How long should it REALLY take you to paint your miniature? YOU NON-PAINTERS YOU!!!

[Ashrum the Black]

Paint a mini?
About 3-8 hours per miniture, depending on details and basing. A rank and file space marine is probably 3-4 hours, while a sergant with no helmet or a commnader is closer to the eight mark.

Paint at the table while gaming?
Rude, beyond all belief. If I was DMing and somebody whipped out paints at the table I think I'd tell them that they can do that on their own time, right now though is thr groups. We're focused on the game and paying, you should be to.

-Ashurm

 

[Henry]

How long does it take you to paint a mini? Do you think you take too long trying to make it more perfect than it really needs to be? Does the 'standard' of the pre-painted D&D mini chagne things? Is it more impolite to paint a mini at the table while playing or to NEVER have a painted mini at the table (considering all the work the DM puts into the game?) What are the 'social' norms on this sort of thing?

jh

Screw minis painting! I can't stand it, it's tedious and time consuming for me, and I use either tokens or prepainted D&D minis every chance I get! I definitely don't begrudge anyone an unpainted mini, because you wouldn't see me painting it, at or off the table.

I've tried three times in my life to become a minis painter, because, darn it, I'm a gamer, and shouldn't every gamer worth his dice bag be a minis painter, too? After each messy, glob-spattered, primer-screwed, non-primer-screwed try, I threw away about 30 bucks worth of supplies, swearing never to do it again. After 2003, when DDM came on the scene, I threw away all my old lead and pewter figs, and haven't looked back.

 

[Henry]

As far as painting at the table, as long as it was during the "table chatter" time that happens at the start of the session, I wouldn't care; if in the middle of a game somebody whips out paints and goes to work, I'd consider it an insult to me as a DM -- am I REALLY not holding your attention that badly!?!?!

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Unpainted miniatures make me cry.

But as for the question, I put 6-8 hours into a typical figure. Some turn out better than others. Some I get bored with and just finish even if I'm not totally satisfied with the final product.

 

[Kesh]

Usually a few hours, at the least. I like to prime the mini, give it base coats for the appropriate parts, then a dark wash and some drybrushing on the highlights. Then a sealer.

Some, like the Skeletal Minotaur, are dirt simple. (White + black + some light yellow in spots). Others, like a gnoll warrior, take a lot more time because of the varying colors and hard-to-reach spots.

Personally, I'd never paint a mini at the table, and would likely frown on another player doing so. First, it distracts from the game. Second, the paint fumes can make some other players sick, or at least uncomfortable. Thirdly, there's always the risk of splattering paint on someone else's stuff.

If someone brings an unpainted mini to a game, that's fine. Or if they bring a prepainted D&D Mini for their character, that's fine too. Minis are more of a hobby than putting together a character sheet, so I don't see it as important to the game overall.

 

[Emirikol]

I have painted minis in the past...but the VAST majority of my metal minis are gloriously unpainted, and have been since I got into the hobby in 1977.

That's true for me too, but usually I try to have my character's mini's painted at least crudely. Although I'm guilty of being a non-painter, I appreciate things in this order of art appreciation:

MOST APPRECIATED: A painted mini with turf-grass and clear-plexiglass elevation systems for flying and flags demonstrating when raging or invisible..and supplemental prone painted mini showing "MAN DOWN." Additional weapon attachments are nice and can be used to show when disarm or fumbles have occurred. A mounted alternate character is necessary, with camel and horse variations for different mounts. The players table tent drawing should match the picture of the character and if possible, a short-google-movie on "THE MAKING OF THE MINI" is ideal.

APPRECIATED: A painted mini or "CARDBOARD HERO" resembling the character, even badly painted or chipped paint, that stands up and is to scale. It greatly helps the DM FIND the character in question during the game, and the color (any color) adds to the gaming experience.

SOMEWHAT APPRECIATED: An unpainted mini that at least stands up and resembles the character. OR, a primered mini (best if there's one quarterpanel that is a different color of primer to demonstrate what a big REDNECK GAMER YOU ARE!!!
For sheer mechanical purpose only, this is the 'minimum' to demonstrate you have any interest in contributing to this portion of the hobby.

'MEH': Pogs that resemble the character. They're hard to pick up and move in complex situations.
LEAST APPRECIATED: An unpainted mini that neither resembles the character, nor can stand up 50% of the time, nor is to scale, nor has any business.

NOT APPRECIATED AT ALL (DEMONSTRATES A LACK OF ENTHUSIASM FOR THE HOBBY): A penny or die or worse, moldy candy.


From the DM's side, I've got boxes of warhammer orcs that I use that will never be painted..although I did give my 3 year old a try at the zombies and they turned out pretty good. Kind of a snotty-creamy pink I think that scares the players more than a well-painted zombie! I've used clay and rocks in recent games as well as the occasional child's toy for demons (nothing better than beenie baby demons!!!) In cases like this I'll usually have a picture from GOOGLE printed out on a sheet of paper so that they get a better idea of what it looks like.

Do your "appreciation levels" match mine?

jh

 

[Emirikol]

Torches

I don't know if I've posted this before, but do any of you have trouble determining WHO IS CARRYING THE TORCH? Here's a visual method.

I came up with a quick and neat way to make torches with just some cotton, yellow or red paint, and a tiny bit of scotch tape.solution:

Take a little cotton and roll it into a small torch shape about 1/2 inch long (1cm). Paint one end yellow. Wait 5 minutes and then put some red streaks in it. The unpainted end get's a small roll of scotch tape (about 1/4" (.5cm) wide as the stem of the torch. Then you can stick it on the end of the sword or dagger of a mini (or tape it to a shield). I paint the stems of the torch brown or black.

It's a nice game mechanical thing and I was surprised how beloved those things are by my players. I made about 15 of them and now use them as "wall torches" to flesh out the dungeon on the battlemat too.

BTW, I use cheapo acrylic craft paints instead of oil.

jh



..

 

[Umbran]

I've never been a great painter. I hadn't touched a mini for years, and recently started a batch of five for a GURPS game I play in.

By the gods, I am rusty, and it takes me forever - I have put in perhaps three or four hours on the batch, here and there, but none of them are complete. I find it to be a meditative process, so I don't mind if it takes me a while...

 

[Emirikol]

Perhaps too many of us strive for perfection. Isn't a painted mini at your D&D table better than an unpainted one?

 

[JoeGKushner]

I almost never paint a single figure at a time so I couldn't accurately guess but I'd say at least 90 minutes.

I generally do three coats (dark-mid-light) and some inks to blend it together. Reaper's triad system of paints is really good for this but they don't have any inks. Fortunately, GW and Vallejo do.

Try to do more layering these days but still do the drybrushing in hair, chainmail and other heavily textured surfaces with more washes to help it blend together.

As far as painting at the table, as long as the person knows what's going on, I don't mind it and have done it myself when one of the other playes needed to catch up or was in the middle of some intense role playing with the GM while his character was off doing something.