Painting Minis I Don't Like

Yesterday was a pretty nice day, weather-wise, and I had a big gap in the afternoon thanks to Good Friday schedule changes. So I did some painting.

Occasionally I won't paint the minis I like, but only the ones I don't. You know the ones - they came in the set, or you needed them for some project but found them annoying to paint, or the more paint you put on them the worse they come out.

I did a bunch of those.

I did four that I kind-of like but know won't ever come out well - they aren't minis, per se, but plastic figures from an outscale set that I can use as props as long as they aren't bright blue anymore. So I did them - painted, dried, then washed, then brushed twice with Army Painter. Next is a highlighting brush and maybe a final dip. It depends.

I also did these four hyenas from the Chainmail line of minis. As with all of those minis, they're very "flat." They came with something else, I can't recall what now. I tried to paint them a while back but after a tan basecoat they just looked bad. I didn't feel like putting effort in.

So I decided on a one-pass paint job. Black on the harness. Copper on the studs and rings. Ivory teeth. True red on the eyes. And then a two-stage wash with Army Painter Quickshade - once Dark Tone, once Strong Tone. Not bad. I'll highlight the eyes after they get a matte coat. But they're tabletop ready. They took more time to dry than to paint.




I still don't like them much, though. Maybe my players will love them.


I also re-primed 6 minis (I'd primed them grey, but then decided on a black-based scheme) and base-coated 7 more (all the same kind and same paint job). Those I like, but I realized my hand wasn't so steady and my patience was limited, so I didn't want to start in on "real" paint jobs. They'll be quick ones, too, but they need some color variety and thus I'll need to let them dry in stages.