Miniatures Paints and Brushes?

[Holy Bovine]

I just dropped 40 bucks on one of their cases and that was money well spent.

A cheaper substitue for the GW cases is getting ahold of some old audio cassette carrying cases (if you can find them still - I bought a few on sale for $3 each). Get some 'egg crate' foam (about 8.00 worth at a DIY store) and cut two sheets to fit in the top and bottom of the cassette case. Remove any brackets in the case (I lucked out in that the ones I got the brackets just lifted right out) and voila! Three carrying cases for minatures total investment (in my case) about $21.00.

Another thing I use is a parts box from a hardware store. It has little drawers that you can line with foam (now you have a use for all those foam pieces GW packs thier miniatures is! ). I label the end of each drawer "Goblins' 'My PC's' 'Undead' etc. Saves lots of time when I need a miniature quickly (and I hate 'stand-ins' I have lotsa minis and like using the right ones especially for size purposes).

Oh BTW the above post by Madriel was actually a very sleepy me this morning (didn't notice the fiance was logged in and not me - she wouldn't paint a miniature on a bet and thinks I'm nuts )

 

[Quickbeam]

Hey Mark, long time no chat. How's life in the windy city?

Vallejo paints are great, but I also have the luxury using some paints that aren't available in retail stores. One of my friend's parents own a ceramic and plaster design shop, and they get all kinds of wicked-cool water and acrylic paints.

There is NO better method for stripping the paint off old minis than Pine Sol...at least not that I've found. And for the price, how can you go wrong?

I cannot recall which brand(s) of brushes I use, sorry . But IMO this is an instance where paying a bit more for higher quality products, is an investment well made. Cheap brushes are a nightmare to work with.

Reaper figures are far and away my favorite. In fact, other than a few old Ral Partha Chaos Archers, I don't own any minis that aren't made by Reaper.

Finally, two tips for your painting. Beyond using an array of brushes for different tasks try these:
1) Dry brush a lighter shade of the same color over each portion of your figure. It's a simple way to add depth and shadowing. For instance, if your ranger's cloak is forest green, dry brush over the cloak in another green several shades lighter. Don't worry about how lime green looks in the bottle, it looks AWESOME dry brushed over a darker green. This also works for flesh tones, bones, scales, you name it.
2) Try to find an art color chart -- they usually display complimentary and contrasting colors. You'd be amazed how well your minis look when they're painted with colors chosen to either enhance or blend using these charts.

 

[frankthedm]

I have paints from:

Citadel colour. good paints, nice metallics, they mix well, have horrible lids and are quite costly.

Ral partha: good paints, mix well, nice colors, not cheap, not on the market currently but may return

Apple barrel Acrylic : perfect for amateurs like myself. Cheapest price I’ve seen [$0.50 for 2 oz.], good selection of colours, low pigment, varying thickness, metalics glittery. Other paints mix a little better.

Folk art: Good selection of colours,. Nice selection of metallic, Buck a bottle [2oz]. upgraded version of applebarrel.

Delta Ceramicoat : Kinda like folk art but often thick consistency.


On stripping paint:
This subject has come up lots of times at :Wotc's Minatures General Board

My experience:

Pine sol: soak a dayor so and it removes paint from metal minis and eats plastic minis and bases. if
the mini has some very small creavases you may need a toothpick to get in the small openings

Brake fluid:if you soak the mini in the brake fluid for a few days you can toothbrush away the
paint and it wont eat the plastic minis. if the mini has some very small creavases you may
need a toothpick to get in the small openings

Nail polish remover/ acetone: good for metal minis, eats superglue, eats plastics, eats skin.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Got a link?

I do.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mini-painter/

I have, in the past, not had time to read the group for several days....and then I just delete 2000 or so messages and hope I didn't miss anything.

I've got lots of mini painting links at: http://www.wayson.net/games/minis/links.html

 

[Quickbeam]

Apple barrel Acrylic : perfect for amateurs like myself. Cheapest price I’ve seen [$0.50 for 2 oz.], good selection of colours, low pigment, varying thickness, metalics glittery. Other paints mix a little better.

Folk art: Good selection of colours,. Nice selection of metallic, Buck a bottle [2oz]. upgraded version of applebarrel.

[/B]

Very good value with these paints, available at most craft shops like Michael's. If you add a bit of alcohol and/or water, to them you can improve their consistency.

One other thing...Tin Bits (by Ral Partha) is the greatest miniature paint color of all time!! It couldn't possibly be more versatile.

 

[Mark]

Any advice on painting terrain also? Do these same paints work just as well on styrofoam, cardboard and other types of materials?

(Thanks for the yahoo link!)