MGibster's Big Bad Thread of Big Bad Miniatures 2024

[R_J_K75]

I shared these images elsewhere but this is what my 2023 came out looking like compared to my 2022.

What was the tally for 2020-2021 during the height of the pandemic? Substantially higher I'd guess.

 

[el-remmen]

What was the tally for 2020-2021 during the height of the pandemic? Substantially higher I'd guess.

I wasn't keeping track then and didn't really start painting minis until summer 2020 (despite owning minis since the mid-90s) but my guess would be that no, it was not substantially higher, in fact, pretty sure it was substantially lower since I was not doing it as often or efficiently, nor had I explicitly taken on the project of painting them all.

 

[R_J_K75]

Here's one I always wanted to paint but just never got around to it. I gave away all my painting supplies to my neighbor who started getting into painting mins a few years back. Figured it was better to give them to someone who will use them rather than them go to waste.

 

[R_J_K75]

I wasn't keeping track then and didn't really start painting minis until summer 2020 (despite owning minis since the mid-90s) but my guess would be that no, it was not substantially higher, in fact, pretty sure it was substantially lower since I was not doing it as often or efficiently, nor had I explicitly taken on the project of painting them all.

Looks like you got pretty good at it rather quickly

 

[MGibster]

Here's one I always wanted to paint but just never got around to it. I gave away all my painting supplies to my neighbor who started getting into painting mins a few years back. Figured it was better to give them to someone who will use them rather than them go to waste.

I painted the two gorillas in the last few years. The first was a giant gorilla produced by WizKids (see below) and the other was the Abominape zombie gorilla for Zombicide: Undead or Alive. I found it somewhat challenging to paint an all black figure while making sure the textures of the fur and the details of the fleshy bits stood out a bit.

 

[el-remmen]

I painted three Reaper apes at the end of the 2023 and first one in 2024. I love a good ape.

 

[MGibster]

I finished a Delaque Gang for Necromunda. I don't even think I own the rules for a Delaque gang. I used an undercoating highlight here and some contrast paints. I was going for kind of a grayish unhealthy pallor you might see from people who have never known the sunight.

 

[R_J_K75]

I painted the two gorillas in the last few years. The first was a giant gorilla produced by WizKids (see below) and the other was the Abominape zombie gorilla for Zombicide: Undead or Alive. I found it somewhat challenging to paint an all black figure while making sure the textures of the fur and the details of the fleshy bits stood out a bit.


View attachment 343717

Lot better job than I could ever do

 

[R_J_K75]

I know there's probably a billion websites and YouTube videos out there now, and AI can probably show up at your house and paint your miniatures for you these days, but I bought a book in the early 2000s by Ral Partha I believe titled something to the effect of "How to Paint Fantasy Miniatures" but ICR exactly the title. It had a blue cover IIRC. It's worth tracking down as it walks you through step by step in pictures and text, nice to have at the table while painting for reference.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Those forums any good? I have never visited them. Do folks trade non-Reaper minis?

The Reaper forums are awesome - a fair number of the professional painters and sculptors hang out there on occasion, and everyone is friendly and helpful. It's literally one of the most friendly and welcoming forums you'll find on the internet. No matter what you're painting, from 40K to boardgame pieces to 3D prints, everything's cool, and they have forums for everything from painting to sculpting to conversions and terrain, as well as an off-topic forum.

There's no trading or commerce on the forum, but they do have organized painted mini exchanges (and a Secret Santa during the holidays), and we occasionally do the Box o' Goodwill - everyone participating gets divided up into groups assigned to a box, and the starter (generally the person that ended up with the box at the end of the last round) sends out a medium-sized USPS flat-rate box packed full of stuff* to the next person on the list, who takes out what they want, replaces it with an equal amount of stuff from their own stash, and sends it to the next person on the list, rinse and repeat. At the end of the round, it gets sent back to the person who started it for them to take stuff they want and then hold onto it for the next round.
There are currently I think five or six boxes going round the US/Canada, plus a Euro box that occasionally goes round when them folks can get it going.

There's been talk of starting up a new round now that the new year is here, and the coordinator has said that he's going to be announcing the signups sometime in the near-ish future.


*Stuff: miniatures of any kind/material/brand (preferably human-sized or at least not a dragon-sized box set, lol), random bits, basing material, brushes/sculpting tools, random hobby junk, artwork of various sorts, just not any liquids or food.