Mini: Newest Work In Progress

This is a paint job I'm doing as a birthday gift for a friend's Pathfinder character. It is apparently some sort of bleached out gnome that looses it's coloring. Hope that's starting to come across. He got to choose the mini and I do the painting! Haven't started on the animal companion yet...

Reaper 60020 Lini, Iconic Gnome Druid

Located at: Reaper Work In Progress Forum

Mini: New Minis

Here are two of my newest finished mini...

Reaper 02676 Female Halfling Thief

Located at: Reaper Inspiration Gallery and CoolMiniOrNot

Second Mini-
Reaper 03165 Townsfolk IX: Town Guard

Located at: Reaper Inspiration Gallery and CoolMiniOrNot

Mini: Perspective

Some perspective on size...

Minis: Lizardmen

This is a work in progress, including the final piece, of a lizardman from the "Reaper 06047 Lizardman Command" pack.

I've done some research into Earth's lizard population... well, I did a google image search for colorful lizard patterns and have decided what to attempt.  I will keep my fingers crossed.

The base color is several coats of a medium blue mix.

EDITED 6/15/10 - FURTHER PROGRESS

Here are some added lizard base-colors:

And now with a little bit of darker outlines:

EDITED 7/6/10 - UPDATES!!

This is with all base colors put on.

And here is with some shading and detail work starting to finish up...

EDITED 9/26/10

Here is the final piece.

Located at: Reaper Inspiration Gallery and CoolMiniOrNot

Minis: Good Leather Work

My next mini here I am pretty happy with all around.  Originally I had made the gloves green to also match the boots and shirt, but it was way over the top looking, so I changed them to a light leather.

The back I free-handed the image that is carved into the other pieces.  I think it's "ok" but could have been a tad bit better.

Reaper 02308 Hurin of Anhur
Located at:  Reaper Inspiration Gallery and CoolMiniOrNot

Minis: Light Box & NMM

I made myself a lightbox from scratch, and it's definitely improved the photos of my minis.

Lightbox: A cardboard box, preferably as square as possible. Cut out "windows" (leave 2 inches from window to edge of side) on all 4 sides, cut out the top completely, leave the bottom untouched. Cut up 2 inch long stripes of white paper and glued it to the insides of the box, including the bottom. Tape the sides and back "windows" with a white plastic garbage bag. The front is left open to shoot pictures from. The top is covered with an old piece of cut-up white t-shirt. Shining through the top fabric is a clip-on desk lamp with a 60 watt full-spectrum bulb. Then, take a longer sheet of paper and have it curve from the back towards bottom front of the box, in order for there to be a background with no "crease" in it. Take a look at the photos below with the minis, you can see some of what I mean about the box.

Newest Mini: This was my first NMM armor paint job. I am really happy with this mini, as I feel like I learned a lot painting it. Over at the Reaper forums, some of the feedback I got from fellow painters was that they didn't like my glove color selection, they would have preferred something in orange or red. The finished mini is going to keep the yellow gloves, but I have taken note of their feedback and will keep it in mind for future minis.

Reaper Mini: 02495: Sir Malbeth Blackhawk
Located at: Reaper Inspiration Gallery and CoolMiniOrNot

Minis: Blending & NMM

This is my first painted mini after my determination to improve my painting skills.

I focused on blending techniques on the leather armor bits, shading from green to brown to yellow, trying for smooth changes

The sword is my very first attempt at NMM (non-metallic-metal). It is quite difficult! But I am determined to improve it, so the next mini I'm going to work on has predominately metal armor.

The stones imbedded in the leather armor I attempted to create a "opal" like effect. Considering that my materials consist of ancient paints and shaggy brushes only, I was happy with the result.

Reaper Mini: 02200 "Justine the Holy"
Located at: Reaper Inspiration Gallery and CoolMiniOrNot

Minis: New Decade, New Painting

As this new decade is dawning, it was time to finally up my painting abilities. Having been a casual mini-painter, off and on, from around '83 or so, I had achieved a level of competent amateur. There are levels of skill and technique though, that it was time to attempt. This mini was painted for a player in early 2010 for the Hackmaster RPG I run, and was the last one I painted with the skills I had prior to pouring into research...

Reaper Mini 03071: "Halfling Thief"