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My first stab at painting came in 2001 while I was playing Mage Knight. I had a lot of fun but I was terrible at it. The figurines I painted occasionally turned out marginally better than their out of the box counterparts but I was using Apple Barrel and thick brutish brushes that were not able to impart more than the idea of detail and the figurines themselves weren't exactly inspired sculpts.

It was a fun time but after that experience I actually completely avoided painting for the next 12-13 years. My results were simply so subpar I lost faith in myself and generally preferred the unpainted versions of my board game pieces.

So this spring I attended a game demo of Malifaux at my Local Game Store. The game was fun enough but to play required me to assemble and paint an army. What a drag... I thought. I won't be getting into this game, pha! as if! HA!

annnnd then they did a drawing and I won like $120 of free Malifaux stuff... FREE STUFF! What's a guy to do? At that point I was practically obligated to at least try to glue the pieces together and cobble together a rough paint job. After all, I knew the game was fun and after being loaded down with free dudes, any objections to putting in the time to assemble them seemed pretty petty.

And thank goodness am I glad I did. I decided that if I was going to do it, I would do it right. I read a couple of primers on how to go about painting minis, and even read impatiently, they provided some great pointers. I bought nice paints and nice paint brushes. Then I set myself down and assembled... and painted... and zenned out while listening to Audiobooks or phone calls. And my stuff turned out not half bad! I found that to my complete and utter surprise, that there is a good reason why people enjoy doing this. It's rewarding and peaceful and once you're done and go back to play the game... it's SUPER freaking AWESOME!

so yeah... then I heard that Flying frog was going to be doing the same thing for their Shadows of Brimstone game. Now I have an excuse to go paint-crazy. I'm just grateful I got introduced to the whole assemble and paint thing before I got my hands on the important stuff.

Anyway, that's my story. How did everyone else get into this stuff? Any resources that you recommend? Any fun stories to relate about your painting history? + If you haven't painted before and are looking forward to Shadows of Brimstone, don't sweat it. Kick back your feet, put on some Graphic Audio or Mozart, and enjoy your evening knowing your next game night is going to be that much cooler than it ever was before. Painted minis turn the experience up to 11.

Awesome idea for a thread! For me, I've never really had much artistic talent. Simply put, I just cannot do stuff like this. So, I had heard of people painting their miniatures. I'd even seen pictures and thought it looked pretty cool. But, I just knew I could never do it. I figured if I tried, my miniatures would just look like crap, and I didn't want to do it if I couldn't do it right. Plus, if they wound up looking like crap, then honestly, I'd rather have them unpainted.

Then, along came a new member to my gaming group. He brought Zombicide with him. All his zombies looked awesome. All his Survivors looked just like the characters on the cards. They all looked so professionally done that I assumed the game just came like that.... but at one point he mentioned that he had painted them himself. Then one of my other gaming buddies likes Zombicide so much he got his own copy.... and painted all of his.

So, at that point I decided..... that I still have no artistic talent. I still figured no way I was going to be able to pain mine like that. So, again, if I couldn't do it well, I'd rather just not do it. But, seeing their awesome miniatures, I couldn't help but get the urge to do it. Still, I was very reluctant because I was never good at artistic stuff.

Fast forward and a new member joins the group. She falls so in love with Zombicide that she considers getting her own copy, and mentions she definitely plans to pain her miniatures if she does. So, now I start thinking "Oh come on! I'm not going to be the only one in the group with a copy of Zombicide that remains unpainted." LOL! So, I finally decide, FINE, at this point I HAVE to give it a try. It also helped that yet another member joined our group and he too had painted miniatures in the past.

My group set up a paint day where the fellers who had done it taught those of us who had not. Low and behold.... I was actually pretty good at it! :-D Mind you, it helped a GREAT deal that I had my friends as teachers since they had already long since perfected and improved their craft. So, I did get to skip that awkward stage of learning how to best do it and making initial mistakes because they could already teach me how to do it well. Now, I continue to get better and better. I've even been able to do some pretty cool details now and then.

I am so glad I finally decided to just go for it! I love it! It gives your games a slight personal touch. Plus, it is just a lot of fun to do.

I've been painting Miniatures for awhile (back then we had to make our own paint by
grinding up berries) I started back in the early 50's as a kid who saw some Revel WWI plane Kits
at the local Hobby store which led to me assembling & painting them but as I got to HS it fell by
the wayside (I blame you Carole Alice Hack).

Update to some time in the late 80's had purchased a Board Game (Siege of the Citadel) which was one
of the first to offer miniatures & I thoughts the figs. were cool & I wanted to paint them. Around the
same time I had also purchased Space Marine who exposed me to the Evil Empire (Games Workshop in
it's late Republic Days) which offered paints/brushes & a book on how to paint miniatures at a
reasonable cost (how times have changed).

I remembered the pleasure I got from painting up my WWI planes & decided it would make a good
Hobby so I talked my wife into giving me the GW Paint set for Christmas & I started off painting
the game figs. for Siege of the Citadel & never looked back. The first efforts were crude no shading
or highlights but I found painting restful. Then GW came out with War Hammer Quest & I just had
to paint the Miniatures so I got their how to paint book & painted up about 200 figs .

I tend to paint in jags, usually starting a project keeping at it a few months then just stop & take
a few months off until the fever hits again.

I'm prepping up for SoB by getting new paint/brushes & glue for this winters painting project.


OD

I was a historical wargamer so painted many 15mm figures for armies. But I started taking more care and using washes and dry-brushing techniques with GW LotR 28mm figures. Then moved into boardgames (but still with minis) and have painted all my FFP minis for ATOE, LNOE and F&G.

They add 100%+ to playing the games.

i got into it playing warhammer 40k and epic. had to have painted mini's to enter tournies.

every now and then did paint jobs for other for $$

I will say, I have seen people do some AMAZING things with their miniatures and get some insane detail. I don't think I'll necessarily ever be THAT good. But, the bottom line is my miniatures are not bad. They actually wind up looking pretty good. That was all I cared about. I never thought I could do it at all, so if I never get to the point where they are crazy/insane levels of good and look like they were professionally done or came that way, I don't care. To me, it is good enough that they look pretty darn good when I never thought I could do something like this.