Mini Painting Disaster Stories

[eris404]

Well, "disaster" is too strong a word really, so forgive the exaggeration.

I love painting minis and sometimes I will surprise people with minis to represent PC, NPCs, monsters, etc. I suprised a fellow player with a mini of his character (a young necromancer dressed in grey and black) and though he was delighted I made the effort, he later worked up the nerve to tell me that mini itself was not to his liking. After much hemming and hawing and oblique references to the pose the mini was in, I realized he was trying to tell me he thought the mini looked "gay" without actually using the word "gay." Partly amused and partly embarrassed, I told him I would be happy to paint a mini of his choosing. He gladly bought a new one and I asked him about the details of the mini (colors, symbols, etc.). The character of course dresses all in black, which sounds good when you're describing a character, but if you're painting minis, is not terribly fun to paint.

How about you? Any horror stories about painting?

 

[adwyn]

How about knocking an open bottle of paint down, splattering an entire unit of nearly painted figs? I've done that more than once (or twice).

Recently though I had a figure for CoC that had been sitting on my prep shelf for several weeks because I couldn't come up with a good paint scheme.

The other night I was moving a bottle of craft paint my wife had bought and realized the awful color would be perfect for a sweater. With this epiphany I grabbed the CoC fig, made some quick modifications to the tie and hair and proceeded to paint it up with the pink cardigan being a focal point. Only once the whole thing was done did I realize the mods I made and colors I chose made it a perfect copy of a past player. Purely done subconsciously, but I'll probably repaint it before I show it to anyone, afterall I wouldn't want him to think we're mocking him (and the fig looks like it).

 

[The_Universe]

Our dog likes to grab miniatures off of the coffee table and gnaw on them.

It's annoying.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Shark (my cat) will leap up onto the TV trays we use for painting while you are concentrating and send the nasty paint water flying all over the place... or drink it. Probably not healthy, eh?

The Universe spilled an entire bottle of Sunshine Yellow on the white carpet of our old apartment. All the carpet cleaner in the world wouldn't get it out.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Not really a painting mishap, but a minis mishap.

I was moving my minis to my fiancee's house, when the bottom drawer of the tupperware drawer set I was carrying (one of those small, 3-drawer sets), slipped out and spilled the entire contents of the drawer (around 30-40 primed, pinned, and glued metal figs) all over the driveway in a nice rain. Pissed me off majorly. However, I found all but 1 piece (Diablo amazon's hands, but I fixed that by dicing up an old Heroquest goblin). I did end up trashing 2 zombie trogs since I 1) hated the figs in the first place and 2) found putting them together to be the absolute worst experience I've ever had in minis painting.

Kane

 

[The_Universe]

Shark (my cat) will leap up onto the TV trays we use for painting while you are concentrating and send the nasty paint water flying all over the place... or drink it. Probably not healthy, eh?

The Universe spilled an entire bottle of Sunshine Yellow on the white carpet of our old apartment. All the carpet cleaner in the world wouldn't get it out.

ahem - I believe it was sun*burst* yellow.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

ahem - I believe it was sun*burst* yellow.

Either way - you spilled it. All of it. On the white carpet.

 

[pogre]

Just finished painting a huge Eldar commission. 25 figures, some speed bikes, the multi-colored harlequins, etc. Set them up to spray varnish on them. It took me just one pass of my spray can to realize I had given them a fine dusting of white primer.

I was not pleased...

 

[Tolen Mar]

Just finished painting a huge Eldar commission. 25 figures, some speed bikes, the multi-colored harlequins, etc. Set them up to spray varnish on them. It took me just one pass of my spray can to realize I had given them a fine dusting of white primer.

I was not pleased...

<cringe> I hate when that happens. I dont consider anything of mine a disaster. After all, a little bit of alcohol to strip the paint and I can start over if its really bad.

The worst I have is a box full of two sets (minus the ones lost over the years) of Battle Masters Orcs, goblins, cavalry, and so on...all primed, a few base coated, but none finished. I never was able to sit though an entire squad so they get used to represent cannon fodder in games (when it really doesnt matter if they are finished). However, a week ago I finally finished both my ogres from that set!

 

[kengar]

A terrain story, not minis.

I had built a Moria skirmish board for a "Bridge at Khazad Dum" scenario from Worldworks folding scenery. The whole thing was maybe 4' long and 18" wide 3D with columns, a collapsable bridge over a chasm, etc.

One night after playing the skirmish, I took the board down to the basement and left it leaning against the shelf at the foot of the stairs. A couple days later, I was taking a laundry bag down to wash and -because I had other things to carry- tossed the full bag down the steps.

*CRUNCH*

The board was bent almost double and I crushed half the coulmns NTM breaking the bridge.



On the plus side, I got several skirmishes worth out of the scenery before it was wrecked.