Some mini's for review

Jubei, those are great. Rather than offer criticism, maybe I could hit you up for some advice? I am getting ready to paint a red dragon mini and have been casting around for a few weeks trying to think of a way to do a lava effect. Not just with the paints, but with the figure, since the lava is not part of the base that I have.

On Demon 3a, how did you do that crater?

BFG - words of wisdom, and excellent advice. I checked out the sites, and I think I will post in CMON. The other site had really good advice on how to take better pictures. I'm going to redo all my miniature digital pictures if I can get them to come out clearer. Thanks.

FourthMensch - I highly recommend 'Dry-Hard' - Self Hardening Clay - by Laguna Clay Company. I got it at Michael's (our local art and craft supply store). It hardens in about 1 day, and cures in 2-3 days to plaster hardness. All other materials involve baking the clay to hardness (miniatures will melt but the base will look great). I took a piece of flat plastic and cut out about 2x3 inch piece and on it sculpted lava looking chunk of clay. I bought dental tools at a army supply store for $1 apiece, and use them as sculpting tools. I cut into this clay mass a hole and made little gouges out of it. I rolled some pieces of clay into balls and made them as rocks. I set the miniature into the center of this and used more clay to cover up the old base. It took about 2 days to be rock hard (although it is a little brittle at the edges where it is thin). I primed it with black primer (except in the crater). Colored it black and then drybrushed it with slightly darker gray. The crater was just a lighter white in the deep areas going to red at the top. My wife likes that miniature a lot, but I will try taking better pictures of it. Thanks for asking advice from me...I love to share ideas, but it also makes me feel like I know what I'm doing.
Would love to see your dragon when it's done. Jubei

BFG -- Thanks for chiming in with kind words and to answer Jubei on my behalf. I saw your ENnies Judge post and found it rather compelling. Who knows, maybe you and I will both manage to vault over a couple of the incumbents?!?

Jubei -- You sound like quite the Renaissance man: painting, sketching and sculpting. I've only painted a couple of minis ever. One turned out OK, the others, not so much .

fourthmensch -- Please post your work when it's done. Everybody loves a good Red Dragon!

Oh no! The pressure!

I don't want to get everyone's hopes up, because this is the first big mini I've done, even though I have dozens of regular character-sized ones under my belt.

I'm looking into the Dry Hard clay you recommended, Jubei, and if all goes well it should go into the final product. It may be a long time--I haven't even started yet--but if I can get a decent picture I'll post it here.

Thanks for the encouragement, though. And keep painting, Jubei--your stuff is really good.

Thanks, yet again, everyone for the kind words of encouragement. If I would have known everyone was this receptive I would have posted aeons ago.

Quickbeam - if Ennie judge falls through, there is always US Politics.

Fourthmensch - you would be surprised just how easily that miniature will "paint itself". I sit sometimes and sketch a quick picture of the mini and try shading with different colored pencils to get an idea of the final outcome. the rest is paint to paintbrush.

Here's some more, and thanks. Jubei

More good stuff!

One suggestion: I would try some shading and/or blacklining on the first image, the Confrontation female fighter (similar to the effect you've got on "fighter3a"). It would make the details pop more.

fourthmensch said:

Jubei, those are great. Rather than offer criticism, maybe I could hit you up for some advice? I am getting ready to paint a red dragon mini and have been casting around for a few weeks trying to think of a way to do a lava effect. Not just with the paints, but with the figure, since the lava is not part of the base that I have.

On Demon 3a, how did you do that crater?

Click to expand...

Kneadatite (Green Stuff) is a good option too -- it's a pretty essential tool for anyone who's doing largish, multipart minis, at the very least.

Jubei, great stuff. You're a much better minis painter than I am, that's for sure. I actually like the backgrounds -- I didn't find them too busy.

BTW, both Quickbeam and BFG got my vote for ENnie judge.

Jubei -- More fine work. You must be a rather prolific painter.

JD -- Thanks! It looks like I have quite a bit of ground to make up, while BFG is off to a great start. His campaign platform must have been more persuasive than my own .

Dragon 01h.JPG

Nice dragon

who made that one?

Kengar - thank you. Very good advise. As my pappy always says - 'if you want to be better, learn from people better than you'. I will try it and see.

FranktheDM - it is an old Ral Partha. Artist stamped on the bottom is 'Tom Meier' and the date appears to be 1984. I painted him with metallic colors to make him metachromatic.

Quickbeam - if you don't win as an EN Judge, I will lose faith in all that is holy. I got all my friends voting for you.

Joshua Dyal - I would love to see some of your work because it seems you are far too modest. BTW - I love using the green stuff for filling in gaps and adding small amount of detail, but it would probably be too expensive to use for larger detail. Although nothing beats it's hardness once it cures.