Recently started painting as a hobby...

[TaurenMoo]

I of course started on the battle of skull pass, and I am just painting goblins right now. Its really been fun and I think I have been improving, leaving more shadow and such through use of the paint layering and new techniques. Anyways these were my very first goblins I did (currently finished 11 total, mix of archers, spider riders, and spearman, awaiting pictures).

I was basically just posting to ask for painting advice and any other thoughts on them.

Night Goblins

 

[DaN]

I of course started on the battle of skull pass...

Of COURSE

They don\'t look bad at all for a starter
Especially as they\'re mainly black.

Keep it up.
Welcome to the hobby and the boards

 

[Highbulp Billy]

Welcome to CMON and to painting - your life will never be the same again

Excellent start with the goblins - much better than most of our first efforts (and most of my current ones too). You might want to look at some basic basing techniques to finish them off - a bit of sand and static grass is enough to make a big difference. Other than that, check the articles and keep practicing - thats the best way to improve (so I\'m told)

 

[TaurenMoo]

ya I wanted to keep the basic goblins simple. I started playing with some new stuff on the spiders, since I saw the creativity of alot of people and pictures I looked at. The spider riders I painted up with different spider paint jobs.

Did one up in a tiger orange/stripped paint job, one in blue with the spiked carapace having white with a red top, and the third being dark green with a golden skull, the riders matched their feathers to the spiders. I will probably have more pictures up once my photographer peep takes the time to do it.

A few questions though as far as the paint on the faces I am currently using 4 different paints for them for their skin (layering up from dark angels green, mix DAG:GG, straight goblin green, mix of GG: Sunburst yellow). And was hoping for some advice on painting skin and what not. Also I am finishing them and I went to the shop and asked about a varnish matte finish and was told that the matte finish gave a \"misted\" look to them? Something about ruining the paint job when mixed with the humidity of florida?

I read up about doing a normal gloss varnish first for protection then doing a matte varnish over that? any ideas and what kind of products would be good for that?

Lastly bases, I am currently working on that, as I have a limited budget and what I do with these (I would love to sell them off to get back some cash to put back into the hobby after I finish them) is up in the air, I would like to find a nice size sand/pebble mix, I don\'t know if its best and cheapest to go with GW stuff or to find it out in the wild/some shop or if there are other methods. But yea painted sand/grass mix I think is what I will probably go for. Any ideas?

 

[swordtrainer]

Yes welcome! I think its good of you to have started with somethink like battle for skull pass(I started with a chaos space marine squad and I couldnt handle it)

 

[Highbulp Billy]

The best green goblin skin I\'ve painted used a base of Graveyard Earth, mix in Kommando Khaki then Bleached bone to highlight. After that I applied glazes of very thin Camo and Catachan Greens. There are plenty of other methods though so trial a few out and see what works best for you.

For bases, GW sets are good in that they are the right sized grains in convenient pots. Builders sand may be cheaper but you usually have to buy bigger packs.

Varnish depends on what\'s available to you and whether you can spray or have to brush on. Testor\'s Dulcote is generally the finish of choice. I use a brush on Matt Varnish from GW as I have nowhere I can use spray at home. It\'s ok, but still gioves a shine on photos.

 

[TaurenMoo]

Hmmmm ill have to look into that, right now im still building my paint supplies so I paint with what I have, I bought blue and purple inks for a displacer beast I am planning to do up and stain (blue purple fur probably gonna highlight the little tentacle bit with a pinkish purple). My other question is do the robes look okay? I simply kept them black but did a somewhat heavy drybrushing of a light blue over them for the contrast and I liked the dirty dustish look to it. Any thoughts on that?

 

[fieldarchy]

Welcome to painting! I found painting about three years ago and life has never been the same! In fact my life has changed drastically but in a good way!

May your painting experience be great!

Your first minis look great! You definitely have the idea down. Just keep practicing. Don\'t get frustrated if you can\'t do things yet, just take it slow. Play around with different techniques. You\'ll find that you\'ll do a spectacular job on a mini and not even know how you did it! It will just sort of happen one day

Practice is the most important thing though! And remember, if you don\'t like the way something came out you can always paint over it.

As my highschool art teacher used to say, \"A real artist can always fix her mistakes!\"

 

[PegaZus]

I think that the best advice I can give is that don\'t be afraid to try something you read here and screw up. There are full threads talking about how to strip things back down to the base.

Or if you\'re lazy like me and its on a practice piece anyway, just re-prime \'em!

 

[Antnol]

I dont really say much in the forums but I remember being in your shoes when i started. All I can say is dont be afraid to try new techniques and always have confidence. Your first minis are better than tabletop quality and I believe you have a lot of potential to be a great painter.

 

[TaurenMoo]

Thank you for all the advice, hopefully once I finish painting the goblin regiments I want to ebay them. (not particularly interested in goblin/orc army, although the night goblins are just so loveable... in a sick twisted sort of way).

Beyond that I should have a displacer beast and 3 goblin spider riders (3 paint jobs, 1 tiger, 1 blue with red/white spicky bits, and 1 with deep green and a golden skull on the back with gold metalic dry brush over the green, and matched spider riders as far as feathers and additional bits).

I saw some \"table top\" models at my local store and found that alot of them weren\'t painted or those that were to be very simple. Seems like people don\'t always take pride in their armies, and when I hopefully make my own armies I want them to be nice to look at and really catch an eye.

One last thing is that I need info on finishing them as far as protecting them varnish wise... Also whats the best method of removing mold lines? I have been using a exacto to slice the plastic mold lines off sometimes running it along the line to shave it down, or using a set of small files I bought...

Edit: OOONEEE MOOOORRREEE THING! My photographer will be moving and was wondering whats the best (and cheapest) method to go about getting decent shots? I considered simply going to my college and looking around for a photographer in the arts area but if there is a cheap easy alternative that I could do myself would be helpful to know...

 

[fieldarchy]

Just buy a digital camera, set up a backdrop for your miniatures and at least three gooseneck lamps with Daylight bulbs in them. Start photoing away! It\'s the best alternative, you don\'t have to depend on any one else and it\'s a good skill to develop.

 

[TaurenMoo]

Listings of a few of my most recent ones...


First Spider Rider (Red, white and lots of blue...)

Second Spider Rider (USF colors... didn\'t realize it unti I finished)

(Third) Tiger Spider Rider... He\'s Grrrreat!

Goblin Champ and Standard bearer

Displacer Beast (phase cat reaper model...)

Enjoy comments ideas and critiques are most welcome, HIT ME LIKE A TRUCK!

They are also in order of progression... top down as I worked through them...

 

[Antnol]

You are moving right along and I like the way you are playing with different colors. thats the easiest and best way to learn how they all work together. Keep it up

 

[fieldarchy]

good progress! Here are my suggestions:

Make sure your paint is thin enough. you always need to add some water and there are a couple places on some of the models you listed where the paint looks like it was a little thick. If it starts getting a textured look as you are painting it on then you need to add a little more water. If you are dry brushing with the paint then don\'t thin it.

Keep working on using different colors and start picking out highlights and painting them on instead of drybrushing them on.

Keep practicing!

 

[TaurenMoo]

Thanks meg, I will probably play with that on the archers since they kinda have small bits of cloaks... Also on the archers I noticed it seems like they have a small hole in the side of the armor, like something should go there... has little strap bits that lead to it but the person who gave me the figs didn\'t have any additional bits, any ideas? Maybe a simple green stuff pouch or something?

One thing I do want to ask about is the consistency of paint I have played with adding a little bit of water to paint, is the point where the paint starts to \"run\" on the model well past the point of watered down? should it be just about the point where it sits nicely where painted? and lastly a picture would be great if one could be had ^..~.

Also I am guessing you are talking about the paint on the tiger spider rider? I was looking at it, first I forgot to paint the teeth which have sense been fixed with Grave earth>bleached bone>skull white... and I think one of my problems was as you said not thinning down the paint, it kinda looks... textured... and not that clean now that I look at it... just need more practice and playing with watering down paints to get used to that...

I will be doing a couple more goblins and playing with a new base paint for the goblin skin and see where it goes matched with the watered down paint...

 

[doomsayer]

welcome fellow WoW junkie or ex-Wow junkie, not too bad on a first attempt at mini painting. Welcome to a complicated world.

 

[TaurenMoo]

not a big fan of wow... I\'m big on minotaurs thats about it... Taurus born