Painting miniatures, terrain and scenery.

[Chief]

Show off your miniatures and scenery creations.



To make everyone feel safe, I'll start with some school holiday fun with our first, very simple, dungeon scenery completed this very afternoon.

It is probably not worth showing off compared to some of the amazing creations I've seen on the web, but for my sons and I it was a fun start.







10 year old: "It was all fun apart from painting the black layer. That was a pain. Best bit is breaking and cutting it for the cracks and holes."

Yeah, and he wasn't there when I came back many times to find minute specks of pink foam showing through the black, and dabbing away with smaller and smaller paint brushes.

Also, several minor heart attacks were had as he ignored my instructions on cutting. He's lucky to still have all of his digits.

We used:
Scrap foam and $3 tubes of acrylic, plus a $2 pack of paint brushes (bought after being admonished by the Mrs for attempting to use a couple of her brushes) and a few bucks worth of cheap snap-off blades/scalpel. Oh yeah, and an $80 styrofoam cutter which wasn't totally necessary but very useful.


The video we followed:



What's next for us? We already have more foam cut out (a bit straighter this time as I work out how to use the hot foam cutter). I want to work out how to do water effects, and this piece might get some green in the corners for damp mould. We'll also work on dry-brushing multiple grey shades for more depth.

Also, we have a couple of games with minis that we will get into painting. This guide seems pretty comprehensive: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/687047/painting-plastic-minis-how-guide-beginners-warning


Show us yours!

What have you been painting lately?

 

[36Gladiators]

Looks sweet, though could do with miniature crocodiles in the moat.

 

[Chief]

Looks sweet, though could do with miniature crocodiles in the moat.

Perhaps a drowning serf as well.

 

[36Gladiators]

Perhaps a drowning serf as well.

Though I must warn you that by doing this, you have set your child on the path to worship of Satan.

 

[Chief]

Now I'm looking at every bit of scrap plastic and foam as potential scenery or dressing, and thinking about the figures from the D&D Drizzt board game as potential first candidates for painting.

 

[NTRabbit]

Just gonna throw in an assortment of my painted minis right now

Eldar (40k)

 

[NTRabbit]

Marauders, Rebs and Plague (Deadzone)

 

[NTRabbit]

Republique of France and the Belgian Protectorate (Dystopian Wars)

Convergence of Cyriss (Warmachine)

British Army (Flames of War)

Terrain and objective markers, mostly laser cut MDF, 28mm scale, last picture is the resin objective crates from Deadzone

 

[NTRabbit]

I've got stacks of minis to paint still, plus I have more MDF terrain, Mantic Battlezones, some mixed MDF and plastic 15mm scale WW2 terrain, and a big ol box of Reaper Bones due in a couple months full of minis for RPGs and to fill out some hero slots in my Kings of War armies (also in the paint queue).

I've also got a large box slowly filling with bits of cardboard and foam that made me think "hey that could make a good terrain piece"

 

[Chief]

I've also got a large box slowly filling with bits of cardboard and foam that made me think "hey that could make a good terrain piece"

Is it wrong to want to see what you've got in your box and how you think it might work as terrain?

 

[NTRabbit]

I have two of each of these shredded cardboard packing containers

Some sort of city scape, or the base for one with taller bits attached, perhaps a manufactorum instead of city.

Slightly smaller, say the same thing in 6m scale, or turn it upside down and...

...it's a 28mm scale infirmary on a spaceship or a military base

This resembles this enough to be worth exploring

Basic block of foam, plus some corner pieces that could be used to elevate a board creating an underground carpark in 15mm, could make a coastal bunker in occupied France in both 15 and 28mm, etc

These are honeycombed bits of cardboard that were packing protection for my Ikea Expedit bookshelf and all the inserts, I reckon they'll make nice fortified harbour walls for a Dystopian Wars board, I have quite a few pieces in different sizes.

 

[Chief]

I knew it was wrong.

Picked up some bits and bobs at Reverse Garbage today. Included a fake grass offcut that we'll cut strands off for grass. Plus various plastic bits, metal bits, foam core board, perspex, glass tiles.

We'll keep plodding along with the basic stuff, adding in features as we find tutorials and get ideas. The interest may fade after the school holidays but for now it sucks up time in the day.

 

[NTRabbit]

Ikea trip on the weekend?

 

[jazzee]

Nice work guys! I've decided to start painting my figurines for Star Wars Imperial Assault and Arcadia Quest. I'll throw them up as I stumble along as an amateur.

 

[Goodo73]

I haven't painted in years, and when I was, an accurate description of the results would be 'amatuerish' (shading and beyond was not my forte). However, here are a couple of dwarves I 'completed'.

A mate gave me this one to do up. I used it in Blood Bowl as a Troll Slayer. He was kind enough to add the grass to the base.


A Runner from the Dwarven BB team released by GW (Grudgebearers). His beard could definitely do with a touch up.

 

[NTRabbit]

Have you considered trying washes? They're basically cheating when it comes to adding depth and getting away from the appearance of flat colours, lots of examples in these photos

My latest, the Wirrawee Irregulars completed

 

[NTRabbit]

Ack ack ack!

 

[Chief]

Ikea trip on the weekend?

Entirely coincidentally...

 

[Chief]

Have you considered trying washes? They're basically cheating when it comes to adding depth and getting away from the appearance of flat colours, lots of examples in these photos

What are you using to create the textures on your bases?

 

[NTRabbit]

I used greenstuff, then cheaper but nearly identical milliput, and cheaper again but ultimately not as good air drying clay, pressed into Basius basing pads. The Mark II pads are due out in May. They're pretty neat, especially if you're otherwise going to buy lots of resin bases.

This month I'm going to be using some different techniques though, you'll have to wait and see!

 

[Chief]

I used greenstuff, then cheaper but nearly identical milliput, and cheaper again but ultimately not as good air drying clay, pressed into Basius basing pads. The Mark II pads are due out in May. They're pretty neat, especially if you're otherwise going to buy lots of resin bases.

This month I'm going to be using some different techniques though, you'll have to wait and see!

I am just putting together the figures for Shadows of Brimstone and thought I might have a go at painting and basing them as my first project.

Those Basius doohickeys look great.

The first SoB figure one I put together has massive gaps - the later ones I attacked with a scalpel to get them to fit tight. Milliput seems like it would be a good filler for those and to make the bases.

 

[Chief]

I used greenstuff, then cheaper but nearly identical milliput, and cheaper again but ultimately not as good air drying clay, pressed into Basius basing pads. The Mark II pads are due out in May. They're pretty neat, especially if you're otherwise going to buy lots of resin bases.

This month I'm going to be using some different techniques though, you'll have to wait and see!

What about Sculpey? Any good for this?

 

[NTRabbit]

I've never used Sculpey, but it seems like it should - all you need in your material is that it holds its firmnes well and doesn't stick, as you take it straight out of the mould once pressed.

The air drying clay I tried would probably work better if I changed my technique slightly next time, I let it get too wet and it got out of shape a little.

Greenstuff is the go-to gap filler and sculpting material for miniature gamers, and Milliput is the go-to for smarter gamers who realise greenstuff is overpriced Kneadatite with a citadel badge.

 

[Chief]

I might go over to Art Shed today and see what they have.

 

[Chief]

Over the last few days I've gotten together a bunch of Tamiya acrylics, brushes and whatnot and started dabbing away at a Legend of Drizzt board game miniature. The first one I consider just an experimental canvas on which I am making all sorts of mistakes but finding out stuff about the paints.

Red and blue Tamiya paint mixed together makes a muddy browny colour, not purple! Where can I get some magenta? Nobody has it

Black gesso, you idiot! Not white gesso! Did you really need to spend $15 on a spray can of primer?

All the pigment is on the bottom of the jar - just shaking it for a bit doesn't work. Stir it.

Why did you put those details on before you did that block of colour? Because you wanted to try out the titanium silver NOW not later.

Your son is not interested in painting miniatures, just playing D&D is enough for him - stop pretending you spent all this money so you could share the hobby with him.

You're drinking too much coffee!

And so on. Mind you, most of these things I could have found out if I had read the various painting guides properly instead of just skimming them and impatiently splashing away with the paint.