Miniatures, and everything related to them

[Crossbow]

Just remember, you don't die until you've painted your last mini.

Then I'm freakin' immortal.

My advice: paint speceships, battleships and robots. They don't have pesky faces to paint.

Funny, that's a lot of what I have.

Also a little bit of detail on the base can work wonders for a mini.

Quoted for truth. Never neglect the base. It can make or break a mini. Even a spaceship one.

We're working on it!

[protege]

Mine is a mains powered one with a little pump (no real tank), and two-step action. So I can run it in the comfort of my lounge at the table.

My compressor is really designed for running air-operated tools. By dialing down the pressure, I can run the airbrush as well. Noisy as hell though. But, at the time, it was less expensive (not to mention more powerful) than one of the Whisper variety at the craft store.

[Crossbow]

I was able to find an inexpensive airbrush at Harbor Freight Tools a while back. Dual action, internal mix, so I've got a fair bit of control. I'm not going to be detailing cars with it, but it's good for basecoating vehicles and even some larger minis. Now I need to spend the money for a compressor. I borrowed one from a friend, but he needed it back. Right now, I'm reduced to using canned propellant. (Yeah, it sucks, but it works...)

[Crossbow]

I had an idea. Since there's several of us here that are minis folk and we've already had a request for pics, how about this - Each of us pick a mini (or two, if we're feeling brave) and paint it, posting work-in-progress shots. We can get feedback and tips for improving from the group, as well as some motivation to keep pushing ourselves.

Anyone else up for it?

[Tuxian]

Works for me. Was planning to get started by priming my mini today, maybe get a base coat on too. I'll snap some photos as I do.

[cinema guy]

Sounds like a good idea.

[Crossbow]

Ok, anyone that's going to be doing a mini, please post a link to the piece you're working on, and we'll go from there.

Since I'm a crazy s.o.b, I'm pulling two minis from the mound of pewter to work on. (In truth, I'll probably be working on at least half a dozen more at the same time, depending on my mood, but I probably won't post them. Probably.)

The first is a Battletech mini that I promised to an artist as a thank-you for making me smile every time I read one of her comics. An example of the mech can be seen here. (No, not my paint job. I wish.) This isn't the paint scheme I'm doing. I know the colors, but I need to nail down the pattern.

The second is this guy. Yes, he's a frog Grim Reaper. I just love the sculpt, and I need to get my brain back into the swing of doing something other than mechs and spaceships. I'm probably going to be painting him pretty much just as you see him.

Ok, who else is in, and what are you painting? (Tuxian, you're already covered. We know what you're working on.)

[Tuxian]

So I went ahead and broke out the paints today, and got my mini all painted up. I'll post some photos I took as soon as I get them uploaded somewhere and make sure they're in focus. I went with this mini Astrid Berger, Female Spy, since she's just a single piece and doesn't have much in the way of minute details to worry about. I think it came out quite good for a first attempt!

ETA: here's photos of the mini unprimed, and then after priming. I can't seem to get a good pic of it after painting it though, comes out unfocused. I'll play around with my camera until I get a better one.

Base mini:


Primed:


And now a funny pic, got this when I took a pic and tried to cover up the flash, since it was getting over-exposed from that, I think the effect is kinda neat.



OK, got a semi-decent pic of the painted mini.

[Crossbow]

Tuxian, it looks like your camera either isn't in, or doesn't have, a macro mode.
Take a look at this article and see if there's anything in it that could help.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/article...ke-good-photos

[Tuxian]

I'll look around, and see what I can do. Overall, the mini took me about 45 min to paint. I was surprised at how simple it was, but I'm glad I was watching those videos with Anne and Jen. Had a few times where the paint was kinda too watery, so I had to wick it off the mini with the brush and then apply more later, but overall, I think it turned out fairly well for a first try.

[Crossbow]

Whelp, it looks like the only way to paint the hourglass on the frog reaper is to do it separately. If I glue it in place first, I can't get to the back of the glass or his leg. Oh well. We'll see how it goes. I'm out of town this weekend without paints, but I do have my prep kit, so I'm at least getting more minis ready to go. Babylon 5 Narn fleet in process and BSG new series ships are ready for primer.

[ApolloSZ]

Will try getting pics of my Dam Busters diorama up tonight.

[Crossbow]

Sorry about the delays. Been busy, and I'm far from a fast painter. So far, just primed shots, but I did manage to prime a whole bunch of stuff. I'm just posting the two I started here, though.

Apologies for the pic quality. I don't have a lightbox setup at home; I use my friend's. There's going to be some shadows...

First up, the Mad Cat:

A little fuzzier than I had hoped with the primer. I'll need to do some clean up.

Then, the Grim Frogger:


Yep. I primed him black, except for the separate hand/hourglass. I wanted to try building up the skeleton from black to deepen the shadows in the recessed sections. It's going to take longer, but in the end it should be a neat effect. I'm going to paint the hand black first as well. The hourglass will stay with a white primer.

Other shots can be found at my DeviantArt account: http://crossbowroof.deviantart.com/gallery/39566563

[Zapper]

I know Games Workshop has been bashed for their prices, but damned if I'm not addicted to Warhammer 40K. I just got back into it, and am working on two armies, an original Space Marine Chapter and a Chaos Space Marines warband. The recently released Dark Vengeance kit (which is actually not a bad deal) was practically a godsend. Took over an hour, mostly because I carved out the original head, rue shaped the area, and had to file down that pewter head (pain in the ass) to fit it. The Peter claw was a quick clip and file job, easiest part of the process.

Couple work in progress picks, mostly conversions.

SM Master of the Forge. Funny story about this guy. I'm halfway through building him when I realize that they packed in two of the same sprue, which meant I didn't get two of the proper servo arms and the backpack they all connect to. So...conversion was pretty much necessary. Good thing I bought a Necron kit to harvest for bits.



Some Chaos bikers, replacing the actual bikes (which are a ripoff) with demonic steeds from the Chaos Knights frames. The fantasy and sci-fi Chaos parts are very, very compatible.



The Hellbrute from the Dark Vengeance kit, with a new head and a driver. Once I get it painted up, that pole will be an electric prod, and he'll be pulling on chains wrapped around the Brute.

[RayvenQ]

Sorry about the delays. Been busy, and I'm far from a fast painter. So far, just primed shots, but I did manage to prime a whole bunch of stuff. I'm just posting the two I started here, though.

Apologies for the pic quality. I don't have a lightbox setup at home; I use my friend's. There's going to be some shadows...

First up, the Mad Cat:

A little fuzzier than I had hoped with the primer. I'll need to do some clean up.

Ahem, that's Timber Wolf to you Inner Sphere scum!