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Post by Soul Samurai on Jun 16, 2019 10:42:50 GMT
If you're willing to strip paint off second hand models (which is not too hard), you might get lucky trolling ebay for GW orks (or maybe Catachans?). I dunno about "dirt cheap", but if you're patient and go for auctions rather than using the "buy now" button you will probably save a fair bit of money over new models. Of course, if you're willing to strip the paint from models then you only need a few since you can keep stripping the paint and re-painting them.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jun 16, 2019 11:24:13 GMT
If you're willing to strip paint off second hand models (which is not too hard), you might get lucky trolling ebay for GW orks (or maybe Catachans?). I dunno about "dirt cheap", but if you're patient and go for auctions rather than using the "buy now" button you will probably save a fair bit of money over new models. Of course, if you're willing to strip the paint from models then you only need a few since you can keep stripping the paint and re-painting them. I said dirt cheap mainly because it seems counterproductive to spend any real amount of money on practice models, when the whole reason I'm afraid of practicing on my current models is their price. I can get a new axer on amazon for 8$, or a new battlebox for 30$ - so it only makes sense that I'd aim for a lower price point for models I'll use exclusively for practice / to be expendable. you're right about stripping. I've had a pretty bad experience with it so far, but that may be down to the materials I've used. IIRC I used floor cleaner for stripping, if I find some really cheap metal orks I'll buy something nastier (bleach?) to clean them up easier.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jun 16, 2019 11:52:48 GMT
I use undiluted Dettol for stripping paint, I hear in America they like Simple Green. The one big "gotcha" I've found when it comes to stripping paint is that you can't use water to wash the model until after all the paint is gone. Initially I tried washing the models as soon as I pulled them out of the Dettol, but it turns out doing that lets the paint re-attach to the model. Instead you have to pull the Dettol/paint mix off by dabbing it off using kitchen towels, scrubbing it off with an old toothbrush, and washing it off with more Dettol, repeating the whole process as needed until all the paint is gone, then wash off the remaining Dettol with water.
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Post by Charistoph on Jun 17, 2019 1:34:18 GMT
Reaper Bones may not be bad, depending on what you have access to. Several of my LGS have a "Mercenary Market" or "Gamer's Garage Sale" in which you can buy people's minis off of them for either cheaper than what you'd normally buy them, or painted much better than you would run.
In those cases Space Marines of all stripes, Tyranids, Tau, Orks/Orcs, and often GW Undead usually can be bought en masse for a relative pittance. I even see a lot of bit packages, which you can just practice on stuff that may even still be on sprue.
You may even want to check with locals who are trying to get rid of bits they are done with. They don't even have to be coherent pieces, after all, a head is a head.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jun 17, 2019 18:27:00 GMT
Well, the problem solved itself. turns out the soldiers were way bigger than they seemed. I've got several hundreds of these lying around, so I know what I'm going to spend this summer break painting. I'm considering using this color (coat d'arms Hawk Torquise) as the skin for trolls from now on, but I feel like it's a bit too saturated. The disparity between this color and the skin on the other trolls is pretty big. Might mix some grey directly into the pot to tone it down. I recall seeing a painting thread on PP's forum that had trolls painted with a very saturated blue, and they looked really good. couldn't track it down again though. What do you guys think?
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jun 17, 2019 19:07:39 GMT
What's more important to you: a uniform army, or that each individual mini be interesting (to look and and/or to paint)?
If you change your colour scheme now, will you feel the need to go back and repaint your old models?
How do you feel about painting your Trollbloods in a variety of different shades, so you can experiment without worrying too much about uniformity? After all Diretrolls are an extremely variable species and Trollkin are not a highly organised army like Cygnar, so a degree of variance is not out of place.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jun 17, 2019 19:24:20 GMT
What's more important to you: a uniform army, or that each individual mini be interesting (to look and and/or to paint)? If you change your colour scheme now, will you feel the need to go back and repaint your old models? How do you feel about painting your Trollbloods in a variety of different shades, so you can experiment without worrying too much about uniformity? After all Diretrolls are an extremely variable species and Trollkin are not a highly organised army like Cygnar, so a degree of variance is not out of place. I'd like to visually seperate my trolls by region, as it were - what I had in mind was cyngar / caspia area as one group, thornwood as another, and northkin as the third. The stuff I've painted so far is only Ragnor, his battlegroup and the one unit of fennblades, so it's not like anything's set in stone yet. I've already repainted some of my fennblades, so redoing everything isn't out of the question. I'm not sure which colors I'd go for, though. The current scheme for the fennblades is Fester Blue skin(dark mid-blue) with ember orange kilts(bright, mid-high saturation yellow-orange), with red/orange stripes, some of them with touches of white or green. I've already picked the colors for the northkin kilts - menoth white base with idrian flesh+dark red stripes, with red dots. that leaves the matter of picking a skin color, and I'm not sure what to pick yet. If I go down the path of least resistance, I'd paint the thornwood trolls in turquoise, but that doesn't seem quite right. I think doing them in fester blue seems more appropriate, thematically. I'd also have to pick a tabard color. Alternativelyx2 - I could just accept that the fennbaldes are Thornwooders and stick with their current colors. Sorry about the rambling nature of this post, I'm writing as I think. I also feel kinda dumb again, because I wanted to base my thornwood scheme on the Trollkin Highwaymen, and in my memory they had orange kilts, but as it turns out their primary color is actually green. ;;; Guess that's what I get for going with the flow while still aiming for a coherent color scheme.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jun 17, 2019 19:39:46 GMT
a slightly more organized version of this post - I'm going to have to decide what the general color scheme for each region will be now, and then stick with it for the rest of the way. I won't give every unit carbon copy kilt colors and patterns, but I want to have a coherent base color for each group. something like this - Thornwood - Fester blue skin / some shade of green kilts Generic - Hawk Turquoise skin / ember orange kilts Northkin - some shade of bright blue? skin / menoth white kilts
I'll definitely give myself more leeway when it comes to the colors of the Trolls and Dire trolls, since they don't really need to be associated with a specific region, but it makes sense to me to make the trollkin relatively homogeneous.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jun 18, 2019 0:29:41 GMT
Sorry about the rambling nature of this post, I'm writing as I think. No worries, I do the same thing. I'm not very organised when it comes to this sort of thing, so I don't really have any useful advice. I'm just a little worried that you might have limited yourself too much too early on; I feel like you're too focused on your army and not focusing enough on developing your painting skills. Perhaps you need to either loosen up about colour schemes, or step away from your army and paint some unrelated models for a bit?
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jun 18, 2019 10:50:19 GMT
Best way to find out if something works is to test it out. The turquoise skin looks pretty good, honestly, I'm probably going to stick with it. Main issue is how thin the damn paint is. Fester blue doesn't mix well with coat d'arms' Military green, though, so I'm going to have to find a different green for the tartan. I think I'll buy some Trollblood Base and use that as the skin for the northkin models. @soul - I get what you're saying, but in my experience I tend to rush into projects and then realize way too late that I've been working with no rhyme or reason. I'd rather have a solid idea of where I'm aiming to get, and then start pumping models out. That being said, that's why I whipped out my green soldiers - they're gonna be great for practicing my fundamentals. It's a bit ironic, but I feel I've done a better job painting this guy that the Fennblade, because I'm nowhere near as afraid to really push the highlights, shadows, etc.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jun 21, 2019 23:23:21 GMT
Not too much progress since the last update. I'm happy with the way the color scheme looks on these guys, the turquoise looks really nice along with the tartan color. I really like the way it looks on the scribe, which makes it even more infuriating that the paint won't stop scratching off. I've made up my mind about the primers, I want to switch to brush on primers. As much as I want my minis to look nice, I'm willing to compromise on that if it means not (potentially) crippling myself. I keep going back to the spraycans because I'm lazy like that, and I regret it every time the second the gas leaves the can. There's the matter of what to use, then - all of the stuff I've sprayed on the plastic models works like a charm, but nothing seems to properly stick to the metal minis. Is it just a reality of working with metal minis? I cleaned the minis, vigorously, with hot water, soap and an old toothbrush, until there wasn't a trace of mold release visible on the mini. the paint still flakes off like a motherFiretrucker. Would stripping before priming help? Finally, from looking at reviews and pictures of Vallejo's metal gloss black primer looks pretty good. Have any of you had a chance to use it?
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jun 22, 2019 3:05:51 GMT
I've recently used Vallejo gloss black on a couple of 3d printed pieces, because it helps to hide the print lines. I applied it with an airbrush. Other than the the fact that it does indeed help hide print lines, I don't yet have any opinions. I like to work over a white base as it's easier to paint bright colours over white, so a black primer is not my first choice.
I've always had problems with paint rubbing off as I handled models. I've often read people saying it wasn't a problem for them; I don't know what they do differently. Ultimately I stopped touching my models directly while painting: I mount my models to handles and paint as much as possible without allowing my skin to touch the model (reducing rubbing and I suspect the deposition of skin oils that can potentially reduce the adhesion of further layers), and when I can't avoid it (on larger models or when doing finer work) I use gloves. Then of course I apply a heavy varnish.
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mazog
Junior Strategist
Walking and talking
Posts: 748
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Post by mazog on Jun 23, 2019 17:26:49 GMT
I use an old bottle of gesso primer that I hated as a handle and silly putty or blue tack to sticky the base to it. My other handle is my bottle of Mod Podge. Airbrush is by far my favorite way to prime, with Krylon rattle cans being my second favorite. I never tried a good brush in primer, though.
When it comes to stripping/cleaning models, get yourself a razor brush. They are used to clean razors and have much stiffer bristles that are much coarser and do a great job of pulling stuff off.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jun 24, 2019 6:27:23 GMT
There's actually lots of handles for holding miniatures for painting these days; GW has a pretty decent one (I think it only holds up to 40mm bases though), I've seen several kickstarters, and there's plenty of plans for 3D printing your own.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jun 24, 2019 10:36:14 GMT
There's actually lots of handles for holding miniatures for painting these days; GW has a pretty decent one (I think it only holds up to 40mm bases though), I've seen several kickstarters, and there's plenty of plans for 3D printing your own. I'll just kitbash something. Lord knows I have enough junk lying around. Blue tack, too.
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