Miniatures Gaming (Tabletop and Board): Catch-all

One random bit of advice on general painting before I go into airbrushing. When you're doing touch ups and more subtle work like shading or detailed highlights, take a good picture before you start so that you can appreciate the work you're doing more. Sometimes after working on subtle stuff for a few hours you might look at your mini and wonder why you just did all that, it barely looks different. You'll appreciate it more if you can look back at how those small changes add up.

So airbrushing; There's a lot of 'getting into airbrushing' articles out there, I dont want to repeat too much especially about choosing an airbrush. This is a good start: http://handcannononline.com/blog/201.... I will suggest a general procedure for getting used to your airbrush and ramping up your skill though. Liquitex's brush-on primers work great in an airbrush with few drops of their airbrush medium and I'd say that the very first paint you spray out of the airbrush should be primer. When you're priming there's really no messing up so it's a great way to get a feel for the trigger, the airflow, the consistency of your paint and how to get different kinds of coverage.

Prime a few models, then move on to laying down a base-coat of color. With airbrushing, the easiest thing to do is work from dark to light, where as in regular painting you might do the mid-tone, then the shade, then the highlight. So lay down a nice dark version of your base coat, let it dry, then work on the mid-tone. Doing it in this order means you can typically shoot from the direction of your light source and not worry much about hitting unintended parts of the model. Remember you're not shooting like a spraypaint though (with the nozzle distant from the model). You should be practicing getting close in without spreading your paint all over the place. Shoot in short bursts so it dries quickly.

Lastly you should be able to get in and do some highlighting. The great thing about the airbrush is that you can quickly apply multiple coats and watch the highlight get built up. It works SO much better than when you're trying to paint on highlights, in my opinion.

Once you get good at that, there's more fun techniques to pick up.
-You can mask completed armor plates with some poster-tac and spray on your metals (or vice versa)
-You can spray on some subtle highlights from underneath on metallic parts
-You can get really fine detail in with the airbrush. Check out SchnauzerFaceMinis on youtube. He records complete painting sessions from start to finish and you'll be surprised how much he does before ever touching a brush to the mini. There are some models like the little frog man that are really extra inspiring.
-You can base-coat (shade, mid-tone, highlight) whole units or groups of models in just an hour or so when you really get comfortable. Airbrushing offers both speed and nice, smooth blending this way.

Thanks - this is great stuff!

I ended up stripping the paint and primer off my Temple Flameguards (my next painting project) as my initial attempt to start painting cloth was pretty disastrous, especially with trying to paint dark colors on white primer.

I'll be re-primering them and using the dual-primer technique. Black primer as the base coat with a light spray of white from the light source angle so I can help guide my color layering.

I also ordered a pair of solid brushes since the cheap-ish ones I've been using have been really crappy for paint control. Let's just say that my first attempt was incredibly discouraging and I hope to do a better attempt.

With my workspace limitations, an airbrush simply isn't on my radar right now. It's all primer, paints, and inks for me. I did pick up a set of inks to go with the colors I'm using for my Menoth scheme (dark red, black, and gold, with flame patterns on the cloth and shields where I can work them in).

When I first started 4 or 5 years ago I was using craft acrylic paints at about $3 each for a tube 3x the size of one of the p3 paint pots and the best brush they had in the craft store, which was out of a $2 kit of 20 brushes of different sizes and shapes. (craft stores like Joann are just terrible places to start this hobby)

The results were just awful. I was definitely a noob painter at the time. Getting a $12 brush like this one was an instant level up for me. Ditching those terrible paints was another level up; no experience required. They just hold you back so much. Real brushes with real paints is the easiest, and sadly the biggest improvement possible. Everything else is gradual and incremental.

Yup, I keep reading that everywhere.

At least I'm already using appropriate paints for miniatures (on the previous page, I posted that I've been working mostly with P3 paints from Privateer Press).

I've been using either craft store brushes or P3/GW brushes, but they all have various issues. After attending a couple workshops at Gencon and based upon the reading I've been doing, I finally caved in and ordered a pair of Winsor & Newton Series 7 kolinsky sable brushes (Round 1 and Round 2). They're backordered so I won't have them until around the end of September or early October. I'm holding off on any serious painting until I get them.

I dont really like to hyperbolize but its like painting with a magic wand

My Warmachine collection is collecting nothing but dust lately. There's a game night not all that far from here but I havent been able to muster the will to go. I keep thinking about posting a poster in the apartment lobby to see if there are any players in the building.

Farscry wrote:

Yup, I keep reading that everywhere.

At least I'm already using appropriate paints for miniatures (on the previous page, I posted that I've been working mostly with P3 paints from Privateer Press).

I've been using either craft store brushes or P3/GW brushes, but they all have various issues. After attending a couple workshops at Gencon and based upon the reading I've been doing, I finally caved in and ordered a pair of Winsor & Newton Series 7 kolinsky sable brushes (Round 1 and Round 2). They're backordered so I won't have them until around the end of September or early October. I'm holding off on any serious painting until I get them.

Be warned that the reason they're backordered is import regulations, and last I checked there was no resolution in sight. You might want to check out some other kolinsky brushes in the meantime, I've heard good things about the Raphael and Rosemary & Co. ones.

In related news I won a Warmachine tourney at PAX. In somewhat less impressive news there were only four players.

Damn that's a sad turnout.

I ordered a number of the Rosemary and Co brushes. Reasonable price and shipping to Canada, and great quality.

polypusher wrote:

I dont really like to hyperbolize but its like painting with a magic wand

My Warmachine collection is collecting nothing but dust lately. There's a game night not all that far from here but I havent been able to muster the will to go. I keep thinking about posting a poster in the apartment lobby to see if there are any players in the building.

I'm surprised there isn't more of a community around the game, given you're in the same state as the company now (apparently). =)

polypusher wrote:

Damn that's a sad turnout.

Yeah, attendance has suffered ever since badges started selling out. It used to be that locals could buy a day pass and come just to play on whatever day the tournament was, but when you have like a half hour window to get badges three months before the schedule is announced things are a little different.

Also, there's a good crowd in Seattle. You should at least check out that game night!

Good point. The rabid pin-hunting crowd who sell out the event in minutes and the methodical tabletop wargaming crowd don't necessarily overlap much.

I don't understand the whole obsession with pins.

Farscry wrote:

I don't understand the whole obsession with pins.

Yeah, most everything I model these days is plastic. And even if not I can use enough glue and green stuff to make it stay put.

Well played, justinbot. Well played!

I received my Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter last night. There are dozens of miniatures that I have to assemble (which I've never done before). The minis are plastic pieces on sprus. So what are the basics I need to learn to assemble these things without them looking like complete sh*t?

I have small needle-nose pliers, a small wire cutter, hobby knife, and a Helping Hands with Magnifying Glass from doing some other hobby work. What type of glue do I need?

Thanks in advance.

Got my next batch of models finished, still have a lot of progress to make on my painting skills, but already improving. The photo image sucks, but the shading you see on the tabards and robes aren't lighting, those are highlights I've painted. Not thrilled with these (they didn't turn out as well as I wanted, and I did a lot of fixing errors during the final passes) but I'm moderately happy with them given my experience level at painting.

IMAGE(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h304/farscry/flameguards.jpg)

Looks good Farscry!

Nevin: Some quick research on the Robotech minis says they're made with plastic (not resin) so that means you should use a plastic glue on them like this one. That glue will dissolve the plastic it touches a little, so just put a small dab on one side of a joint you're joining, press it in and hold for a few seconds. It will give you a very strong bond.

You shouldn't need the pliers or the helping hands for assembly. What you want from your wire cutters is a nice flat cut right up against the model so you can minimize how much of a 'nub' is left. Otherwise you'll have to clean up with the hobby knife. I dont really recommend using a file on plastic. It roughs up the surface a lot. You'll get good use out of the hobby knife cleaning up those plastic nubs and molding seams.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably start building them this weekend (after Amazon delivers my glue).

IMAGE(http://s27.postimg.org/55qmpymj7/mecha.jpg)

These are the first completed pieces of my Robotech RPG Tactics boardgame minis. I am brand new to this and honestly want to play more than worry about having perfectly painted minis. I know they are rough but I'm happy with them.

I've been using Testor enamel paint. I think I will eventually upgrade to a Reaper or GW acrylic paint set but this is what I had.

Constructive criticism is welcome.

Try a wash, it'll make the details like you wouldn't believe. It should work fine on dried enamel, possibly even better for robots because the enamel surface should be quite slick.

I created some rough buildings to use as landscape features and cover in my Robotech RPG Tactics game. I found some paper building templates and glued/taped them to taped together cardboard. I don't know which is worse, how bad they look or how little I care. I just want them functional for the game and really don't care what they look like.

That brings up a question I have - are a lot of miniature gamers snobbish in regards to crappy looking terrain/minis or are they, for the most part, cool with whatever as long as it is functional?

From my experience you'll get more props and instant respect the better your army looks. Terrible terrain is pretty standard for pick up games but many stores have their own nice terrain and tables created by the local community. Unpainted armies are pretty typical and you should consider that the baseline. Badly painted is better because the effort is appreciated and at least it looks like something, it helps identify one thing vs another, which can be difficult if they're all metal or primed black.

polypusher wrote:

From my experience you'll get more props and instant respect the better your army looks. Terrible terrain is pretty standard for pick up games but many stores have their own nice terrain and tables created by the local community. Unpainted armies are pretty typical and you should consider that the baseline. Badly painted is better because the effort is appreciated and at least it looks like something, it helps identify one thing vs another, which can be difficult if they're all metal or primed black.

Thanks for the info. My minis are painted (badly) for the exact reason you describe, identification. My problem is that I'm not an artist, I don't have a steady hand, and I just want to play the game. I've started priming my units but I'm not sure that my painting has improved much as I'm becoming impatient to get them done. But I'm taking it slow and alternating between building the units and painting them so that I don't get completely burned out on the process.

I must be getting the miniature bug. I told my son that I wanted him to make me cardboard buildings and paper mache terrain for my present for Christmas. He was less than happy as that is harder than buying something.

Recently finished painting my first full unit of models for Warmachine; Temple Flameguards. I tried slightly differing paint techniques for each trio of the unit, but all of them have some degree of shading/highlighting (very hard to see in the photo though), which looks significantly better than the Revenger paintjob I showed earlier in the thread.

IMAGE(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h304/farscry/20141130_161604.jpg)

Looks great. Love those shields!

yes, looking great Farscry. You're encouraging me to break out my paints and attack my army depressingly gray and unpainted Warmachine soldiers.

Well done - finished half my battle box too - will post pictures soon

Uhh... why did I only now find this thread? ._.

The pictures of painted models I have seen already produces guilt about the larger group of Menoth models sitting beside me, all for the most part unpainted :c