What Minis Are You Painting?

Tried transparent bases, bugged with superglue frosting, and even when I get it right (most of the time), I don't like how it looks on the table. The thing is I always feel that trying to blend miniature bases with your playing surface is a waste of time and effort. So I just base the usual way and even put bright colors on base side to make a clear border between the minis base and the table.

Sevej wrote: Tried transparent bases, bugged with superglue frosting

Using an accelerant should prevent that from happening.

I like the idea of transparent bases, but in practice I kind of don't like how they look. I guess I'm more of a tradtionalist in that regard too.

Blending bases to playing surfaces...ha! Forget it. Unless you only ever intend to use one surface, it's pointless. I've been doing mostly astrogranite Nuln Oiled and drybrushed with Longbeard Gray and an SLD rim. Neutral colors that go with anything with a brown and a gray to tie the look together.

Painted the Dragonfate Dais over the weekend...pictures later. It was really fun to paint- an easy build, lots of simple techniques paid off well.

Michael Barnes wrote: I like the idea of transparent bases, but in practice I kind of don't like how they look. I guess I'm more of a tradtionalist in that regard too.

Blending bases to playing surfaces...ha! Forget it. Unless you only ever intend to use one surface, it's pointless. I've been doing mostly astrogranite Nuln Oiled and drybrushed with Longbeard Gray and an SLD rim. Neutral colors that go with anything with a brown and a gray to tie the look together.

I totally agree on both points. I vary my basing quite a bit, but its never to match anything specific, I just do it because I think it might look cool.

Painted the Dragonfate Dais over the weekend...pictures later. It was really fun to paint- an easy build, lots of simple techniques paid off well.

What is the quality of that kit like? I've never put together any of their buildings. I hear they are a bit lower quality than British produced kits, but it doesn't matter much for buildings/terrain.

I thought the quality was really good, I had heard the complaints too but I don't know what folks were looking at there. A bit disappointed that it's made in China, but the piece looks great and it has plenty of detail. It is actually not on sprues, everything is pre-cut and it's only like 13 pieces. The dragon columns for example are only two pieces and one of those is the fire on top. It all actually holds together without glue, which is nice because it is easier to store disassembled.

I have the Ophidian Archway too, it looks awesome. It is on sprues though, and I've heard that it had more quality issues. But I've got the green stuff on standby.

I know that Citadel paints are well regarded, so I might already have the answer to this question, but are their light skin tones consistently good? Most of my Army Painter and Vallejo paints are fine but some are kind of meh including all the light skins.

YES they are great. I started out this year using Army Painter and Vallejo skintones and assuming that I was just a shitty painter. I switched to Citadel skin tones and the difference was like night and day.

They work really well in layers. You can base with Bugman's Glow, wash with Reikland Fleshshade and then build it up with Kislev or Cadian to get the look you want. Or start with one of the lighter colors and go up to something like Flayed One Flesh or Pallid Wych Flesh.

I concur with Barnes, Citadel does skin tones really well for pale skin. Like all of the paint companies, they have weak paints and strong paints. This happens to be something they are quite good at doing.

If you are looking for darker skin tones, I think Vallejo does better than Citadel with their wider selection of browns.

Yeah my V browns are (mostly) great for coverage, and my AP dark skin (brown) lays on nicely, just the caucasian skin tones (three paints over the two brands) are all lumpy/watery.

(putting this here instead of in the Silver Tower thread as it's mainly hobby related)

So, I need a way to store the painted minis. I'm thinking that I'll go with the battlefoam...uh...foam. It's cut to the box size already and has the necessary depth for the larger bases. However, I'm going to be adding extra monsters and terrain to my set, so what I may end up doing is cutting away a lot of the foam dividers. Minis won't be stored in their own little nook, but in an area. an area for acolytes, an area for horrors, etc. Seems I could get more minis in this way. However, they may bump together on occasion. That said, I don't expect to take the game traveling...just taking it off and on the shelf for plays. the occasional rub shouldn't be a problem.

Thoughts? Does this sound sufficient for the minis?
Here's the foam in question.

us.battlefoam.com/warhammer-quest-silver-tower-foam-tray/

For some of my older kinda brittle GW minis I bought some cheap green foam at a craft store, 1.5" thick or whatever you need.

1. Cut it to box/desired size.
2. Put the minis face-down on the foam and draw outlines with marker. This will be the back side.
3. Use a foam saw to cut holes using the outlines. Cut all the way through.
4. Cut the "plugs" down to about 1/4".
5. Stick the plugs back in on the backside with the marker outlines.
6. Spray glue the entire thing down to a same-sized piece of cardboard (or mounting board or whatever).

Works really well, and was a lot cheaper than the pick/pluck foam options I was looking at.

That is a great idea, I may upgrade from the Home Depot bucket to that system.

Stormcast painting continues unabated...After about a week and a half, I have 23 painted and based, 5 dual sword Liberators/5 Decimators base coated/washed and waiting for detail (happening tonight), and the Lord-Celestant on Dracoth mocking me not even primed. Beyond that, I have the Knight-Venator and the Knight-Heraldor from the Silver Tower expansions to build and paint and I will then have all my golden boys painted. But I am thinking about getting a Storm of Sigmar set because with some extra stuff I have I will then have another five man unit of hammer and shield Liberators and a full squad of five Retributors. I am also probably going to get a Lord Castellant to give them another hero.

Man, I have gone through a lot of Retributor Armor. Once they are done I will do a full GW style photo shoot as I have all of my terrain and game mat in.

And then it will be on to painting the Khorne stuff. Already bought another pot of Khorne Red. They may take a little longer than the Stormcast, skin tones and more armor details. That lot is going to be 15 Blood Warriors, 5 Skullreapers, 3 Mighty Skullcrushers, 20 Bloodreavers, Bloodstoker, Bloodsecrator, Khorograth, Lord of Khorne with his dog-thing and if I get that SoS set it'll add three more Blood Warriors and 5 more Reavers. GOOD GRAVY. And there is the possibility that I will break down and get Valkia. And I already have the Gorechosen gang and the WD Slaughterpriest already painted so that is a big bunch o' Bloodbound.

And then there's the Ophidian Archway. I want to do it with a sort of white stone look and a corroded copper metal. I like painting the buildings and will probably get the Numinous Oculum sometime soon.

Looking ahead after this AoS blitz, hoping to get an early press copy of Blood Bowl (probably not going to happen) and I will paint that entire box. If that doesn't come, I'm circling back to Silver Tower. I will need a break from painting red and gold.

Michael, I am waiting for your review of AoS hoping I won't have to buy it.

You need to tell me very specifically that I won't be able to play with my Silver Tower toys.

Or with smaller warbands.

And that the rules are too shallow for their own good, but not shallow enough so you can play it with kids and that the scenarios are really bad, and that the stormcasts are not nearly as awesome as they look and... whom am I kidding, really...

wadenels wrote: For some of my older kinda brittle GW minis I bought some cheap green foam at a craft store, 1.5" thick or whatever you need.

I did that for my Warmachine minis back when I played, and I used the same method for my X-Wing stuff (though I don't cut all the way through).

Wade, Disgust, I might give that method a go. Probably a lot cheaper than the $40 I would spend on battlefoam's get-up + shipping. Money I could save...for more minis.