practice to get the nice kind of paintjob you would really like to have. Oh, and a lot of materials too!) is to try the 'dip method'. It's undoubtedly the easiest quick fix option for an amateur painter; you only need a small range of basic colours to get a decent result, you can get away with being a little sloppy with your brushwork, and it is possible to actually finish all the pieces of a game quickly so that you can start playing instead of painting.

A good walkthrough on BGG: http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/43744/the-dip-method-a-step-by-step-guide-to-painting-mi

The technique is really easy - paint the base colour, then dip the entire mini into a pot of regular - not clear - varnish (or paint the varnish on). The varnish adds depth to the colour, hides imperfections in the paint job, and protects the figure all in one go. It will never give you a professional looking finish, and certainly isn't as much fun as painting from scratch, but is perfect for boardgame pieces and is the easy way to get nice looking minis without immersing yourself into another expensive hobby wink

I would also +1 the earlier advice that you get some dirt cheap plastic figures (army men, farm animals, it doesn't matter what) and practice on them first of all, whichever method you ultimately choose to use.

Spiff
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That's fantastic.  I'd never heard of the dip method.  If I were painting armies of guys at a time, that's definitely how I'd go.


Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm

lynkfox
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some companies also sell various colors for the dip method, allowing you to get a good specific color out of them as well. It's pretty popular on 40k figures, for the rank and file guys. The you go back over them for a few individual colors and you're done


Lynkfox.
http://sentinelswiki.com/ The Sentinels of the Multiverse Wiki

http://mindwanderer.net/sotm/ - SoTM Statistics! Updated DAILY!

PM me if you're interested in playing with the Statistics Data!