Advice sorely needed: I\'m painting something HOW BIG???

[Witchwater]

Hi, all!

I\'ve been lurking \'round these parts for only a little while, but up until recently never had a home computer able to handle CMoN\'s main page. As such, I only got \'round to actually making myself a bona-fide member recently!

And now.....HO boy do I need advice!

See....I\'m a gamer geek, and proud of it. And as it happens, out of my circle of friends, I\'ve been designated the Miniature Painter.

It\'s awesome. Our gamemaster gives me his minis to paint. Can\'t beat free minis!

But this time...he\'s given me a doozy. Usually, he hands me plain-old-plain-old Reaper minis. But this time, he\'s handed me a (comparatively) HUGE resin figure of a giant. We\'re talking one foot tall and about nine inches wide. He\'s *enormous.*

He is also gorgeous. I\'m very excited to try my hand at him; I\'ve never actually had my hands on a figure this detailed!

However, he is MUCH bigger than I\'m used to painting, and here\'s where I need the advice. I have NO idea how to paint him to an acceptable gaming standard.

(To say nothing of the fact that I am terrified for when my tiny little Reaper mini character comes up against THAT.)

My first instinct is to want to paint him mostly in very thin washes, and that way try to get layers of color on him that I can then build up VERY slowly. I don\'t know how well that will work, though, on this huge a figure.

How would you guys go about painting something that big? Typically, how do you paint your large scale miniatures?

Also -- this guy has come in about seven pieces that need assembling. I was given epoxy, and I\'ve got tons of green stuff for the gaps, but I\'m seriously considering pinning it for stability. Does anyone have experience drilling resin? Does it work well, or are there precautions I should be taking? I\'m used to pinning pewter only.

Thanks for any advice you can give. And hey, if you have no advice to give, thanks for listening to me babble on anyway!

~ Chael

 

[DaN]

Do you have access to an airbrush?

 

[Sand Rat]

You want to avoid the resin dust as much as possible - its as toxic if not more toxic than lead, so I\'d say wear a mask when sanding and drilling it. Pinning should be no issue, just use larger scale pins than you normally would (if you use cut off paper clips for example I would move to solid brass rod) due to the weight factors of the larger piece. Beyond that if you have access to an airbrush I would use it to lay in the basic color blocks then clean em up using the multiple layer technique.

 

[Wren]

This is probably obvious, but I know I overlook the obvious all the time so I thought I\'d go ahead and mention - you might want to pick up some larger brushes. I haven\'t painted something as large as you\'re looking, but even just going from a regular person mini to a small dragon mini I found that I used significantly larger brushes than normal. For those brushes I went with a natural/synthetic hair mix that seemed to work nicely.

I would also advise taking your time on this. Less for painting\'s sake than because any levels your character gets under its belt can only help!

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Witchwater
How would you guys go about painting something that big? Typically, how do you paint your large scale miniatures?

Airbrush + brushwork.

I would also strongly recommend using larger brushes. as already mentioned. Usually makes for better results and it definitely makes the work go faster.

Originally posted by Witchwater
Also -- this guy has come in about seven pieces that need assembling. I was given epoxy, and I\'ve got tons of green stuff for the gaps, but I\'m seriously considering pinning it for stability. Does anyone have experience drilling resin? Does it work well, or are there precautions I should be taking?

Yes, pin for safety.
Resin drills beautifully.
You can use tiny spots of superglue in addition to the epoxy to set the joint and hold it while the slower-setting glue dries.

Einion

 

[Beelzebrush]

Originally posted by Witchwater



My first instinct is to want to paint him mostly in very thin washes, and that way try to get layers of color on him that I can then build up VERY slowly. I don\'t know how well that will work, though, on this huge a figure.



~ Chael

After basecoating him, this is probably the bast way. Remember, you really don\'t need to use the same sort of exagerated contrasts that you\'d use on a 28mm mini. You can get away with much more subtle painting as the scale of the figure will support it. Rather than washes, get some matt medium and glaze medium to extend your colours and make nice transparent glazes that still retain vibrancy.

Also, post up some WIPs if you need help. Sounds like a fun project... good luck!

An airbrush probably would be useful but isn\'t necessary by any means - unless you\'ve used one before you\'d probably struggle to get the level of finish to satisfy.

As mentioned, scale your brushes up a bit

 

[Witchwater]

Thanks, everyone, for your answers! There are some really good ideas in here!

As to using an airbrush, I have access to one, but as I\'ve never used one before, I\'m really kinda nervous about using *this* sculpt as my test subject. So I think I\'ll be sticking to Ye Olde Paintbrushe. Thanks for the insight though!

Once I have him properly pinned and primed, I\'m probably going to do a WIP, if not for suggestions along the way then just so I can keep a log for myself of what it took to paint this guy.

Plus...people just *have* to see this sculpt. He is simply beautiful. I wish I knew who the sculptor was, but neither my GM nor I know.

Again, thanks for the information and advice, everyone!

 

[PegaZus]

Originally posted by Witchwater
Plus...people just *have* to see this sculpt. He is simply beautiful. I wish I knew who the sculptor was, but neither my GM nor I know.

Well, don\'t tease us! Post a pic! A WIP, too!

 

[Wren]

There are people on here with pretty impressive \'name that mini\' skills, so once you get a picture up it\'s possible you\'ll be able to find out who sculpted it and where it came from. Looking forward to seeing it!

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by PegaZus

Originally posted by Witchwater
Plus...people just *have* to see this sculpt. He is simply beautiful. I wish I knew who the sculptor was, but neither my GM nor I know.

Well, don\'t tease us! Post a pic! A WIP, too!

aye, post a pic, he sounds great

 

[Witchwater]

::cough:: World of Warcraft stole my soul.

I haven\'t painted - REALLY painted - since Christmas. I\'m just now getting back into it.

At least the guy who gave me the statue is understanding, since he had the WoW bug too.

Him: \"So, how\'s my Thrymm coming?\"
Me: \"...Uh. I have a level 48 Paladin?\"

BUT! I finally got off my butt and drilled him and epoxied him and greenstuffed him and primered him...

...Ho boy, is that a story right there. I ran out of primer about a third of the way through primering him! And then after primering him, there were tons of places I missed with the primer.

I decided to go over the primer with some black paint, doing a very thin layer so as to not lose any of the detail.

SO. He\'s all together finally! And ready for me to start really really painting him! I\'m excited! I have actually measured and weighed him. At his widest (from axe to end of the other side of his body), he is 15\". He is 16\" tall. He weighs 18.6 pounds.

And he\'s beautiful. ::falls in love::

And, as promised....I have pictures! Here he is, primered and blacklayered and ready for painting!

(And my apologies for the crappy pictures...)

This is him, plain and simple:

Just his head -- and don\'t let the weird light fool you. All crevices have been filled with black!:

His back:

And just to put things in perspective, take a look:

Yeah...that tiny li\'l miniature by his feet? Typical Reaper Mini.

We\'re gonna go up against THAT some day.

And yes, I\'m aware that his axe is not straight. I actually took care of a *lot* of the problem by greenstuffing it. But his arms, no matter how much I fiddled with them, would *not* align perfectly. So this is the best I could do. I\'ve already warned my friend. I still think he looks pretty awesome.

 

[Friar]

That statue is pretty damn awesome looking, just out of curiosity wheres it from?

 

[Dragonsreach]

Now that\'s one big puppy!

And to be totally honest I don\'t envy you painting that badboy.

 

[Witchwater]

Originally posted by Friar
That statue is pretty damn awesome looking, just out of curiosity wheres it from?

I wish I knew!

All I know is that it\'s more than a few years old. I forget exactly where my friend purchased it, but he\'s been holding onto it for ages.

If anyone knows the answer to that question, please share it! I\'d love to know where it\'s from!

 

[Witchwater]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
Now that\'s one big puppy!

And to be totally honest I don\'t envy you painting that badboy.

::laughs:: Yeah, all at once I\'m really looking forward to it and kinda dreading it, just for the margin for error with such a large scale. This will be the first Really Big Thing I\'ve painted.

Wish me luck!

 

[demonherald]

He\'s really cool.. one thing I find really useful when painting big stuff is to mix up pots of my Highlight colours ..That way I can keep the colour consistent without having to worry about doing it all in one go...
This way also makes it easier to work on the model area at a time.. so 1 hand at a time , the head , left thigh , right thigh..etc.. breaking it up like this stops mind numbing boredom setting in when painting massive areas of the same colour...

great model and good luck.. look forward to seeing how you get on....

 

[No Such Agency]

Originally posted by Witchwater
Yeah...that tiny li\'l miniature by his feet? Typical Reaper Mini.

Dude, WTF?! This thing is the new Chicken Dragon. Madness.

As for painting, you could rent a winch and use the dipping method

 

[Farin]

hi

witchwater, rhat must be one of the biggest minis i´ve ever seen. the biggest one i got is a rackham mountain giant and he is about 5 inches

my advice : before you even start painting that beast ( your plan to use washes sounds good )
sit down and think about the colours.seourisly, I think with a mini that size the biggest problem is not to use too many colours

try gimp 2.0. it´s like photoshop for free and you can use the paint function on your pics to figure out which combination works best


good luck ... you´ll need it :beer:

 

[Avelorn]

jeez. That\'s a big mofo. I think you have gotten some good advice here. Not too many colours and plan it in advance. Try to get some natural focuspoints, spend some more time on the head.

 

[freakinacage]

feck me that mutha is huuuuuuuuuuge! have fun!