First time painting a miniature in over 20 years

[shponglefan]

Backstory: I used to paint miniatures as a kid. Can't remember the last time I painted them, but I was probably around 12 or 13. I'm now 35 and looking to rediscover the hobby.

So here is my (new) first attempt at painting a miniature. It's a lot better than anything I did when I was younger, but it's also an indication that I have a looooong way to go. It served mostly as a learning experience. There are some things I need to pay more attention to such as preparation; I could have done a MUCH better job filing down seam lines. There was also a lot of experimentation with colour. I don't have many paints at the moment, so I made due with what I have. There was a lot of mixing involved.

Comments and critiques are very welcome. I want to get a lot better and this miniature represents a first step.

(Barbed Devil from Reaper's Dark Heaven line; 25mm scale)

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[Wyrmypops]

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Nice first go for the return. :guitar:Bold colour choices, and clean (keeping in the lines). Exciting times ahead, with all that action to come on the learning curve. For that, there's a sticky thread and articles section that'll prompt a frequent "ooh, I'll try that."

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Things like the undercoat stage and general preparation, thickness of the paints often requiring some thinning, washes and such for shading, highlighting with blending/layering rather than drybrushing, using the side of the loaded bristles against edges to pick out a sharp highlight. T

 

[Tee999]

Welcome back to the hobby. I was in your same situation a few years ago.
I agree with Wyrmy nice first start on returning to the hobby. This site is a great resource with alot of great people and knowledge!

tee

 

[shponglefan]

Thank you both for the kind words This site is already proving to be quite a great place, so I'm glad I found it

I did a little more work on the barbed devil and learned a valuable lesson as well. In terms of painting, I wasn't happy with the horns/spikes, as they looked too "rocky" to me. I tried giving them a wash and re-drybrushing to make them a little yellower and more organic. Doesn't seem to show up as well in the pictures, but they look more yellow in person.

Also, last night in my haste to examine and critique myself, I remove the figure from the stand. And during the handling I rubbed off a bunch of paint (!). Fortunately it wasn't in a significant area (lower shin), but I learned a lesson: do not handle until varnished. Fortunately it was easy enough to touch up.

I think I'm going to call this one done for now (after varnish). If I spend more time trying to perfect things, I'll go all OCD and never get finished.

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[Wyrmypops]

That "rocky" effect is an aspect of drybrushing. It's great for areas with lots of raised detail, like hair/fur/chainmail - but on areas that are more flat it'll pick up on tiny specks and build up and up until it looks rocky. A smoother grandient of transitionary colours or tones is where other techniques excel. I favour "layering" myself - thinned paint, applied in in successively brighter and smaller areas. There's also wet blending, a technique that has transitionary tones created on the mini as much as the palette. Something else to look into would be ink washes - they can apply shade very easily, but when thinned down become a "glaze" that applied evenly can tint and reinvigorate an area that had become chalky-looking, and also helps draw together underlying stages of painting into a smoother transition.

 

[shponglefan]

@Wyrmmypops: That's interesting to know, I just learned something new I'll have to make more attempts to learn layering; tried a little bit on the devil but I definitely need more practice!

In the mean time, I picked a couple new victi-er, miniatures to paint next. The first is some mercenary guy from the Reaper line.

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And the second is from the vintage minis I found in my basement. Old school Ral Partha circa 1980-something... The statue mini did teach me something about working with a real lead miniature. I never filed them before and found it extremely easy to nick. A good lesson for when I get to prepping more of these guys.

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Also bought an airbrush. Hadn't planned to buy one so soon, but after priming and basecoating that devil by hand, I decided to take the plunge and got an Iwata HP-CS. Wow, did it ever make priming these two minis much faster! No regrets here!

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[KruleBear]

Welcome back to the hobby. It looks like you are off to a good start and a wip around here is a great way to improve quicker than you would on your own.

 

[shponglefan]

Thanks KruleBear!

Today I attemped to paint the above statue-like miniature (which I found out is actually supposed to be an iron golem). It was a bit of trail and error, especially when trying to get an effective rusty look. Hopefully he looks okay!

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[KruleBear]

The pitch black eyes work perfect. The weathering on the back of the head looks off...less like weathered iron and more like chipped paint. The rust effect is pretty good, maybe add a little more streaks below the bolts where you would expect rust to drip over time

 

[shponglefan]

@KruleBear: Thanks for the feedback. The weathering on the head looks like chipped paint because it really is chipped paint I noticed when I was doing my initial wash after airbrushing steel, that some of the steel was coming off. I left it because i was curious to see how the effect would look in the end. But I guess it does have that chipped paint look. I may redo that area.

In the mean time, I started my hand at base building today. This is more or less unchartered territory for me, so I'm figuring a lot out as I go. I tried making a base out of MDF, but that might not have been the best idea. I notice it soaks up moisture like a sponge; maybe next time I should varnish it first. At at rate, I'm trying to make a rocky base. Still a WIP, so we'll see how she goes.

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And some base coating of that mecenary mini, which may be my next painting project. Admittedly that has me nervous. The idea of painting people is more intimidating than painting monsters... :tremble:
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[Nsolver]

Hello and nice to see your thread!

I was in a similar place like you, (havent painted for about 20 years) and picked up the hobby last year. So it is very nice to see more comming back to the hobby.
You seem to have kept quite some talent from your earlier years, my advice is to practise and practise and listen to all advices given here. You might dont have the energy enough to change your model to every opinion but the advice really helps when going for your next mini.

I like how you have taken your pictures, good clear and sharp and shows in a good way what you have done, do you have any tips on how to set it up. My pictures become all blurry and bad. What kind of camera would be good to use?

 

[Dragonsreach]

Not too bad a (re)start after 20 years.
As regards the MDF basing you can seal it with El-Cheapo runny superglue (Mind your fingers!!!) with will allow you to sand it smooth then prime it, or the same with thinned PVA or Elmers glue. You takes you pick on which one you want to run with.

As for the Mercenary, well looking at the face I'm pretty sure its a Werner Klocke sculpt for Reaper and he usually gets some damn fine detail in his work. This will pay you to work slowly and methodically. From my experience (and preference) I work from the skin out on a human figure as to me getting the face right is a primary thing on a mini.
Just remember that just like Fashion Supermodels your paint needs to be scarily thin.

 

[KruleBear]

I like how you have taken your pictures, good clear and sharp and shows in a good way what you have done, do you have any tips on how to set it up. My pictures become all blurry and bad. What kind of camera would be good to use?

Good point...they were so sharp it did not even occur to me how much better they are than most of our initial (or current ) photography efforts.

Just remember that just like Fashion Supermodels your paint needs to be scarily thin.

Ok DR, that is an effective analogy that will be stuck in my head forever! Lol

 

[shponglefan]

Hello and nice to see your thread!

I was in a similar place like you, (havent painted for about 20 years) and picked up the hobby last year. So it is very nice to see more comming back to the hobby.
You seem to have kept quite some talent from your earlier years, my advice is to practise and practise and listen to all advices given here. You might dont have the energy enough to change your model to every opinion but the advice really helps when going for your next mini.

I like how you have taken your pictures, good clear and sharp and shows in a good way what you have done, do you have any tips on how to set it up. My pictures become all blurry and bad. What kind of camera would be good to use?

Thank you Nsolver.

For the photos, it's probably more to do with the lighting than the camera actually. Those pictures were taken with three main light sources: direct overhead flourescent shop lights (above my work area), a desk lamp (typically 6-12 inches from the figure), and a flashgun mounted on my camera. I also try to use white paper underneath and behind (actually photo paper) which also helps reflect light. So the key is to get as much light as you possibly can onto the mini. I'd recommend at least 3 light sources; and ideally they have all the same color temperature bulbs, so that you don't wind up with mix-matched color cast on the figure.

The second thing I'd recommend is a tripod. This will allow you to steady your camera and avoid any shake that could lead to a blurry image.

The third thing is depending on what camera you are using, you want to make sure it is set for the correct exposure based on your light levels. This is where having a lot of light can help, as many camera don't do well in poor lighting.

In terms of a camera, I personally use a DSLR (Canon 7D) with various lenses. You don't necessarily need to go the DSLR route, although if you're serious about good photos, then even an entry level DSLR camera body paired with a good lens can go along way.

But the #1 factor is still lighting.

 

[shponglefan]

Not too bad a (re)start after 20 years.
As regards the MDF basing you can seal it with El-Cheapo runny superglue (Mind your fingers!!!) with will allow you to sand it smooth then prime it, or the same with thinned PVA or Elmers glue. You takes you pick on which one you want to run with.

Thanks for the tip, I will try that out.

As for the Mercenary, well looking at the face I'm pretty sure its a Werner Klocke sculpt for Reaper and he usually gets some damn fine detail in his work. This will pay you to work slowly and methodically. From my experience (and preference) I work from the skin out on a human figure as to me getting the face right is a primary thing on a mini.
Just remember that just like Fashion Supermodels your paint needs to be scarily thin.

And here I was thinking of leaving the face for last because it's the part I'm most afraid of painting. But I guess it makes a lot of sense to do it first, because there's less margin for error.

 

[shponglefan]

Still working on the base of the barbed devil. I was using Woodland Scenics' scenic glue, which I'm finding to be a challenge to work with. The stuff is very runny and not very good for gluing gravel; and it takes forever to dry. At any rate, I managed to build up a decent layer of gravel to mostly hide the original metal base the devil was on.

Now I'm trying to decide what look I want for the rocks. I've been debating between doing just regular black/grey rocks. Or possibly going for an obsidian look, and using glossy black. I also picked up some weathering pigments and was thinking about using those on the base too... decisions, decisions... :dance:

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[Wyrmypops]

I've never enjoyed basing my minis, but one thing to do with sand or gravel is to cover it in the thin pva after it's stuck down. Helps keep it in place, also smooth it a bit to look less like sand or gravel.

 

[shponglefan]

I've never enjoyed basing my minis, but one thing to do with sand or gravel is to cover it in the thin pva after it's stuck down. Helps keep it in place, also smooth it a bit to look less like sand or gravel.

That sounds like a good idea, I'm going to give that a try.

 

[shponglefan]

So I just learned something about Vallejo paints/primers. I thought this whole time I was priming with a real primer; but I wasn't. Apparently one of these is a grey primer, while the other is not. Not sure who thought name a non-primer a primer was a good idea...

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At any rate, I tried out an actual primer on another mini, Feiya the iconic witch. I learned very quickly that thinning this primer is a bad idea. But otherwise, it seems to work okay with the airbrush. I really love the detail on this mini, too. But I think it will be awhile before I paint it, because I need some more practice; I don't want to ruin it.

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And finally, having recently dug out all my old miniatures, I thought I'd post a pic. These were minis (vintage Ral Partha?) that I had painted probably when I was 12 or 13, so over 20 years ago. It gives an ideal of where my skill level (or lack thereof) was at the time... ah nostalgia...

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[shponglefan]

I worked a lot more on the base of the barbed devil. It was quite a lesson in what to do/not to do. I'm not that happy with the finished product, though. At one point, after adding glue and then painting, I had something I really liked. Then I decided to try weathering pigments to see if i could add some more texture... and it basically ruined the effect I had. So I repainted and repainted and painted some more and came up with... ugh.

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Any way, I'm going to do a little touch up on the devil's feet and then call this one done. Waaaaaay too much time working that base and I'm sick of it now...