Nyrfherdr's Mini Thread - Inspired by Pogre (NEW 3/1/07 - AFTER A YEAR!)

[ledded]

Hey Ledded. Thanks for the praise. I appreciate it.
I'd love to see you post more of your mini's.

Thanks. I need to get around to posting up a few more pics. I'm currently in the middle of scratch-building some Zeppelins for a pulp/steampunk set of games we are going to run. I'll post those up when they're done.

Historically, I've used GW's Matt Varnish. Because of a couple of bad cans of it, though. I'm moving to Testers Dullcote.

Same here. Two cans, both bad, over a half-dozen ruined minis because of it. Cloudy and crappy no matter what temperature, humidity, etc I used them in.

I get good results most of the time with Krylon Matte and another Craft store Matte that I've used.

I really should use more brush-on sealers like The Madhatter described, as I've heard those work out the best, but I'm just to darn lazy

What I do sometimes do, though is use gloss on 'glass items' and gems and things. I have a jar of GW's gloss varnish that you paint on with a brush.

The other technique I use is when I'm painting with a metallic paint and the matte varnish has dulled it down more than I want. I'll paint a highlight using the metallic again to put a sheen back on it. I do the especially when I want something like the Blue Metal I used on some of Privateer Press mini's. It might 'wear off' over time, but I haven't had a problem since the paint job underneath is sealed.

Ah, I thought I noticed some gloss parts, but could still see really good detail on most of the minis. Personally, I loathe gloss finishes except for how you said you use it... to gloss up small things and sometimes the most light-saturated pieces of armor, etc, which I will often do myself. To me, most folks who spray a couple coats of gloss on their minis might as well as hit them with a hammer. Just a personal thing. Gloss, even when over-coated with a matte, often tends to obscure details and color variation, hiding people's good work. I mean, it's *gloss*, it's chemically formulated to dry in such away as to bend light *away* from what it's sprayed on, thereby robbing you of color and detail. And the thing is, it's not that much more protective than a few light layers of matte (I know that folks will argue about that point forever, which is cool, but I did some research on it that I feel pretty comfortable with). Not all spray-gloss jobs are bad though, and there are quite a few professional painters who use it and then matte over it and you can't even tell, but IMO if you just did a few careful layers of matte you will save a lot of time and work that isnt worth what you put into it unless you are throwing your miniatures at large rock outcroppings when you play. But to me, if I can actually *see* the sealer on a mini like a dime-thick film, then it's pretty much ruined.

/RANT OFF

Whew. Sorry so long on that

Keep up the good work, I really have enjoyed your home sculpts (which I've just recently started experimenting with myself).

 

[nyrfherdr]

Pogre, MadHatter and Ledded. Thanks for the encouragement! I really appreciate it.
Great advice and good company. We should get together some time!

I've taken a couple of photos.
Here are some Iron Kingdoms Elves from Privateer Press.




Here's a Sorcerer from Reaper.


And... Here's a couple of Heru warriors from Crocodile games.



I enjoyed painting all of them. They all have attitude!
Game ON!
Nyrf

 

[nyrfherdr]

This is a duplicate of a post on painting plastic mini's (ala MageKnight or D&D).
I was trying to illustrate that you can indeed repaint them if you don't like the original paint job. I also include at the bottom a conversion/sculpt I did for a missing arm.

Simple paint jobs:





More involved paint jobs:




And here is a conversion. The Heroclix mini was missing an arm. I have no idea what it was, but I'm into cyborgs and things, so I created a mechanical arm. I haven't painted it yet, so it's perfect to show the conversion...



I hope that illustrates the options you have with Plastic mini's. I took them all off the clicker bases (except the last one because I'm not done with him yet.) That's the easiest to do.
I didn't prime any of these mini's. I used the original paintjobs as 'primer'. I imagine if you kept the coat really light, a primer would be ok.

Game ON!
Nyrf

 

[nyrfherdr]

Last update for the day... I have to get back to the work of actually creating and painting mini's (and life of course!)

Here are 2 more original sculptures. I've found that if you want to sculpt smaller races, it is really hard. There aren't any real guidelines and its easy to get proportions wrong. (and the smaller detail is a bear!)

Here is the first 'successful' small sculpt. I have others, but they ended up being the same size as regular ones.


Here's the mini next to a standard human for scale.*



Here is my most recent. He was inspired by a SuperVillain from one of the Mutants and Masterminds Sourcebooks.




* Ledded the sheen on this guy isn't noticeable on the figure. It's because of the varnish though. One of my attempts to find something to replace GW.

Game ON!
Nyrf

 

[The Madhatter]

The sculpting is coming along! I like the little fella's hair. I also like the second I.K. elf's boots. I know it's probably a simple dry brush, but the leather looks really good. What bronze paint did you use on your Heru? It's actually bronze(and not a glorified copper) unlike a few leading manufacturer's pigments.

 

[nyrfherdr]

Thanks Madhatter.
The Bronze is a Delta Ceramcoat color, actually.

Game ON!
Nyrf

 

[pogre]

I love those Heru shields. Wow! I feel like I have been tagged with a brick

 

[nyrfherdr]

Thanks Pogre. I've gotten a couple of more mini's painted, but no photos yet.
I have to assemble my "photo studio" each time so it takes some prep work.

I've completed a few more sculpts too. I like to paint them before showing them though.

Game ON!
Nyrf

 

[nyrfherdr]

I snapped a couple of quick photos. Been really busy.

Here's a big Bridge Troll from Privateer Press:




And here's a Half-Orc Fighter from Reaper. Making Black look good is a challenge!




Game ON!
Nyrf

 

[pogre]

Wow! Great paintjob on the Troll! I'm going to have to pick that monster up sometime soon.

Black is tough, but here is an article on painting black you might find helpful.