taken a bit of a break form Vue, and got round to miniature painting again, (minis for RPG games like Dungeons & Dragons, my fave).
Used to do this a lot, but when my illness got bad, headaches etc were too much to paint, meh.

Anyway, have huge load of minis collected to paint (even when ill hey, you hope to paint again and some minis are just too good to resist buying! :p )

Also did a "Painting tips" tutorial.
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/minis/painting.htm

So this is what I've been up to in case ye were wondering where I'd disappeared to ;)

the miniatures are usually about na inch high, for refference.

DWARF BOLT THROWER

LIZARD KING (and arty version of pic I made cause it looekd good hehe)

ELF ARCHER

LORD OF THE RINGS ELF ARCHER, 1st mini I did on return, plasti cmini, cheap, so wasn't scared if I made a mess, lol

ARCANE RUINS
plastic kit, great for "indiana Jones" style fights :)

SKELETON WARRIOR
picture isn't so good, alas, need ot redo it

That's an excellent work! One inch, you say?! Fantastic!

Very nice.

Actually, it's not that far off Vue than you think.

I learned a lot about texturing and colors painting miniatures when I was in High School.

Most excellent :o)

Moonson,
ta! :)
yeah, you can get the scale a bit as the paint tub the minis are on, is oh an inch or so across.

To help hold them as I paint them, I take a flat topped paint pot, put Blue-Tac (pink tac in this case, lol) on top and some weight inside for balance, stick mini to that, letting me avoid handling the mini while painting.

painting eyes is a bugger!! found using a very fine pen is easiest way to do pupils.

Agiel,
Thanks! :)
oh what did you paint, RPG or historical/wargaming minis?

yeah you do get a feel for highlights, depth of texture etc ;)
I'd have put me painting tutorial up, but well, Roisty doesn't have a section for such tutorials, lol.

Apparenlty while most of the minis are still made from original, actual scale sculptures, more are being made by pure CAD/CAM, or a mix.

Sirrick,
thank you :)

I used to paint RPG / Fantasy models as a fun hobby mostly - not to actually use in game.

I will try to find pictures if I still have them.

Those ruins look pretty cool - I might have to fire up Hexagon I think :)

LOL - i was thinking the ruins would look great with some nice foliage... maybe some godrays... and mustn't forget the ubiquitous nude vicky in temple holding a sword

well done silverblade!  glad to see you're able to take some time for a well-loved creative pursuit that health has prevented before.  beautifully done =D

Really nice work - I used to be a real-world modeller at Shepperton Studios (Red Dwarf), so can appreciate the craft here.  You've GOT to change the carpet in your computer room, though.....:)

waits on Agiel's piccies :)

Melikia,
ta! :)
well, one cmpany does do sort of, NVIATWAS stuff, really cool/fun
heres a Semi-Naked Michael In a Graveyard With a Sword mini :P
done by a pro painter, not me!

that's from Reaper Minis, my fave
this is their "painted" minis section:
http://www.reapermini.com/PaintedGallery/painted/latest/page1

ntoe that some, like that fellow above, are 54mm scale, double sized for finer quality for art pieces, not game play :)

Paul,
woot!!!!
"SMEEEEEEEeeeeEEEEEEG!" :thumbupboth:

carpet??

I pretty much always fail my dex check when I'm painting minis. Not a problem when painting 6mm scale armour and aircraft for a convention participation game of Trash Tokyo.  My 25mm modern vampire hunters and 15mm Victorian adventurers are never going anywhere near a show where the public might see them...

Impish,
well, I find that by bracing my hands against each other, or the bottle the mini is stuck to (temprarily), it helps steady your brush :)

new mini:
Lars Ragnarson, from Reaper, had this lying udnercoated for 3 years?? or so.

If you look behind Jabba the Hut, you'll notice all the figures - sure wish I could have afforded some of these.  Gentle Giant has some great stuff!

Dang these are good.  I would love to see what you could do with zbrush.

garyandcatherine,
thanks! :) but I didn't build those minis, just assembled, painted, based them;)

I hate hate hate Zbrushes interface with a passion, ick :(
great tool, but diabolical linterface.
Bought it and tired getting used ot it, but it's so awfully counter intuitive :/

I made this character's head with Zbrush though ;)

ZBrush is certainly an acquired taste :) I think I'm getting the hang of it a bit now.  Just gotta keep pushing

I know somewhere in one of the boxes in storage is a whole mess of figures I painted more than 20 years ago. I used mine for gaming (AD&D 2nd Edition). At the time they were considered very well done, and had won a few regional awards at conventions in Colorado although never first place. (sponsored by TSR, I think), but it looks like they've come a long way since. I'll have to track them down and see if I can't get decent pictures of them.

FrankT,
lol no kidding, ouch! ;)
Superb possibilities with Zbrush, but omg, interface is retarded :(

Aboran',
ooooh, cool, let's see 'em? :)

I recall years ago when they introduced acrylic paints, massive improvement over those damned horrible enamel paints, ick!

Reaper miniatures are amazing, you should go look through their catalogue ;)
http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/darkheavenlegends/

Latest one, Warg Rider, plastic model so less detail/quality I'm afraid: