Little mini metal people! (A knurd's hobby)

by **tzor** on Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:11 pm

As quee1 said, we need a thread that's neither political nor religious. Here is one.

Yes you may know this from that infamolus movie about middle aged virgin knurds, but actually the hobby of painting little mineatures is BIG business, all over the world there are major competitions, and there are a lot of really great painters out there. Some sell their minis on ebay for big bucks. One popular site to display and coordinate ebay sales is Cool Mini or Not. There are some great minis there. There are also mine. Alas I'm going to show you mine, which aren 't all that great, but a person has to have a hobby and this was mine before Conquer Club

Click image to enlarge.

This is a mini made by Reaper. I painted her over the new year eve weekend and put the finishing touches on New Year's Day! I painted the bottle from a local Long Island vineyard named Palmer, although those are dots on the bottle not actual lettering. Skin and hair by Reaper Master Series paints (triads) and the metalic red ribbon was through Folk Art paints. I think Sophie has had a little too much to drink. (Please finish the glass before you open the bottle in your hand, OK?)

Click image to enlarge.

Not everything has to be sexy, or a war mini, or a monster, here is a series of quite penguins from Copplestone Castings in the UK.

My entire collection can be found here. I won't post the photos of the naked female minis here, but they are there. (They are my most highest rated minis, yes sex sells even in little metal figures.) But check out the top 100 minis, you will be impressed. Don't forget to pull out a ruller, because sometimes people don't appreciate how small these things can be!

by **qeee1** on Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:42 pm

That's impressive, I used to paint warhammer figures, some were real works of art, you'd have a pain in your neck from leaning over for hours painting them. Great sense of accomplishment when finished, but I don't think I'd take up model painting now, just doesn't appeal to me.

How big are the models?

by **HapSmo19** on Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:18 pm

Cool Tzor.
I used to paint lead D&D figures and sell them in a comic shop when I was a kid. It was fun then but I dont think I have the patience for it nowadays.

by **DaGip** on Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:23 pm

Tzor, my friend. You will have to tell me how to do it, I just bought a bunch of minis, but have never painted before. What do I do?!?!?!

I bought some minis online one night, they looked so cool! I wanted to learn to paint them.

I bought a bunch of Elmore Masterworks, Reaper, Rackham, and Gamezone.

I think I need some practice before I tackle my big Dragon by Elmore:

http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/elmore.html

One of the coolest dragon minis that I have seen, make sure you click on the view miniature link to see them painted! Amazing!

by **tzor** on Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:45 pm

Well the basic idea is to clean them, assemble them (if necessary), prime them, paint the base coats and then add layers and layers of washes and detail. Most of the complex techniques you can see at Cool Mini or Not in their tutorial section. As for primer, I've always used primer in a spray can. I've used white, black and gray, and I've used the special stuff from Games Workshop and the simple stuff you get at a craft store. Washes (basically a layer of thinned paint often with a "retarder" that slows the drying process and inks (a runny paint that looks well like ink) are two great ways of adding simple detail, and never underestimate the value of a good really tiny brush.

I'd try the reaper before I go for the elmore. Ironically it's harder to paint larger minis because you have to be "smoother." Once you get to smaller minis you need precise details but too much blending can cause the mini to go flat. Blending is best done with layering using multiple layers and washes to smooth everything together. Reaper has something called "triads" which are three paints of very similiar colors. I used several triads on the large Celebration Sophie in the first post, one for the skin and one for the blonde hair.

by **silvanricky** on Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:10 pm

I don't believe that people engage in painting little mini metal people for a hobby. It's a myth. I don't care what you say.

by **DaGip** on Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:37 pm

silvanricky wrote:I don't believe that people engage in painting little mini metal people for a hobby. It's a myth. I don't care what you say.

Well, believe it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25x_Up-9da0

by **Juan_Bottom** on Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:37 pm

You hooked me with the army of ducks. Afore that, I though this was stupid.

by **DAZMCFC** on Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:29 am

tzor wrote:As quee1 said, we need a thread that's neither political nor religious. Here is one.

I painted her over the new year eve weekend and put the finishing touches on New Year's Day!

i'm sorry, but did anyone actually read this part. come on people, New Years Eve weekend and New years Day.

ok it's great to have an hobby and what rocks your boat and all that, but fooking hell do it on a different day. you should be partying.

by **tzor** on Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:32 am

DAZMCFC wrote:ok it's great to have an hobby and what rocks your boat and all that, but fooking hell do it on a different day. you should be partying.

I said "weekend." I also foprgot to mention the year - 2007. New Year's Day was on a Monday. I painted the mini Friday and Saturday ... possiblly Sunday afternoon. Then it was party on New Year's eve, and any last touches were done after Sunday hangover. Note that I later went back and finished the base, it's not completely done in that photo. The priming for the mini, by the way was at least several weeks prior.

And the irony is that I think 2007 was a year when I actually went out partying.