Ye Olde Inn

by **tasoe** » January 31st, 2012, 5:56 am

Goblin-King wrote:Just out of curiosity... How much DO you charge?

It depends on the figure but it can go as low as $1.50-2.00 for a goblin and about $10.00 for a gargoyle. Heroquest miniatures is all I've painted so far. Those prices though are just an estimate, because most people want a whole set I give discounts. My last customer had a whole set plus the extra undead from return of the WL plus some furniture and I charged him $150.00 total. But the result is the tabletop level that can be seen here viewtopic.php?f=56&t=1026
Only the heroes and gargoyle have some extra detail work while all the others are kind of plain. I am a very slow painter so if I paint something on the top of my level (which isn't exactly pro but is very nice) it will be very expensive compared to the others. But I think that $150.00 for [35 game system + 16 rowl + 9 big furniture]= 60 miniatures is a very good price for the result achieved.

Ethica wrote:Words of advice for those D&D minis-

1) The paint I used (games workshop paints, it's just an acrylic paint) doesn't stick to the surface very well. I used an acrylic spray paint to undercoat them and that worked great.

2) When I varnished them they went all sticky and they still haven't dried fully. I advise testing the varnish on one of them before you roll it out to all of them. You will definitely need to varnish because the plastic is so soft the paint flakes off if you even look at them.

Thanks veru much on the advice. I always use spray primer so I could cover the first one. What you say about the varnish worries me cause I 've never have any trouble with my varnish and the minis are gonna be handled a lot after being painted. I use a water-based varnish that is meant for wood and floors so it is very strong and then I paint some layers of vallejo matt varnish to reduce the shine. I hope that will have to do.

Well MY big advice is NEVER use varnish spray if the humidity of the air is high. The water vapors will be caught in the spray and create bubbles once the varnish hits the figure. This creates the infamous frosting-effect!
A frosted figure can sometimes be salvaged by actually giving it another layer of varnish later. This doesn't sound logic, but I've tried it... it works!

by **tasoe** » January 31st, 2012, 7:42 am

Goblin-King wrote:A frosted figure can sometimes be salvaged by actually giving it another layer of varnish later. This doesn't sound logic, but I've tried it... it works!

That's right! One time I rescued some chaos warriors that were full of these bubbles using this method. It worked but I've never used spray varnish again whether it was humid or not. Athens (Greece) is very humid anyways so brush-on varnish is the way to go for me.

by **Sjeng** » February 26th, 2012, 6:44 am

Ethica wrote:Words of advice for those D&D minis-

1) The paint I used (games workshop paints, it's just an acrylic paint) doesn't stick to the surface very well. I used an acrylic spray paint to undercoat them and that worked great.

Don't wait too long to start painting though. I've base coated all my D&D mini's at once, and started painting them one by one. By the time I got to my 4th mini (and in my busy life that took a month) the paint didn't apply well at all anymore. It just kind of floated on top, like grease. So I washed them with soap, and that helped a little, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to respray the base coat on all of them before I paint them. The material sucks, and it's soft too, so they bend. :smack:

by **tasoe** » February 27th, 2012, 6:22 am

Sjeng wrote:Don't wait too long to start painting though. I've base coated all my D&D mini's at once, and started painting them one by one. By the time I got to my 4th mini (and in my busy life that took a month) the paint didn't apply well at all anymore. It just kind of floated on top, like grease. So I washed them with soap, and that helped a little, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to respray the base coat on all of them before I paint them. The material sucks, and it's soft too, so they bend.

Thanks for the tip but it will be a while till I start on those d&d figures. Maybe I'll just paint the Elf with the nice ass for start so my girlfriend can play with that character.

Anyway, check out the dragon from dragon strike. I painted it for a friend but I thought I'd share the pic here:

In addition, here's a nice pic of the 4 hq heroes that are up on ebay just so they can fund the rest of the project!

by **PaulBaldowski** » February 29th, 2012, 3:18 pm

Start with the skeletons. I loved a good skeleton. I have a nice mummy somewhere round here, too.

by **Mophus** » March 8th, 2012, 1:51 pm

I started painting my full set of miniatures with the skeletons. Than the mummies. They're painted very fast. That's a good motivation boost. Check out the Gallery for my one.

by **cynthialee** » March 8th, 2012, 3:58 pm

I love doing skeletons and mummies. Some delvan mud over the skelly, paint the base, give the eyes red dots, do up the weapon and then varnish. Fastest minis ever and they look wicked after they are done.