Fighting the Gray Tide (Miniature Painting)

I want to open with a big thanks to everyone who has contributed in this and the other painting threads. You inspired me to finally launch my own war at fighting the grey tide I've been accumulating for over a decade and never doing anything about. The tips and suggestions have been invaluable.

I ultimately decided to go with Army Painter's Speedpaint 2.0 "Most Wanted" paint set. Due to it being winter, I opted to start with a brush-on primer and went with one each of Vallejo's black and white primers. I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be investing in an airbrush by summertime.

Brushes I went with the threads' consensus and chose a cheap pack to start with. I'm aiming more for the "good enough for table play" standard vs. competition painting.

Lastly, I'm still trying to decide between which magnification option I'm going to go with. My nearly 50 year-old eyes just aren't up to the task without assistance.

Here are the fruits of my first labors...

Bones Bugbear prime comparison.jpeg

The bugbears are from a Bones KS 11?? years ago. (another reason I opted for brush-on vs. rattle can primer. This set of Bones minis are definitely that plastic that doesn't react well with the spray primer.) The model on the left is primed black with a white drybrush. The model on the right was primed in all white. Same paint scheme applied to both. I like features of both. The black prime/white highlight is definitely more forgiving for an amateur starter like myself and while the colors overall run dark, I don't find that a bad thing. I'm currently priming a third identical model with white primer on the skin and black primer everywhere else, white drybrushing the black surfaces and then painting it again with the same color scheme to see how that comes out.

orange_phase_spider_1.jpeg

The phase spider model is from WizKid's Nolzur's line. I bought a bunch of them on sale and rather than painting them all to look like phase spiders, I plan to paint them a variety of different ways for "generic" large spiders. This is an orange & blood red combo I decided to try on a lark.
 

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You inspired me to finally launch my own war at fighting the grey tide I've been accumulating for over a decade and never doing anything about. The tips and suggestions have been invaluable.
Woot! We've brought in another cultist, er, painter!

Brushes I went with the threads' consensus and chose a cheap pack to start with. I'm aiming more for the "good enough for table play" standard vs. competition painting.
I think having realistic goals is the best way to go about any hobby. I'm shooting for good table top quality myself. Sometimes I try to stretch myself a bit further with attempts to go into display level models.

Here are the fruits of my first labors...
Your bugbears and that spider all look pretty good. I'd be happy to sit down at a game only for the DM to throw those on the table and have them attack!
 


Ive started to learn. Idk how to use a wash or how to use speedpaints.
It took me years to learn how to use speedpaints. I have a lot of Fallout miniatures I tried using speedpaints on that look terrible, but I'm pretty confident with them now. For the most part I use them as washes or filters rather than outright painting with them.
 

It took me years to learn how to use speedpaints. I have a lot of Fallout miniatures I tried using speedpaints on that look terrible, but I'm pretty confident with them now. For the most part I use them as washes or filters rather than outright painting with them.

I have 2 and experimented. Looked terrible.

I dont have a great paint selection but became a member at a model/game store and I can use their set up and they'll teach you.

I'm at wash 101 stage just started using them.
 


Today's batch...
Hobgoblins 1.jpeg

3 Nolzur's hobgoblins. This was an interesting batch. Since they were using the same color scheme I jumped from one to the next. I ignored the bases as I plan to pick up some base materials to fancy them up. Overall I thought they came out "okay". No better or worse than painted WizKids minis IMO. They have some nice detail that I need magnification to see (What do we have here? Greaves? Sabatons? We're painting it all black and calling them black leather boots. Next!) I feel like one of the metallics I used (currently my only non-Speedpaint) is too shiny. And then the red I used, I dunno, I feel I need to go with a lighter shade to contrast with the orange skin and black highlights. Good news is I have quite a few more of these; similar to the phase spiders, I bought quite a few hobgoblins with a specific campaign in mind (expanding on Heroes of the Borderlands in Greyhawk.)
Hobgoblins 2.jpeg

Different view with the minis rotated to show off their shields.
phase_spider_brown_scheme.jpeg

Another Nolzur phase spider, painted in a brown scheme. For those not familiar, Nolzur's come pre-primed in a Vallejo light grey. I re-primed this one in black and drybrushed white over it as I'd originally intended to try a black widow inspired color scheme.
 




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