When was...

[cynthialee]

I am a housewife, so I have allot of time at home. As for cost, I only get one or two paints and or brushes at a time. I started with a kit that had a number of paints and brushes in it. Over time I have allot of paints and still never enough. lol

[whitebeard]

As for cost, I only get one or two paints and or brushes at a time.

Second that. I've spent about $80 on my paints, fewer than 20 colors and and 3 brushes (most purchased in two batches). Considering the time I've put in over the past year, painting minis is a very cheap hobby (acquiring new ones is another story). With the selection I have, there is no need to buy any more paint anytime soon and as of now I use only the "pricey" GW paints.

[cynthialee]

I watch eBay for large lots of mini's. Sometimes I fall into a really good deal. Last go around I picked up 120ish mini's that were mainly Ral Partha and Grenadier from the 80-90's and a bunch of older RMI miniatures, all for $98.00 including shipping.

Most the time I pick up smaller lots than that larger one but I couldn't turn down the lot.

I find what happens is I either run out of miniatures but I have a lot of paint left over, or I have mini's to paint but not enough paints. It is a vicious cycle I am not so interested in breaking.

[Anderas]

I confirm both. And up to now I never emptied a paint, except black white and sepia. I have around 350 models painted and don't want to stop.

[knightkrawler]

I have to disagree about the brushes. Cheap doesn't do it if you want quality.
I'll put it that way: Your painting is a craft? Craft brushes do it.
Your painting is art? Art brushes are the way.
Rule of thumb.

I'm pretty sure everyone out there trying to get things done and setting for "tabletop quality" and getting done with it could easily and quickly actively evolve the qaulity of their work with the technique used.
And there's a best brush for every technique. That brush for glazing or thin layering does NOT cost 50 cents. The drybrush and the wash brush do.

[Baylor_OgreBane]

I have to disagree about the brushes. Cheap doesn't do it if you want quality.
I'll put it that way: Your painting is a craft? Craft brushes do it.
Your painting is art? Art brushes are the way.
Rule of thumb.

I'm pretty sure everyone out there trying to get things done and setting for "tabletop quality" and getting done with it could easily and quickly actively evolve the qaulity of their work with the technique used.
And there's a best brush for every technique. That brush for glazing or thin layering does NOT cost 50 cents. The drybrush and the wash brush do.

I have to disagree with Knightkralwer on this one! Although a good quality "TOOL" can go along way, it does all boils down to skill, technique and experience.
I use a mix of differing quality (cost) paints and brushes and have never had a problem. I tend to favour one brush more than the others and am far more comfortable with it, and that is the key, become comfortable with your style and tools.
I will use practically any acrylic paint that I can get my hands on, my old set is citadel, but I also have tamia and humbrol in there as well as my other art set acrylics they I might have found at the pound shop. Same for the brushes.
I don't believe in the whole swapping brushes for different jobs thing, it's pointless and that's how I paint, and not to brag but I am a prop painter for films, and have been featured in magazines.
Just experiment have fun, learn new techniques, some will be easy others hard, but find what suits you and roll with it. After a while you will get your own style, you will have plenty of practice and your minis will start to look awesome.
Why buy a set of micro brushes for £6 to paint the eyes, that are useless, when that old scabby brush that you found ages ago (old faithful) can do the job just as good if not better.

#tip for painting eyes: dont paint them white and do a black dot for the pupil and end up with one eye looking at you and the other eye looking for you, when you can paint the eye black and then put two white dots in each corner of the eye and have it spot on!#

rant/rambling over!

[Baylor_OgreBane]

Here is an idea; slightly off point though. If you guys would like we could set up a skype session/tutorial/Q&A at some point and I will go through some of my HQ minis and show you all how to paint them live, so you can ask me questions as I am doing it, what I am using, about stuff, might be a good way for some of the less experienced to learn a few thing and I might learn some new things too.
If you like the idea we will create a separate thread to arrange it all; but don't post any skype or other personal detail on here for the time being, to stay safe, PM me if you are interested.

[whitebeard]

I have to disagree about the brushes. Cheap doesn't do it if you want quality.

I missed the post about cheap brushes… Looked again and didn't find it. I have 3 brushes from GW and they were not cheap (approx. $20 in total). I'm not spending enough?

Sure you *can* have lots of brushes, lots of paints, etc. But if you're not painting your minis because it's too expensive… You can do as well as I'm doing with three brushes and 16 or so paints. My shading is not so bad (several orders of magnitude better than the pre painted D&D stuff!!! And if you step back, my stuff looks INCREDIBLE. I get compliments from my players and I'm personally quite happy with the results. Probably score an 8 or so for my best models in the gallery.

[knightkrawler]

I'm not debating the use of cheap brushes.
But can anyone here paint like Jeremie Bonamant? Really? Pictures!
I was merely pointing out the possibilities you can have with good brushes and the differences between painting miniatures and miniature painting, so to speak.
Craft vs. Art.
There are people who pull off incredible things with size 8 craft brushes and cheap liner brushes (James Wappel, a real hero), but the fact is: a good brush comes expensive and expensive makes more things possible. Among those things is the sheer endurance with good care.

Oh, and never buy brushes from a company that doesn't specialize in the painting. Do not buy GW brushes. They pull money out of orifices where you shouldn't have money in the first place. You should either pay less for a good synthetic brush (Da Vinci) or more for a really good Sable brush (Raphael, W&N).

Fun fact about brushes: you may call your brush sable brush if only a percentage of the bristles are actual sable hair.
W&N use 100% sable hair.
Guess what GW does in that respect.

[Daedalus]

What and/or when was your first game where every miniature you used was painted?

My wife and I managed to paint all the figures for A Touch of Evil and two expansions a couple of years back.