dmtucker
Tool Gatherer
Looking for adventure ideas.
Posts: 64
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Post by dmtucker on Aug 10, 2014 19:18:01 GMT
So I want to paint some minis for D&D but I want it to look the the store bought pre-painted ones. Hand painted is messy and airbrush has a weird shading look. Images and links aren't working sorry, so I can't show you but just look it up on google.
Any Ideas?
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Post by gnomezrule on Aug 10, 2014 19:57:11 GMT
I am not sure precisely what you mean?
There are lots of guides on you tube about painting minis these get into very time consuming and layered approaches which give great results show variation and shadow. I think you asking how to do something faster and simpler. Which would seem to me to be to paint the minis with single coats. Meaning if you want a mini with silver armor and blue pants paint the basic color you want and trust the sculpt to provide shadow and highlight. Rather than deal with several shades, washes and dry brushing.
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dmtucker
Tool Gatherer
Looking for adventure ideas.
Posts: 64
|
Post by dmtucker on Aug 10, 2014 22:33:27 GMT
I am not sure precisely what you mean? There are lots of guides on you tube about painting minis these get into very time consuming and layered approaches which give great results show variation and shadow. I think you asking how to do something faster and simpler. Which would seem to me to be to paint the minis with single coats. Meaning if you want a mini with silver armor and blue pants paint the basic color you want and trust the sculpt to provide shadow and highlight. Rather than deal with several shades, washes and dry brushing. I just mean that the prepainted minis just have a "look" I just can't replicate.
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Post by Jason on Aug 10, 2014 23:01:33 GMT
I am assuming that you mean that the pre-painted ones look better than what you are painting by hand. All pre-painted minis are painted with a single color for certain areas of the mini (belt, armor, weapon, skin.. etc) and then painted with something to protect them (Like a satin or gloss varnish). If you want to replicate that look then you will have to paint by hand. Take your time and don't rush while painting.
That is what I would suggest doing at least.
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Post by adamantinedragon on Aug 10, 2014 23:43:53 GMT
I would suggest that you just stop worrying about whether your personal hand-painted miniatures look "pre-painted" at all. Develop your own style and express your own ideas. That's really what it's all about anyway.
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Post by gnomezrule on Aug 11, 2014 1:17:00 GMT
Funny enough I have been watching a few vids on painting minis. I have this dream of painting some of the minis I did years ago. Or painting my Lord of the Rings Chess Set. I have not just done this because when I opened my old mini paints after about 7 years I found that they were solid. So I started looking for a good vid to see technique. This guy has a Miniatures 101 series that is pretty thorough. www.youtube.com/channel/UCNdMFZCWJgzWotmB3G7SV0g
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Post by Jason on Aug 11, 2014 1:50:29 GMT
Yeah that series is really straight forward and he produces nice clean lines and good looking minis.
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Post by indigo777 on Aug 11, 2014 1:54:28 GMT
Most toys and prepainted minis are painted by automated machine airbrushes, usually using a highly toxic to breath paint that bonds to plastic. Its usually done in several layers using die cut masks to paint each colored section and sometimes finished with a dip in a wash. Then they bake it at a certain temperature to cure the paint or use an intense UV light if its a UV light curing paint. I don't think there's anyway to duplicate it out of a factory with the type of paints you can publicly buy.
Your best bet is probably to paint by hand with really fine brushes and really high quality acryllic paints, finish off with a wash or dip for details, and then seal it with a strong clear varnish and a dullcoat. Really good quality acrylic paints and fine brushes made for acryllic paint do not leave brush strokes for the most part and the final products often look as good or better than the factory painted ones especially when finished off with a wash, varnish, and dullcoat.
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Post by skunkape on Aug 11, 2014 16:06:40 GMT
I agree with indigo777, hand painted figures often look much better than pre-paints, it just takes a steady hand and practice, or in my case, magnifiers, a steady hand and practice!
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Post by thedmg on Aug 12, 2014 2:08:37 GMT
They do a flat colour paint first, base in black. Dry. Then apply skin, then apply clothing colours. They let that dry and do a dip wash in black where you dip the mini into a very watered down paint mixture, dry. Then apply minor details.
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Post by gnomezrule on Aug 12, 2014 2:52:56 GMT
In no other endeavor that I have in my 40 years has the quality and unfortunately the price had so great effect on the end result.
I am cheap. I mean cheap. I learned the hard way. That normal craft acrylic paints do not look good anywhere as good on minis as the pricey designed for minis paints. They are honestly really costly in comparison but the results show. Really show. The texture is significantly different.
After painting a little while I learned about washes. You can do this with watered down black paint. Yes the black paint will gather in the recesses and yes it will make shadows but it looks nowhere near as good as a good pre mixed wash. I have heard there is good results making your own washes with "magic wash" technique I have not tried this in person. There is hope for cheapness.
Brushes cheap brushes die quickly. They lose shape, they fray and so on. I used a very small brush for awhile. When it was clearly dead I splurged again on a set of 3 brushes from the gaming store. OH MY LORD. First the largest was about the size of the brush I was using, probably a little smaller. Then there was a brush that I swear had 1 bristle it probably had three but man was it small. Totally brought the level of detail to another level and almost eliminated the occasional handslip.
In a lot of craft technique is the key to results. With minis equipment really matters.
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Post by thorswulf on Aug 12, 2014 14:23:10 GMT
For what it is worth, here's my suggestion for painting those figures you have to look like the pre paints. Wash the figures in hot soapy water after removing mold lines, flash etc.... Base them however you want to- I use washers or pennies. Prime the figures in flat black spray paint. You can use the cheap stuff from Lowes or Home Depot, but don't get heavy handed with it. Paint a sligthly watered down black all over to get any spots you missed priming. I use a layer painting method to paint, but pre paints don't bother with more than one or maybe two colors. I paint the metal areas first, dry brushing the armor and painting sword blades and the like in a solid block. Next I paint the flesh areas flesh, and layer up from dark to light, although the pre paints are usually just a flesh color. Dot the eyes with a very fine tipped black pen. Paint the clothing in a bright shade of whatever color you want them to be. You may have to do this twice or more if the color is yellow or red. Then paint in detaiils. Use the black base as a way to line each object and it should look pretty good.
Some acrylic craft paints are fine for painting figures. I use expensive miniature paints for colors like red, orange, and yellow because cadmium doesn't work very well on black base coats. It tends to be too thin. A few good brushes are a good investment, make sure to clean them with hot soapy water, and use a little liquid soap on them to return the points before storing.
Depending on the kind of figures you are painting, you may want to use different techniques to get the color "just right" I also use pearlescent and gloss additives to my paints for shimmering and reflective effects.
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Post by Sleepy Hollow Mike on Aug 15, 2014 10:25:03 GMT
I would suggest that you just stop worrying about whether your personal hand-painted miniatures look "pre-painted" at all. Develop your own style and express your own ideas. That's really what it's all about anyway. Hear! Hear! We craft because usually we have our own vision that we follow! Having ones own style is at its heart the meaning of artistry!
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