"Three Little Pirate Babes" Topic

all in a row.

These are all 25mm sculpts from Reaper.

I haven't posted the one on the left as an individual yet as I still have to write her story.

These mark my one year anniversary as a painter and while I like them, I can see room for much improvement. I still don't have the hang of photographing them well yet, the basing is either non existent or horrid and the highlighting still needs refining.

Some of the fantasy figures I have in my lead pile are as follows.

Dwarfs and Gnomes from Stonehaven
Orcs from Reaper
The entire collection of Wood Elves from Thunderbolt Mountain.
Arthurian Legends from Thunderbolt Mountain (I've just started buying these)
An army from Drake Miniatures.
SF from Reaper Chronoscope
Pirates from Ron & Bones
Frog collection from Dark Sword

I'm also going to move into some historicals. I've bought a big collection of Wild West from Knuckleduster and I'm shopping for some Eastern Woodland Indians and some figures of the Shawnee tribes in particular.

Ready to embark on my galleon…

Marzio.

Hi, Anne. You are going to be busy busy. Enjoy!

Jay

Happy anniversary, Anne! I'm sure the vast majority of TMP'ers wish they'd painted to your quality just 12 months into their hobby!

Two suggestions, if I may:

Bases – aim for consistency, especially when you have figures that share a theme, as these lasses do. Use bases of the same shape, e.g., 25mm round shoulder ones, or 20mm squares, all of the same thickness. Create bases that empathise the figures' theme, such as the decking of a ship, for example. The base of a miniature can 'make or break' it.

Photography – shoot all your minis with a neutral background, not a coloured one. The pink drapery in your shot will affect how the camera picks up the light from the miniatures. Also, are you shooting using natural outdoor light? I find It almost always leads to a better photo.

Otherwise, those pirates are fine rum-blow'n wenches!!

I find it difficult to believe you've only been painting
figures for a year !

Really nice work !

Really – one year… <sigh>
Great work.

Great work!

Nice

Excellent as always!

Thank you for your kind words gentleman.

@Macross-I appreciate the input. I don't yet know how to remove a mini from a base when it is all one piece. Do you know of a tutorial on this?

Hi Anne!

Removing a mini from a cast-on base is not much fun. Obviously, the best thing to do is remove it before the miniature sees a lick of paint, but in the case of these ladies, I'd suggest using round-shouldered bases which have the 'floor' of the base inset lower than the shoulder, like this:

Then, you can just file down the underside of the mini's base until it is the same height as the shoulder, fill in the rest of the inset area with putty, add detail to the bases as you see fit, and there you go. :)

If you're determined to remove the bases though, I'd suggest carefully trimming the base around the feet of the miniature, leaving as small an amount of the base as possible; then, you can file and sand the underside of what's left, until you reach the soles of the boots.

To trim the base, nibble away at it with good quality side-cutters, like those made by Xuron:

DO NOT use any side-cutters marketed as 'sprue cutters' – they are unsafe to use on metal, even relatively soft metals like pewter. Also, its a great idea to wear eye protection when you're cutting – the pewter has a tendency to fly off, usually with eye-targeting intent!

Thank you Macross. I'll have to hit up my hobby shop for a pair of those.

Another question-do you know where I can get the classic looking blue that fades to white infinity background the pro painters use?

Hi Anne,

You mean like this one I've used here? –

That's easy – I made it myself! Its just a large sheet of thin, matt finish, white card, with a light overspray of a light blue colour, straight out of a spraycan.

To make one, buy an A3 or A2 sized piece of card, spray the top third of the sheet solidly light blue, then slowly increase the distance between the sheet and the can over the next third. The objective is to achieve a graduation between the solid blue at the top, and the original white at the bottom.

Anne, while you're out getting some tools, I'd suggest an 8" or 10" mill file and a 'file card' (brass brush to get all the gunk out of the teeth of a file). Those are great for getting a nice flat bottom on the minis when you're removing cast-on bases. The file card is important because the soft metals clog up the teeth of a file in a hurry.

When I'm working with minis, I usually leave the file flat on the desk and move the mini down the file (towards the end that doesn't have any teeth on it).

@Macross-yes, that's it. Thank you so much for this. Those figures are fantastic btw. The flag is outstanding.

@Lion-thank you for the tip. I've been using a disposable nail file board because I didn't know what else to use. My local hobby store doesn't have many supplies, so I'll look around online for the files.

I went to Sears when I bought my last big file for minis (I keep it separate from my other tools). Harbor Freight will probably have them, too, and they often have sets of small needle files for cheap.

Nothing wrong with those cheap disposable nail-files, I use them for cleaning off mold lines and pour stubs.