What Minis Are You Painting?

Just finished all the air units for my Dystopian Wars Prussians - 2 Bombers, my Carrier Blimp and 2 Scout blimps, plus tons of small air tokens (22, I think). Actually pretty happy with the way they turned out.

Naval units up next!

I've got some guys playing DW. What do you like about it compared to Uncharted Seas?

I just finished painting the Drakon minis. Now onto the rest of the Talisman figs.

If you have any interest at all in following what I am currently painting, you can check it out here .

I finally decided to try my hand at painting some of the minis in my games. I post these pics (hopefully they're posting) not b/c I think the minis ended up all that great, but rather as a demonstration to those of you who may still be undecided that if you generally follow the guidance provided by Tom Hancock (in his great article on this site), any schlub can produce minis that are "good enough." Prior to this, my last artistic endeavor occurred sometime in the mid-80s when I was still in elementary school.

Anyway, I first painted my Hannibal set since it didn't matter for the game if the outcome was total crap.

I then moved on to Ravenloft and Ashardalon - the primary reasons I decided to try painting minis in the first place.

What do you guys use for washes? I'd planned on using Polyminwax but I don't have a well-ventilated work station, so that might not be an option. I started experimenting with black and brown acrylic inks in a Future-based "magic" wash, but I can't tell if I'm making/using them correctly.

The wash tends to pool at the feet of the miniature, such that the upper parts (head, neck, collars, etc.) of the mini don't have as much shading as the lower parts. I've tried pre-washing the mini with straight Future, but that just seems to make the puddling worse. In addition, when I used the black ink-based wash it not only made the colors darker (which I knew would happen), but the shading looked grainy where I could see individual ink particulates on the lighter colors. I might try to find the minis where this happened and post some pictures if it's not clear what I'm talking about.

Any advice would be appreciated since I'm new to mini painting and I'd really like to get some serious practice in.

Are these artist inks that you are using? I've heard of people having good luck with those. Inks are the only supplies I have purchased from GW since I liked how they work.

Yeah, they're artist inks. It's funny, if it's someone else's mini they painted or a prepainted mini, I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to quality (unless it's something truly horrendous like some of the early Mage Knight stuff). But when I started painting all of a sudden I became hypercritical of every detail to the point where I don't trust my eye anymore; that's why I don't know if I'm using the wash incorrectly, or if, in my mind, I'm over-exaggerating the "flaws" I see.

I'm surpised that the artists inks would be grainy. Could it be that the inkis gathering around rough spots on the finish, emphasizing the blemish and making it look as if the ink is grainy?

I am curious since I need to replenish my supply and I would rather get the inks from Hobby Lobby than GW and this behavior runs counter to what I have seen in inks.

Cheers
Jake

SebastianBludd wrote: What do you guys use for washes? I'd planned on using Polyminwax but I don't have a well-ventilated work station, so that might not be an option. I started experimenting with black and brown acrylic inks in a Future-based "magic" wash, but I can't tell if I'm making/using them correctly.

The wash tends to pool at the feet of the miniature, such that the upper parts (head, neck, collars, etc.) of the mini don't have as much shading as the lower parts. I've tried pre-washing the mini with straight Future, but that just seems to make the puddling worse. In addition, when I used the black ink-based wash it not only made the colors darker (which I knew would happen), but the shading looked grainy where I could see individual ink particulates on the lighter colors. I might try to find the minis where this happened and post some pictures if it's not clear what I'm talking about.

Any advice would be appreciated since I'm new to mini painting and I'd really like to get some serious practice in.

I'm not sure but it sounds like you are using way too much wash. Some people do dipping that literally means dunking your mini in something like army color quick shade or some home-brewed alternative, shaking of the excess and leaving it to dry for a few days. It's fine for tabletop - base colours, quickshade, matt spray - job done. Washes allow more detailed work and you don't need that much. Definitely it shouldn't be flowing all over your mini. If you use too much you get all sorts of problems - rings, cracking etc. It doesn't take that much time to have another go if you think you need more shading. I don't know how are the GW new washes, but the ones they sold couple of years ago were pretty good. Maybe a bit pricey, but I'd rather be painting than mixing up my own stuff and artist inks of good quality are not cheap either and often are quite shiny. Pictures would be helpful.

luckyb0y wrote: I'm not sure but it sounds like you are using way too much wash.

I think that's the problem. I found a Future-based wash recipe and I added more ink because I didn't think there was enough definition.

Anyway, I found the minis I practiced on. The army guy is the best looking of the three. I think I did a pre-wash of straight Future followed by a brown ink magic wash in the ratio suggested by the recipe I found.

The other two are western minis using the stronger black concentration. The gallery is here.

Hey they don't look so bad. If you want more definition apply the wash a few times. I don't know how long it takes for Future to dry but GW washes can take ages if you use a lot. If you apply another layer before it's dry you might ruin everything. Use a little and you can have another go in ten minutes. The Native American and cowboy could use a little bit of drybrushing. Don't worry if the highlighting and shading are exaggerated. If you pick a colour that fits most base layers you don't need to be worried about going over other areas. Light grey would fit the cowboy and something like light yellow/beige for the Native. Remember you'll be looking at them from couple of feet away most of the time. If highlight/shade in a realistic way it will look like flat colours. It also depends a lot on the quality of minis. If you look at loincloth at his back it has nice definition and details show up quite nicely, not so much in the front. This isn't your fault it's just that they are more cheap plastic gaming pieces than proper miniatures.

I have a question that perhaps you guys can answer. I am attempting to paint my War of the Ring figures. I've painted the dwarves and used the dip method. Not dunking them but applying the finish with a brush.

I used the minwax stuff but after two days they are still tacky. It has been damp the last couple of days. Is it normal for them to take that long to dry? Or will they just always be tacky and I should apply the clear coat?

You shouldn't apply the clear coat.

Even with Swamp Castle humidity, I never had Minwax go tacky. That's a bad sign. I've give it a week. It it hasn't dried, you can either strip and repaint or try a clear coat.

Thanks for the input, luckyboy. I found my recipe, it's a 50/50 Future/water medium with a 10:1 medium to ink ratio. I'm just going to play around with concentrations (5:1 vs. 10:1 vs. 20:1) and methods (black vs. brown, prewash with Future vs. no prewash) to see what I like. I'm also going to go with a gloss acrylic paint-on sealer (for strength) followed by a matte sealer. I don't do any sprays since the climate in Iowa is conducive to spraying about 2 months out of the year. Time to go ruin some army men, I guess.

repoman wrote: I used the minwax stuff but after two days they are still tacky. It has been damp the last couple of days. Is it normal for them to take that long to dry? Or will they just always be tacky and I should apply the clear coat?

It sounds like you might have the same problem Superfly TNT was having with his Runebound minis.

Did a quick "Spray & Wash" on my WotR figures this past weekend. Got them all done and ready to play without it taking too long.