6 replies to this topic

[Mistwalker]

I am one of those who got pulled in by the bones kickstarter.

I painted a tabletop version of Turuk, but enjoyed him enough to try my hand at a more finished version of him. Once I figure out how to resize the two pictures of the tabletop version, I will post them.

I spent way more time than I expected to, trying to end up with a perfectly trimmed and primed miniature. I used a bit of liquid green stuff to fix a few problem areas. I have decided not to glue in the arms or head yet, based on the tabletop version experience. I think it will be easier to glue, green stuff and touch up the jacket than to paint around the arms.

I also removed the base, as I want to try my hand at making a wooden board looking base.

Here is a quick picture of the primed parts - I am getting a light box in the next few days, so the picture quality should increase, and my wife has been kind enough to lend me her fancy camera (once I figure out how to work it, it too should increase the picture quality - the skills you need to paint miniatures today!).


I know that the picture has skewed the proportions, still learning the photo skills.

[Metalchaos]

Hi Mistwalker, nice forum name!

If you fell comfortable about gluing the head and arms after painting them it’s fine, but personally I won’t do that principally because small part are harder to hold while you paint them. I like to fix my model on an old paint bottle using sticky blue gum so I can manipulate it without risking touching the fresh paint. Will you drill a hole in the protrusion and fix a temporary pin in so you can hold using the pin while painting?

You did a nice work cleaning the parts. Welcome to the forum.

[CashWiley]

Any of the more experienced painters, I'd be interested in hearing some tips and tricks for situations like Mistwalker ran into, with tough to reach areas after gluing up a mini. I also had real difficulty with the inside portion of my Drone WIP, I was always hitting the arms or the body under them, and there are spots that simply aren't painted, I just jabbed in there with a brush to hide the base coat.

I also thought about painting my next 'detached arms' mini separate, but it seems like it would be tough to get lighting and whatnot correct like that. Having the Drone's arms in place was crucial to what modicum of success I had in that respect.

[Mistwalker]

Hi Mistwalker, nice forum name!

If you fell comfortable about gluing the head and arms after painting them it’s fine, but personally I won’t do that principally because small part are harder to hold while you paint them. I like to fix my model on an old paint bottle using sticky blue gum so I can manipulate it without risking touching the fresh paint. Will you drill a hole in the protrusion and fix a temporary pin in so you can hold using the pin while painting?

You did a nice work cleaning the parts. Welcome to the forum.

Glad you like the name, and thank you for the welcome.

I bought a couple of the painting DVDs this year at GenCon, and liked the approach that Marike had, the one where she used double sided tape to hold the miniature to the top of the spray paint can. I currently have the body so attached - with holes already drilled in the feet to be able to put in metal pegs and attach/glue to the base.

For the arms and head, I did drill holes in them to be able to stick them onto a stand.


I used a stand that I had built for a flying creature but never got around to finishing.

If it isn't as easy to hold as expected, I will make another one built around a larger item, someting about the size of the spray can top mentioned above. I will post any problems or pertinent observations as I go, as this is a new process/idea for me too.

[Mistwalker]

Any of the more experienced painters, I'd be interested in hearing some tips and tricks for situations like Mistwalker ran into, with tough to reach areas after gluing up a mini. I also had real difficulty with the inside portion of my Drone WIP, I was always hitting the arms or the body under them, and there are spots that simply aren't painted, I just jabbed in there with a brush to hide the base coat.

I also thought about painting my next 'detached arms' mini separate, but it seems like it would be tough to get lighting and whatnot correct like that. Having the Drone's arms in place was crucial to what modicum of success I had in that respect.

I am still not 100% sure if I will only put on the base coat on the jacket, and only do the highlights once the arms are glued in, or if I will do everything, glue and do touch ups. If I do take the paint everything approach and it doesn't work, I can simply reapply a base coat and do touch ups later.

[Mistwalker]

I resent the original Turuk tabletop photos from my phone, at a lower file size, so here they are.

(yes, that does mean that I haven't figured out how to re-size images on the computer yet - and having trouble not getting a glossy look on dull images with my cell camera - this has always been my wife's area of expertise, but she figures that it will be good for me if I stretch myself )



I had to use a fair bit of green stuff on the arm joints, and had trouble getting in for some of the details on the chest and head with the arms glued in place.

Yes, the skull on the eye patch is a decal - I wish my skill was at the level of being able to freehand paint small details like that.

[Mistwalker]

I started the night off with good intentions.

I put on the base coat on the jacket. I decided to base my colour scheme on the old British naval uniforms, using ritterlich blue (MSP 09115) as my base color. I added in a bit of sealer when I thinned the paint.

But found out the hard way one thing about using a hair dryer on miniatures - don't turn on the heat, only the fan part (cold setting if you will). My paint in sevearl areas dried up and cracked, and when I tried to fix it, the paint started to flake off in several areas, primer included. It took me two hours to fix that 3 or 4 second sweep with hot air over the main body.

Needless to say, I didn't get nearly as far as I had planned on, but I did discover that if you use a curved xacto blade, brush lightly sideways over the edges of the "pits" where the paint flaked off, you can slowly smooth them down. I kept putting on paint, light blade use, paint, light blade use, etc.. until I was having trouble seeing where the holes were (but that could also just be my eyes ).




I also discovered that I will need to build at least two more stands with pins/spikes in them for the arms, ones that have a bigger grip and more weight, as the arms are too unbalanced to comfortably use with the tall spike that I have the head on.