Miniature painting

[greenknight]

Wow this seems kind of confusing as is... I just wanted to protect the paint job on my models. To be honest it takes me long enough to do everyone that it is hard to call anything truly expendable. I mean what is the easiest want just to protect the paint job if I don't want to be fancy about it... this is the very first time I have even thought of using varnish so the jargon is new to me.

If you just want to protect minis for handling in game, get a matte varnish and relax. If you are really concerned, test the varnish on a painted bit of extra like Sprikut suggested.

[eBadger]

Wow this seems kind of confusing as is... I just wanted to protect the paint job on my models. To be honest it takes me long enough to do everyone that it is hard to call anything truly expendable. I mean what is the easiest want just to protect the paint job if I don't want to be fancy about it... this is the very first time I have even thought of using varnish so the jargon is new to me.

Go to Home Depot or lowes and get a can of clear matte spray.  Apply on a warm, dry day.  Done. 

The rest is just fine tuning. 

As for expendable, if you're a bit new to painting I suggest you get a bag of green army men at the dollar store.  Use them to test your color combos and effects before painting expensive minis. 

[Tigara]

Here are some Warhammer 40K miniatures I have painted.






I had bought a starter pack and me and my brother started to pain them. I don't know how to play I just like to paint them in my spare time.

[Beorning]

Nice! Very nice! :)

Do learn how to play, though - the world needs more wargaming women! ;)

I mean, my local Infinity community has 200+ members... with one lone female amongst all these men.  :o

[Tigara]

that's it? wow that is so sad....

[MiaKage]

Those look amazing! I wish I had the patients to paint all the little details  :-X

[Oniya]

As for expendable, if you're a bit new to painting I suggest you get a bag of green army men at the dollar store.  Use them to test your color combos and effects before painting expensive minis.

There's a part of me that wants to go get a bucket of those and paint them up sharp.  Padded case, the works.  Just to see what comments they get (and if anyone realizes that they are green army men.)

[eBadger]

There's a part of me that wants to go get a bucket of those and paint them up sharp.  Padded case, the works.  Just to see what comments they get (and if anyone realizes that they are green army men.)

Yes!  Do this!!!

[Tigara]

I painted up some star wars board game pieces once.

[Beorning]

Question, guys: any advice on greenstuff sculpting?

I need to convert one of my Infinity minis - specifically, I'd like to create a broken wall of some kind for the mini to sit on. How would you approach that?

A specific question: is hardened GS tough to file into shape? I think I can create a rudimentary GS block, but it'd need some sharp edges to look a like a man-made wall beton wall or something like that...

[greenknight]

Question, guys: any advice on greenstuff sculpting?

I need to convert one of my Infinity minis - specifically, I'd like to create a broken wall of some kind for the mini to sit on. How would you approach that?

A specific question: is hardened GS tough to file into shape? I think I can create a rudimentary GS block, but it'd need some sharp edges to look a like a man-made wall beton wall or something like that...

Generic: keep all tools, work surfaces, and unused/waiting to be used mixed green stuff wet. It will save you considerable frustration.

Specific: green stuff will clog up files, the finer grit the worse. Be prepared to clean often. Otherwise, files do make short work of it. My experience has been to avoid dremels as joins and air bubbles can shatter the green stuff without warning. The slower work with a file lets you see the problem ahead of time.

If you want to do a wall, have you looked at "Hirst blocks"?

[Sprikut]

A few things to build on what Free Knight has already explained.

Silicone baking sheets are cheap at dollar stores and are a god send when working with GS. Make sure you get one with at least one smooth side.

I prefer spit to water when working with GS. The proteins in spit means it pools less and needs less refreshing. You may prefer to stick with water of course. Water based lubricant is also a good option.

Silicone tipped clay shapers or pigment pushers are absolutely amazing sculpting tools if you want to go in depth.

Green stuff isn't great to file. But other putty products will file better. Procreate, brown stuff and milliput stand out as progressively more sandable. But each has its own issues.

If you're trying to do a wall of bricks (Like the limited ITS bounty hunter?) evergreen square or rectangular plastic rod will be easier to work with and cheaper. You can also find small bricks scaled for infinity models if you prefer though these are more expensive than evergreen products.

[Thorne]

Most of the guys who work with greenstuff often recommend Vaseline and a glass or porcelain tile.

There's another putty you can mix into green stuff that is supposed to make it easier to sand/adjust after it cures. I /think/ it's Apoxie Sculpt. I don't do a lot of sculpting myself, so I'm not certain. But supposedly, makes it easier to work with and sand after the fact.

[Pockets]

You're better off using Milliput or Apoxie Sculpt over green stuff. Both products are much more workable than green stuff.

[Chanticleer]

I mixed greenstuff and milliput once on advice from the internet.

It did maintain many of the qualities of each (somewhat flexible, easier to file). Mixing it was an utter nightmare of roll/fold/roll/fold. It also didn't produce as smooth a surface. From my memory, its file-ability made it quite easy to create corners in.

I will say that folding and mixing it was far too much effort for my personal taste to repeat the experiment.

[Oniya]

If you're trying to do a wall of bricks (Like the limited ITS bounty hunter?) evergreen square or rectangular plastic rod will be easier to work with and cheaper. You can also find small bricks scaled for infinity models if you prefer though these are more expensive than evergreen products.

With a fairly small outlay, you can actually make your own.  The page shows standard 'red brick', but something for squared stones wouldn't be much different.

[eBadger]

IMHO there are too many cheaper and simpler options available (milliput, air or oven bake clay, even plaster of paris) to fuss with greenstuff to make a wall.  I keep it for organic shapes where the rounded edges are a feature. 

[Beorning]

Okay, so if not GS, then how would you approach it?

This is the mini I need to convert:



She's awesome, but I'd also need a version of her that's not riding a bike, but is a normal infantry trooper on a 25mm base. So, I want to discard the bike and put her on some sort of small wall / debris, as if she was sitting on it. Any suggestions how to make this kind of small wall? What would be the best material? I need something *cheap* and I was considering GS, as I already have it at home...

[Sprikut]

You can just bend/slightly sculpt her one leg up and have her stand on a low wall or rock. Here is an old conversion I saw for that.



I still think evergreen sticks are your best bet. Cheap and easy to work with. If you want I can do one as a sample tonight for you. Alternative Green stuff will work fine if youre careful. Again I can help throw together a tutorial if needed.

[Oniya]

Are those bits of wood?  You can probably find wooden strips like that in a craft store for cheap and cut to size.  At that thickness, your standard craft knife should score them well enough to snap.  If they don't have a 'wood crafts' section, see if there's a 'dollhouse' section.

[Beorning]

You can just bend/slightly sculpt her one leg up and have her stand on a low wall or rock. Here is an old conversion I saw for that.

Great idea! Although I'm wary of bending minis... too easy to destroy them...

I'll wash the mini this evening and I'll take a closer look how the pieces fit together.

I still think evergreen sticks are your best bet. Cheap and easy to work with. If you want I can do one as a sample tonight for you. Alternative Green stuff will work fine if youre careful. Again I can help throw together a tutorial if needed.

I... don't think Evergreen sticks are available back here. Could you give me some hints on how to sculpt GS? Is it more complicated than just preparing some GS mass and shaping it with fingers?

Are those bits of wood?  You can probably find wooden strips like that in a craft store for cheap and cut to size.  At that thickness, your standard craft knife should score them well enough to snap.  If they don't have a 'wood crafts' section, see if there's a 'dollhouse' section.

I... have no idea where to find a store close to my home that would sell stuff like that. I buy all of my hobby / craft stuff online... I could buy some polystyrene bits there, but I'm a bit annoyed at the thought of paying $3 for P&P of a piece of plastic worth 1$. Yes, I do sound like a miser :D But I want to buy the whole JSA army for Infinity this month and I'm really trying to cut on pointless spending.

[greenknight]

I... don't think Evergreen sticks are available back here. Could you give me some hints on how to sculpt GS? Is it more complicated than just preparing some GS mass and shaping it with fingers?

Yes, green stuff really is that easy, just keep all the tools wet (water, lube, whatever), including fingers.

To be clear, Evergreen is a brand of railroad (and general) modelling supplies. Plastruct is another. If you have a model railroad store, something like it is probably there (Yelp has top ten hobby store lists for Warszawa and Krakow).

[Beorning]

Yelp lists hobby store in Warsaw? I didn't know that...

Question about GS: is there some way to make it completely hard? I did some experiments with it and it seems that the GS-sculpted pieces remains a bit rubbery and elastic even after they harden...

Another question: any advice on sculpting with Miliput?

[Chanticleer]

Yelp lists hobby store in Warsaw? I didn't know that...

Question about GS: is there some way to make it completely hard? I did some experiments with it and it seems that the GS-sculpted pieces remains a bit rubbery and elastic even after they harden...

Another question: any advice on sculpting with Miliput?

Green stuff is pretty hard after about a year, but you probably don't want to wait that long. Within a few days, it's firm enough that priming and painting it should be fine and you shouldn't worry about paint flaking due to flexibility. Provided that anything like long thin tentacles have tempered wire cores to support them.

Milliput is pretty much handled the same way that GS is. Water to lubricate tools. It's a little 'muddier' when thin, and it dries harder and files to a sharper edge.

BITD it used to be pretty common to see miniatures where the weapon blades were made from filed milliput while the rest of the mini-hacking was done with GS. They each have their 'place.'

[Sprikut]

GS has a little bit of give but thats normal thats one of its upsides. You may be mixing too much yellow and not enough blue if the product isnt curing fully.

You could look at adding other putty types to make it harder for sharper edges. Procreate, Brownstuff, Aluminum putty are my go tos. They all behave similar to GS, are less messy to work with than Miliput and are easy to mix. 

Miliput can work for creating weapons but I find it brittle and heavy to work with. I prefer plastic card and similar to create rifles/guns. Check out this guide.