First time minature painter: the results

[Cobby]

Hi Folks

I've just finished my LNOE and Zombies with Grave Weapons minatures. I am really happy with the results- I had absolutely no experience and pretty much just used cheap stuff from the local hardware shop.

   

   

I basically followed this guide: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/4484...d-in-a-day

with a few exceptions:

1. I did not use undercoat on the Zombies with Grave Weapons as my can ran out. They turned out better than the LNOE minis I reckon (less detail was obscured by the undercoat). Because I use two coats of enamel varnish, the paint jobs turned out rock solid- I have no worries of them chipping or losing paint. (I did however thoroughly wash all minis in warm water and detergent before painting).

2. I did not 'dip' my miniatures- I brushed on the stain/varnish. This allowed a bit more control. Still, my approach was very quick, rough and ready: the whole set probably took me less than 30mins to stain/varnish.

3. After stain/varnish dried I...

*Tidied up the heroes a little by going over a few of the brighter colours (white, yellow), especially the nurse's dress, the yellow chainsaw.

* Sprayed them with Tamiya flat clear (I like the matte finish)

* Did some blood detail with Tamiya clear red (mixed with a dot of black).

Done. I don't know if I'll do anything with the bases yet- I kind of like them as is (as you can see, I did green and brown for the zombies and grey for the heroes).

Again, I encourage anyone to have a go. If i can do it, believe me, anybody can.

[Emp]

Well if that is your first try at painting minis....wauw! I see a bright future ahead for you man.
Nice colors and damn fine detail for a firsttimer.
That deserves a +1 rep

[mqstout]

These are stellar, doubly so that you say they're your first mini painting project.

[Cobby]

Thanks very much for the encouragement folks- very generous!

[vikinglad]

Sweet. I really like your color scheme. It matches the game pieces well. You also got a nice matte look to them that I have troubles getting myself. This set turned out great. i bet they are fun to play with. Thanks for posting them.

[Pred]

I really like how rustic the zombies look, and really great job on these.
The dark colors bring in a great eerie feel to them for me... makes me
wanna strip all my zombies down and paint them fresh again. That
would obviously mean more time into painting and I currently have
like 30 nazi's and 6 villians to paint for FanG, so that wont be happening
anytime soon.

[samuraitrev]

These are nasty gory braineating stone cold killers and I love 'em. If these are your first models you've ever painted you are going to be a painting legend. I say you've found your new vocation! (you might even be able to make some money painting up sets and selling them if you're that quick...)

[Cobby]

Cheers everyone- so encouraging. I really appreciate it.

Trev- can assure you they're my first ones- I only gave it a go after reading that article I linked to in my original thread. The only painting experience I have dates back to when I was a kid (20 years ago) I painted a few model aeroplanes and a few plastic soldiers- but its been a long time and I cant say I brought any experience to this job! The secret is definitely the stain/varnish. My models looked crappy with the base colours- really flat and because I was using a big old school paint brush the lines between different colours were pretty fudged. The stain/varnish covers all this up, picks out the detail (like eyes and mouths) and also gives that cool shading or shadowing effect. I have a brown stain (walnut colour I think) and it kind of makes the models look dirty- which is good for the walking dead, I guess.

I also think the matte finish makes them look 100% better than with glossy- I just used the spray on Tamiya clear.

I am not sure what to do about the bases. Do you guys put any fake grass on yours?

[Emp]

Yep, some of us use grass, sand, pebbles,...
To recognize the zombiecrew you can paint the sides of the bases instead of the entire base.
Check out Pred his bases for his Fortune & Glory heroes....he is nuts hehehehe
And ofcourse our grandmaster Trev the swordwielding japanese dude will help you out with his awesome paintingguides here on this forum.

[sci teacher]

For a first try (or for any attempt), they look really good!