Still painting minis

A while back ago I wrote a thread about a zombie apocalypse game called Biosyndrome that I found online. You can see it here: www.abovetopsecret.com... That got me set on a mission of painting minis to play with. It's turned out to be an adventure.
I started out by painting up plastic army men for minis. They actually turned out okay, much to my surprise. I have several survivor minis and zombies. Then, I found something at Walmart that really got me excited. It's a 101 piece zombie set. There are actually 50 zombies in it. The rest are army men and assorted doodads. The zombies are originally make-your-eyes-bleed bright green but look really cool painted up.
I ran into a snag when I ran out of flesh tone paint but I posted a thread asking if anyone knew how to make it from the colors I had and thankfully several members chimed in with helpful advice. I mixed some paint and it turned out better than I'd hoped.
I still have a lot of work to do. I found a plastic tote lid that's not good for anything so I'm going to use a one inch hole saw to cut some bases out. Then, I'm going to superglue the minis onto them. I'm putting Elmer's white glue on the bases and covering the glue with sand from the driveway. It's just like the stuff they sell at craft stores that they call "construction sand". The little pebbles actually look like rocks. It looks great.
I still have to go back and repaint some of the minis I already did. I was using army men for zombies and painted them with civilian clothing. Well, since I found those ones from Walmart, I don't want them like that and will be painting military and police uniforms on them. Some of those will be armored dead (see the link for the thread I posted if you want to know what those are). Others will be regular walkers.
I ran into another snag though. I noticed that the paint and sand rub off if they're handled too much. Do you know of anything I can use to seal the paint and flocking in without messing the paint and color up? I want to use something clear and with a matte finish. I'm using acrylic paints. I was thinking hair spray because I had a girlfriend that used pencil to sketch with and she'd spray it over her drawings to protect them from having the graphite rub off. I have doubts that his would work with paint though. Would you happen to know if there's a product that I could use? Any help would be much appreciated. I promise that I will take pics of the finished product as soon as I'm satisfied with how they look and when I can get my hands on a camera.
At any rate, it's been a lot of fun working on them. I still have to build game pieces. At the moment, I'm working on a farm house. I made one but it ended up being too small. I'm building them out of cardboard using the 3.5 method I found on youtube that's being used by a guy that calls himself DM Scotty. He makes modular tiles for gridless game play. Here is one of his videos. He has a lot of cool stuff.



I found a preview of the wargame version of Biosyndrome. It looks cool, too. As soon as the actual game comes out I'll post a thread for it so anyone who's interested can play too. It's free and fun, so why not? I think I'm going to do more minis for the war game as well, as there are several different types of units-both zombie and survivors. I think this has gotten to be a bit of an obsession lol.

Do you have a local game and hobby store? Citidel Mini paint has some good colors and painting guides.

You should be able to find tutorials and stuff online to show you new techniques for different effects you might want, too.

I used to do Warhammer fantasy figs in high school and college. I had a cool Chaos Knight on a tiger striped horse that turned out really cool once upon a time, but it wound up with my ex.

a reply to: Skid Mark

hello! a cool minis, a cheap airbrush and a compressor goes a long way,,
and gamesworkshops agrellan earth medium looks awesome on bases when drybrushed grey,, perfect for apocalypse...

Converting, painting and gaming are my getaway..

a reply to: Skid Mark

Excellent work...I needed you as my bff back in my warhammer days...id paint stuff and no one knew what it was any more haha...

a reply to: Skid Mark

Sounds like a lot of fun! I paint little miniatures for D&D myself, mainly pewter, and it's very enjoyable. For handling, and paint rubbing off, handle the base. That's what we do, to avoid that problem.

You'd be amazed what you can mix for colors, if you just try. I have done a gorgeous coppery red for hair, for example, for one female figure. If I can get the hubby to pull them out, I could post some pics.

a reply to: ketsuko

I just play with my friends. There's a hobby store about 45 minutes away but they don't play Biosyndrome. I heard that they play D&D but I don't really have anything for that game yet. Not for playing like in a tournament or anything anyway.

a reply to: solve

Thanks! I'll have to look for that.
I love gaming. I like it better than video games, really. You have to use your mind more. Like in our last session, my friend (plays an engineer) built a bomb out of IV bags, fuel, oxygen tanks, something for flame, and an ambulance. He ended up taking out half a horde of walkers like that. Then again, he almost blew us up but it was still cool.

a reply to: rockpaperhammock

I love painting stuff. I haven't played Warhammer but I watched it played on youtube. My buddy was telling me about a game he watched and he said it was pretty cool. I might get into it next.
Yeah, talking to people who have never played an RPG is funny. They think it's nerd stuff. They don't know what they're missing.

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

What version of D&D do you play? I just got started on 3.5 a year or so ago and finally got the books. I haven't worked with pewter yet. Just plastic. Pewter looks like it would be interesting. If I had the materials I might make lead molds. Then again, lead isn't fun to work with. I don't want it around my dogs, either. I'd like to see the pics if you can get them. Kind of compare notes lol.
I like your avatar, by the way. V was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. It still is. It freaked my out big time when I was little. Especially when I saw my mom removing one of those facial masks after watching it. It looked like she was peeling her face off. I ran out of the room screaming like my head was on fire lol.

a reply to: ketsuko

Citadel is too expensive these days, Reaper has a good line of paint or if you really liked the late 90's line of citadel paints Coat’d’Arms manufactured those and they are still available sans the GW names at a fraction of the cost.

As to the OP For protecting your figs, Rustoleum spray or Testor's brush on glosscoat or if you can bear being seen buying it clear nail pokish. Followed by a matte coat spray for finishing them. either way you will end up retouching them occasionally or recoating the protective layer. And if you decide you want to strip them down and change their colors, soakinng them in 90% rubbing alcohol or brake fluid and a toothbrush will remove paint. You may also want to check out Hero Forge for 3d printed customized figures.


And as ketsuko said there are many guides everywhere.

S&F thanks, nice work! Husband and I have been wanting to get into painting and using models in addition to playing D&D. Saving this for later reference.

We've been playing 3.5 though I don't prefer it over the older ones.

a reply to: KeliOnyx

I never even thought of using nail polish. It's a great idea. So is the Rustoleum. I'll get some of both. Thanks so much.

a reply to: dreamingawake

You're welcome. Using models adds something to game play. I have tiles that I made that represent bodies of fallen opponents. They're called gore tiles. I got the idea from the DM Scotty videos. It adds another layer of difficulty once the bodies start piling up. You have to do dexterity checks to make sure you stay on your feet while fighting. If not, you trip over a body. Kind of like it would be in real life with bodies and blood everywhere.

a reply to: Skid Mark

I'd be careful with the clear nail polish. It would be really easy to get too thick of a coat on. You'll want to make sure you get an even coat, and that's harder to do with something you brush on.

Sprays make it much easier to apply an even, thin coat.

originally posted by: dreamingawake
S&F thanks, nice work! Husband and I have been wanting to get into painting and using models in addition to playing D&D. Saving this for later reference.

We've been playing 3.5 though I don't prefer it over the older ones.

Our last gaming group used models for D&D combat. It was actually one of my irritations with the system. If I'm going to play a mini-fig game ... let's play a mini-fig game and crack out the heavy rules for it. If I'm going to role-play, let's just keep it in the realm of the imagination. When we wound up needing the break out the hex map and figs for every fight, it broke my immersion. The game felt like some kind of ridiculous hybrid that couldn't decide if it wanted to properly be one thing or the other.

I like both, but I wanted to either play one type of game or the other.

a reply to: ketsuko

Spray it is then. Knowing my tendency to drop things I'd end up getting the stuff all over. That, and I'm sure I'd put too much on. Thanks.

A few decades ago painting was a favorite hobby of mine. As a kid I had a limited budget with the highest expectations in my work. I spent many hours painting minis mostly pewter D&D figures.
I will share a few tips I found through the years. I mostly used Testors enamel model paint due to the price. I just got the basic colours with some metallic colours like gold, silver and copper. I liked to mix my own colours from them. For example I would make flesh tone with with white, yellow, red and a small amount of green. I used a colour wheel (colour chart for mixing your colours. Use the complement colour of the one you are working with to make shades look more realistic. Black is not a good for shading it looks dirty.
If your figure is pewter with armor I used indian ink to give it a old look. Paint it on then wipe it off quick, it will stain the pewter and darken the shaded areas. If you have a red cloak mix some metallic gold with the red paint the cloak let dry then use indian ink on it then wipe off the ink this gives the look of realistic shading. After you get the armor and clothing to look good paint the skin tones and other parts. The last is the eyes, I would give the pupil a small glare with a small white dot to give it character.
I could dig up some of my old ones for pics if you would like but they are over 25 years old and do not look the same as they once did.
Good luck and remember experiment with your colours and paint type to get the results you want to see.

a reply to: d8track

Thanks for the suggestions. Testors is used for model cars, right? I can see how enamel would work well, since it hardens. I'll have to get some when I run out of paint. It shouldn't take long because I have a feeling that I'll have a whole lot more to paint.
Funny thing, I'm new at this but thought it best to do clothing first, then skin, then eyes like you suggested. I guess it makes sense to do it that way.
Just out of curiosity, what version of D&d did you play?

ETA: I had a feeling that you might be into pen and paper RPG games from your name. I thought d8, as in dice. Then again, you could like old music equipment but then it would be 8 track. Since it's d8track, does that make you a fan of pen and paper games who also likes old music players? Just kidding by the way. I like word play. No offence intended.

I was into the pen and paper RPG playing the original D&D in my mid teens. I started the AD&D 1st version for a while but lost interest as I got older. I guess my interests were related to the money I had for upgrades and the friends I played with moved on.
I just liked to paint and enjoyed fantasy worlds. It helped me get away from the real world problems growing up.
I liked to create fantasy worlds but my writing skills were not as good as my painting ones.
The name d8track is not from RPG It has my first and last letters of my name. The 8track is just old school like myself I had one as a kid and hated it finding songs was a pain.
Testors paint works good on plastic as well as metals but it has a high gloss to it good for skin, silks, and armor but I remember using some flat paints to get the felts and other fabric right. I found the most important thing was the shading. You have to get creative to make something so small look real.

originally posted by: d8track

Testors paint works good on plastic as well as metals but it has a high gloss to it good for skin, silks, and armor but I remember using some flat paints to get the felts and other fabric right. I found the most important thing was the shading. You have to get creative to make something so small look real.

Testors makes some really good paint and I do use it from time to time mostly on warmachines. The biggest reason most miniature painters don't use them often is the acrylics are easier to use and can easily be turned into washes and glazes and clean up with water. Which is good when you start getting into the high end detail brushes.