reaper how to... box sets

[fredwinu]

has anyone here bourght any of the 3 reaper paint lesson box\'s...

they come with about 6 piants, colours depending on the lesson, 2 models and a step by step guide, dont know if its colour or not though.......

the 3 lessons are, basics, flesh and cloth, NMM. i wnat to buy the NMM because;
a. it come with the reaper pro paints, wich i want to sample...
b. i need all the help i can get with NMM lol..
c. come with 2 reaper minis, i never had one before...

so has anyone bought this, if so what do you think, pro\'s and cons please...

 

[No Such Agency]

I hear some guy is selling miniature painting guides on eBay... maybe there\'s an NMM lesson in there lol

 

[fredwinu]

lol i heard about that, the sick *!@#*^$ but im loking into buying this becaus of the paints, 6 full reaper pro\'s.....:duh: i also found on ebay 18 vallejo couloure for £5, only 1.8ml mind you.. but thats enough, if u think about it the GW ones are 17ml and look how long they last... plus they flo aid em for free if u want...

 

[generulpoleaxe]

the 1.8 ml of vallejo on ebay is a con.

it works out cheaper in the long run to by the full bottle.

all this guy is doing is buying vallejo bottles and breaking them down into smaller quantities to make a profit.

you would be much better off buying the full bottles from mick22 (and i am not being payed for this eitherlol)

the vallejo paints as well as coat d\'arms last forever.

 

[No Such Agency]

Originally posted by generulpoleaxe
the vallejo paints as well as coat d\'arms last forever.

It\'s true. The dropper bottles protect the paint from drying out much better than GW\'s \"pots\" do.

 

[Wren]

I\'ve purchased all the Reaper LtP kits. Kits 1 and 2 were actually my first foray into miniature painting. The guides are in colour, but they\'re fairly short, and the pictures are on the small side. A lot of people find Anne Forster\'s approach to explaining where the highlights and shadows go in NMM quite helpful. She\'s the head painter at Reaper and wrote the guides for LtP 2 and 3. I found that helpful, but have done better personally glazing shadows down into NMM than to highlight lighter shades up in the manner described in the booklet. But that\'s a personal thing.

Anyway, as far as the kits go, Reaper Pro Paints are a solid paint. They are, however, not as good at the newer Reaper paint line, the Master Series. These come in dropper bottles, and are formulated with a flow aid agent. They also use a better and smoother base than the RPP paints. The new RMS series ARE available in kits. Reaper has three how to paint kits under the brand name Hobby-Que. I believe the intention is to target these more to hobby stores and a general audience, so your local game store may or may not carry them. You can find them here at a discounted price, and probably other places also.

The three kits are animals, angels and fantasy classics. I have the angels one, and I have the impression that all three have the same general paint guide, and then a separate colour guide. I really liked this paint guide. I wouldn\'t have thought it possible to explain so much of the foundation of painting is such a clear and concise way. It\'s not perfect, there\'s some typos and such, but it\'s better than the ones in the original LtP by a long shot IMHO. The pictures are larger, too. It doesn\'t cover NMM, though

The angels and animals boxes are smaller, and have fewer paints and figures. The boxes also include brushes (two for the angels). The number of paints is a bit confusing. The box says 6, and the picture on the back shows 6. I\'ve got 12 in mine, and the colour chart refers to those 12 distinct colours. The fantasy box refers to 16 colours. My guess is it probably really is 16 and not 32 for that one.

Important note: The paint in these kits is in little tubs, NOT dropper bottles. It\'s also smaller quantities than you\'d get in the dropper bottles. If your goal is to get a lot of colours in a new brand to sample and a nice guide to painting fundamentals at a low price, I can heartily recommend one of these kits. If you\'re trying to start the foundation of a paint library to last you for years to come, I\'d recommend taking the $30 and buying 9 bottles of Master Series paint, a mini, and diving into the articles on CMoN, painting clinic and several other sites. Reaper\'s Anne Forster is also working on a how to paint book, which will cover NMM and many other topics, but it won\'t be available for 6-12 months. She also wrote the how to paint chapter in the Warlord book which is pretty good too.

 

[marineboy]

Wren, you seem very knowledgable about the kits. How is the quality of the minis? I\'ve been tempted to buy the angels box but have been turned off by the paintjobs shown on the box -- I\'d rather have images of the unpainted minis to judge by.

And the Reaper paints -- would you recommend them as being better thatn other paints on the market --i.e. Citadel, Vallejo Game/Model?

This is interesting, I\'m happy with Citadel but not with Vallejo Game and always interested to hear other people experiences with other products. Please tell.

 

[Ratcals]

I started with one of these kits. I got the fur and armor one. It came with these two Reapre figures:

And the one on the left in this picture:

I had no complaints about the minis but then again they were my first.

 

[Wren]

Ratcals has shown the figures from LtP kit 1. All of the figures in both paint kit sets are from Reaper\'s regular catalog of minis, although some usually only come in multipacks, like the two rats that Ratcals pictured.

LtP 2 (skin and cloth) includes Tsuko male monk and Laurana sorceress. She\'s a pretty nice fig, check SaxonAngel\'s gallery/webpage for three or so great renditions of her.

LtP 3 (NMM) includes Anduriel elf warrior and Tyden barbarian.

The three packs above contain 9 Reaper Pro Paint tubs, which are exactly the same as the tubs you can buy individually of this paint (same size, etc.). They also have two brushes. These are from Reaper\'s lower price golden Taklon line. There are different sizes/types of brushes in each kit, to match the featured technique. These suffer from the same problems as all synthetic brushes. The tips on my rounds curled before I\'d finished more than a couple of minis. 2.5 years later I do still use them, the curled tips get into a few places a normal brush can\'t, and the rest are good for drybrushing.

The three packs above have a full retail price of $24.95. The paint costs $22.41, and the brushes costs $10 full retail.

You can find a shot of the contents of the Hobby-Que angels pack here. This is the pack I have, and I have 12, not 6 paints as pictured here. It comes with Blood Red, Clear Yellow, Chestnut Gold, Pure White, Pure Black, Brown Liner, Polished Silver (metallic), Antique Gold (metallic), Ashen Blue, Sapphire Blue, Rosy Skin and Rosy Highlight. The two brushes are 000 and 0 (looks like a small 0 compared to W&N) and say red sable and are made in Sri Lanka. I do not believe these are the same as Reaper\'s Master Series brushes, which cost $10+ full retail.

For miniatures, Hobby-Que Angels includes Angel of Mercy, Angel of Peace, the cupid from this set, and the central guy from this boxed set. I believe all four are sculpted by Sandra Garrity. The two ladies are from earlier in Reaper\'s catalog, and I\'d say they\'re a little rougher than some of the newer sculpts IMHO, but that says as more about the progress that\'s been made the last few years than anything else. Full retail price on the Angels kit is $29.99. Full retail price on the figures alone (assuming you could buy each individually) is around $24.00.

You can find a shot of the contents of Hobby-Que animals here. Only 6 paints are pictured, but I\'m willing to bet there are 12 as with the angels. The Hobby-Que animals include the dire bear, the male lion from this pack, the wolf to the left in this pack, and the tiger body from this pack, recast so as not to need wings. (At least that\'s what it looks like.) Full retail price for the animals kit is $29.99. Full retail price for the figures alone (assuming you could buy each individually) is $26.58.

There\'s a picture of the contents of Hobby-Que fantasy classics here. This shows 12 paints, promo materials I\'ve seen say 16 paints. Figures include the angel of mercy (as in the angels kit), the hatching dragon to the right in this pack, the baby dragon to the left of this pack, the unicorn Starmane, Sir Richard the white knight, and the Carnosaurus dinosaur. Full retail on the kit is $39.99. Full retail price on the figures (assuming you could buy all figures individually) is around $40.26.

Note that none of these kits include primer or sealer. If you\'re buying these to start painting, I\'d really recommend getting a can of spray primer or a bottle of brush-on primer. Reaper makes brush-on primer in both Pro and Master Series paint lines. I recommend the MS one - it\'s a nice primer, and the dropper bottle keeps it from getting all crusty and bumpy. I use the Pro Paint primer, but have transferred it to a dropper bottle to avoid problems.

 

[airhead]

Cannot add any more to what Wren has said. I\'ve used lots of the pro and master series paints doing paint-n-takes at conventions. (another great way to try a line of paints and talk to local painters).