My first fantasy figures

[Luddite]

Hi FraNe91 and welcome to the hobby and the forum!

You made a good choice starting with 10mm (god's own scale).

If they're your first miniatures they're excellent!  Far better than my (and i imagine most) first daubings.

I'll echo the advice on the painting though.

Brown ink (mixed 50/50 with CLEAN water - very important its clean - make sure your washing brush is scrupulously clean too...i've been caught out with a bit of metallic paint left on the bristles before...  ).

Wash it all over in a liberal coat. 
When it dries you should be pleasantly surprised how much better it makes your figures look!
For 'grubby' figures you can leave it there, but for brighter figures you might like to reapply a highlight coat to make the bright details 'pop out'.

And as the standard advice to new painters...'thin your paints'.  2-3 thin coats are always better than 1 thick coat.   

[nikharwood]

Bang in some Klear / Futura Floor polish into the mix for a more even (& protective wash) - if you can't get hold of that, just a drop of washing-up liquid will help consistency of coverage as it'll help with surface tension...or something similarly technical. 

[FraNe91]

Thank you everyone very much, I'll try to do this as soon as I can

[FraNe91]

I've tried with 50/50 brown paint/water but the result looks too brownish to me, expecially the sword, the hand  and the cloak (it was supposed to be reddish, now its too brown).
Is it normal or did I something wrong? Or should I do something more? Some drybrush maybe?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Dry brush over that, it will work out fine. ink has different qualities to paint, so i would dry brush the weapon definitely.
I usually use a black ink on weapons unless you  want a rusty effect.

[Techno]

I agree with Lemmey...I reckon you'll be pleased with the results !
Cheers - Phil.

[OldenBUA]

I think next time you could try and use more water. With a wash, you want the paint to be very thinned down. Not really paint anymore, but more like milk.

Above all, experiment! Try various combinations on a spare figure (if you have one) and see what works for you.

For this figure, I agree that a dry-brush would work quite well to make it less brown again.

[GordonY]

I think Fran missed the point, theres a world of difference between washing with ink and washing with PAINT washing with paint tends to have to be on an area by area basis, which isnt really practical on a 10mm figure. Ink/Varnish/Magic Wash is more a slop it over the whole figure technique.

[FraNe91]

Mmm I didn't knew that 
So what's the main difference between paint and ink?

[sunjester]

Hi Fran,

I can't give you the technical explaination, but ink is much runnier than paint! If I'm washing with ink I use a 50/50 mix, with paint it's more 75% water, or even more depending on the thickness of the paint.

For 10mm I give the figures a final wash of a grey/brown mixed with varnish. I know people say to use Clear/Futra floor polish but I had a pot of brown tinted wood varnish to hand so I used that. After experimenting I use 75% varnish to 25% water with a few drops of black ink. It does have a slightly shiny finish, but personally I always prefered gloss varnish to matt. That's a personal choice.

Like people have said experiment a bit until you find the result that you like.

[FraNe91]

Hey guys!
It's some of time I don't write here!
I have finally finished the miniatures (base, wash, protective glossy varnish and then matt varnish) and I've done some new ones. Sadly now I have no pictures of them because my father has the camera, and he's in USA working till 20 of September.
About the read cloak miniature, I finished repainting the cloak because it was really too brown for my taste and far from the original purpose.
I'll post the pics as soon as I can.

Anyway, I've just a question: after the wash the miniatures remain sometimes too brown and seem all dirty. I thought about dry brushing, but I find it very difficult because of the dimension. I'm referring especially about tiny parts as shirts, pants, skin etc. which usually have different colors in the same figure. How can I drybrush them without ruining the other different color parts? Or there's another technique I don't know?
Thanks again!

[FierceKitty]

You made a good choice starting with 10mm (God's own scale).

From His perspective, we're all 2mm at best, I fear.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I'd say for 10mm a number 2brush for large drybrush areas, and a knackered 00 for smaller areas, just make sure your brush is REALLY almost dry.

[FraNe91]

Hey fellows! It's been a lot of time I said I'll be posting new pictures, and I'm finally doing it!
Here there are all the finished ones, completed with bases and matt varnish. The only problem I found with this varnish is that it dulls even silver and gold varnish not allowing me to dip the miniatures in it and making the work longer.











And here there are the ones I'm finishing. I just need to finish the bases, add the protective glossy varnish and then the matt varnish.






What do you think?

And I'm not sure what kind of terrain I could make for the sci-fi troopers, do you have any suggestion?

[GordonY]

First buy some of these http://www.pendraken.co.uk/SF23-p5278/ then knock up a few corridors with cardboard and gaffer tape and youre good to go for a game of Aliens.