Mini Firsts

[ScottRadom]

Sadly this is not my first mini at all. This feller was painte in \'02ish I think, and I have been painting regular like since about 1990. I was very proud of this guy!

This Skaven was the last thing I really put a lot of effort into before I started getting info from this site and others on the internet. I have put both in the Simple Green to strip and re-do and see how they compare!

 

[alextheartist]

Donga, you painted sh*t when you were 17!

 

[SkelettetS]

Originally posted by BPI
@SkeletteS - I don\'t remember the brush with the paint set although it makes sense now that you say it. Seems highly likely that my dwarf was painted with it I don\'t recognise your Giant or Wizard figures at all, I guess the Orc is early citadel (is that shield cast or plastic?). I like the Wizard, he looks like the neat, flat kind of paint job that as a child you\'re chuffed to bits with & then get to look back at & ask shade, highlight? Is the Gold paint the old Citadel one, I don\'t think I ever managed to get anything other than a greeny yellow sludge effect, no wonder you switched to yellow for the bracelet!

I believe both the wizard and the barbarian are old gw minis, the wizard was included in a supplement to a rpg game, the swedish version of dungeons&dragons - but we call it drakar och demoner (i.e. dragons and demons) looong time ago...
the shield is cast and yes, the gold is the old green-ish citadel crap-paint (still got it at home actually, never painted anything with it tho

@ScottRadom : hey, these minis aren\'t that bad you know! and yeah, i was pretty proud of my wizard too haha

 

[squig hunter]

Originally posted by alextheartist
Donga, you painted sh*t when you were 17!

Tad harsh...

I\'ll have my first painted mini up later, and maybe some others or my earlier stuff, but photobucket is down, so I can\'t upload atm.

Squig

 

[alextheartist]

Originally posted by squig hunter

Originally posted by alextheartist
Donga, you painted sh*t when you were 17!

Tad harsh...

I\'ll have my first painted mini up later, and maybe some others or my earlier stuff, but photobucket is down, so I can\'t upload atm.

Squig

He can take it

 

[Joek]

Right. Well this is the earliest I could find in my big box of stuff...These are all a good 20+ years old I reckon...well, almost.

Behold the glory of an original plastic spacemarine...

I believe the paints I had at the time were humbrol enamels.

This one I completely forgot I had. I think I swopped it for something in school. Those elementals were (and still are) superb sculpts. Now that I\'ve found it, I may well have to strip it down, and have another go!

Finally, we have a figure which at the time I was enormously proud of. I still think this is possibly the best minotaur figure I\'ve ever seen. Quite obviously, the paintjob doesn\'t do it much justice, but it was one of the first minis I painted which drybrushing didn\'t feature ALL OVER!

Notice the quality basing on all of them!

 

[squig hunter]

Hmm, my turn, lets see if we can get some sort of chronologial order to things

First mini ever, paint a space marine set, when I thought leaving paint to dry on a brush would be good for painting the eyes because then it would stay pointy, permanently:redface: That was in the summer of 2001 and I was six..

First regiment box I ever got was a regiment of Empire state troops, enthusiastically assembled, untill I realised they didn\'t rank up, at all, bit sloppy, winter of 01, was seven

The first army I ever collected properly was a high elf army, yay for goblin green bases Probably some time around 02-03

Then I moved through a wide variety of armies before settling for a little while on Tzeench chaos, proper basing now, and inks are the order of the day, about 04, when I was 10

Night goblin giant, first serious attempt at sculpting, summer 05, is missing the big Captain America style Mushroom shield, painted hastily for a tournament later on

Then came the Spaze Marienss again after the Chapter Master competition, convertions, basing and decentish painting even, 05ish

Dwarves, late 05-06, pretty decent really, solid tabletop, this was around when I discovered CMON, and started using it properly

Sculpt from sameish time, pretty shoddy now I look at it, but a marked improvement.

Which brings us up to the point where I started putting stuff online, just a couple more now

First serious attempt at display painting, for Iron Painter 2, late 2006

And where I am today..

(go here to buy one http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/pack.php?pack=1890)

Can\'t show any more recent stuff then that really, especially not sculpting, eh James? :innocent:

Bit of a long post, ahh nostalgia
Squig

 

[Joek]

Squig, it\'s a terribly humbling thing to see your progression in such a short space of time.

Were I not the kind, loving soul I surely am, I\'d be making voodoo dolls of you and sticking pins in your hands...although I daresay you\'d find a way to paint well still!

 

[Donga]

Originally posted by alextheartist
Donga, you painted sh*t when you were 17!

I\'m gunna box your ears ya young wippa-snappa!

But you were right, but then at the time most people (apart from Mike McVey and a few others) did paint sh%%. Back in the day there was no helpful t\'internet. I didn\'t get any good untill I met Scott/Spacemunkie at Uni. So I should dedicate my Demon to him (he can\'t have it though)

I\'m still gunna box your ears...(I\'m not sure what that means?)

 

[wingwong113]

Cup your hands.

Slap said cupped palms right over the top of someones ears.

Watch them roll around in agony as you completely bone their equilibrium and nearly pop their eardrums.

Laughter ensues.

 

[Joek]

Originally posted by Donga

But you were right, but then at the time most people (apart from Mike McVey and a few others) did paint sh%%. Back in the day there was no helpful t\'internet. I didn\'t get any good untill I met Scott/Spacemunkie at Uni. So I should dedicate my Demon to him (he can\'t have it though)

To be honest, the only time I ever saw painted minis aside from what me and freinds attempted to do was in old White Dwarfs - at a lovely time when it was \'just\' a magazine devoted to the whole swathe of the hobby.

That and John Blanche\'s very old book on his painted models was all the inspiration I needed really.

If I have any regrets about this thing we all do, is that I wish I hadn\'t stopped doing it for the best part of 15 years until \'07. When I was rummaging around in my loft and finding some old stuff, there was certainly a point when I felt I was at some sort of real turning point in my painting. And then I completely stopped doing it.

And what do I find when I come back to it? Just that the bar had been raised so incredibly (incredibly) high! Still, if it were not for the images around on the internet, I\'d never have started again, nor would I be enjoying myself enormously

I do find it is sometimes very hard to stop using certain techniques that I was using before I originally stopped though - I\'m still averse to taking risks (and step up my game possibly), and do sometimes end up with the safer option...

sigh...

Where\'s my walking stick?

 

[Shadzar]

Originally posted by BPI
@Shadzar - excellent, not a mini I\'m familiar with, his mouth looks like candy! If you ever put more paint on him & resubmit you can get your improveOmeter score! (http://www.mainlymedieval.com/ozpainters/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1739)

http://www.dndlead.com/Ral-Partha/RP-Monsters400.htm

It\'s a mimic. D&D monster that disguises itself as a treasure chest or other usable object to attract its dinner to it, and grabs them and sucks them inside to digest them. lol

 

[Donga]

Originally posted by Joek

I\'m still averse to taking risks (and step up my game possibly), and do sometimes end up with the safer option...

Why, there\'s always Dettol/Nitromors etc etc... There\'s miniatures in my gallery that have been painted two or three times. All through experimenting & getting it wrong. There\'s one or two that will be feeling the touch of my stripping bath soon.

Try something new! You learn a hell of alot more from getting it wrong than getting it right!

That\'s what has got me where I am, I know I still have a hell of alot MORE to learn.

 

[Joek]

I agree! I have a couple of projects that I\'m starting to get an idea about and both of which are resorting to me doing things which I\'ve never done before, so slowly but surely I\'ll get there. The main thing is I\'m enjoying it. It\'s also starting to be something that is almost self-funding itself (through judicious selling of a few painted things). I say almost...like everyone else I still buy far more than I paint

 

[Donga]

Every day is a school day!

 

[BPI]

I\'ll just throw this one into the mix & comment on the interesting posts preceding later (nice stuff folks)...

So here\'s the first figure I ever bought, from GW Manchester before it moved out of the Arndale Centre, I\'m going to guess my Birthday 1982, making me 7 years old! I\'m so glad my Dad trusted me not to eat him! Although he bought me enamel paints & a bottle of thinners so I guess the safety warning on the back of the blisters was secondary really! If I remember rightly the age recommendation on the blister was only 10 or 12 then, it seems to have crept up to 14, except I\'ve just looked at a LotR blister card & it says 36 months!? Is this since they dropped the lead from the alloy?

Back to the figure...

Citadel Fiend Factory FF31-2 Reptile Warrior With Sword (Feb 1982) (inset Compendium 1 C22 Creatures - Lizardman)

That\'s Humbrol metallic green scales, silver shield & sword, metallic brown feet, all applied without undercoat. He\'s then been touched up with flat green over the scales & base around the point the Citadel red box paint set arrived in my bedroom He snapped off his base at the ankle so Dad epoxied him back down, hence the hooflike appearance!

This little guy really did fire my imagination, I played with for many, many hours! I probably only owned a couple of dozen figures by time I was 12, Troglodyte, Night Elves, Orc Trebuchet, Dwarf Cannon, the Dwarf above, an Evil Chaos Cleric, A Chaos Warrior & an Oriental Dragon. That eclectisism partly just me & because Fighting Fantasy books & the D&D Red Box Set were my introductions to Fantasy gaming, the idea of collecting a themed army came to me long after that of building up a bestiary - It was dwarves once I started though!

:beer: B.

 

[Shadzar]

Why is it some of the firsts on here still aren\'t finished?

 

[BPI]

Hi Shadzar, unfinished minis? Oh boy yes. Of the hundreds of minis I own (but not, I suspect, a thousand yet) I\'d reckon two thirds have paint on but are not completed! Just the way I am I guess I\'m far more likely to feel like painting some turquoise, then dig about to find a figure to put some on, than I am to choose a particularly nice mini & plough through it to completion. I\'ll get distracted wanting to try mixing orange with flesh tones, or seeing how inks work over a grey basecoat, etc

B.

 

[SkelettetS]

That\'s a good idea BPI, now i know what to use my one billion minis to: colour-testing!

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by squig hunter
That was in the summer of 2001 and I was six........... ahh nostalgia
Squig

Rub salt in the wound why don\'t you.