Miniature Painting

Dashel said:

Nice thanks man. I was actually going to look for more things just like that. I'm almost done with my 3rd mini from the Reaper starter set. I'll post images later. But I like how they walk you through it. Give you the paints, show you the finished mini after painting. It's just helpful for me as a starter.

Always liked Umber Hulks!

I'm also gonna look for actual games to play. Do people use these for DnD? I see my local gaming store has games of Warhammer. Might look into that too.

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Do you have a gaming buddy? If so, The Edge: Dawnfall is a great skirmish game with great minis, and not expensive as hell like warhammer. Not trying to steer you away from it, WH is an amazing hobby but very consuming from what I’ve seen.

My next miniature I’m going to post here is from The Edge. It’s turning out great, I’ve been struggling not to post WIP pics ><

Dashel said:

No this would be a solo adventure for me. My gaming buddy lives in Atlanta.
Just checked out the Edge mini's, they look killer.

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Well if you want something playable The Edge has a big story Solo campaign built into it too, can also do it co-op. I have not played that way yet so can’t really comment, I have seen people who have say it’s fun though. I’ve only done skirmishes which is PvP.

Kovaks said:

Glad to hear it is fun, I have still yet to break mine out but will have to try soon

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It’s really well balanaced and the factions all play quite a bit different from each other so it has a lot of replayability and different ways to play each faction. We’ve played 10-12 games and they’ve all been fairly close with us trying varying strategies. It plays quick, sets up and tears down quick, has nice components, I really enjoy it. It’s the main reason I’m taking my time doing the minis, I want them to look as good as I can get them. Unlike zombicide or Gloomhaven where I just made them look good enough.

Dashel said:

Ok so here is #3 of 3 from the Reaper Bones Learn to Paint kit. Super helpful for me.

I deliberately stopped myself from over obsessing with the flaws. I want to get some reps in. I don't want to burn out lol. So I've now gotten these three done! And now I'll decide what is next on the list to do

I'm kinda feeling those space marines, not gonna lie.

Oh! And my Hero Forge minis should be coming next week, which is awesome.



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Nice work for just starting out man. My only suggestion at this point is try to do paint strokes in one direction. You can really see on his shield for example where you are making brush strokes in different directions in the shape of the shield sections. Try going back over those with thin layers all in one direction and you should be able to cover that up. Or just try it from the get go on the next mini if you are just moving on. It will look much smoother. Going in different directions really highlights brush strokes, builds up paint pools in weird spots, and creates textures where you aren’t actually trying to make any.

Also there are a lot of little spots where you have colors bleeding onto each other. The blue and silver and vice versa. Not a big deal on base coats, just go back to those spots and do little touch ups, it’ll look a lot cleaner. Touch ups like that usually only take a few minutes overall.

Dashel said:

Thank you and yes! I definitely noticed the brush strokes and bleeding. I agree I'll try and do one more touch up round.
I'm also thinking about making one of those wet palettes. I think that would help me since I'm kinda back and forth on colors and they tend to dry out quickly on me.

Now that I have done a few I can really focus on refining things. Which brushes to use... I still struggle with which to use when dry brushing or highlights. Or how much paint is the right amount when I load up the brush. Stuff like that.

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You can get something like this for general large area dry brushing for $3 at Walmart or wherever.

e.l.f. Cosmetics Concealer Brush, Flat Synthetic Brush is Ideal for Concealing Small Imperfections
I use the flat brushes from this cheap set for most of my dry brushing. You mainly just need to pick the right size for the area you’re doing. It ruins brushes so don’t go buying expensive brushes for dry brushing.

AIT Art Paint Brush Set - 14...
For highlights I recommend a 1 or 0. Load your brush so paint is about halfway up the bristles, slightly spin your brush when loading to get an even paint load.

Definitely build a wet palette, you can do it for a couple bucks. There are several easy to find YouTube videos on making your own. If you like it and it helps with your consistency, I’d suggest buying a nice one. I actually did not like using the cheap wet palette because it dries out irregularly, gets weird wrinkles, etc, but it is functional. I bought Painter Wet Palette for miniature painting by Redgrass Games because I recognized a wet palette does help and I needed one and I love it. It addresses all the issues I had with the self built one, and my painting has gone up a lot by using it. I think you’ll see the difference on my next mini I post.

Dashel said:

Awesome very helpful again. I'm getting a wet palette right now. I feel like that will really be used constantly as I paint.

I'm gonna dick around with the brushes I have now. I bought this set:

Bunch of options I just need to use them more and see what works best with what. Oh and the 2 that came in the Reaper set.

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I have those, they’re pretty bad. They leave very bad brush marks, have uneven loading and flow, and the bristles shoot out even when no dried paint. They’re ok for washing and dry brushing though.

If you want to keep it cheap you could just buy one nice brush to see the difference.


There’s a synthetic version too if you don’t want animal hair for whatever reason. The sable ones I link are better but synthetic can be good too. If you want to save $, they have full sets of both on that site. That’s also the place that sells the great brush soap.

Dashel said:

Yup I'm having the same experience with these brushes. I'll grab the Monument and see if I notice the difference. I got some brush cleaner the other day. I haven't used it yet though. Not sure how, I'll youtube it tonight.

So brushes plus wet palette ordered today! I'll have to plot out my next mini to paint.
I might just wing it for my next one. And then possibly find a good video like that Umber Hulk Phanton posted, and get that mini, then paint it.

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Not sure I’ve ever seen a video specific to brush cleaning. You just wet it, swish the bristles around to get some soap up in there, rinse, repeat until the paints all out. Then get one last brushload of soap, and form the brush into a sharp point by wiping backwards on a paper towel. Leave it that way with the conditioner in it, this keeps your bristles shaped to a point and conditions them. Rinse it out before next use.