More on paint

Since my last post I've been working more with the paints I have bought and changed my mind on a few things.

While I do love the stickiness of the Vallejo paints they are not well suited for blending. They lay down an excellent base coat (and I have read they are likewise great for layering - I don't have enough colors to try it). They look a bit "out of the tube" though, very bright and flat. The Reaper paints in contrast mix and blend beautifully. I mixed the red I have with the flesh tone and wound up with a wonderful leathery pink that I used to paint a grimoire (Malifaux Student of Battle if you care).

I have also continued to research (I am planning to buy a paint set) and apparently the Vallejo paints have a very bad separation problem. I haven't seen it yet but I don't do tons of painting so paint needs to last for me. The more I use the Reaper paints the more I like them, so I think I will probably buy a set of Reaper paint and only possibly buy Vallejo for colors that are tricky to basecoat - like yellow for example. Also, Reaper I can buy directly from them instead of going through unknown ebay dealers which to me is a plus. I have had great experiences with Reaper's customer service and they ship like lightning.

Lastly, the more I work with either of these paints the less I like my Citadel paints. Some people swear by them, and some people claim there is no difference but if I could go back I would never have bought them. They are more expensive and I find them much more difficult to work with than either of Reaper of Vallejo. My recommendation for a new painter would be: skip Citadel completely, buy a few of Vallejo and a few from Reaper and try them out, see what works for you. I have heard mixed things about P3, but I've never tried them.

Edit: One good thing for a beginner about Citadel paints for beginners is that they have pretty good coverage. I think it is hard to get a precise edge with them though due to the consistency of the paint. So a beginner might be able to lay down only a coat or two (which is satisfying) you will have a hard time not obscuring details and getting paint all over the model. I think a beginner might be more satisfied with Vallejo if coverage is an issue. Reaper is thin, which is nice for details.

These are both good paints with strengths and weaknesses. If I were rich I'd buy both. In reality I think I am going to buy heavily into Reaper and supplement here and there with Vallejo.

Reaper Bones review part 3

So as I posted originally, I've been curious about the Reaper Bones line for some time now. I decided to go ahead and buy one because of the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. I wanted to at least check one out before dropping $100+ on a big bag o' minis. To be very conservative I only bought one, and did not go for the free shipping (perhaps my only regret as I ended up really liking the model).

Because of other reviews I read here and here I did not bother trying to remove mold lines and I did not use a guide coat (a light paint wash on the white model). The mold lines weren't bad - a bit on the helmet and on the legs, might be more of an issue on a different model.

As mentioned before the model was a bit bent, but very hot water allowed me to reshape it.

Now for painting and some pictures! I've never photographed my miniatures before so it was a bit of an experiment, I think the pictures turned out okay though.

Here is the unpainted model:

I painted on three base colors  and then added a brown wash. I found that if the paint was thinned at all that it slid around a lot on the plastic so I had to keep my brushes and paints quite dry. The only issue was that it meant I had to be extra careful not to fill in details - on the finished model there are a few places where the paint on the chainmail is a little too thick.

Because of the paint slipping on the plastic I had to do some evening out of the base layer, mostly accomplished with dry-brushing. I followed that with detailing and dry brushing, along with some additional washing, brown or black depending on the area. I think it turned out looking pretty decent, and the model is definitely a value at $2.

These models are definitely intended for play. They are cheap and durable (I did a lot of bending of it trying to straighten out the sword before I was successful). If you want perfect control, go for more expensive metal models. I don't know about other people, but I don't like other people handling my metal models, whereas this I will not be fussy about.

It looks like many of the bones line also come in prepainted versions, but frankly mine looks a lot better than the prepainted version and I'm by no means an expert painter. Also, the unpainted models are a good bit cheaper (even counting the paint).

So the upshot is that I am totally satisfied and I will by buying more of these and I can't wait to use them.

Reaper Bones review part 2

Read the final review here.

Quick update:

Over the last few days I've corresponded with someone at Reaper who gave me a number of suggestions for fixing the bentness of the warrior's sword. Finally hit upon one that worked very well: soak briefly in hot water then reform, hold until cool. I tried first with just using water hot from the tap, didn't work, but then microwaved the water until nearly boiling and just dipped in the sword arm - the sword basically straightened itself. It is not totally perfect looking but weapons on metal miniatures rarely end up being perfectly straight either so I'm not going to fuss. As I said, I don't think being terribly finicky is worth it for a $2 miniature. That being said, now that I know I can fix bent weapons I am much more likely to buy more of the line and will likely wind up contributing to the kickstarter campaign.

Once I put some paint on it I'll update again.

Reaper Bones review part 1

Read the final review here.

I like miniatures.

I've been curious about the Reaper Bones line since it was launched and with the associated Kickstarter campaign going on I thought it was a good chance to check them out. At this point the deal at the $100 level especially is really very good.  So I resisted the temptation to go for free shipping and I ordered just one miniature: the "male human warrior" or as the box tells me "Garrick the Bold."

First off, the detail is really excellent. Much better than any other soft plastic miniatures I have seen before. There are a few mold lines but they are pretty minimal. I have read in other reviews that the mold lines are difficult to remove cleanly so I might just live with them. I think a few mold lines may be better than spending a ton of effort on a $2 mini with the chance of making it look messier.

The plastic is pretty soft however and my figure is suffering from a modest case of bent-sword. My guess is that is something that may be inevitable with this type of plastic. I'd like to fix that if possible. If anyone has any tips they'd be appreciated.

They claim it is paintable right out of the box without priming - which I might test for a part 2 of this review. However, I have read in other reviews that washes don't stick well to the bare plastic, so I am tempted to at least dull-coat it first. Also, I usually prime my models black so I might end up priming it anyways for the look I am accustomed to (the model is white).

I'll post more if I am able to fix the bent sword and when I have painted it.