Kuribo's Mansions of Madness WIP

[Kuribo]

Foxtail - Thank you for the kind words as always! I am looking forward to it too. I can't wait to get all of these minis painted so I can play Mansions of Madness again but I also aspire to paint higher quality minis and make display worth pieces much like you do yourself. I can't have it all just yet and need to learn and keep improving.

Krule - Thank you for the kind words sir! I agree with you on the purples and I'm going to look at that and have a think about how to improve them. I don't ever remember working with purple before so that makes it more challenging for me to tackle. With that said, I'm going to take your advice to heart, relax, enjoy the painting process and just try to experiment with these minis. I'll get higher quality minis later and I will be ready to push my skills at that time, there's no need to be impatient or get down on myself. I tend to be overly ambitious and try to do too much so I'm going to get a handle on that.

Zab - If all three of you agree then I know I better have an attitude adjustment haha! I will definitely try to have fun and take it easy with these minis from now on. There's no rush and I forget that sometimes. With that said, those Onitama minis look fantastic! I love Asian artwork and the pieces in Onitama remind me very much of things I've seen in art museums that are often hundreds of years old. You did an excellent job on those minis and I would guess that you will have one of the best looking Onitama boards around!

[Kuribo]

I’m finally back with another update. This update had to wait a while because my camera’s battery finally died and I forgot to grab the charger cable when I moved. Fortunately, I didn’t move so far away that it wasn’t anything a short trip across town couldn’t fix!

Since my last update, I’ve been trying to do two things: experiment with how I paint and enjoy my painting. I’ve definitely had fun painting thanks to my attitude adjustment and am focused on what is important now too. I’ve had some success with new techniques and some just okay results too but that’s all part of the learning process and I’m embracing it.

The first mini I finished was an interesting experiment with mixed results. This guy is supposed to be a cult leader so I painted him with similar colors as the cultists but made it look like he got the slightly nicer material so I added some gold. I tried to use all my gray paint because I thought white would make him look too priestly and I tried an old GW suggestion of painting dark to light. Unfortunately, I can see as I took pictures that a couple of the highlights are not well placed and I probably will touch up those (especially the one in the front of his robe in the middle, it doesn’t look good). I had straightened out his staff before painting and put pressure on it during the painting process and now it is back to being bent. I might try to fix it after I varnish it because I fear heat may mess with the paint or glue on this figure. This is not one of my best minis but I’m satisfied with it and I like the colors I picked out anyway.

The second is really hard to take pictures because of the way she is posed of but I think looks pretty good in hand. She is supposed to be half-black/half-white athlete (though her artwork in game is so ambiguous a lot of people paint her as if she is white) and I decided to make her look black. The skin tones don’t show well in the pictures but they look nice in hand. I also like the orange highlights on her shoes. They look really sharp as well.

I have one investigator left and have really enjoyed painting them the most so far. It is probably because they have the best sculpts After that, I have about ten monsters left to paint and I’m pretty much done with the base game of Mansions of Madness (besides applying varnish, I’m going to finish them all before I do that).

I thought I would provide a little teaser as to what I want to paint in the near future (even if that is one mediocre picture!). I actually got all four Hobbits from Lord of the Rings for about $5 off Ebay and I’m amazed by the detail on what are decade old sculpts. I think my next gaming foray is into the LOTR and Hobbit game by Games Workshop but that new Dark Souls board game could change that… Of course, I do want to build dioramas and have been eyeing books on that to help me learn too so it will be very interesting to see where I go once Mansions is done!

[Kuribo]

Back with a short but sweet update this week. I have finished the final investigator whose name I can’t recall but he is meant to be extremely wealthy. I tried to be extra smooth in my paint application on this guy and I think it worked out pretty well. He is quite possibly the best sculpt in the box thus far and was a lot of fun to paint. My only concern is how I highlighted the back of the mini. I’ve been thinking more and more about my highlights and shadows and I’m not sure how well I’m doing with them. That is something I will try to keep a closer eye on as I continue to paint and develop my critical eye. To that end, I’ve been rating minis on this site more and more which is a great way to kill downtime during my lunch break at work. It is also nice to see all kinds of different things that people paint.

To celebrate having all of the investigators done, I took a group shot of all the painted investigators together and I’m quite happy with how they look! I post some of my best pictures on BoardGameGeek.com to try represent the talented painters here on this site and show off how good your work can become if you keep practicing and I have to thank all of you for helping me elevate my skills to where it is probably better than a lot of what is shared on BGG.

I am working on a couple of exciting minis and I can’t wait to share those with you next week. I may need some advice for how to finish a mini that is done in a style I’ve never tried before and you all have never let me down. In the meantime, I will keep on painting and rating minis!

[Octavian80]

I think this latest Investigator is your best one yet. You can really tell a difference from your first cultist. I struggle with where to place shadows and highlights as well. What might help you is trying to do some zenithal priming (some people call it zenithal highlighting) when doing your primer undercoat. This will give you a guide as to where the shaded parts and high point would be. If you're not familiar with this priming, it goes like this: prime the whole figure black. Then from a 45 degree angle, spray the figure with a grey primer. Then, from straight overhead shoot some white primer. Then you can take photos for your reference so you can see where to shadow and where to highlight. There's a bunch of videos on youtube about this thing as well if you want to get a visual. Vincent Venturella is one of my faves. Check him out!

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Hope it sorta helped. Good luck with your next project!!

[Maenas]

Precious group of miniatures. Make sure you protect them with varnish! (better sprayed or airbrushed than applied with brush) I agree with Mr Octavian, evolution is evident! Congratulations.

[KruleBear]

You definately seem to be improving with each mini. The group shot is awesome.

[Kuribo]

Octavian - Thank you for the suggestion on Vincent Vent.'s videos. I checked one out about basing today during lunch and it was really interesting and helpful. I don't know how I missed his videos but I won't be doing so any longer. I've noticed Sorastro has started using a similar technique in his videos so I need to experiment with it myself sometime soon. I appreciate all your advice. Its definitely helping!

Maenas - Thank you for your kind words! It is great to hear others can see improvement too. Varnish is indeed one of my next purchases and I'm really excited about it. I can't wait to actually play Mansions of Madness with all of these figures I've painted!

KruleBear - Thank you for the kind words as well. Your feedback has been helpful and I know if you're seeing improvement then it has to be there!

Sorry for my belated response! Life has been crazy busy and probably will continue to be so this week but I'm hoping that I will have a big update soon. I've had many trials and tribulations relearning how to pin minis and trying to paint some new minis in new ways. I hope to share a big update with lots of new pictures in the near future!

[ten ball]

Some nice painting

[Octavian80]

Any time K. I'm happy to impart what little knowledge I have of this hobby

[Foxtail]

Excellent collection you've got going on mate! You're a great example of how much aspiring painters can accomplish in a shot space of time. In a few short months you've gone from very blocky, rough minis to excellent miniatures. No more toothpicks.

Inspirational stuff, it's been a pleasure to watch so far

[Kuribo]

Ten Ball and Foxtail – Thank you both for the kind words. I really appreciate your encouragement!

Well things have been trying the last couple of weeks. I had a nice large update ready to share with you last weekend and I was literally ready to go and post it and I flip on my computer and I got the hard drive failure imminent warning. Not something you ever want to see. Fortunately, I saved all my files on the old computer and bought a new one and am finally back. I will go ahead and post last week’s update today and try to get caught up soon. This update was a long time in the making so I’m really glad to be sharing it.

First up is the second Innsmouth Mob. For any long time readers, you might remember that the previous one was a massive pain and this one was no different! Gluing these figures is just really hard when you remove the pegs from their feet. They’re also just delicate miniatures (hard to believe considering the lack of detail). I kept at it and was patient and somehow managed to get all three guys glued on with minimal trouble. I did do a few stupid things including straightening the plastic for the shovel and then putting enough pressure on it while painting to bend it back the way it was. I also stupidly glued in the last guy before painting which made it extremely hard to finish him. Even with that, I have pictures of the old mob on the left and the new on the right and I can see some subtle improvements in my painting! My skill in painting the bases is definitely improving in small subtle ways and I think my highlights are more blended which is something I have been mildly obsessed with as I paint! Not to mention, thanks to Foxtail, I handled the rusty chain much better than on the previous minis which is proof of how CMON can really help you improve!

Next up, I finished my first Deep One. This mini is covered in mold lines and many are not easy to remove. It has a lot of detail compared to most Mansions of Madness minis but it is very hard to actually pick any of it out. I quickly discovered that unless I want to slow down and shoot for perfection, I'm going to have live with there being some details being missed or not well painted. Other than that, this mini looks decent and is a bit more dynamic than most in Mansions of Madness. I struggled for a while trying to figure out a paint scheme that would look good but I eventually chose a Lizardmen/Seraphon color scheme because I always kind of liked that faction in Warhammer even if I never tried to build an army of them. This is the first lizard type creature I’ve painted and I feel okay with the results though I think my pictures are not the greatest. I have three more of these to paint so I’ll try to do even better on the next ones.

I also started painting one of two Ghost minis. I thought why not paint them a bit like the Army of the Dead in Lord of the Rings. Those looked cool, right? Well I made good progress on the ghost and then stopped because I was unsure how to proceed. With a little time to think about this mini, I don’t think I like how this guy looks. In fact, I think I really dislike the paint job. It is missing something (besides the hair which obviously is unpainted) but I am very unsure what to do with it. Does it need more highlights to look good? Maybe this figure just isn’t well suited for the green glowing effect. I’m not sure how to proceed and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, I picked up a book from Andrea Press called Diorama FAQ and it is an interesting read though a little lacking in details/specifics I think. I don’t think my painting skills are quite ready for dioramas yet but I do have an interest in making them one day in the future. Overall, I like the book and while it is overpriced ($70), I did get some inspiration from it. Whenever I financially recover from buying a new computer, I’d like to pick up some other books on making dioramas and see if those help me feel confident enough to try making one. Of course, there are also plenty of minis I'd love to buy and paint too. Such is the life of a mini painter!

[KruleBear]

Look at photos from the movie and you will notice more contrast. Black shadows and nearly white highlights. Also a lot of yellows in there.

[Kuribo]

Krulebear - I think you're right. I don't know why I didn't think of looking at some movie stills but this certainly helps me get unstuck and I am a bit more inspired. Thank you for the advice and I'll work on this guy some more and see what I can do with it!

[Guawol]

I started gathering reference photos for color schemes, shading & shadowing, etc on pinterest recently, because it helps inspire me or gets me unstuck, wasnt a tool I used to use. Keep up the good work!

[Kuribo]

Guawol – That is a great idea and something I will try to do more of. I’m going to be painting some things where I want to make them accurate to a movie so it just makes sense to do my research. Thank you for the suggestion!

While I didn’t mention this last update, I have had the growing realization that I somehow managed to leave the worst miniatures to paint until last. They are bad for different reasons but the last couple I’ve done have been a bit of a struggle. I am still working on improving the ghost mini I showed last time and look forward to showing an improved version of it soon even if I still don’t think I have done a great job with in. Unfortunately, both of these minis were hard to take high quality pictures of so once again I have a subpar picture or two but I think you’ll be able to see what I did and offer some feedback still.

The first mini to show off is one of the better ones I have done in a while. The Priest of Dagon is a pretty decent sculpt and I think I did some of my best brushwork on this guy. I picked out a lot of little details and while his skin may look a little odd, it matches the artwork of Mansions of Madness pretty well. He is tough to take pictures of because he is hunched over, but I hope what I have here shows off this guy well enough.

The second mini was a complete pain. It had to be pinned and even after being pinned, I still worry it will fall off the base relatively easily. There are also nasty mold lines on this snake that I couldn’t remove without removing details. Painting it took quite a while too. I tried to give it natural colors by looking up pictures of snakes. I also thought that making the arms look like human skin would make it look horrifying and appropriate for the game’s setting. I wish the pictures of the wings came out better so you can see the blending I did there. With some larger minis to do soon, I think this was decent practice for what lies ahead

Since the weather is nice, I finally got to varnish a lot of the minis I’ve painted. Varnishing is both easy and hard all at once. I oversprayed a couple of minis and may have to get some kind matte varnish to put on over those parts or I may just have to live with the shiny parts as they are. Since Mansions of Madness is a game I’m playing I’m not too worried.

I think from here on out, I’m going to alternate a difficult mini with one that looks fun until I get all of Mansions of Madness painted so expect to see a mix of stuff being painted in the coming weeks. I’m just glad I’m almost ready to start playing the game again. All these months of hard work is starting to pay off!

[Kuribo]

With a little time off work, I’ve gotten more painting done than usual and I finally played my first game of Mansions of Madness with painted minis. I have to say that playing with the minis that you painted really does make the game more fun and worth all of the effort. I look forward to more games in the future now!

I’ve completed several minis since my last update and two of three I think look really good and I’m happy to show them off. I would like feedback on how to improve the magician so if you have any suggestions for how to improve the highlights on the back of his cape, I’m all ears! It is not a great sculpt but I have been at a loss for how to make the lighting look realistic. I even tried researching examples online and wasn’t able to find a lot. Regardless, I’ve had a lot of fun painting these three and they went relatively smoothly. It is amazing how addictive painting can become as your confident grows. You go through all of the steps (basecoat, shadows, and highlights) and enjoy the process.

I am tackling the final type of mini in Mansions of Madness base game which also happens to be the biggest and best one in the box. I will check in with my progress and be looking for feedback soon. I want to get him just a little further in the process first.

[Foxtail]

Glad to know you're enjoying the game. I imagine all the effort you've put into the minis really adds to it.

You've gotten really good at picking out the details on these models. For the magician, black cloth can be a pain to highlight without it turning grey. You've gotten some good highlights on there already, but I'd make them thinner and extend them up to the top of the cape. Then add a tiny bit of white to the mix and highlight a thinner segment.

Keep layering these progressive highlights on thinner and thinner sections. Which colour you stop at will influence how shiny the cape looks. Work all the way up to white and it will look glossy.

[Kuribo]

Foxtail - Thank you for the kind words! I'm always looking to improve where I can! I think your advice is outstanding and I had not considered trying to make my magician's black clothes look glossy. That will look much better than the matte black I was going for. I haven't had a chance to work on the magician yet but will do so soon and show so some pictures when I get done both as a thank you and to make sure I did a good job with it.

I have been working on the biggest mini I have painted yet and it is a bit more challenging and requires more patience than I expected. I've painted the base and worked on three of the four limbs thus far (the leg you can see in the third picture is not highlighted yet). The head and wings are only basecoated at this point. I'd like to get some advice/opinions before I proceed further on the mini.

1.) How does the sewer lid look? Does it need more highlights? Should I attempt a rust effect? Do you have any suggestions for what to do about the clump of extra resin that is there? There is no way I can completely remove it with the sanding sticks I use though I could smooth it out a bit if that would help.
2.) Ignoring the head, is there enough highlights on the mini so far? I feel like I need to go even lighter for the upper arms and eventually for the head when I get around to it but I'd like opinions from those more knowledgeable and experienced than I.

Thank you and I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions and hopefully make this the nice "show" piece that it deserves to be!

[SaintToad]

Looking nice, Kuribo. Personally, I'd give the manhole cover another wash or two or Nuln Oil or something dark & oily like that. I would probably go easy on the rust, and only in the crevices where it wouldn't get worn off by traffic. I don't see the resin artifact, so I can't help you there. Also, if I were you I might pick out two colors of ink (or paint) and glaze a few of the street stones, giving you three different colors of rock. Don't over do it, but a little variation would be easy & look nice.
On the contrast issue, I'd say push it, and work some colors into your shades, as well. For this figure, I'd glaze some purples or blues below the overhanging parts and into the recesses to both increase the contrast and to add a little mystery to his appearance.

[Kuribo]

SaintToad - You truly do live up to your "saint" screenname because you've given me several new ways to look at this figure and I'm inspired once again at a time where I was possibly losing momentum! I had originally wanted the base to be plain gray to match other figures and the tiles in the game but honestly, I agree with you. This is a centerpiece model and adding color to the base will help it stand out. I think I will nix the rust idea as well.

The glazing idea sounds fantastic and I think it could use something to make it look even more otherworldly. Would you have any suggestions for how to learn or observe glazing in action? I understand the gist of it after Youtubing it during my lunch break at work today but I'm not quite sure how one applies the concept yet. Most of the videos I saw were focused on how to glaze a cape for example. Could I just take a dark blue or purple and Lahmia Medium to really thin it down and add that to the darker areas? Any further advice or information is greatly appreciated!