The Miniatures
Overall, the minis are interesting sculpts. I like the concept that Eureka was going with when creating these minis. The bad thing is that the faces are not uniform - some of the noses are not well defined, and there are some rough bits that are hard to smooth out. Those are the downsides to these minis, but they are minor.
Like I said, I enjoyed these minis because they are an interesting concept. I think if the sculptor had taken it a bit more anime, and really touched up some areas on the face, they would be superb minis!
Materials
I used a variety of paints on this model to get just the right colors.
Paints:
- Reaper Pro Paints (RPP)
- Ocean Blue, Walnut, Sapphire Ink, Flesh Shade Ink, Volcano Brown, Bright Gold
- Vallejo Game Color (VGC)
- Blood Red, Wolf Grey
- Reaper Master Series (RMS)
- Golden Skin Triad, Pure White, Linen White, Silver Metallics Triad
- Games Workshop
- White Primer
Brushes:
- Winsor & Newton Series 7 Miniature — sizes 0 and 1
- Winsor & Newton Series 7 — sizes 0, 1 and 2
Palettes:
- Two flower palettes from Dick Blick Art Supply
Basing:
- Elmer's white glue
- Corn meal
- Static Grass (can find at any local game store or online)
- Epoxy Putty (to fill in the slot hole)
Miscellaneous:
- Top to a primer can
- Silly Putty (to affix the mini to the primer-can top, so you don't handle the mini during painting)
- X-acto knife
- Flat Golden Taklon brush
- superglue
- toothbrush
- dish soap
Prep Work
These minis had some mold lines on them, but nothing that was too bad. I shaved off some of the mold lines using my X-acto knife, then went back and filed down anything that was obvious. There were a couple of lines on the legs, but that was about it.
Once I had the mold lines filed off, I soaked all seven of the minis in a bowl of warm water with some dish soap. I let them soak for about 15 minutes, then I scrubbed them down with a toothbrush. Doing this ensures that you remove oils and dirt that have accumulated on the minis during the casting and packaging process.
After I let them dry, I affixed them to bases. They had bases sculpted on the minis, but they were flimsy, so I decided to mount them on square bases. Using squares or hexes is much better for gaming purposes anyway. I always make sure I have a variety of bases available, because everyone has a different preference.
I primed these minis using GW White Primer. I've not had any problems with GW White Primer recently, and recommend it for anyone who is in the dry, hot climates of the world. It's been wonderful for me, and I live out in Phoenix!
Methods to the Madness!
Unfortunately, I don't have any entertaining tales about my inspiration for these minis. They are in school uniforms and I could've gotten a little crazy with them, but I asked 
Editor in Chief Bill 
what he wanted, and he said 'blue'. So, the best color scheme I came up with was blue uniform, white shirt, and red ties with black shoes and hair. I wanted them to look more uniform than what I tend to do. They are all from the same school, they are Japanese. I could've done the hair in a variety of colors, but I chose to keep these simple since I was painting seven at once!
Techniques
I used standard techniques on these minis. Nothing out of the norm - and if you are an intermediate painter, you should be able to execute what I did fairly simply. Even if you are a beginner still learning the ropes, these shouldn't be too difficult.
The first thing I did was basecoat them in all the shadow colors.
If you are still learning how to refine techniques but you have the basics down, I always recommend painting the mini in the darkest shadow color as your basecoat. For most people when they are first starting to understand where highlights should go, it is easier to build up to the highest highlight. Once you have refined your techniques, you can start basecoating in your midtone and add your highlights and shadows. This will give a more "precise" location for your darkest shadows and brightest highlights.
Once the basecoats were on, I added my dark-lining to areas where there needed to be more separation. I didn't dark-line the whole mini, because I was going to be using black for some areas anyway. Going in and dark-lining around where the black areas were going to be would have been redundant.
You can see in the picture where I started putting some of my dark-lining.
Dark-lining is used to create a more pronounced break between two surfaces on a mini. Without dark-lining, your eye can still read that there are multiple surfaces, but the dark-lining adds a little extra kick. A mini with dark-lining looks more finished than one that doesn't have it. If you want to try doing this with models but feel you are not precise enough to draw the line, you can prime a mini in black and paint "in the lines," leaving black lines where you want them.
With the basecoats dry and the dark-lining touched up, I started on the highlights. For highlights, I thin my paints down so they are a little bit thinner than what I used for a basecoat. You want the paint thick enough that pigment will be visible, but thin enough that you don't get the clumpy look. Paint recipes will vary for everyone, though, because of environmental factors. I live in a dry state, and have to add more water than if I lived back home in Virginia.
I have heard people use descriptors for how thin paint should be, and the most common one is "the consistency of skim milk." I don't drink skim milk, so I don't know what the consistency is exactly. I thin my paints down usually with two drops of paint to one drop of water.
With my first round of highlight paint prepared, I took my W&N Series 7 size 0 brush and started applying my highlights using thin layers. I build up my layers typically by going over the same area twice, just to make sure my highlights are solid.
I added my highlights to the areas that are upraised. These are the areas that are going to be closest to the "sun" (lighting source) and are going to catch the light. So anywhere you see a crease, wrinkle, or bulge, you will want to add highlights.
In this photo, you can see that I started adding highlights to the flesh, blue uniform, the white shirt, black hair and black shoes.
When painting a mini, I always paint the eyes first after I get finished with the basecoat. That way, I can touch up any areas that I may get black or white paint on, before painting the rest of the details of the face and adding all the highlights.
I added my highlights by painting them on. I didn't use drybrushing on these minis at all. If you find that your highlights are too bright or too abrupt after applying them, you can tone them down a little bit by adding a glaze. A glaze is a layer of paint that is mixed to be thinner than a wash, but you don't want to slop it on. You want to paint a thin layer of pigment to the area that needs blending. I did this on the blue uniforms. The highlights were too bright and chalky, so I added a glaze of thinned-down Sapphire Ink.
Paint Recipes
Hair and Shoes
- Basecoat
- RPP Walnut
- Highlight 1
- 2 RPP Walnut + 1 RMS Linen White
- Highlight 2
- RPP Walnut + RMS Linen White
- Highlight 3
- RPP Walnut + 2 RMS Linen White
Skin
- Basecoat
- RMS Golden Shadow
- Highlight 1
- RMS Golden Skin
- Highlight 2
- RMS Golden Highlight
Socks and Shirt
- Basecoat
- VGC Wolf Grey
- Highlight 1
- VGC Wolf Grey + RMS Pure White
- Highlight 2
- RMS Pure White
Blue Uniform
- Basecoat
- RPP Ocean Blue + RPP Walnut
- Highlight 1
- 3 RPP Ocean Blue + 1 RPP Walnut
- Highlight 2
- RPP Ocean Blue
- Highlight 3
- 2 RPP Ocean Blue + 1 RMS Pure White
- Highlight 4
- RPP Ocean Blue + RMS Pure White
- Glaze
- 1 RPP Sapphire Blue Ink + 3 drops of water
Red Ties
- Basecoat
- RPP Walnut + VGC Blood Red
Highlight using thinned-down VGC Blood Red. Make each layer of highlight smaller. Don't add white to red for highlights (unless you want pink!). Add the thinned-down red until you are happy with the results.
Swords
- Basecoat
- RMS Shadowed Steel
- Highlight 1
- RMS Honed Steel
- Highlight 2
- RMS Polished Silver
Bright Gold was used on the guard.
Basing
For the bases, I used my typical Elmer's Glue-and-cornmeal method. I applied a thin layer of Elmer's Glue to the bases of the minis with my Golden Taklon brush. I dipped the bases in my container of cornmeal, and let them dry overnight before painting.
Once the bases were dry, I brushed the cornmeal with my dry Golden Taklon brush to remove excess cornmeal. I thinned down some RPP Volcano Brown, and applied that to the cornmeal. Once the Volcano Brown was dry, I washed it with RPP Flesh Shade ink. I highlighted the cornmeal with a little bit of RPP Fireglow just to give a sheen and bring out some definition. Once the paint was dry, I applied small areas of Elmer's Glue, and sprinkled the bases with GW static grass.