What Minis Are You Painting?

Mr. White wrote: $40-80?

That's not much better than battlefoam.

This is what I'm seeing at hobby lobby.
www.hobbylobby.com/Fabric-Sewing/Batting...-Chair-Pad/p/BT20120

Upholstery foam; cheap as possible.

I bought something like this: https://www.amazon.com/High-Density-Upholstery-Green-Foam/dp/B01CPPB3WQ .
I waited until a craft store had one of those "50% off one item" or something sales that they have all the time in their mailers/emails. Got a big slab for $15-ish.

For cutting I found a "foam knife" at the same craft store that's about 7" long. It's pokey so you can stab it through the foam and the blade is a lot like a small hacksaw blade; it has little teeth so a sawing motion cuts right through. But it broke and I finished the job with a steak knife. Steak knife didn't work nearly as well, but is doable. My edges look a lot rougher than Digustipater's edges.

Mr. White wrote: $40-80?

That's not much better than battlefoam.

That's for the entire sheet. In-store you can get them to cut it down by the 1/4 yard. And like Wade said, they almost always have a 40-50% off coupon going. Just download their app and check the coupon section. No signing up for mailers required.

I have no experience with the bagged stuff you linked to.

I think Josh Look should be painting his TMNT set

Last time I made foam for my minis, it was just those stuff used to fill mattress. Dark grey color. Cut it with box cutter.

Finished up my Khorne Daemon Prince:



I think it turned out fairly well. I still need to matte varnish it, so it looks really shiny still.

Notes for next time:

-I am bad at painting Reaper Bones material. I should avoid it.
-Orange highlight on red over pink base is probably too bright
-Dry out the Martian Ironearth more before trying to paint the top color.

Looks GREAT. I love that blue highlight/eyes.

That pink is totally on point, too.

(regarding storage again)

What about cutting up foamcore and gluing felt or something to it? Seems like it would be much thinner than these sort of foams and what battlefoam and co do that you could save a lot of space.

I mean, I wonder if this is viable or a disaster. Some minis probably wouldn't survive a drop from up high, but I think they may do fine with average pull and placing on a shelf.

Thoughts?

It would probably depend on the build of the mini. Something that is compact and without extensive ornamentation like a Space Marine would probably do fine with even a reasonably high drop. Spiky Chaos stuff, probably not so much. Of course, Chaos minis hate all storage solutions because the spikes make them a pain to move and are fragile.

Mr. White wrote: (regarding storage again)

What about cutting up foamcore and gluing felt or something to it? Seems like it would be much thinner than these sort of foams and what battlefoam and co do that you could save a lot of space.

I mean, I wonder if this is viable or a disaster. Some minis probably wouldn't survive a drop from up high, but I think they may do fine with average pull and placing on a shelf.

Thoughts?

Would be labor intensive. If you don't want to carve up foam, then buy thin foam (like 1cm thick) and use them as separators. But that's still a lot of cutting and gluing.

If you go the foamcore route, gluing felt does very little. Just make sure the compartments size match the minis so they don't move a lot.

with this method I wouldn't make a compartment for each mini, but maybe like 4 large ones. all the characters in one, bad guy characters in one, bad guy mooks in another, etc.

granted the minis could touch each other but with the felt and low amount of jostling the box would (theororically) endure, it seems like the minis and paint jobs would be fine.

also the foamcore could act as an insert reinforcing the box.

seems this could work, but I'd have to break the conditioning that nothing can touch the minis while they're stored and they all need their own little cubbies. I've got 20+ years of that philosophy....

Foam core is stiff and kind of hard, I can't see it really being something that is going to protect minis.

I got the GW Start Painting set (along with Prospero's Whatsit, jeez so many sprues). What I'm guessing is the skin tone (because none of the pots are labelled) was a kind of dried out creme, worse than the other ones. The blue I used went on nicely, though no better than the good Vallejo paints I have.

JEM wrote: I got the GW Start Painting set (along with Prospero's Whatsit, jeez so many sprues). What I'm guessing is the skin tone (because none of the pots are labelled) was a kind of dried out creme, worse than the other ones. The blue I used went on nicely, though no better than the good Vallejo paints I have.

Those kits are fairly recent so I would think all of the paints would be in excellent shape. Did you try contacting GW customer service to see if you could get a replacement?

Here's my current paint brush situation. For the most part, these tools are over 20 years old and still in full operation.
The two on the far right are what I do my 'detail' work with...notice the curve of the hairs...they're in ruin.
I need suggestions on a new set.

Mr. White wrote: Here's my current paint brush situation. For the most part, these tools are over 20 years old and still in full operation.
The two on the far right are what I do my 'detail' work with...notice the curve of the hairs...they're in ruin.
I need suggestions on a new set.

My recommendations:

Citadel Base brushes (Large and Medium for sure, possibly Small depending on how you like to paint)
Citadel Dry brushes (Medium or Small, depends on how careful you like to be and what size minis you are painting)
Bag of crappy golden taklon or white nylon brushes for abusing/basing from a craft store
Raphael 8404 or Winsor&Newton Series 7 for detail work (Size 1, Size 0; optional: Size 2 or Size 00)

Optional, but nice to have:

Citadel M Wash Brush or Glaze Brush (depends on if you like to cover the whole model or just do spot washes)
Citadel/Army Painter Small Detail brushes for painting detailed metallics