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"A beginner’s guide to buying and painting miniatures" Topic


9 Posts

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Tango01 Supporting Member of TMP20 Oct 2020 9:14 p.m. PST

" trapped at home right now, same as you are, because of the coronavirus pandemic. While I'm stocked up on supplies, and have family and streaming television to keep me busy, many of my favorite video games just don't sit well with me at the moment. It's times like these that I usually turn to board gaming with my friends, but social distancing requires that we stay apart.

So, I've taken to painting miniatures. It's been a wonderful opportunity to rest my body and clear my mind, and getting started wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Best of all, you can actually get some amazing results with just a few basic techniques.

Where to begin? First you need to find some minis. If you have a modern tabletop game in your collection, you might have unpainted miniatures sitting in a box already. It seems like just about every major Kickstarter board game campaign includes dozens of unique sculpts. While it can be difficult to get folks to sit down with you and learn a new game, now might be the right time to crack open those boxes and paint those monochromatic miniatures…"
Main page
link


Amicalement
Armand

GildasFacit Sponsoring Member of TMP21 Oct 2020 2:09 a.m. PST

It is just a series of linked adverts, not a particularly attractive or useful form of tutorial.

IronDuke596 Supporting Member of TMP21 Oct 2020 11:14 a.m. PST

Agreed.

Given up for good21 Oct 2020 12:33 p.m. PST

That's bad – no way should that 'article' be covered here.

Best giggle – spend £100.00 GBP on an airbrush to undercoat as a beginner despite mentioning pre-undecoated minis from Wizkids but missing the whole Bones range!

Second best giggle – use 200W of bulb next to you – race to see if the plastics melt before the paint drys…

Pull it Bill.

Tango01 Supporting Member of TMP21 Oct 2020 12:48 p.m. PST

Glup!…


Amicalement
Armand

Zephyr121 Oct 2020 2:36 p.m. PST

"Second best giggle – use 200W of bulb next to you – race to see if the plastics melt before the paint drys…"

Surprised he didn't say to put (metal) minis in the microwave to make the paint dry faster… :-o

(NO, DON'T DO THAT.)

von Schwartz21 Oct 2020 4:18 p.m. PST

GOOD GAWD NO!!!! BIG BIIG BOOM!!
Not the oven either, been there, done that…sure as hell didn't do it again!!! A whole platoon of PzKpfw V "Puddle".

Tango01 Supporting Member of TMP22 Oct 2020 12:30 p.m. PST

(smile)


Amicalement
Armand

Personal logo Sgt Slag Supporting Member of TMP26 Oct 2020 10:22 a.m. PST

Actually, Gents, the oven can be used to speed curing times of paint, and varnishes, with some caveats…

I cast mini's using Prince August molds, with Model Metal, and Lead, back at the beginning of this millennia: melting point of the metal was 700 F. I 'cured' my mini's in the oven, after applying Minwax Polyshades urethane stain, oil-based, not water. I did this with both my home cast mini's, as well as plastic mini's, including soft, Army Men figures.

The trick is to know the physics of the materials you are working with:

Model Metal melts at 700 F;
Injection Molded Plastic melts at 300-400 F.

I set my oven at its lowest temperature setting: 170 F. None of my mini's melted -- ever. Will work with all types of metal, and plastic, as well as resin materials which can withstand 170 F temperatures (most can… try a test piece, first, to be certain).

I switched to using a Slow Cooker/Crock Pot, as I was concerned with the fumes which posed a small flash-fire risk in the oven -- the fumes also stunk up the house, really badly! [Note: I baked 200+ mini's in my oven, without any fires. I was extremely fortunate, and I was using an electric oven, not gas, so no open flames to ignite the fumes!] The Low Temperature Setting on most slow cookers, is 170 F. The slow cooker works superbly: 'bake' on Low, for 30 minutes, and they come out fully cured -- in the garage, where fumes dissipate without offending the wife! Just make sure to open a window, or the main door, to let the fumes escape.

The only thing I melted, was pink insulation foam terrain pieces I baked in the Slow Cooker (the foam was completely sealed with latex paint, so no foam was directly exposed to the solvent-based urethane stain). That stuff cannot tolerate 170 F: it shrank, around 50%, and it deformed, of course… Fortunately, I only ruined two terrain pieces gaining that bit of wisdom. For all foam pieces, I let it air dry for several days. Slow, but non-deforming.

I don't see anything about a 200 Watt bulb… The author refers to a 1600 Lumen Daylight bulb: this would be an LED, to get the Daylight color (around 4,000 K). The 1600 Lumen bulbs I found online, run at 15.5 Watts, putting out the equivalent light of a 100 Watt incandescent bulb. I did not see anything about a 200 Watt bulb in the article. Did I miss it? Cheers!

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