D&D miniatures

[Jaepheth]

My first D&D miniatures and dice came in the mail today!!

So... what kind of paint do I use? (Can I use Acryllic?)
They're metal, and judging by their weight I'd say it's some sort of tin alloy. And I assume epoxy or super glue to glue the arms in place?

I got:

This

This

and

These

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Pewter?

Anyways, use super glue. You may want super glue accelerator, which can be found at most hobby stores. Reduces the "Hey I'm holding these minute parts in place for half an hour only to get my fingers stuck to them and spend the next three hours in screaming rage at miniatures and super glue in general," to "Hey I'm holding these minute parts in place for 5 seconds only to get my fingers stuck to them and spend the next three hours in screaming rage at miniatures and super in general."

Your paint should be fine, but be sure to use a spray primer first. It helps the paint stick and yields a vastly superior end product. White primer for most models, black for extremely dark ones.

[Jaepheth]

I guess they could be pewter, but I didn't think they were heavy enough.

Thanks for the tips

[The Dark]

Oh, Reaper's stuff. They're pewter. The best paints I'm familiar with are GW and Vallejo. GW's easier to find, though.

[Mobiboros]

By and large miniatures are made of 2 things. Pewter or Plastic. If you bought it from a commercial vendor (Reaper in this case) they're Pewter (Only GW really has the money to make plastics).

Paints in order of quality (least to most):
Partha
GW
Vallejo

Don't use standard testers acrylics. Painting miniatures with them sucks. They are sticky and flow wrong and usually have a gloss enamel added (the last thing you want is glossy skin). I'd say find some Games Workshop paints. Moderate price, easy to find, nice quality.

This will sound odd, but wash the minatures with soap and water and thoroughly dry them before you paint. Sometimes oils are used to pop the fig from the injection mould and this makes paints stick poorly.

Always prime them. I suggest GW spray primer in white.

Glue:
You can use any commercially available superglue. My recommendation is to go to a hobby store and buy "Zap" (Preferably in the green , but the pink bottle is also good). Lacking that, pop down to aconveneience store and buy crazy-glue. It doesn't flow into cracks quite as well, but it works just fine.

Sealant:
When you finish painting and are happy with the fig, I suggest spray sealant in the matte variety. This will help protect the fig from chipping.

[The Dark]

I agree with the GW stuff (where'd you manage to find Ral Partha's paints, Mobi?). I can get the non-metallic paints for $3 per bottle, metallics for $3.50, primer's about $10 per can, and glue for $8 per ounce, but YMMV.

Testers acrylics are decent, but not great, for things that are supposed to be gloss (I'm thinking possibilities for Warmachine here, not so much Reaper), but horrid for anything organic (cloth, skin, leather).

And yeah, definitely wash after filing. Regardless of the use of oils to pop the molds, some skin oils will rub off from handling the figs during the filing, so every part should be thoroughly washed, then handled as little as possible prior to priming.

[LadyTevar]

After you prime it, a lot of people do a 'colorwash'. Mix black acrylic with water until runny, and brush the figurine with it. The water will run over the flatter surfaces, but pool slightly in the crevices. As it dries the black shows the small details better, and reveals where the darkest shadows should be on the finished figure.

Another trick I've used to *great* effect is to paint the entire figurine with the darkest 'base color' you've chosen, then dry-brush the lighter shades overtop. Dry brushing (little dab of paint on the tip, tapped against the palette until 'ground' into the brush) leaves a light gloss of paint over the raised features of a miniture, and is an easy cheat to bring out details like feathers or raised lettering

I took Reaper's Pegasus miniture and painted the whole thing ultramarine blue. Then, on the wing feathers, I dry-brushed turquoise blue over the tips and let it dry, then painted a stripe of slate blue, then robin's egg blue, then a blue so pale it was almost white alone the wing's leading edge.

This bought the feathers out beautifully, and the layering/blending of the color gave them depth and life. The mane and tail were brushed with the same shades in the same order, drying in between. Then I started on the body, using the robin's egg and the pale blue, slowly shading the body from dark to light. Each layer left hints of the darkest blue in the deepest crevices, and built shadows and highlights into the figurine that show and fade as you move it. The final drybrushing was titanium white, dusting every raised surface and leaving it looking pure glacerial white. A lite touch to give it ultramarine eyes, faint pink nostrils, and slate blue hooves, and she was done. One spritz of Glossycoat later, and she's been with me ever since.

[Ghost Rider]

Much more AMP then Fantasy.